Selasa, 12 Agustus 2014

#Flipclass Workflow

With the start of the new school year looming, a favorite topic of discussion among #flipclass teachers is workflow.  Rookies want to know how to make flipping work with class procedures, and veterans are always tweaking what they do. Edmodo, Curriculet, and Google Drive are essential to productive workflow in my class.

Essentially, this is what I do:

  • Organize students into classes on Edmodo with all resources, agendas, links to edtech tools, assignments, and quizzes are completed in Edmodo.
  • Students go to Curriculet for reading texts.
  • Students use Google Docs for typing up essays and other assignments.


Edmodo

Edmodo is my online classroom space. Everything that I do face to face with students is also completed via Edmodo.  From posting the daily agenda to taking quizzes to connecting with others, everything is done in Edmodo as you can see from the list below and public folder of classroom examples.  

I create a main classroom group for each level I teach because I want to promote the online PLN experience.  So all of my Honors 9 students are in one group regardless of period and all of my English 12 students are in another group. Students interact with others that they may see in class or merely pass in the the hall. When I name my groups I always use the following naming convention:  School Year & Level.  For example, 2013-14 English 9 or 2014-15 Honors English 9. 

  • The daily agenda is posted as a Note with any attachments needed. I always date it and put a heading in all caps as well as a numbered list of activities for the day. I type up my lesson plans in a Google Calendar which is posted on my class website, and merely copy/paste from my plans to create the daily agenda.  Click here to see a sample.
  • All work is turned in via Edmodo Assignments.  Whether it is a final project or an online activity or a photo of a paper worksheet, students turn in their work on Edmodo because the assignment is automatically added to Edmodo's gradebook or Progress area which keeps a spreadsheet record of all assignments assigned to that group. This spreadsheet is my working gradebook and replaces the students' three-ring binder. Students still keep a notebook using any method they choose, but I no longer have to do paper-notebook checks.  When parents, counselors, or administrators have a question about a student's performance, I have a record of the student's work at my fingertips.  I can also see the student's performance in relation to other classmates. I transfer by hand scores to my district's gradebook as applicable.
  • Preparing for digital assessments, students complete quick Edmodo Snapshot assignments. Snapshot provides students with standards-aligned assessments for math and ELA. I can quickly choose the standards I want to assess and assign the questions to my students.  Edmodo takes care of the rest from selecting the passage to writing the questions. I set the due date and track student progress, assigning later Snapshots to address deficiencies. Snapshot will be a weekly automatic assignment for my students in the coming school year. 
  • Students access Edmodo apps for automated tasks or projects. The No Red Ink Edmodo app is added to my Edmodo groups so that I can quickly assign students grammar tasks without having the students log in to another site or make more work for me.  Students also have access to other apps such as Powtoon, Pixton, Audioboo, and Dogo News for other online projects. I often ask my student to "Show Me" what they know using any online tool. 
  • Students communicate and peer review in Edmodo small groups.  I break up each main classroom group into smaller sub groups.  I just go right down the roster and select students in alphabetical order.  The small groups then becomes a place to share work that is turned in or complete online small group tasks.  I may ask students to find a resource about parallel structure and post it to their small group or have them share copies of essays for peer review.  By posting in small groups, we are keeping the main classroom page relatively clean.
  • Students are added to other main groups throughout the year. I will create other Edmodo groups for collaborating with others or delivering content in an asynchronous manner. When collaborating with other teachers and students across the country or globe, I (or the collaborating teacher) will create a new main group to which we add our students for sharing their work or completing collaborative tasks.  I'm excited to try out a Writer's Corner group with California teacher Beth Oing and Maine teacher Natalee Stotz.  This group will be an informal space for students to share whatever they are writing for peer review and feedback.  For delivering content in an asynchronous manner, I will create a separate group for each unit.  Check out this post on how I gamified The Odyssey using Edmodo. 

Curriculet

Curriculet is my go-to tool for reading instruction.  From uploading my own documents or articles found on the web to reading canonical texts to preparing students for PARCC assessment, Curriculet is essential to tracking my students' reading progress online. I've successfully flipped reading Romeo and Juliet and A Tale of Two Cities with my students. We've also read Great Expectations, Pygmalion, and current event articles related to the Great Depression and The Olympics. With Curriculet's premium library of contemporary texts being released this Fall, I'm excited to get my students reading more.

To use Curriculet, I create classes and give my students the classroom code.  I'm not worried about my students having too many log ins because they click on the "Sign in with Google" button since we are a Google Apps for Education school. Their Google credentials can be used to create and sign into a Curriculet account.  I assign an entire text to my classes and post a reminder in Edmodo for students to access Curriculet.  The students read the text at home or in school on smartphones, tablets, Chromebooks, or computers, answering questions and quizzes embedded in the text to check their understanding.  To see the student view, watch this quick video.




I use Curriculet's data analytics for formative assessment-- my students are allowed to make mistakes without too much penalty.  I take a look at their time on task and their accuracy for answering the questions and quizzes and give the students' a holistic score in my gradebook.  Using the OSU rubric, students receive Outstanding (100%) if they completed the task in an average amount of time and with an accuracy rate over 88%.  Students receive a score of Satisfactory (88%) if their accuracy was in the range of 78-87%, and Unsatisfactory (75%) if they completed the reading too quickly (ie. they clicked through the questions instead of reading) and scored below 78% on questions and quizzes. All summative assessments are completed in Edmodo as either an Edmodo Assignment or Edmodo Quiz. I allow students to have Curriculet open in another browser window while completing the summative assessments.

To see behind the scenes in my Curriculet account, view this video.





Curriculet is also available as an app in Edmodo, but since many of my students have smartphones as part of my district's BYOD initiative and Edmodo apps are only accessible on computers and iPads, I do not utilize the Edmodo app version of Curriculet at this time. For elementary schools or 1:1 iPad districts, I would recommend accessing Curriculet through Edmodo.


Google Drive

Google Docs has replaced Microsoft Word in my classroom. While I still access files I created in Word or PowerPoint, my students primarily create documents and slides using Google Apps.  We will have access to Microsoft 365 this year, but the simplicity and versatility of Google Apps have won my students over.  I needed a word processing option for students on smartphones and Google Drive fulfills the need. Students can complete notes, Do Now activities, quick writes or other journal writing on their smartphones through the Google Drive apps. 

We are a Google Apps for Education school, so the workflow is seamless. Students have accounts already created through school, so getting started is easy. Even though student Google Docs are shared with me, I still have my students turn in the link to their document in an Edmodo assignment.  Again, I keep a record of all things in Edmodo.  I'm excited to see what Google Classroom will do in terms of streamlining sharing documents with students, but in the meantime, this is how I used Google Drive with my students.

  • For assignments, I used Autocrat and Google Forms to deliver individual documents to students. Learn more by reading these posts: A Gaggle of Google Docs and Creating Certificates with Autocrat.
  • Daily directions, assignments, or Do Now activities are on Google Slides with the link to each presentation posted in Edmodo. Information is nicely chunked on each slide and it is easier for students to read than a lengthy Google Doc assignment.

Instructional Design

Edmodo is the hub of my classroom with Curriculet and Google Apps forming the spokes of our wheel of learning.  

The daily schedule may vary, but essentially I follow this routine in our 43 minute class periods:
  • 5 mins. Do Now Activity and review of answers-- as students walk into class they get started
  • 3 mins. recap of objectives and timeline
  • 25 mins. asynchronous activities or group work
  • 5 mins. wrap up 

This is my general plan per week:
  • Tuesday: introduce a new concept
  • Wednesday thru Thursday: work asynchronously or in groups applying the new concepts
  • Friday: whole class teacher-led activity reviewing and synthesizing  the material
  • Monday: assessment on the previous week's content

Last year I was 1:1 with the Chromebook cart on Mondays, so I liked having students take Edmodo quizzes or finish up individual digital work on Mondays because we had guaranteed access.  Sometimes I could get the cart mid-week, but it was never a guarantee as I shared the cart with four other teachers (each teacher taking a different day). So our mid to end of week activities featured BYOD, paper, and face to face tasks. While I do not let technology drive the learning in my class, technology is a vehicle for learning so our access to technology does factor in to our schedule.


I'm interested to read what others are doing with their students. So please reply with your questions, comments about #flipclass workflow methods.

Sabtu, 26 Juli 2014

Class Dojo: New Features for School-Wide Use

ClassDojo teachers can now collaborate to improve student skills and behaviors, and with  ClassDojo’s  newest  features,  students  build  important skills  across  all  of  their classes and grade levels. 


ClassDojo  —  the  popular  behavior  and  skills  development  app  used  by  millions  of teachers around the  world  —  today  released  a  new  set  of  features  aimed  at  teachers eager  to work together on the application. Teachers across 180 countries already use ClassDojo daily to give feedback to students for important behaviors and skills like curiosity, participation, and grit. Until now,  teachers  could  only encourage  students  in  their  own  classes.  With  this  new  set  of collaboration  features,  teachers  within a  school  can  safely  connect  with  each  other,  give feedback within each other’s classes or for specific students, and even review student reports from other classes.


Over  the  course  of  2014,  ClassDojo  has  launched  multiple  features  which  strengthen relationships between  teachers,  parents  and  students.  As  research  shows,  students  learn important behaviors and skills faster when there is strong alignment and encouragement from all their teachers, peers and parents. Just as ClassDojo Messaging strengthens the parent-­teacher  relationship, Shared Classes and Shared Students creates stronger teacher-­teacher networks within schools:


  • Shared Classes lets multiple educators teach the same class. This feature is especially useful for elementary school teachers, teaching assistants, and any situation where an entire class is taught by multiple teachers. 
  • Shared Students enables teachers in the same school to share students across different classes  and view  their  student  reports.  Individual  students  can  now  move  between different  teachers  and classes,  but  still  build on their progress  over time. This  makes ClassDojo  much more feasible for older grades, allowing teachers to better understand how  their students are performing in other classes very quickly. 


Indeed, the company says this has been middle school and high school teachers’ greatest request. These two features have been beta-­tested for some time ahead of today’s widespread release.

As  they  are  already  well ­received  by  early  testers,  the  company  expects  to  roll  out  many enhancements  in  the  coming  months,  ultimately  leading  to  easier  sharing  and  collaboration between teachers in the same school.

“The launch of Shared Classes and Shared Students is a huge moment for our teachers,” said Sam Chaudhary, CEO and co­founder of ClassDojo. “So far, millions of teachers have enjoyed using ClassDojo individually within their  classrooms, and though it’s been effective, we believe teachers working together can unleash greater power from the platform. With [this] launch, for the first time, teachers are able to easily use ClassDojo together across their whole school or grade  level.  Teachers  have  a  simple,  no­hassle,  school­wide  system  they  can  use  to  help students build  skills and behaviors, students get more consistency across the school day, and parents finally get a unified view of what’s happening at school.”

Shared  Classes  and  Shared  Students  are  available  now, and teachers  can access  them by
signing up for a free account at www.classdojo.com.

Kamis, 17 Juli 2014

More GoPro: Surfing & Stalking Hummingbirds

I'm not stating anything new here when I say that the more I use my GoPro Hero 3 camera, the more I love it. From taking it to the beach to capturing images in my own backyard, I'm impressed with the quality and versatility.  So far, there are only two accessories that I have invested in for the GoPro: the floaty backdoor and the handlebar mount.

Being new to the GoPro, I did not want to spend money frivously on accessories and instead researched accessories that would be the most versatile.  The floaty backdoor was purchased out of necessity: I did not want to lose the camera when filming in open-water. Poking around, I found the cheapest price on Amazon. Wanting a way to secure the camera to a pole, I chose the handlebar mount because it gave me the most options for customizing: I could attach the camera to my bike handlebars, a long pool pole, or any other bar that measured 0.75" to 1.4". Adapters were also included for a secure fit.  Again, I found the best price on Amazon. If you have any recommendations for mounts for the GoPro please share! 


Surfing 

To capture the video of me learning to surf, my husband stood in the ocean at a close but reasonable distance, holding the camera with the floaty backdoor attached. I've quickly realized that in order to catch great shots, the camera must be close to the action (duh!). I'm thinking about purchasing the surfboard mount for the GoPro, but, one, we are using my brother's fiberglass board for now and two, I'm concerned about the adhesive on our foam surfboard that my girls use. I also need to do some more research on the surfboard mount before purchasing.  If you have used it, please let me know! 



Stalking Hummingbirds

To capture the hummingbird pictures, I used the handlebar mount and secured the camera to the pole holding the feeder.  I then used the wifi network on the camera and the GoPro app on my phone to sit inside and wait for the hummingbirds to appear, capturing shots as the birds flew in and out of the frame.  While the videos are remarkable, I'm really intrigued by the still shots that capture how fast the hummingbird's wings move. For the most part, the birds ignored the camera, but at one point, the female hummingbird investigated the camera. The next pet-projects on my list are putting in the camera in the fishpond and harnessing the camera on my dogs. Any tips or tricks are greatly appreciated! 












Rabu, 16 Juli 2014

#ISTE2014 A Special Post for a Few **Spaeztle** Friends

While at #ISTE2014, I attended the TechSmith party at De Biergarten in Atlanta, GA. It was thoroughly enjoyable chatting with Twitter & FlipCon folks face to face over some GOOD German food. There was Foosball and even pictures with our heads atop German attired folks (Here are some pictures from Kristin D.) We chatted about FlipCon vs ISTE, general ed tech issues, the value of open-source internet, and at one point with Brian Bennett, a very important topic: how to make homemade Spaetzle (Brian Bennett & Aaron Sams make sure you read the post script).




ISTE, while a mind-blowing event in itself, can be overwhelming, and I found the small TechSmith gathering a hospitable, intimate affair.  It was so nice to enjoy the company of like-minded folks over food and drinks without having to shout over the gaggle of the throng and the cacophony of a DJ. It was so interesting to see how small pockets were sewn into the fabric of ISTE-- the Blogger's cafe and Welcome lounge being two such spaces where people collected in the conference center in addition to other small events like drinks with Class Dojo, dinner with Edmodo, and TechSmith's reception. And while I value the ways companies show their appreciation for their users, I greatly appreciate the smaller communal events more so than a big blow-out bash because in the end it isn't the product or technology that matters-- it is the COMMUNITY of PEOPLE that make an event worth attending or a product worth using.




P.S. Speaking of Spaetzle....

Back at home this week I had a hankering for Spaetzle, and as promised for Brian and Aaron, here is my homemade Spaetzle recipe and a video of the process (Sorry for the flipped camera half way through. I forgot which way I was holding my phone, but hey, you get the idea-- and rather apropos since that is how we all met!)

Ingredients:
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/8 tsp baking powder
  • 1/8 tsp nutmeg (add more as suited to taste)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup milk


Directions:
  1. Combine flour, salt, baking powder, and nutmeg in a large mixing bowl.
  2. Stir in eggs and milk.
  3. Use a Spaetzle maker or colander (too difficult with slotted spoon) to drop the batter--about 1-2 large spoonfuls at a time-- into a pot of boiling water.
  4. The batter will rise to the top and after about 1 minute or so (but not longer than 2), scoop out the Spaetzle into a bowl with a bit of butter. 
  5. Cover the bowl with a cloth and continue to drop the batter into the pot. Repeat steps 3 & 4 until all batter is gone.
  6. Serve.  
I usually make my great-grandma's meatballs and sauce to have over the Spaetzle in the winter. It is a red sauce, but not the same marinara sauce that you would have with spaghetti. Very hearty & comforting on a cold day. Come for a visit and I'll make it for you in person!