I had the opportunity and privilege to present at the 5th annual Mercy Tech Talks. Held in Mercy High School in Farmington Hills Michigan. I presented on my student news team S.W.A.T. It was a great group and I had some good feedback. I also had a chance to attend a some great sessions. One session was on student created VR spaces using an site called “CoSpaces” [https://cospaces.io] This site allows students to create simple and interactive VR spaces. The other presentation was by ADE Katie Morrow presented digital literacy ideas for the classroom using Keynote. I walked away with more ideas than I could share. |
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To many teachers, Halloween is a big distraction. Kids are thinking about candy, trick or treating, candy, their Halloween costume, candy and watching the clock just waiting for the time they can go out into the night…. Did I mention candy?
This Halloween I had a chance to spend time in a Kindergarten class that used Halloween as a teachable moment. After reading “Pumpkin Town”. Students watched as we cut open a pumpkin and turned it into a Jack O Lantern. While doing this, students learned about the different parts of a pumpkin, and we then planted the pumpkin seeds. After a quick hand wash students retrieved their iPads and I went over how to take pictures. It was then time to take pictures of our freshly carved pumpkin. I will visit these classes again in a few weeks when the pumpkin seeds spout, and I’ll help students take more pictures to document the growth of their pumpkin plant.
Hands on learning is fun and engaging. Hands on learning with science and an iPad is just amazing. Students in Ms. Thomas’ 3rd grade class were studying “force and motion”. I had the opportunity to help with the experiments and show students how to use an iPad to record their findings. For this experiment students had to devise three examples to test. They came up with; Dropping a ball of Play-doh from different heights, rolling markers into each other and pouring water into a bowl from different heights. To set this experiment up students located materials to test, a location to conduct the experiment and and a back drop to record against. Then students made predictions of how the objects would react when dropped, knocked into or poured. I then showed students how to set up the iPad in our recording rig. I also showed the group how to use an app called “slowmo-pro”. Our iPad doesn’t have the slow motion feature built into it. After practicing with the camera, the group was ready to roll. Each experiment was conducted three times, afterwards we watched the video. Students were surprised how the Play-doh moved on impact with the table, and the force and motion could clearly be seen when rolling markers into each other. The water drop amazed students because with the slow motion, students could see how the water moved when it hit the bowl Students then wrote a summary of what they learned from each experiment, and I had several new helpers ready to show the other students how to conduct their experiments using the iPad and slowmo-pro. To see some example videos: CLICK HERE It’s always fun to present at a conference and show your peers what activities are being done in your classroom, how you use technology, or a project your students created that just pulled the learning together. After the presentation is over, you get questions, or comments, and have a few nice discussions, but then its time to pack up so the next presenter can set up. You make that long trip back to your hotel room, lugging all of your materials and reflect on how everything went, and then on with the rest of the conference. As a presenter, what you don’t see is the impact your story makes on someone. You don’t see the changes you help make in someone else’s classroom. Today I was able to see the follow up to a presentation, and it was a good feeling. Last spring I attended an Ed Camp in Detroit. I facilitated a discussion on Skype in the Classroom. I talked about the grant I received from MACUL (Michigan Association of Computer Users in Learning) in 2016, how I build two Skype Carts in my elementary schools, and using Skype in the Classroom. After the presentation I had a nice conversation with Zach, a teacher from Troy Michigan. A few months later Zach messaged me Twitter letting me know he received this year’s MACUL grant, and he was building his own Skype cart. Today I was mentioned in a one of Zach’s Tweets, his cart is done and he’s ready to introduce his students to Skype in the Classroom. It was nice to see how a presentation I gave several months ago sparked change in a classroom. Check out Skype In the Classroom I had a really good week last week, it reminded me about the many things I like about my job, and one of the best things about my job is working with students. I enjoy showing these young learners what an iPad can do, how to take pictures, video, edit photos, have the iPad read to them… and the list goes on. In addition to working with students, my visit to the classroom is also part of our staff’s PD process. I conduct this PD by modeling how technology an be used as part of the learning process; this was done in a 3rd grade class when we used Explain Everything’s white board to write work out math problems. Or having students place the iPads “Apple Up” on their desk so we can discuss the next part of the lesson or someone can share what they learned. (We don’t have Apple Classroom fully operational just yet). After working in several classes last week, it was exciting to see both students and staffs reaction to what they were doing and creating. At the end of my last lesson, the young new teacher told me “I can see now the iPads are not just for using apps.” That was the coolest line I had heard in a while, and what a way to end the week. Planning a technology PD for staff can be an overwhelming experience; setting goals , developing meaningful activities, making sure the training flows well, not overwhelming your staff, and hope everyone leaves feeling excited and has information they can transfer into their classrooms. Planning a PD for new staff can be down right scary, there’s no other way to say it. PD for new staff is when you can make that initial connection with new teachers that can make a difference in their year, and how they will receive the PD’s you give them in the future. Giving them too much and they won’t want to see you for a while, give them too little and they leave feeling their time could have best been spent their time elsewhere. With new teacher’s.. its just hard to gauge how much is too much. One of the many lessons I’ve learned from planning PD’s over the years is its not a process that is easy to do on your own. Having a team to plan effective PD’s can make a difference from active learning to active eye rolling. Over the summer I went through Apple’s AET certification with 3 other teachers from my district. (See AET Blog Post) Using what we learned this summer, our team put together a new teacher PD that, to the surprise of our new teachers, didn’t focus on using much technology. We focused on the SAMR model, we used some iOS Apps with activities, but we didn’t teach how to use the apps. We also made sure our new teachers were comfortable with our on line grading system, and gave them plenty of resources that they district provides to help make them successful. I really think the best activity we did with the new staff was…. To sit and listen to their thoughts, goals and concerns about technology. At the end of the day we made some great connections, learned more about our new staff members and initiated some possible activities to collaborate on during the year. All in all a very good day. Today I had a great conversation with Oliver Page, the founder of NutCase https://www.nutkase.com/ I was seeking information about iPad cases, to my surprise, I wasn’t dealing with a sales associate, I was dealing with the founder of the company. My conversation with Oliver was not what I expected, he didn't start off by asking about my numbers, when we were going to purchase more iPads, or covers, he didn't even ask for stats on device refresh rates... he asked about me, how I moved into the position from classroom teacher to becoming a tech coach... (I almost didn't know what to say at first, no one ever asks about me...) Oliver then shared his story on how he started this company when he was in High School, with the iPad 1. Now he has headquarters in Rome, the U.K. and Connecticut, where he is visiting next week. Again it was a great conversation and inspiring. Just think, we all could have buildings full of "Olivers" in our district just needing that support to become the next big thing.
When I describe how I travel from building to building, with just my backpack, no room, no office, Oliver informed me I was sort of a Digital Nomad. I had never heard that expression before. Technically a digital nomad is more of a person who travels around the country or world and sets up office and does business where ever they find wifi, but the term to me was new, and I like to learn new things. We did get down to business and discuss our district's iPad case needs, and goals, and yes I have a new case coming to test out. All in all, a good day. This year I'm working on a new Staff PD model. I've been charged with developing a new system for our tech PD's. Our old model was to utilize a staff meeting once a month, and from that training support the staff on the training I conducted. So if we did Keynote one month, I would be visiting classrooms and doing wonderful keynote activities with staff and students. However, this model doesn't work, at least in our district. Many times my monthly staff meeting would be bumped for more pressing issues that needed attention, or the building administrator would say "I just need five minutes and they are all yours...." and 25 minutes later I would start my 60 minute PD that was not rushed or cut due to time. As for meeting with staff, many staff would simply say "I'm good" or "I don't have time for that" and off I go looking for someone else to work with.
So a change is needed, and for our district, this is a good time to make changes. We are having a shift in technology from MacBooks to iPads, we have four staff members (including me) that have recently become AET (Apple Education Trainer) certified, and we have a new Superintendent. So I want to define my position as a technology coach before its defined for me. I like the idea of setting goals in my personal life, so I think this would be part of the process, set a technology goal for the year. I could then work to support the staff in these goals. I also want to use the newly trained AET staff, so, instead of one tech staff meeting a month, I wanted to conduct 1 meeting per quarter, and use the AET trainers to help with the staff training. On the surface this doesn't seem like much, but is it a change, and change has to start somewhere. Link to Model: Click Here Link to Movie: Click Here |
About me...I'm an Instructional Technology Specialist in Harper Woods District Schools. Archives
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