Pinnacle Visits

There are things about my job that I love. You already know that I love to plan lessons and really look at curriculum and technology integration with teachers. The other thing I love about my job is the opportunity to work with our county's "Pinnacle Leaders."

What's a Pinnacle Leader you ask? It was a program started in the county by our Chief Technology Officer, Debbie Core. The premise is that teachers that really want to utilize technology with their students apply for the program. If accepted, these teachers receive technology to use in their classrooms as well as lots of professional development to help them along the way. Basically, these folks are our teacher leaders in the buildings showing the way in 21st century education. They may be called upon to help their peers with technology integration, deliver professional development in technology integration, or even be our guinea pigs to try new technology within our system.

For the past few days, I have been in nine of those classrooms ranging literally from Kindergarten to 8th grade, from a special needs class to an ESL class. The various personalities and technology comfort level of these teachers are very evident when watching them orchestrate learning using things such as student response systems, SMART Boards, laptops, desktops, and iPads. The excitement and the engagement of the students are almost palatable too. And when I hear someone say, "Kindergarten can't do those things with technology!" I know better and so do our Pinnacle leaders. 

Among my visits, I saw students researching and creating a visual representation of what they have learned, I saw students revisiting text and creating a presentation about the book, I saw students working collaboratively to create an eBook, and more.

These fifteen were charged with using their technology in student centered technology integrated centers. They are doing well, but with our changes in curriculum we can always use new ideas. So...if you had a minimum of five laptops or five iPads, a SMART Board, student response system, a couple of desktops, microphones, cameras, and a document camera, what would you have students doing in your classrooms?

Classroom Strategies that Work - Cooperative Grouping

It has been my experience that elementary teachers have been using cooperative grouping techniques for a while. Research indicates that with effective cooperative grouping, student achievement will grow 27%. According to Marzano, the groups should not be always based on ability, should consistent of small numbers of students, and not be overused. Best practice also indicates to use a variety of grouping such as informal groups (shoulder partner, think, pair, share), formal groups (literature circles, project based learning group), and base groups (homeroom, table group).

So just how can technology help with grouping students? To group students physically while in the classroom, you could use random group selectors. There are many online tools to use as selectors for groups. Check out this blog post to learn about those.

But what about in cyberspace? How can we group students there? Some technology tools that come to my mind are:

• Edmodo
• Blogs
• Wikis
• Google Docs
• Epals
• Flat Classroom Project
• Social Bookmarking
• Skype

For this post, I am going to focus on Edmodo and Skype. I have mentioned Edmodo before for effort and recognition. Edmodo is a secure social networking site for teachers and students that looks very similar to Facebook. Within the Edmodo account, teachers and students have a place to connect, collaborate, share, and discuss content. Edmodo gives you the flexibility to create classes and groups in a safe environment. If you haven't yet, I really encourage you to check it out. Remember, if you work in Gaston County Schools, we have our own Edmodo domain, just ask your ITF for the school code.

Skype allows you to connect with others either by text, video, or voice all by using the user friendly interface of their program and you can do these regardless of where the people are! Skype provides a free and easy way to really show your students that the world is flat. Imagine being able to show your students how to connect with other cultures, learn from other students, and truly expand their world. Please check out this great post on 50 Ways to Use Skype in the Classroom.

Are you using any of these tools for groups or do you have others that you want to share? Please leave a comment!

Best Part of My Job

I have had the privilege of spending time with grade levels this week during their PLC time. I love this part of my job. We were able to delve into the curriculum and plan lessons integrating technology, both for teacher use as well as students from kindergarten through fifth grade.

http://eatoneducationalinsights.edublogs.org/files/2012/04/common-core-2d1rbn5.jpg 

I have mentioned before in my blog how much I enjoy curriculum and with all of the changes this year with common core, I felt like I was losing touch with that part of education. Spending three days looking at science and social studies across the elementary span has been enlightening. It  has been interesting to hear first hand from teachers how teaching expectations have changed and what they are doing to meet those challenges within their classroom.

I will say that every single one of them are working hard to make sure their students are getting the education they need and deserve.The group of teachers at this school are willing to embrace incorporating technology as well, which makes my job easier.

I just want to say thanks to them for allowing me to be a part of their PLC and I look forward to our monthly sessions!

Overwhelmed

I saw a cartoon posted in one of my schools recently. It shows a desk piled high of work and a person kind of buried in the middle of the paperwork. The caption reads, "I am not overwhelmed...I am in demand!"

As an Instructional Technology Facilitator for eight schools, I too am "in demand." Our county has a lot going on right now...common core rollout, beginning of year assessments, Gmail rollout, SMART Board training, technology integration, reading workshop, and on and on. You can walk through the elementary halls and feel the tension as teachers are redoing everything. You hear veteran teachers exclaim,"I feel like a first year teacher!"

When I start to feel overwhelmed, there are some things that I do that help me put everything back into perspective.

• First, I think about all the blessings that I have. 
• I exercise. Right now that means getting up an hour before I would have to, but the benefits have helped me deal with the stress.
• I try my best to surround myself with positive people. Negativity pulls me down so quickly and so fast, I prefer to try to look for the positive. 
• I take deep breaths. The other day, right in the middle of a Gmail training, I had to stop and take a deep breath. That calmed me and the participants as well. They took note of their actions while I was taking that breath!
• When I go home at the end of the day, I welcome my fur babies into my lap and spend a few minutes loving on them and allowing them to love on me. It is amazing how much calmer I am while I am petting my dogs.
• Finally, I take a break. I just returned from a twelve day vacation. I feel rejuvenated and ready to tackle things again.

We are all faced with seasons of stress or being in "demand" at some point in our lives. We can allow it to make us physically sick or we can find ways to cope. How do you cope? Please share your ideas as well. 

Classroom Strategies that Work . . . Non-linguistic Representations

We teach right? When we teach, we usually talk to the students about the content or perhaps have them read about the content. We depend on the students to create their own mental imagery. We focus on the linguistic. What about those students that don't know how to create their own mental images or those students that rely on images to truly understand content. Research indicates that knowledge is stored in two forms: linguistic (associated with words) and nonlinguistic (mental images or physical sensations like smell, touch, sound, or movement). The more we use nonlinguistic representations, the better we are at recalling our knowledge.

What are some ways to create nonlinguistic representations.

• Graphic Organizers or other graphics
• Physical models
• Pictures and Pictographs
• Engaging in movement activities

Simple application of using technology with nonlinguistic representations would be to include clip art and photos to handouts, word walls, and vocabulary sheets. Use video clips and slideshows while presenting the content. 

To really increase learning, involve students in the creation of the nonliguistic representations.Which brings me to the technology to use.

Animoto provides educators a free Animoto Plus account for classroom use. I honestly love Animoto and its ease of use to create beautiful, Hollywood quality, "movies" that incorporate images, video clips, music, and text. Think Hollywood book or movie trailer. It is so easy to use that it frees you up to think about the content. You can share your creation via email, an embed code, uploading to YouTube, or downloading to add to a presentation. Sign up for your free educator account and try it out. I think you will love it too.

Google Lit Trips (and Google Earth of course) According to Google Lit Trip's website, GLT "are free files that mark the journeys of characters from famous literature on the surface of Google Earth." It utilizes Google Earth's ability to add placemarks with popup windows to contain relevant resources such as images, video clips, or links for that part of the story. The is another love of mine especially creating such trips using images from Discovery Education.

If you have an iPad, then you have to know about Puppet Pals or Sock Puppets. Both allow you to create your own shows with animation and audio. Choose your actors and tap to record. Your movements are recorded as well. I highly recommend both!