Paying Forward My Learning from #GAFESummit

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to attend #GAFESummit in Connecticut.  Yes, you read that right. I had the opportunity to drive 4.5 hours each way and spend the weekend at a conference.  I value my learning because when I didn't, it almost caused me to give up my career (read about that here: blog).  I want to pay forward all of my learning so it doesn't die with me.  Here is a quick recap of the weekend of learning and rediscovering techniques, tools and resources:

Saturday:
Saturday started off with a keynote from Chris Craft (@crafty184) that not only made us laugh and think, but challenged us to engage and inspire our students to give back to those that need us the most.  If you can engage "students to help someone else build their masterpiece, they can then begin to see the value in building their own."  This really resonated with me and is something I will carry with me as I go back to work on Monday.  If you have an opportunity to see or hear him speak, don't miss it.  You won't regret it.

I then went to my first session wondering what all I would be learning about and before the session even started, I rediscovered Let Me Google That For You .  I came across this before, but never really understood just how useful it would be in my part time gig as Tech Integrator.  For example, anyone ever ask you how to make something public on the web and you type out the directions and then 10 more people ask you?  How about using LMGTFY.com and here are now step by step instructions that you can either send a link to or print out for someone.  How about making a Google Sheet or Smore or Google Newsletter and housing all of those resources and then they are at your fingertips (and maybe the finger tips of those people asking you 123 times how to do that?)

The first session started and before Jeff Heil (@jheil65)  even introduced himself, he handed out three tips, one of which, I wound up using the rest of the weekend.  Pinning a tab is something I knew about, but forgot about and considering I currently have 37 (not an exaggeration) tabs open, it came in handy big time! Pinning a tab makes it so that you can't accidentally close the tab while you are working on other tabs. Definitely helps when you are multitasking.  Anyway, back to our presenter, Jeff, it would turn out I would go to all 6 of his sessions because he really is THAT good!  I could sit and learn from him as a full time job!  I linked his resources to his name at the beginning of this paragraph and I cannot understate just how many nuggets are in each of the links on his Summit page (linked above).  He has everything from My Maps (which by the way might be my new favorite thing after the quiz feature in Forms), to Forms, to deep dive tricks in Google Docs, to apps, to Genius Hour and sooooo many more.  I am so thankful that I was able to learn from (and not be accused of stalking) him this weekend! :)

I left Saturday exhausted and with a learning concussion for sure!

Sunday
Our day started off by hearing from Kern Kelley (@kernkelley) and he made me think about our use of technology and the student's perspective when they use technology in the classroom.  He also made us laugh a lot when thinking about how much technology has changed in our lives.  He talked about his Tech Sherpas (student tech team) and it made me double down on my efforts to make this work at our school again this year.  I started one at our school last year and we were small but mighty.  This year, I would like to make it more usable for the student body as well as for teachers.   His book The Google Apps Guidebook (which he wrote with this Tech Sherpas) is already on my Kindle and half read.  I can't wait to put some of the ideas into play in my classroom.

I then went to a Forms session with @jheil65 again and it really got me thinking about how I use Forms and how, although I am using it everyday and using the data from it everyday, I am not even scratching the surface of what I can be using it for.  I typically leave bell ringers up for the students to use as a review technique, but why not turn on the quiz feature and then allow them to use it as an actual review where they get feedback if they are answering it correctly, without me having to micromanage it.  I am now going to use it every day in Quiz format so they get feedback.   I am also going to go back to Flubaroo (an add on in Sheets) to not just grade the information but to send the students an email with their results.  I am also going to have my students put their Inquiry answers to the evidence questions in a Google Form so that, after I have added Autocrat as an add on, will create a Google Doc for the students so they can see how their evidence can easily be made into an essay type response to the compelling Inquiry question.  I will probably only do this once or twice since I want them crafting it themselves, but it shows them how important their answers to the guiding questions are and how well constructed evidence collection can basically write your response for you.

Other resources you might want to check out:
Assessing with Forms and Flubaroo by Don Vallera (@mrvallera).
Googlifying Your Classroom by Jay Salerno (@jaysal7)
Designing Lessons with GAFE by Jeff Heil (@jheil65)
Game of Forms by Jeff Heil (@jheil65)
Forms 101 by Jeff Heil (@jheil65)
Haaaaaave You Met My Maps? by Jeff Heil (@jheil65)
Earthcast where you can look at live stream from the ISS.  Thank you to @kernkelley for this resource
Primarily Google by Susan Stewart (resources on how to use Google in primary classrooms)
Getting Geeky with Google by Chris Craft (@crafty184)

As you can see, this weekend was unbelievable!  I challenge you to seek out an opportunity to attend a #GAFEsummit.  You will not regret it!

Have 2 minutes to help my students?

This past month, we were given the opportunity to create the spring marketing campaign for GHS Federal Credit Union (https://www.ghsfcu.com/).  Each student in class was allowed to work as a team or as an individual to create a marketing campaign to target 25 - 45 year olds.  We started with 22 presentations, the students narrowed it down to 10 after the first round of presentations and then after another round of presentations, narrowed it down to 3.  If you could please watch these and then click on the link below to vote, the winner will actually get to have their ad be the ad for GHSFCU for the spring and summer!!!

Thank you!

Choice A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9TfrTb-OYU&feature=youtu.be

Choice B: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuxZVmCx5yw&feature=youtu.be 

Choice C: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TMPq8jOXeE&feature=youtu.be


Vote here!

Thank you for helping out our Entrepreneurship class!

STUDENT App/Extension Reviews

These past two weeks we have been focusing on digital literacy in our Digital Citizenship class.  We tested our knowledge by completing four modules on this site: https://www.digitalliteracyassessment.org/ and then had to show our improvement if we incorrectly answered more than two items.  This proved challenging, but we worked hard and our newly acquired skills will prove helpful as we move through the rest of the course work.  There are two culminating activities in this unit and we have finished the first one, which was a blog post that served as an app/extension review.  We used the rubric below to analyze our chosen app/extension.  No two students could review the same app/extension, so we learned about 26 apps and extensions! (FTW: I even learned more about several of these apps/extensions!)   This exercise provides the students with real world skills of analyzing, critiquing and formulating a review.  In the digital world, people write reviews all the time.  Learning how to write them in a useful manner can help us become digital leaders.  Here are the student app/extension reviews;

Hannah reviews: PushBullet: http://hannah1516.blogspot.com/

Lexi reviews Memrise: http://alexiagillette1516.blogspot.com/

Ally reviews Calmly Letter: http://ally1516.blogspot.com/ 

Brenden reviews Explee: http://brenden1516.blogspot.com/

Gulia reviews Animoto: http://gulia1516.blogspot.com/ 

Shane reviews Tweetdeck: http://shane1516.blogspot.com/

YuNing reviews Instagram: http://yuning1516.blogspot.com/ 

Jenna reviews DuoLingo: http://jenna1516.blogspot.com/

Jil reviews StumbleUpon: http://jilianne1516.blogspot.com/

Corey reviews PowToon: http://coreyf1516.blogspot.com/

Brandi reviews Memo Notepad http://brandigaylord.blogspot.com/ 

Dan reviews Tick Tick: http://dan1516.blogspot.com/ 

Cherish reviews Eduzzle: http://cherish1516.blogspot.com/ 

Brian reviews GroupMe: http://bjh1516.blogspot.com/

Kylie reviews Moovly: http://kylie1516.blogspot.com/

Griffin reviews Vine: http://griffin1516.blogspot.com/

Bri reviews Emaze: http://brianna1516.blogspot.com/

Travis reviews Pinterest: http://tmac1516.blogspot.com/ 

Hannah reviews Readability: http://hannahpalmer1516.blogspot.com/

Val reviews Sticky Notes: http://valpalmeri1516.blogspot.com/

Kara reviews Quizlet: http://karapochkar.blogspot.com/

Meaghan reviews PowToon: http://meaghan1516.blogspot.com/

Ashley reviews The Homework App: http://ashley1516.blogspot.com/

Meghan reviews Bitmoji: http://meghan1516.blogspot.com/2016/04/bitmoji-review.html

Lexi reviews YouTube: http://alexiswanchisen.blogspot.com/ 

2016 STUDENT App Smackdown

In #digcit class this week, we concluded our unit on digital literacy by engaging in an app smackdown.  Although I normally require students to use a platform that they have not used before and I don't have them all on the same platform, for this project, it made the most sense.  Here is the set up of the project:

Students had to choose an app/extension for mobile devices, iOS or Chrome that none of their classmates chose for the app/extension blog review we did the previous week and could not duplicate one for the smackdown. The rubric they had was this

They chose apps/extensions that even I learned from!!  I did challenge them that if their classmates picked them as the winner using this Google Form: https://goo.gl/ia6un6  and it was an app/extension I did not have (not an easy feat since I have 250+ already) and I would use it, they got a $30 gift card to Dunkin Donuts instead of just the $25 that went to the winner.  The winner from this smackdown: https://goo.gl/9IFVwL was Forest, a time management app.

I hope you are able to pick up a few new apps/extensions to improve work flow or help with a work hack!

Students Spread Happiness to Combat Haters and Trolls

This year in #DigCit class, we dove into our study of Haters and Trolls a little differently.  Thanks to CommonSense Media, (https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/digital-bytes) we watched a short video explaining what haters and trolls are.  We then discussed something specific we learned about haters and trolls from the video, sharing any experiences we had with them.  Next, the students were given either video A or B and a specific question for the assigned video.  They were to then make a graphic representation in our collective Google Slides: https://goo.gl/HpYRYs present to the class about their answer to the question.  All of that was meant to get them thinking critically about haters and trolls and the impact they can have, as well as how they can combat them.

Here is the introduction to the project, written by the students:

In our Digital Citizenship (#digcit) class we are learning about haters and trolls. Mrs. Murat places an emphasis on #stuvoice in her classroom through the use of social media and sharing our work on her blog. Mrs Murat allowed Hannah and me(Val) and to use her blog to share out our ideas about haters and trolls. Haters are people who post negative things on social media to get something out of it. Trolls are people who go on social media looking for certain things like a family who just lost a loved one. Once they find what they are looking for they will post rude or hurtful comments to upset the family and friends.  In this project our class watched two different videos on haters and trolls http://digitalbytes.commonsensemedia.org/  (scroll down to the bottom, hover over generation, choose haters and trolls, then scroll down to the bottom and click continue, then click either video) then answered various questions on them. Here are some tips on how to avoid haters and trolls : 1. Don’t respond to them. Ignore the comments 2. Report any negative or hurtful comments on your page 3. Have a trusted adult monitor your social media page so they can get rid of it before you see it Use the 30% rule (30% will love, 30% will hate it, 30% will not care. Only think about the 30% who will love it) 

While diving into haters and trolls, I came across this campaign on Twitter and we decided that this would be a great way to flood the internet with positive messages on how they use social media to solve problems instead of create them!

Here are some of the tweets

Next, the students had to choose between the following tasks. or they could propose one to me.  The only limitation was that they could not use a platform that they had previously used. 

Choice 1

Choice 2

Some of their projects are linked below and I think most of them will be using these as evidence of how they are transitioning to digital leaders! 

Project Links:

https://youtu.be/EfxNn2heDIk

https://animoto.com/play/WvqWUUbdZ4ea8Ti5ah3X6w

https://youtu.be/VKKlYUhRZHo

https://youtu.be/g0MlrURR_rU

https://www.wevideo.com/view/611115035

http://explee.com/video/6q730

Lastly, they scheduled out tweets for #IDOH (International Day of Happiness) for Sunday, March 20th.  Here are some of their tweets to spread the happiness!

Spread the happiness and combat the trolls and haters!

Student Surveys Please Help!

My Entrepreneurship class has been given the opportunity to design an advertising campaign for GHS Federal Credit Union's Spring Campaign.  They have been tasked with designing something that will reach a new target market and the sky is the limit for them!  If you could take a couple minutes and answer a couple surveys, we would greatly appreciate your input!  Thank you!

https://goo.gl/dkwS2h

https://goo.gl/VuLmxF

https://goo.gl/BWKAta

https://goo.gl/td02Dg

https://goo.gl/4Jqnr9

http://goo.gl/forms/OQbWgXO8p4

https://goo.gl/mnS1Wz

https://goo.gl/m3uwVM

https://goo.gl/ygXf4u

https://goo.gl/ruVfFw

https://goo.gl/2kY00o

https://goo.gl/bComrO

https://goo.gl/4GE5cP

http://goo.gl/forms/jmS6vG7nU9

https://goo.gl/Val86j

https://goo.gl/H4Cel3

https://goo.gl/YRH3Ns

https://goo.gl/kK2GG9

Social Branding in #DigCit

My #DigCit students have been studying their digital footprint/tattoo and are now working on educating others as to what social branding is and how they can help build a positive social brand for themselves in the process.  They could choose any platform off this list: https://goo.gl/VgH9eL or propose a different one to me.  Here are some of their projects.  If you would leave some comments that I could pass on to the students, it would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you and enjoy!

https://explee.com/video/ljbqr

https://explee.com/video/gqk4o#

https://explee.com/video/g7byz#

https://www.emaze.com/@AFTZWZCI/presentation-name

https://www.emaze.com/@AFTIWWLW/social-branding

http://prezi.com/lpjnl0hy__km/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

http://prezi.com/gcderpllfew7/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

https://www.emaze.com/@AFTIWWLW/social-branding

https://flipagram.com/f/ktgD3QOvdZ

https://flipagram.com/f/kwd6JbxX2K

https://flipagram.com/ashleysav

https://explee.com/video/6em83

https://explee.com/video/mmx03

Apps and Extensions I Use Daily

I have a little bit of a Chrome extension problem (ok, it's a pretty big problem) but there are so many that save me time or enable my students or I to do something we couldn't previously do that they are a necessity in my digital life.

Time Savers

Tab Cloud enables you to store a series of tabs and once you are signed into Chrome, you click on it and choose your series of saved tabs and boom! They are open.  I use this every single day.  In the morning, I use the same 14 tabs and opening each one every morning took me about 15 minutes between typing in the web address and waiting for each to load that finding this extension was huge for me.  My students use it and it saves so much time at the beginning of each class period!

Goo.gl URL Shortener
This seems self explanatory, but it's uses go beyond saving time for students or teachers typing in a URL to join what you are doing.  It also automatically creates a QR code with analytics attached to it.  This means that you do not have to go to a separate website to create the QR code.  You can see how many people have used it to access whatever it is connected to and what type of device they are using.

One Tab is one of my favorite extensions (which is saying a lot) because I seem to find a new use for it at least once a week.  I use it most often at conferences to share out my learning and enable anyone looking at it (and me) to review all of the resources I discovered at the conference.  Here is an example: http://goo.gl/bK3sFU from #EdCampCNJ this past weekend.  As you can see, I had a lot of tabs open, but this way I always have an archive of them to review at later times.  I also use it a lot when curating resources for my students.  Here is an example: http://goo.gl/SP4RKf. I don't always give them the resources because there is merit in encouraging them to find and evaluate resources, but sometimes I need to save time in the search process.  Another reason I use it is to send people resources.  For example, we were searching for a new sound system for my classroom and instead of sending 15 links to my principal I One Tabbed those links and then sent him the one link.  That way, it saved him time and I knew he was on the right page for each website. 

Mighty Text not only saves me time because I can type a text message faster, but it also allows me to get my notifications where there isn't any cell service.  I typically have to go to our BOCES for meetings and inside the building there is no cell service.  I leave my phone in the car, where there is service, and I am able to get and respond to my notifications in real time.  Both a time saver and it allows me to deal with any problems that occur with no delay.

Save to Google Drive allows me to curate resources during Twitter chats or if I am surfing the web with only a few clicks instead of copying and pasting, which doesn't always work.  I can then search my Drive later to find the resource, where if I had simply saved the link as a bookmark, I might not remember what it was on the page that I needed.

EdPuzzle allows you to take a YouTube video and crop it and then add in open ended questions, multiple choice questions, comments or voice overs and then gives you both a link to share out to anyone or an embed code to put in your LMS.  This not only saves me time, but it also allows me to create a video of the material I would have covered had I been there on a day when I am out.  This ensures that the learning continues even in my absence.  It also gives me data on the back end so I can use it as a formative assessment. 

Extensity saves me time when looking for extensions when I need them because it organizes them alphabetically.  It also allows me to turn them on and off as I need them.  This means that I can have as many as I want, and still have a URL window to use!

There are many more apps and extensions I use and they can be found here: https://goo.gl/vjBOfz.

Enjoy!

#Stuvoice: Hoover: Top 10 Worst President?

I don't know about you, but I don't often hear two 17 year olds arguing about President Hoover in terms of both his place in history and the parallels with the Obama Administration.   This is exactly what happened in my class today.  Let me frame it for you.

I hadn't been enthralled with the way that I was teaching US History.  Yes, the kids were compliant.  Yes, they would discuss in class. Yes, they were doing well on the formative and summative assessments.  Yes, they said they liked the class.  But my heart just wasn't in it.  I don't think I let it show in class, but I wasn't sure for how long I could keep up the charade.

I recently went to an Inquiry Based Design session with @MrsOlbrys at Windsor High School.  It was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulder and the sun was once again shining.  I knew that this is what I had been seeking as an alternative to what I had been doing in US History.

For those of you that know me, you know that I jump into things with both feet when I see something that will not only transform the way that my students learn but will afford them student voice opportunities.  This is the task that I gave the kids:  https://goo.gl/4zgPp5 and to put it in a nutshell, they had to evaluate information regarding President Hoover and formulate an historically based argument to support or refute Hoover's inclusion in the Top 10 Worst President's List.

The first thing they did (and I did this on purpose) was watch a very short video about the Bonus Army and decide if they were Hoover's adviser, should they pay the veteran's at that point or wait until the predetermined date.  Going in, because of the Bonus Army video, most of the kids believed he belonged on the top 10 worst president list, but then these were the conversations I heard over the past two days:

1. "I have so much more evidence to get him off the list than keep him on.  Crazy! I would never have guessed that two days ago."

2. "There is no way you should be blaming Hoover for the Stock Market Crash.  All of the things that led up to the Stock Market Crash happened before he took office.  Wait... is that the same as how a lot of people blame Obama for the Great Recession?  You can't blame him for the crash, but he clearly didn't make the situation better.  Obama made the situation better.  Look at the difference in the unemployment numbers for the 4 years of Hoover and the one I found for Obama." (Notice that he took the initiative to look up unemployment numbers for the first four years of the Obama Administration).

3. "I don't really know much about several of these Presidents.  Does he really deserve to be on a list with those Presidents?"

4. "I think that what is really swaying me right now is that he sent food to the troops in Europe.  I can't believe that they wouldn't feed the soldiers enough, that is just common sense! But I guess, that was really thinking outside the box back then.  Imagine how different the war would have been if he hadn't done that?"

This is only a very small snippet of what they were talking about and it is only day two.  I can tell you 100% that these were not discussions or questions or thoughts that were happening in my class when I was driving the learning up in front of the class.

In keeping with the end in mind, here is what we are doing next.  https://goo.gl/LNEUT6 The work that they are doing this week and next will become the documents from which they write their DBQ on the last page of the above link.  I would love to hear your thoughts on both Inquiry Based Design and the two tasks I have included.

Thank you.

Student's First Blogs!

The new semester started last week and with it brought a new group of #DigCit students.  One of the first things we do is learn about digital footprint/tattoo (check out Commonsensemedia.org) and then Google ourselves.  Before we do that, I ask the students to predict in their blog what they think they will find and how other people would view them based on their online profile.  After they spend time Googling themselves, their usernames, their social media accounts and Google Images, some of them had an eye opening experience.  Below are a few of the Blogposts.  We are learning how our Blogs can be a vehicle through which student voice is heard.  If you have a minute, please read a couple and comment.  Thank you!

http://yuning1516.blogspot.com/

http://jilianne1516.blogspot.com/

http://brandigaylord.blogspot.com/

http://hannah1516.blogspot.com/

http://cherish1516.blogspot.com/

http://kylie1516.blogspot.com/

http://brianna1516.blogspot.com/

http://valpalmeri1516.blogspot.com/

http://meaghan1516.blogspot.com/

http://ashley1516.blogspot.com/

http://alexiswanchisen.blogspot.com/