I created a Twitter challenge for teachers to take place the 12 days before holiday break. The purpose of this challenge to help teachers grow their PLC and gain a comfort with using social media tools to celebrate their classroom successes. There are two challenge posted here. The first is the MGM 12 days of Twitter Challenge and a Twitter Bingo Board that will be introduced in January.
I used Smore to create the invitation so I could embed to the Google form to collect Twitter handles of all participates. I learned of a new tool called Canva and used that to create the daily challenge posters to post and email out each day. I used Google Drawings to create the bingo board so I could share it with others in my PLC. Thanks to Becky Steurrys, Digital Learning Coach in my PLC, for sharing her Canvas and Google Drawing templates for this project. I only steal from the best , Becky! For the prizes, I have been asking admin and district office professionals to check closets for conference freebie's, calling business partners, asking PTO to donate a school shirt or Tervis, and crossing my fingers the Chick-fil-a will provide two Cow calendars for the grand prize. So far I have a pair of Google Cardboard, wireless mouse, and two mac keyboard covers that tell you all the shortcut key strokes. Hearing "No" does not hurt me. You don't know someone's spirit for giving if you don't share your need with them. Don't be afraid of a "no" and keep smiling, keep smiling, keep smiling. :-) MGM Twitter Bingo
I created a Twitter Bingo board for teachers wanting to expand their PLC and participate on their own schedule. I worked to incorporate classroom celebrations, following education professionals and organizations, and participation in Twitter chat opportunities. I am most excited about the school edchat I will host with my administrator. This Twitter chat will be in place of having our weekly PD meeting.
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My final day of the Instagram venture had me investigating video posts and the fantastic find of.....the embed code! How awesome is that?! I was able to embed my short Thanksgiving vacation video to my blog. I like that I can capture video, as well as, images with my portable computer (a.k.a. my cell phone) and then collate all those common media into a webpage using embed code.
I still lean more to the consumer side of social media than the creator side. This social experiment gave me the opportunity to learn a new tool, decide my audience and purpose for using this in my life or classroom. I can see myself moving more toward an Instagram user and less Facebook for family connections. Twitter is my place for classroom and professional connections. Whether it be a funny video that makes me laugh, an inspirational quote to focus my students, a link to a professional reading, or the opportunity to share amazing students work with the world, I appreciate social media platforms for providing the resources I need in my social, emotional, and professional life. With Instagram, images can be left to stand alone and speak for themselves. This leaf IS as big as your head.
Think I have decided to make Instagram my personal platform for friends and family. I will keep Facebook and Twitter my professional posts and PLC connection. This trip to the antique store while on vacation had me seeing tons of older technology; record players, radios, manual push mowers, and bag phones!
I learned about an app called Layout. I kept seeing all these posts with a collage of photos and I could not find that feature in Instagram and did some investigation (asked an online instagram friend). Layout for Instagram is SUPER easy to use and integrates right into the app via the camera roll of the phone. This is Oconaluftee national park off the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Great Smokie Mountains of North Carolina.
I am still struggling with how I want to use this account, personal or professional. Today I posted my "Little Bits" enjoying lunch with our time away from school. I rarely post my children and never post their names. In the spirit of the assignment I am posting in all areas of my life and reflecting on the purpose and audience.
Side note on this photo: I decided to play around with the filter functions because my youngest was having an allergic reaction when the photo was taken and her face was covered in red blotches. This filter worked well. :-) It is Tuesday and we are out for a 3 day break. This picture shows the holiday traffic already backing up I-20 but I don't care. Bring on the crisp air of the mountains and a platter of cornbread dressing! I am finding Instagram is very easy to use, take picture, write comment, post. What I am learning is that Instagram is primarily app based. I thought it would be much like Facebook or Twitter and have all the same functions for both web-based and app versions of Instagram. That is not the case. My goal today was to find the privacy settings and I approached it via the web. The settings were limited on the web but the app had it all. Blocking users, turning account privacy on, and linking other social media accounts were all under the settings gear in the app.
I did it! I finally did it! After a year of harassment from my middle schoolers, I have created an Instagram account. I toiled over what my first post would be and landed on a picture of my newly created account. I found 20 of my friends and favorite news outlets to follow so I am off to a good start. Until I get the hang of Instagram, this account will be professional and private. Goal for tomorrow.....find the privacy settings and hide. I had fun creating a digital story totally on my cell phone. I help students all day long to create and edit digital stories on their iPads. It was interesting to turn the camera on myself and experience their anxiety and satisfaction of a completed story about myself beginnings in teaching. Snuck in my autographed picture of Bernadette Peters. She started my love for musical theater, leading me to a career in education, and a job that allows me to work with a brilliant group I call family.
I have been part of a mobile device experiment for the past five years. I have been teaching in a district where all middle and high school students are issued an iPad Air to use and do their work. I call it an experiment because over the past 5 years , each year we have learned something new or had to change our approach to reflect technology innovation. In the beginning I thought using mobile devices in the classroom was a fantastic idea. Now, I'm not sure it is for every teacher or student. With all students having a hand held access point to anytime information, teachers have learned to change their teaching methods, how they manage student work, and assessment strategies. I interviewed Joe Addis who just completed his National Board renewal for science. Mr. Addis is learning to evolve as a teacher in the world of mobile devices. Listen as he discusses the district expectations for iPads in the classroom and his strategies for managing the devices in his classroom. Students are expected to have the device everyday in all class but Mr. Addis has begun to incorporate digital assessment features, so it is pertinent that all students have the device ready for use in class. Mr. Addis spoke about challenges for both students and teachers using mobile devices. In the 5 years we have been providing iPads to middle school students in my district, we have seen a change in behavior issues for students. Middle school is a trying time for students and parents. Adding an open portal to the world, via the iPad, can cause behavior at home and school for many 6th through 8th graders. Many times the negative changes in behavior or organizational structure can affect academic success. Mr. Addis shared his challenges for students and teachers that he has experienced since mobile devices have been introduced. I have experienced a slow steady stream of parent frustration with mobile devices introduced into their homes and their students academic life. I have found that parents are divided into two groups, the ones who want to help and monitor academics, and the others who are seeing changes in behavior and don't know how to monitor online use. Mr. Addis shares how parents can monitor academics through the district PowerSchool and Schoology (LMS) portals. He also talks about the importance of setting the expectations for mobile devices with parents from the first day of school and making them aware of the school policies. Our students are filtered 24/7 for inappropriate content and are blocked from Apps higher than a 9+ rating. We our district initially began providing iPads to students, their was a mindset for open access to web content, app store, and no device management structure. Wow, have we learned some lessons! Through this experiment, I have learned that providing teachers with digital content and a structure for digital workflow is the only way to help teachers and students move beyond using the iPad as just an internet browser. I also agree with Mr. Addis that parents need more help and assistance transitioning into the world of mobile devices. Whether it's a phone provided by parents or an iPad issued at school, parents need to better understand digital citizenship, online safety, and academic monitoring to make mobile computing successful at home and school. We have seen great success this year from the gradual release of the Apple App store to students. Using what we have learned from the last 5 years and parent and teacher feedback, 6th grade students only have access to a school approved app catalog where only apps used in the classroom are available for download. The Apple App Store is not active on 8th grade student iPads. This has deemed successful among teachers and parents and given students time to learn how to manage work digitally and be responsible for the care of the device. Mr. Addis is collaborating with his science team to create digital formative assessments using the district provided LMS, Schoology. The team found a need to provide more performanced based task in their instruction and on assessments. Mr. Addis is working to have students use the iPad for in class assessments to determine if hands-on labs and videotaped experiments have an effect on student data for performanced based questioning. Below you will see screenshots of mastery data in the Schoology system. Because the science classes used digital formative assessment in Schoology, they were able to analyze the data the same day, determine areas of weakness, and take steps to improve instruction for the next day. His collaboration with the science team is really doing whatever it takes to make students successful. I appreciate Mr. Addis sharing his thoughts and work with me.
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Amy DentInstructional Coach, tech geek, news junkie, and passionate about learning. Archives |