Be Internet Awesome!

This week, Eric Curts provided information on the sessions he will be presenting at the Future of Education Technology Conference in Orlando, which is happening this week. He provides links to the resources for each of his sessions. One session that really interested me was his "Hipster Google: Tools You Have Never Heard Of." As I explored the resources he provided, I came across "Be Internet Awesome." This Google based website provides a full curriculum for teaching children 5 fundamentals of being internet awesome: Share with Care, Don't Fall for Fake, Secure Your Secrets, It's Cool to be Kind, and When it Doubt, Talk It Out. This curriculum is given the ISTE Seal of Alignment.

Additionally, Google provides a free web-based game called "Interland." This online game allows children to explore the online world while learning more about hackers, phishers, cyberbullying and oversharers. This game taught me a few things in just the few minutes I tried it out.

Google also provids family connections to expand this learning outside of the classroom. I can see this being a very useful tool in elementary classroom. My students need to know this information to be responsible digital citizens.

Pear Deck on Deck!

After having 3 snow days, a weekend and holiday to throw off our instructional schedule, I decided it was important to review the Distributive Property one more time before moving on. Eric Curts provided an interesting way of making review and instruction more interactive by using Pear Deck, a Google Slides Add-on. In my previous blog, I briefly explained how it works and provided the link to Eric Curts' step-by-step directions. This week, I implemented it with my third grade class.

Creating the slides was super simple. However, getting kids connected to the program was very challenging. Our students are set up with Google accounts through the district provided email addresses. These addresses have their first and last names, as well as "stu.jefferson.kyschools.us." Having 3rd graders type this once is a challenge. Yet, in order to get logged in, they had to do it twice. It took over ten minutes to get 5 students logged in. I do not have 1-1 technology for my students, so they were placed into small groups for this activity. Once the login process was complete the instruction went very smooth.

I use a group work structure from Kagan called Numbered Heads Together regularly in my classroom. This structure worked well with the group work and interactivity provided by Pear Deck. Students were given think time, independent solving time, share/coaching time, and waited until the next problem was posted. Because students were taking much different amounts of time to solve, I chose to change the lesson to student-directed after several problems, and walked around to monitor. I was still able to see what answers each group submitted, and looked for students to coach other toward the right answers if others were struggling.

Overall, I would say this lesson was a success. I am not sure if the login struggle was worth the interactivity provided within this lesson. However, I am very interested in giving it another try. Once students get more exposure with typing in those emails addresses, I believe the process could move much quicker.

If you are a 1-1 technology school, I would definitely give this add-on a try. If you have suggestions on how to make the login process easier, I would greatly appreciate some feedback!

Creating "Pear-y" Engaging Lessons

Eric Curts, from Control Alt Achieve, explained this week how to use Pear Deck, a Google Chrome add-on that is completely free. By adding the interactive elements Pear Deck offers to your existing Google Slides, students are able to actively participate during classroom instruction. Teachers have the ability to insert many different types of questions, including written responses, multiple choice, number answers, drawings, draggables, and fully functioning websites. Some of these tools are included in pre-made slides and others can be added to existing slides.

In order to try out Pear Deck, I created a Google Slides document that reviewed the Distributive Property, a concept we have been working on for about a week. It was very easy to insert the interactive tools onto the slides. I searched for the tools I wanted within the beginning, during, or end of lesson categories to insert a pre-made slide. I could also insert a question using the "Ask Students a Question" choices. If you are inserting a question from the "Ask Students a Question" choices, you will only see a bar as show below appear on the slide. You can add your question to the top of the slide. Answer choices will only appear on the student device during the presentation.

I was able to try out a presentation using my cell phone. As an instructor, I was able to track the number of students in the lesson, see student responses and choose to display those responses on the screen. As a student, I would follow along with the presentation as the instructor advanced the slides, select answers, and flip between the content and questions.

Using Pear Deck reminds me a lot of my limited experience with Nearpod. Both programs allow for teachers to create interactive presentations to engage students in the learning process. There are several benefits to Pear Deck. One, it is free. Two, it doesn't limit the amount of lessons you can create. Three, it syncs with Google Classroom.

I am still a novice at this tool, but I am looking forward to continued practice and implementing it with my students. If you want to read the detailed step-by-step directions provide by Eric Curts follow the first link below. He also created a follow-up after an update made to explain the new templates. You can find this blog in the second link below.

http://www.controlaltachieve.com/2017/12/peardeck-addon.html

http://www.controlaltachieve.com/2018/01/peardeck-templates.html#more

FINALLY, Eric is hosting a FREE webinar explaining additional Google Slides Add-ons on Thursday, Jan. 18th from 3:30-4:30. Check on the information below.

Supercharge Google Slides with Add-Ons January 18, 2018 - 3:30pm to 4:30pm EST
Webinar link - http://ti.apps.sparcc.org/videopd/20180118-slides-addons (click to register and watch live webinar)
Description: Google Slides is already pretty awesome, but with free Add-Ons you can make it even awesome-er! Learn how to find, install, use, and manage Add-Ons for Slides including tools for finding and inserting free images, creating a photo slideshow from a Drive folder, creating interactive presentations with Pear Deck, batch formatting of text and images, and more.

"I can just Google it later!"

"I don't need to learn that. I can just Google it later!"

These were words from the mouth of a sharp-lipped 3rd grader in my class who was in protest of the assignment I was asking him to do. Shockingly, this occurred on the first week of my School Technology Leadership class. Of course, my rebuttal was that Googling a topic was, in fact, learning because were gaining knowledge of something new.

Was this all it took? Could I trick my students into learning by calling it Googling?

I recently had a classroom project funded that awarded us with four Google Chromebooks. They arrived in my classroom, and the students were eager to use them, often arguing over who would ask to use them first. When my sharp-lipped friend stated his googling intentions, it really made me think of how I would better implement these tools. I reflected on disengaged times throughout the school day. The first that popped in mind was Social Studies Center Work. Typically, students use social studies newspapers to read about a topic and complete the activities to go along with it. Most weeks, these assignments are turned in incomplete or incorrect.

This week was a little bit different. Students needed to research the dates of historic Kentucky events. Prior to beginning this activity, I taught a mini-lesson of how to frame questions around the events given, and where to type key words in order to get the information needed. Many students were engaged, on-task and working cooperatively with the partner they were assigned. The assignment got completed during the first two days. I was impressed by their work. As an extension (and spur of the moment idea), I decided to allow them to use Google Docs to create a poster with additional information about one of the events provided. I taught another mini-lesson about basic features of creating a Google Document, including titling and inserting pictures. Unfortunately, students only had one day to work on this project so far due to Snow Days.

I am looking forward to seeing what they come up with upon our return to school!

Introduction

Hi! My name is Julia Chapin. I am an elementary school teacher, currently taking courses toward completely my Rank I. My technology leadership course this semester requires me to create a blog and share my technology experiences of implementing new technology within my classroom.

I am a tech novice when it comes to implementing technology with students. I am looking forward to learning more about different tools and how they can be use to facilitate students learning and differentiation within the classroom.