Tech Bytes

Six Teaching Strategies for Hybrid Learning Success

As teachers across the country begin to plan for the uncertainties of school reopenings in the fall, one thing is certain: we must plan curriculum that is nimble and flexible in delivery if we want to be successful. After an exhausting spring, the prospect of re-designing a curriculum for the fall feels daunting. Yet there are simple tools that we can leverage to build meaningful and flexible learning experiences for us students, no matter what the fall might bring.

Choice boards are an easy tool for providing students with choice, parameters, and engaging learning experiences. On a choice board, the teacher posts any number of activities that students can complete to demonstrate understanding of concepts and content. For example, a student might measure the area and perimeter of their room, create a video quiz about dimension and measurement, or design a home and calculate its dimensions. Choosing any combination, students can self-differentiate, choosing which tasks they want to complete, and teachers can assess competency on those skills. These choices can be completed in class or at home, depending upon the state of school closures and reopening.


Independent projects allow students to identify an interest or passion and build their own learning experience around that topic. Typically, these learning experiences are scaffolded and engage the design thinking process. Students brainstorm how they might explore their passion, design their own exploratory learning experience, and design a final project that is shared with an authentic audience. The self-pacing and open resource elements of independent projects allow for flexibility in the time of school closure.

Station rotations will be particularly helpful in schools who are reopening on a rotating schedule. Teachers design stations that promote student agency, where students consume content via readings, videos, or other media and then practice skills or demonstrate their understanding. For example, a student might read about the physics of bridges and then construct their own bridge out of craft sticks and glue, identifying where stress and pressure are strongest in the structure. Because the teacher acts as a guide or advisor, moving throughout the classroom and answering questions or providing support, students can work independently both in the classroom or at home, accessing teacher support either in person or virtually.

The flipped classroom model received a lot of attention during the spring 2020 school closures. In a flipped class, a teacher films herself delivering a lecture or lesson and sends the video to her students. The students then watch the video and complete an activity that demonstrates understanding. Often an element that is included in station rotations or on a choice board, flipped classroom videos allow teachers to deliver personalized content to her classes when face-to-face time is low or nonexistent.

Thematic and cross-curricular learning experiences, while not specifically tools so much as approaches, are instrumental in creating meaningful learning experiences for students at all stages of learning. By connecting concepts and themes across subject areas, students develop a broader understanding of concepts and naturally immerse in deeper learning. The time spent by teachers to de-silo their curricula and collaborate on cross-curricular units will be well-spent as we plan for schools’ reopenings. Students who will likely find their new school experience to be disjointed or unpredictable will benefit from thematic and cross-curricular learning experiences this fall.

Competency-based assessments and differentiation lend themselves nicely to the above-mentioned strategies because they approach learning as a journey of skill-building, rather than a finite quantity of content. At a time when seat-time is diminished and atypical due to social distancing, time is better spent building connections and personalizing the educational experience than assessing content knowledge. As a result, competency-based assessments can be leveraged to support student learning by encouraging connections, providing regular feedback, and engaging student ownership in the learning experience.


While each classroom and school will look different this fall, there are many methods and tools that teachers can leverage to create meaningful learning experiences of their students. Recognizing education as an ongoing, lifelong process frees students to take ownership of their learning experiences, guided by their teachers and their own passions. With creativity and collaborative spirit, teachers and students can make the 2020-21 school year both successful and meaningful.


Helping Our Students Manage Digital Distraction & Media Multitasking

What is media multitasking?

Online multi-tasking is not a new concern. “Surfing the web” has become a favorite pastime for adults and children, allowing us to procrastinate work and school assignments, fill hours of our day, or battle bouts of sleeplessness. Yet the constant digital distraction that has us clicking between websites, social media, work and school assignments, and other media has a significant neurological impact on our cognitive control, executive functions, and job or academic performance.

In a recent web search for new resources, I came across this 2019 study from the National Institute of Health: Features of Media Multitasking in School-Age Children. The study found that in students ages 7 - 16 years old, media multitasking did not significantly affect the total quality score, but it did negatively impact total performance time in completing the same tasks. “This allows to suggest that the distribution of attention and the ability to focus on several tasks are not always voluntarily regulated and are often reduced to a constant and chaotic shifting of attention among several current tasks.” A child’s media multitasking negatively impacted their executive functions and cognitive control, hurting their ability to complete tasks efficiently.

So how can we help our children (and ourselves) maintain executive function and cognitive control? How do we manage our screentime so that we are focused and do not succumb to the many digital distractions that battle for our attention?

One of the most frequent questions that I receive from parents involves concerns about online multi-tasking. Students, particularly in grades 3 and above, are on their devices with the intention of completing homework assignments, but become quickly distracted by social media, internet sites, or online gaming. Suddenly, an easy 20-minute homework assignment requires an hour of online time and heavy parent supervision.

How do we change our multitasking habits?

My initial response to these questions asks parents to consider two approaches: engage in changed behavior and leverage digital tools. Changing family behavior is a crucial first step in redirecting any negative impact technology has on our daily lives. Any digital tools that we leverage to monitor our media consumption will work best only when we engage in habits that support our goals.

This 2016 article by Judy Willis, MD, a neurologist and middle school teacher, suggests a four-step approach, Explain-Motivate-Prove-Guide, to help reduce multitasking as a family unit. Explain to children the concept of multitasking to help them develop self-awareness of this type of behavior. Motivate one another to avoid multitasking by brainstorming the benefits of living a more focused life. Track your time and focus for one week and examine how multitasking impacts your life, proving the need for changed behavior. Finally, leverage digital tools and good habits to guide your family’s cognitive development.

As parents, we can help our children identify the unhealthy practice of multitasking. As a family, we can engage in habits that discourage multitasking and engage in the present moment and intentional tasks together. Technology can create positive moments for connecting and learning when we are intentional about how we use our digital tools.

How do we manage our devices and content?

Once we understand the relationship with technology that we want for our family, we can identify tools that will help us meet our goals. There are countless apps and services that can help us monitor our screen time and filter content. So how do we choose what is right for our family and our home?

CommonSense Media’s article, the Parents’ Ultimate Guide to Parental Controls, recommends screen time conversation-starters for families and does a nice job of breaking down content filtering tools by intended use. Families can also contact their home internet providers, which often offer firewall and content-filtering services that can help us manage the digital world in our homes and on our devices.

A Combined Approach to Managing Media Multitasking

In the end, a balanced approach of behavior management and content filtering is key in managing media multitasking. An open and ongoing family dialogue about the online world is one of the most important ways parents can prevent and manage a child’s digital mistakes. Content filtering provides a safety net to protect against those moments when the lure of the internet overpowers those family conversations. While there is no specific solution to media multitasking, a combination of behavior management and screen time monitoring can have a significant impact on how our families engage in the digital world.

DCD Takes Over the 2019 AISNE Wellness Conference!

AISNE Maintaining Balance in Our Digital World: How Parents, Teachers and Students Balance Pressures Around Social Media, Texting, Cyberbullying and Being Online

It was wonderful to present with my colleagues, Megan Haddadi and Erin Albert at the AISNE Wellness Conference!

I'm also so very proud of my DCD colleagues who presented sessions throughout the day:

  • Yoga for Self-Care with Marie Nagode, Advancement Office
  • Dual Roles of Faculty, Staff and Administration as Parents with Annette Rafalle, Math Specialist
  • Maintaining Balance in Our Digital World with Kate Reardon, Director of Academic Technology, and Erin Albert, School Psychologist

What a wonderful opportunity to share the many ways our community embraces and educates the whole child at DCD.

Student Voice

In November, more than 20 students participated in our Friday faculty/staff Professional Development afternoon, presenting their work with technology to faculty and staff. We had students from grades one through seven share projects that they worked on in 2018. Students also presented their work in 3D design at the MassCUE Fall Conference at Gillette Stadium, the largest edtech annual gathering in Massachusetts. Teachers from across New England learned about 3D printing, Minecraft, and 3D project design from our DCD students.

Not only was this an opportunity for teachers to learn about projects and skill development in other grades and subject areas, but it also gave time for student voices. This opportunity for student voice is an important part of education because it allows young people to express themselves, articulate their accomplishments, and voices their perspectives on what they have learned.

At Harvard Grad School of Education, Lecturer Gretchen Brion-Miesels explains: "When schools find ways to welcome student opinions - to partner with students "as stakeholders in their own learning" [sic] - they do more than equip students with tools for lifelong success. They also wind up creating programs and policies that are more effective at meeting the schools' own goals for supporting young people in their healthy development." (Shafer, Leah, Giving Students a Voice, HGSE Research Stories, 8/18/16)

Leveraging student voice can be an effective entry point to helping students take ownership of their learning. Technology can help create opportunities for students to share their learning, such as:

  • the Seesaw app creates a digital portfolio of student photos and videos,
  • Skype provides a video chat platform for students to speak with experts and ask questions,
  • Screencastify allows students to narrate the work they've created online and share it in video format,
  • the Adams Lab's 3D printers, circuitry, and other maker tools allow students the opportunity to design and create new visual ways to express themselves.


The DCD Field Hockey team records their favorite skills and moments of pride in the Seesaw app

Third grades participates in Skype-a-Scientist and learns about land forms and errosion from experts in the field!

Whole School: A Borrowed Time Experiment

Our Lego robotics were popular in both Lower and Middle School this fall!

In second grade, we started out the year thinking about "what makes a robot, a robot?" Then student used our Lego WeDo robotics to build robots who can help the environment. One group used sensors that detect trash and trigger shovels to pick it up. Another group built a helicopter with automated lifts to help rescue injured animals in the wild. It was wonderful to see our students designing solutions to authentic real world problems.

In seventh, students spent the MS mini-term working with our Lego EV3 robotics. They built robots to complete challenges and compete in class competitions. This mini-term project kicks off their winter unit which will focus on building robots that use alternative energy solutions to help our environment.

Just before winter vacation, second and seventh grade students came together to share their work in a celebration of their robotics skills! Robots took over the Adams Lab and Science classroom, spilling over into the hallway. Second graders were excited to be working on robotics just like their middle school role models, and 7th graders were impressed with complexities of the 2nd graders' robots!

The LS robotics unit is a great example of how we can share resources and build connections through our curriculum. In second grade, science only meets once every six day cycle, which can result in almost two week gaps between classes when there are school holidays. This schedule makes it challenging to complete a unit in a short period of time, and can require students to re-learn forgotten skills at the start of each class. To address these challenges, science "borrowed" the technology time in the second grade schedule. The result was a more robust learning experiences that allowed students build more versions of their robots and to iterate in the design process more often.

This "borrowed time" experiment links to our Whole School: Whole Child strategic plan. When we share our resources and intentionally highlight curricular connections across grades, we are creating an environment that adds up to more than the sum of its parts. For second and seventh grade, they built connections and shared in the celebration of their learning together. What are some other ways we can share our resources or our time to improve the learning opportunities for our students?

2018 Curriculum & Technology Night at DCD!

It was wonderful to see so many parents at our Curriculum & Technology Nights in September! Below is a quick recap and the slides.

My two favorite rules of tech that I share with our students:

  1. Online = Offline! We want to remember that the same rules we have offline also apply online. We should always be nice to one another, take care of our school supplies and devices, and let an adult know if something feels uncomfortable or doesn't seem right.
  2. Our devices are learning tools! We should use our iPads, Chromebooks, laptops, robots, and other technology for learning purposes. Check with a teacher to make sure an app, website, or program is ok to use.

My two favorite tips for parents:

  1. Talk about technology at home! It's so important that we always talk with our children about technology, the devices and apps that we use, and how we are using them. Using technology alongside our children can make for some great conversation and relationship-building. If we celebrate successes and talk about mistakes with a shared vocabulary, then technology can be fun for the whole family.
  2. Creation over consumption! Not all tech time is the same, and we want to be thoughtful about how our children are using technology. I would prefer my daughter spend an hour creating videos for her digital reading log, rather than 20 minutes watching cartoons on TV. Encourage your children to use technology to create, rather than to consume, and you will be amazed at what they can build!

Kate's slides from the 2018 Lower School Curriculum & Technology Night

MS Curriculum Night 2018

Kate's slides from the 2018 Middle School Curriculum & Technology Night

LS Curriculum Night 2018

The DCD Acceptable Use PROMISE

(The AUP For Kids!)

Curriculum Night Handout 2018.pdf

Check out the September Tech Bytes newsletter!

Innovation Fund Updates

Over the summer, faculty and staff spent time learning and planning for their new innovation fund grants! For a list of topics and to learn more about our summer work, check out these slides:

Innovation Fund Updates

Flexible & Mobile Learning in the New Adams Lab!

Welcome back! The Tech Department is so excited to unveil the new Adams Lab!

When it was announced last spring that the Class of 2018 parents generously raised money for a Head's Innovation Fund for their 8th Grade Parents' Gift, all members of the DCD community were excited to innovate! And as the Innovation Fund grant process began, the Technology Department knew that it wanted to innovate the Adams Lab.

Last year, we experimented with the many different ways we could use the Adams Lab. From a tinker table, to interactive walls, to robots in the hallways, we tried almost every idea that students and adults suggested. In the end, it provided some great proof of concepts and helped us engage in our own iterative design process.

Beginning in the spring, we as a department considered what needs the space could fulfill and, in turn, what needs the space itself had. We decided that the technology lab was ready to be a learning space that models both mobile learning and flexible learning.

Mobile learning is driven by continuous access to learning tools that are not tied to a desk or location. We are currently living in a mobile learning environment, thanks to our laptops, cellphones, and tablets. For example, we can access "how to" videos anytime and anywhere via our laptops and internet access. Need to fix a bike? Watch a tutorial video outside, on your phone, as you make the repair. And now this mobile learning model is easy to follow here at DCD! In the Adams Lab, we swapped out the desktops for a cart of laptops, allowing us to embrace the mobile learning model, and take our devices with us anywhere on campus!

Flexible learning environments provide a range of choices to students about where, when, and how they learn. On a daily basis, we see examples of flexible learning around DCD: the whistle mats in the library make for comfy projection viewing, the art studios allow for space and light to build creative projects, and the fields and gymnasiums encourage students to practice their learning through exercise and play. In the Adams Lab, removing the blue counter gave us a bigger footprint, and replacing the carpet with laminate makes it easier to run robots and get messy when we learn. From couches, to rolling chairs, to ottomans, the variety of seating gives adults and children choice about where and how to learn.

How did we move from the old to the new Adams Lab? It was a six month process that engaged the help of many people. With help of the Board of Trustees' innovation chats, the Tech Dept established a partnership with Steelcase. Steelcase is a leader in the architecture, furniture, and technology industry and has helped design learning spaces for other local schools. We also gathered input and feedback from students and administrators throughout the spring.

In June, Joi and Kate visited Steelcase's impressive showroom in the Seaport. It is an incredible space that encourages mobile learning and working among Steelcase employees. Nobody is assigned a desk - each day, employees choose the space that is right for the work they want to do. The meeting spaces are designed for different types of meetings, and there are spaces for group collaboration as well as quiet individual work. And the views are pretty amazing too!

We also joined Steelcase's 2018 pilot program, allowing us to partner with Steelcase and their subsidiary RedThread to redesign in a way that highlights the mobile and flexible learning happening at DCD. Some of our "must haves" included furniture that we could easily rearrange, comfy seating for flexible learning options, open storage for easy access to supplies, and write-able surfaces for brainstorming. After working with the Steelcase/RedThread design team, we settled on a design that can adapt to the many uses of the Adams Lab:

The end product is a colorful, flexible space that the students have settled right into this fall:

Our tables give students a nice big surface

Our couches are great for collaborative work

From rolling chairs, couches, to ottomans, students can choose the seat that's most comfortable for them

Our rolling chairs and personal white boards let us brainstorm anywhere in the room

The beauty of a pilot program like this redesign is that we are able to continuously reiterate! Some hopes for the future include bringing back the tinker table and interactive walls, increasing our storage options, and gathering more feedback from teachers and students. So please let us know what you think and what you dream for the Adams Lab!

We are so grateful to the many people who contributed to this renovation and redesign. Please stop by the Adams Lab and explore our new space!

Check out our June Tech Bytes Newsletter to see what's happening in Tech@DCD!

Check out our April Tech Bytes Newsletter to see what's happening in Tech@DCD!

Innovation Labs

This spring, the Technology Working Group engaged in thinking around innovation in education. After hosting a book discussion about Innovator's Mindset by George Couros, we considered Couros' definition of a innovator's mindset:

the belief that abilities, intelligence, and talents are developed, leading to the creation of new and better ideas.

With this definition in mind, each member of the group spent time thinking about their own work. We examined our days for opportunities for improvement or problems to solve, and then brainstormed solutions as a group. These solutions became the foundation for our spring Innovation Labs, as each member of the group worked on innovating an aspect of their work over the course of the spring.

The result was a sprinkling of innovative projects throughout the school:

Maura initiated DCD's participation in the National Shadow a Student Challenge, organizing a group of faculty and staff to shadow a student for a day in April. This Innovation Lab reminded us how important it is to keep the student experience at the center or our work.

Bo piloted new tools in Latin class that help build vocabulary and literacy skills. Membean was particularly successful, as it not only helped student acquire new English and Latin vocabulary, but also differentiated the self-paced learning experience for each student.

In 2nd grade, students study different regions of the United States as part of their Native American studies. So Christine's innovation lab encouraged students to build connections with other regions of the country via a Mystery Skype with a 2nd grade class in Ohio.

At the PD she attended this spring, Michelle observed that many educators drew from their professional learning network on Twitter. So she has created an account and begun building her own PLN using the social media platform. You can follow DCD faculty on Twitter via the hashtag: #DCDstories.

Having observed the success of Minecraft: Education Edition in 4th grade this year, Wendy brought game-based learning into her social studies curriculum. She found that Minecraft not only enhanced the student learning experience in their Africa unit, but also provided a unique opportunity for students to become the teachers. She learned much from students about Minecraft as a learning and design tool.

Marge often uses video in her library and English curricula, offering students the opportunity to express their literary skills via video. This spring, she has also integrated our green screen so that students can transport themselves into the stories!

Carla is always on the lookout for resources about digital literacy and citizenship that are appropriate for elementary students. Her nephew excitedly shared one of his newest book with her, The Technology Tail: A Digital Footprint Story. She is excited to read it with students in the Lower School!

Ali attended the Culture Reframed Parents Project, which offered tools for parents who are helping children navigate mature content found online and in the media. He shared scripted conversations and helpful resources that parents can access online as they support their growing children.

Kelly shared a news story about the MIT Media Lab that recently aired on 60 Minutes. Describing the MIT Media Lab as a "Future Factory," the story inspired Kelly to think about how we might engage our students in the innovation community. She is exploring DCD connections to Fablevision and MIT for future projects.

This is only a sample of the exciting work that the Technology Working Group engaged in throughout the winter and spring terms. Across the school, our faculty, staff, and students continue to engage in innovative learning experiences that encourage us all to seek out opportunities for lifelong learning.

What is edtech?

Tech@DCD EdTech 101.mp4

Minecraft Madness

Students are very excited that Minecraft: Education Edition is a new tool in the Adams Lab this year! In addition to a fun indoor recess activity, we've also used the building program in classes around the school.

As part of their yearlong medieval times studies, 4th grade students blueprinted and digitally reconstructed medieval castles in social studies this year. Check out Annie and Isabella's walking tours of their castles:

This spring, 6th graders used their knowledge about African climate and natural resources to build communities in Minecraft as part of their World Studies curriculum. Click here to read Emma's reflection on the project: Grade 6 Africa Minecraft Reflection Ben Clay wrote in his reflection: "The final way this benefited us as students was it allowed us to work hard while having fun at the same time. When you're having fun you seem to work harder because you enjoy what you're doing and have pride in what you're building."

You can watch a tour of Tessa's Africa Minecraft below:

Many peer schools are interested in how Minecraft can be used in the classroom, and are excited to hear about the work we are doing. In April, Michelle and Kelly presented the 4th grade Medieval Minecraft project to educators at the Medfield Digital Learning Day conference. Allison noted: ""I was so happy that teachers at the conference—more than 500 from Massachusetts schools—could learn from our DCD teachers. I am so proud of them for experimenting with new curriculum and sharing it, since our classrooms provide a model for education at its best."

Spring Professional Development

This spring, the Technology Working Group committed to attending three different professional development opportunities around Massachusetts.

Just before spring vacation, Bo Harrington, Kate Reardon, Sue Shirley, and Michelle Tarkulich attended the MassCUE Spring Leadership Conference at Holy Cross in Worcester. This conference was hosted by MassCUE, the largest edtech organization in the state, and MASCD, the MA affiliate of the Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.

The one-day conference was full of powerful presentations, workshops, hands-on sessions, and information gatherings to acknowledge the importance of excellent leadership skills for teachers and administrators.

Michelle, Sue, and Kate presented on the innovative projects happening in DCD classrooms, such as Medieval Minecraft in grade 4 and digital media in grade 5 science. Sue came away with a "wealth of [resources] from the leaders of the workshops" and Michelle reflected, "I saw some examples where [learning] could really come to life in a classroom in a meaningful way in areas such as reading or writing."

In April, a group of ten DCD teachers and administrators attended the Medfield Digital Learning Day, keynoted by George Couros, author of Innovator's Mindset. Having read the book earlier in this year, it was exciting to hear directly from it's author and learn from Couros in his workshops throughout the day.

At Medfield's DLD, Kelly and Michelle presented their work with Minecraft in 4th grade's Medieval studies this year. And Kate shared the digital portfolio work that we have engaged across all grades this year. Allison noted: ""I was so happy that teachers at the conference -- over 500 from Massachusetts schools -- could learn from our DCD teachers. I am so proud of them for experimenting with new curriculum and sharing it since our classrooms provide a model for education at its best."

Some of our teachers also attended the Cambridge Science Festival, a weeklong celebration of STEM learning around the Greater Boston area. The Science Carnival & Robotics Zoo provided lots of exciting and inspiring ideas that we can bring back to our classrooms. And the MIT Museum's kinetic sculptures inspired new and exciting possibilities for our work with complex machines.

The Technology Working Group is very grateful to our admin team and support staff for helping to organize these many PD opportunities. From event registrations to substitute coverage, the DCD team demonstrated that professional development is a priority for our faculty as we model the importance of lifelong learning for our children.

Check Out Our New Lego Robotics!

We are excited to announce that Lego WeDo 2.0 robotics have arrived in the Adams Lab! Designed to help students move from Lego construction to robotics programming, these kits are perfect for introducing elementary school students to engineering & programming skills, bringing our Lego creations to life!

We all remember building and creating with Legos at a young age, combining the engineering and design process with early imagination. By elementary school, DCD students begin adding mechanics and control skills. Designed for collaboration, students work in pairs or small groups to build windmills, design their own insects, or bring their favorite book characters to life! Robotics motors are attached to their Lego creations, and students use the WeDo 2.0 app to write commands for their new robots. The app uses the block language to teach programming and coding skills.

In Middle School, students are ready for the EV3 (previously NXT) robotics sets that foster critical thinking and creativity. These robotics tools are more complex, and students can write their own scripts and commands. There are also regional and national competitions for EV3 robotics clubs.

Today, a cohort of faculty engaged in professional development about integrating Lego robotics into our curriculum. We were led by Barbara Bratzel, from Tufts University, who literally wrote the book on Lego robotics in education: STEM By Design: Teaching with Lego Mindstorms We learned about the mechanics of the robotics kits and came up with great ideas for integrating them into our learning experiences! From collecting data through motion sensors, to rewriting classic stories with a tech twist, the possibilities for robotics in the classroom are endless! And things got competitive when we lined up brave Lego people and dogs to withstand approaching robots:

If you'd like to learn more about Lego WeDo robotics, feel free to ask any of the faculty who attended the PD, or set up a 1:1 with Kate. And the Lego Education website has a designed a plethora of curriculum guides to help teachers integrate their Mindstorms robotics system into any grade and any subject area.

2/26/18

Augmented Reality Brings DCD Bulletin Boards to Life!

By now, you've read all about our kindergarten and grade one experiments with augmented reality. (If you missed it, scroll down to the post: What do DCD Kindergartners & US Olympians have in common?) After learning about augmented reality through with the Quiver app, grade one decided to create its own augmented reality experience!

As part of their year-long studies around community, our first graders interviewed members of the DCD community earlier this month. I was lucky enough to be interviewed and was so impressed by their thoughtful questions! We talked about the work I do in the Technology Department, my daughter who is the same age as many of the students, and the work I did before joining the DCD community this year.

After interviewing adults in the DCD community, the first graders created paper mosaics for each adult and recorded videos about what they learned from the interviews. Then they hung their beautiful artwork on the front lobby bulletin board. Wanting to share their videos with the community as well, the first grade designed an interactive display for their project on community interviews!

First, we uploaded photos of their artwork into the Blippar dashboard. Blippar is an augmented reality program that allows users to create their own AR experiences. The artwork are the "markers." Then we uploaded the videos as "overlays." Then we took our iPads out to the front lobby to test it out. When we scanned the mosaics with the Blippar app, their videos appear on the screens!

This is an exciting time for our students be trying out AR, as the industry is rapidly moving from a state of consumption to creation! The ability to interact with our displays offers great opportunity to amplify student voice around our school!

2/23/18

Connecting Beyond Our Classroom Walls

This month, 5th-grade science explored beyond our school walls as they participated in a video chat with Jesse Colangelo-Lillis, a research assistant at the University of Colorado Boulder. Jesse's specialty is microbiology, and he is currently studying microbes found on ocean floors in order to understand their habitats and what they need in order to survive.

This video chat was part of the 5th grade curriculum about ecology that has integrated many of our technology resources throughout the school year. In the fall, students learned about the requirements of all living things, such as water, food, and oxygen. Then they diagrammed food webs and chains using the Inspiration Maps app on their iPads, illustrating how energy moves from one trophic level to another. In January, the fifth grade read excerpts of the Endangered Species Act, and studied the reasons why a plant or animal is placed on the endangered species list. Then they generated infographics using Canva, a web-based graphic design tool, to raise awareness about endangered species.

In the video chat, the students asked questions about Jesse's work with microbes, took a virtual tour of his science lab, and congratulated him on his new baby boy! With a BS in Biochemistry, a Masters in Science in Oceanography, and a PhD in Earth and Planetary Science, Jesse shared his vast scientific expertise with our students and was impressed with the 5th grader's thoughtful and knowledgeable questions. It was a wonderful way to learn more about science careers and connect with a scientist across the country!

Sue Shirley coordinated this video chat via Microsoft's Skype a Scientist program. This is one of many Skype programs that match classrooms with guest teachers, virtual field trips, collaborative projects, and video pen pals from around the world. In addition to Microsoft's Skype programming, we also have a list of authors who will video chat with classes for free. If you're interested in participating in a Skype with your class, set up a 1:1 with Kate.

2/6/18

What do DCD Kindergartners & US Olympians have in common?

I'm sure many of us have seen the NY Times' augmented reality experience about four US Olympic athletes: Four of the World's Best Olympians, as You've Never Seen Them Before (iOS11). In the article, you can explore the mechanics of an ice skating triple jump, the physics of centrifugal force on a speed skating turn, and the impact of a hockey puck traveling at 70 m.p.h. All thanks to a technology called augmented reality.

Augmented reality is a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user's view of the real world. Think virtual reality without the goggles. It allows us to interact with objects, images, and in the case of the NYT, news stories. As our DCD Kindergartners will tell you, AR happens when you add animations to a real picture!

This week, Kindergarten students learned how to animate their artwork using the free Quiver app. I printed out coloring pages from the Quiver app, and students descended upon them with handfuls of colorful crayons. When they finished coloring, students stepped back from their masterpieces, and scanned their artwork with the Quiver app on their iPads.

And we watched as their artwork came to life! With the tap of a little 5-year-old finger, penguins skated on ice, fireworks lit up the screen, and fire trucks sprayed water!

There are endless applications for augmented reality in education. The Blippar app allows students to create their own AR experiences. Simply take a photo of an object - for example, a student's artwork - and upload it into the app. Then add an overlay - a student's video, music, or writing. When you scan the object with the Blippar app, the overlays appear on the screen!

If you're interested in learning more about augmented reality in the classroom, email Kate for a 1:1. In the meantime, stop by the Adams Lab and experience the Kindergarten's AR creations for yourself! And in coming weeks, keep an eye out for interactive bulletin boards and book displays around the school!

2/9/18

January Tech Bytes

Scroll through our January Tech Bytes Newsletter! Or click here to open in it in a new window.

Recess in the Adams Lab


Minecraft, conductive paint music, dancing, 3D pen drawings, and relaxing with friends. Just another rainy day in the Adams Lab!


1/23/18

Engaging the Community to Celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

When we think about how to effectively integrate technology into the curriculum, we often consider how we can leverage our digital tools and skills to increase student engagement. I love this graphic by Sylvia Duckworth of Philip Schelecty's Level's of Engagement because it illustrates how attention and commitment are very different attributes that feed into a student's level of engagement:

How do we elevate student attention and commitment up these scales to achieve engagement? When my students ask "why are doing this?", I have tried rattling off a list of skills they are developing, our government has listed hundreds of learning standards that must be met, and there's always the fallback "it counts towards your grade." Perhaps these answers might speak to a student's sense of duty, and her attention increases, but rarely do we see her commitment increase beyond preparing for the next assessment.

But authentic audiences can be an excellent motivator for today's students who are growing up in an exceedingly social society. And technology is often leveraged to deliver messages to our authentic audiences.

As I child, my parents used to take pictures of my brothers and I as a way to preserve memories and document important moments in our lives: from first lost tooth, to family gatherings, to graduations. Of course, we would rush to the nearest 24 hour photo shop, so that we could make multiple copies to send to grandparents and friends. But this sharing was almost secondary. The photos were for our photo albums that we would occasionally open nostalgically.

Today, students document moments with the intent to share. Where others see a child obsessed with a screen, I see a child trying to connect with others. And this internal desire to share easily translates into the classroom. In allowing our students to share their learning with an authentic audience, we are helping them to develop the skills necessary to share and connect with others, both online and offline. Whether presenting before an audience in the Lowell Center, or posting their project on the school website, students love to share, and are more engaged with an authentic audience for their work.

This morning's Martin Luther King, Jr assembly was a wonderful example of the elevated engagement that happens when an authentic audience is integrated into the learning experience. Since returning from winter vacation, Marge and Beth had their ELA students prepare a presentation for the assembly, accompanied by Susan and the middle school chorus. Each student chose a famous Black American and created two slides - one with photos and one with a quote. Then they stood on the stage, in front of the whole school community, with their slides behind them, and told the stories of famous Black Americans - the discrimination they faced, and the way they overcame adversity to find success. The students spoke eloquently and told fascinating stories, followed by a community singalong of We Shall Overcome.

Sharing our learning with authentic audiences can be scary. It can be terrifying to stand before your entire school and present in person. And it can be equally terrifying for the teachers who put the students out there and pray for their success. Hours of preparation went into preparing those slides and those stories for our assembly. Followed by more hours of practice in the auditorium. But the student engagement that happens when there is an authentic audience for their work is priceless. What might have been a unit on famous Black Americans squished into a busy week, instead became an opportunity to share knowledge and celebrate learning, diversity, and community.

On the day of the assembly, the presentation was flawless. It was an exemplary display of learning, a subtle and meaningful integration of tech, and an engaging experience for the DCD community. I both admire and am grateful for Beth, Marge, Susan, and their ELA class, who orchestrated a wonderful start to celebrating MLK Jr Day. Congrats and thank you to the students and their teachers!

1/12/18

December Tech Bytes

Season's Greetings from Tech@DCD!

Check out the December Tech Bytes for a look back at the first half of our school year:

Computer Science Week & Hour of Code

The week of December 4-8, 2017 is Computer Science Education Week, when schools around the world engage in Hour of Code. In my first few month here at DCD, I am impressed to see that we are celebrating computer science all year long. From Beebots & Kodable in the Primary School, to Minecraft & 3D printing in the Lower School, and digital arts & virtual reality in the Middle School. It is exciting to see computer science alive and well in our curriculum.

Even with computer science integrated throughout our curriculum, I have teachers asking for activities and conversations they can have to raise awareness around Computer Science Week and participate in the Hour of Code movement next week. So I have compiled a list of resources and activities into a Google Slides - you may recognize these from our faculty PD afternoon in October!

What is Coding? Nov 2017 Faculty PD (share with colleagues)

Tynker, Kodable, and Minecraft also have Hour of Code activities and resources on their websites that would be appropriate for elementary and middle school students. I hope that teachers will share their experiences with the school community next week!

How will you celebrate Computer Science Week this year?

12/4/17

November Tech Bytes Newsletter

Check out the November Tech Bytes Newsletter and explore what's been happening in Tech@DCD!

An Innovator's Mindset

Over the summer, I did a lot of reading around edtech and social media in the classroom, focusing on how we, as educators, can create learning experiences for our students that empower and inspire. Far and away, my favorite book was The Innovator’s Mindset: Empower Learning, Unleash Talent, and Lead a Culture of Creativity by George Couros. It provides deep thinking on what it means to truly establish innovative practices in schools, and discusses the successes and stumbling blocks that Cuoros has celebrated over the years.

In his book, Couros defines innovation as something both new and better. I love this as a lens for examining our own practices in the classroom. When we consider a new activity for our curriculum, are we able to articulate whether it will help students achieve learning goals in new and better ways?

Allison recently wrote a post for her blog about the connection between innovation and relationships, reflecting upon how the need for and existence of innovation has changed in the past century. She writes:

Perhaps what is new about innovation today is that it is needed as a baseline capacity that is proactively brought forward, and not just a special skill that can be brought out as circumstances demand.

- Allison Webster, Relationships & Innovation, Connecting These Two Concepts

If an innovator's mindset has become a baseline skill that students will need, then it's imperative that we, as educators, ask ourselves how we are modeling and fostering an innovator's mindset in our classrooms. In January, the Technology Working Group will be discussing this topic, and thinking about what it means to exhibit the innovators mindset in our work. All are welcome to join us in our task:

Read chapters 1-3, 6, 9, & 14 in The Innovator’s Mindset: Empower Learning, Unleash Talent, and Lead a Culture of Creativity by George Couros. We will discuss and consider these questions:

What opportunities do you provide to students to exhibit the innovator's mindset?

What opportunities do you provide to yourself to exhibit the innovator's mindset?

How can you make your innovator's mindset visible to others?

I hope that you will take some to read this book and reflect upon how you exhibit an innovator's mindset in your own teaching. We'd love to hear your thoughts when we return in January!

12/1/17

Artificial Intelligence: Meet Sophia, the First Robot Citizen

This November, Ali and I spent three days attending the EdTech Teacher Summit in Boston and learning about exciting ways to integrate technology into our classrooms and conversations. The conference divided workshops into three threads: EdTechNow for classroom teachers getting started in tech integration, EdTechNext for educators seeking advanced strategies and approaches to tech integration, and EdTechThought for education leaders & admin exploring innovation in education. I tried to attend a mix of sessions, both to guide my own thinking and to find new ideas to bring back to our classrooms.

I gathered lots of great ideas and new tools, but there was one session that had attendees buzzing: Artificial Intelligence & EdTech. This session explored ways that AI is already impacting our daily lives, and demonstrated some simple ways that we can introduce this topic in our classrooms.

According to the dictionary, artificial intelligence is the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence. In other words, AI is a computer's ability to do unscripted tasks, but gathering information, processing it for patterns, and then making a prediction.

Let's look at an example:

When I enter "Assembly" into my calendar for every Monday & Thursday at 8:15am, I do not add a location. But my iPhone's location settings know that I am at school every Monday & Thursday at 8:15.

So after a few Mondays & Thursdays, my iPhone will predict that Assembly is at school. This will cause the iPhone to trigger the Maps app to send me a reminder.

Each Monday & Thursday, shortly before 8am, I am reminded to leave for school so that, given the typical traffic patterns, I will arrive at school in time for the Assembly.

I never told my iPhone that Assembly is at school, nor did I request a reminder. However the iPhone gathers information from different apps and settings, predicts the location of Assembly, and sends me a reminder anyways, courtesy of AI.

There are many adjectives that people apply to Artificial Intelligence: "cool," "convenient," "scary," "helpful," among others. For my grandmother who suffered from Alzheimers, AI could have helped remind her to take medicine. But for others, it feels as if computers are developing a mind of their own. Jimmy Fallon introduced his audience to artificial intelligence, including Sophia the robot, who was recently granted citizenship in Saudi Arabia:

How do we introduce artificial intelligence to our students, who are growing up in a world where intelligence is both a human and computational trait? The site Google Experiments has some great activities and tools:

  • Google's Quick, Draw - Can Google guess what you are drawing? This is a great tool for introducing young children to the concept of AI. My 6 year old daughter and I love competing against the computer, and one another!
  • Google's Teachable Machine - Teach Google to learn your hand signals. Have you ever played rocks, paper, scissors with a computer?
  • Google's Autodraw - Sketch a picture and let Google make it into clipart for you.

Whether you find artificial intelligence useful, unnerving, or both, it is here to stay. And it will be important to help our students to understand how AI works, encouraging them to engage with the digital world in positive and meaningful ways.

What is your response to artificial intelligence? How can we help our students understand and interact with AI in positive and meaningful ways?

11/17/17

VR: From Digital Media Consumption to Creation

During our Friday afternoon PD when we explored the many technology resources that we currently have for teaching coding, there was a buzz of excitement around the VR goggles. VR, or virtual reality, is technology designed to generate a 3D environment that the user can interact with in a real or physical way.

VR is one of the hot new #CoolTech tools that is quickly moving into education. And as these digital tools develop, they provide exciting opportunities for us to move from consumption of digital media to creation of previously inconceivable experiences.

In fact, our own middle school students are using their recess time to build their own VR environments! After exploring some VR apps at the tinker table in the Adams Lab this Fall, a group of 6th grade girls jumped at the opportunity to build their own VR experiences.

They are using CoSpaces.io/edu and 360 camera apps to build their own VR environments. When they put a phone into the VR goggles, they can move through and explore the spaces and games that they have built.

And if our PD afternoon is an indicator, VR is fun for all ages. We had teachers riding roller coasters all afternoon. And the students are still talking about the recess when Mrs. Webster stopped by the Adams Lab and shrieked with fright in the VR Haunted House!

If you are interested in exploring more about VR, check out some of these apps and resources:

  • cospaces.io/edu - build your own VR environment
  • #ARVRinEDU - follow this hashtag on Twitter to hear how educators are using VR & AR in their classrooms; there is a Twitter chat for this hashtag on Wednesdays at 9pm
  • Discovery VR app - the Discovery Channel's app that is full of VR experiences - including Mrs. Webster's favorite, the haunted house!
  • Anatomyou VR app - explore the circulatory and respiratory systems in 3D
  • EON Reality apps - EON Reality has developed a number of apps to transport you through space and time, from scuba diving to King Tut to the Penn State stadium

The process of moving from exploration of VR apps, to building a one's own VR environment is a fantastic example of students moving from consumption to creation. As our students explore the digital world and find their passions, we are making tools available that empower them to create their own digital experiences. It's exciting to see our 6th grade girls spending their free time in such exciting ways!

How can we integrate VR into our classrooms to augment our teaching and meet our learning goals?

11/10/17

If you give a teacher an iPad....

The week that connects October to November is always a busy time for educators. These days are packed with grading midterm work, writing report cards, scheduling parent conferences, and moving the curriculum forward. Toss in some tired children who were up late and are riding the Halloween sugar rush, and you have an exhausting week. This is NOT a good time to run faculty professional development....or is it?

One of the first questions I received back in September was, "are you running the coding club?" And soon another question kept nagging at the back of my mind: "Why is coding living in a club?"

As I spent two months watching DCD teachers teach incredible lessons and engage with students in conversations around problem solving and following directions, I realized that our teachers were already "teaching coding." They just didn't realize it. Excited to empower teachers with this epiphany, I booked the next available Friday afternoon.

But that next Friday was November 3rd. And teachers were going to show up TIRED. So we threw out the slideshow PD model, and gathered together our robots, VR googles, and iPads. After a 7 minute conversation about computer science skills, I let teachers loose to try out our collection of coding activities.

With mother nature on our side, we enjoyed some coding exploration and robot driving in the warm autumn sunshine. It was a relaxing way to decompress after a busy week, and enjoy one another's company. The VR googles were the hit of the afternoon, and I loved hearing faculty help one another solve coding challenges.

After a long week, the best thing we can do is carve out time to play and rest. I am so grateful for the smiles and good humor of my colleagues.

Here's what happens when you give a teacher an iPad.....

11/3/17

#MassCUE17

Last week, Ali and I spent two days at Gillette Stadium learning and networking with edtech teachers and administrators from around Massachusetts. It was an exciting conference, full of new ideas, technology tools, and pedagogy. Here are some highlights:

  • The CUEkids sessions were like mini science fairs where students displayed how they are using technology in their classrooms. There were middle school students who, inspired by The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba, built their own bike wind power generator. High schoolers from Ashland explained how they host elementary & middle school students for weekly makerspace projects. And a grade 2 class showed off her hyperdoc on Panda Bears that she built through Google Classroom. I was so impressed by the leadership and intellect of the students I met. It makes me wonder which we can send to represent DCD next year?
  • The Keynote speaker, Ruha Benjamin, asked how we can leverage edtech tools to encourage inclusivity and provide our students with a "wider reading of society." She offered some great questions around our vocabulary to communicate our individual experiences with our shared communities.
  • Sarah Dahlheimer and Jed Stefanowicz from Natick Public Schools do a great workshop called Abra-CODE-abra. This was the first conference where I was able to sit in on their session, and it was fantastic! They provided lots of ways we can embed coding into our daily activities and curriculum. From class-starter puzzles, to large scale maker projects, I gathered lots of ideas that I hope to explore soon with the DCD faculty!
  • There are a lot of ways that technology and design thinking skills intersect in the classroom. With this in mind, I attended Andy Plemmons' Makerspace session - he presents around the country on how to integrate the maker culture into your school. I love Andy's work because he focuses on the organic creation of maker opportunities. Ideas comes from students and teachers, facilitated by Andy's library and resources. I encourage you to visit his website Expect the Miraculous to see his work.

In my first two months at DCD, I've found a culture that mirrors the excitement of the MassCUE Fall Conference: students and teachers eager to learn and try new activities. It's inspiring, and I'm grateful to be in the conversations and classrooms. I'd love to go with some teachers to future PD - what could you share with the edtech community?

10/27/17

Happy Digital Citizenship Week!

October 16-20, 2017 is Digital Citizenship Week! As a school we will be discussing and thinking about how we can be better digital citizens and build positive digital footprints.

Some of the questions that we will discuss at each grade level include:

What does it mean to be a digital citizen? At today's Assembly, one of our students defined citizenship as "belonging to something bigger than ourselves." I absolutely loved that definition, because it allows us to think about how we can use technology to belong to something bigger. How can we use technology be true and kind to others? To help other people?

How can we be safe when we are using digital tools? We practice two very important rules around technology: 1) Our devices are learning tools, and 2) Online = Offline. Both of these rules remind us that we want to practice safe and positive behavior in all aspects of our lives - in the classroom, on the athletic fields, and with technology.

How can we build positive digital footprints? Even at the youngest age, we can help students collect moments of pride, kindness, and celebration in our digital portfolios. And there are plenty of authentic audiences for sharing our portfolios - from teachers and classmates inside the school walls, to family and friends outside the school. Developing positive habits at a young age can lead to positive digital experiences as children grow.

Throughout the month, I will be visiting classrooms to help students and teachers get started building digital portfolios. For our youngest students, this may simply mean loading moments of pride and kindness into a Google Drive folder. In upper elementary, students can begin taking ownership over their portfolios by decorating Google Slides and reflecting upon their entries. By middle school, students can get creative, designing their own personal Google Sites to display their positive footprints.

As teachers, we can also model positive digital citizenship in our own lives. We can use technology with students, share our own digital footprints with our classes, and engage in conversations around technology topics with one another and our students.

What does your digital footprint say about you?

10/20/17

Inspiring Innovation through Use of Space

The past couple of weeks, there has been conversation in the Adams Lab about the use of space. Over the summer, we wanted to transform the lab from a room full of desktops to room full of opportunity. The learning goals of the Adams Lab are complex, as the space must support a wide range of learners, from our Pre-K friends, to our Grade 8 leaders, to faculty learners, to families and the wider DCD community. So in August, we asked two questions that guided our thinking around the space:

  • How can we make the Adams Lab an inviting space where members of the DCD community will come to explore?
  • Once members of our community come through the Adams Lab door, how can the space inspire innovation?*

Notice that the word “technology” does not appear in either question. I consider technology to be one of many tools that inspires innovation. While it is an important tool in our lab, I’d be happy to chat with any students who have innovative ideas!

Here are some of the additions to the lab that happened over the summer:

  • The geometric shapes on the wall add a little color and playfulness, hopefully making all of our community feel invited, inspired, and energized when they are in the lab.
  • Located at the entrance of the Lab, the chalkboard wall invites students into the space, and to immediately take ownership in the space by writing their names on the wall. With simply a piece of chalk, they can begin to innovate the space around them.
  • The comfy chairs and rug provide an inviting space for adults and children to sit, relax, and talk.
  • The tinker table at the entrance of the lab invites students to play and explore.
  • The Lego wall offers an innovative activity to build, create, and change perspective: instead of building up, we can build out!
  • The giant coloring page provides a calm in the storm, simultaneously inviting students and adults to take a breath while adding some color to the lab.
  • The dry erase tables invite creativity as visitors jot down notes, draw pictures, or simply sign their names. Like the chalkboard, visitors can establish ownership of the space by leaving their marks.
  • The displays of old computers and Apple posters reminds students that new technology is part of timeline, stretching backwards and forwards.
  • The posters of globally-renowned innovative thinkers encourages innovative thinking in our own space.

A room can be inviting and inspirational, but management of a public play space is not easy, and Ali provided some wonderful guidance in setting expectations for visitors through design of the space. Placing the iPads in the back corner means students will have to intentionally navigate to the devices, associating some weight to borrowing the iPads. A clear plastic bin for the Legos reminds students to clean up. And placing chargers out in the open reminds students to plug in robots when they are done playing.

So far, we have been happy with the results. At recess, Middle School students swarm, playing with robots, chalkboards, virtual reality, and spilling over into the hallway. And Lower School students are always bubbling with excitement when their classes visit the lab.

If you’d like to learn more, come by to chat or borrow one of our ebooks on this topic:

The Space: A Guide for Educators by Rebecca Louise Hare & Dr. Robert Dillon

The Innovator’s Mindset: Empower Learning, Unleash Talent, and Lead a Culture of Creativity by George Couros

Lead Like a Pirate by Shelley Burgess & Beth Houf


What are your goals for designing your own classrooms and learning spaces? And how can we help you reach those goals?


* When I use the term “innovation,” I’m relying upon George Couros’ definition of the word: a way of thinking that creates something new and better.

10/13/17

Our Digital Footprints

This month, in honor of Digital Citizenship Week on October 16-20, DCD will begin building their digital portfolios - a collection of "moments of pride" to document, reflect, and publish throughout the year. Over the course of the school year, students will document and reflect upon 5-7 moments of pride in a Drive folder, Google Slides, or Google Site. As we become more comfortable with our work, we will slowly share these out with authentic audiences that can include our teachers, parents, classmates, and DCD community.

The essential questions for this activity are:

  • How can my activity online reflect my activity offline?
  • How can we digitally share moments of pride within our community?

The portfolios provide opportunity at all grade levels to have conversations about who we are online, and how we can share pieces of ourselves that are both true and kind.

At the PreK and Kindergarten levels, teachers can help students take pictures and videos, saving them into Google Drive folders. Lower School students will begin to create photos and videos with less assistance. By third grade, students can learn to use Google Slides to collect their entries. In Middle School, students have autonomy to select and document moments of pride, and choose between Google Slides and Google Sites for their portfolio platforms.

We are at the early stages, and I am already impressed by the enthusiasm with which our youngest students approach the creation of photos and videos! Our current students are learning how to navigate and contribute to a world saturated with visual media. I am so excited to help create our own digital portfolios!

10/6/17

Grade 4 Gets Coding

So exciting to welcome this year's Grade 4 to the Adams Lab today!

We built an obstacle course for the Dash & Dot robots to navigate. Once we mastered our driving skills, we started programming the robots to follow the course and avoid obstacles on their own!

And the Beebots were great help in reviewing new Spanish vocabulary. When the teacher said "two!", the teams hurried to program their Beebots to travel to "dos!"

A wonderful rainy morning with robots and friends.

Be Internet Awesome!

This year, our community's digital literacy work centers around leveraging our digital tools so that we become Empowered Learners and Digital Citizens.

Empowered Learners use "technology to set goals, work toward achieving them and demonstrate learning."

Certainly these are skills that we always help our students develop, as they tie so closely towards our motto that "learning is a way of life." How can we leverage digital tools to support students in these goals?

Tools as simple as Google Drive and Whipple Hill (now named Blackbaud) help students stay organized.

And setting up a folder for "Moments of Pride" can help demonstrate student learning as a mini digital portfolio. Students can add documents, photos, or videos of their accomplishments to that folder throughout the year.

Or take it one step further and have students use Google Slides to make their own textbooks, documenting their learning as they year progresses. Documenting student accomplishments can facilitate the important reflection that helps learners feel empowered.

Digital Citizens understand "the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world."

This understanding depends on important conversations between students and role models, such as teachers, coaches, and parents.

There are great activities that can facilitate these conversations, simultaneously educating students and adults. For example:

There are lots of resources to support our students on their paths to becoming Empowered Learners and Digital Citizens. What tools and projects are you using to support their journeys?





Documenting Student Learning

With the switch over to Gmail this fall, there has been a lot of conversation around how to share classroom news with parents. As we become more comfortable creating email lists and using Whipple Hill (now called Blackbaud) email features, we can now begin to think about what we are sending in our communications.

Certainly, we have a list of announcements and reminders each week: Remember your permission slips! Library books are due! And we also share happenings in our classroom: pictures & videos are easy ways to document what is happening in the classroom.

But how are we documenting student learning? How do we make student understanding visible to students themselves, and their families?

Technology can be a great tool in making learning visible and facilitating parent-teacher communication around the exciting learning that is happening in our classrooms! Below are some of my favorite tools for documenting learning:

  • Explain Everything - Students have their own whiteboard right on their iPad. As they draw, write, and upload photos, they can record their voices as they talk through problem solving, storytelling, or describe a visual. The videos easily upload to Google Drive straight from the app, and can be shared via the Drive link!
  • Screencastify - Are you on a desktop computer? Then screencastify is a fantastic tool for recording the screen while students record their voices. They can describe a photo, create tutorials, or document their thought processes. Videos are saved directly into their Google Drive and easily shared via the Drive link! Watch an example of a screencasted tour of a student's Minecraft building (see left).
  • Flipgrid - You've likely heard me talk about this app or read the post below. This is a great way to collect the voices of all students in one central location. Accessible both by web browser or the app, Flipgrid is a virtual bulletin board where students post short video responses to a question or prompt. The results look like a Brady Bunch grid of faces - each video sharing the students unique voices (see left).
  • Make your own textbooks! - Create a Google Slideshow over the course of the year. As you progress through units, have students add a new slide on which they reflect about what they learned, or answer an essential question. Students can easily upload a photo, text, or video, and decorate the slide as they like. Each time students add a slide, remind parents to check the link!

There are lots of ways digital tools can document student learning and facilitate parent-teacher communication. How are students documenting and reflecting in your classroom?

Role Models in STEAM

It is well-documented that diversity is severely lacking in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). The Center for Research on Girls at the Laurel School addresses the gender gap in their summary Engaging Girls in STEM: Role Models, discussing how the lack of role models for women in STEM fields discourages young women from studying STEM in school and contributes to negative stereotypes. The Laurel School CRG recommends that:

I believe that this advice extends beyond the gender gap, and should be implemented to address the many ways that diversity is under-represented in STEAM fields (A=Arts!). There are a number of ways we can introduce role models from STEAM fields to our students:

  • Invite STEAM field professionals to our classrooms & assemblies to share the work they do.
  • Showcase STEAM professionals around your classroom. (Come see the STEAM Heroes Instagram display in the Adams Lab!)
  • Many STEAM professionals will do a video call with classes whose location or schedule prohibit in-person visits. Sue Shirley recommends Skype a Scientist; and Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants hosts scheduled Google Hangout sessions that classes can join throughout the school year.
  • Walk by the Adams Lab window and check out our display iPad, playing inspirational moments. GE has some phenomenal videos around the "unimpossible" - from catching lightning in a bottle, to girls dreaming big STEM dreams - here are two of my favorites:
  • Looking to put the "R" (for Reading!) into STREAM role modeling? Here is a 2013 list of Authors on Twitter from Middle School ELA Teacher Joy Kirr. A number of these tech-savvy tweeters would love to Skype too!
  • Look around! There are lots of STEM professionals right in our own DCD community: Ms. Shirley, Ms. Pereira, Ms. Gow, Ms. Reardon, Mr. Fernandes, and many more! They'd love to talk STEM!

Upcoming Professional Development

in the EdTech World

During our first Technology Working Group meeting this week, we discussed some priorities that we hope to set for the school year ahead. Much of the conversation centered around professional development topics - for all members of our community, including faculty, staff, and parents.

The EdTech community is a vibrant and energizing group that has a myriad of professional development opportunities. If you're interested in learning more about technology in the classroom, here is a list of some upcoming opportunities (in order by event dates):

  • ISTE Online PD Courses, Anytime, Anywhere - You hear me talk alot about ISTE and its great resources for edtech integration into classrooms. Engage in self-paced online learning about edtech topics, such as Digital Citizenship, Empowered Learners, Knowledge Constructors, and 21 Century Skills.
  • MassCUE 2017 Fall Conference, Oct. 25-26, Gillette Stadium - Massachusetts Computing Using Educators (MassCUE) is our state organization for educators with a passion for technology in education. Its Fall Conference at Gillette is two full days packed with workshops, keynotes, exhibitions, and networking events that showcase exciting ways to enhance teaching & learning with technology. Questions? Ask Kate - she has attended this event in the past.
  • Learning & the Brain: Merging Minds & Technology, Nov. 10-12, Westin Copley Hotel - This conference will look at transforming schools with neuroscience, robots, makerspaces, and virtual reality. Although it's not aimed specifically at elementary students, many speakers have expertise in STEM at the elementary & middle school levels. And if you're looking for a one-day experience without having to get a substitute, check out the pre-conference workshops on Friday, 11/10 (Veterans' Day observed). Questions? Ask Claudia - she has attended this event in the past.
  • EdTech Teacher Summit, Nov. 13-15, Revere Hotel Boston - This conference has three threads: edtechNOW for classroom teachers getting started with tech; edtechNEXT for tech-savvy teachers looking for new strategies; and edtechTHOUGHT for edtech leaders & school administrators. And if you're looking for a one-day experience, check out the pre-conference workshops options, which include topics such as Google Certification, Elementary iPads, Digital Portfolios, and more.

I have a new tool for the classroom that I can’t wait to use – Flipgrid! It’s a virtual bulletin board where students post video responses to a question or prompt. All the rage at ISTE in June, my social media feeds have been flooded with Flipgrids from fellow educators this summer.

Similar to Padlet (another favorite!), FlipGrid provides a wide range of teacher controls that allows for a moderated virtual conversation between students in video form. I love that it pushes students to work in video format, while maintaining a time limit for each entry. It’s a great platform for helping students:

  1. collect their thoughts and phrase their main ideas succinctly,
  2. consider their surroundings and environment when recording, and
  3. engage with classmates in a teacher-moderated social media platform.

From summer reading reflections, to reporting from field trips, the possibilities for integration of this new tech tool into the classroom are endless!

I couldn’t resist sending out my own Flipgrid Topic - the question every students asks: Where do teacher GO in the summer??

What Can I Do in the Adams STEAM Lab?

We have lots of new games, activities, and tech tools to try out in the STEAM Lab!

Need a break to de-stress? Come color in the giant coloring page on the wall!

Can you spell your name in binary code? Come learn the language of computers and make your own binary bracelets!

We have lots of tech toys to try out! Program Dash and Dot robots to cruise around the lab, or have them play a song on their xylophones! Linked to a series of iPad apps, these robots are a Must Try for every age group.

#AncientTech

While doing some summer cleaning, Mr. Fernandes found a treasure trove of technology history.

From floppy disks to 35mm film cameras, explore some ancient tech in our Tech Museum!

The Writing is on the Wall

Check out our new magnetic chalkboard where you can draw a picture, leave a message, or take on the challenge of the week!

Going on a vacation? Bring back a magnet souvenir for the board so we can share all of the places DCD travels!

The New Adams STEAM Lab

Mr. Fernandes and Ms. Reardon were busy this summer sprucing up the Adams STEAM Lab!

We found lots of treasures hidden in the corners, brought in some new activities, and lounged in our new comfy chairs.

We are waiting for you and your students to stop by with new ideas and energy! See you soon!

How many shapes can you see in our geometric wall?