Grade 8 1:1 Chromebook Initiative and Digital Footprint

Tomorrow our district will embark on our Grade 8 1:1 Chromebook initiative with Mr. Newton (@GreggNewtonNRSD) at Hale Middle School. We will be reviewing Chromebook Guidelines (Read more here) along with the importance of managing your online presence that I discuss with high school students on my class site.

Here are a few resources that we will use:

• Introducing the Chromebook
  Upcoming Announcements - Twitter/District Technology
• Managing your Footprint/ Commonsense Media
• My Class Site with Chromebook Resources
• Presentation for incoming Freshmen / Digital Footprint

Chromebooks



Digital Footprint / Commonsense Media


Discussion Topics - The Good - The Bad and The Ugly
- Presentation/Prezi for incoming Freshmen / Digital Footprint

THINK before you post .......

Consequences of Posts and please remember to "THINK" before you post or publish!

Examples:

•  "One bad tweet can be costly to a student athlete" shar.es/1vk6bi 
• 5 Tips for Parents in the Digital Age buff.ly/1hU1KIC

http://

My Twitter feed mmarotta

Welcome Back!

We are back to school!  Teacher are updating their Classroom Websites this week.  A few teachers wanted to have their twitter-feed appear on their Google site.  As a reminder, check out my class site and note under the Google Menu http://googleforeducation.blogspot.com/2015/08/head-back-to-school-with-new-features-in-Google-Classroom.html there are  tips on embedding a twitterfeed to your site.  I was happy to see the presentation on Digital Learning on opening day and the discussion around SMAR.  Our HS staff have been working on the SAMR model and posted reflections last year.

Additionally, there will be new features with Google Classroom coming soon!

Keep students engaged with question-driven discussions 

Since Classroom launched last year, teachers have been using their class stream to host student debates, Q&A and discussions. Starting today, you’ll be able to do this in a more collaborative way. You can post questions to your class and allow students to have discussions by responding to each other’s answers (or not, depending on the setting you choose). For example, you could post a video and ask students to answer a question about it, or post an article and ask them to write a paragraph in response.

Reuse posts 

You know those lessons that worked so well last year that you want to use them again? Now you can reuse assignments, announcements or questions from any one of your classes — or any class you co-teach, whether it’s from last year or last week. Once you choose what you’d like to copy, you’ll also be able to make changes before you post or assign it.

Calendar Integration 

In the next month, Classroom will automatically create a calendar for each of your classes in Google Calendar. All assignments with a due date will be automatically added to your class calendar and kept up to date. You’ll be able to view your calendar from within Classroom or on Google Calendar, where you can manually add class events like field trips or guest speakers.

In case you missed it 

We know YouTube is an important source of educational content for many schools. Because it also contains content that an organization or school might not consider acceptable, last month we launched advanced YouTube settings for all Google Apps domains as an Additional Service. These settings give Apps admins the ability to restrict the YouTube videos viewable for signed-in users, as well as signed-out users on networks managed by the admin. Learn more here.

Read the Google for Education blog and posed comments for more details!

Great advice about growing professional each day. Set aside 10 minutes and i would highly recommend learning to use Twitter as a professional development resource.  There are many chats available to specific content.  Or start small and follow a few people that may inspire you!

Here's to a great year!

Creating Classroom Websites with Google Sites

When returning to school each year teachers have so much on their plates especially during the first month of school.  Updating curriculum, syllabus and teaching resources, not to mention class rosters, setting up their phsical classrooms and more.  For the past severals year we have been using Google Sites as our classroom interface for parents, community and students.  Do you need to update and refresh your class site?  Here is a link to a tutorial page  to remind you about setting up your site. For new staff we will be using PD time the first day of school to create your site.

Many of you have started to use Google Classroom, Blogging and microblogging with Twitter as tools to engage students and the community.  If this is your first year using any of the tools, I would recommend you start with one and that would be Google Sites for your interface to students and community.  It's also a great way for you to review what you colleagues are doing in their classrooms.

When ready take a look at Google Classroom.  It's a more efficient way to manage students Google documents and assigments.  I will be setting up some sessions after school on Tuesday's know at Tech Tuesday's to help you get started.  I am also available to work with you in your classes and during your prep time.  Let's use technology to engage students and to streamline your classroom this year!

Summer Institute for GAFE Class and Reflection

What a great week teaching Google Apps for Education last week at FSU.  This was the first time that we used Google Classroom to deliver the class using the University's Google Accounts with Classroom.  We definitely need to work to streamline the process but for the most part it worked well.  This allowed up to setup assignment and share content easily.  We were able to grade portfolios using Doctopus/Goobrics.  It's always great to model for teachers how they can setup their classroom when returning to school next month.  Students created and presented Portfolios as evidence of work. We used the SAMR model to reflect on assignments and our teaching and comfort level with technology.  It was amazing to watch the progression of student growth over the course of the week. I am extremely fortunate to have co-taught with Craig another GAFE Trainer.  We managed to teach 23 students at varying levels and content areas.  I was so impressed with their quality of work.  We will be looking at options to offer in an online blended model next year, in addition to the Summer Institute format.

iPad for Educators Class at FSU

I had a great week teaching iPads for Educators at FSU this week.

See the Video below https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgxsmJollqA



Next week I will be teaching GAFE!

ISTE and Google

I am following #ISTE2015, #ISTE15 and #NOTATISTE this week on Twitter and learning lots from my colleagues!

Learning about new ways to integrate with Google Classroom this week!

Wrapping up the school year!

Well it's been an interesting year, to be honest an exhausting year. Our school district took on many initiatives this year, NEASC, Atlas Rubicon, UbD, DDM's and BaselineEdge/Teacher evaluation just to name a few.  I found myself just trying to stay focused on all expectations and deadlines and I have to admit it was difficult to keep a positive perspective. I am hoping the opportunity to step away for a few months will help rejuvenate me and many of the teachers that I work with each day that give so much to their students and classes.  I do consider myself a life-long learner and wanted to attend the ISTE conference this month, but have decided to follow it online this week.  Additionally, I will be teaching a few graduate classes this summer and taking one.

So for now, my biggest decision for the next few weeks will be which book should I read next while sitting poolside or at the beach!