Be a Screencastify Star!

Screencastify in the Classroom

Many of you have seen our Tutorial Videos on various subjects here in the district.  We use Screencastify to make most of these.  It's a very simple application to use.

Screencastify is a Chrome Extension that is pre-installed on all student Chromebooks.  There are many classroom activities that this cool little program can be used for as well.

I was recently in a 5th Grade Classroom where the teacher is using Screencastify to have her students narrate their Google Slides Book Trailer!  The kids loved learning to use this new tool!

Now is a great time to add this to your students' tool belts as they approach the homestretch of the school year.

Here are just a few ideas on how to incorporate this in your classroom.

• Have Students Explain their Understanding using their own words
• Work through a problem
• Explain the main points of a story
• Give a Speech or Presentation
• Motivates the student to practice
• Reduces anxiety of a live performance or presentation
• Practice Fluency
• Have students read a document, story or website
• Practice speaking in a Foreign Language
• Have students turn in a screencast of them reading a document, book or website in the foreign language
• Give verbal feedback on a student work
• Put the student document on screen and give feedback and suggestions while pointing out areas of concern or excellence.  
• Have students create a Newscast, Book Review or Interview
• Make Sub Plans for your substitute teacher on how to access your digital resources

More detailed descriptions and Activities can be found here and here.

Subscribe to the Screencastify Video Channel here.
Get the extension here.

Check out this quick introductory video on Screencastify.  

Creating Content using the SAMR model of Tech Integration - Activities and Ideas attached!

TLDR?  Skip to bottom to find Higher Level Thinking Tech Activities

Vacaville Unified has gone Google for three years now!  It has been a transformative time throughout the district.  Teachers and students have worked on becoming proficient with the tools available to them through many of the G-Suite applications.

Many of you are already familiar with the SAMR model of tech integration in Education.  See chart below. 

At the highest SAMR level classroom tasks and technology exist not as ends but as supports for learning.  Collaboration becomes necessary and the tech simply facilitates the communication.  Questions and discussion are increasingly student generated. 

I really like Kathy Schrock's integration of the SAMR model and Bloom's taxonomy together. 

Now that our students are familiar with the Chromebooks and the basic G-Suite applications the next step is to help our students reach the higher levels of learning.  These higher levels involve Creating, Evaluating, and Analyzing Content.

We have several applications already loaded on the Chromebooks to help with these kinds of activities.  

• Screencastify is an Chrome extension preloaded on the Chromebooks which allows students to create video tutorials or narration of a Google Slides presentation.  Use Screencastify to voice dub over a video.  See how HERE
• Google Forms is a an awesome way for students to collect data for research projects.
• WeVideo is in the apps section of our Chromebooks.  This is a simple drag and drop video creation program.  (30 day free teacher trial - then $199/year for teacher account.  Students can use 5 min/ month for free)
• Google Sites can be used to provide students a platform to create and share multimedia content.  
• Google Drawings are a great way for students to create annotated diagrams.
• MindMup is a free mind mapping tool also available in the apps section. 

I've included some ideas and examples of Higher Level Learning below.  Of course, we always welcome your input and would love to share what you are doing in your classes.

Higher Level Tech Activities

Original Resources Found Here

Lesson: Writing a Short Paper

Taken from: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/08/samr-model-explained-through-examples.html.

Original Assignment: A hand written paper.

• Substitution: A Word Processor replaces a Pen/Pencil in a Writing Assignment.
• Augmentation: A Word Processor and text-to-speech function are used to improve the writing process.
• Modification: The document created using the Word Processor and text-to-speech function is shared on a blog or Google Classroom where feedback can be received and incorporated to help improve the quality of writing.
• Redefinition: Instead of a written assignment, students convey analytic thought using multimedia tools such as Screencastify or WeVideo.

Lesson: Geography & Travel

A modification of an idea found at https://edofict.wikispaces.com/SAMR+Examples.

Original Assignment: An overview of a location consisting of hand written content supplemented with compiled cut-and-pasted magazine clippings.

• Substitution: Use presentation software (like Powerpoint or Prezi) to construct a presentation providing information about a selected locale.
• Augmentation: Incorporate interactive multimedia – audio, video, hyperlinks – in the presentation to give more depth and provide more engaging presentation.
• Modification: Create a digital travel brochure that incorporates multimedia and student created video.
• Redefinition: Explore the locale with Google Earth; seek out and include interviews with people who have visited the local.

Lesson: Understanding Shakespeare

Taken from: https://edofict.wikispaces.com/SAMR+Examples and modified.

Original Assignment: Read a Shakespeare play in traditional printed format.

• Substitution: Read Shakespeare texts online.
• Augmentation: Use online dictionaries, study guides, history sites, to supplement reading.
• Modification: Use multimedia resources like text, audio, and video tools to jointly construct knowledge, learning, and understanding of a portion of a play, or a character, as a group project.
• Redefinition: Answer the Question, “What did the culture of the time have on the writing of Shakespeare’s plays” my using a Concept Mapping tool and constructing a mind map demonstrating key elements through words and images.

An Assessment Exercise

Idea taken from: https://sites.google.com/a/msad60.org/technology-is-learning/samr-model and slightly modified. In this example, we take a simple form of assessment and evolve it into a collaborative group project.

Original Assignment: Take a quiz, answers handwritten in a printed form.

• Substitution: Distribute the quiz in a Word Processor file format and have student fill in answers on a computer.
• Augmentation: Use a Google Form to deliver and complete the quiz. “There is some functional benefit here in that paper is being saved, students and teacher can receive almost immediate feedback on student level of understanding of material.  This level starts to move along the teacher / student centric continuum. The impact of immediate feedback is that students may begin to become more engaged in learning.“
• Modification: As an alternative form of assessment, students could be asked to write an essay around a relevant theme. The written essay could then be narrated and captured as vocal recording.
• Redefinition: “A classroom is asked to create a documentary video answering an essential question related to important concepts. Teams of students take on different subtopics and collaborate to create one final product.  Teams are expected to contact outside sources for information.”

Lesson: Art/Painting

Original Assignment: Drawing a picture using traditional brush, paint, paper. Of course, there is a a big difference between doing this “by hand” in the traditional manner and doing it digitally – digitally is by no means “better”, it is just different and opens up some interesting possibilities.

• Substitution: Use a digital drawing/painting program (like MS Paint) to draw/paint a picture.
• Augmentation: Use a tool that allows the creation of your masterpiece to be “played back” (like Educreations, for example).
• Modification: Pull a background image to use as a “canvas” – you could even scan something hand drawn and use that.
• Redefinition: Create Artwork Collaboratively using a Collaborative Online Whiteboard.

Lesson: Learning Fractions

Original Assignment: Show understanding of fractions on a worksheet by coloring in blocks.

• Substitution: Use an Excel Worksheet to let students “color in” the blocks.
• Augmentation: Use Google Sheet to let students “color in” the blocks, where the teacher can offer feedback directly on Google Sheet.
• Modification: Use Google Sheet and direct students to online examples and supplementary learning materials for areas that they might struggle with.
• Redefinition: Use a Fractions App instead (There are several available in the Chrome Web Store).

Lesson: Phys Ed – Learning To Hit a Baseball Well

Original Assignment: Learning how to hit a baseball by watching and listening to a Coach or Phys Ed instructor show you and then trying it yourself.

• Substitution: The coach/teacher videos the training exercise and uses this as the lesson.
• Augmentation: The coach/teacher videos the training exercise and provides links to other training content (videos and articles from other coaches, etc).
• Modification: The coach/teacher videos the training exercise and “flips” the lesson, having students watch it as homework, and using class time to practice and reinforce techniques.
• Redefinition: Students watch video examples and practice the techniques, then the coach/teacher videos them hitting balls and provides feedback about their technique.

New Year - New Tech!

Add Music to your Google Slides

This is a feature requested by many Google Users.  While it is still not currently built into Google Slides, there is now an Add-On that will accomplish this task for you.  

Watch the video below from Free Tech for Teachers website to learn how to  use this.

As mentioned in the video, the music must first be added to your Google Drive.  Check out this site to learn about several sites where you can legally download music for free.

Safari Montage Upgrade

We have a new version of Safari Montage that will now allow your students to access the system as well as teachers.  They will navigate to Safari Montage from their school Gateway page just like you do.  When they are confronted with the Login screen, they MUST select the Sign-in with Google button.  From there they simply sign in with their Google Account.

As the teacher, you also now have the ability to push out a video to students using the  Google Classroom button found on videos in Safari Montage.

Please see the video below for more features and highlights.

The Doodle 4 Google Contest is Now Open

It's time to put your students' imaginations to work, because the Doodle 4 Google contest is now open.  This contest is open to all K-12 students until March 2nd.  The theme for this year is "What Inspires You?"  The winning doodle will appear on the Google homepage!  They also offer college scholarships, a behind the scenes experience with the Google Doodle team, and a $50,000 Google for Education Technology package for the winning student's school.  

The technology department, along with Lenore Hubal from Vaca Pena, have joined the fun and done some Google Doodles ourselves.  

Submit your doodles here.

Hour of Code / Computer Science Week is Here!

Hour of Code and Computer Science Week begins today!   

The goal of this week is not only to introduce our students to coding, but to help our students explore the many ways computers can help us create, collaborate, and innovate! 

I've collected a few awesome resources below that will get students creating and solving problems with their developing computer skills and knowledge.  Give one or two a try this week!

Hour of Code  is the first site most of us think of during this week.  It is indeed a great site to get kids excited about coding.  It offers activities for students broken down by all grade levels including Pre-Readers through High School.  Just click on the grade level tab you are interested in for some great ideas.

A Google a Day  This activity is better suited for older students.  It starts with question.  Students are challenged to find the correct answer using Google Search.  It is often played as a game of who can find the correct answer first.  The questions are tricky so you need to use some smart search terms to find the answers. The topics include Culture, Geography, History and Science.

Thinglink Advent Calendars  Advent calendars are all around us in December!  Don't limit yourself to thinking of these as just a holiday activity.  Advent calendars can countdown any event with links and activities to use along the way.  Check out this link to see some creative ways to use Thinglink to create class advent calendars.

Screencastify    This easy to use Chrome extension allows students to record their voice and their computer screen.  Students simply hit record while they share and explain whatever is on their screen.  A great tool for students to create tutorials, narrate a Google Slides presentation, or explain and share their work. Automatically saves in Google Drive.

WeVideo This application is already loaded in the Apps section of student Chromebooks and integrates with Google Drive.  Learn simple, yet impressive video editing with this easy to use format.  Add soundtracks, special effects and more.  If video editing intimidates you, just let your students give it a try.  They will have it mastered in no time!  Students will have a blast making video presentations instead of the usual paper report.

Genius Hour is a movement that allows students to explore their own passions and encourages creativity in the classroom.  It provides students a choice in what they learn during a set period of time during school. Students research and execute a project of their own choosing and then present their project using a variety of presentation methods .   Click here to learn more about what Genius Hour is and here for a video example of projects that students have completed.

Additional Resources:

Computers:

Scratch from MIT https://scratch.mit.edu/

iOS Devices:

Hopscotch https://www.gethopscotch.org/

Lightbot http://lightbot.com/ios.html

“You can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page.” ― Jodi Picoult

Providing students with effective and engaging feedback is critical in helping students improve their writing. Studies have shown that 'feedback is more strongly and consistently related to achievement than any other teaching behavior....Feedback can improve a student's confidence, self-awareness and enthusiasm for learning'. ¹

Often, the difficulty is providing this feedback in a timely manner.  Giving effective feedback can be an incredibly time consuming task for the writing instructor.

Enter - CheckMark Extension by EdTechTeam

This extension may quickly become the writing teacher's best friend.  It allows teachers to quickly provide feedback in Google Docs using the most common editing marks such as "Check Spelling", "Details Needed", "Evidence Needed", "Capitalization" etc. 

Simply highlight a word or sentence and the following template appears on the page.

Each key represents an editing comment that can be seen when hovering. When clicked, it will automatically generate the associated comment and track the number of occurrences for that type of comment.

Watch the tutorial video below to learn more and see it in action.
Get the extension here. 

1. Bellon, J.J., Bellon, E.C. & Blank, M.A. (1991) Teaching from a Research Knowledge Base: a Development and Renewal Process. Facsimile edition. Prentice Hall, New Jersey, USA. 

Voice Typing in Google Docs

With this free, accurate, and easy to use tool, teachers can facilitate composition from all types of students who may have had a barrier previously. Some uses might be for students learning English to practice, students with learning disabilities or other writing difficulties, or students composing digitally without needing to first struggle with typing or finding letters.

Other uses might be for interviews or transcription assignments. This feature also supports several accents of French, German, and Spanish, so a Foreign Language department might have a use for this as well.

The current voice typing function in google docs has been around for a couple years and remains a powerful tool for educators and learners. While touch typing remains a necessary skill, teachers will still recognize the scenarios when this voice-to-text accommodation is most educationally useful. Many others have reviewed the function before today and they highlight the reasons educators might select this tool.

Voice typing is already included in Google Docs functionality, so every student already has access to this with no need to download or login to a new app. Google continues to add recognized languages. This also means that the functionality remains free to use. One frequent complaint of voice to text features is that they are inaccurate. Ask Siri a few questions to see where those complaints come from. Google’s voice typing, as Matthew Hughes at Make Use Of shared, is far more accurate than many of the current phone apps and includes support for accents.

Below is an easy to follow set of How To directions and a How To Video. Try out this function with your class, or let us know how you’ve already used this in your classroom.
How To Directions from Make Use Of - Scroll down to the “Getting Started” sectionVideo How To from You Tube

Why:

Easy, accurate, removes barriers to access, free and already installed.
Much has been written.http://www.alicekeeler.com/2017/10/16/3-google-docs-tools/http://www.alicekeeler.com/2015/09/03/voice-typing-comes-to-google-docs/http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2015/09/have-you-tried-voice-typing-in-google.html#.WgCwvVxKvUIhttp://www.makeuseof.com/tag/voice-typing-new-best-feature-google-docs/
Help page:https://support.google.com/docs/answer/4492226?hl=enVideo review:https://youtu.be/ELXuz94tzsI
Still being updated and added to:https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/14/googles-voice-typing-tech-adds-support-for-30-more-languages-reaching-further-into-africa-india/

A Couple of Very Cool Googly Things!

Password Protect a Google Form

Upload a Google Form Quiz into Google Classroom and prevent student access until class time.

Perhaps you do not want students who are absent taking the quiz from home and using unauthorized resources.

Here is a great way to password protect your Google Form.  

Watch this short little video below and remember, you can also make a copy of the form for each class period and have a unique password for each period as well.

Auto Upload Grades from your Google Form into Google Classroom!

Now that many of you are creating Google Form Quizzes and distributing them through Google Classroom let's make importing those grades easier.  

Google has now added an "Import Grades" feature.  You are going to love this one!  Check out this short two minute video to learn this time saving feature.

CUE Tips

The annual CUE Conference (Computer Using Educators) was filled with interesting Tips, Tricks, Strategies and Inspiration.  

As always, it is a little overwhelming to attend as the number of class choices is a mile long!  

Aaron Stephens and I would each like to share with you a favorite Tip we learned while there.

Graphic Novels in the Classroom: A Multimodal Approach to Literature and Technology

Are you looking for a way to spark your students to be more creative, while practicing their communication skills and writing? Try having them create an online comic strip that communicates what they have learned or are thinking.

This year at the Computer Using Educators Conference (CUE) the workshop I enjoyed the most turned out to be quite different than I was expecting. When I sauntered into the Graphic Novels in the Classroom: A Multimodal Approach to Literature and Technology, what I was expecting was a survey of the various comic book styled educational texts that are coming out. Instead what I experienced was an exciting and dynamic way to fan the flames of student creativity by having the students demonstrate their thinking through creating their own comic strips.

Melissa Baldwin, the workshop presenter, shared with us a list of the most useful online tools for creating creating graphic novels/comic strips (see link below). While the application of creating comic strips is a little more straightforward for subjects such as literature and history, wherein students can depict events and interactions, they can certainly be applied to even math and science. While teaching Earth Science and Biology, I would often use an approach called Model Based Reasoning, in which students were to grapple with their understanding of a phenomenon. In this approach students often needed to depict their thinking in a visual way. Here is where the students could engage in creating a comic strip that shows their thinking.

I can attest through personal experience, that creating comic strips is really fun. The best part for someone like myself, who lacks artistic ability, is the fact that these online tools provide the artwork for you. So even the least artistic student can create wonderful comic strips.

I highly recommend setting aside some time to give this creative process a shot in your classroom. The students will have fun, and I think you will be amazed at the creative output from your students.

Online Comic Book Creator Sites   https://goo.gl/N95ygh

Enjoy,

Aaron Kelly Stephens

VUSD Digital Education Coordinator

Graspable Math

This one if for all the Math Teachers who may feel a little left out of the technology train we are on.

Graspable Math has given students and teachers a truly interactive and manipulative approach to math using a math canvas.  Please start by viewing the video tutorials here.  

As the website explains  "In a world where technology has advanced at astonishing rates, the technology of math notation hasn't really changed in 400 years.  The easiest way to write and solve an equation is still by hand, on paper."

I loved their analogy of learning to play chess by marking and notating your moves on paper rather than physically manipulating the chess pieces.  Very difficult to truly grasp the skills and strategies needed to succeed without being able to physically manipulate the pieces.

With Graspable Math Canvas, Teachers can demonstrate and manipulate the algebraic steps and graphing.  You can undo, redo, and experiment with different problem solving strategies safely.

Teachers can post a Math Canvas link through Google Classroom to distribute to students.  Students then manipulate the equation through a variety of tools, save their work and submit their completed link to the teacher. Students are able to save their work for later completion or revision as well.

Check it out for yourselves here   Click on the "Applications" tab - then "Canvas".  Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Dawn Marsh

I See What You Did There!

Check in on Your Students' Document History

The ability for students to collaborate on a Google Doc or Slide is one of the hallmark features of G-Suite. However, as with most tech features, there are good uses and not so good uses.  G-Suite provides teachers with the ability to obtain a detailed view of the document activity so you can check in on your little darlings.

Have you had students collaborate on a Google Doc or Slide? Would you like to see if they contributed equally to the final product?

Have you ever suspected that a student received help from a fellow student on a document when they were not supposed to?

Would you like to see a history of the comments that were made during the production of a Google Doc or Slide?

You can check the Revision History of a Doc, Slide or Sheet when the student turns it in and view the document activity.   This is important information that most of you are aware of, however, it's always worth a reminder.

Please click on the link below to access the How-To doc.

https://goo.gl/JLrHY5

The New and Improved Google Sites!

Looking Good Google!

If you have ever used Google Sites you probably know that it did the job, but had a clunky interface and editing was often a challenge.

The New Google Sites is a very welcome change!  It has a sleek new look with very simple editing tools.  See this video tutorial for a quick look!

Uses in the Classroom

Classrooms around the country are using Google Sites to create digital Student Portfolios or as a platform to present project research. 

Teachers can create a Google Site and make a page for each student to share their work with their classmates.

High Schools students create Google Sites to store College and Career Readiness Information, work samples, resumes, career research, college requirements, 4 year plans etc.

Younger students can create a beautiful Site and add weekly writing or work samples to share with parents at Conferences.

With the new Google Sites, students can collect all their artifacts in Google Drive and embed slide presentations, videos, Google Docs and more into their site.

Check out our new Google Tech Help Page (a Google Site by the way) for more on using Google Sites and other Google applications.

G-Suite Training Extension

This next little tip was brought to my attention by our own Monica Buescher.  Have you ever been working within a Google Application and had a question about how to do something?

Add this handy extension and get answers to your questions quickly and easily from Google. The extension knows what application you are in and has answers for you on the spot.

  Click on the Question Mark to open the quick help guide or search for your question through the search box.

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!!