Paper Report Cards to Paperless

When I began my new job last school year as the technology teacher, I was in charge of managing the K-5th grade report cards.  We were filling in our report cards with the Apple program Pages and it was shared on a flash drive.  It was a hassle to schedule time for the specials teachers to have the flash drive first before the classroom teachers needed to complete them.  We also had a lot of issues with some teachers updating their Pages and some who didn't so when the flash drive was passed around, it didn't always work.

At the end of last school year, the technology director, library media specialist and I were brainstorming different ways to make the elementary report cards easier for the entire staff.  Since our school is a Google Apps for Education (GAFE) school, we thought that using Google Docs would be our best and easiest bet.

As we ended our first trimester, it has been the greatest decision we've made!  It was a journey transferring all of our report cards from Pages to Google Docs, but the library media specialist and I teamed up together and did it!  Our K-5th grade report cards are shared with the appropriate teachers and they can be edited whenever necessary.  There are no more flash drives to be shared between teachers.

Now the next question is how are we sharing the report cards with parents?  In previous years, the report cards were printed off from Pages and sealed in an envelope and sent home to the families.  Because we are in the 21st-century learning environment and working towards becoming a paperless school, we have changed gears with this as well.  Once the report cards are completed, each classroom teacher will email the report cards out to each parent (in a PDF format so the report card cannot be edited).  It is then the parents choice to print off the report cards or not.

Piloting Chromebooks

My school just piloted Chromebooks for the 2015-16 school year.  We have been mainly an Apple school, so transforming to Chromebooks has been quite the adventure.  Our school is 1:1 with iPads for K-2nd grade, 1:1 with Chromebooks for 3-4th grade, and 1:1 MacBook Air's for 5-8th grade. Our school has been slowly implementing Google Apps for Education (GAFE) and that's when we decided to test out the Chromebooks. Most of the surrounding schools are using Chromebooks, so we made the executive decision to implement them as well.

The technology director and I went through a long road then to decide on what model our school should go with.  We ended up choosing the Dell Chromebook 11 model.  We made a great decision and have been very happy with our choice. We are managing exactly 47 Chromebooks at the moment, which I know is not that much.  It just seems like a lot when we're managing our iPads on one management system and then our Chromebooks on another.  I recently completed my Level 1 Google Certification for Educators, so that is definitely helping with the management side of things.

The technology director, the 3rd & 4th grade teacher and I get together every Tuesday morning to hold "Chromebook meetings".  These meetings are extremely helpful to determine exactly what is needed inside the classroom in regards to the Chromebooks.  The classroom teachers and I collaborate to determine what apps and extensions they would like put on the Chromebooks.  So far we're using Google Drive (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawing & Forms) and Google Classroom.  I think we're finally ready to tackle some more apps and extensions that will enhance the 3rd & 4th graders learning experience.  Excitingly, we also just figured out our solution to printing with the Chromebooks as well.

Along with the Chromebooks being new to us, it's also new to our families.  When we decided to launch the Chromebooks, we also decided that they would go home every night with the student.  Since our Chromebooks are the only device that goes home, we held a Parent Chromebook event so that our families could get acclimated with the device as well.  I think our parents found it extremely beneficial to have the Chromebook expectations explained to physically see how their child will be utilizing the tool. Below is the presentation I used (I stayed extremely simple with them) and some pictures of the event to go along with it.

Seesaw

Seesaw is a free learning journal app that is used to document students' work.  I piloted Seesaw with our 2nd grade class (@2ndgradekramer) last spring and it was an absolute success. Not only is there a free app for students, but there is also a free app for parents to view their child's work.  Seesaw is compatible for both Apple and Android products, so it can be used for everyone. 

This past week, I have worked closely with the Kindergarten (@MsFetzersKClass) and 2nd grade classes to integrate Seesaw into their classrooms.  The students went crazy over the app and they are beyond excited to start posting their best work for their class and parents to see.  When students post something, they have a variety of options.  Right now, our students are posting a picture they've captured and describing the picture by typing an explanation, using the microphone to dictate or using the drawing tool.  

Seesaw has a teacher dashboard where all activity can be managed and filtered.  Once a student publishes their post, it first has to be approved by the teacher in order for it to be public on the classroom feed.  Once the post is approved, students are able to "like" or comment on one another's posts.  Now when we went over this concept, we definitely had to go over what's appropriate to comment and what's not.  Please note, the teacher must approve all comments that are made as well. 

Seesaw is such an amazing application to use for students to document their work.  It's a great storage place for students to create an e-portfolio and to have an ongoing documentation of his or her work.  If you need ideas of ways to implement Seesaw, their website provides some great resources for all grade levels.  http://help.seesaw.me/hc/en-us 

If you'd like to learn more about Seesaw or are interested in seeing how my teachers are implementing it, view my Twitter feed @mswilliams0012.  Seesaw also has amazing and quick customer service and they provide Twitter chats (#seesawchat) every Thursday evening at 6:00pm central time.  

6-8th Grade STEM

We've begun the 2015-16 school year by implementing a new elective entitled Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) class.  Our 6-8th grade students have the opportunity to participate in two trimesters of STEM class, which is connected to our new, collaborative learning space. We have adopted our STEM program from Creative Learning Systems (CLS). CLS has provided our school with software and hardware to make the learning of our students more hands-on and practical for the real-world setting. In our STEM Lab environment, the students work collaboratively and concentrate on the following:

• Problem-solving
• Reflection
• Presentation
• Collaboration
• Productivity 

Below are the engagement (or project) options our students have access to. Each pair of students work for a 10-day period to produce something and then, once the 10-day period is over, they begin a new project. 

To hold our students accountable for every engagement, each pair of students participates in daily reflections, conducts a specific, measurable, attainable, relevant & timely or SMART Goal, learns new vocabulary, relates engagement to a STEM career by using www.ionfuture.org and assessing themselves using our five components stated above. This is all done within Google Slides and is shared with the facilitator for monitoring and grading. See below for an example outline of the presentation. 

Lastly, enjoy some images of my students hard at work during their first two weeks of STEM class.

Creating New 21st Century Learning Spaces

This past summer, my school went under a major construction project. A portion of that project was combining our old computer lab and library into one, collaborative learning space entitled the ICE Lab (the Innovative, Collaborative & Exploration Lab). This idea of creating one collaborative learning space is a fairly new idea in the 21st-century learning environment. Since our school has gone completely mobile (meaning our students use either iPads or MacBook Air's), there is truly no need for a computer lab anymore. Our school then decided to combine the computer lab with the library to create one, large, cooperative learning space where students can gather together to work on projects in a whole group, small group or individual setting. We made sure that we included all mobile furniture, including the bookcases so that students can easily use the space to its fullest potential. Speaking of furniture, a lot of time was taken to decide on particular furniture that was inviting and comfortable for both the students and the teachers to come in and utilize it in an exciting way. We also incorporated a connecting science, technology, engineering & mathematics (STEM) Lab where students are able to problem solve, reflect, collaborate, produce and present. Below are some good resources about new learning spaces along with a video that I created about my school's transition.  Enjoy!

Resources:

• http://www.p21.org/news-events/p21blog/1551-pearlman-transforming-classrooms-and-schools-for-schools-for-21st-century-learners-by-design
• http://www.edutopia.org/blog/tips-to-transform-learning-space-beth-holland
• http://www.edutopia.org/blog/creating-wow-worthy-learning-spaces-todd-finley
• Twitter: #iceilchat (look at the hashtag representing new learning spaces)

Blogging for Reflection

This past summer while participating in one of my grad school classes, I decided to read the book, Blogging for Educators: Writing for Professional Learning by: Starr Sackstein.  This was by far the BEST summer read!  The Corwin Connected Educator Series are a series of short reads that truly gets the point across and then, in turn is easy to implement inside the classroom or professionally right away.  This is what I did after reading @mssackstein book.  I now understand how important it is to blog as an educator to use as a form of reflective practice.  Sackstein (2015) states that by opening your thoughts, challenges, growth, reflection, or celebrations up to an audience, you add a collaborative element that can really change who you are as an educator and a person. (p.5) Blogging for educators can be a collaborative practice where it allows one to develop their Personal Learning Network or PLN.  I'm already an avid user of Twitter and Instagram, but blogging is a great way to share your expertise, strengths, weaknesses and showcase what's happening inside the classroom.  I am hoping that my blog will allow to share my thoughts and successes as a K-8 technology and STEM educator and present what my students are doing with technology.  To learn more about Starr Sackstein's book, visit http://www.corwin.com/connectededucators/bloged-book.htm.

Google Classroom for Professional Development

Now that we are truly into summer, I'd love to showcase how I've been sharing professional development articles with the teachers and administrative staff within my school. I first started using Google Classroom this past school year with my middle school students to use as a form of communication and collaboration with one another. I absolutely LOVE Google Classroom and have had a few teachers get on board with it as well.

I had the idea of using Google Classroom this summer to share articles, ideas, new technology tools and more through here instead of sending out mass emails. This way, all the information for the entire summer is in one location, I can tag specific teachers in posts, we can all communicate through the classroom and hold discussions on certain articles that have been posted. 

Google Classroom is such a great tool to use for both teachers and students. So far, Google Classroom has been a great success for sharing professional development articles, tools and opportunities. I hope to continue reaching out to teachers throughout the summer and towards the end of summer, I will be sending out a Google Form to see what input the teachers have taking this route instead of the use of email. 

Technology Nights with Parents

This past Spring, the library media specialist, Kathy Garneau and I held two different technology nights for parents. The two sessions that were held was a Google Drive night along with a Twitter night. In both sessions, we provided an afternoon session (10:30-12:00) and an evening session (6:00-7:30) so that we could accommodate as many parents as possible. We decided to hold two sessions per training because if there were teachers or students (who would volunteer to help) that had a free period during the training, they were able to attend as well.

Our school has really taken off with Google Drive this past school year. All of the teachers and students are utilizing Google Drive in one way or another. Because most of the students are Google Drive experts, we thought that we should get the parents involved and expose them to Google Drive. During our session, we set parents up with a Gmail account, walked through what Google Drive had to offer, but most importantly, offered hands-on assistance to all parents. I believe that the way to learn and take away is to actually dig in and experience it yourself. So our parents had their own device (and if they didn't, we provided them with one) and they were able to explore different applications within the Google platform that would be most applicable to them. Because I capture so many pictures throughout the school year, I also introduced how I would be sharing all of our school photos through Google Drive. The parents loved this new way of sharing photos! Below are some great photos of our Google Drive night.

Our Twitter night was also a complete success. Our school community has really taken off with the use of Twitter both socially and professionally. Twitter is a GREAT way for parents to see what's going on in the classroom right at that moment. Many of our teachers have a Twitter account and tweet about what's going on inside the classroom multiple times a day. Twitter is also a great way to connect with other teachers along with seeking out new opportunities to grow as a professional. Kathy and I wanted to expose our parents to Twitter because many parents have a Twitter account, but they don't really understand how to use the social media tool. Through this session, we discussed what each icon meant, what it means to use the @ and # symbols and again, most importantly, we let our parents "play" around in Twitter to truly understand how it worked. This summer, Kathy started a summer Tweet-a-long by using a specific hashtag and teachers, students and parents can Tweet using that particular hashtag. She poses a new question or topic each week to keep everyone involved using Twitter. Below are some pictures from our night!

Both of the technology nights for parents were a complete success. Because our parents learned so much from these two sessions, Kathy and I will be hosting some more events next Fall. Stay tuned to what we do next with our parents! 

Technology Apprentice Program (TAP)

Before the 2014-15 school came to a close, I was able to hold one more TAP meeting with my amazing student tech whizzes. I absolutely LOVE leading these meetings because the students are so overly excited to be there and they want to lead and learn new technological skills. To begin the meeting, I always allow the students to eat an after school snack before getting started. This way, I'm able to set up anything that's needed for them to begin their tasks. During this session, I had the oldest students (5th graders) close down our 8th grade laptops because they had already graduated. The 5th graders were to record the serial numbers off of each computer and shut it down. I had the 5th graders working together in a shared Google Doc between them, myself and the technology director when recording the serial numbers. While the 5th graders were doing that, the rest of us were working on our 1:1 music iPads. Our music teacher had requested multiple apps to be put on her iPads along with wanting them to be updated. My 1-4th grade students did such an amazing job completing this task. They were able to either redeem purchased apps or bring apps down from the cloud, organize the apps and then run a software update on each iPad.

It was sad to end our last TAP session of the school year, but I relayed some great news to my TAP team...we will be holding a TAP team for the 2015-16 school year. I cannot wait to dig deeper and do more technological tasks with my students. Each student on the TAP team is a true technology leader for our school. Look out for another TAP post in September to see what we do next! Below are some pictures that were from our last TAP meeting. Enjoy!