When I think of collaboration, I can't help but think of Parent Trap. Maybe it's because I am a twin, or maybe it's because I loved watching this movie growing up, but regardless, great things happen when you collaborate.
Imagine the great things that could take place in education or your classroom when collaboration is involved! This is one of the biggest reasons I love Google Drive. (If you want to learn more about what Google Drive is, read my "Let Google Drive" post from January.) Not only is Google Drive accessible on any device, you can collaborate with others on a shared doc, sheets, slides, etc.
By clicking on the blue share button you can select people to share with and give them editing privileges, or just the ability to view or comment.
I coach track and made a shared Google Sheets for our meet sign ups. Each coach was able to enter their athletes and take note of other entries. (The blue and pink outlines represent two users inputting info at the same time.) To learn more about collaborating on Google Apps, check out this website.
Google Drive has so many apps to offer. Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides are the most common, but let me introduce you to a new one.
Google Forms is a great tool to use if you want to survey your students or give a quiz. You can select a variety of question formats: short answer, paragraph, multiple choice, check boxes, drop down, linear scale, multiple choice grid, date, and time. You can add an image or YouTube to go along with the question.
I love the ease of creating forms and the ability to personalize them, as well as how the responses are collected. By clicking on the response tab, I can see how everyone responded and compare answers.
My favorite option is exporting all of my results to a Google Sheets where I run an add-on called "Flubaroo." Flubaroo will grade every entry and identify areas for improvement.
To learn more about Flubaroo, check out this YouTube.
Sharing your Google Form with others can be simple Usually I post the link to my student's Google Classroom page. But what if you don't have an online format to post a link to and the URL is extremely long and confusing? Thankfully there are many URL shortening services. Here are a few to try: https://goo.gl/ https://bitly.com/ http://tinyurl.com/
My favorite is tinyurl because I can create custom URLs that are easy to remember. Sometimes I create a URL that says something quirky about math or that includes the name of the quiz or survey I am giving. If you want to check out one of my Google Form quizzes, here is the tinyurl that I created for it: http://tinyurl.com/parentfunctionsquiz
Another cool feature of Google Drive is its template gallery. Check it out here. This template gallery has thousands of templates for Google Docs, Sheets and Slides.
Instead of creating something from scratch, find a template and adjust it for your needs. A couple of templates that I found and will be using are student certificates, a monthly calendar, and a cover page with correct headings in APA formatting. Explore for yourself and find templates to make your life easier.
When we collaborate, everything is better, yeah yeah yeah!
Picture end of the year craziness, and then all of a sudden it's over. Students are gone, grades are turned in, and summer has arrived . . . well sort of. Are you ever "off the hook" as a teacher? My mind is always thinking of new and better things to try. Just because something worked last year with last year's group of kids does not mean it will work next year. If it did work, is there a way to make it better? One of the things that drives me crazy as a teacher is disorganization with the distribution and collection of papers. Even if everything goes smoothly on my end, there is bound to be a student who is absent or lost their assignment and needs a new copy. Argh... Well let me introduce you to Learning Management Systems (LMS).
According to wikipedia, "A learning management system is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting and delivery of electronic educational technology (also called e-learning) courses or training programs." If you have ever taken an online grad class, you have probably used an LMS such as Moodle or Blackboard. Through the LMS, an instructor can post content, resources, discussion boards, polls, quizzes and assignments. Some LMS can be synced to your gradebook so that when an assignment is turned in, the instructor can record a grade and provide comments right there in the LMS.
You might be thinking, "I don't teach an online course." or "I do not have time to set up a website." (Or it may just have been me thinking these thoughts as a new teacher.) Well after five years of teaching, I was willing to give it a try and I won't go back. Two of the most popular, free LMS available to educators are Edmodo and Schoology. Although some people would argue that Google Classroom is not an LMS, it is comparable so I will introduce you to all three.
Edmodo is sometimes referred to as a school Facebook. The look and feel of Edmodo resembles Facebook, which has appeal for students. The first year I used Edmodo, I used it solely as a place for uploading in class notes and assigned practice or homework. I trained students to check Edmodo for work when they were absent. If a student needed to make up an assignment that they did poorly on, I had them look up the notes on Edmodo. Slowly but surely I was able to teach my students responsibility when it came to their learning. I also was able to eliminate the piles of old worksheets that were lying around my classroom. Here's a pic of my first Edmodo group:
Edmodo has a lot more to offer than just a "wall" to post to. My second year I experimented with writing and administering quizzes on Edmodo. Edmodo also offers a feature called Snapshot. Using Snapshot, I was able to select standards that I wanted to assess my students over. Snapshot created a multiple choice quiz over these standards. Once my students took the assessment, I was provided with data analysis and additional practice resources based on my students' weaknesses. Some people who look for a LMS for the ability to create and collect assignments within that system. The two years that I used Edmodo, my students did not have reliable access to a computer or internet so I did not experiment with that feature.
There are a couple features of Edmodo that I do not like. Once files or posts have been uploaded, they cannot be rearranged. This makes finding old posts tedious and sometimes frustrating. There is also not a good place for a discussion board. The discussions take place pretty much like they do in Facebook and are added to the "wall" along with all other posts.
I was hopeful that I would find a new love for Edmodo when I learned about the PNL aspect of it. My district offered a class over Standards Based Grading a couple summers ago and all of our assignments and discussions were posted to Edmodo. This week I also learned that you can follow "topics" to connect with other educators. I started following a couple topics related to teaching high school math, but was disappointed. Most of the posts were educators asking questions or seeking help, not posting their own cool resources. I guess I wasn't surprised. I am not someone who posts to Facebook and I don't read a lot of people's posts; why should I be surprised that I would not like "School Facebook" posts. Well, there are other LMS.
My experience with Schoology is very small, so let me introduce you to Schoology with this short video:
Since so many people like Schoology, I thought I should give it a try. I created an account, joined a class and explored its features. To get a better feel for Schoology, I decided to create my own Schoology class. (Check it out by going to Schoology and joining my class DWKX-PRX6). Within Schoology I was able to upload material and organize it into a resource folder, assignments, quizzes, or discussion posts.
One of my favorite features of Schoology is the discussion forum. I just taught my students how to match real life scenarios to corresponding graphs. I posted a discussion question with three graphs and asked students to create their own scenarios for the graphs. As a facilitator of the discussion, I am able to see the progression of the conversation. I can note who comments on who. I can also select one student's name and view every place they have posted. This makes assigning grades for the discussion simple. Aside from the discussion board, I really like the organization of Schoology. Students have a running list on the right side of their screen with upcoming assignments for all of their Schoology courses. As a teacher I can rearrange and organize materials in any order after I post them to Schoology. For someone just trying to learn Schoology, this is a nice feature.
One downside I noticed with Schoology is the inablity to add comments when I uploaded a website or YouTube. I share quite a few websites with my students. I had to create everything as an "assignment" if I wanted to add comments about what students were to look for or do in response to the website. As a math teacher, I know that some math work is difficult to complete on a computer. Usually I am more concerned with students' work than their answers. I am not sure what issues I would face by posting websites as "assignments" if I did not intend for students to turn anything in online.
Well if I were to pick between Edmodo and Schoology, I would pick Schoology for its organization features and discussion boards. Although organization and the management of all sorts of crazy random papers lying around my room is key for me when picking a LMS, I believe the greatest benefit comes when multiple teachers in your school use the same format. Students are more likely to use the LMS and you as a teacher will spend less time teaching students how to use the LMS. This is why I switched and use Google Classroom.
Google Classroom is currently only available for Google Apps for Education users. This last school year, all English, math and some science and social studies teachers in my district got a class set of chromebooks. With chromebooks, we were encouraged to use all things Google. Well that was easy because I love Google! As this post is getting very long, I will spare you and only share my thoughts on Google Classroom at this time.
Google Classroom has been a place where I post notes and extra practice for students who are absent. This year I have experimented with creating assignments that students turn in to me on Google Classroom. I love that Google Classroom is connected with Google Drive. I am able to make a template of an assignment and share a copy with each of my students. Students are then able to add their work and then resubmit it to me without messing with formatting issues. Students have also created videos or Google Stories online and then are able to submit their assignments to me through Classroom. All assignments are automatically organized and saved to my Drive. I am able to monitor who has turned in an assignment and who I need to check in with. Google Classroom is improving every day. A couple weeks ago Google adjust Classroom so that I could create an assignment or post and then determine when I wanted it to be published. This is nice because I have some students who complete assignments as soon as they get a text notification instead of waiting for my in class specifications. Here's a quick look at one of my classes on Google Classroom:
Learning Management Systems can make your life as a teacher easier and add to your students' educational experience. Explore Edmodo, Schoology and Google Classroom for yourself. Pick one to try and encourage a colleague to try it as well.
When educators come together, they can make a great impact.
After graduating from undergrad, I was very eager to become a teacher and have my own classroom. I felt prepared and didn't realize what I didn't know. Well it wasn't long before I realized I needed a support system. I went running after school a couple days a week with a couple of my fellow first year coworkers. We helped each other process how to handle classroom management issues, parent contact, district requirements and whatever stressful thing happened that day. At night, my roommate, who was also a first year math teacher, helped me create lesson plans and brainstorm ideas for teaching and motivating my students. I had a good support system, but then I was transferred to a different school and my roommate moved an hour away. I had to start all over again. It's crazy how people think that you have it all figured out because you have taught for eight years. Well, each year is different and brings different students and challenges. If I have figured anything out in the last eight years, it is that I am a better teacher when I can collaborate with other teachers.
There are some awesome teachers at my school that I collaborate with, but there are so many more out in the world. Professional Learning Networks (PLNs) is a way to connect with others, learning from their experience and resources, and sharing your own. Watch this short YouTube to learn more.
So where do you start building your PLN? I started with Twitter. I love Twitter because each post is 140 characters or less. I get a quick idea of what the trending education topics are. Sometimes people tweet articles or include websites if I want to read more about a topic or #hashtag. Hashtags are the best. Hashtags allow people to tag their tweets into different groups. I can search for a hashtag and read what everyone is saying about a topic. Hashtags also provide an avenue for educators to participate in Twitter chats. Two of my current favorite Twitter chats to follow are #formativechat and #sblchat. I am a firm believer in formative assessment. Educators should frequently check their students' understanding and adjust instruction to help their students be successful. Following #formativechat allowed me to read others views and how they encourage formative assessment. #sblchat stands for standards based learning. My school district adopted standards based grading two years ago. I agree with the philosophy of grading students based on their proficiency of a standard. Through #sblchat I was able to read others' thoughts on this current trend and learn how others are implementing it. #formativechat and #sblchat can be used to encourage educators to follow better teaching practices and explore what it looks like in the classroom.
There are so many PLN resources out there. Diigo is another website that I learned about this week. Diigo is a website that collects and organizes all of my favorite websites. I can save a website, add a description, and link it with some corresponding tags. I can highlight or post a sticky note on the website to remind me of pertinent information. Although Diigo is a great resource for collecting my bookmarks, that is not all it does. Within Diigo there are groups that I can join. When I post a resource, I can share it with any of my groups. I also have access to all of the websites that fellow collaborators have tagged in my groups. When I am in need of a resource, I can search for a corresponding tag to my topic and learn about websites and tools that are available to me and how other educators are using them. Here's a quick look at some of my bookmarks, tags and groups.
The more you connect with educators, the more you will learn and the more you will have to offer your students. Aside from believing in your students, the best gift you can offer them is to be the best you can be. We can always learn from others, so stay connected, learn from others and share from your experience too.
Hello again. I decided to start blogging again. Usually I try to get in the zone: Sit in my living room chair Friday night or Saturday morning and reflect on what I've learned that week while at the same time trying to add some quirky humor. Well it's track season and many evenings are filled with meets or running, so when one finds time to blog, one must blog.
Some people may naturally be inspired to blog. Me on the other hand, well . . . Anyways, checking out other educational blogs can give you inspiration to blog or inspiration to try new things in the classroom. Here are a few that I found this week:
I was drawn to this blog because Will Richardson is a TED talk presenter and blogs about technology. I enjoy watching TED talks because they are short, but they also cause you to think about things differently. As I looked through this blog, I came across a couple articles talking about smart phones in the classroom and the future of grading. This blog would be beneficial to the educator who wants to be challenged to think about the use of technology in the classroom.
This blog features current events and happenings through pictures. Any educator who is wanting to talk about current news could use this blog as a resource. The news is portrayed through many pictures with short one to two sentence descriptions. I enjoyed this blog because it blogged the Boston Marathon through pictures. I have a goal of qualifying and competing in Boston and I was able to share the moments and memories of those who competed this year through the pictures on this blog.
This blog is filled with technology tips. This blog is geared towards educators who are wanting to learn tips that will help with the 1-1 implementation or just trying to learn tips for using Google products and devices. I have a class set of chromebooks, and this blog included free technology guides for Google resources as well as posts about changes to current technology apps.
Vicki Davis is an educator who is passionate about all students learning. She writes this blog to teach other educators tools and tips she has learned in hopes that educators will be inspired and better able to reach their students.
As I looked through blogs, I thought a lot about Twitter, Pinterest, and other social media platforms that educators are using to gain professional development. Reading blogs is another way that I can learn through the experiences of educators who may lives miles away from me. Blogs can provide an inspiration to try new things because real people are trying them and sharing their experience. But wait, when does anyone have time to find blogs and read them unless they are doing it for a grad school assignment?!?
With the help of an RRS feed, new blog posts are brought to me. Check out this video for an explanation.
So, an RRS feed will bring new posts to me, but I need a reader to collect updates. I chose Feedly as my reader. Here is a quick tutorial on how to use Feedly.
I like Feedly because it collects all of my news and blog updates without filling up my email inbox or taking my time to search for all of my blogs. With everything in one place, I am more likely to stay up to date with the new posts. Feedly is very easy to organize and add more content/blogs to follow. Here is a snapshot of my current Feedly.
Click here to find out more about Feedly or to set up your own account. Make sure to add my blog to your account!
you can select people to share with and give them editing privileges, or just the ability to view or comment. 
