Is free always a good thing? Free can also be a teacher's favorite word when looking for resources to use with their students. However, my Grandma taught me something when I was younger and that is, "Nothing is free in life." There are a few tips I can offer so you don't get caught using a website that isn't great.
1) What Information Are You Giving Out? If the website is asking for personal information of your students, then it's a no-go. This should be very simple. 2) Is The Content Valuable? Sometimes free information means you aren't getting the greatest of material to use with your students. 3) Check The Fine Print. Sometimes free doesn't last. Make sure you check to see if there is a trial period. Also check to see if your usage of the site doesn't accidentally auto-renew. You don't want to have a surprise bill showing up. Resources: https://www.techlearning.com/how-to/6-tips-to-ensure-free-education-apps-are-safe
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When our school closure first began, it was very surreal. I would say it didn't really hit me until that first Monday when I was supposed to be back after Spring Break. I had many thoughts running through my head starting with:
Our school closures kind of hit me in waves as well. First, schools were closed till April 13th, then April 30th, then the rest of the school year. The idea of also being stuck at home wasn’t one that an extrovert like myself found appealing either. All of which took a toll on my psyche. I wanted to get out of the house and interact with my students. I had to really take a step back and think first how I could process this event myself. Only then could I really move on to figuring out how to help my students from afar. They were going through some of the same feelings and emotions I had just discussed. I sat down and decided what were three big ideas I had to consider if online learning continued or was made mandatory in the future. You really have to take into account everyone's family dynamics when planning online learning. These are the first topics that came to my mind: A) What if you have a family that doesn't have internet access? Yes, believe it or not there are still families out there that don’t have internet access with no fault of their own. B) What if your family doesn't have enough devices to use at home? This is something I experienced this past Spring with the optional online learning our school district provided. I had one family who had six children who all now had to do some form of online learning. That’s a lot of students for one family device. Luckily our district was able to create a sort of check-out system to distribute Chromebooks to families in need. Personally I felt our district did a fabulous job orchestrating this considering the short turnaround time. C) What about student accountability? Online learning will look very different depending on the grade level you teach. A senior in high school is capable of much more independence in some areas than what a 3rd grader might be. I had to be compassionate in knowing that anything I would give out to my families via Google Classroom the students might need some help accessing from a computer. Which would take away time from the parents. Many of my families began working from home during the pandemic which would be a whole different struggle to manage with working from home and making sure your child was doing their work. I always tried to be available any way I could even for tech support. I know there are many more things to take into account when teaching or learning from home as the situation seems to change daily. So I stress that when you go back to school in the Fall and it is required online learning, optional online learning, or back to some form of face-to-face contact with your students that you still show the same compassion, honesty, and dedication to your students and families that you may have shown during the first few months of school closures. Remember, we are all in this together. When school closures first began, it was very surreal. I would say it didn't really hit me until that first Monday I was supposed to be back after Spring Break. I had many thoughts running through my head from hoping all my students were okay to how would my teaching practices change for the rest of the school year?
If learning is made optional you really have to take into account everyones family dynamics. What if you have a family that doesn't have internet? What if your family doesn't have enough devices to use at home? What about student accountability? These are some of the questions that I had to ask my self when I tried to plan lessons for my students. All these factors can be very daunting for a family to handle when they are working from home as well. You also have to take into account the number of emails that you send out to your families for communications. I had to be mindful of the amount of information I gave out each time and how many times I would email my families. You have to think that like I said before that families are probably being bombarded by emails from work and other places as well. Hopefully as I write this our world will come back to some sense of normalcy Below I've added some resources to consider when working with families remotely. Sources: https://collegian.com/2020/04/category-news-in-the-age-of-remote-learning-mental-health-is-taking-a-hit/ https://www.techlearning.com/news/remote-learning-and-mental-health-preparing-for-back-to-school Growing up if you wanted to do any form of word processing you had only one option: Microsoft Word. However, it is 2020 and Microsoft now has challengers like Google trying to woo you over to their products. If you work in a Google Apps for Education District like I do then you have probably heard of Google Docs. Here is a quick list of some helpful tips I've found while using Google Docs to get the most out of you work.
1) Send a document to someone and make it so they HAVE to create a copy to start This is especially helpful when working with 3rd graders so they all aren't on one document at the same time. If you use Google Classroom this feature is automatically a choice when assigning work to a class. If you don't use this and go through email then make your document only "Viewable" and then have them create a copy once beginning. 2) Send a document to someone and NOT add them as a collaborator. Maybe you want to send a copy of your document to someone via email without adding them as a collaborator–to provide the file to a someone, for instance, or share it with someone outside of your organization for review. Docs can do that: Just open up the File menu and select “Email as attachment.” You’ll be able to select from a variety of formats or even opt to include the text within the email body. If you use Gmail this process is even simpler. 3) Google Docs Mobile Apps Instead of carrying a bunch of papers home each night and breaking your back, try having your students submit typed documents through Docs. I love having the ability to grade student papers from my couch using my phone and the mobile app. 4) Turn your Google Doc into a Webpage. Many teachers have asked me what are some easy ways to make a classroom webpage and I've told them that Google Doc's is one. Simply publish your doc to the web through "File" on the dropdown menu. This was one of the first ways I learned about website design. 5) Get work done without WiFi. Google Docs allows you to work offline with documents you start. This means you could work on the bus, plane, or anywhere you plan to go without an internet connection. Once you connect to the Internet again it will sync up with your Google Drive. There are many more which I will revisit in a post later to come! Are you a 90's kid who is looking for a way to "spice up" your social studies lessons? Check out this article on how Google is incorporating a 1990's classic game into Google Earth!
Business Insider-Carmen Sandiego Article Communication with parents is vital to have a successful classroom. Having multiple options to communicate with parents is also key with parents having busier lives today. One app that I enjoy using with my parents is Google Voice. Google Voice offers many great tools for teachers. Here is a quick list of benefits I've found: 1) A free phone number (Not being able to give out your personal phone number.) 2) Text messaging (Some families are better at texting than calling.) 3) Online voice mall Inbox (Your Voicemail inbox can be easily accessed on any mobile device or computer.) 4) Documentation of conversations with families (No need to stay anymore here.) 5) Not giving out your personal phone number (As you can see I like this one a lot.) Google Voice is easy to set up and if you don't currently have a classroom phone number this might be a good resource for you. Below you will find a video tutorial on how to set up Google Voice and how another teacher uses it. If interested I have included links to the apps for mobile phones at the bottom of this post. Google Voice is also available on the web. Google has made advancements in the classroom over the years. One area they continue to grow in is Google Classroom. Google Classroom acts like a Learning Management System such as Schoology. There are many tips and tricks that the Classroom app offers that many teachers may not know about. Thank you to my friends at Whooo's Reading The Blog for collecting all these great tips I'm about to share. Here are some top tips I found most helpful. You can find the rest in the resources below: 1. “Share with Multiple Classes: If you teach multiple sections of the same course, Google Classroom will create the assignment in each section.” (Alice Keeler) 2. “Adding descriptions to assignments is a good thing to do. The assignments in Classroom become good points of reference for absent students and kids that see their grades and wonder why they are as they are. Spelling out all of the details makes for easy reference later.” (Ditch That Textbook) 3. “Google Classroom can be used by schools and districts to organize and deliver professional development content for teachers.” (Edudemic) 4. “Keep due dates in order with Calendar, now available in Google Classroom.” (Google Classroom) 5. “When an assignment, lesson, or unit doesn’t work, add your own comments–or have students add their own feedback), then tag it or save it to a different folder for revision.” (TeachThought) 6. “Distribute Notes: Rather than focusing on note taking, students are able to focus on discussing. Posting the notes to a Google Classroom announcement allows students to pull up the notes easily and then spend class time talking about them instead of taking them.” (Alice Keeler) More: 3 Reasons to Bring Digital Note Taking to Your Classroom 7. “Students can make comments on the stream. This is awesome because if they have a question, I get an email when the stream post is made, which means I can respond in a timely manner. The other benefit is that sometimes students have the same question and can see that it was asked and perhaps a response has already been posted.” (Zahner History) 8. “Vertically-align student learning by curating and sharing “landmark” student assignments that reflect mastery of specific standards.” (TeachThought) 9. “Create a consistent and descriptive naming convention for your classes before you begin adding them to Google Classroom. Consider including the semester or school year to keep things organized. Example: 7th Period U.S. History 15-16.” (ShakeUpLearning) 10. “Save time at the photocopier when you use the “make a copy for each student” feature. (Google for Education) 11. “Build reading comprehension with daily news with the Google Classroom share button on Newsela.” (Google Classroom) 12. “Set up Classroom for younger students who don’t have Gmail by having your admin create Drive accounts for them.” (Google for Education) 13. “It’s important to be able to manage student responses and provide feedback in a timely manner. The Question tool is quick to use and allows teachers to comment and assign a score to each post.” (Zahner History) https://www.learning.com/news/benefits-google-classroom-integration https://www.wired.com/2014/08/google-classrooms/ Want some helpful tips on how to add some flair to your lessons. Check out this website I helped create with some helpful video editing tools.
Video Styles, Tools and Uses #unipanther4life If you are looking for a tool to help you organize your classroom materials online and work with the Microsoft Office Suit of tools then OneNote is probably your best bet at organizing your thoughts and materials. Being a person who is an avid Google Apps for Education user I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by how in depth Microsoft's OneNote Class Notebook was. Microsoft's OneNote application can be compared to Google's "Google Keep" application. With Google Keep and OneNote both allow you to do the typical note taking practices, however Microsoft's OneNote application takes note taking a step further by integrating more Google Drive type features of creating folders for your notes. With OneNote Class Notebook you can then link websites or other resources from the Internet to be used with your students. Students can also interact more through OneNote Notebook versus Google Keep giving the users more control. Think of it this way: Google Keep-Digital sticky notes, while Microsoft OneNote Notebook-A full digital pencil and paper notebook. In my experience using this tool I found tool to be useful in note only organizing materials for students to use, but also for teachers to help them organize their classroom materials through OneDrive. My only concern at the time of this review is finding a way to better integrate the use of OneNote into a classroom setting either though an LMS (Learning Management System) or some other nature. This is one area I feel Google has a slight advantage with their use of Google Classroom. I do know that Microsoft has come out with their own version of "Classroom" but have yet to try it out first hand. Below you will find a tutorial from Teachers.Tech to help get you started or try this link from Microsoft's Education Website. Apple held what they called a "Special Event" on March 27, 2018. From Lane Tech College Prep High School in Chicago, Illinois. The key highlights they had from this event included:
Out of all these announcements, the features that most excited me as an educator were the single sign-on and the Apple Pencil support. As an educator I feel allowing the use of the Pencil on the cheaper iPads was a smart move as there are so many creative apps out there that students can use for note taking and creating. (www.apple.com/education/products/) With the single sign-on as an elementary teacher this would alleviate a lot of headaches trying to help a younger child get signed on to see their work in whatever service they would use. I currently work for a Google Apps for Education District, so my students are very comfortable with the idea of signing into their Google accounts. The idea of using that feature on an iPad would help open up the use of a single iPad in the classroom. This would also help districts who are strapped for cash make an argument for a small amount of iPads for classrooms as all their students could use the same iPad. Now you may ask why I didn't mention Apple's new Schoolwork app as one of my highlights. Having used Apple Classroom in the past I personally felt it wasn't a "fully-baked" app to begin with. Not enough of my classroom resources could be connected with the app for it be useful. If Apple could figure out a way to integrate more teaching resources (Pearson's eBook resources) into their apps I think that would help them compete more with Google Classroom. I still have hope though... Resources: yohann.com/blog/best-drawing-apps-apple-pencil/ https://www.apple.com/apple-events/march-2018/ |
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AuthorBenjamin's educational experiences include teaching both 3rd and 4th grades all around the state of Iowa. His commitment to students has led to various local and state awards and honors such as being named the 2014 Iowa Technology Educator of the Year and authoring a section of a chapter in Dr. Todd Whittaker's book Start. Right. Now.: Teach and Lead for Excellence on maximizing student potential. |