JEFFCO ED TECH

Teacher Spotlight: Highlights from an Elementary 1:1 Experience

3/20/2019

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​A journey Begins

PictureStudents were filled with rays of joy as they picked up their personalized devices from the library at Little Elementary.
The 2018-2019 school year began a little differently for some teachers in the Pomona Articulation area. Elementary teachers in first and fifth grade partnered with the district to implement a 1:1 Chromebook program in their classrooms. Preparing for a new school year comes with some butterflies and many to-do lists. Additionally, our partner teachers embraced a growth mindset to use technology to transform the task with their students in their very own 1:1 classrooms.  Teachers from Little, Parr, Warder and Weber Elementary are on a journey to provide learning experiences that prepare students to thrive in a digitally connected world.  We are excited to capture their story and share it with others. 

Starting with the "Why", not the device

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Our beliefs drive our practice. Before unpacking devices, we need to  unpack our school's underlying beliefs about teaching and learning with technology. Writing a school belief statement can help staff articulate the impact of going 1:1. 
A common element of writing a belief statement is collaboration. Having multiple voices in the process can help build efficacy and ownership.  
Resources which helped the Pomona area schools develop their "why" included:
  •  Jeffco Generations, including pg. 10 "Technology to Transform Learning"
  • Generations Skills & ISTE Comparison Chart
  • Vision and Mission Statement of the school

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Teachers at Parr Elementary reflected on their thinking in a Google Form to help build their vision.
Warder believes in empowering the learning experiences for our students through authentic and innovative technology integration.
Weber Elementary believes in transforming the learning experience through authentic tasks that enhance critical thinking, communication, creativity, and collaboration skills through the thoughtful integration of technology.
Little Elementary believes in providing students the opportunities and skills needed to become creative communicators and curious learners in the digital world.

Building a Roadmap

Digital Teacher Librarians, Instructional Coaches, Principals, and leadership teams came together to build a plan for a successful 1:1 roll-out.  
Four main milestones began to emerge as necessary components for success:
  • Logistics
  • Communication & Partnerships
  • Expectations & Digital Citizenship
  • Pedagogy- Transforming the Task

​Our IT colleagues supported many system and school-based decisions regarding the logistical components of the project including repair processes, tracking, and ongoing  technical considerations. We are thankful for the partnership in this work!

​ Schools were then freed up to focus on the implications for student learning.  This blog will focus on the remaining three milestones which the Pomona elementary schools continue to implement and reflect upon. 
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Brainstorming notes. What do we want for students? How do we get there?
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Listening to multiple-voices when building school agreements.

 Communication & Partnerships

In order to open communication channels with families, each school sent home an informational letter and invitation to a family night. The open house was created in collaboration by the Digital Teacher Librarians at the four schools to be proactive to community needs.  The event was held before devices were handed-out to students.  A common Google Form was created to capture questions and concerns. The feedback helped create Frequently Asked Questions  which was posted for families after the event. A goal of the evening was to strengthen the partnerships between families and schools. ​
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Curating 1:1 resources for families on your school website can help streamline communication. For example, Warder Elementary posted the presentations from the family night on their web page for families who could not attend. ​Click the image to be directed to the resources.
Guiding Questions to Consider:
  • ​​​​​​Will students and siblings be encouraged to attend with their parents?
  • Is there a hard start time or can families come as they are available?
  • How might the resources be shared in multiple-modalities (online, print, social media) to reach the most families?
  • Can articulation collaboration benefit your event?
  • What interpreters should be invited?
  • Can families access the information elsewhere if they can't attend?

Expectations and Digital citizenship

"It is very important to be proactive rather than reactive. Take the time to teach and implement expectations and not just think they have already got it."  Digital Teacher Librarian
"Start Early!"  1st grade teacher
Preparing students to make smart choices online is a priority when going 1:1.  Direct instruction and on-going conversations about these 6 topics are available for K-12 students in the  Common Sense Media curriculum. 
  • Media Balance & Well-Being
  • Privacy & Security
  • Digital Footprint & Identity
  • Relationships & Communication
  • Cyberbullying, Digital Drama & Hate Speech
  • News & Media Literacy
Some teams of teachers engaged in a common book study in preparation of setting up their classroom expectations.  Jeffco Ed Tech has online resources to share with schools interested in facilitating a book study at your school too! 
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How can your current classroom management strategies transfer to a technology-rich learning space?
"Set expectations early and be clear about consequences when students don't follow the expectations and of course follow through with consequences. That advice is true of all classroom management."  5th grade teacher
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What existing structures in your building create clear expectations with students? Weber Elementary added to their PBIS matrix and included descriptions for Safety, Organization, Achievement, and Respect for learning on devices, just as they had student expectations for the playground and hallways. 

View some common slides curated from multiple schools across Jeffco when considering setting up expectations at your school. 

Pedagogy: Professional Learning Plan

Supporting teachers through a thoughtful professional learning plan can help scaffold instructional best practices in a 1:1 classroom.  
Teachers in the Pomona area were invited to join a Learning Lab. Teachers are building a community, opening their doors to each other to watch technology teaching and learning occurring in the classroom, and taking those implications forward to their own instructional practices.  
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A Learning Lab invitation. Click to view full page.
"The Learning Labs effectively introduce new tools for teaching. [The facilitator] is intentional about supporting us in this learning by modeling how technology can be intentionally integrated to transform our classrooms rather than just as a shiny, new gadget. I always come away from our Learning Labs with tons of new ideas - maybe not things I will implement the next day just for the sake of it, but ideas that have changed entire units of instruction to be more meaningful and that ask students to think and work in new ways." 5th grade teacher
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A schedule from a professional learning opportunity for Parr teachers as they prepared for going 1:1.
Additionally, schools designed on-site professional learning for teacher needs specific to their school. 
​Questions to consider:
  • What frameworks do teachers have to reflect on technology use in the classroom? SAMR? Rigor and Relevance Framework? 4 Shifts Protocol? 
  • What do we want our students to know, understand, and be able to do as learners with technology at our grade level? (ISTE standards for students, available in Bridge to Curriculum by grade-level bands)
  • How might blended learning models support student agency?
  • How can we build capacity among staff through shared leadership? How can teachers learn with and from their peers?

Transforming the Task

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Transforming the Task through providing students with opportunities to develop the Generation Skills using technology. Click for the full document.
​"The heart of really transforming education is in transforming student task. If we are not profoundly changing the things our kids get to do and experience in the process of learning, we aren't really changing anything." Jeffco Generations, Transforming Student Task

Pomona teachers have been utilizing their understanding of SAMR to integrate technology beyond a substitution level and instead to redefined learning opportunities. The Jeffco Generations & ISTE Comparison chart helps educators identify the student outcomes they wish to develop. 
Below are some artifacts from teachers which showcase their journey towards transforming student learning experiences  in their 1:1. 

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A teacher completes a Sort, Group, Label activity to explain his thinking of transforming the learning with technology in his classroom.
"5th Graders are working on persuasive podcasts. This unit has allowed us to transform Opinion essay writing into meaningful conversations around relevant issues to our 5th graders. We have explored the many ways that communication happens in our world and students are practicing this in a new way! We are writing opinions and arguments that are compelling and based in reliable information, but we are learning how to communicate that effectively to our audience. We will create feedback questionnaires to go with our podcasts so that listeners can provide timely feedback to the podcast creators and engage in further conversation around the topics they have chosen.
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Click to view the entire lesson plan. Also available in Bridge to Curriculum
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Little Elementary 1st graders create using their touchscreen Chromebooks.
1st grade students shared their understanding of Wants and Needs utilizing SeeSaw to draw and record their thinking for their teacher.  Making thinking visible in the first grade classroom has been enhanced through video and voice recording. Teachers have insight into student thinking. 
"We have been able to have students create their own understanding by using Hyperdocs. Students are given options and choice as to how they want to demonstrate their learning. It is nice to have constant access to technology. In the past it has been difficult to plan units involving technology because we could not always count on having technology available on the dates and times that we needed."
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​The Journey Continues...

Each school continues to engage in continuous learning  and reflections about their 1:1 implementation and growth.  We are thankful for the school partnerships and for their willingness to share their story with others! 
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GOOGLE GOODNESS: March

3/18/2019

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​JAMBOARD FOR WEB: NEW FEATURES

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Google has added several new features to Jamboard which makes it easier to create and collaborate on jams on the web. Some of the new features include:
  • Support for familiar keyboard shortcuts: Use Ctrl+C to copy, CTRL+V to paste, and CTRL+D to duplicate Jam objects when editing on the web. 
  • Create, delete, and duplicate frames on the web: Easily manage frames (the equivalent of pages in jams) on the web. 
  • Easier switch between creation modes: Quickly switch between the drawing and selection modes - hold down Ctrl (CMD on Mac) to switch to the select mode, and release to switch back to drawing mode. 
  • Better image management: Add images to jams by drag and drop, copy and paste, or through a simple image upload dialog. 

New: View your own Tours on Expeditions

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Google's Tour Creator allows anyone to be able to create their own virtual reality (VR) tours. Students can use images from a 360 degree camera, or they can curate images from Google Street View to create their own virtual field trips. In Tour Creator, you can enhance the 360 images by adding in details, audio files, information, highlights and points of interest, just like you see in a Google Expedition.

Last week, Google announced the new ability to view Tour Creator projects through Expeditions on iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch). So now, not only can you make a field trip, you can go on your field trip in 3D! Once a student creates a tour, they will need to publicly publish their tour to Poly, Google's library for 3D assets. This will allow you to view or guide student tours in Expeditions. If you would like to view your tours in 3D, please be sure to check out one of Jeffo Ed Tech's Google Expedition kits.

Tour Creator FAQ

First Day with...

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Did you know Google offers lots of professional development courses for free through their Teacher Center? One of their PD series is called "First day of..." These PD sessions offer just the basics for getting up and going with a few of the G Suite for Education apps. This is a great place to start if you, or an educator you know, needs some beginner resources! Be sure to also check out the Teacher's Lounge section to see tips and tricks from other educators. More tutorials on the other G Suite for Education apps are coming soon! 
  • First Day of Google Forms
  • First Day of Google Classroom
  • First Day of Jamboard

Going Chromebook?

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With more and more Chromebooks entering the district, there is an increasing need to understand the power of the Chromebook and how it has the potential to change the landscape of teaching and learning. This self-paced PD unit on Chromebooks, created by Google, walks you through the following concepts:
  • What are Chromebooks and how are they different from other computers
  • How to manage and take care of Chromebooks in schools
  • How to personalize your Chromebook
  • How you can integrate technology in your classroom using Chromebooks
  • How Chromebooks and G Suite for Education work seamlessly together
  • How to troubleshoot simple Chromebook issues, and where to find support when needed
*Android (mobile) Apps are not yet available in Jeffco

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Innovation ACCELERATION Funds in Action: Evergreen High School is Transforming the Task with 3D Printers

3/8/2019

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Brent Olyowski had a vision for Transforming the Task in Physics.  So he submitted his idea for an Innovation Fund  and was awarded funds to purchase 2D and 3D printers. Brent's idea is the epitome of Transforming the Task. In Brent's own words,  "In an effort to make physics fun and engaging, we want our students to design, build, then use those creations to perform physics experiments using 2D laser cutters and 3D printers." 

​​Matt Cormier, Evergreen area principal, notes, "This will help prepare students for emerging careers that are going to be part of their future. The possibilities that are created seem limitless. Evergreen's teachers are so strong and Mr. O does amazing work and he is also planning to partner with some superstars in his building. He will have the support of an excellent digital teacher librarian and tech staff. This is a great team to make the investment powerful, however, everyone will be in awe of what the students create."

Making the innovation Come to Life in the Classroom

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Brent was happy to share his plans to implement his 3D printers in the classroom. Here are some highlights from his Innovation Acceleration Fund application:
"First semester is about Newtonian Physics and we try to relate it to driving since almost all of our physics students are beginning drivers. The vision is the students design cars to perform simple experiments with. We would start with basics like velocity, acceleration, stopping distance,  and inertia; and then get more complex with momentum, impulse, friction, collisions,  energy transfer, and circuits. We can even convert the cars to solar cars near the end of the school year. The idea would be to modify their creations to make it more complex as we get into the more complex ideas. The evolution would go from cars they send down a ramp all the way to cars with solar powered with sensors on them. "


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Digital Whiteboarding: It's for Everyone

3/5/2019

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From Teacher tool to a universal OPPORTUNITY

Remember when the only computer in the classroom was attached to a display on the wall?  The class would come to the front of the room and see the teacher or a student model thinking on the board.   The device at the front of the classroom may have changed now that more and more students have a personalized learning device. Students can simultaneously interact with the content to demonstrate what only one student or teacher could before. ​ This blog will explore how classrooms can be transformed from a single whiteboard classroom to a room full of creators through web-based whiteboarding apps and tools.
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What is Whiteboarding? 

PictureHow to decide what tool to use to whiteboard?
Whiteboarding allows for the creation and spreading of ideas for a variety of learners.  It can be a blank canvas with a variety of pens, shapes, texts, and backgrounds allowing for open ended creation and sketchnoting. It can be a place where student teams collaborate on tasks and learning or a slide deck designed by a teacher for students to demonstrate a skills.  The options are endless.

Student Implications

Whiteboarding allows for students to process learning and demonstrate their understanding of learning. Students can create a collaborative space to organize and plan learning.  Students or teachers can create a Jam (using  Google Jamboard) and share it with a team of learner​s. In the "Jam" space, students can simultaneously take notes, sketch ideas, insert pictures, organize thoughts, and plan long term projects across a multi-page whiteboard space.  Teachers can join the Jam for feedback, guidance, and support. Students can download their work as images or PDFs to demonstrate their project planning and organization. Jams can be submitted through Google Classroom and help students build competency in being a self-directed learner and collaborator.
High impact instructional strategies like concept mapping can be done through whiteboarding.  Students develop graphical representations of the conceptual structure of content, summarize main ideas, and synthesize major ideas, themes and interrelationships. One way to teach students how to concept map is sketchnoting.  Sketchnoting can be done on web based tools like Canvas for Chrome and works best with touch screen devices. Canvas for Chrome allows students to use “pens”, “pencils”, “chalk”, and “markers” to create a visual representation that is automatically saved to their Google account. 
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Interested in sketchnoting? Learn more here.

Teacher Implications

​Today a variety of web based tools are also available for teachers. Web based tools have the advantage of not being tied to a particular device. Most are free and can be use on PCs, Chromebooks or iPads.  Some examples are Google Jamboard and Kami.
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Jamboard Application for Collaboration and Brainstorming
Teachers can create a Jam template using the Google Jamboard and send a copy to students using Google Classroom. Students can sort and organize concepts on a Jam, create connections between ideas and resubmit to the teacher through Google Classroom.   Teachers create the template, but it allows for student voice to be elevated through their demonstration of content. Teachers can highlight student work and thinking to the full class since all the work was collected in Classroom. 
Another common use for whiteboarding is the modeling and annotation of mentor texts. Teachers can use the Kami extension to open a file from Google Drive and model to students how to practice questioning, inferring, and making connections to a text.  The annotations are then saved into the Google Drive available to revisit throughout a lesson or unit.  Students can make their thinking visible through annotations as well using Kami.  
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Kami - Whiteboard App for Annotation
Finally, many classrooms still have an interactive display of some kind.  It might be a Smartboard, Epson Interactive Projector, or a Mimio Panel.  Each panel has a coordinating installed software (some have costs) that allow for the creation of files that can be used for whole group direct instruction or small group practice that can be saved and reused.
Whiteboarding today is a space for learners and educators to process and demonstrate learning.  The possibilities are endless!  As spaces are redesigned or upgraded in schools, explore what might be the best projection display using this self guided projection solution tool.  Also reach out to your Ed Tech Specialist and ITSS to help think through future plans.  
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