Camp Reflection

Both experiences with tech camp through Mounds View School have exceeded my expectations. I think it is a combination of the professional development content and timing. The summer allows me to critically consider the tools shared and reflected upon by my colleagues, and then apply tools to several parts of my curriculum. In addition, during the summer, I liberate myself by tolerating more mistakes. I know, as a teacher, I preach the value a making mistakes constantly to my students; however, for me personally, I feel like I don't have time for "big-growing" mistakes during the school year. For example, on my first try, I couldn't get the branching technique to work for my Google Form, but after walking away and trying again a few days later, I was successful. Lastly, being connected to teachers from my school and others is highly engaging and motivating. Easily accessing their work and then using Blogger to dialogue is very efficient. I must confess, I feel hesitant to use Blogger with my students. The layout and formatting options are a bit tangled. To facilitate and moderate this forum feels too complicated for me, but I plan to explore Kidblog as recommended by other nerd campers.

After reflecting on my journey and perusing my blog pages, I predict that Google Classroom and Forms will be the learning that I carry-on and extend into my classroom this year. Piles of paper have been a permanent part of my classroom setting, which I am ready to dump. G. Classroom and Forms will help me move toward being paperless and help me deliver my resources in a more consistent, organized manner. The obstacle in this journey will be supporting my students and using clarity with directions and procedures, while we transition to learn with more 2.0 and technology tools.

Activity Nine: Digital Citizenship

     Mr. Kirk "jumped" a bit too quickly, and in addition, his reaction to his errors are misjudged also. It think the most disturbing part of this scenario is the age group of the students. The teacher does not seem to understand the emotional and technological intellect of his students. Although Google Apps for Education makes installing and using the apps easy and convenient, a teacher must be media literate in this domain before using with students. Mr. Kirk should have began by consulting his district's acceptable use policy which would have provided parameters, guidelines, and some procedures for the safe use of classroom technology. At least then he would of known to construct expectations and rules. Secondly, Mr. Kirk could have consulted with a tech-nerd or sought-out some tools on high quality instruction and using technology. Most district's provide a digital tool rubric or checklist for teachers to review before implementation. This would have exposed Mr. Kirk to COPPA, written and expressive consent, and parental notification. Lastly, poor Mr. Kirk reacts to his self-imposed chaos in an inappropriate way: he discontinues using the tool, rather than addressing the problem behaviors and his protocol. To summarize, by locating some tech expertise, consulting with district acceptable use regulations, and being proactive, with early communication to parents, Mr. Kirk could try using Google Docs again with much greater success.

I love the idea of making movies to celebrate and motivate students. In my classroom, kids love to shoot, edit, add special effects and publish their stories. Unfortunately we do not have much time to do this in class. Similar to Mr. Kirk's impulsive implementation process, Mr. McFly must have very little background with You Tube to not understand the dangerous consequences of students sharing their personal information, assignments, and images on You Tube.  Mr. McFly needs to construct his own You Tube channel in order to think critically about it over an extended period of time. This will give him time to communicate with parents and his district to discover and deal with concerns, questions, or and reveal potential legal issues. As a teacher, who will be using a classroom set of Chromebooks and many new apps, I am relieved to know that I will be participating in a Chromebook cohort that will collaborate to learn, implement, and discover together assuring high quality practices. My goal or product that I'd like to implement in my PLC this year will be a Chromebook of Conduct Document that specifically outlines student expectations and procedures. I plan to begin looking at other local school websites to see if they may have anything like this already started. 

1. • ?

Activity Eight: A2- Google Forms and Branching- I love This!

Due to my intense excitement and impulsiveness, I did not follow the exact direction as prescribed by our galactic commander... The branching part of the task occurred in part one for me because I couldn't wait to try it. Now, as I go back and finish reading all of the directions, I see that I disordered steps a bit. My apologies for the confusion.

So... after completing the form, my branching page, shows up at the end of the form. This is my mistake... I need to figure out how to remove the page 3, and make it apply only to the branching question. (I will ponder and putz at this again:)

I tried this creating another Google Form and here it is! The branching for this student inventory works. Please give it a try if you so desire!

Activity Seven: Polling and Data Collection

For this activity, I  admit that I have previously used Socrative, but Kahoot is entirely new. My students did create Kahoots independently for an 8th grade vocabulary activity callled "Own and Grown". They have used this polling tool in other classes and inspired me!

Socrative.com

I loved the concept of Socrative, but it became problematic when I did not have enough mobile devices. Now, that I have a set of Chromebooks, I am so excited to make this a permanent and consistent tool for data gathering. Socrative helps me view and interpret the data by constructing  the spreadsheet, graphic organizers, visuals, and charts. I am not very savvy with numbers, therefore, I love this feature!

Room 143979
Share Quiz: SOC-16220325

Kahoot

I have created a Kahoot that reviews the the first five comma rules in my Comma Crazy unit. Many teachers at Chippewa already used this tool, and I know it is captivating and meaningful because I have heard many positive student testimonials.

Activity 6: Google Classroom

Building a Google Classroom (GC Style)is self-explanatory and easy. Just a few selection clicks and wallah! Last year I futzed around with GC a bit, and this year I feel like I may be ready to use it in 8th grade. After reading other camp nerds' blogs, it seems that I have GC support at Chippewa and that makes me feel more confident moving forward.

I struggle with a couple parts of this activity. First, I didn't understand how to act as another student and access/complete other GC teacher assignments. For example, Scott V. shared a link to his classroom, so I could access it, but then I wasn't sure how to register as a student in order to complete the assignment. Another example, I had April's class code, but then I couldn't locate her classroom... Uffda!

My second struggle, was labeling assignments under the "about" section. A main idea from one of the videos is the importance of labeling assignments. I labeled my assignment in the drive, as recommended, yet when I posted and published it in the 'about section" it just shows the link and with a generic Word.doc label. I tried to change the label, so it would be clear to students, but I could not change it. These issues, certainly will easily corrected with some GC guidance:)

So... I did complete the activities with success and the tasks helped dive in the nitty-gritty details of GC. I now have a vision and purpose for GC in 8th grade:) 

*I am not excited about assignment I created for practice, as I don't have access to my curriculum via "drive". I  need to begin uploading curriculum pronto!

Shareable Link:Shareable Link

 My classroom code is: eczmd0y 

Activity 5: Apps, Add-Ons, and Extensions- Oh my!

Apps:
I have used many apps in my classroom, but none with the Chromebook. Quizlet, Grammaropolis, and Easybib are apps I use frequently in 7th and 8th grade ELA courses. The link to the education apps "endorsed" store shares so many that it became overwhelming (it causes me anxiety too, Scott Vetter). Rather, I plan to stick with a familiar few and maximize my understanding and use. One valuable feature that I learned from this assignment is adding apps to my drive.  I linked my Powtoon and Movenote apps for easy content access.

Add-Ons: I am having some difficulty understanding what makes an add-on different from the apps and extensions. While in the Chrome Store I did not see any labels title "add-ons". Hmmm...

Extensions: For extension exploration, I tried Ad Blocker for You Tube. I freaked out at the conclusion of the connection process because the creators ask for a donation. I felt very guilty that I did not donate, so I removed the extension from my toolbar. This experience familiarized me with removing apps and extensions.
Also, I experimented with the Easybib extension, which is very helpful, by giving researchers instant linkage to the app for bibliography construction. So slick compared to my high school research bibs. that took hours to create and edit for punctuation and format.

Activity 4: Unpacking the Google Suite

I am familiar with Google Suite, and the tools for creating and collaborating a "living document". Uploading many of my ancient documents, presentations, and graphic organizers feels a bit daunting. Also, I spent a large quantity of my time trying to upload various ppts. and handouts used in class. Finding, moving, organizing the uploads became messy. While experimenting with the "zip extractor," I could upload files speedily, but then they were hiding in the drive with weird file endings. I am not trying to "hate" on Google Suite here, rather I am detailing how my time has been spent on this activity.

For the first portion of the task, I created a "quickie" formative assessment to use after introducing students to the concept and spectrum of media literacy. Unfortunately, I made the tool "doc" style rather than "form". I realize now that  form would be ideal, so I can collect and interpret the data easily. Into to Media Literacy FA...

Due to my limited experience with the forms and drawing tools, I need to practice using these. I want to try designing my graphic organizers by using the "Google Drawing" tool. While trying to upload my author's purpose graphic organizer which is an old Word Doc, the formatting was disorderly transferred. Eventually, I uploaded it successfully by using a PDF file; however, I don't think I am able to revise the graphic organizer in a PDF form. Hmmm... Author's Purpose GO