DocHub, Template Preview, Blended Learning Spotlight

Students Can Write on .pdf's in DocHub

With the Chrome extension DocHub, students can "write" on .pdf's. The two-minute video below shows you how to add a .pdf assignment to Google Classroom and how students can turn in their annotated document. So...if you've got some worksheets that you love to use but only have paper copies, scan them to your email on the copier, add the .pdf to your Google Drive, and assign your worksheet through Google Classroom. DocHub can also be used to annotate text when you're looking at primary sources or taking notes. Download a Google Doc as a .pdf and use DocHub to annotate it for old-school revision. Lots of possibilities here! If you like the concept, but DocHub isn't your thing, Kami is another way to interact with .pdf files. 

https://youtu.be/TDd2ZlNmf-w

Hack the Link: Create a template/preview

Ever wonder when you visit TPT or Teachers Give Teachers how you are able to preview a Google Slide or Google Doc without being forced to make a copy? It's possible with a simple hack to the shareable link's URL. Simply remove the word edit at the end of the URL and insert template/preview. Make sure your privacy settings are "anyone with the link can view," and you're ready to share the new url. The two-minute video below gives you clear instructions. If you are sharing something awesome with colleagues in our district or your extended learning community, creating a template/preview is an excellent choice!

https://youtu.be/RAMvkXhjvIo

Blended Learning Spotlight

Can I just say, this was an amazing week for me? I was blessed to hear from teachers on every one of our campuses who are transforming their classrooms by offering their students choices in path, process, and product. The students are working off playlists and rotations so the teachers are able to spend more time with individual students. Digital tools are allowing our students to think, collaborate, and create in new and engaging ways. And teachers are using a variety of tools to assess how the students are progressing: IXL, Education Galaxy, Quizizz, Kahoot, Flipgrid, EdPuzzle, Playposit, Eduphoria, Study Island, Pear Deck, Formative, Flashcard Factory (it's more than just vocabulary!), and more. Here are some of the things I heard:

"I go home with energy left at the end of the day. And I'm actually talking with my students."

"I created an online assessment in Eduphoria, and it wasn't difficult at all!"

"My students loved using Insert Learning to interact with websites."

"My students are so engaged using Pear Deck Speed Graphs that they don't even realize that they're getting direct instruction!"

"I tell my students, 'I'm learning right along with you.'"

There's a creative hum I'm feeling when I walk into classrooms. Yes. Teachers are tired. Yes. Their calendars are jam-packed. But despite that, I see them stepping beyond their comfort zones and routines to try new things with their students and for their students. No. Let me rephrase that. I see YOU stepping beyond your comfort zones and trying new things with your students and for your students. You are making a difference!

It's a great time to teach and learn in BISD. Let's keep that energy flowing. Spring Break is just around the corner!

Blended Learning, Google Educator Certification, Certify 'Em

Keeping the Conversation Going

Over the last two weeks teachers across the district have been collaborating with each other and with administrators to brainstorm how to continue growing in our own understanding and competence in implementing blended learning and using technology to meet the individual needs of our students. The #banderaTCEAchers offered suggestions for providing staff with on-going support throughout the year and for staff development now, over the summer, and in August, as well as specific goals to meet the needs of teachers and students on their campuses. Curriculum leads on a couple of the campuses have issued digital challenges to their teachers so that we have the opportunity to learn in small doses things that can help us in our classrooms. The Digital Classroom teachers are intensively studying blended learning in their professional development through UTeach, and the Digital Learning PLC's this spring will offer more opportunity to explore what blended learning looks like in the classroom. There are some awesome things happening in classrooms across the district. If you get a chance on a random conference period, stop by a colleague's classroom and fill your own cup with some fresh ideas. Planning for next year has already started. If you have an idea on how we can support each other to improve our practice or to help our students be the best that they can be, speak up. Talk to your curriculum lead, team/department/grade lead, or administrator. #GoTeam 

Considering Getting Google Educator Certified?

Google Educator certification exams focus on the integration of G-Suite tools into classroom learning. The exams give you ample opportunity to apply those tools to real classroom situations, and that can give you some new ideas for integration in your own classroom. BISD has had G-Suite tools available in our classrooms for many years. There are some serious Google Geeks out there among us! Want to get a feel for if you're ready to test? Download Kasey Bell's Toolkit for Level 1 and Level 2 Google Educator certifications. Still not sure? Talk to Lisa Gherman (AES), Cassie Simon (BMS) or me. 

Certify 'Em

 Thank you, Shea Holland at AES, for sharing the Google Form add-on Certify 'Em, which allows you to create online certification exams and email .pdf certificates. How cool is that? The librarian in me is thinking how cool it would be to use this for a scavenger hunt for library orientation, but I can so see my friend down the hall using this in her science class for certifying her students in lab safety or my other friend across campus using it for certifying that her students know the political, economic, and social roots of Manifest Destiny and its relationship to the westward growth of our nation. If you gamify your lessons, Certify 'Em might be a nice tool to use for leveling up.

#TellingOurStory, Google Calendar, Blended Learning Spotlight

#TellingOurStory

What a difference six months makes! In August we were talking about setting up social media accounts for our campuses, our organizations, and ourselves. And today if you search Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, you can see the awesome things that are going on in BISD. 

To help out the people who are managing the campus accounts, please tag that campus if you are posting about something awesome in your classroom or for your organization. (example @BanderaMiddle or @HCEBulldogs). That way your post will show up in their feed and they can share it. 

Last week I heard an administrator share that she was so excited to find that you can search hashtags to connect with others. (ie #1stgrade #middleschoolscience #blendedlearning). Another way to locate people to follow is to simply do a Google search. (ie. top people to follow for social studies teachers, or top people to follow for math teachers.) You'll get a big list. Select one or two to follow. Pretty soon your virtual PLC will become an amazing resource. Last week when we got the email from Remind about their service changes, the first thing I did was email Richard Byrne from FreeTechnologyForTeachers. He responded within two hours, and I had information from an expert in the educational technology field. How amazing is that?

Google Calendar

Did you know that you can hide Google calendars that you subscribe to? Whether you are on a computer or a mobile device, you can check or uncheck calendars to make them visible or hide them. For example, if you subscribe to BISD's calendar or your campus calendar, you may only want to see those events some of the time. Simply uncheck the calendar in the Calendars list. You're still subscribed. You just don't have to look at the events all the time. Ahhh. Relief from calendar overload! 

Want to subscribe to someone's calendar? Click HERE for a cheat sheet or HERE for Google's support page that includes instructions for IOS, Android, and computer.

Blended Learning Spotlight

Chromebooks should be in the classrooms of the teachers awarded Digital Classrooms, and this week the teachers are participating in two days of professional development. Tuesday they'll be visiting Engaged Classrooms in Alamo Heights ISD, and Wednesday they'll be collaborating to harness the power of technology to allow more time for student-teacher interaction and to impact instruction and differentiation. Next month they'll be visiting Robertson Elementary in Round Rock ISD. That school, a recipient of a Raise Your Hand Texas grant, is in its third year of implementing blended learning. 

Many of the Digital Classroom teachers are participating or will participate later this spring in the UTeach Blended Learning series, a 30-hour professional development opportunity that allows participants to explore blended learning models and to create activities to implement blended learning in their classrooms. This spring ask the Digital Classroom teachers about what they're doing/seeing/learning.

 It's an exciting time to be teaching and learning in BISD. 

G-Suite Updates, Art Contests, Spotlight on Blended Learning

G-Suite Updates

Google Drawings can now be embedded in Google Docs. So that may not seem like a big deal, but it truly is. Google Drawings is like the old Microsoft Paint, but on steroids. Imagine your students creating a Book Snap in Drawings and adding it as textual evidence on a larger writing in Docs. Or imagine a science student illustrating a process in Drawings and embedding it as part of a lab report in Docs. Or imagine one of our youngest students creating an illustration for a story he/she is writing in Docs. Pretty useful stuff! See what I'm talking about HERE. New to Google Drawings? Check out Alice Keeler's introduction HERE.

Google Classroom has also gotten a bit of a tune-up. If you're like me and want a bit more control of what  students see in their digital classroom you, too, can hear the choir singing, "Alleluia!" We can now drag and drop topics and items on the Classwork page. That makes me happy! 

You will also notice that Classroom has a new look. One of my students today described it as "clean." Read more about the new look HERE. If you've got a little over a minute to spare today, check out this great little video that highlights features in Google Classroom. 

https://youtu.be/DeOVe2YV2Io

Two Great Contests: Doodle for Google & Bulldog Mobile Logo 

https://youtu.be/HShq9R9lR1Q

If you visited Google on Tuesday, you saw the 2018 national Doodle for Google winner's artwork. Pretty amazing feat for a second grader. Wouldn't it be cool if one of our BISD students was recognized in the Doodle for Google contest? Here are the contest rules, and the link includes teacher resources, as well. The contest deadline is March 18, 2019.

If you want your students to participate in something a little closer to home, the Bulldog Mobile Logo Contest opens this week. After five years, the magnets that we affix to the district's truck have worn out and will need to be replaced. Here is a flyer that you can use to promote the contest to your students and parents. The deadline is March 7, 2019.

Spotlight on Blended Learning 

As we roll out 18 classrooms of Chromebooks this week, check out some of the ways that digital learning can impact instruction and student collaboration.

From my Twitter feed: What offering choice looks like in science, ELA, and social studies...

I have #PrideIn5 watching teachers begin to plan a #blendedlearning lesson. Teachers looked at several different models and posted wonderings and noticings. Thanks to all who participated! @CarolCLunsford #FabuDIS5 pic.twitter.com/GgWe8zVBmu

— Kat Degar (@MsDeeegar) January 8, 2019 

From a text message from one of our awesome science teachers:  what collaboration and "publishing" to an authentic audience does for elevating the thinking...

Purposeful use of digital tools can make a difference in how our students learn and can positively impact their work products.

Holiday fun, Blended Learning

EduTech for Teachers: 12 Digital Days of Christmas

Looking for a holiday connection for your kiddos? Check out EduTech for Teachers blog for magnetic poetry and more. 

Spotlight on Blended Learning

Over the next couple of months we're going to be learning together about using blended learning to shift from using devices to mainly support traditional instruction to leveraging them to support student-centered learning, whether that that learning is with the computer or with the classroom teacher. As we begin our journey, take the opportunity to look at a couple of blended-learning models to see which pique your interest. The models may not fit your situation exactly, but I love Matt Miller's way to approach learning something new. I'm paraphrasing, but in a recent podcast, he said that he needs to see the instruction in action, and then he can riff off of that. That idea resonates with me! So view these models as an opportunity to riff off what you see.

Once you have a firm feel for which model might work at one time or another for you, you can look at how your learning environment (classroom) supports that learning model. Stay tuned for more in the next Tuesday Tech Tip, January 8, 2019. 

https://www.blendedlearning.org/basics/

So...What IS Blended Learning?

https://youtu.be/OSkZ_DY1nns

Check out this three-minute video from Raise Your Hand Texas.

Strategies in Discovery Education, STEAM, Blended Learning

Spotlights on Strategies in Discovery Education

Your campus librarians have shared the Discovery Education campus codes with you. (If you can't locate your code, contact your campus librarian). DE is an awesome subscription resource for students and for teachers. But, holy cannoli, recently a presenter at a conference introduced me to an amazing gem hidden in Discovery Education that rocked my educational world. 

DE's Spotlight on Strategies is chock full of ready-made critical thinking activities for your students.  Search by skill, grade, or topic. 

Simply search "Spotlight on Strategies" and select "Text" in the menu bar to reveal twelve pages of amazing strategies for students to use to discover, learn, and reflect. 

Many of the strategies can be completed using both traditional and digital tools. If I were planning a lesson for a TTESS observation, this would be one of my go-to resources.

Looking to add a little STEAM to your Classroom?

Check out Peggy Reimers' TechNotes blog post for an inexpensive idea that allows students to collaborate and strategize while solving a problem.

Blended Learning 

Looking for some ideas to alter the path and pace to personalize learning in your classroom? 

Check out one school's approach to meet the needs of all their students one lesson at a time.

https://youtu.be/_4EUsSwTWmY

 

Image Search Tools, Classroom Screen, Blended Learning

Searching for Images?

One of the first grade teachers at AES emailed last week to ask about alternatives to a Google image search for her students to use for their research projects. Great question!

Richard Byrne of Free Technology for teachers has two excellent blog posts regarding image searches. His 12/16/17 post offers five alternatives to a Google image search and includes videos showing how to use add-ons or to add a site's search engine to your website.

His 8/25/17 post provides an easy-to-read chart that compares the features of nine sites that are alternatives to Google image searches.

Check out his posts to find a site that is most appropriate for the age of your students and the topic they are researching.

Classroom Screen

Classroom Screen markets itself as "the best screen for every classroom," and it may be on to something. This site offers 1-click navigation to the following:

• random name picker
• sound level monitor
• qr code generator
• on screen drawing
• on screen text tool with changeable backgrounds including lined paper, graph paper, and blank paper
• work symbols to re-direct classroom behavior
• a traffic light for students to gauge work time limits
• a timer
• a clock
• simple exit poll tool

In the upper left corner of the site, click on the three lines for how-to's and tips and tricks for using the site. I particularly love the idea of using the drawing feature in combination with other tools to direct groups of students in the classroom. 

Check out Brenham ISD's blog for more ideas for using this site with your students. 

Video Spotlight: Blended Learning

We may not be ready for the experiences highlighted in this video in every classroom yet, but this video offers a glimpse into what is possible when access, connectivity, and creativity meet. The video features a secondary setting, but there are take-aways for elementary in it, as well. It's a five-minute video, but it's definitely worth a look when you have five minutes.

My favorite line: "If a teacher is doing something that works really well in a face-to-face situation, [they] should continue to do that because it works well. If they can find something else that works better, is more efficient, or more effective that's digital, then that would be implemented." 

The right tool for the right job with the right student at the right time.