My Digital Learning Plan for 2015 (or at least the start of a plan, anyway)

January's Blogging Challenge @TeachThought caught me off guard.  I had been invited for the November challenge, but I hadn't heard anything about January.  I suppose I could have looked to see if there were another blogging challenge, but I didn't think to do so until today. I totally was not in on this from the beginning, but I'm not going to go back to catch up on the first 12 days.

Day 13: What is one area of digital learning that you want to improve on in 2015? How are you going to do this?

With the continued growth of digital learning, I find that I am really trying to make it part of my classroom and teaching.  I have Chromebooks in my classroom, and I find that most of my students really enjoy having access to computers all the time.

This semester I've started using Google Classroom, and I like it.  I've been using it now for exactly six days, so I don't have a lot to say about it yet, but I do like that the students have one place they can check for their daily work as well as see right away what they have done or not done.  I also like the ease in which I am able to see the students' work and give feedback.  So, so far so good.

I'm becoming more and more a teacher who uses technology daily not just as a word processor.  That's what I would like to work more on this year, though.  I need to find more ways to use my Chromebooks than just as fancy typewriters.  I do use them for research and for quiz taking, but I know I could use them even more.

I plan to go to a Google Education workshop (in fact I've already signed up so that I can't "forget about it" when it gets too close to the day), so I hope that I will get a lot of new ideas to bring back to my classes.

November Blogging Challenge: Inspirational Learning

Day 7

What new learning has inspired you in your career?

I remember reluctantly joining a group of teachers at my high school several years ago in writing a grant that would bring more computers into our school.  I say "reluctant" because I was already in a room directly next to a computer lab and partly in charge of running the lab.  I didn't know if I wanted more computers under my care.  However, the grant required two English teachers and two math teachers to work together.

Several months later we all sat down with some Google guys... and I was hooked.

Two days of Google App training later, and I realized that I could use Google Docs, Forms, Sheets, etc... to revitalize my teaching practices.  I was able to become a teacher with a 1:1 classroom.  Each student would have a computer (Chromebook), and we could do more with them than just word processing or research (even though we would use them to do both).  I still had a computer lab next door to me, but having a computer lab in my classroom was that much more exciting.

Using Google Apps daily in my classroom has been inspirational to me because the students use technology every day in their lives, and if I can tap into that already built-in interest with technology by connecting it to my content, how much better is that!?  In addition to a class that runs on much less paper, I also get the chance to learn more and more technology myself.  So.. bonus!

Reflective Teaching: Days 19 & 20, Student Reflection and Curating Work

Yesterday (Day 19) was homecoming at my school, and I was a chaperone for the dance, so I was unable to post a blog (let alone write it), so I'm going to post two challenge days today in one blog.

Day 19--Name three powerful ways students can reflect on their learning, then discuss closely the one you use most often.

1. Response Journal
2. Self-Assessment Tools (like rubrics and self-checks)
3. Tracking progress

The way help students reflect on their learning is actually a combination of a couple of those ways. I've always used rubrics to help the students reflect on their work; they can see what they need to do in order to succeed and make a plan to get there. I also have them track their progress. We do a pretest before a unit and then as we continue through the process we track their progress through formative assessments. It is fun to see the students actually get excited to see their scores grow from the "guessing" they did at the start to the "I get it" at the end. Our most recent tracking and self-assessment has to do with errors in their writing. I created a spreadsheet on Google listing all the different conventions and mechanics errors I see most often, shared it with them, and after each writing assignment they'll fill in the spreadsheet with the errors they made in that assignment. Then we'll have a chat about what they can do to keep from continuing to make those errors with the goal that by the end of the year they will not have to mark anything onto the tracking sheet after their writing assignments.


Day 20--How do you curate student work–or help them do it themselves?

Since I work with students in high school, I feel they are able to keep track of their work themselves. And, since we use Google Chromebooks, it is pretty easy. They can save all their work to their Drive, and I encourage them to create folders to organize their work. I help them with giving ideas by showing the way I organize my Drive with folders, etc... I also have shared a "Shared Documents" folder with them so that they will access all notes and work from that folder.

Reflective Teaching: Day 13, Edtech Tools in the Classroom

Day 13--Name the top edtech tools that you use on a consistent basis in the classroom, and rank them in terms of their perceived (by you) effectiveness.

As an edtech "newbie" I am still working on becoming more fluent with the burgeoning educational opportunities, apps, features, and general lollapalooza that is the edtech universe.  If I am honest, I'm a bit overwhelmed by all the different ways we teachers can now connect our students with educational technology.  And in the face of all the possibilities, I tend to take things slowly. So I don't jump in the the edtech pool deep end; I wade.  So here are the edtech tools I use in my classroom (and a couple at the end that I am researching) in order of effectiveness (and, not so coincidentally the order in which I found them).

It started out with Google Chrome.  Our school wrote a grant to get more computers into our students' hands; thus four of our teachers were able to get classroom sets of Chromebooks and some Google Training.  It was eye-opening to see all the ways we could use these netbooks in more ways than just using the Chromebooks as word processors.  I use Google Docs/Drive, Forms, Sheets, etc.. in my classroom all the time.  I love the ease with which the students can take quizzes with the Forms (and I can grade those quizzes with the Flubaroo script in minutes and have data about mastery).  I've used these tools for a couple years now, so I feel that these are the most effective tools I use.  I know using a netbook is not a huge leap into all things edtech, but I feel that it is a good basis to then use others.

Once I was using the Chromebooks daily, I found CollaborizeClassroom, a contained chatroom-like platform to get and track student feedback to lessons, questions, polls, etc... There is a topic library for you to browse from or add to, and the kids enjoy seeing what their peers post as feedback to their posts.  The site sends you weekly activity reports, too, so you can see in a glance what the students have been doing.  I want to incorporate this even more as more features are available.   Webinars are available, too, which I like because they help me swim with confidence deeper into that edtech pool.

I also love Quizlet.com as a great study help. It gets the kids to study vocabulary and facts without it feeling like studying.  This online collection of flashcards allows the student flexibility to access his/her classroom content online wherever, even on Facebook.  I can upload our spelling and vocabulary lists, or specialized academic vocabulary terms for specific units into a classroom, and the kids learn the terms and definitions by playing games or taking tests.  To save time, I can even use other people's lists and upload them to my classes if they cover the same things I do.

I then found a great classroom management tool: InstantClassroom.  I wanted a way to get all the kids involved in class discussions offline.  Too often you have only those three kids who volunteer answers and all the other kids allow those three to do all the answering.  If you want to involve all the kids, you have to call on them, and too often just going around the room student by student means the students pay attention only when they see you're coming to them.  So...the key is to do it randomly.  There are lots number of offline ways to do this-- popsicle sticks with their names, a checklist, or deck of cards to name a few--but what about online?  Voila!  I saw this tool one day while I was browsing Pinterest (I'll talk more about this edtech tool...yes, edtech...in a moment).  I loved the idea of the random name generator.  This way the kids can't anticipate who I'm going to call on next, so they are forced to pay more attention.  It is also equal... everyone has to participate.

Pinterest is also a tool I use a lot (though not usually at school or in the classroom) when looking for information and ideas.  Sure, I originally went to this online "scrapbook" to keep track of recipes, craft blogs, and DIY ideas.  However, I quickly found that I could also get ideas about teaching tools, websites, and technology.   I could also get ideas from others who have similar interests and follow their boards.  This may be an unorthodox way to have a Professional Learning Network, but with so many Pinners with boards about teaching and education, I have found any number of really great classroom helps.

I am more than wading now; I'm swimming but am not yet in the deep end.  I like to still have the ability to touch my foot to the bottom until I'm totally comfortable.  So far the edtech tools I've mentioned are those I'm actively using either in my classes or lesson planning or grading.  Here are a couple I haven't used so I can't really judge or rank their effectiveness.

Recently I discovered another free edtech: NoRedInk.  It is a way to help the students work on their grammar and writing skills.  It allows you to create pretests, assignments, and quizzes from their question banks and, when the students take the quizzes or do the assignments, the program tracks their skills for them.  It gives the teacher an at-a-glance feedback chart of which students are mastering the various grammar skills.  The free version is pretty comprehensive, but I'm sure that the premium version (paid) has even more options.  I mentioned another edtech in a previous blogpost in this series: Geddit.  Like NoRedInk, I haven't used this yet, but I am looking forward to using it.

Reflective Teaching: Day 12, Changes in Education

Day 12--How do you envision your teaching changing over the next five years?

I dislike change.  I imagine most of us do.  We like our traditions and our comfort zones and our sacred cows.  We don't want to have to give them up and try new things when the old way has worked just fine.  But time doesn't stand still.  We must move with it or be left behind.   

Sure, we add computers and gadgets to our classrooms, but we keep our chalk, just in case the new smart board doesn't work.  We hold onto the ancient overhead projector for those days when technology outpaces the capabilities or the ceiling-mounted projector's bulb goes out.  We keep a file cabinet filled with worksheets for the days when the internet is down or a squirrel fries itself in a transformer and knocks out power for half the day.

We teach in schools that have to be retrofit to accommodate the 1:1 classroom.  Teachers who learned to type on type writers, word processors, or Apple IIe computers are now having to figure out the ever-changing digital world.  Our students are digital natives who, while they can figure out proxy servers and back-doors to Facebook through the school firewalls, have trouble with basic keyboarding skills like typing at any speed or maneuvering past Wikipedia during a research project.

So, I predict that in the next five years my teaching will continue to grow more and more "online" as we continue to move into the digital world.  I already have Chromebooks that I use almost daily in my classes, and I see myself using more edtech in order to help the students master my content.  I will have to become more and more tech savvy.  

Already there are so many online tools and programs and curricula; while we teachers hold on to our chalk and projectors, we also are innovators and product testers.  Tech trainings encourage us teachers to advance our skills and knowledge.

We hold on to the past so that we can grow into the future.  I think I will hold on to my traditions as well as embrace the changes that are upon us.  Without roots, the tree will die.  Our chalk and No. 2 pencils are our roots that will keep us steady even as our branches reach for the digital world that is our stars.  In five years I will have taught for over 20 years, and, while I couldn't have imagined the changes that have occurred since I first stepped into a classroom, I know I have yet to see wonders.