Edgaged

Once upon a time... This post makes me nostalgic of my early days as a technology coach at East Noble School Corporation . We had just adopted iPads as our device of choice to put in the hands of every student. Lots of cool apps were coming out that allowed you to create cool recordings and flashy videos. Whenever a student accessed an app that required microphone or camera access, the iPad would pop up with a box. These boxes caused some panic as students would deny access to their camera or microphone left and right. This brought these fun technology projects to a screeching halt. So I quickly made a video to send out to staff so that they can go into the settings and fix the problem if a student made such mistake.  Now that I'm in a Chromebook school district ( MSD of Steuben County ), we are having the same issue. Students don't do it on purpose. When a box pops up on the screen, they aren't actually reading what it has to say. Instead, they take their chances...

January 2017 Update Google recently updated Google Classroom  with a feature that has been much needed. One of the most common questions I get when training teachers on Google Classroom is what to do about differentiated/personalized instruction. In the past, I've recommended to those teachers that if they want to differentiate they will either need to create separate classrooms for each group or use a consistent title for the assignments when dealing with groups of students. The problem with that theory is that groups are often ever changing. As teachers continue to assess, students will continue to shift around in learning experiences/expectations. Within the last year, the edition of topics helped with that issue as the teacher could then at least categorize posts. The students could then click on the topic in order to see only the stream of what pertained to their group. Regardless, Classroom didn't seem to be the friendliest to the differentiated teacher.  Wi...

Creation is Key Amy Heavin, Principal at Ryan Park Elementary, had a vision. She has been inspired to build a maker-space for the staff and students. She wants to cultivate thinkers and problem solvers. She's building a creative culture within her school. This process started during the 2015-2016 school year as Amy has quite a few fun tools available for her students to try. Kids are programming Spheros, building with Legos, and creating contraptions with Little Bits. Before this year started, Amy contacted me about another tool she added to her collection; she purchased a Polar 3D . 3D printing has been around for quite some time, but here in more recent years, it has become extremely affordable. She purchased the Polar 3D mainly because it was in her price range and those that had purchased it had pretty good reviews. Ultimately, she was looking to provide students with the experience of being able to create solutions to problems. The Polar 3D provides a ...

Snowy day! Today was an e-learning day for the students of MSD of Steuben County. We had quite the winter blast on Sunday as was predicted as we sent all students home with a school issued Chromebook. I went out several times with my snowblower to clean the driveway in phases in case waiting till the snow stopped falling would be too much for my little Toro to handle. It probably would have been fine, but better safe than sorry.  The following day many school districts, like mine, called an e-learning day. MSD of Steuben isn't quite ready to launch an e-learning day the morning of severe weather as some districts are. The day is probably coming in the next few years as I'm continuing to provide training opportunities to learn/refine virtual learning options. My goal is to train teachers to provide learning experiences that are just as beneficial as the experiences students have while in the physical classroom.  What can I say? I'm cheap... Upon the an...

The Best Ideas... The best ideas come when you least expect it. Awhile back I was visiting with Mrs. Antos and her 3rd grade class from Pleasant Lake Elementary, she wanted her students to work in Google Slides to create Mystery Cards in relation to the plot of the story. It was the first time students had experienced Google Slides; it took them roughly 30-45 minutes to build the template without any clues created. All things considered, they were able to accomplish much in a short period of time! The idea behind Mystery Cards is that they give three clues to an important event in the text. The next card had the answer to the clues as well as a short explanation. The fun part of doing it in Google Slides vs. on note cards like her original activity suggested is the vast number of images available that students can access. It also makes for a great presentation for students to share in front of the class to introduce a book. What a great way to build and exciting reading culture ...

Running Records So much value can be placed on the time that you spend with students doing a running record. You really get to know each student's strengths and weaknesses. Teachers truly understand the individual needs when they take the time to listen to the student read and ask them questions about the text. What's the biggest problem with doing running records? Time!  Looking back on my teaching experience, I spent a lot of class time pulling individuals back to check their reading performance. Often times, it would take me a week or more of my reading block in order to get through my whole class. As long as you had already established a solid reading culture within the walls of your classroom, the process is pretty smooth. If you have resistant readers, it takes even longer as the teacher may need to do some crowd control from time to time. So how do we get passed the issue of time constraint? There are some options, but I highly recommend that the teacher of...

Lunch with Lance I love lunch. Yes, I have a deep appreciation for food, but that's not why I'm discussion my love for lunch. I try to spend the lunch hours hanging around the teacher's lounge due to how precious that time is. Teachers frequently ask questions about technical issues they are having or ways to better implement the tools they are currently using. It is such a valuable time for teachers to learn a new tool, tip, or trick that will in some way benefit them and their class. I have no actual data to prove the benefit of being available during lunch in comparison to holding before or after school training sessions, but I do believe it is of more value due to the fact that teachers visit in shifts. I can personalize the learning experience at a much better level than having a sit-n-get session. Lunch is also of value as the most important ingredient in driving change is to make connections with people. Gaining trust is vital to the process of building a c...