Today's Common Core training was in a conference style format at Morgan Elementary. Kudos to the Instructional Technology department for utilizing this format that made for a much more interactive and informative day! Here was the schedule an the group session descriptions
The focus was technology as a Tool with sessions centered around:
- Access and Gathering Information
- Organizing Information and
- Communicating Information
We should not design lessons around a tool, but how do we train teachers to incorporate these tools around an already created lesson or curriculum?
TPACK
- Technology
- Pedagogy
- Content knowledge
- First question is what content am I going to teach? Then what activity?
- Learning activity types/ William and Mary school of education
- Marlo showed us a "knowledge building types document" that describes the technology tools that might be used with various curriculum-- will have a draft by Feb 20 meeting
- Other common core areas will be getting this document too.
- These notes will be posted on Learning Village in the Common Core resources area
I attended the following sessions:
Symbaloo
I created the following Symbaloo to organize all the links and that were part of the sessions today:
Symbaloo/Doreen Anderson
- How can you use it?
- Personally for your favorite "go to bookmarks" place
- For classes: as a web mix for students
- It's free
- You can use another person's web mix as a starting point and also edit existing web mix
- You can search for existing tiles
- Doreen showed us this website http://www.arkive.org/
- it's an awesome site about animals -- lots of free pictures to use
- You could also use a picture editing site like jing or picnik to grab an image from a website and use for a tile
- Tiles can be dragged and dropped wherever you want them
- We tried adding a file like you can do on livebinder, but think the only way to do that on Symbaloo is to upload a file somewhere else (like School Wires) and get the link for a tile.
- You could color code by type of tile
- If you are sharing your Symballo, Stop sharing while u are editing, and then you will have to re share
- Tabs across the top can be grabbed and moved
- You can easily rearrange your Symbaloo view by deleting a tab or rearranging the order
- You can search for existing webmixes in the Gallery search by category or by name of author?
- She is using Promethean today because that's what is in place at Morgan, but is talking from all perspectives of clickers (Smart, CPS and Promethean)
- Only one thing she is showing today that can't be done on smart devices--is a Self paced assessment
- Easiest way to engage kids is to start them on something like a self paced assessment at the begininng of class. Have several questions for them to answer and clickers on the desks.
- Marzano did research on interactive white boards (iwb)
- Found anyone who had a iwb with clickers scores 17% higher than those classrooms without (used same teachers in the study to avoid the comparing apples and oranges issue)
- Learn response/feedback issue:
- When the do nothing with the response.then iwb did not help learning
- Sometimes too many visuals hurts the improvement too
- Do things in small meaningful segments
- In order to be effective, you must talk about the right and wrong responses and item analysis
- You have to highlight the built in distractor answers and explain why they are wrong
- Marlo showed us Amy Mallory, a math teacher and featured teacher on Planet
- The lesson to solve two step equations, and the clickers provided immediately feedback that allows teacher to alter the lesson as it proceeds
- Clickers are not just assessment tool...For example, you could use them to:
- Teach writing, talk about word choice--students text in suggestions for a better word to use in a sentence
- Everyone gets a voice and encourages competition and interest
- Clickers can be used to get interaction going
- Ron Clark videos...Marlo showed use one of Ron Clark live at a tech conference using clickers to engage students
- Ron had the students do three steps in an algebra on active expressions clickers--
- He tells the students that If they get the first step right says "You are hot", so he builds in re enforcers
- Ron Clark has several suggestions for incorporating clickers in class
- Use them to starts class with a sense of urgency
- For example, you might enter three basic questions and get them to work on that as they come in
- Bring science experiments to life, by entering steps into active expressions
- Use them "to score a touchdown" where they do certain steps to earn points toward a goal
- Create a scavenger hunt by entering clues in active votes so students might have to go measure a door for example, and then go somewhere else
- Bring silent sustained reading to life by having students answer a series of questions on their active votes about what they are reading
- Use them to review large amounts of information for example the periodic table, break information into chunks by asking questions on active votes along the way
- As part of instruction not "the lesson"
- Bring traditional lesson to life-- for example have students crossword puzzle with clues in active expressions
- Also check out ei community: https://www.eicommunity.com/
- Tpack tie in: multiple ways to engage students with clickers
- How you organizing your resources?
- Youtube on live binder:
- http://www.youtube.com/user/livebinders?blend=8&ob=video-mustangbase
- Can embed in your blog
- School wires will embed it
- PTA might use it for a promotion
- Project for a class all the resources they need to focus on--there is less downtime
- Computer lab teachers could use this instead of an actual folder
- Can set up to be collaborative so it's like a Wiki
- You can search through already created/featured binders
- You Can make it private and password protect it
- Its an open platform --but it does require an email account
QR CODES/Steven Anderson
- You have probably seen in stores for products to get more information
- Sale sign for piece of property
- Shop by scanning a code--might take you to Facebook site
- Or it might say something
- Ease of access to information
- Bar codes keep track of inventory, but are very limiting
- QR is in two dimensions and increases characters from 12 to over 200
- YOUTUBE video--QR codes in the classroom: http://youtu.be/hSA3YsBy_pU
What do you need to read QR codes?
Google Voice mail/ Marty Creech
- Need an app on a smart phone or tablet
- Google goggles is what DOT recommends for Galaxy tablets and smartphones:
- http://www.google.com/mobile/goggles/#text
- Document camera can be used as QR reader or you can use web camera or old video camera
- WS/FCS School Board Policy was changed in 2011: kids can use cell phones in classes
- Qrstuff: http://www.qrstuff.com/
- What can you link to?
- Can link to plain text
- A telephone number
- But, 9 times out 10 people use them to link to a url/website address
- There is also Qr code voice: http://qrvoice.net/
- Gotta have device to scan them
- And something to create them--Check out this blog: http://www.librarygirl.net/2012/01/from-tech-trend-to-teaching-tool-taking.html
- Daily agenda
- Book reviews
- To get information back to kids
- kid created videos
- Reenact scenes from books many learning opportunities for kids to show off what they do
- Centers learning in the class
- A vehicle to get to what u are doing
Google Voice mail/ Marty Creech
- Marty is new with the WS/FCS, came from Davie County, taught Science in MS
- We practiced calling into google voicemail. Marty gave us a number to call or text from our cell phones, and up on his screen popped our responses.
- It has a Voice recognition feature where it converts to text--it is a little "rough" but you can get the idea
- You can call the number back and text the number back
- creates an mp3 of the message--You can right click and download easily
- Marty used in classroom in October
- Went to Renaissance Festival and students had to Interview someone at the Fair and have them describe the significance of their role in the Renaissance?
- Students were groups with at least one cell phone
- Interviewing person was a success
- Discussed ways to make better
- Other Ideas?
- Pod casting
- Quick warm up
- It's like Blabberize?
- Kids at home could use with their home phones/Could use as a homework tool
- This an option for communicating instead of your personal cell
- Kids can text as well
- Students could Go home and interview someone
- Call in and give your thoughts on a debate or some other television event
In class:
- Can provide immediately feedback
- Field trip pod casting
- Call to explain a math problem
- Summarize today's class
- Question survey with parental feedback
- Wrote civil war love letters and kids translated them to text
- Transcription goes to cell phone as a text
- Must have a Google account/Gmail
- Choose to create a new number
- Put in zip code to generate a number
- Just leave number blank
- Enter a pin
- Will have to verify via text message
- There is the ability to set up Group contacts and could send message to group
- Send a picture to text message box?
