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Tuesday, December 21, 2021

Canva for Education

Canva is now offering Canva for Education available free of charge for all Teachers and Middle School/High School Students.

Introduction lesson:
FSS - Used with 8th Grade Social Studies to record projects - Declaration of Independence Project
LBMS - Goals for 2022 

I used Canva for Education in my Fall FSU course and the University provided training materials

Slides  and Canva 

 

More coming 

Monday, December 6, 2021

December - Hour of Code

 It's December and Hour of Code - December 6th - 12th 2021

Go to https://hourofcode.com/us/learn
 Here is a presentation  and choice board  will share with teachers 

 
 Choice board
 

 What will you try?

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Teaching and Reflecting with Portfolios

 I have been teaching and reflecting with students on the use of portfolios for learning for several years.

Below is a video explaining how I am working with multiple grade levels to create, update and share student work.

I previously created a presentation https://bit.ly/fssportfoliopresentation that II have used with staff and student to explain the process and the purpose.  

   
*Video update 10/21 with steps / screencastify
* Adding content for parent conferences here

As teachers we are asked to work on SMART Goals setting Professional and Students Goals. There are lots of resources from DESE and resources. They can then use the Portfolios allow for new teaching strategies with the intentional integration of technology and a variety of options for students to showcase and reflect on their learning. Other ideas would be for the students to create SMART goals that connect to their learning and record their portfolio to reflect on their learning.  

I am hoping to add a little structure so teachers can coordinate artifact planning here  https://bit.ly/portfolioartifactplanning   in order to plan for student led conferences and share with other schools in the district.  Here is a link https://sites.google.com/nrsd.net/proudmoments that continues with the RLA Proud Moments from 2020-2021


Friday, October 1, 2021

October Newsletter with Wakelet

As we kick off the month of October 2021, I thought it would be helpful to share a newsletter with some back to school tips around Technology and Curriculum. I decided to create the Newsletter in Wakelet here is the link https://wke.lt/w/s/pjjuwY  and I can also gets a QR code, embed or tweet.

Here are some Wakelet tips and tutorials
- Create a Collection Video - help center



Monday, September 20, 2021

Return to school PD topics (SEL and Google Arts and Culture updates)

PD NRSD 2021-2022 

Kicking off the new year with District Professional Development options:

Acceleration Roadmap: Pathway to an Equitable Recovery
https://www.doe.mass.edu/covid19/on-desktop/roadmap/educator-edition.pdf

Digital Citizenship 
SEL Middle School Activities to Promote SEL in Digital Life 

Other Topics this month .... 

Google Arts&Culture - Twitter @googlearts

Google Expeditions gone .. Now what?

New Teacher Guide on Using Google Arts and Culture -  here

Find Google Expeditions on the website. - Go to https://artsandculture.google.com/ 

  1. Start at the Google Arts and Culture homepage.
  2. Pick Themes in the the three menu line upper left or here https://artsandculture.google.com/project 
  3. Then Learn with Google Arts and Culture 
  4. Click “View” under “Take all the field trips.” https://artsandculture.google.com/project/expeditions 
There is a guide on how to take a field trip

Explore 


 





How to Take a Field Trip - link 












There are Google Arts and Culture Badges *13 here 

* New Teacher Guide here
More - Blog Post by Tom Mullaney - Finding Expeditions in Google Arts and Culture


Friday, June 25, 2021

That’s A Wrap for the School Year 2020-2021 while teaching in a pandemic

That’s A Wrap for the School Year 2020-2021 while teaching in a pandemic

Wednesday, June 2, 2021

Hello June

Made it to June! As we head into June, our last month of the 2020-2021 school year, I want to stop and reflect.  This has been the the most challenging year in my teaching career.  The combination of transferring into a different school in my district and teaching during the Covid pandemic with new staff and students has test my resilience.  
It made me stop and reflect on our teaching model and how it does not work.  We schedule our learning into blocks and place value on certain subject over others. With teachers and staff being forced into using technology online has provided a sense of urgency that has been lacking for the last decade in public education. When the pandemic hit in March of 2020 teachers moved entirely to an online model, primarily using Google Meet or Zoom to connect with students.  Teachers moved from delivering lessons and lectures to redesign their lessons for remote learning.  In September of 2020 we returned to school in a hybrid model teaching part of a class on Monday and Tuesday and the other part on Thursday and Friday.  On Wednesdays we delivered lessons to remote students along with student that stayed in a remote models.  We focused on teaching differently with a Professional Development lenses on Social Emotional Learning. In addition to adjusting for K-12 teaching, I also had to revisit the delivery for my graduate classes focused on the integration of technology in various models with teachers that were learning and adjusting their practices. This opportunity provided me with empathy for their roles as classroom teachers during such a difficult year.  I did find the combination of the two models pushed my thinking, creativity and comfort level delivering instruction.  There are times I thrived in this model and there were pockets of just surviving the situation. 

As a educator and a digital learning coach I have always thrived whether teaching in public education or higher-ed. The last year has made me wonder about how to spend more of my time thriving and less reacting to situations beyond my control.  New challenges and opportunities can be very intimidating but staying is a system that traps or prevents you from thriving is also not good. I plan to reflect more on this topic over the coming months and connect with other educators that are feeling the same impact of the moment.  

I've had this quote hanging in my office for a number of years.  There have been many people that have inspired me over the years and at the same time there have been situations that just drain teachers and we do not have control over.  The only thing we may be able to control is surrounding ourselves with leaders and colleagues that help to inspire me.  We always have choices.   Stay tuned for more thoughts on this topic. I plan to read more this summer on reimaging September when I teach this summer and also begin to think about how the fall could look different.

Thursday, May 27, 2021

Design Thinking Challenges and STEM

I am a big fan of Design Thinking and Project Based Learning and have helped teachers implement at the high school and graduate level. I am NOT an expert but every time I used design thinking, I always doubt myself, I am not sure of my skills when facilitating.  But what I have noticed each time is about half way through the process I see collaboration, creativity and students enjoying learning!

As we head into June and kids are tired of screens I find they either want to play a game, go outside of do an activity. Who can blame them, it's been a challenging year! 
 
So this month we did a Virtual STEM night as a school that students could do with their families.  The idea was an 8th grade student fundraiser project.  When I was asked to participate on a Friday night, I thought, this is too hard to do this activity this year.  Well, I was wrong.  We organized the evening based on a presentation at MassCUE from the Littleton School district.  I setup a flipgrid so families could share out their design challenge.  It was so great to see families work  together to solve a problem and the record their findings.  So, this sparked me thinking about the next few weeks and implementing design challenges with students. 

We did the 5 Chair Design and Wallet Challenge this month! Presentation here

The wallet design challenge (originally “Wallet Project”) is a 90-minute design thinking project from the d.school in which participants pair up, learn about each others’ wallets, brainstorm, and prototype a new useful and meaningful solution for their partner. It is an engaging and immersive activity into the full-cycle of the design thinking process, stressing the importance of empathy, bias towards action, and human-centered design. Participants jump right into the challenge (any lecturing or mention to the actual methods used is completely discouraged) and experience the process for themselves. After all, as taught at the d.school, design thinking is a misnomer: it is more about doing that thinking.

Note: If you plan to run this or a similar workshop in your organization, make sure to check the facilitators’ guide and other resources provided by the d.school.  

Designing the ideal wallet
The first task of the challenge is to tell participants to design a better wallet, the “ideal” wallet. The purpose of this step is to contrast a solution-focused approach to problem solving (typical for many people, specially in engineering environments) to a human-centered approach, in which instead of being given a problem and going right into a solution, you explore the problem space and dive deeper, observing, listening and learning from the person you are designing for. Designing for someone else is a longer process, and the first and most important step in this process is to gain empathy.

Gaining Empathy
The next step in the challenge is to have participants pair up, and ask them to design some “useful and meaningful” for their partner. Participants interview each other and walk their partner thought the content of their wallets. Asking “Why?” often is a great way to elicit stories and dig for feelings and emotions.

*See Class Tweets Intro  - 

Reframing the problem
After learning and collecting stories from their partners, participants are given some time to gather their thoughts and synthesize their leanings into goals and insights. Goals represent participants’ needs. Goals should be thought as verbs instead of nouns (ever heard of Henry’s Ford quote: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”?), since nouns already bring solutions to the table and reduce the chances of finding new opportunities. Insights are responses and discoveries related to those needs, inferences from what was previously learned.

Ideating: Brainstorming and generating alternatives
Once the participants have formulated their problem statement, they are ready to generate ideas to overcome that problem. Indeed, the best way to get great ideas is to get a lot of ideas: going for quantity, deferring all judgement, encouraging wild ideas, and being visual is basically everything that’s needed in this step (do not think even remotely about feasibility).

Iterating based on feedback
Capturing feedback is a critical part of the design thinking process. When participants share their ideas with each other, they should understand the importance of listening and fighting the urge to defend and explain their concepts. Being open to feedback generates opportunities (new insights) to learn more about the users and their problems. In this step, participants will generate a single idea which can be based on their previous ideas or be something completely new.

Building and testing
This is without any doubt my favorite part of the workshop: rapid and dirty prototyping! Creating a physical representation of a solution is the easiest, quickest, and cheapest way to validate ideas and get feedback from others. More than a scale model of an idea, a prototype can be used to test experiences that people can react to through interaction and engagement. Participants make use of any available materials they have and build something tangible to be shared with their partners to gather feedback, paying attention to how they use and misuse the prototype and always keeping an open mind for new ideas.

Reflection and takeaways
In the last step of the workshop, the whole group gathers together and shares their prototypes with others. The debrief and reflection part of the exercise has the power to turn a merely fun activity into a meaningful experience with takeaways that participants can apply in their field of work and life. In about one hour and half, participants realized how easy it can be to know and engage with each other; and they learned how to work together and combine their skills to create and build things that they care about, for people who they care about.

Summary
It would be impossible to list all the values behind human-centered design: empathy, experimentation and prototyping, collaboration, overcoming fear of failure, a bias towards action and openness to feedback are at the essence of the design thinking process. 

Presentations
I created a slide deck and each person presented their findings. This could easily be done in a flipgrid to record and share with a larger audience.



Another great connection to the process was to  use this with the HS Design Thinking projects this month!  It's great to connect with other educators and continue to celebrate student work!

Sunday, April 25, 2021

Spring - Design Thinking -PBL-Badging and more

Returning from April school vacation and thinking about the next 4-6 weeks as we wrap up the school year.  We have been working on Google Workspace credentials and a Digital Passport with badging credentials.  This has caused me to revisit options for other 21st Century Skills here and badging. With our district focus on SEL I thought it would be a good opportunity to looks at skills such as Empathy, Resilience, Collaboration and Digital Fluency just to have a few. Many of these skills connected with the topics of Design Thinking and PBL.

Learn more about badging here 

 

In addition to exploring badging during the first trimester of school I provided students with choice boards and topics. I introduced them to a DT lesson the design chair challenge with students and after survey the them, they requested more lessons from incorporating the design thinking challenge. I have seen these challenges work well at the high school level and plan to experiment more over the upcoming weeks.

PBL https://www.pblworks.org/get-started 

Here is a resource from @CommonSenseEd 8 Steps to Implementing Design Thinking in Your Classroom https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/8-steps-to-implementing-design-thinking-in-your-classroom 

In the past I have used the Stanford d school wallet challenge and recently found Teaching Entrepreneurship online Design the Ideal Wallet version - (Here is the Wallet Facilitator Guide & Worksheets)

I may combine the options above with student designed choiceboards eith exosndrd options.

Options from a previous post last fall as I closed out the semester  http://techdi.blogspot.com/2020/10/choiceboards-and-design-your-own.html?m=1 along with other resources to explore!

1 Caitlin Tucker https://catlintucker.com/2016/04/design-your-own-digital-choice-board/

2. https://twitter.com/shakeuplearning/status/1260361115478958080?s=21

Stay tuned as we design and post our year end choiceboards next week! 

Thursday, April 8, 2021

District PD - Focus SEL for the School Year

This year we focused on SEL for our Professional Development initiative.

In the fall we selected the self directed activity option for PD.  The course Managing Emotions in Times of Uncertainty and Stress seem like the perfect caption for this school year as we dealt with the pandemic, remote, hybrid and the full return to school.  The course was well designed.  The focus started with teachers well-being before helping others.  Each module had videos, readings and a quiz.  It helped taking the class with a colleagues as we discussed parts of the class and strategized over ways to implement in a K-8 school.  

The course by Marc Brackett (Coursera Online Course) was a great option. Where it was self-directed I found myself moving through the course and assignments quickly in order to plan for classroom SEL activities and lessons.
Course info: Managing Emotions in Times of Uncertainty & Stress 

Developing the social and emotional skills we need to support ourselves and those we care about is the journey of a lifetime about is the journey of a lifetime!

  1. Introduction to SEL and the Emotions Matter Mindset
  2. Identifying Our Emotions
  3. Managing Our Own Emotions with Action Strategies
  4. Managing Our Own Emotions by Shifting How We Think
  5. Becoming a Culturally Responsive Emotion Scientist
  6. Identifying Others’ Emotions
  7. Helping Others to Manage Emotions
  8. Putting It All Together: Making Commitments to Lasting Change
We then curated our learning in the presentation and video reflection.

http://bit.ly/NRSD_SEL_Reflection_Marotta Video reflection https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ektGpgv1VXFGx-f798te4n2DIY85IqNI/view

Monday, April 5, 2021

Start of Trimester three with full return to school

Today, April 5th is the start of trimester with the full return to school.  I am glad I have been focusing on SEL not only to help with my anxiety but also the needs of students.

The scheduling of classes has shifted from not only new students in trimester three meeting two periods per week but also a mix of T1/T2 classes from earlier in the year.  

I am redesigning curriculum this week to meet the needs of classes that are continuing Digital Literacy and re-teaching introduction with a focus on digital tools and portfolios.  I am hoping to explore more option with the students I am continuing and explore topics in the area of Project-Based-Learning, Design Thinking using Howdou for Learn by Doing with Google Workspace tools.

One way to access student work in Google's Rubric feature in classroom. I have found several good resources for Rubrics depending on the project.  AdobeEDU, ISTE Rubrics posted here  You can also checkout  Digital Promise  they have "New Rubric guides for classroom technology use" to help teachers reflect on the progress on impactful use "Impactful Technology Use (ITU) Rubric" pdf here  more on Digital Promise rubrics here and twitter

 

Tuesday, March 16, 2021

SEL - Student Engagement and PBL

Working on practicing some SEL / Mindfulness activities with student this month.  I feel I have a better understanding once I put into practice and reflect on the impact.  I this this at both the graduate and K-12 level this month.  Some of the ways I explored Jamboard Activities that focus on SEL along with Mindfulness activities from Pear Deck to support student learning.  Pear Deck's blog provided some great posts on SEL and that SEL Is Not Extra, It's Essential. I brought some gaming activities into the classroom with Gimkit this year and one of the new features, "Draw That" has allowed the student to have some fun at the beginning or end of class and gives everyone a change to connect!  See more here: https://blog.gimkit.com/blog/draw-that 

As part my district initiative around SEL I took the online ten hours class on "Managing emotions in time of uncertainty" - https://www.coursera.org/learn/managing-emotions-uncertainty-stress

I try to listen to podcast and other resources for a different perspective on SEL and I recently listened to - John Spencer and Dr. Martinez -  Connecting SEL - PBL - Spencer Poscast  
As many schools shift toward hybrid and in-person learning, teachers are considering new ways to empower students, including PBL. If you're interested in taking a deeper dive into PBL, check out the information on the self-paced PBL courses I've created. You can find the information at the bottom of this email.

Jon's latest article is about PBL and SEL. If you're not familiar with SEL, you might want to listen to the podcast interview I did with Dr. Lorea Martinez, who is a true expert on this subject. You can also check out her practical book Teaching with the HEART in Mind.

Social-emotional learning has become a bit trendy lately. However, it’s more than merely a trend. SEL is a critical part of student soft skill development. In my latest article, I explore the relationship between project-based learning (PBL) and social-emotional learning (SEL). It’s an idea that Matinga Ragatz and Mike Kaechele explore in their upcoming book The Pulse of PBL and their thinking on this subject has definitely shaped my thinking on this powerful overlap as well. In fact, before you dive into this piece, you might want to check out Mike Kaechele’s articles on the Marriage of SEL and PBL as well as how to combine SEL and PBL in your classroom."

SEL in Digital Life by Commonsense graphic  https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1Eb07J2xsgqYRqbdGZOVC3VvnnVN5b_ioEUbRjgrYz1Y/mobilebasic

I've have always seen the importance of SEL in teaching but the pandemic has escalated that need for staff and students!

April Poetry Month

 April is Poetry Month - Here are some activities I will be doing with students and using technology.

Suggestions from Eric Curts 

Other Poetry Activities
1.  Magnetic Poetry Lesson (blog) - Click here for a copy of the template.
2. Group Activity - Poetry with Mote for Recording
     Google Slides and using MOTE
3. Word Cloud Shapes and Poetry http://www.teachingace.com/poetry-fun-with-word-clouds
4. Jamboard https://www.freetech4teachers.com/2021/02/magnetic-poetry-with-google-jamboard.html
5. Poetry and music https://poetry.arizona.edu/blog/five-poetry-lesson-plans-inspired-music-sound and Color: The Science of Color
6 Poetry - Generator https://www.poem-generator.org.uk/ 

Optional lesson  - The Science of Color & Options

  • "Introduction to Color" Khan Academy module together. When you arrive at the module, be sure to log into Khan Academy using Google. https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/pixar/color/color-101/v/color-science-1

  • Then, we'll "listen: to an episode of Radiolab entitled "Colors." While we are listening, I encourage you to keep your hands busy by doing some coloring. We'll be chatting about things we noticed, found interesting, etc. at the end of each listening session. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RCW8hG6zQ1ZIR2p0Kd80xNfgROx7CaKv/view?usp=sharing

  • Finally, we'll read the poem "Colors" by Steven Vincent Benet and work to create a poem (any form, rhythm, meter, etc.) that utilizes color in a creative, unexpected way. https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/colors/

 

Reflecting of using Portfolios for Parent Conferences

 Reflecting of using Portfolios for Parent Conferences

Monday, February 8, 2021

Nearpod Campengage

 I attend Nearpod  @nearpod virtual PD see twitter posts #CampEngage yesterday. 

I have only used the basics of nearpod for SEL but after participating in "Time to Climb" game for review, I now want to create one for class.  https://nearpod.com/blog/time-to-climb-how-to/ 

From their blog - Nearpod is all about creating engaging and rigorous student experiences. Seeing the rise of games in the classroom, we decided to put on our thinking caps and consult with experts (yes, including students, too!) to create the most engaging gamified quiz out there and make it available to you – for free!

Time to Climb is a highly interactive gamified activity within the Nearpod #StudentEngagement Platform. Students race to the top of the mountain against the clock by answering multiple choice questions. Time to Climb activities are great for bell ringers, learning checks, exit tickets and more. Plus, because it’s built within the Nearpod platform, it seamlessly integrates with the rest of your lesson (after all, we hate multi-tab teaching just as much as you do).

We are focusing on SEL Lessons for our PD this month and several of the lessons offer meditation lessons, see here.  I also found this Valentine/SEL blog post to try out. 
Nearpod and Calm

So much to learn and try over the next month.  In addition to all of their online videos from their PD session.

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Using Digital Tools for SEL, DT and other PD Topics

Rethinking, lessons, delivery, pacing and SEL this month.

  • Lesson Design at FSU (Redesign for full Remote deliver) some of the tools I will be using:
    • Hyperdocs, Jamboard, Design Thinking, PearDeck, Nearpod and Interactive Notebooks all curated on Google Sites Portfolios

  •  District PD on SEL - Online Course "Managing Emotions in Times of Uncertainty & Stress" This course has inspired me to create activities for advisory sessions and especially students in Remote Learning Academy classes,
During the month of February I will be coordinating a "Virtual Tech Tasting" in my district with a focus on on Using Digital Tools for SEL. 
  • I will be focusing on Jamboard and also my experience with Nearpod this year! I have curated many of the resources in Wakelet along with a presentation and Jam.  Which can be found here http://bit.ly/LBMStechtasting2021 
Other topics in March will be the annual #DLDMedfield Day of Learning where I will co-present a recorded session on Design Thinking strategies that I have been using the last several years. bit.ly/letsjamdt  


I am proud that my high school colleagues have continue to share their knowledge and Design Thinking journey and recorded their session here "If you feel you're sinking, try Design Thinking" http://bit.ly/designthinkwhenyousink 

Over the years we have done the Ideal Wallet Challenge, (now available as online /remote) dStandord https://dschool.stanford.edu The Five Chair Challenge /pdf  (student response and designs)
Other options: John Spencer's Launch -Tiny House and Global Day of Design.  

So lots going on in addition to working on MS Curriculum and pacing guides and lessons!  I will be teaching my FSU grad class / Lesson Design and plan to redesign many of the lessons using engagement tools and techniques I have been exploring this year along with many of the SEL strategies I am learning and applying with teachers and students.

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

Here we go 2021

A few things I am working on this month.
















Lessons and tools I am work on this month
  • MLK Videos
  • Portfolios
  • Word Art
New Tech Tools 
  • New Technology Tools, I am exploring layer with zoom typed connections 
    (spacial chat, Gather and Remo)