Category Archives: EdTech

Ease the Pain of #NOTATISTE18

EdTech, Education

As most of you know, ISTE (The International Society for Technology in Education) holds a huge conference every year in a different city in the United States. Educators and vendors from all over the world gather and nerd out on the latest in education technology. This year Chicago holds the honor. Unfortunately, most of us have to watch from home, jealous of learning along side great thinkers and deep dish pizza. We hope for any crumbs of innovation that make it on to Twitter. The FOMO isn’t just a fear. It’s real. Those of us at home are missing out and it hurts.

Thankfully, to ease the pain and fill the emptiness, edublogger has put together a great list of ways that you CAN follow along at home. Time to wipe the envious tears and read all the means you can be part of the learning. Plan your virtual trip now! Watch a Cubs game, make an Italian beef sandwich, and get ready. ISTE is only a week away.

Read the blog, written by Kathleen Morris here.

Confessions of a ClipArt Junkie

EdTech, Education

This post originally published at http://blog.cue.org/confessions-of-a-clipart-junkie/

 

 

If you follow Ryan O’Donnell (aka creativeedtech) on Twitter, or around town like I do, small pieces of brilliance seem to drop from the sky. That’s mostly because he has a way of taking new tools or tech ideas and creating practical ways to use them in the classroom. He’s also a pretty tall guy so his ideas tend to fall on normal humans like rain. Lately, O’Donnell has been creating these amazing graphics of listicles. Not only is this idea a great way to disemminate ideas to fellow educators online, it’s also a great template to use with students. Of course, O’Donnell is quite the Jedi Master of templates. Check out his website for some awesome ideas.

A few weeks ago, one of his listicles caught my eye. O’Donnell’s tweet read,

Confessions of a Clip Art junkie: I LOVED clip art. Tried to find the perfect image & even bought those mega-pack CD’s. Finally kicked that habit though. Now it’s all about photos & graphics.

Therefore, on behalf of Ryan O’Donnell, I am here to urge you to stop using clip art! Here are the ways you can shift your addiction to something more contemporary and relevant:

  1. The Noun Project— Icons are the answer for your latest projects and the Noun Project will provide you over a million for free. Simply sign up, search and download as Creative Commons. (Royalty Free requires a membership). I even found some really cool Star Wars icons! Credit is embedded in the icon already. 
  1. Flaticon–Much like the Noun Project, this site is about the icons, but this site groups icons into packs. Therefore, if you are working on a project, you have a set of icons all downloaded that go together. Download for free with attribution, just like Noun Project.
  2. No Backs— This site offers high resolution images in PNG format. No need to sign up. Free to use as long as proper credit and a link to the site is given.
  3. Pixabay–One of my favorite sites for stock photos. Over 1.4 million. Each image designates the licensing. Most are labeled Creative Commons, with no attribution needed.
  4. Freepik–This is a large search engine of free vector designs (which is graphic designer talk for computer images). Not all are free, but many are, only requiring attribution. No sign in required. Just search, find one that’s free and download.
  5. Unsplash–Supported by a large community of photographers, this site allows you to download beautiful images. They ask that you credit the photographers only out of appreciation and for the photographer to gain exposure. Absolutely stunning images!
  6. Pexels–Thousands of free stock photos that are completely licensed as Creative Commons. No attribution required. When you download, they offer ways to say thank you to the photographer: add a link, follow him/her on Instagram, or embed the citation. Another site I could spend hours looking for the perfect picture!

Adding images effective to your projects gets results. Consider using one of these sites. O’Donnell also suggests busting out your camera, or simply taking out your phone and snapping your own pictures. Those are always free.

Now that you have been educated in all the great FREE sites out there, it is time to break up with your clip art. Snip it out of your life. It is far more picturesque on the other side.

 

Check your Backyard

EdTech, Education

This post was originally published at http://blog.cue.org/check-your-backyard/

This week, CUE posted the call for presenters. Presenters. You know those confident educators that are the experts in their field. The ones that are willing to draft a beautiful slide presentation, share resources, anecdotes and examples of how you can improve your understanding of the seamless integration of technology at your site or district. You know. Those people.

Well, why aren’t you applying? Not quite ready?

That was me, not too long ago. I remember my first CUE event: CUE Rockstar, Lake Tahoe. The first time I saw Joe Wood teach a session on Google Maps. He was so confident. He barely spoke, really. Just guided us through the tool. Let us click. Let us explore. Let us play. It was invigorating. Joe created a safe space for me to learn: a safe space to collaborate with the other educators in the room.

I was hooked. Hooked on learning. Hooked on connecting. After that, I knew I needed to step beyond the Twittersphere and actually do some IRL connecting. But how?

My journey began at CapCUE, the local CUE affiliate in the Sacramento area. I answered theircall for presenters. Each Fall, CapCUE hosts their own collaborative learning opportunity: Techfest. I threw my hat in the ring and decided to share a plethora of tools for speaking and listening.  About five people showed up to my session, but we had the best conversations!

Since that tiny session, I have only grown as an educator through the connections I have made getting involved in my local affiliate. I eventually joined the board as a director. Better yet, I have made some incredible friendships with like-minded and crazy fun people. CapCUE has become an important part of who I am. The members support me in my professional and personal life. CapCUE has become my extended family. Soon these educators pushed me to present at FallCUE, then Spring. My journey started a few miles from my house.

So, if you’re thinking about sharing all the great ideas you have, all the ways you make a difference in students’ and teachers’ lives, but you’re not quite ready for a large event, don’t forget this advice: some of the best connections you can make are right in your backyard. Seek out your local affiliate. Apply to present at their events. You might even consider joining other affiliate events and reaching out beyond your backyard. Check the CUE blog page for opportunities to connect near you.

Get involved. It might just change your life. It changed mine.

“My first time presenting was at the CapCUE TechFest at Natomas Charter School.  It was after lunch and only three people showed up. I had so much fun working with CapCUE and the connections I made led me to present at more and more conferences.” —Corey Coble CapCUE Board Member

“After being excited and going to CUE and wanting to get involved, I reached out to my local affiliate. It offered me a chance to be a part of something larger and get connected to a community. It allowed me to grow as a professional and share that learning with others.”—Tom Covington  SGVCUE Board Member

The SVCUE affiliate Board of Directors is comprised of educators who seek quality, fresh, collaborative, and vibrant members who have identified strengths to embody and execute the team’s mission. We work collectively, with students at the heart of what we do. Beyond that, I stay with this affiliate because I remember my roots. I remember where I started. I remember where I was given a chance, and even a second chance. No matter where you go professionally, remember who helped you along the way. That’s SVCUE! —Kristina Mattis SVCUE Board President

“Looking back, it wasn’t unusual at the time to find myself helping my colleagues develop their tech skills, but I will never forget that first time I stepped out and presented for total strangers at my first CapCUE Techfest. The experience opened my eyes to possibilities and network connections I never knew existed. Since that first presentation, I have traveled the country dropping nuggets of knowledge that I have learned along the way, I have learned to blog, to podcast and to curate the most amazing support network imaginable within my #CapCuePLN.”—John Eick CapCUE Board President

Why Snapchat?

EdTech, Education

A friend and colleague of mine asked the question on Facebook: Should I use Snapchat?

My response: “I love Snapchat. It’s just fun.”

This got me thinking. Why do I really use Snapchat? I know I use it because I can take a silly picture of myself, with antlers and a deer nose. I can wear no make-up and still look glamorous with the adorable filters. I can add cool geofilters to my posts .(I even created one for my school). Yes, it’s true. Snapchat is really fun.

But it’s more than that. My students follow me and ask me questions via the app. Sometimes it’s about  assignments they are working on, school events coming up, or even a picture I posted. “What book is that?”

I use Snapchat because my students do.

But it’s even more than that. Each day my daughter sends me a message on Snapchat. I have to respond because we have a “Snapstreak,” something Snapchat encourages. To keep this going, two of you have to send each other a Snap within 24 hours. It may seem like a good way to waste time, but I like that my 15 year old sends me a message every morning.  She also sends me snaps throughout the day: a picture of her shoes and an over laid message, “100% on my spanish quiz!” I don’t even cringe at the lowercase S.

I use Snapchat because my daughter does.

I asked her last night, “Why do you like Snapchat better than Instagram? Is it because the Snaps on your story disappear in 24 hours?” She responded, “No. It’s because it’s more personal. Sending snaps back and forth make it like a conversation.”

So there you have it.  I like getting glimpses of the world in which my kids (the ones I own and the ones I borrow) live. So, you can find me on yet another social media platform. Hit me up!

 

Feedback: No Time Turner Needed

EdTech, Education, Uncategorized, Writing Project

I have been teaching English for a long time. A very long time. I have spent hours writing feedback, inking up student drafts with corrections as a service and gift to my students. I kid, but really, I just want them to succeed. I want them to think about where they can grow as writers and spend time considering suggestions. Most of the time, though, my students just shove their papers into the abyss of their backpacks, feeding the zippered monster of never to be be seen again assignments. Why? Because I handed those papers back with a grade.

This year was going to be different. I was going to get better at giving students feedback. I have read many articles and blog posts that referenced Butler’s study that showed  students who received comments alone demonstrated the greatest improvement (Butler, 1988), and Hattie’s study that showed student self-assessment/self-grading has the greatest impact on student learning  (Hattie, 2012). Only how was I going to get students to actually READ and DO something with the feedback? Then last June, I read Cult of Pedagogy’s post on Delaying the Grade: How to Get Students to Read Feedback by Kristy Louden. Suddenly, I had a “No, DUH,” moment. Why hadn’t I thought of this before?

Collecting the Best Draft

This trimester my students were tasked with writing an original Hero’s Journey story. They wrote (and wrote and wrote) until some had over 40 pages (double spaced). They really got into it. We went through all of my “normal” ways of teaching: brainstorming, mini lessons, sharing and revising in writing groups, and when they were finally ready to collect,instead of calling it a “Final” draft,  I simply called it their best draft. “Best draft due on Friday.”

Streamlining Feedback

Being  an 8th grade teacher, unless I had one of Hermione Granger’s Time Turners, it is impossible to find the time to give extensive feedback to every student. Instead, I created a Doc with all the comments I could possibly make to an 8th grade student on a narrative. I started with looking at the rubric, then added as I was reading stories. Under each comment, I added a link to a video, website or blog post that could reteach the concept. This way, as I came across an issue in a student essay, I would simply add a comment on the document and paste the already prepared comment with the reteaching tool.

 

Feedback without Grades

As I was reading each narrative, I wrote down a rubric score for my purposes, only. No grade was shared with the student. I simply returned the writing and asked each to revise before resubmitting. When I looked at the stories a second time, I simply looked at the grade I had given the narrative in my notes and clicked “See Changes” in Google Docs.  No need to read the whole thing again! This made the process so much faster and efficient.

As Expected 

It happened just as I hoped. Students paid attention to my feedback! Not knowing their grades made all the difference. Not all did as good of a job as I had hoped. Some only fixed the areas I made specific suggestions and not where I made general statements. That is definitely something to work on next time.

Growth Opportunities

I did find that my grade book was sparse. I had a parent ask me why I hadn’t entered any grades in such a long time. I really have no idea how to solve this issue, or even if it really is an issue. My students were learning during the process, and I didn’t want to stop them to assess, simply for a grade in the grade book.

I would also like to develop a more extensive Doc of curated resources so I could create individual playlists for each student based on what each needs to revise. I am hoping to work on that list going forward, with some help from my network of colleagues across the nation.

In a perfect world, I would be able to sit down with each student and conference on each piece of writing many times during the process. The reality is, that takes time, the most valuable and scarce resource of my classroom. For now, I’ll work on improving this process. I am sold.

Learning Out Loud

EdTech, Education, PD Reflections

In early June I received an email asking if I would like to be a Lead Learner for CUE. I had no idea what that actually meant, only that I needed to fill out a W9. That had to be a good thing, right? Turns out, it made my summer rock, like really loud!

It started in early July with the CUE Hootenanny at the California Railroad Museum, which really was just a way to get as many Lead Learners in one spot as possible (and eat Barbe-CUE). A few weeks later I was at the CUE Leadership Development Institute near Monterey with my CapCUE board members. Only a few days after I found myself presenting in Truckee at CUERockstar. Now that was a lot of CUE! But it was so worth it.

Catching @kmartintahoe at CueRockstar Tahoe/Truckee

Being in the presence of such out of the box thinkers tends to challenge your views on so many things. Of course, being in the presence of so many organized and goal-oriented people also brings balance to those innovative ideas. At all these events, great ideas tend to rub off on you. I think I began the summer with a list of books to read, and now I’m ending with twice the amount of professional books on my list. The same is true for the amount of innovative strategies I plan to incorporate in my classroom this year. Someone should have warned me: when you spend your vacation with other Lead Learners, your brain swells.

Goofing off with @John_Eick at LDI

The best part is that your heart swells, too. Call it filling your bucket, sharpening your saw or whatever. For me, hanging out with people that inspire me, make me laugh and care about me is a great way to spend a month in the summer.

I go back to work next week and I’m excited and anxious about introducing and implementing all that I’ve learn. The best part is, my CUE family is only a Tweet or a Voxer message away!