No More School, No More Books, but my Tech is Giving me Dirty Looks...

You've almost made it to the end of the year. You are taking down posters and cleaning up your room, but what about your tech? There are a number of housekeeping things you can do now so that your classroom tech isn't a mess when you return in the fall.

1. Clean up your Google Account:
- Does your inbox make you cringe? you can archive and label your mail so that it is organized, but not cluttering your inbox. Nothing is deleted in this process, but you can put it out of sight until it is needed later.

- Clean up your Drive:
Now is a great time to take a look at your files in Drive. Do you add files to the main screen every time you start a Google doc? Are there 47 Untitled Documents that are sitting with no text in them? Delete what you don't need, and create files for the rest that organize what you have in a simple way for you. You can even color code your files!

2. Take a look at Schoology: 

Your current courses in Schoology are archived each summer. You still have access to them, but will need to search for them in the archived courses area. Instead of digging through old classes, this is a great time to save the materials you want to your resources. You can create files and organize any assignments, etc. in your resources so they can be easily added to next years classes saving you work and time! To do this: 

1. find a folder, file, or other item in a Schoology course

2. Click the gear icon

3. choose "Save to Resources"

4. Click the Resources tab at the top of the page and your selected files will now be in your Resources. Clicking the gear here will allow you to "add to course", move files, and reorganize to better meet the needs of next year's students. 

5. Do you have a team you teach with? You can even create/share resources with the group by creating a Group within Schoology resources. 

3. I'm Leaving Now:

Are you leaving for a new job/ graduating/ retiring? You can take the contents of your Google account with you. Use Google Takeout. This program allows you to choose the areas of your account you want to take with you and export the data to another account. It is a great way to retain access to any important items you have, portfolios to show prospective employers, things to hang on the fridge, etc. 

Accessing GALE Resources in Schoology

Not that kind of Gale

GALE has created a series of resources that are available for teachers and students to use for research and lesson planning. These resources have been made available through Schoology to make it easier to incorporate them into assignments and student work without needing to login. 

Gale is "deeply integrated" which means any article can be pulled into an assignment, discussion, etc. from within Schoology itself.

Create an Assignment, etc. in Schoology:

1. Create an assignment, discussion, etc. and choose the "insert content" button at the top menu bar

2. Choose a database from the list that pops up.

3. This will open the database within the assignment window. Find the article that you would like to include

4. When you find the article, look at the right menu bar. There are two options for including the article: embed or link. Embed will put the article inside the assignment window and give all Gale's tools to students within Schoology. Link will open Gale in a separate window

GALE truly provides an awesome amount of research possibilities and information: From analyzing different points of view on a topic, to deep looks at different topics in any subject area, we encourage you to explore these great resources with your classes.

The Embed Code: Getting all your content in one place

One of the downsides of using technology for lessons is that the content that we teach is rarely in one place. We get greater control over the content, but this often means grabbing video, audio, and text from a variety of sources. At the same time we know our students- the more clicking to get to content, the more issues will arise. It can be frustrating to have the perfect content available, but no easy way to get it to students without an unholy amalgamation of links, text and pictures.   Enter the Embed Code. A handy way to get content on one page.

Most web content creators and hosts like YouTube provide embed codes that allow users to insert direct, interactive links to content into their site. For example:

The embed code allows you to bring multiple sources of content into one place. You can even embed a website into another website! They can look intimidating, but the process is much simpler than you might think. Follow the steps below to insert content into Schoology or other sites. 

How to Embed Content into another site

1. Find the content you want to insert

2. Many sites have either an embed button or a share button where you can find the code. If there is not one,this site has a way to do it through a process called the iframe. 

3. the code you embed will look something like this <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i9SSOWORzw4" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Wait! Don't be intimidated!

The great part is that you don't have to understand how HTML code works or even what is inside the code to embed it.

4. copy the code

5. Go to your Schoology page and access your assignment, page, or other place you want the content to appear and follow the steps in the picture below

Now your content should appear! Schoology and other sites also play nicely with Google products like Drive and YouTube. The insert content button on many pages allows you to import embed code directly without having to follow the steps above. 

6. If you are using a different site, the process is similar, you just need to find a way to switch to HTML view for a moment. Sites like Weebly, Blogger, and Word Press all have these options. 

A few tips:- You can play with the width/height numbers in the code to adjust the size of the content you embed. 

-The Publish button (under file) in Google Slides, Docs, and Sheets can provide an embed code so you can directly link content into a page too (again, Schoology has easier ways of doing this through the Google Drive App, but for other sites it can be a useful tool.).

-Many content creation sites like blogs, web design programs, and learning management systems have a button or menu choice to switch between HTML view and WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) view. HTML view is where you can paste in code.

As always, feel free to contact your ed-tech coach with any questions or to learn more!

Happy Embedding!

Spotlight on Pointview's Efforts to Reach Parents and Strengthen Communication

Creating a communication system that is accessible to families, supports a wide variety of content, is easy for staff members to use, and doesn’t cost any extra money is a dream for many school leaders seeking to build stronger school-home connections. Pointview Elementary principal Sherry Birchem is one such leader. Sherry is in tune with the needs of her families and her staff and has worked diligently to build a strong sense of community in her building, including spearheading the effort to streamline school-home communication. After many trials, Sherry has found the system that fits the bill: Schoology. Through making use of Schoology's easy sign-up process, closed system for sharing images and video, and ability to send emails and text messages to families when updates are posted, Sherry is set to create a robust communication system that meets the needs of Pointview’s staff and families.

Watch this video to learn about how Sherry is working to better connect the Pointview community, including what she has tried in the past, why she is excited about Schoology, and what lies ahead:

Interested in setting up a school-home communication system in your building through Schoology? Contact your Ed Tech Coach today!

The Augmented Reality Sandbox in Action

If you read our earlier blog post on our district’s Augmented Reality Sandbox, you likely have an idea of how the tool can enhance student learning through hands-on and experiential activities. As the sandbox has made its way to different buildings in the district this year, our creative teachers have added their own spin to how they use the sandbox to engage their students.

Amber Korn at Huber Ridge is one such teacher. Amber took full advantage of the sandbox’s time at Huber Ridge to deepen her 4th graders’ understanding of weathering and erosion. Working in stations, students built landforms, reproduced natural events, and observed the impact of weather on topography. While they greatly enjoyed building mountains, digging out lakes, and causing earthquakes, the most exciting part for many of the students was making it “rain” in the sandbox with virtual water. By making it rain, they were able to see the movement of the water and predict the impact water has on landforms. But Amber didn’t stop there! She brought the learning experience home through the use of higher-level thinking activities. Once everyone in the class was able to experience the sandbox, the students got together and connected what they had observed in the sandbox with what they had already learned about landforms, developing a more thorough understanding of the meaning and impacts of weathering and erosion. The class created a collaborative document detailing their understanding of these concepts and each student made their own artistic representation of the impact weathering and erosion have on Earth’s landforms. Through manipulating the content in multiple ways, Amber used the power of experiential learning to engage her students and bring her science unit alive in a new and exciting way that her students won’t soon forget.

Watch this video by UCLA to see how the AR Sandbox works.

The AR Sandbox has great potential for any grade level and subject, such as illustrating point of view, making inferences, solving multi-step problems, demonstrating cause and effect, creating sculptures that reflect contour lines, and even helping students process emotion, to name a few. Want to experience the AR Sandbox for yourself? Good news! The sandbox will be a part of Westerville Partners for Education’s Starry Night event on April 8th at Westerville North High School. Come and check it out!

If you would like to explore how to use the sandbox with your students, contact your Ed Tech Coach!

Personalization- The Growing Reality in Westerville City Schools

The Goal... to be an educational leader who collaborates with stakeholders to better personalize professional learning for your staff.  

The Goal... to be a adult learner who continuously grows in an environment of professional learning that is designed to meet your needs and with your input.

Sound out of reach?  It isn't- it is becoming a growing reality in Westerville City Schools.  Inspired by their own professional learning, like Leadership in Blended Learning, the Future Ready Institute, and knowledge about how adult learners grow best professionally, WCS is gradually replacing leader-centered staff meetings and other professional learning opportunities with a                                                       more personalized, customized and individualized approach.

Teachers leading staff meetings by sharing practices that are working in their classrooms? 

Teachers reflecting on what they need as a learner to improve instructional practice to benefit their students?

Building leaders reflecting on how to make learning opportunities more meaningful?

Building leadership teams working together to involve staff in how we can achieve these goals?

Yes- these things are all happening!  We are making amazing strides toward personalization very quickly.  

You may be asking yourself....How do we get started?  What are the steps to move in this direction?  How do we do this together, as a community of learners?  

We would like to share this Future Ready Personalized Professional Learning Self-Assessment which defines elements of personalized professional learning that many of us are working toward.  It's a tool to help grow our thinking and spur further conversations.  If you have any questions about personalization of professional learning, contact your Ed Tech Team.  We are supporting this work each and every day and can connect you with a growing group of educators who believe in the importance of this journey to personalize education- for everyone!

Showcase: On the Journey to Personalizing Learning

Beth Eddy, a chemistry teacher at Westerville South High School, has been interested in creating customized learning opportunities for her students throughout her career. In the videos below, Beth talks about her journey to create these opportunities and shows how she has harnessed the power of technology to expand upon her efforts. Beth does not view herself as a "techie" teacher, but her passion for helping her students build ownership in their learning and approach the content in ways that make sense to them has driven her to make creative use of the digital tools available to her. In the first video, Beth takes you through her process, talking about how she came to creating a learning environment that allows students to learn at different paces and through different methods, and discussing some of the challenges and successes that she has had along the way. 

In the next video, Beth takes you on a tour of her Schoology course. You will see how she has set up her course, what Schoology tools she uses to deliver varied content to her students, and how her course design encourages students to reflect on who they are as learners and how they can be successful in her class. 

The way that Beth has designed her course allows her students to take part in classroom activities when they are ready, helps them reflect upon their understanding throughout the learning process, and encourages them to truly master the material. And she isn't done yet! Beth is continually reflecting upon her own practice, trying out new ideas, strategies, and tools to further engage her students and individualize their learning. As Beth points out, success is a messy business, but the messiness makes it all the more rewarding.

Interested in learning more about how you can develop ways to customize learning opportunities for your students? Contact your Ed Tech Coach today!

#WestervilleWay

Showcase: Integrating Technology into the Bridges Elementary Math Curriculum

The new Bridges math curriculum offers opportunities for student engagement and technology integration through the use of the Digital Display Materials and creative use of student responses. Google Cast for Education is a powerful and easy to use tool that allows teachers and students to "cast" their screens from any Chrome browser to the projector. The only requirement is a computer attached to the projector and laptops in the classroom. This allows the teacher and students to show their work without being tied to the desktop at the front of the room allowing for more interactive work, the ability to move throughout the room, and even giving students a way to virtually raise their hand when they have something to share.

 

At Fouse Elementary, Heather Griffith has been using technology in amazing ways to meet student needs and increase engagement. She has graciously allowed us to record her lesson and has also provided the lesson plan materials that she used in her planning. In this lesson you will see students working in several ways: First students work in small group or on their own while others work with the teacher in a group for intervention. When new content is presented, the students provide input and discussion by sharing their work with the class and working together to identify and learn from mistakes.
 There are two videos attached to this post showing important aspects of the lesson and how it was planned. If you are interested in using this lesson, materials are attached to this post, As always, if you would like to learn more about any of the strategies or tools used in this Showcase, contact your Ed-Tech Coach for more information.

Video 1: See the Entire Class Period 
This video shows the process the entire class period followed from intervention/ group work through the main lesson. Text boxes can be used to navigate to different sections of the lesson. (Length 27:40)

Video 2: Tech Integration Highlights
This video shows how technology can be integrated into the Bridges curriculum from the teacher side as well as from the student side. Again, text boxes are included to ease navigation to different areas of interest. (Length: 8:54)

Lesson Plan Materials: 

Click the Link Above for PDF/Larger font sizes

 

Showcase: Engaging Middle School Students with Station Rotation

Station rotation is an instructional model that can be used in classrooms K-12 and any subject area. You can use stations at any point in a unit, from introducing a new concept to learning the “meat” of a topic to wrapping up a unit. Using station rotation in your classroom can give students the opportunity to dig into different aspects of a topic, helping them gain a deeper understanding of the content, and can increase collaboration between students in small group formats. The versatility of the station rotation model allows you to be able to incorporate it in ways that make sense for you and your students.

Jacob Cullen and Tristen Henry, two outstanding teachers at Blendon Middle School, have been experimenting with ways to incorporate stations into their 8th grade Social Studies classrooms. Recently, Jacob used the station rotation model to help students learn about the Battle of Yorktown. Two of the stations included activities using digital materials, while the other two stations included activities that did not require the use of a device. Watch this video to hear Jacob’s reflections about station rotation with 8th graders:

While Jacob's students were working on the Battle of Yorktown, Tristen’s students, in the classroom next to Jacob, were rotating through 12-minute stations focused on reviewing a unit on the causes of the American Revolution. Tristen designed three stations for her students to rotate through, one of which included students working with her to review concepts through playing a Kahoot! game. Another station included a collaborative activity for students to complete, while the third station included a list of options for students to choose from to make sure they had a solid understanding of the topics in the unit. Adding choice into the station activities allowed students to work on activities at their ability levels, supporting them in their learning while also keeping them actively involved in their learning. The way that Tristen structured her stations allowed her to work more intensely with one group while also ensuring that students at the other stations were on task and engaged.

Jacob and Tristen have approached the use of stations in their rooms thoughtfully and in full consideration of what their students need in terms of interests, ability levels, and time management, which allows them to implement well-designed station activities that fully support their students in their learning. Interested in learning how you can incorporate stations into your classroom? Contact your Ed Tech Coach!

#WestervilleWay

Showcase: A Westerville Teacher Shares How She Uses Video Design

Our Westerville community has an abundance of creative, driven, and passionate teachers committed to engaging students and helping them grow as modern learners. We want to showcase the incredible work we see every day! In the attempt to do just this, each month we are going to showcase at least one impactful activity going on in our district. Introducing our first teacher...

Lori Searfoss, ESL Teacher at Blendon Middle School

Lori is continually seeking out ways to engage her ESL students in activities that boost their self-esteem while also helping them develop the four language skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Recently, Lori decided to have her students create videos that incorporate their writing, reading and speaking skills. Her students used WeVideo, a user-friendly video creation and editing tool, to record themselves first reading from posters in their school and ultimately from their own work. In addition to practicing forming sentences,  reading and speaking in an engaging way, and learning how to operate a tool that they can use in the future, this activity got the students looking more closely at the decorations in their school, which also sparked conversation about why different posters exist and what the messages on the posters mean to different individuals in the building.  

Lori took her students through concrete steps to create the work they ultimately recorded. Listen as she takes you through the preliminary steps to help students create the content they ultimately used in their videos:

Below is an example of a student using WeVideo to practice reading signs in their classroom. The choice to not include music in the video allowed for the student's voice to shine. Allowing the students to choose the posters they read led to discussions about the content of the posters, reasons for the placement of the posters, and meanings of the posters to different students.

The following clip is an example of a student working on her reading and speaking skills by reading some of what she created during the preliminary activity discussed in Lori's video:

Video design is an engaging activity that can be incorporated into any aspect of a lesson or unit. Interested in designing lessons or projects for your students using video design? Contact your Ed Tech Coach!

"Jump Right In" to Coding in the Classroom

You may have heard of coding in the classroom and wonder what all the fuss is about. I’d like to show you two resources for engaging coding activities you could use in your K-12 classroom

But first, let’s take a quick look at why teachers are choosing coding as an activity to add to an already very full schedule! From Edutopia, “Coding in the classroom is linked to improved problem solving and analytical reasoning, and students who develop a mastery of coding have a natural ability and drive to construct, hypothesize, explore, experiment, evaluate, and draw conclusions." Coding is a natural fit for our older students in CS and math classrooms and it hits on many mathematical practices addressed in our Bridges math curriculum for the younger learners ( 1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. 2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively. 3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. 4. Model with mathematics. 5. Use appropriate tools strategically. 6. Attend to precision. 7. Look for and make use of structure. 8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning).

Beyond the direct connections to curriculum, educators who are already using coding activities have seen additional benefits. They have seen coding used as a tool to improve equity, offer inclusion opportunities, create STEM proficiency with implications for career readiness, develop perseverance, and quite simply, its fun! From educators who are using coding in the class, “Best advice is to jump right in!”

Code.org

Westerville 4th graders using Code.org

Code.org makes “jumping right in” very easy to do.  Code.org is completely free and it is easy for your students to sign in to. If you use Clever it is included in the “More Apps” section, at the bottom of the page. The activities range from “block coding” meaning students manipulate blocks of pre-written code that they can alter and arrange to solve a puzzle or complete a task, to eventually writing lines of code using CSS and HTML. Students' progress is recorded and as the teacher, you can easily see what the students have worked on and completed.

Lessons are named after letters (A-F) which correspond with a grade level. Course A would be appropriate for most Kindergarten classes (designed for pre-readers) while Course F would be appropriate for grade 5. Middle and high school appropriate materials are found under the CS Discoveries and CS Principles Courses.  There are “ramp up” lessons to support students where needed and accelerated lessons for students that need more of a challenge. Many of the courses include “Unplugged Lessons” which are small group, hands-on activities that do not use a computer but expose students to concepts important to coding, problem solving, teamwork, and staying safe online using activities from Common Sense.

Hour of Code offers a one hour tutorial using some of the highest interest lessons for teachers looking for coding activities but do not have the time for a full course. There are also labs such as “App Lab” and “Creative Labs” which offer more of a project experience.

Vidcode

Westerville 4th graders using code.org

Vidcode offers many free activities suitable for grade levels 2-12. If you use BrainPop, vidcode recently integrated with some BrainPop activities which makes use of the best qualities of both products, including using code to create stop action animation, memes, and newscasts as a fun way to show students’ mastery.

I hope you may take a few minutes to look at these incredible resources and find a little something you might want to try with your classes!

As always, if you’d like additional support with coding in the classroom, please contact your Ed Tech Coach!

Additional Resources:

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/coding-classroom-long-overdue-inclusion-merle-huerta

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/education_futures/2017/06/9_tips_for_teaching_coding_in_the_classroom.html

http://www.pbs.org/education/blog/bring-coding-to-your-classroom-tomorrow

5 Ways to Make Your Course More Clickable

You have probably run into at least one social media article that includes a ridiculous question like the one below:

Incidentally, Stop Clickbait is doing an important service…

These headlines and articles are written in ways that draw our attention because they (sometimes) pose an unbelievable or compelling question that we need an answer for. One of the hallmarks of media and advertising, particularly online is to capture attention through clear, attractive design, and giving viewers a compelling reason to engage with the content. For example, consider which of the advertisements below catches your eye:

Option 1:

Buy

Coke.

Option 2:

The second option is much more likely to catch your eye with varied fonts, pictures, color, and other features that set it apart from the rest of the writing on this page. The fact that the bottles are collectible adds to the cultural appeal. So what does this have to do with the content that you put online?

Websites, apps, and other media are built along the same principles. As teachers begin to move their course content to online systems like Schoology, it is important to remember that design is an important aspect of the online experience. Strong design can help students in their learning, while poor design can increase the barriers that they may have to work through to learn. Here are some best practices that you can use to make sure that your courses are providing students with a good user experience.

1. Establish the goal of your course- is it just to serve as a place to hold assignments for students to access? A fully differentiated and built out course? Depended on the focus, your goals and organization will be different
2. How can you help your students accomplish the goal? What will make it worth their time to interact with your content?
• Pictures?
• Video?
• Color and varied font?
• How the content is split up (folder and assignment design)
3. What can explain to students where they are, what the goal is, and why they should care?
• About this course section?
• Introduction page?
• Course Overview page?
• Breakdown of standards?
4. What is the compelling reason for them to click on folders, links, and other content? Do the clicks further the goal of the course or an assignment? How can you reduce the number of clicks while still presenting content in a manageable way?
• Make each page, link, and folder intentional in its design and contents. Can content be presented within an assignment or does it need to be a separate page?
• Do links need to be included separately or can they be embedded within the text?
5. Use common layouts. Schoology is somewhat limited in the layout options that you have and Google classroom is even more limited, but even so, there are options that you can take advantage of to make sure that navigation is easy for students.
• Pick a method of organizing content, assessments, and assignments and stick to it throughout the year.
• Break text into sections so that eyes have a break between reading (look at different websites to see how this happens without you even noticing!
• Video, photos, and other media can be a great way to do this.

If you are looking to spice up your Schoology Course, and want some more ideas, contact your Ed-Tech Coach for help!