New Features and Updates

Hello Everyone!

In this edition, Anna Kieschnick (Larsen) from Vacaville High School is sharing her experience with a new addition to Quizlet, which is a web-based Quiz software.  Please see her experience below.

If you’ve ever used Quizlet, you already know how amazing the program is. It, surprisingly, just got better! Quizlet live is similar to Kahoot, but is directly through the Quizlet Website. Students do not need to actually create an account to play this game; they sign into the game using a game code (just like what they do for Kahoot). Now, what is super awesome is that the Quizlet Live program automatically groups students (which you can change as many times as you want throughout the duration of gameplay). Within these groups, students collaborate with one another to answer 12 questions (which are directly from the Quizlet cards you’ve created initially). If they answer any question incorrectly, they start over from the beginning of the game. The first team to answer all the questions correct wins. Each game goes very quickly, but my students wanted to keep playing over and over again, so we did. You could use this during class or as a quick opener, an exit ticket, or review (which is what we did). Another awesome feature is that after the game ends, the program lets you know what the students knew AND what they need to work on. YAY! The students have fun learning and the teacher now has a quick formative assessment with data that can actually be used for re-teaching. Win-win!

The students loved it so much they wanted to play it every single day. I compromised and said we can play on Wednesdays for our vocabulary review.

I had a great time, the students had a great time, and I know ALL students were learning.

Here is a link to the overview for Quizlet Live: https://quizlet.com/features/live

I have never seen such focus and excitement out of my students. 

  

Anna Kieschnick (Larsen)

Explore Feature in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides  

Have you noticed this new symbol at the bottom right of your Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides?  It is a pretty cool new tool that behaves a little differently depending on the application.

Sheets

Explore will create charts and graphs related to the data on your sheet. These can then be inserted into your Docs, Slides, or Sheets.  

Use the "Ask a question about your data" function to ask for additional analysis.  Just ask Explore questions - with words, not formulas - to get answers about your data.  You can ask questions like "What are the top three selections?"  "How many students answered Question 2?"

Slides

Explore will help you create beautiful designs based on the content of your Slide.  See the example below.  Explore looks at the content on your slide and makes design suggestions.

Docs

Explore will offer suggestions for Topics, Images, and Articles based on the content of your document. You can also conduct a search of both your Drive and the Web through Explore.

  

One Final Note

The Research Tool is back!  It is now accessed through Explore.  Here is a short video explaining how to use.
Google Explore Tutorial Video

CUE Tips

(Check out the new Google Tip "Google Bookmarks"on the right )

Recently the Technology Department attended the National CUE Conference along with teachers and staff from other Vacaville Sites.   For those of you unfamiliar with CUE it stands for Computer Using Educators.   The conference offers a wide variety of classes ranging from Classroom Ed-tech tools to Administrator Level Management Practices.  

We would like to share a few tips and resources that you might find useful.

Bootstrap Coding

If you are looking for a free online place for students to learn and practice coding, bootstrapworld.org could be the place for you.  In addition to coding Bootstrap  has a very mathematical slant, with particular attention given to algebra.  

The workshop was presented by a math teacher who was very enthusiastic about the application of Bootstrap in his classroom.  He was particularly pleased with the results he's been seeing in his underserved student populations.  In many cases students who would otherwise shy away from STEM careers have found a door into STEM thanks to Bootstrap.

If you would like to know more about Bootstrap please contact Aaron Stephens

Google Plus Communities

Google Plus Communities has some of the best resources and collaboration available.  Each of us has access to Google Plus through our District Accounts.

Many people are unfamiliar with the all the capabilities of Google Plus and think of it only as some obscure Social Networking Site.   It is so much more!  

I use my district Google Plus account to subscribe to several technology communities.  These communities are incredibly powerful as a means to share and receive amazing ideas on how to incorporate technology into the classroom.  They are also invaluable when you have questions.  There is always someone out there with great answers and ideas.

If you subscribe to any of the Google Apps Communities they even have people directly from Google who often monitor and answer questions.  Below is a list of some of my favorite Google Plus Communities.

Google Apps for Education
Google Classroom
Educational Technology
Connected Classrooms Workshop

To search for Communities, Click on the Home button to expand the menu and then select "Communities".  You will see a search bar where you can search for communities that match your interests.

Notice also that you have the ability to Create a Community.  This is a great way to share ideas within a department, school, or even district.  

If you would like to know more about Google Plus Communities please contact Dawn Marsh.

CUE Rundown    

Christy Ireland from Buckingham created a fabulous presentation, along with others from her site who attended, to share with their staff.  She has graciously offered to share here with all of you as well. Click here to view her presentation.  Great job!!

Guest Blogger - Andrew Hyland from VHS

When I was offered a chance to share a blog post on a topic of my choosing, I thought for several days about what I would like to share and what information I would have liked to have when I started delving into the world of Ed Tech. It was hard to know where to start looking as I was used to staying in my classroom and within my department. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to connect with other, better teachers than me (a lengthy list!), I just didn’t know where or how to start. The best I can do is tell you what worked for me to start this search.

Of course there are excellent teachers next door to me and there are some easy ways to get better professionally by connecting with them in several ways; however, this post focuses on online connections. I’ve found through several years of lurking and listening that there is a plethora of educational resources and connections to be made out there on the internet. It was sometimes difficult to sort through the mess to get to the gold nuggets.

To save you a little time in looking, here is my curated, partially annotated list of Ed Tech names to follow or otherwise look up on whichever platform you use. I’ve used Twitter handles because all of these people have a twitter account, while not all of them have a website or Pinterest etc.:

Here they are:

●      Larry Ferlazzo - @Larryferlazzo

○      A teacher at Luther Burbank High School and his blog has a huge amount of lists with links to resources on all topics from student motivation to ELL to subject matter and beyond. If you search for one person based on this post, find him and you’ll see most of these other names and resources on his blog.

●      Pernille Ripp - @pernilleripp

○      A middle school teacher in Wisconsin. Her blog covers all sorts of practical “how this worked in my classroom” topics. I also enjoy her reflections on teaching and the issues she’s dealt with and how she dealt with them.

●      Joe Wood - @ucdjoe

○      Instructional Tech Director at Natomas Charter. I participated in several sessions he ran at Computer Using Educators conferences. He has useful insights in integrating tech into curriculum.

●      Jerry Blumengarten - @cybraryman1

○      An educator and author, his website for teachers is an amazing encyclopedia of links to resources on nearly every topic that you would ever teach from K through 12 and beyond. This is a summer project to explore just one topic that he has combed through for us.

●      Melissa Hero - @mdhero

○      A former science teacher, now Instructional Technology Specialist. Her several blogs (here’s one) and websites are useful in science and also because she has real classroom experience of integrating tech tools into her science curriculum without making the tech the focus of the lesson. I met her at a CUE conference also.

●      Laura Gibbs - @OnlineCrsLady

○      An online professor at Oklahoma University. Here is just one of her many pages - if you are really serious about teaching online or flipping your class in any capacity, check her out.

●      Josh Harris - @EdTechSpec

○      An EdTech coach in Fairfield. A great local resource on integrating technology and especially on using google apps for education in your classroom.

Keeping up with Ed Tech and knowing which tool will fit best in your classroom and your practice is difficult. If you take a few minutes a month to see what some of these folks above and below are trying and succeeding with, I hope it will save you as much time as it has me instead of searching from scratch with nowhere to start.

Wisdom may be knowing how little we know, and I would say that wisdom is knowing where to look for the answers you don’t already know. I hope I’ve given a couple more options of where to look when you don’t have the answer already.

In the list below I have not annotated which levels and/or topics these educators work in, in the hope that not knowing will open a person up to more ideas from outside the normal places you look. Afterall, on the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.

Honorable Mention (in no particular order):

Cate Tolnai                 @CateTolnai

Vicki Davis                  @Coolcatteacher

John Eick                    @John_Eick

Todd Nesloney           @TechNinjaTodd

Erin Klein                    @KleinErin

John Spencer              @spencerideas

Ben Rimes                  @techsavvyed

Alan Levine                 @cogdog

Scott McLeod              @mcleod

Ryan O’Donnell          @creativeedtech

New Year - New Tech

Well here we are in the last half of the year already! If you are anything like me, this is the time of year when you could use a boost to energize your teaching.  My hope, with this post, is that I can provide you with a new and exciting tool to add to your lesson repertoire.

Many of you are already deep into using Google Drive for both yourself and your students and are reaping the benefits of going Google.  Others have yet to enter the world of Google (perhaps I can persuade you with this post).  I'd like to show you a great way to use your Google resources to make your lessons more interactive and engaging for your students.

I'm talking about using HyperDocs.  A HyperDoc is an interactive Google Doc that guides students through innovative and inquiry-based learning lessons.  HyperDocs can include graphic organizers, links to websites, videos, quizzes or other interactive activities.  The learning can be made to be self directed, and students can work at their own pace.  These lessons can also be distributed through Google Classroom.

Have a look at a few examples below:

Highly Interactive Example

Basic Example

Other  HyperDoc Lessons

So how do I create Hyperlinks in my Google Doc?

The process is really quite simple .  

Step 1:  Copy the link to whatever outside source you are interested in having students access.  This can be a video, a collaborative GoogleDoc or Slide, a website or interactive game.

Step 2:  Type the words you would like to appear in your link.  For example:  "Watch this Video"
Step 3:  Highlight wording "Watch this Video" and then click on the "link" symbol in the tool bar     

Step 4: Paste the link to the outside source (video, doc, slide, website, etc ) into the dialog box that opens

Step 5:  Click "Apply"

That's all there is to it!

The Hour of Code is Coming December 7th - 13th !!

Software is the language of the world! Coding activities are not specifically geared to creating software engineers, but to teach Computational Thinking.  Computational Thinking teaches how to tackle a large problem by breaking it down into a sequence of smaller, more manageable problems. 

There are so many opportunities for students to participate at various levels.  In this edition I will be sharing several resources.  I would encourage you to find some time to get you and your students involved in this event.

The official Hour of Code website gives you an opportunity to register your event and receive free posters for your school site.  Every teacher who organizes an event receives $10 to Amazon, Itunes, or Windows store as a thank you.  

One public school in every state will also win $10,000 worth of technology!  To register, click here.  

Beginning Level Activities:

The Official Code.org website has several beginning tutorials including their latest Star Wars Themed tutorial which looks super cool.  There is also an Anna and Elsa tutorial along with several others

Khan Academy also does a great Hour of Code for ages 8+ and SQL Databases for 12+

Intermediate / Advanced Level Activities:

Google offers some great programs for students of ALL levels. 
Check out their Computer Science Learning site.  Start at the beginning level of Blocky all the way to CS for High School courses and activities.  CS for High School also offers grant and scholarship opportunities.

Are you involved in C-STEM projects?

Christina Morace recommends  http://roboblockly.ucdavis.edu/ It has a lot of block based coding activities for students 4th grade an up. It also allows teachers who are involved in the C-STEM project to be able to change the block based code into actual Ch code and use it to run real life robots in their classrooms, moving from the virtual to the actual without writing any code from scratch. 

Competitions:

Google Code in is a competition for ages 13-17 and introduces students to the world of open source.  Participants range from no experience to the advanced level.  Mentor organizations sponsor and provide feedback with real projects.  The competition runs from December 7th - January 25th.

Teacher Courses:

Would you like to learn how to incorporate Computational Thinking into your students' curriculum?  Google also offers a free online course geared toward educators.   Discover how Computational Thinking is different from Computer Science and how it can be incorporated into your lessons in various subjects.

Welcome Back!

Hopefully you have had time to adjust to your new schedules and now have a moment to breathe.

Last year my guest blogger, Monica Buescher, from Buckingham told you about a quick quiz program called Kahoot.  It has become very popular with many teachers in our district.  The feedback has been very positive from both teachers and students.

While Kahoot is a great program, it does have some limitations.  This month I'd like to tell you about another digital quizzing program called Socrative.  Socrative is a bit more comprehensive and allows for more variety in question types including open-ended questions.

Socrative is a free browser-based system that lets teachers set up quizzes and polls which can then be accessed by student on any device.  It supports iPads, smartphones, laptops, etc.

Teachers can set whether the quiz runs at the student pace or the teacher's pace.  Students' results are visible on the Teacher's screen or sent in an email.  They can also be downloaded as an excel file which shows the students answers and overall score.

Setting up a group is very fast.  With a pre-written quiz it's possible to get a new group signed in and answer questions within a few minutes, and even faster once the class knows the URL and room number.

As well as quizzes, Socrative can be used for quick polls - throw out a question and ask for yes/no or true/false responses.  It can also allow words and phrases to be submitted as part of a brainstorm. Submitted answers can then form part of a poll to vote for the best answer etc.

Give it a try and let me know if you have any questions.

The End is Near!

I hope you all have plans for some amazing sleep, rest and relaxation in the coming weeks!  You have certainly earned it!  

No one quite understands the toll that this time of year takes on a teacher better than other teachers.  

Once you have completed a little recovery therapy and you find yourself thinking about the coming year again, may I make a suggestion to get your year off to a great start?

Do you collect student information at the beginning of the year? Do you have sign-ups for class parties or supplies? Would you like to have an online method to have parents sign up for conferences? Would you like to have Reading Logs submitted online? How about a method to quickly administer a formative assessment or exit ticket? Want to survey your students on various topics? Would you like a quick and efficient way to crowdsource information to use in your lessons?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, Google Forms just might be your dream come true! Here is a great collection of other possible uses of Google Forms in the classroom.  

So I'm sure you are thinking to yourself right now "Dawn, this sound great!  How do I get started with this?"

Well it all begins with learning more about Google Drive.  Keep an eye out for a couple of summer training dates through Eventbrite.  

If you are already familiar with Google Drive and you find yourself unable to attend the summer trainings because you are stuck in Fiji with nothing to do or bored in Barcelona,  you can access training online at the following site:  Google Forms Training

More trainings will also be offered throughout the next school year as well.

Enjoy your summer!!

Guest Blogger Issue - CUE Conference

CUE (Computer Using Educators) recently held their annual conference.  Several VUSD teachers attended the event.  Monica Buescher, from Buckingham High School, attended and was inspired, motivated and excited to incorporate what she learned into her classroom. In this issue of the Digital Cafe, Monica is sharing what she learned in one of her sessions.  

Kahoot is a highly-customizable website where you can make quizzes to review any topic with your class. It requires a smartphone, tablet, or computer with an internet connection for each student. Students don’t need accounts -- they just log into the website, put the game code and their name in, and are ready to go! Their devices work as personal “clickers” to answer multiple-choice questions posted on the screen. There’s a time limit for each question, and students receive points for answering quickly and accurately. Overall, it’s a fast-paced, engaging, colorful, and musical way to make the learning fun.

Kahoot is a wonderfully versatile tool for students of all ages and grades. At first glance, it seems to target elementary school students, yet high schoolers find it just as exciting and engaging. It’s great for formative assessments in the shapes of quick, fun reviews. Not only that, but it adds an edge of competition by ranking students by how quickly they answer correctly, which makes it more of a game than a tedious review session.

Teachers can create their own quizzes for highly specific and customized content, or they can search through the thousands of public Kahoots to find one to suit their needs. They can include pictures or videos specific to each question, can have multiple correct answers, and provide constant feedback on every single question. Teachers and students instantly see the correct answer as well as how many people chose each answer choice, which can allow for immediate re-teaching if needed. For the data nerds out there, at the end of each session, a spreadsheet of results is available to download; it contains a list of each student participant, his or her answers to each question, and color-coded questions and answers to easily identify struggling students or particularly challenging questions.

Kahoots can also be used as “brain breaks” -- there are some “Most Played” public quizzes that are full of fun trivia, including pop culture knowledge, Disney character identification, logo identification, and other random topics. So, whether used for learning or laughter, Kahoot is a versatile, engaging tool worth adding to any teacher’s arsenal.

Digital Learning Day and Pi Day in the Same Week!

This Friday the 13th is Digital Learning Day!

What happens on Digital Learning Day?  Hopefully a whole lot of Digital Learning!  Check out this Great Website that is tracking and listing different Digital activities being taught across the world.  You can browse other teachers' activities to get some ideas for your class, or add your own awesome activity for others to browse.  The goal is to get teachers and students online and learning!

I have my own personal favorite online sources of course.

Open Ed has always been a favorite source of mine.  They have the world's largest collection of videos aligned to the Common Core and other standards.  Many of these videos are also matched with assessments to measure student mastery.  Check it out and perhaps set something up for this Friday.

PBS Learning Media is another incredible source of lessons, activities, interactives, and videos.  Think your Kindergarteners are too young for Digital Learning?  Check out the site link for a direct link to a Kindergartener Digital Lesson Model.  Click the "Browse by Option" button to find lessons and resources directly related to your grade or subject area.


Saturday the 14th is Pi Day!

Pi Day is not just a celebration of that never ending set of digits, but a celebration of Math in general.  This year's Pi Day is especially epic in that the date, 3/14/15, represents the exact first 5 digits of Pi!  Oh my!

The NEA has put together some activities for teachers who would like to build some excitement and interest in this Mathematical Phenomena.  Check it out here.

National Pi Day.org also has some great resources, videos and activities related to Pi.

My Top Ten Edtech Sites for 2014

2014 was a great year for educational technology.  There was something for everyone!  In this episode, I'm going to highlight ten of the Top EdTech sites for 2014.  Perhaps you can give one or two a try in 2015.

10.  SciShow & Veritasium YouTube Channels

• These YouTube channels offer short, and engaging science videos on various topics.  My students LOVED these videos.  Full of information and presented in an entertaining format.  Just a note however, you MUST view the videos first as some content is not appropriate for schools.

9.  KidBlog

• This is a great place for students to write their thoughts, book reports, etc and share their work with their classmates as well as their teacher. No email address is required.  Geared more toward the elementary and middle school student.

8. Smithsonian Education

• Education resources and information, lesson plans, field trips, and interactive activities based on Smithsonian museum collections and research.

7. Storybird

• Storybird lets anyone make visual stories in seconds.  They curate artwork from illustrators and animators from around the world.  Aspiring writers of any age turn those images into fresh stories.

6. Hstry

• Create interactive timelines that include images, videos, text, audio and quizzes.  Create your own timelines or choose from the library of timelines available.

5. OpenEd

• OpenEd is the largest K-12 education resource library, offering over one million free assessment, homework assignment, videos, games and lesson plans for every Common Core Math, Language Arts, Literacy and Next Generation Science standard.

4. Educanon

• EduCanon is an online learning environment to build and share interactive video lessons.  Teachers begin with any YouTube, Vimeo, or TeacherTube video content (screencast, Khan Academy, Minute Physics, TED, NOVA, etc.) and transform what is traditionally passive content into an active experience for students.  By time-linking activities that students engage with as the video progresses the content is segmented into digestible components.

3. Learn Zillion

• Learn Zillion offers a free and growing set of Math and ELA resources and presentations for grades 2 -12 that have been developed by expert teaches directly from the CCSS.  More than 1,300 teachers and administrators submitted nomination and LearnZillion made the short list of products and services that have proven to be effective in the classroom.

2. Khan Academy

• What doesn't Khan Academy do?  They offer practice exercises, videos, and a personalized dashboard for students to learn at their own pace.  Subjects include math, science, computer programming, history, art history, economics, physics and more.  They have also partnered with NASA, The Museum of Modern Art, The California Academy of Sciences, and MIT to offer specialized content.

1. PBS Learning Media

• This is my new favorite site!  PBS LearningMedia is your destination for direct access to thousand of classroom-ready, curriculum-targeted digital resources.  PBS LearningMedia builds on the strength of public media and is designed to improve teacher effectiveness and student achievement.  Resources are aligned to CCSS and include videos and interactives, audio, documents, and in-depth lesson plans.  You can also "favorite" and "share" resources with your class and colleagues.  The Basic service is free for PreK-12 educators.

Do you have your own favorite Edtech sites?  Feel free to share in the comments below.