Learn, Create, Connect
News and Updates from the MASD Technology Integration Committee
Wednesday, August 8, 2018
Back to School Edition
- Welcome Back! Let's Do This!
- Tools to Get to Know Your Students
- What's New in Your Favorite Tools? Updates to Flipgrid, Google Classroom, and Seesaw
Welcome Back!
I hope you had a great summer and found some time to rest, relax, and rejuvenate! One look around the district and you can tell there wasn't much relaxing going on here. Classrooms, hallways, and common areas have been waxed and buffed. The second floor at Elmwood has been transformed from offices and meeting rooms to classrooms for our 4th and 5th graders. If you haven't driven past the Kindergarten Academy lately, you'll be amazed at the progress on the new addition. Even the entrance to our temporary district office location has improved (a little).
I've done a little sprucing up here at Learn, Create, Connect, too. Last year's posts are saved under the "LCC Archives" tab at the top of the page, in case you want to go back and find something. I changed the theme a bit too, just to freshen things up. As you prepare your classroom and get your first lessons ready, I'll be setting up accounts and gathering resources to help you meet the needs of your students. If there's anything you need related to instructional technology, please don't hesitate to contact me. It was a great summer, but the first day of school is just around the corner. Once again, it's time to learn, create, and connect!
Tools to get to know your students
They don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care.
Our work with our district goal of growth for all learners has encouraged us to become "students of our students". What better time to start than the first days of school? While there are lots of methods for getting acquainted, some teachers have found great success with asking students to use a variety of technology tools to share a little about themselves. Here are a few ideas...
Flipgrid
Last year, high school teachers Jen Bandura and Joe Reidy both asked students to introduce themselves to the rest of the class by responding to a prompt on Flipgrid. This platform allows students to record a short video which is posted to a class grid. Many of our students are very comfortable recording themselves, so this was a natural fit for them. If students don't want to record their faces on video, they can sit off to the side and just include the audio. Flipgrid is now FREE for all teachers. Read the next article for more on these updates.
Google Forms
Create a short survey in Google Forms to find out more about your students. Responses will only be accessible to the teacher, which may help students to share more openly. You can ask whatever questions you want and all the information will be collected in a spreadsheet. If you teach multiple classes, you can use one Form, but add a question at the beginning for class period. This will allow you to sort the results by class, if you wish. You can also set the Form to automatically collect the student's email address. Here's an example I found online. This one seems pretty long to me, but you can decide what works for you.
Seesaw
Elementary teachers all have access to Seesaw. Whether you're using iPads or Chromebooks (or pretty much any other device), you can ask students to record a short response to tell you something about themselves. If you create this task as a Seesaw Activity, you'll be able to assign it to multiple classes and share it with other teachers in your school. Bonus...later in the year, students can go back and review their introductions to see how much they've grown! Read the next article for more on updates to Seesaw Activities.
These are just a few ideas for using digital tools as one way to start getting to know your students. What's really important is the questions you ask and how you use the information throughout the year. The technology is just one way to collect it.
What's New in your favorite tools?
In education, summer is a time to take a deep breath and gear up for the year to come. Some of our favorite instructional technology tools used the summer to announce new features.
Flipgrid
Flipgrid took the education world by storm last year, providing teachers with an easy-to-use tool for capturing student voices and encouraging conversations. While the free version was good, to get the best features, you had to upgrade to Flipgrid Classroom. By joining forces with Microsoft, Flipgrid is now able to offer the full version of Flipgrid is now FREE to all educators. This means that everyone will have access to unlimited grids, student-to-student replies, and longer recording times. If you have questions about how Flipgrid could help you encourage students to share their voices and engage in conversations with others, check out their Getting Started: Educators page here.
Google Classroom
So many of you are already using Google Classroom to organize assignments and communicate with students. Google frequently releases updates based on user feedback. Recently they announced some new features I know some of you will like. As I write this, you can sign up for early access to the updates, but they are scheduled for release to all users sometime in August. Click here to read about the updates, including the ability to organize assignments into modules and units. Additionally, for those who use Google Classroom to provide students with feedback on their work might be interested in new workflow procedures, including the ability to build a comment bank, to save you from typing the same thing over and over. The improved workflow also allows you to quickly move from student to student without having to click back to the assignment each time. Learn more about the new Google Classroom here.
Seesaw
Seesaw is another company that is very responsive to teacher requests. New for 18-19 is an expanded Activities Library. Search for Activities and filter by content area, grade level, and topic. Once you find an Activity, you can use it as-is or customize it and then share it with other teachers in your school. They've also added the ability to assign an Activity to multiple classes at the same time or to assign it to a small group of students to aid in differentiation. Stay tuned for information about Seesaw PD opportunities with our resident Seesaw Ambassadors.
