Final Reflection 2018-2019

This round of Cool Tools gave me the chance to explore several things I have been wanting to know more about: Flipgrid, Pear Deck, Adobe Spark, Ways to support ELLs- all to deepen student engagement and differentiate to the learning experience for students. With digital tools, we can and must make the best use of the tools and apps out there to support students' individual needs. I am going to bring the tools I explored this season to the teachers and students I work with, to hopefully enhance feedback and interaction between students and the material they are learning. I made an Adobe Spark to represent my learning from this session of Cool Tools.

"One of the biggest advantages to using these kinds of tools is that they give every student in a class a voice. Students are spared the embarrassment of having to volunteer or be called on to answer a question out loud because everyone answers" -Tony Vincent

During the workshop the main challenge I faced was time. I wanted to explore everything, but I just couldn't. I made a list of things I want to look when I get a moment- Buncee and Peergrid are at the top. I am mindful of the time it takes to explore and try new things. I am grateful that my department works really hard to support teachers in trying new things with students. I am going to pursue the suppporting ENLs/ELLs with digital tools PD with my colleagues.I think that's a pretty good outcome for the time I have put in! Onward!

Thing 18: Student Assessment and Feedback Tools

I am interested in assessment and how 1 to 1 roll-outs make it possible for instant, direct feedback for students.It feels like a game changer. I like that teachers can adjust their lessons and differentiate for students in the moment. As a classroom teacher I experienced a lot of inner struggle when it came to assessment because I had some tried and true methods of assessing students for learning, but I always felt like there wasn't enough time for me to really give each student everything they needed. In this exploration I was intentionally looking for tools that could assist teachers with assessment for learning (formative assessment) and also increase students' independence in the assessment process. I wondered if there were tools to make assessment more collaborative between students as well as ways for students to get feedback that didn't come directly from the teacher. I was also looking for tools that would encourage student collaboration.

As I read through the suggested blogs I noticed that many of the tools are quiz-like, and teacher-centered/fact based. For these apps, the teacher customizes the tool- makes a quiz on Kahoot, creates a Quizizz, etc. These tools are useful for group learning -whole or small, but what if the teacher is facilitating learning, rather than giving information?

As I looked, I was happy to find a qualitative type app that allows students to give each other feedback: Flipgrid. I like it because it can be used for so many things. I love that students put their ideas on a video. Their thoughts are verbal, so the facial expressions and tone are still present (unlike written comments). This app maintains some personalization. So often feedback is only words on the screen, without the person who wrote them. Students can give each other feedback on their response and the teacher can speak right to the student in a video. I am thinking there are so many uses for Flipgrid - foreign language quick checks where students do an oral demonstration of their language skills, music class - students can play a passage they have learned on their instrument, math - they can explain how they solved a problem.

I am going to meet with teachers to get them started using flipgrid with their students next week. I am thinking a math exit ticket would be a great starting point, but I like to see what the teachers are working on with their students and then seeing how the tool will fit in with the lesson, so this will be continued. I explored two more apps - Edpuzzle and Peergrade. Edpuzzle seems great for people who are flipping their lessons or if you have a video you would like students to watch. Unless the videos were made by students, it feels very teacher centered to me, which is fine, but I am looking for a more student-centered app. Lastly, I tried Peergrade. That one is going to take a lot more experimenting before I can say for sure what I think. At first glance it feels a little complex. I plan to play around with it. I am way over my time for this "Thing" at the moment! If you have any opinions about Peergrade, I would be interested to hear them!

Thing 21: Supporting ELLs

After hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, our district opened a school for the many students who arrived in Rochester because they had lost their homes. We began to get many questions from their teachers about what apps and tools are available to help the many ELL students. A lot of teachers were asking to have their students use programs like Lexia or RAZ Kids. Teachers were desperate for something that could help students develop their English quickly. I explored thing 21 to see beyond Lexia and RAZ kids as digital supports for ELLs.

I read the blogs, "12 Ways to Support English Learners in the Mainstream Classroom" and "How to use Technology to Support ELLs in your Classroom." The first suggestion in the Common Sense education blog was not lost on me - Look for ELL friendly supports in the tools you are already using. It is such a simple suggestion that left me thinking, "Duh!" while also asking myself how often have I done this in the apps and the Google Suite with my ENL teachers in mind? I have explored Google Translate and voice thread before when working with ELL students. My first time with Google translate was with a student who only knew Arabic. I was able to give information to her, but having her respond became an immediate problem because the keyboard did not have the Arabic letters for her to create responses to the questions and information that weren't covered by nodding or shaking her head. I love that Google Slides has the captions feature. This is new to me and I think it can be useful for older students, especially in a blended model of teaching where the students are working online as well as face to face. This tool is really amazing. I had a lot of fun trying it out. I like how it supports the connection between hearing the language and seeing the words. It was very accurate in the slides I tried. One thing I wonder is how it does with really technical subjects like chemistry where the language is extremely specialized. As a side note - captions would also be an incredible tool for students with hearing loss so they don't miss spoken information during presentations.

In "12 Ways to Support English Learners in the Mainstream Classroom" the immediate thoughts I had are that Google makes it quite simple to make it visual - you can add images and videos as you are working. This increases the power of differentiation in Google Classroom because you can add the images and videos to documents and assignments right there for your ELL students. It does become a question of time of course, but the technology saves hours of looking in and for books that present the information you need to teach. I discussed this with one of the classroom teachers I support. She has been trying to find ways to support her ELL students while using Google Classroom. After I read and explored I had an interesting conversation with an ENL teacher about the tools I learned in Thing 21. She said that she was glad I was learning more about these tools and that she struggles sometimes to when advocating for her students in their classes. It got me thinking that maybe our department should consider developing an online PD aimed at digital tools for classroom teachers to support ELL students. I plan to bring this up to my colleagues. We try to infuse ideas throughout our PDs, but it might be good for us to have a specific PD on supporting ELLs. I plan to propose the creation of a digital tools to support ELLs PD in our department. I'll let you know what happens!

Thing 7: Presentation Tools

In my position people ask me what I think of Google Slides. There are still the tried and true Power Point lovers who don't want to make the switch to slides. While I know they are mainly averse to the time it takes to learn something new,there are some things I think Power Point does better -for example, animations/slide transitions. Our district utilizes the Google Suite, so people who hang on to Power Point tend to get confused and frustrated if they are asked to use slides. I explored Thing 7 with hopes of learning ways to enhance slides and to get familiar with Pear Deck. I think Pear Deck is snappy and I like how it engages the learners/participants in your lesson/slides presentation. Students can type or draw, they can answer a question or check in with how engaged they feel, they can do a quick check for understanding poll. The presenter controls when the responses are showing and students can use their device to engage/interact with the lesson and the class. I have used Poll Everywhere and I like its features, but I have to say that I think Pear Deck is pretty great for enhancing student presentations. I made a Pear Deck to use for literature circles comparing two books. I included a slide here with a response that was entered on an iPhone. The response takes up the whole slide. It was hard to response with a finger as a stylus on the phone. The text features are great and I would definitely have to think more about how I would have students use the drawing feature. I don't think using chromebook mousepads would be much easier for drawing.

Here is my Pear Deck. I am not ready to buy my own Pear Deck account, but I think it would be nice for teachers to in our district to have access to it. I explored Adobe Spark some more. I recently acquired a copy of this book-

and I have been looking at ways to use it with students. I wish the age for using it was lower so students could use it freely in upper elementary. I like the possibilities and I see teachers using it more to create posts for Seesaw and Class Dojo feeds. Back to Pear Deck - I hope to explore it's use with a 4th grade class while I still have the free trial. I am going to meet with the teacher next week to see how we can use it with her class for their current unit of study. More on this after we get going with our project!

Thing 01: Blogging

A new year, a new perspective, 7 schools, 1 me. I am here this year halfway through my 6th year working with the Instructional Technology Department in Rochester. I currently work with 7 buildings to support students, teachers and administrators with integrating technology into the curriculum. Our department has spent the past few years creating and facilitating online PD to help the teachers in our district with G Suite and using Chromebooks and iPads with their students. We have thousands of devices out there in the schools and students are using them! It is really amazing. I am hoping to find some new "things" in this year's round of cool tools to bring to my students and teachers. I am looking for a mix of things - something for novice teachers to get them excited and build their confidence and something for the advanced user. You know the one - they know as much or more than you do when you go to work with them. I love it when I find something they haven't seen yet because we can connect and get excited about the technology together. At the end of last year our staffing was cut back while the number of devices continued to increase in our schools. There is only 1 me. I get overwhelmed from time to time because of the number of people I support and because my job is a lifestyle - schools by day, online PD facilitator by night. Anyone else out there feeling the weight like me?

Thing 12: Final Reflection 2017-2018

This year's Cool Tools pushed me to try new things with my teachers and students. I might not have tried the green screen if I hadn't read about it here. Now I have several classes using it for projects.

My favorite cool tool from this year is Bimoji. I think I am driving my family a little crazy with them. There are so many good options for responses in texts. Adding them to lessons has worked to engage students, especially the older students. Teachers are going to love making Bitmoji stickers for their Google Classroom grading.
Exploring eBook creation through Cool Tools has helped me better support teachers in publishing student work. Now that our district has undergone an iPad refresh, teachers and students have very few glitch issues and a lot more options for publishing work.
Even though the PD is ending, I am planning to explore more of the lessons. I have teachers interested in Makerspaces, so that is where I am heading next!

Thing 14: eBook Creation

Publishing work in first grade is a goal many teachers have, but struggle to accomplish. I have many teachers tell me that finding a way for their entire class to publish in a timely manner is a struggle. They can't sit with each student and help them individually get their work into a computer or device for every time they would like to publish something. To help meet this need I explored and then started to use Book Creator to help students showcase their work. I find that working with a small groups of students to create a book teaches the process and then gives them the tools to start making their own books. One first grade class made habitat books. Each student created a page of the book, adding the text and images. Then we published them in the iPad so they could read each other's work. This served as a springboard for students to begin making books on their own. Like any task, some struggled, so the students who had expertise supported their classmates to help them develop independence. I mentioned in an earlier blogpost that I started using ChatterPix with third graders. I am thinking about trying it out with kindergartners as they study letter names and sounds. I was thinking in could be fun to make alphabet books with images that say their names - like an image of an apple that says the short a sound.

I am about to try a project with a second grade class where we make comic books using Book Creator.

Another app I am interested in trying is Flipsnack. This lesson took me on an adventure around the different ebook creation apps. I ended up at this site and now I want to explore storymash with some of the older students.
One more thing - Seesaw does a nice job with creating a place to publish student projects for parents to see. I have been suggesting that teachers use it for publishing if they are already using Seesaw as part of their classroom communities.