In today's fast-paced world, information is at our fingertips 24/7. It can be a bit overwhelming, but when you find a way to filter the information, the potential for learning is incredible. For me, subscribing to blogs is a way to get bite-sized pieces of information straight to my email inbox. Sometimes I read through each post, sometimes I save them for later, sometimes I delete them. One thing is for sure, though: I learn SO much from bloggers in the education community. One blogger you should know is Seth Perler. Perler is an Executive Function and Twice Exceptional Coach out of Colorado, and his information is WONDERFUL. If you aren't familiar with the term executive function, or even if you are, I suggest you read Perler's article here. It gives a very clear, easy-to-read explanation of executive function and what we need to do to help students who struggle with it.
In a nutshell, students who struggle with executive function are those kids who just can't do school. They can't seem get their homework done and they are disorganized. They have been groomed to think they are dumb or lazy, and their teachers think they have all this potential and they "just need to get it together." Really, these kids are as Perler calls them "out-of-the-box thinkers". It's not that they are dumb or they are wasting their God-given talents; rather, these students don't operate in a way that allows them to be successful in the traditional school setting. I have had so many kids that fit this description in my years as a classroom teacher, and I know I didn't always help them like I needed to, because sometimes I just didn't know how. Perler provides a plethora of resources for students, parents, and teachers. The videos for students are awesome, and he speaks in a way that definitely connects with kids. I highly encourage you to check Perler out. I guarantee when you start reading, students will start coming to mind, and hopefully you will be able to help them improve executive functioning, giving them a leg up in school and in their future.
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Let's start with some research. Common Sense Media is an awesome organization for parents and educators to find resources on managing life in a digital world. They surveyed teens on screen time and its effect on their lives. What have they found? Teens' relationship with social media is very complicated. For example, according to their 2018 report, "Social media helps alleviate teens’ depression by connecting them to support and inspiration, and also contributes to depression for those who get stuck in a loop of isolation and self-abnegation" (p. 24). Watch the video below to see teens' explanations of this complex relationship. So what do we do? As educators, we have to help students navigate the confusing and sometimes treacherous waters of the digital world. Instead of being unaccepting of teens' obsession with being plugged in all the time, we must accept it and help them. As a mom of two toddlers, I've read time and time again, kids need limits. We adults must provide these limits. I teach my son that, no, it's not ok to touch the hot stove because he'll burn himself. Just like we teach kids limits in these other areas of life, we also have to teach limits on screen time. In addition, we have to address their social-emotional needs and make sure they have the skillset to handle what comes their way. We have to keep lines of communication open so they can discuss what they see and hear. Sometimes, I think adults are just as bad (or worse) than kids. Sometimes, I get sidetracked looking at Snapchat Stories and my daughter so nicely tells me, "Mommy, get off your phone." It happens. Luckily, the tech world understands this, and companies are coming up with solutions to help us and our kids. Apple's newest iOS release unveiled the Screen Time feature, which allows you to monitor your phone usage and the usage of family members. I have mine set so I only get 30 minutes of social media usage per day, and then those apps essentially shut themselves off. All of my apps except messaging and phone calls turn off at 10pm, to help me quit scrolling through Instagram and go to sleep instead. If you have an iPhone, I highly encourage you to check it out.
Overall, screen time is a complicated subject, and one on which we don't have a lot of longitudinal research. Having an open dialogue and setting limits seem like a good start in getting a handle on things! Learn more about Apple's Screen Time here. For non-iPhone users, Android has the ability to manage screen time as well, and there are many apps out there that you can install to monitor screen time. I've got two quick updates for this Digital Tool Tidbit! First, Pear Deck just came out with a Chrome Extension called Pear Deck Power-Up. This extension, when installed, allows you to play your videos, animations, and GIFs while presenting in Pear Deck. This adds functionality to your interactive presentations, making them even better than before! Go here to install the extension. Second, Google Classroom continues to improve since its initial update. Now, you can add the Classwork page to old classes. This is great for teachers who reused their classes at the start of this year.
To add:
You can find more information on the initial update to Google Classroom in my post here. The other day I was super excited to see this email in my inbox: In this earlier post about the new Google Classroom updates, I mentioned that the Announcements option was now only available in the Stream. You couldn't organize it within your Classwork page, which made posting things like videos and links that accompany assignments or units very difficult. I thought Google should bring Announcements to Classwork, so I put in feedback using the little question mark at the bottom left of Google Classroom, and apparently I wasn't the only one, because Google came up with the Materials feature this last week. Now, you can post links, documents, videos, etc. that you want students to use but you don't necessarily want them posted as an assignment. You can organize it by topic so that the materials stay with your other content.
This just goes to show that Google really does listen to your feedback. So if there are features that are missing, let them know (like the Move to the Top feature??). I did this same thing a couple of years ago with decimal grades in Classroom, and it took them a while, but they did fix it. It's always so nice to know there is a person on the other end of the tech. Happy September! It's hard to believe that Fall is almost upon us. Does anyone else feel that the pumpkin spice brigade comes out earlier and earlier every year? It's becoming like Christmas decorations. But I digress... Today's Digital Tool Tidbit is on Flipgrid. Flipgrid is a response tool that allows students to post videos of themselves. Teachers create "grids" (think of a grid kind of like a class) with discussion topics and give students a class code so they can post a video. I wrote this post last year on a similar tool called Recap. At the time, I actually preferred it over Flipgrid. The big reason was because in Recap, teachers could do multiple "cues" (again think classes) to split up their students. At the time, Flipgrid only gave teachers one grid for free. Translation: if I have 125 students, all 125 videos are in one spot. That can be a bit overwhelming! What I didn't like about Recap, though, was that the interface for students was a bit bulky. It wasn't quite as easy for students to navigate and record. Enter Microsoft. They recently acquired Flipgrid and made all of Flipgrid's premium features FREE. That's right, you heard me correctly. A digital tool where you get all the good stuff for FREEEEEE. You can have an unlimited number of grids, have student-to-student replies, longer video length, and the ability to "copilot" a grid with another teacher.
The sky is the limit when it comes to the applications of Flipgrid. Here are a few ways you could use Flipgrid in the classroom:
To elaborate on #6, students can actually attach video files to a Flipgrid. Our science teachers had students create and edit a video in WeVideo and then post it in Flipgrid. This is so great because then they can easily watch each other's videos and give feedback, and it's easy for teachers to watch them all as well! Another awesome part of Flipgrid is a phenomenon called #gridpals. Much like the ways educators have used Skype and Google Hangouts, #gridpals connects students from all over the country. Flipgrid allows educators from anywhere to copilot a grid together that they then use with their students. Like pen pals, but with video! Really, you could do an entire project with another class if you wanted to. See the details of #gridpals here. Hopefully your wheels are turning on how you can use Flipgrid in your classroom. I'd love to hear how you use it!
Classwork The most obvious change to Classroom is the way the tabs are set up within a class. What used to be Stream, Students, and About is now Stream, Classwork, and People. Classwork is a great addition, in that it lets you post assignments and questions and organize them by topic. Instead of students losing assignments as they get pushed down the stream, all of their assignments for a particular topic (think unit) are organized nicely together. Drawbacks One downfall to the update is that we have lost the About page. Many teachers (including myself) would use the About page to post resources for students that they could use throughout the year. A workaround for this is to create a topic for this instead. Another downfall is that the Announcement function lives solely on the Stream tab. I like to post links and handouts using Announcements because it doesn't give students a Turn In option, but now you can't tag them with topics. It would be great if you could also post announcements in the Classwork section. If you also think this should be a feature, click on the question mark at the bottom left of your class page and select Send Feedback. Google does look at these and often makes changes based on what we tell them! Grading Another great addition to Google Classroom is the updated grading feature. Now when students turn something in, you can use a comment bank to provide feedback, type in individualized comments, and give a grade all while on the students' assignments. This should help those people who haven't liked grading things electronically (me!). It creates a better workflow for increased efficiency. There are a few other small changes within Google Classroom, but these are the main changes. As with everything Google, I am sure they will refine the new update as they receive feedback, so make sure you send them your ideas!
**If you are new to Google Classroom, I recommend going to Google's First Day of Classroom site. It provides a ton of resources to get you started! Happy Almost End of the School Year, ya'll! Today's Digital Tool Tidbit is on Google Forms. I know everyone is in final countdown mode, but Google Forms will be updating soon to include some really cool changes that can help you for next year. This article released by Google earlier this month details the changes coming. Here is a brief outline of what you'll see: 1.-2. Quiz Answer Suggestions / Autocomplete Answers: Using machine learning, Forms will now suggest answers for questions that you type in. If you're like me, you hate figuring out distractors for your questions. This will help you out a ton on that front! 3. Answer Key for checkbox and multiple choice grid questions: I've had several teachers ask me about this feature, so I am stoked it's coming! Forms will now auto-grade these types of questions. 4. Give partial credit in decimal form: This is a manual grading feature, but you'll be able to assign half or quarter credit to questions if a student only misses part of an answer. 5. Improved feedback: I honestly didn't know this feature even existed. When looking at your Responses tab, there is an Add Feedback feature that has been there for a while. If you click it, you can add a link or a YouTube video for students to use as a reteaching or extension tool. You can include text as well. The YouTube feature is what's new! 6. See your total points while creating a quiz: As you add questions and assign point values to those questions, Forms will tally the total number of points at the top of the page. Hopefully you see something on this list that will help improve your instruction and efficiency. Gotta love it when Google is responsive to teacher requests! Shout out to Mr. Heilman for passing on the info! Forms icon above from Wikimedia Commons.
Sharma, Akshat. (2018, May 10). 6 ways Quizzes in Google Forms are getting smarter. Retrieved from https://www.blog.google/topics/education/6-ways-quizzes-google-forms-are-getting-smarter/ Today's post is on Google Drive File Stream. This tool is for PCs (Windows computers) and not for Chromebooks. In a nutshell, File Stream allows you to access your Google Drive from your desktop. Now, where this comes in really handy is in cleaning up your desktop. The default in our district is to have downloads go straight to the desktop. Download a photo? It's on the desktop! Download a PDF? It's on the desktop! It makes it really easy to find things at first, but the files add up quickly and what you're left with can be disorganized chaos. Plus, at the end of the year (or if your computer crashes at any point), those files get wiped from your device. They aren't backed up anywhere automatically. Google File Stream is a great solution for managing the chaos. Watch the video below for a step-by-step tutorial on how to utilize File Stream on your PC. [Update 2019: The site in which you download File Stream looks a little different now than the video directions below. If you see an Uninstall option, scroll down until you see "Download & install Drive File Stream". This will prompt you to download and you can follow the rest of the video!] Even if you don't end up using File Stream, make sure you back up the files that are on your desktop somehow. YOU WILL USE THEM ALL THIS SUMMER!!
So what is stop motion? Basically, it's taking a lot of pictures of something and manipulating that something just a teeeeennny bit for each picture. Then you run all the pictures together and it becomes an animation. Think the old Rudolph Christmas movie. It was done in stop motion. There are two stop motion Chrome apps that Sarah showed me: Stop Motion Animator and Clap Motion. Both essentially do the same thing, except Clap Motion lets you take photos by clapping - a really cool feature, but I'm not sure how it would work with a whole class working on a project in the same room. Both use a technique called onion skinning, which allows you to see a faint ghost image of your previous photo so that you know how much to move your object before taking another photo. It's very helpful. It also helps to use a small document camera or a webcam if you are using a Chromebook to take pictures. The forward facing camera makes taking photos for stop motion a challenge, but it's super easy to use a webcam or document camera. Our librarian, Brian, suggested the document camera - a big thank you to him for the idea! My (very) amateur stop motion video using Stop Motion Animator So what can you do in the classroom with stop motion? There are loads of possibilities, really! Hatten (2014) suggests, "Stop animation is ideal for helping students learn about concepts that involve processes and progressions — anything that benefits from including an element of movement to explain how it works." Her article on using stop motion in the classroom, while elementary focused, gives some really great suggestions that apply to all levels. This article from Discovery Education gives some excellent examples by subject area. YouTube can provide you with hours of stop motion entertainment. However you decide to use it, the level of student engagement is bound to be high, and stop motion gives the the opportunity to really use their creativity! Hatten, S. (2014, Aug. 15). Engage elementary students with stop animation! Retrieved
from https://www.iste.org/explore/articleDetail?articleid=128 You may notice a couple of things about the blog. One: it's been a month since I've posted - sorry about that! I have been fortunate to have been very busy this past month. Two: I've given the blog a bit of a makeover! My husband, who works in advertising, and I came up with a new name. Welcome to IgnitEDlearning! I hope you like the change as much as I do. For today's Digital Tool Tidbit, we are talking SlidesCarnival. One of my fellow Instructional Facilitators, Teresa, introduced me to SlidesCarnival when we were working on presentations for our district mini-conference. I immediately fell in lllooovvve. In a nutshell, SlidesCarnival provides FREE Google Slides and PowerPoint templates. They are all customizable and help you to create a presentation that is visually appealing and engaging. Here are a couple of title pages for presentations I have used: Each template also has a page with little icons that you can copy and paste anywhere in the presentation. You can change the colors of the icons as well. Plus, downloading the templates is super easy! With all this said, I'll offer a little food for thought on the idea of slide presentations. Slide presentations can be very ineffective and not allow students to learn. Slides can easily turn into a "sit and get" presentation, where students jot down notes but aren't truly engaged. I had a professor in college who literally stood at the front and read directly from her slides, adding no additional information. I tried my best to write everything down, but she went too fast for me to get everything; then one day she made the files available to us; at that point I quit writing and completely checked out.
I challenge you to make slides engaging for students, using them for discussion starters, or make them interactive, using Pear Deck or Nearpod. Use Slides for student collaboration or interactive activities, like these from Ditch That Textbook. There are so many possibilities beyond the sit and get! |
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