MiGoogle 2013 Conference

I am honored to say I am presenting in this year's MiGoogle Conference located at the Brighton High School on Tuesday, November 5th.  I am excited and nervous all at the same time.  I wanted to share my story of my Chromebook pilot with others because I am so thrilled on how this 1:1 experience has turned out.  I hope presenting at the conference will take me a step closer to convincing my district that we should consider purchasing a Chromebook for every student third grade and up to provide an universal, internet device accessible all day - every day.

My favorite part of this piloting experience has been the collaboration piece.  I have been able to participate in many learning activities such as International Dot Day, The Global Read Aloud and team teaching using Skype with individuals and classrooms around the world.  I love that I have had the opportunity to work with many other Michigan teachers, especially Caldonia Schools third grade teacher, Terrie Morrow.  As a close family friend, I have looked up to Terrie my whole life and to have the opportunity to collaborate with such a fantastic educator has been spectacular.  I've learned so much from her and her passion for education is contagious.  I am so glad she will be presenting with me!

I am also thrilled that a previous student from my last year's third grade class will be presenting with me, too. When he heard I was going to talk about the Chromebooks he came up with the idea himself to present along with me.  This technology implementation is all about the kids, anyways, right?  His name is Kayne and he is a perfect example of how a 1:1 device is useful for children even at the elementary level.  At the beginning of the year last year I would have never imagined this student getting up infront of anyone sharing his ideas and excited about it.  He barely performed well in all subject matters until he had the access to this piloted technology.  It opened up so many new doors for him and he was able to express himself in ways I never even thought possible.  I am so proud of him and can't wait to hear what he has to say!

My session is called, "Third Graders, Wild About Chromebooks".  It will be at the Brighton High School and 3:10pm in room F24.  Wish me luck!

Edmodo

I attended the EdmodoCon 2013 Wednesday and came away from this online conference pumped and excited to get those Chromebooks out of the cart and into my third graders hands as soon as the school year starts.  I've wanted to use this online networking application for teachers and students for about two years.  Now that I will hopefully start the school year off with 1:1 Chromebooks I am positive that the Edmodo platform will be so useful for all subjects in my class.

ALL learning materials can be located in one learning space that is accessible to teachers, parents and students.  The possibilities are endless.  There are so many positives with this program that I can hardly wrap my head around all of them.  Because of this intimidation I feel, I will try to focus on just a few aspects of Edmodo and take baby steps until I feel comfortable with it.  Thankfully, I have a couple Tech Ed friends I can rely on for assistance when needed.  Thank you Jennifer Bond and Terrie Morrow!!!!

I look forward to assigning assignments though Edmodo and having the students submit their work through this platform.   I can't wait to create and store on Edmodo exploration stations with non-fiction texts and digital media for students to investigate to make their own conclusions about real world matters.  I can't wait to make separate groups for mystery book clubs that have the potential to be shared with other third grade classrooms around the world on Edmodo.  I look forward to participating in The Global Read Aloud with my students on Edmodo.  I also look forward to making mini-quizzes on Edmodo as an exit slip after a concept has been introduced to see if my students have comprehended the way I had hoped.  The quiz feature even allows students to skip or flag a question to come back to later if needed.  I can't wait to try the Goanimate app available in Edmodo's own app store along with a few others that looked beneficial to my students.  I look forward to joining educator communities within Edmodo, to make connections with teachers who are passionate about their job and want to share resources, just like me!

Summer's Almost Done - Time to Think Technology Education

As I was sitting at a local restaurant enjoying a lunch out on a week day, I discovered I am ready to get back to school and start thinking about implementing educational technology.  There weren't very many customers.  Everyone was at work and I felt lucky to have the time off to spend with my kids.  I couldn't even recall what day of the week it was, which means I was totally immersed in my summer vacation relaxation.  We sat next to a large table of retired, elderly men who must have just finished a round at the nearby golf course.  They were quite loud and I found myself eavesdropping on their conversations, especially when the topic of education was brought up.

One of the gentlemen expressed his concern about a recent technology bond that was passed in the community and said something like, "They don't need computers at school.  They can just play on their own when they get home."  And then the conversation continued about all the fancy gadgets their grandchildren have that could perform such tasks that seemed magical and impossible.

I wanted to interrupt the conversation so badly and express my opinion on the importance of technology in the world we live in and the future of our students, but I didn't want to seem rude.  It is amazing to me that so often technology is viewed as a play thing even though the careers of the future are going to require more than a basic knowledge of it.  As I left the restaurant and have been reflecting on this eavesdropping experience, I wish those fine gentlemen could see this video that I have watched so many times:

Or look at this infograph:

Anyways, as the school days approach I am changing modes in my brain and am starting to get excited about ways to not only implement educational technology, but also to create a learning environment that will prepare my students for a technology enriched future.

Glogster EDU

To finish up our poetry unit we decided to create an online interactive poster through an app available at the Chrome Store.  The app is called Glogster EDU.  I had never made a "glog" before and I knew the kids would have fun trying it out. I love their slogan, "Creativity is Learning!" After learning about 8 different types of poems, the students logged into their Glogster EDU accounts and created a free, poetry multimedia poster with text, photos, videos, animations, graphics, audio and much more!  It was a unique way to publish their thoughtful writing.  When I practiced Glogster EDU at home it worked great.  I was able to manipulate text boxes, record myself reading my poetry,  and add photos found online with a Chromebook hooked up to my own wi-fi network.  Working with it at school, was a little more challenging.  For some reason we could not hear any sound that we tried recording.  It would have been super cute to have the students record their voices, but for some reason it would not work.  Even though we experienced this disappointment, all the kids were still very excited to make the online poster and many of them turned out spectacular.  I will use Glogster EDU again, for sure!  Click on the links below to see some great examples from my third grade class.

Student 1

Student 2

Student 3

Student 4

Student 5

Student 6

Student 7

Student 8

Student 9

Weebly Non-fiction Websites

Students experienced writing a non-fiction piece for this last quarter.  We used our Chromebooks to create non-fiction websites that gave the opportunity for students to write a factual piece that included an introduction, description chapter, sequence chapter, compare chapter and a conclusion.  The kids chose whatever topic they felt they were an expert on.  We used a very friendly, free website builder called Weebly.  The students caught on real fast and actually decided what tabs and information to include.  They enjoyed using the photos available through this website builder and uploading some found on the internet that related to their topic.  Some kids went over and beyond and learned how to insert html code to embed a video relating to their topic.  It was so nice to have the Chromebooks at our disposal all day, so the kids could grab a machine and get back to work on their website if they finished their work in other subjects.  The best part about this project was the pride these kids felt to create something that looked so professional and appealing.  They also were so excited about them, that many students went home and built more on other topics of their choice.  We plan on having a "Website Gallery Dessert Night" as the year comes to a close to show off all of our hard work.  Please click on the links below to check out what some of them have accomplished so far:

All About Snakes

Swimming

Fashion

Basketball

All About Dogs

Minecraft

Dogs

All About Dogs

Tekkit

Music

Volleyball

Soccer

Minecraft School

Typing Practice

After seeing one of the example writing questions for the Smarter Balanced Assessments and knowing about the implementation of the Common Core State Standards, I am convinced that students need to start practicing typing before third grade.  I have found that the last few years I have taught more lessons and provided more practice time for typing rather than writing cursive.  Cursive is great, students need to try it and learn how to read it. However, in my opinion typing is more important and is a skill all students will be using in the future no matter what career path they choose.  There are two typing programs I like that are free and fun.  One is Dance Mat Typing provided by the British Broadcasting Corporation.  It is very entertaining and the kids love it.  You need to pass levels of difficulty through practice.  Some of the accents the characters use can be a little hard to understand though.  The second is an app provided through Google Chrome's Elementary Education Pack called Typing Club.  After practicing, the app will rate you with 1-3 stars depending on how you perform.  It also tells you the words per minute you can type, your accuracy percentage and the time it took you to finish the task.  It also gives a lesson before practice begins and shows a picture of hands with the finger needed highlighted on the screen.  My students have become fast typers especially with the amount of exposure to technology this year.  I would like all Brighton students to have that same advantage.

Khan Academy

One of the apps available in Chrome's Elementary Education Pack is Khan Academy. This app has proven itself very useful as we have started our fraction unit. Khan Academy is a huge resource for all educators and students with a large amount of short, educational instructional videos found in one easy to access location. I have successfully used Khan Academy in the past. I would show a video during class if I could find the subject matter I was looking for. I was presently surprised when I had the students use their own Chromebook, log into their app, and watch the videos independently. They could pause and rewind to watch them at their own pace of understanding and then the app allowed them to practice the concept taught. The kids loved it because it was like a video game and they could receive a badge if they mastered the skill worked on. The videos that we watched were "Understanding Fractions". This section contained two videos and task performance questions relating to what was mentioned in the video. We will be using this app frequently for the remaining of the school year and I hope to make my students' parents aware of this resource to have for homework help at home.

Duolingo

I have been trying to implement my Chromebook cart as often as possible in all content areas. I decided to do some team teaching with Hornung's Spanish teacher to incorporate some E'spanol with technology. I quickly found a cute looking app called "Duolingo" and spent about 30 minutes downloading it onto each students' Chromebook. I ran out of time and did not look at this application as thoroughly as I should. Before class, I did try about two performance tasks the app provided me and decided it was acceptable. As the students logged on they seemed excited about learning some spanish with our new devices and thought the Duolingo Mascot (an owl named Duo) looked entertaining. The program works like a video game and the student keeps on progressing to the next level as the spanish concepts become increasingly difficult. Well, the kids did great on the first few tasks, but then it asked them to type the spanish word. This is way to complex for an elementary student to accomplish and we immediately discovered that the usage of this app may cause more stress than learning in our room. So, we abandoned the lesson. I'm glad we tried, though. This app is awesome and I suggest it for middle school and high school levels. It costs nothing and I think I may end up using it for myself. This is how technology is, sometimes you just have to jump in and try it. You have to take the risk to figure out what will and will not work in your educational setting. I feel blessed and lucky that I have had the opportunity to try out the Chromebooks!

Smarter Balanced Assessments

After attending Brighton's staff professional development day on Monday, I am even more convinced that 1:1 Chromebooks (or something similar) needs to be implemented for our district. We will be partaking in the national standardized test through Smarter Balanced Assessments like many other states in the country. This testing will take place for the state of Michigan in 2014 and it is an assessment that will be aligned with the Common Core State Standards. There were two national tests to choose from, and from my understanding we chose the Smarter Balanced route due to the "computer adaptive testing" that will provide great feedback and make the testing more meaningful with data that is useful in a timely fashion. I am excited for these new assessments for a variety of reasons. First and foremost - NO MORE MEAP! Second, it sounds as if the testing that will take place does work towards student success, rather than an amount of data to provide schools with government money. Also, what I have heard so far, it seems that the test is more focused on real world learning rather than to memorize facts that don't really make an impact on student understanding. That being said, the shift in education is here and we need to be ready. The Common Core State Standards are the basis of 21st Century Learning and I feel overwhelmed and anxious that many districts may not be prepared for what is to come. Brighton has an opportunity to be leaders in this regard - due to the recent bond passed in the community. I really do think that putting Chormebooks in the hands of students 3rd grade and up on a very frequent basis would be so beneficial and would give us an advantage that we need. As the elementary teachers sat through the morning's PD on Monday, we saw an example performance task and test question. The third grade students need to be able to read digital text, view multi-media content on a computer screen, go back and forth to several internet websites using tabs, and type a lengthy essay using supporting evidence from the media reviewed. I do think third graders can do this. They can do it well with practice, opportunity and access to devices on a regular basis. As I investigated more on the Smarter Balanced Assessment website, I did find out that Chromebooks do support this testing in the system requirements specifications executive summary.

I know the timing of when this test needs to be taken has not yet been determined. However, I do worry about how and when my future students may take this assessment. Of course I want my students to perform well. If this testing is used towards my evaluation (like the MEAP) I want to be sure that my students get to take the test at the ideal time, especially if there are not enough machines or devices for everyone to take it simultaneously. If my students are allocated the computer lab or cart right after lunch recess on a Friday, but Mrs. Smith who teaches next to me has her students take it Monday morning before snack, I will be very discouraged and disappointed. If we had Chromebooks available to all kids this wouldn't be an issue and the results for our students would be even more accurate and useful.

Reading Online

During the month of April, my classroom has been finishing up our non-fiction unit and we have started our poetry unit. I always like to have an over abundance of texts available so students can emerse themselves in the particular genre we are studying. I have bins and bins of high interest topic books, I pull carts full of texts from the school library and I currently have 116 books checked out in my name from the Brighton District Library! What can I say, I love books! For these two units I have also provided links on my website (under my language arts tab) for students to try some online reading. I used free resources like Tumblebooks, ducksters.com, buzzle.com, gigglepoetry.com, poetry4kids.com and many more. I have allowed the kids to choose which type of text they want to read, and of course most of them want to read online using our new Chromebooks. I created a survey for them to fill out asking their opinions about online reading versus book reading and most kids said they liked online reading better. Some reasons they included were, "there are more topics to choose from", "I can't lose the page I left off on", and "it's more fun!". One special education student said, "I learned a lot more words as Tumblebooks were read to me and I could follow along!" I know that the implementation of this pilot is new and exciting for the kids and the novelty of it all could wear out after awhile. However, it has been great to give these students so much choice and options that seem endless. Having books and online texts available at any time of the day for the kids to go to has been ideal. I would never want books to be taken out of the picture completely. There is nothing better than a great book you can curl up on the couch with and get lost in. I see online reading as an extra bonus and a way to motivate students to take ownership in their literature choices.

No Annoying Updates

The week I received my classroom's Chromebook cart, I also received my teacher MacBook Pro. I was bombarded, overwhelmed and thrilled all at the same time to have exciting, WORKING technology in my Brighton Area School classroom. I love my MacBook Pro. It is beautiful. However, I have already received a few notifications on updates needing to be downloaded for a variety of different things. I have seen a software update, an update available for iphoto and some annoying boxes keep showing up in the upper right hand corner telling my I have to update something that I don't even know what it is. The Chromebooks have never had any such notifications. Why? It updates by itself! Chromebooks download security and software upgrades automatically so you don't have to! As a teacher, the last thing I have time for is to keep up with updating software for my student technology implemented in my classroom. I need to be busy designing lesson plans that can include technology that I know will work. I also love that all student work can be accessed anywhere, using almost any device. No need for a jump-drive or disk to save work so homework or projects can be worked on at home. Chrome's ingenious marketing line for the Chromebook is "No hassles included". Sounds good to me!

Everyday Math Online Games

Our district just purchased the Everyday Math Curriculum for grades K-6th. Brighton got the "deluxe" version of this curriculum which means there are many technology components available to students, parents and teachers. Teachers are thrilled to have a "deluxe" version of a curriculum because it seems like it has been a long while since Brighton had something shiny and new worth bragging about. I have only received positive feedback from parents about the new math program and I can tell they are pleased with the convenience of so many resources available to them online to help their child with math. Ever since my classroom has had the opportunity to work with their own Chromebooks, they have been logging into their Everyday Math accounts at least three times a week. They play any of the online games available for the specific lesson we are on. I have seen an improvement with performance and I have been surprised that our lessons have been progressing at a quicker pace since we have implemented the technology. I also know that more kids are logging in at home to continue playing games they may not have had a chance to finish at school. Not because they have to, but because they want to! There is a way to have students take an online assessment through Everyday Math Online, but I haven't figured it out yet. I hope to try it at least once before the school year is over. I am curious to see if the program gives you an immediate result - one less paper item to take home and grade! It feels great to take an adopted Brighton curriculum and enrich it to the full extent with useful, purposeful technology! Click HERE to see some neat third grade games from EDM online!

Shelfari

Since the beginning of the school year, my classroom has been using Amazon's Shelfari online book shelf. It is a program that allows you to put a virtual book that you have read onto a virtual shelf. As students put up the books they are finishing in reading workshop, they have the opportunity to rate, comment and share ideas about that book online. The students can "follow" other people's shelves to see what others are reading and they love to message each other to recommend books that they have enjoyed to their peers. Shelfari works as a great reading log that allows kids to see all the reading they accomplish through the school year. Ever since we have received our Chromebooks, the kids do not have to wait for that 45 minute a week computer lab time to put their recent books on their shelf. They can do it immediately with access to their own machines all day long. This program available to them at any time of the day has been a perfect example of collaboration and meaningful 21st Century Learning at its finest.

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

Vocabulary Spelling City App

As I was creating emails for my students using an administrator code and password, I made sure to have the Elementary Education App Pack automatically installed for each students' gmail account. This means when the student opens their Chromebook and logs in, these apps are always available to each and every one of them. I have been trying out all the different apps Google Chrome has chosen to include in this App Pack, and my favorite so far is the Vocabulary Spelling City app. This award winning site's mission is,"efficient game-based study of literacy skills". I tried the free portion of this program, but I knew immediately I wanted to purchase the premium membership because of the huge variety of activities the children can participate in. I paid about $50 for a year membership and I feel it has been worth every penny and I have only been using it for two weeks. Because my students have experienced Rebecca Sitton's spelling units thus far, I have chosen to continue using the third grade word lists by inserting them into the list management section on the premium teacher's toolbox. I can give assignments, track student progress, get immediate test results and allow students to progress at their own pace. The kids have loved the games and I love that they are having fun doing word work. I also don't mind that I no longer need to bring paper spelling tests and homework home to grade! To learn more go to https://www.spellingcity.com/

Class Dojo - New behavior management app

While searching for great apps to implement while using our new Chromebooks I came across something called, "Class Dojo" in the Chrome Web Store. It is an online classroom behavior management program and since my room was experiencing some behavior issues, why not start there? The students had a blast creating their own cute, unique avatars. All day we have an extra Chromebook open with the app up and running. The special education instructor, my para-pro, my math educational assistant and I all take turns keeping track of positive and negative Dojo points. When we see a student doing something great like staying on task, participating, working hard etc. we click on the child's avatar and give them a point. The machine lets out a positive "ding". When a negative action is viewed a negative Dojo point is given to the student and a sad sounding "honk" occurs. The difference in behavior has been amazing. When he kids hear the sounds they may not know exactly who received the point but immediately make sure their own behavior is on track. They enjoy logging in themselves to see how they are progressing, and I give a small reward to the top positive point earners at the end of the week. I print their weekly progress sheet to send home in their Friday folders that allows parents to see in a very organized, friendly way what actions are being noticed in the classroom. I love it!

Why Chromebooks?

I put a lot of thought into my choice for Brighton Area School's technology pilot project.  I wanted to choose a device that was useful, affordable, sturdy, reliable and had a wow factor to motivate and engage students.  My goal is to show how useful having this unique laptop available to a student all day long can be.  During the district's Summer Vision Series I was told to "dream big", so I am dreaming big.  Brighton has an opportunity to show that we can be leaders in technology education and with the monies spent wisely from our bond, I feel we can.  21st Century Learning is here and Brighton should be on board in providing technology experiences, global connections and collaborating and project based learning to our students. Upcoming nationwide standardized tests will be online and we need to be prepared.  Follow this blog to see what I am discovering as I implement 30 Chromebooks into my third grade classroom for the remainder of the school year.