iPadpalooza IN 2015 - #iplzaIN15

I attended and presented at iPadpalooza IN in Noblesville, Indiana on July 16th and 17th. It was an amazing experience. iPadpalooza IN reminded me in some ways of iEngage-Berwyn. A low key local ed tech conference. After the hustle and bustle of ISTE this was a welcome change. The swag in the conference bag was outstanding. We received a t-shirts, a travel mug, and device cleaner! 

+Jordan Garrett and I presented Integrating Tech into the Reading/Writing Workshop and Bringing PLCs to Life with Google +. Both are presentations that we have done before. We had never done the Reading/Writing Workshop session together. The Reading/Writing Workshop was a 2 hour hands on session. That means we presented for 3 hours each day. That left us time to only attend one additional session on both days. We were able to attend the opening Ignite session. +Shelley Coover rocked it and so did +Sarah Thomas. I especially like Shelley's Angry Birds analogy. We presented to a full room on Thursday morning for our 1st Reading/Writing Workshop session. It's funny I didn't feel so good about how the session went and Jordan thought we did really well. I have to say I was not that impressed with the keynote speaker Jared Stein. I was a little turned off by the fact that he was from Canvas (an LMS provider). I prefer to listen to educators not industry people. The food trucks were outstanding! Great lunch! Next we did our Google + presentation to a small crowd. I believe this was our fourth time doing this presentation together. I like this presentation because it really tells a story while talking about the power of an application. The story is a part of the story of District 100s 1:1 journey and how we use Google + as a communication platform for our staff. It is a way for staff to communicate with each other and share student work with the outside world. I am learning that the power in presenting, especially in keynoting, is being able to tell a story. After our session we ended up hanging out in the sponsor area with Bryan Bennett from its Learning. He gave us a short demo of the product. We took an usie because Jordan and I had every intention of completing the AppMazing Race. In the end we decided to forgo the Race because we were so busy presenting.

                                               

The one thing that iPadpalooza IN was missing was an evening social event. After hosing iEngage an going to them at ISTE they really add another dimension to a conference. 

On Friday I went to Jay McTighe and listened to him talk about UbD and Standards Based Grading. Even though our district is doing sbg it was good to hear the information again. I tried my hand at sketchnoting the presentation. It is clear I need much more practice. A good stylus will hopefully help. We did our presentations again. This time we felt just the opposite. I thought it was more polished and Jordan thought we could have done better. Carl Hooker's lunch time keynote was outstanding! According to him, I heard some of it at iEngage-Berwyn. To tell you the truth I was so involved in tweeting and worrying about the conference in May that I did not really hear his message. I got up on stage as a volunteer to help him out with a participation and movement exercise. Of course I messed up! 

In the end I wish that I would have been able to go to more sessions. I was glad I went to Jay McTighe's session. I was really looking forward to hearing him speak. I met John Smith @theipodteacher, and Reshan Richards @reshanrichards, saw Kyle Pearce again, @MathletePearce, and Sarah Thomas @sarahdateechur, but missed Ann Feldman @annfeldman1, Don Goble @dgoble2001, and Tammy Worcester Tang @tammyworcester. 

Food Trucks - Yum!

The conference committee did a fabulous job. You should put this one on your radar especially if you live in the Midwest. 

Here's my Storify as a slideshow. 

ISTE 2015 - A Reflection

I attend ISTE this year for the first time in about 12 years and it has really changed. The Expo floor was amazing and there were definitely way more people. During the opening keynote, I believe that it was stated that there were 20,000 in attendance.

So I was asked, by an ed tech friend who was unable to attend, what was the big buzz at the conference. I believe that the big push is for visual literacy. What is visual literacy you ask? It is the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image. Have you noticed the explosion in infographics and other images on the Net? It's the reason Instagram is so popular! A picture is worth a thousand words. Meaning we can convey complex ideas through a single image. In order to navigate the Net kids will need these skils to be able to read and create in a visually rich media. We need to teach these skills. Making good visuals and pairing it with reliable information will be so important to our students in the future. 

What the Journey to Success Really Looks Like - Carl Hooker

I attended quite a few sessions. Seems like I was always running somewhere. I don't know how you can work for a school district, and justify going to a conference if you don't attend at least some sessions. 

They are in no particular order. Opening Keynote: Soledad O'Brien; Digital Parenting: Carl Hooker; ISTE Ignites Round 3; The Changing Role of the Cheif Technology Officer: Kevin Honeycutt, Brad Waid, Susan Beardan, Alice Keeler, Matthew Miller, David Maline; 1 in 3 Session: Round 3; GripCase SAMR Session: Shannon Soger; Successful Parent/Educator Partnership in the Inclusive Classroom: Luis Perez, Shannon Soger, Christine Southard, Jack Gallagher: iPad: An Out of the Box Look: Tim and Kathy Yenca; Developing an Innovator's Mindset: George Couros: Closing Keynote: Josh Stumpenhorst. 

from George Couros's Session

I presented at the conference. It was a phenomenal experience. My session was called Tech Coach Therapy. The session was a Birds of a Feather. Basically, this a round table discussion format. I prepared a very short presentation about the way I feel about the power of coaching, how I coach teachers and the resources that I use to support my craft. I prepared a Google Slide presentation, but I'm not sure that too many of my 23 attendees used it. Instead they just talked to each other about their jobs. I was able to give the attendees a framework to support meaningful conversation around their job titles. That doesn't always happen when you are sitting in the Blogger's Cafe at ISTE. There is so much power in telling your story. People want to connect by their similarities and even their differences. This group was able to learn what works and what doesn't in other districts, and make connections with other educators that will support them in their mission. They can continue to connect through social media or email to share and grow. I heard and participated in discussion in all the groups. The talk was very powerful, very productive for all of them.  I was shocked when one group stayed about ten minutes past the sessions end time, especially since it was the last session on Monday afternoon. Sometimes we, as coaches, are like the therapists in a school. Even real therapists need therapists. 

The other lens in which I viewed ISTE was through that of someone who has planned and hosted an ed tech conference, ie iEngage-Berwyn. After all, ISTE is the grand daddy of them all. They do it right. I found myself looking at traffic patterns, floor layouts, signage, maps, all the small details that make a conference user friendly. I made a few notes to share with the iLead team. 

The fabulous Jordan Garrett working the Swivl booth

One final note - the social events in the evening are another great way to connect with those that you can learn from all year long! I met a lot of my #edurockstar heroes too. I wish I could follow all of the great people that I met at ISTE, but I'm in Twitter Jail. So if you have a Twitter account and you are not following me PLEASE do so, @rmbtowner_tech or click on the follow link at the right. 

Drew Minock, Brad Waid, George Couros, Kevin Honeycutt

Summer PD Plans

I'm going to try to stick with +Michelle Brezek of Big Time Literacy  and write every day for the rest of the month. Yesterday's prompt was PD plans for the summer. This is an easy topic for me to write about.

iEngage-Berwyn
We can start with iEngage Berwyn in May. I presented on using Google + as district communication tool. I presented with the fabulous +Jordan Garrett. Our session went very well. See this blog post for more info on iEngage - Berwyn!

Apple Action Research Project in District 100

The Team updated administrators and SAMR Model Action Research Team (SMART)

staff on the Apple Action Research Project in District 100. We are doing some very interesting things with this project. Stay tuned for more information.

Ed Tech Teacher Summer Workshops 2015 in Chicago

I assisted for one week for Ed Tech Teacher Summer Workshops 2015 at Roosevelt University. I helped educators learn how to Use Chromebooks in the Classroom and iPads with Google. I had an amazing time working alongside the wonderful Beth Holland and fantastic Shawn McCusker, but the best part of the week was meeting all the amazing teachers from all over the United States. One woman even came all the way from Thailand for the sessions. 

ISTE 2015 - Philadelphia
In June I attended ISTE 2015 in Philadelphia. I went to many sessions including the Opening Keynote by Soledad O'Brien, Digital Parenting by +Carl Hooker, Panel: The Changing Role of Chief Technology Officer with +Shannon Soger, +Brad Waid and +Kevin Honeycutt among others, Panel: Successful Parent Educator Partnerships in the Inclusive Classroom with Louis Perez, Jack Gallagher, Christine Southard and Shannon Soger, ISTE 1 in 3 Sessions: Round 1, An iPad Out of the Box Look by Kathy and Tim Yenca, Developing the Innovator's Mindset by George Couros, Ignites: Session 3, and ISTE 1 in 3 Sessions: iLearn iSWAT given by Jordan Garrett. Finally, I presented Tech Coach Therapy. It was a Birds of a Feather session which is the same thing as a round table discussion. There were 23 people in attendance and I think it went very well. I talked a bit about we coach teachers in District 100 and showed them some of my "go to" resources. The rest of the time was for them to tell their story and build relationships with others in the group. I think there is real power in sharing your story with others in the group, esp for a tech or instructional coach. May times they are the only one with this job description in their buidling or unfortunately entire district.

iLearn Summer 2015 - District 100
This week I am giving 2 in-district PD sessions for the iLearn Summer 2015 series of District 100. Monday is iPad 101: What is Your One Screen? During this session we will look at 20 apps that all teachers in our district should have on their iPad. The goal of the session is to explore apps that will help students demonstrate their understanding and make their thinking visible. I am excited to give it. We are going to have a full house. On Wednesday I am doing a session on the Google Apps and Add Ons that are part of our GAFE domain. There are so many ways to use Google in our classrooms! I hope to post both of these PD on my You Tube Channel.

iPadpalooza IN 2015
On Thursday and Friday I will be presenting with Jordan Garrett at iPadpalooza IN 2015. We are presenting Integrating Technology into the Reading and Writing Workshop and Bringing PLCs to Life with Google +. I don't know how many sessions we will be able to attend since we are presenting for 3 hours on both days. I am really looking forward to doing the AppMazing Race this time around. I was unable to do it at iEngage because I was so busy.

Transliteracy 47
I am also presenting at the District 47 Transliteracy conference August 5th and 6th. Jordan and I are once again doing Integrating Technology into the Reading and Writing Workshop.

New Teacher Training - District 100
I'm sure I will also be a part of training our new staff during new teacher week in our district as well.

Thanks +Michelle Brezek for encouraging me to write more!!!

iEngage-Berwyn...We did it!

Hosting a two day Educational Technology Conference is a lot of work! We spent 10 months planning for it and it seems like it was here and gone in the blink of an eye. I was on the sponsorship and PR/social media committee for the planning team, dubbed iLead. Here we are at our kickoff which took place at one of our institute days.

There were many committees and we learned a lot along the way. On my committee we solicited sponsors. Then we got the word out about the conference. It is important to keep really good notes, admit when you are wrong, and reflect after the experience about what went well and what did not. I'm not going to air all of that here.

Friday, May 8th
On Friday morning we arrived early. There was nothing left to do except let the people show up. The LaVergne Gym looked fabulous and we were ready to go. We started with an overview of what makes +South Berwyn 100 special. The site visit welcome was given by +Shannon Soger. She talked about our state report card statistics and the five categories that make us an Apple Distinguished Program; visionary leadership, innovative teaching and learning, flexible learning environment, compelling evidence of success and ongoing professional development. She did a fabulous job! Next we were on our way to start the first of two site visits for the day. I was assigned to Emerson School. I taught in that building for 17 years, so I was glad to showcase it. The visitors were able to go to different classrooms and see 1:1 computing in action. One of the visitors remarked after seeing the first grade bilingual teacher, "Let's stay here. I could watch her teach all day." It was so great to hear that. 

Site visitor talking about 1:1 with one of our 1st graders

We traveled back to LaVernge by bus to see the lunch time keynote speaker +Carl Hooker of Hooked on Innovation (read his blog post about the conference here). His keynote was thought provoking, interactive, and funny. Carl also brought with him the App Mazing Race - iEngage-Berwyn. It was a big hit! 

Activity during Hooker's keynote

Waid & Hooker

In the afternoon we went back for another site visit with a different group to see more teaching and learning in action. As our superintendent +Stan Fields always says the devices are not the magic of our district - it is the people; the teachers, the support staff, the secretaries, the custodians, the bus drivers. It is a true group effort. The other thing that makes our district different is that we are not afraid to change, to innovate. We didn't just bring in computers and iPads for everyone. We changed almost everything! At the same time as adopting 1:1 we started full day kindergarten, adopted the co-teaching model, purchased furniture for flexible learning environments, changed the food served in our lunchrooms, made our schools safer, adopted standards based grading, dual language, and so on. 

Afternoon site visitors to Emerson School

To finish the afternoon we had a debriefing panel of "experts" from our district. It included (left to right) +Stan Fields superintendent, +Jeremy Majeski building principal, +Jim Mukite technician, +Shannon Soger director of 1:1 program, +Jen Lehotsky middle school teacher, +Jordan Garrett instructional coach and +Christina Betz elementary teacher. Here visitors were able to ask questions and get detailed answers about what they saw during their visits. 

Brad Waid demonstrating Color Alive

On Friday night we went to the Carleton Hotel in Oak Park for the social event associated with the conference. +Brad Waid decided early on in the planning that a good social event was a must. We worked with myOn and +DAQRI Education to plan the event. Students, their families and conference attendees were invited. There was a viewing party for videos created using myOn books. myOn is an interactive digital library from Capstone Publishers that we use in our district. The student and class videos were phenomenal. Click on the myOn link above to see the winners. My favorite was Noor's video! Then we had an adults only party featuring Big Data, a band made up of Tech Directors from around the state of Illinois, and +DAQRI Education. +Brad Waid demonstrated the augmented reality magic of Crayola Color Alive. It combines just the right amount of hands on and tech for our students. It's the simplicity of a coloring page with the magic of DAQRI's 4D app. No social event these days is complete with out a photo booth. We used our Double Robot and the Simple Booth app. A good time was had by all. 

Anne Truger, Jordan Garrett,
Kevin Honeycutt, Brad Waid

Dancing to Big Data

An aside - While we were waiting for the festivities to begin we found ourselves in the bar attached to the hotel, Poor Phil's. It was here that the iCoach team had their first team meeting in Spring 2012. I knew at that moment that the entire event was going to be a success. 

Saturday, May 9th
We slept quickly and arrived at Heritage Middle School on Saturday, to do the conference portion of the event. There were poster sessions put on by the students and teachers. These were summations of successful tech projects from the school year. They were outstanding! John Antonetti gave the opening keynote. He talked about student engagement. He was wonderful!

Emily & John Antonetti

Student poster session

After the Keynote it was time for the concurrent sessions. There was time for two in the morning. +Jordan Garrett and I presented our Bringing PLCs to Life with Google + . There were many great sessions. You can find the presenters' slides and picture archive in the iEngage Google + Community. Next it was time for lunch and the leadership panel.

Dr Leonard, Mr Polyak, Dr Hutton, Dr Voltz

One more session in the afternoon, and then the closing keynote by +Kevin Honeycutt. Kevin's keynote was exceptional. He covered so many points. If you ever have a chance to hear him speak you should make it happen. 

Kevin Honeycutt with Shannon Soger is the background

The entire two day period I was tweeting and posting to Instagram. I was also monitoring the hashtag #iEngagebwyn for activity for our social media contests. We had plenty of great prizes to give away thanks to our generous sponsors. Here is a link to the Storify for Friday and for Saturday. We generated so much traffic on Twitter that we were a trending topic for Chicagoland on Friday!!! These Storifys give you a very good picture of both days. There are over 1,000 Tweets and Instragram posts from both days!

Shannon - Thanks for Dreaming Big!

ICE TECH 2015 in Springfield

On Thursday, May 7th +Michael Saracini and I took 2 students down to the Illinois State Capitol Building in Springfield. Mike applied months ago for the opportunity and the day was finally upon us. It is a 3 hour ride from suburban Chicago to get to Springfield. We left early and the children were anxious to get there. When we got there one of our students remarked that they had never been through a metal detector before. That's when I realized this was a very new experience for both of them. We got there early, so we set up our table in the south hall on the 1st floor. I have recently broken my leg, so I watched our stuff while Mike and the kids looked around the Capitol Building.

The visit is set up by the Illinois Computing Educators (ICE). The goal of TECH 2015 is two fold, the first is to spotlight the use of technology in the classrooms as a vital tool for students. The second is to shed light on the need for increased funding for Illinois schools.

$3.00 green screen!

                                              

Our goal was for the kids to use the +TouchCast app to create a news video about our visit to the Capitol Building that day. It was Mike's ideas and it was brilliant. I was just there for moral support and to schmooze with the legislators.  I have been doing a lot of Touchcasting lately. It is such a versatile app, as I have said before. Natalie and Angel went around and interviewed participants in our area. They interviewed the president of ICE, Charlene Chausis, a teacher from Murray Elementary Language Academy in Chicago and Senator Napoleon Harris.  They had been practicing and developing their interview style for quite a few weeks and it showed. They both did a great job of creating and asking questions spontaneously of their guests. I was so impressed with their skills. 

Angel interviewing Charlene Chausis

Natalie showing Senator Landek how to use Touchcast

These kids were fearless and they did such a wonderful job interviewing different people with different perspectives on being at the Capitol Building. Sometimes it is hard to believe they are only 5th graders! 

If you are from Illinois and you want to apply to have your students attend, it is really easy to fill out the application form and send it in. The applications open around the first of every year and close in early February. Schools are notified in mid-February. The event is always in May. The ICE committee and its members did an outstanding job organizing and running the event. Thank you to all of them.

Here is the link to their final product! Great job Angel and Natalie! We are so proud of you! 

ICE TECH 1015 Touchcasts

From Senator Landek's Website

For more information on the use of Touchcast visit their website or read this blog post. 

Animal Touchcasts in First Grade

The Process

I have been working in first grade for the last few months. We did an animal unit that incorporated CCSS ELA standards and technology. This particular classroom has iPad minis. It is hard to believe that the teacher +Julianne LaFleur has only had iPads since we returned from winter break.  Julianne has so many great ideas. We had to really narrow them down to get started. She also worked with the Literacy Coach in the building +Leah O'Donnell. Leah got us started. She came in to model close reading of a picture for the class.

Students then went back to their seats in groups by animal and wrote down the very specific things that they saw in the picture. The picture on the SMART Board is a red tree frog. As an example students would write down - two large red eyes. We encouraged them to use adjectives and not to assume things that were not seen in the picture. For instance, we did not want them to say frogs hop. You can't see that happening in the picture. It was great to have Leah there with us. This project truly was a team effort. I look forward to working with the literacy coaches in the buildings on a more regular basis! Here is the link to Leah's blog.

Students made an I see/ I wonder chart to get them thinking and give them questions to research. It's also a common core standard. We chose to focus on sharks, zebras, gorillas, pandas and walruses. Since they are 1st graders Miss LaFleur gave them some direction. Our areas of concentration, which are evident in the Touchcasts, were characteristics (what do they look like?), diet (what do they eat?), habitat (where do they live?), family survival (how does the mother care for the babies or how do they work as a family unit?) and fun fact (something they didn't know before). Then each animal had one questions specific to it as well. The gorilla specific question was, why does the silver back pound on his chest. Ms. LaFleur with the help of Mrs. O'Donnell set up Blendspaces. The blendspaces were used to help students learn to do research on characteristics, diet, habitat, family survival and the animal specific question. They viewed each Blendspace through one of these lenses in order to know how do their research. Blendspaces are a great platform for sharing different multimedia resources!

Next, I flooded the classroom with fiction and non-fiction texts about the animals that were chosen.  I also brought in biome/habitat books from the public library for the students to use. The school librarian also brought us everything that she had. We used those books and myON digital reading platform for students to do their research. As we did research we continued to emphasize finding information using non-fiction text features.

We are lucky to live near the Brookfield Zoo, so we took a field trip. We were able to see a few of the animals on our list, and talk about our focus areas while standing in front of the animals. The kids had a great time at the zoo. We also did one of the Zoo's programs that talked about the characteristics of the five groups of vertebrates (amphibians, birds, fish, mammals and reptiles). Ms. LaFleur did some prep work for that and the students did a great job in the class talking about the characteristics of the different groups and what makes them alike and different.

It was at this point that we needed to decide how the final product was going to look. Ms. LaFleur had started Keynotes on the iPad with the students, but she was not happy with them. She soon scrapped that idea as the way to share out the final product. I was actually pushing for Book Creator, but the class had already used it quite a bit in the last few months to make projects. We both agreed we wanted something different. That's when I suggested Touchcast . Ms. LaFleur took a look at it and was instantly swayed. It is so versatile. If you have never tried either app you really need to download them on your iPad. They are my two favorite content creation apps. Touchcasts are built on an iPad, but they are viewable through any web browser, but they lose their interactivity when viewed in the web browser. Here is a link to Touchcast training videos for educators.

Next each student worked independently to create their own scripts in order to share out the knowledge that they had about their animal. We took the scripts and had each group make one master script for their group. Part of that exercise was to get them to see what was most important. They negotiated with their group the top three facts from each category and wrote them down on the master script. I think one of the best things we did was not have the students memorize the scripts. First of all, that is a huge undertaking for a 1st grader and second of all, it made each Touchcast very unique. You hear some of the same facts, but they each put their own spin on it!

Next we used the Image Searcher app to find pictures for the Vapps portion of their Touchcasts. I like this app but would like to find a better one for next year. Vapps are things that you can add to your Touchcast like, a map, stock updates, social media handles, and many many more. I gave the students about a 6-7 minute overview of the app and then we let them have what I call "sandbox time". Some teachers also call it test driving the app. This where they can test out and play with the different features in an app. This is where we encourage them to make mistakes, to create and recreate. This lasted about 25 mins. This is an important part of the process. Make sure you give your students this time.

We decided that we were going to use the school's green screen so that the students could actually tell us their facts as if they were standing in the animal's habitat. We set up the green screen in the school's library, but it could have been set up in a corner of the classroom. It was nice for me to be able to pull the students out of class to complete the Touchcasts.

Here is a bit of information about setting up and using Touchcast. As stated we used a green screen. We also used a iRig Microphone to capture the sound and a tripod that held the student's iPad minis. There are many out there to choose from. I'm not crazy about the one I bought, so I am not going to link to it here. We used the CAST side of the app. We added the GREEN SCREEN effect. We added Titles. Finally, we added Photo Vapps. As you can see I sat on a chair just next to the iPad. I had students build the entire presentation. I had them practice one time before I pressed record. I prefaced it with "Tell us where you are" and "When this picture pops up what are you going to say about characteristics or food, etc". I pressed the photo Vapps, so that the photos would pop up during the presentation and students could concentrate on telling what they learned during the project. I wish there was a way to save and share out the flubs. They were so cute. For our friends who were really nervous or had a hard time with sharing all that information we used an interview style. Ms. LaFleur joined us in the library during her planning period or had the co-teacher cover. We knew that the students learned the information. It was just a matter of getting it out of them. Just because they couldn't do it totally independently doesn't mean they didn't learn something.

Watch the final products here:

Touchcast Channel

SAMR
Substitution - The technology acts as direct tool substitute, with no functional change - Doing the research using the myON digital reading platform - if used without the sound.
Augmentation - The technology acts as a direct tool substitute with functional improvement -  Doing the research using the myON digital reading platform - with the book being read to the students and the use of the image searcher app. They would never have been able to look through thousands of pictures to find just the right one for them. Also using Blendspace as a repository for all digital multimedia content. 
Modification - The technology allows for significant task redesign - recording their projects in the Touchcast app.
Redefinition - The technology allows for the creation of new tasks previously inconceivable - the immediate feedback possible by sharing out the Touchcasts on this blog and on Ms. LaFleur's blog. There was interest by the Brookfield Zoo and Touchcast Education division on Twitter about the process of completing this project.

The Standards 

Common Core ELA
Informational Texts
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.1 - Ask and answer questions about key details in a text. 
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.2 - Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.4 - Ask and answer questions to help determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases in a text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.5 - Know and use various text features (e.g., headings, tables of contents, glossaries, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.6 - Distinguish between information provided by pictures or other illustrations and information provided by the words in a text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.9 - Identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures)
Writing
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.2 - Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.5 - With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond to questions and suggestions from peers, and add details to strengthen writing as needed.
Language
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.1.1 - Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.1.2 - Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.1.4 - Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 1 reading and content, choosing flexibly from an array of strategies.


NGSS
1-LS1-2  - Read texts and use media to determine patterns in behavior of parents and offspring that help offspring survive. 

I had so much fun working with Ms. LaFleur and her talented students!
This is the iMovie I made for the class to say goodbye and document the entire process visually. Enjoy! 
iMovie 

Ed Tech Teacher Summit Boston 2014

Sabba & I before our presentation

I had the pleasure to attend and present at the +EdTechTeacher Summit in Boston November 12-14. On the first day I co-presented with +Sabba Quidwai. The title of our session was iPads in the Elementary Classroom. It was a a full day hands on workshop. We covered many applications during the session, the most popular app, not only in our session, but during the entire conference was Book Creator. While this app cost $6.49, every presenter at the conference agreed it was well worth the money. If you have an iPad classroom you should check it out. There is a free version so that you can preview the app.
Even though we had a lot to cover I think one of the most beneficial parts of our session was when we broke up into groups and everyone was able to share what is working and not working in their own districts. There is something very powerful about being able to tell your own story.

Teachers from all over sharing their stories. 

During the session Sabba and I ran a back channel chat (we used Today's Meet) and we were able to connect with one teacher in particular who was very frustrated by what we were doing. He felt that he could not use the apps we were going over with his students because he did not know them well enough himself. I told him not worry about that. He and his students could learn together. There is no harm in doing that, no matter what the age of the students. I told him the teacher can also be the learner and the teacher is no longer the "sage on the stage" in a 1:1 classroom. It took him awhile to absorb everything, but he seemed to be more comfortable by the time the session was over at 3:30 pm. Thanks to Sabba for such a wonderful experience presenting! If you don't follow her on Twitter you should @askMsQ.


On the 2nd day +Jordan Garrett (@jg_jgarrett) and I presented Bringing PLCs to Life with Google +. This was my first time presenting in front of a large audience of educators that I didn't know. I tried not to think about that fact too much. Our presentation was about using Google + as a communication platform in our district. We chose Google + because we are a GAFE district, meaning all staff has access to Google + Communities. We chose this platform because it is searchable (through the use of keywords and hashtags) and archivable. We have 2 communities. The first one is called The Toolbox.
The Toolbox is a place where staff members can
1. share resources
2. post questions

The resources come in lots of forms:
1. links to favorite apps
2. tutorials
3. curricular ideas.

The posting of questions has taken some stress off of our tech department. Teachers are able to pose questions and get answers in a timely fashion instead of putting in help desk tickets to our tech department. The tech department has also posted tech alerts and tips in The Toolbox. We made The Toolbox private to our domain since there is paid subscription information in it. We also wanted teachers to feel safe to post questions to their colleagues instead of to the entire world.
The second community that we created is called The Fridge. Our superintendent, +Stan Fields , came up with that name. It is a digital repository to post students' finished products, just like you used to post student work on the refrigerator at home. Our students have created some outstanding projects over the last 3 years that we have been 100% 1:1. The projects would just die on their laptop or their teacher's laptop. We wanted our students to know that they have an audience, a wide ranging audience. We are slowing building up the number of projects stored there. Our students are doing great things and we want the world to know about it!