Schuylerville happenings

2017 Recap

What a great beginning of the school year! Students came to school ready to learn and teachers were off and running with new ideas and strategies to employ in their classrooms. Our 1:1 initiative now includes first and second grade as well as all of tenth grade. New apps have been deployed as requested by teachers and we are rocking and rolling on trying new things in our classroom!

The school year started out with some basic lessons on digital citizenship and digital literacy. These topics are continuously built upon as the year progresses. Our Middle School began a 'Use Social Media for Good' campaign that was started by digcitkids.com under the hashtag #bethatKINDofkid. Students are using a Google Classroom platform as a safe and closed way to share ideas and spread positive vibes. They have created a Padlet of favorite quotes and anti-bullying campaign posters on the site. Seventh and eighth graders in Mrs. Smith's computer classes are taking this one step further with their passion projects.

This year there has been an increase in using the BreakoutEDU boxes. These boxes really make students use their critical thinking and collaboration skills and are completely cross curricular. Students as young as first grade can use their best detective skills to unlock the locks. Check out the video on our school webpage or click here and here to see a breakout in action.

Students in fifth and sixth grade are taking their math conversations globally with a global Flipgrid. This app allows students to record videos of themselves explaining how to solve problems or offer solutions to math concepts. Students from as far as Athens, Greece are participating in this global outreach program. Click here to see the video. This project is ongoing throughout the year.

Students are exploring augmented reality images to explore parts of the body in their living environment class and in the primary grades they are bringing their coloring to life with an app called Quiver.

It's been exciting beginning of the year! I cannot wait to see what comes in January and beyond!

October 2017

The month has started just as the last one ended, with student voice, creativity, and safety at the top of the list of activities. Students in the 5th grade reviewed what it means to be a good citizen both on and offline and explored the the world of Interland. Google has a new program called Be Internet Awesome that explores safe passwords, sharing, and being kind. Through interactive games and class discussions, our 5th graders entered this world to learn to be brave, smart, kind, and safe. Our 6th graders spent time learning how to use three new apps to create their own webpages. They explored Adobe Spark Post, Spark Page, and Spark Video to create robust and creative websites about things they are passionate about. They then shared their websites on a shared Padlet so that they can explore each other's creations. This month, our professional development focus is on adding student voice in our classrooms. We will be exploring an amazing app called Recap. Recap allows teachers to ask questions, get video and typed responses, and differentiate instruction to redefine how the classroom looks. By using a template similar to online chats, teachers can have a secure location for students to ask questions, explore passions, and discuss topics in digital ways. This does not replace the classroom conversation, but instead enhances the dialogue and can take it beyond the classroom. Teachers can create journeys for students to complete at their own pace, based on their level, and interest. Students can participate in chats similar to those on Twitter in a safe and secure environment which will enhance their digital leadership. For more information on Recap, visit their website here.

September 2017

The first month of school is always an exciting time. New students, new lessons, new friends, and new ideas make for a great new beginning. This month I had the opportunity to push into classes from 6-10th grade and cover lessons on social media, digital leadership, and creating a positive digital footprint. Check out the digital citizenship tab for the resources and lessons used in these lessons. This month also was full of professional development workshops that covered apps like Nearpod, Padlet, Adobe Spark, and the G Suite. Next month many of the elementary classes will review digital citizenship lessons either with me or in their computer classes.

End of Year 2017

What an amazing year it's been! Students explored more apps, robots, coding challenges, and created more than ever before. It's been an amazing experience being the integration specialist this year! I cannot wait to see what next year brings!

Spring 2017

Students have been working very hard on creating some amazing projects, exploring new apps, working collaboratively on projects, and more. The focus this month was on creation and student voice. Many students were able to learn new tools that allow them to do just that!

With apps like Recap and Seesaw students could answer prompts from their teacher, or explain important information. These apps allow students to have a clear voice as to what they are thinking. It gives them a chance to explore, show their abilities, and express themselves.

Student creation is a very important part of what we do every day. Apps like Buncee, Pic Collage, Adobe Spark Post, and Canva all allow students to express their creativity. These make for amazing slides like the ones made in Mrs. Parker's class about their mushers during the Iditarod. These images can become infographics, presentation slides, parts of movies that they are making, which are all wonderful ways that students can show their learning. The students created amazing presentations, graphics, and designs.

February 2017

It may have been a short month, but it was chock full of amazing moments. Students in all grades showed off their problem solving skills, reflected on their learning, and were innovators. I continued to grow too and added Buncee Ambassador to my list of designations. I also had many opportunities to train and be trained on the latest and greatest in education. Who could ask for anything more?

The focus for this month was student voice. Students need to be able to reflect on their learning in a variety of ways. This helps them understand why they are learning something, what they have learned, and determine what they still need to learn. Apps like Recap are amazing for this as they allow student to answer a basic question. Being able to speak freely, and record it, is a powerful tool to foster success. It helps teachers to see what is going on with each student as sometimes you just can't conference with them every day. Teachers can use this app to hear the thoughts of each student and respond to them based on their needs. Teachers can also send the video home to a parent to share in the learning that is happening in the classroom. I made this video for a presentation I was doing at a local school, but wanted to share it here too as it shows some of the features of the app.

Students also explored apps like Shadow Puppet and Seesaw. Both of these apps allow students to document their learning in a variety of ways. Shadow Puppet is amazing for digital storytelling, explaining a process, giving information, and so much more. Students can be creative like never before with this app. Seesaw is a digital portfolio platform that allows teachers, parents, and students to communicate in real time. Each student has their own folder that only the teacher, student, and parent, can see. Students can upload photos, make videos, drawings, and link to work from other apps seamlessly. Teachers can use this tool for running records, science experiments, writing and reader's workshop, or anything they are doing in the classroom. Students love the flexibility of the iPad and the ability to create, document, and record their hard work.

Fifth grade is still learning a ton about coding through the Wonder Workshop Robot curriculum. We will be sending our robots to space, and use them to help us document the Iditarod next month in March.

March's focus will continue to be on documenting our learning, allowing for student voice, and adding in innovation. Stay tuned for more amazing stories from the students in Schuylerville as they are just incredible. Stay warm!

January 2017

Happy New Year! This month has been an exciting one as classes got to work on new writing activities, building on their hour of code activities, and learning in new ways. It's also been one of new activities for me. I became a Recap Pioneer, and a PioNear for Nearpod, two of my favorite apps to use in the classroom. I also became an ambassador for Seesaw, an interactive student driven digital portfolio platform that allows for parent involvement.

This month I had the opportunity to go to Austin, Texas. This invitation was an exciting one as I got to meet with 90 other PioNears from around the world. We talked about what works in our classrooms including apps, websites, and new technology trends. I was able to collaborate with teachers from the US, Serbia, and England and see how our schools are integrating virtual reality, augmented reality, formative assessment, and community. The founders of Nearpod showed us how this app is helping ELL and special education students with new curriculum that helps all students learn through interactive lessons. They also rolled out a new collaborative feature that will help teachers quickly assess their students. These are exciting updates that our teachers will love to bring back to the classroom.

The Wonder Robot program in the 5th grade has rolled out to Mrs. Penniman's class. They are learning the basics of the robots and have begun to code them. Mrs. Parker's class continues to do amazing projects with their robots including programming their robots to play a patriotic song while they learn about the Revolutionary War. I'll be sure to post the video of their final projects as they complete this project. Students in 4th and in Mrs. Jordan's class have continued to use the Sphero robots for fun lessons in following directions, basic driving skills, and problem solving.

The second graders got to film themselves using the Recap app. This app is a great tool for teachers where they can ask the student anything they want the student to respond to. Instead of writing the answers down, students create a short video showing what they know. These videos are sent to the teacher immediately and a daily reel of the answers is created with music and graphics. Teachers can send out this video reel to their classroom blog, to a parent, or to just share with students in the classroom. Students learned about using the microphone, how to center themselves in a video, and how to speak clearly as they worked through the program.

Our 8th graders have been exploring investigative journalism as part of our Writing Units of Study. Their final project was to create journal articles on their iPad for 'publication.' Students learned how to use the app Pages to create columns, add images, headings, subtitles, and even blurbs under the images. They learned the basics of visual literacy, creative commons, and copyright, while learning how to create these journal articles. The final results were professional and creative.

Mr. Bassani's 4th grade students learned how to use the app called Seesaw. This app will be used for publishing their final writing pieces so that students can offer positive feedback to each other as they review others writing. This app allows for parents to see what their child is doing in the classroom and respond to items in their student's private folder.

Next month will feature more coding, more use of digital portfolios, and more technology integration. It should be a great few weeks!

December 2016

The focus this month was on the Hour of Code. This is a worldwide movement to expose students to computer science as there are many careers in the future where some amount of coding is necessary. Coding is the language of computers and students from grades k-8 participated in at least an hour this month with many going beyond the hour. Students in Mark Belden's 7 and 8 classes completed a 20 hour course and learned many incredible skills. Check out the video on the school's home page to catch a glimpse of coding in action with our students. Many different apps and websites were used including kodable.com, code.org, and The Foos.

The 6th grade Orange team started their science projects this month and got a two day lesson on creative presentations. Students learned about safe searching, using Google effectively, and how to organize their research. They also learned how to create amazing slides using the Google Slides app on their iPads. They tried it out and the results were impressive. They then learned how to use iMovie to stream their slides together, add audio, and create final multimedia presentations. Students enjoyed being creative, and their presentations were impressive.

BreatkoutEDU is a fun and exciting way for students to use their critical thinking skills. Students in Mrs. Poutre's class took this a step further and added coding to their breakouts. Students had to solve math problems, and then code the Sphero robot to go through a maze. If they were successful they could unlock all the locks on the breakout boxes and win a prize. Many students completed the challenge and they are asking to do another one soon.

Fifth graders in Mr. Duncan's class took their research to the next level by creating interactive movies from their posters. This multimedia approach allows for higher level thinking, app smashing, and differentiation. Students also could use their creativity skills in new ways. Finally, this helped students who are often afraid of standing in front of a class during presentations a voice. They could voice over, or use print to deliver their presentations. This is an innovative way to do classroom presentations.

Dash and Dot were very active robots this month in Stacy Parker's class. They completed their ecosystem unit in science and completed their time travel challenge to the New England colonies. A lot of code was written, more pages were added to their digital notebooks, and students are showing incredible growth in their teamwork, communication, and critical thinking skills.

Pat Whalen's fourth graders had a blast coding the Sphero robots to race and stop on the line. They had to work together in groups to determine the acceleration, time, and direction they wanted their ball robot to go in order to complete the challenge. The joy on their faces when they succeeded was priceless. It was definitely a great learning experience for them!

This month was a great win for the world of computer science. Students were engaged in their learning, acquired new skills, and found new talents. What a great beginning!

November 2016

This month was again a very busy one. Students in Kindergarten started using their iPads this month using apps like IXL and Starfall to practice the skills that they have learned in their classroom. Many also had the chance to create their own numeracy stories using an app called Draw and Tell. This app allows students to draw, use stickers, color, and add their own voice to tell a story. The kindergartners did an awesome job!

Second graders got their chance to learn about digital literacy through interactive videos and discussion on how to properly take care of their iPads, how to be safe online, and how to prevent and handle cyberbullying. They are such a smart group of students!

Students in the 4th and 5th grade learned how to express themselves by creating amazing picture collages for their vocabulary words. They learned how to do safe and effective searches on Google, how to find accurate definitions using safe online dictionary sites, and how to add images, words, and more on an app called Pic Collage. Students love the ability to create, design, and express themselves in this digital format. They also learned more on how to use Google Classroom as a way to organize their work, keep track of assignments, and share documents.

The seventh and eighth grade students learned many important Google skills this month with their research projects. Students defined plagiarism, fair access, and copyright, and learned how to search based on the needs of the project. They learned how to sort data in Google to get just the information they need, and how to make their slide shows more creative with animated images and creative data.

Mrs. Parker's class continued to learn to code their robots in order to begin their first major project for next month. This month they learned about ecosystems and are off to build their own in the near future.

This month I also had the opportunity to present at the annual NYSCATE conference out in Rochester, NY. It was an amazing experience getting to show others from around the state and beyond what we do here in Schuylerville on topics such as tech integration, formative assessment, and gamification. Teachers were impressed with what our students have accomplished and how our teachers have embraced technology to enrich the education of their students. It's been a great month!

October 2016

What a great month we had here at Schuylerville! Students are fully engaged and ready to learn. You can see their engagement in their smiling faces, their hands raised to answer questions, and their infectious giggles when they are having fun. That's truly the goal of an educator to see our students responding with excitement and learning in their own way.

With that goal in mind, the month of October was to help students continue to learn safe ways to build a digital footprint, be a good digital citizen, and how to be responsible with the technology available to them. This month students in 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grade participated in lessons about these important topics. Students in the fifth and sixth are taking it a step further during their computer classes and are creating posters for the New York State Office of Information Technologies contest. The goal of this contest is to teach students how to stay safe online. Stay tuned for a video on this in the near future once the posters are complete.

More students got to experience BreakoutEDU for the first time. These breakouts can be run digitally, or with actual boxes and locks, based on the goal and the topic. Students completed math problems, puzzles, and used their best detective work to try to break out of the boxes or the digital forms. These have proven to be very difficult for some students as they are often used to the information being right in front of them. In order to solve the clues, they need to use their best critical thinking and research skills in order to figure out the answers. These are very important skills when entering the workforce. While difficult, they are very engaging for students. One teacher remarked that it was the first time students weren't all looking to go to the bathroom or take a water break because they didn't want to miss a minute of the activity. That is 100% engagement!

Fifth grade got to use their critical thinking skills even more during a library scavenger hunt. Each student had a form they needed to fill out as they determined what were the most important parts of the library. They had to take photos and write about why each place was important. The activity was set up in a way to show them how to stay on task when completing items on an iPad. There were 'squirrels' that tried to take them off task. Many students completed it with time to check out the distractions as well.

Robots are fun. There are so many wonderful ones that teach a variety of skills. Students in Stacy Parker's 5th grade class are continuing to explore how to code via the Wonder Robots and they have begun to build their digital story books about their adventures with Dash and Dot. Next month they will build ecosystems and draw a map of a New England colony while using the coding basics they learned. Keep watching the home page for more photos of their achievements.

Kamigami Robots reached out to me this month and sent a couple of robots for me to try. I brought the little bug-like robots with me to the third grade computer classes and showed them how these robots work. The students offered feedback, and activity ideas that they would like to see in their classrooms. They proved to be amazing scientists, analysts, and teachers. I'll be putting together some integrative lessons with these robots for the students to explore.

Project Based Learning offers students a differentiated way to learn something at their own pace and in their own way. Students in Mark Belden's 7th grade Technology classes began their inventor/invention project with basic research. I got to spend time with the students showing them ways to do quality research, how to look for reliable sources, and some basic presenting skills so that they can make the best of this experience. Their ideas and excitement to do this project lead me to believe that this PBL experience will be an amazing one for all.

It's been a busy month for our students and teachers. A lot of planning is under way for even more remarkable experiences integrating technology. Just wait until you see the November newsletter! Enjoy the crisp fall air while it lasts and have a fantastic month!

September 2016

The middle school received their iPads on the first day of school this year and the roll out was incredibly smooth. It was so great to have a representative from Apple here helping us make the roll out seamless. Students were excited to get started on the iPads and were amazing listeners during the set up. The Self Service app on the iPads allows students to choose just the apps that the teachers want them to have.

Digital Citizenship is an important topic to discuss with students in all grades. During the month of September, students in 5-9th grade began to have discussions about making a good digital footprint, being a good digital citizen, and how to lead with kindness online. Through Google Slide Decks, AnswerGarden, Kahoot, and other apps and websites, students completed age appropriate activities that helped them understand the importance of making good choices. Students also learned how to use Google Classroom, Docs, Hyperdocs, and Google Slides while completing these lessons. More of these activities will take place in October and it will be 4th grade's turn to learn about how to be safe online. I will be visiting all students k-8 in their computer classes to talk more about plagiarism, copyright, and online safety in October. Mr. Belden's classes will be delving into Project Based Learning in October and I'll be in their classes to help them get started on the right foot with creating bibliographies, organizing ideas, and how to do quality and effective research with Google.

September continued to be a month of firsts with our very first BreakoutEDU. Students in Kristin Poutre's class were racing through math problems to try and break the codes and breakout of the box. The reward this time was candy for those that worked together in teams and did their best to solve the puzzles. Students in Mr. Mehan's class will get a chance as well. These breakout boxes allow for students to be problem solvers in new and creative ways. They have to use their critical thinking skills and teamwork abilities to work together to open the boxes.

Stacy Parker's 5th grade class began their robotics unit with their Wonder Robots - Dash and Dot. Students got the chance to learn about Google Slides, the basic parts of the robots, and began learning Blockley for coding their robots. Students will be completing activities to learn about the 13 colonies, complete science experiments such as building their own ecosystem, and will be writing their own adventure books. Stay tuned for more on this as the year progresses.

The month was a very busy one here at Schuylerville Central Schools! Students are using the technology available to them in innovative ways which will help them prepare for the 21st century workforce that awaits them. Stay tuned for more about STEM activities in the month of October.

Summer Training Series

The teachers at Schuylerville Central Schools are just amazing. This summer proved the dedication we have in offering students the best opportunities and the most engaging lessons. Through the Summer Training Series teachers clocked over 500 hours, covering at least 14 different topics and reviewing dozens of new apps and techniques. Teachers questioned, discussed, debated, and collaborated to decide how best to use the technology available to them in the classroom.

July began this journey for attendees by learning the basics of the iPad and all things Google. Some were new to the idea of using the iPad in class, but were ready to dive in while many wanted to take their use of the iPad to the next level. We organized our Google Drive folders, learned how to use Google Docs and Slides for multimedia text sets, app smashing, and some basic functions. From there we dove deeper into how we can transform classroom management. Websites like Class Dojo and Classcraft were explored to add not only management, but gaming, communicating, and classroom challenges to what we already do. Speaking of gaming, in our class on Gamification and Formative Assessments we discussed that our 21st century students need to be challenged in not just the traditional rigors of the classroom, but they need time to reflect, reimagine, and reinforce their skills. Many great gaming sites like Kahoot, Quizizz, and BreakoutEDU were explored to see how we can enhance the learning process for the individual student in fun and engaging ways. These sites also offer great data to help teachers differentiate and scaffold their lessons. The final class in July was on on Visual Literacy. This course covered not only how to create infographics, images, and such, but it also went over the importance of teaching students to understand all of the visual stimuli that bombards them everyday.

August continued on the same track with our class on Redesigning the Learning Space. This class allowed us to discuss what a new and improved classroom could look like, no matter what the budget. We discussed the book "The Space - A Guide for Educators" by Rebecca Louise Hare and Dr. Robert Dillon which is an amazing book that explains how the learning space is organized is an important part of a student's learning process. We spent time redesigning, configuring, and reimagining our classroom to make it a space that all students have the opportunity to succeed, collaborate, and feel comfortable.

Collaboration, independent, and blended learning are key components of using technology in the classroom. Our classes on Project Based Learning, Flipped Learning, best apps and websites for each grade level, and subject, rounded out the rest of the summer. Schuylerville teachers have walked away from these trainings with best practices, websites, and apps to take back to their classroom this school year.

The hours spent together this summer are just the beginning. Classrooms this fall will use technology in so many amazing ways. Digital Citizenship, BreakoutEDU, and RTI with robotics courses are already scheduled in the first two weeks, for example. Students are going to be so excited with this school year and their learning opportunities will soar! Great work Schuylerville teachers, I know this year will be an amazing one because of the exceptional teaching staff at SCS!