This has been such a fun reading month! Whenever I teach class, I always pick a different location. Because it's reading month, each week I've chosen a different book! So much fun for me to find the books, and so much fun to hear the kids guess which story I am in!
Note: If you're wearing a green shirt, you become a floating head while teaching in front of a green screen!
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| Week 1: Maurice Sendek |
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| Week 2: Mo Willems |
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| Week 3: David Wiesner |
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| Week 4: Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd |
A little over three years ago, I completed my Google Certified Educator training for both level one and level two, becoming certified as both.
I love, love, love how the training has updated itself over the past few years! (Well, not really updated itself, since someone, or more likely several someones, made the updates!)
If you are an educator who uses any of the Google tools, you might want to think about the Fundamentals Training. If you're familiar with the tools, you will find some lessons you can skim right through. However. Even someone like me, who uses a plethora of Google's tools all day, every day, learned something new during the first training and again during this recertification training! (And to be perfectly honest, I learned several new things!)
The 13-unit course is completely self-paced. Each lesson has an estimated time-spent, and depending on your experience with the content, you may complete it much quicker, or you may use the full time and then some. At the end of each lesson, there is a review quiz you can take as often as you need until you feel confident. At the end of each unit, there is a review quiz you can take as often as you need to until you pass.
The course is so valuable on its own! Don't be daunted by the certification exam at the end - you don't need to even take it unless you want to get the little badge (like the one on the right side of this post!) It's icing on the cake for those who want (or who are required to certify by their school or organization), but not necessary to gain the knowledge you'll acquire through the lessons.
(And isn't it the process, the journey, or the knowledge that we're after, not the destination or grade?!)
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Time for another technology detour!
As a bibliophile, I have so many books in my collection it's almost embarrassing. Maybe it won't be as embarrassing when I finally have my "library" organized and "open" in my basement, but for now... yeah. There's a lot of books down there. And each of them was specifically chosen, too.
If the name rings a bell, it might be because her husband was a rather famous author, too. You may have heard of Kurt Vonnegut? Jill Krementz's books are totally opposite of her husbands.
My first introduction to Jill Krementz came in the form of A Very Young Rider. It still holds as my all time favorite children's equestrian book. The book is a "year in the life" of 9-year-old Vivi Malloy. It is filled with black and white photos of daily life as a pony rider. Everything from dealing with the vet, to packing for horse shows are shown in vivid imagery, along with narration that made me wish I grew up in Vivi's world.
In addition to her A Very Young Series (my favorites!) she also has a series called How it Feels where she interviewed children on a variety of more serious topics, including living with a physical disability, and dealing with parental divorce. (I used to lend this book out to students - with parental permission - at least once a year.) These books give young readers a glimpse into the lives of others who may be dealing with the same things they are.
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Today was So. Much. Fun! Fifth grade got to partake in a GooseChase this afternoon as a wrap to March is Reading Month! It wasn't a typical Battle end, but-
Oops. Gotta back up a moment here.
Every year, our fifth graders participate in a Battle of the Books. They are placed in teams, given a stack of 21 books to read (everyone on the team must read a certain number of books, and the team must ensure all books are read), and a variety of tasks (team song, team colors, team cheer, team name, etc). The month culminates in this huge battle that takes an entire afternoon and is So. Much. Fun.
Enter Covid.
But.... thanks to GooseChase, Battle didn't exit!
Instead of the standard "write the answer and race to turn it in" the teachers modified the questions so that kids had to type answers, submit photos, and submit videos. Instead of questions being one at a time, every group in the same place at the same time, GooseChase allows you to set up automations. That meant that questions were released in groups at a set time interval, and teams worked through as many questions as they could during the battle. Instead of everyone being in the cafeteria, each team at a table, judges sitting across from the teams, we used Zoom. The teachers were in Battle Headquarters, each team was in their own room with a teacher supervisor. And thanks to the set-up, even the kids at home (who had "battle buddies" on site) were able to be actively engaged in this year's Battle!
Every educator can set up a free GooseChase EDU account and create unlimited games. You can only have one active game at a time, and no more than five teams. If you need more than that, you need to upgrade your account. (Note: We did the whole battle on a free account!)
Like I said earlier. It was So. Much. Fun!
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Over the course of two days, I spent 19 hours staring at a screen. Or sometimes two screens. And one time, I even tried three screens. That didn't go so well.
The only thing that could capture my attention that deeply and for that duration is, of course, the MACUL conference. MACUL 21 to be exact.
I was blown away by the amazingness that was MACUL 21.
Every session I went to was engaging, interesting, and full of that passion that flows through the halls when we're in the conference center. I was amazed how palpable it was through the screen! There were so many opportunities to interact with other session-goers and in many cases, the presenter, during the sessions. I think I "went" to 12 sessions between the two days, plus the three keynotes. I could write about all of them, but for now, here are some highlights:
Or at least that's what I told the third graders during their last tech class.
Everyone, including me always wants to jump to the part that's familiar, the part that we know we can be successful on, the part that's easy because we've already learned it. This week, after thinking about that, I coined a new phrase - Do new, then review. I explained to the kids that their first task is to work with the new content, and then, once that's done, they can review prior skills.
Ooops. Some context might be helpful!
As a class, we watched and discussed the old version of Media Balance by CSM. I like it particularly because the video uses the term "media" and not "technology" which lends itself to lots of engaging discussion. After we watched the video, the kids had to go to Google Classroom and open up a Slides assignment where they were asked to sort six statements into true or false.
Interested in the lesson? Send me an email, I'm happy to share!
I am a bibliophile. I have a collection of books spanning from the early 1900s to present day. These books include some signed copies, some first and early editions, and some books that are so worn they live in protective cases. There are board books for babies and even a handful of books for grown-ups, though the bulk of the collection is for early readers through young adult.
One of them is Gyo Fujikawa.
I fell in love with her illustrations as a child, and as an adult, I developed a deep respect for her work.
Today, at least in my more educated world, diversity in books is nothing new. It's a given. In the 50s and 60s though, it was almost unheard of.
The illustrations drew me in all those years ago, and Ms. Fujikawa's story keeps me coming back all these years later.
(Insert wavy time-travel lines)
A few weeks ago was the Jewish holiday of Purim. Purim is a very fun holiday for all, especially adults who are actually encouraged to imbibe. (Crazy, I know!) There are some deep rooted traditions to Purim, one of them being partaking in a chanting of the Megillah.
Flipgrid, of course!
All the fifth graders still got to participate in chanting Megillah. Dressed in costumes, in the safety of their own homes, they read their parts with gusto onto Flipgrid. From there, each class was compiled into a MixTape and shared with the senior home.
Enjoy our 2021 Megillah reading, courtesy of Flipgrid!
(P.S. It's only about 20 minutes long, not 5.6 hours!)
The MACUL Conference happens every March in Michigan, and it is one of the highlights of my professional year.
I was scheduled to leave Wednesday morning, my bag was packed and in the car, my tech was packed and ready.
But, like many others, I never made it.
The next day, we squeezed in a more detailed training with each grade level on the ins and outs of the technology that would become the lifeblood of learning. I emailed to cancel my sessions at MACUL, apologizing for not being able to come.
That was the beginning of the end of education as we knew it, life as we knew it, really.
Here we are, one year later, and while there is so much that has sucked about this year, there are some rainbows that came from the storm, too.
As we continue our journey into Digital Etiquette and beyond, 3rd graders explored the concept of Rings of Responsibility in tech class.
It was, if I do say so myself, a beautiful marriage of two platforms, brought together in flawless execution for a most memorable experience.
Not.
Well, at least it was definitely not flawlessly executed. Gotta love technology for that! It was a beautiful marriage of two platforms, though!
Yes, you can even set it so that kids can't go past a question without answering it.
The question types in the platform are open ended questions and multiple choice. The multiple choice questions are self-grading, which is awesome.
The feature that made this such a beautiful marriage is the note feature. Right at the end of the video, I added a note (not a question, but same set-up) that said "Go to Seesaw to complete the activity."
EdPuzzle has a free platform and a paid platform, and right now you can get the paid platform free until July. Definitely worth checking out!
This post wouldn't be complete without a plug for Common Sense Media. So many of my Digital Citizenship lesson plans utilize CSM resources that are so user friendly and fun!
My week was the usual crazy-busy that is this time of the school year (and if we're being honest, there is no slow time of year in a teacher's world!) so I wasn't able to partake in the live sessions earlier in the week, but I did get to go to three sessions today.
It was SO inspiring!
My role is a fairly unique one, educational technology coordinator (technical title: Coordinator of Technological Adventures) and it is a treat to collaborate with others in similar roles. Today, I got to chat with three (mostly) different groups of educators through Seesaw Connect. They were short bursts, 20 minute sessions, and despite the brevity, they were so energizing!
And.... if you're not a part of the Seesaw community, and your school uses Seesaw, go sign up! You don't know what you're missing! Joining the community and taking the modules keeps me updated and excited about Seesaw!
In prepping our 8th graders for Campaign this year, we really wanted them to be able to record their speeches in a "formal-ish" setting. Ideally, they'd record with a green screen. But our recording studio is being used as a classroom this year so that was out. And most of the kids recorded at home.
Enter Flipgrid.
And the faux green screen feature.
Also known as Flipgrid Frames.
Here's a quick how-to video for you!
The custom frames were made using Google Drawings. I cut out a "hole" in the middle of the image (the video shows just one example) and then saved it as a .png file. That allows for the transparency. Watch out... this can be a "oops I just lost two hours playing in the last five minutes" experience!
The ever-persistent procrastinator that I am, I often leave the challenge until Sunday morning to complete (it's due by 8pm Sunday night) and then find myself down the rabbit hole of whatever the tool of the week is.
Some of the tools have been reviews (Jamboard, EdPuzzle, Remove.bg, Kami). Some have been reminders (Wakelet, Whiteboard.fi). But some have been new tools to me (Trello, Whiteboard.chat, and some of the fancy text generators.)
I know I'm a nerd (proudly!) but I love the digital badges that you get for completing each challenge. I also love that this is a fantastic model of how to successfully use Google Classroom for professional development.
While it's too late to join the challenge officially, you can still learn from the challenges. Happy Learning!
