It all started with Facebook.  The Global Read Aloud Facebook group is where teachers find a classroom, other than one in their school, to connect and collaborate with each other. The premise is simple; groups pick a book to read aloud to students during a 6-week set period.  During that period, classes try to make as many global connections as possible.  The Facebook group helps to bring understanding about what The Global Read Aloud entails.  Students don't actually access Facebook. They engage in collaborations using a variety of digital tools. The website (linked in the title) matches up classrooms where students from different schools engage in digital activities together.  

The Facebook group does host educator book studies. There is one starting in January called, "The Passionate Readers Winter Book Study" The book study discusses teacher reading identity, student reading identity, classroom libraries, and of course, share must-read, must-add titles for you to consider adding to your classroom.  The book club is free, all you need is your own copy of Passionate Readers and to join the Facebook group where the questions and discussion will happen.

Teachers across the groups will plan purposeful instructions with tech infusion. One goal is to match a digital tool with the task, in order for students to collaborate.  The K-1 class at Peiffer is partnered with another school in Virginia, a kindergarten class. Algonkian Elementary, which is named after a Native American tribe that is widespread and in Virginia. We have done a Mystery Google Hangout to launch our connection (both classes got to ask questions to guess where the class was located), a Flipgrid coming up soon, a Padlet this week, and Seesaw Blog. We have shared the various activities we have done in Seesaw through our blog. We have answered prompts like "What fills your heart with happiness?" "How do you hold someone up?"-

The teachers at Peiffer are using Seesaw Blog to communicate among students from the two schools. The picture above was taken from the blog. You can learn more about this free tool by watching this video. 

I was lucky enough to witness a FLIPGRID that the K-1 class at Peiffer used to draw pictures from a main idea in the the book and the explain their thinking. Flipgrid is a website that allows teachers to create "grids" of short discussion-style questions that students respond to through recorded videos. Each grid is effectively a message board where teachers can pose a question and their students can post 90-second video responses that appear in a tiled "grid" display. Click here to try FLIPGRID out!

Peiffer teachers have been Transforming the Task using the SAMR Model, as well. They are creating, transforming, and evaluating student tasks that register M/R on the SAMR Model. For more information on the SAMR model and how strong learning happens when tasks register on the M/R, check out this Multi-media Text Set.  

 "Make something that does a thing."  This was the challenge put out to 10th grade students at Golden High School by their teacher, Mr. Gitner. Students were engaged in a very broad PBL. The sky was the limit. Their task was simply to create something that does something.
Gitner said of the task, "If I do not explicitly name a tool for them, at the end they create something that they feel is important. It ended up being a passion project where I just became the coach." The students went out and decided what they wanted to learn and found the right tool for the job. “What you know isn't what is important anymore, it's what you can do," says Gitner. At the very heart of this task was the foundation of student choice.
The results from the students was phenomenal. One student got her artwork on a brochure that fights to end violence against women.  Another student created a mockumentary. This student learned a valuable work-life lesson. He says of the leadership within the project, 
“What I really learned is how difficult it is get people together without intrinsic motivation. Bringing people together and giving them a task is not enough. It takes true leadership to engage others." This is the essence of The Jeffco Generations skill, Collaboration and Leading by Influence. 

Last year, Gitner created a task called "Walk in Someone Else's Shoes". He had students create Trello Boards. A Trello board is a list of lists, filled with cards, used by you and your class. It's a lot more than that, though .Trello has everything you need to organize projects of any size. Open a card and you can add comments, upload file attachments, create checklists, add labels and due dates, and more. Here is a video Andrew made for his students. You can also access his example of a Trello Board here. You can find this lesson on the Bridge to Curriculum in the Teacher Resource Library. 

Back in my high school years, each ELA teacher required that students write a variety of essays. These essays were scored, entered into the grade book, passed back to us for a quick review of our grade, and then saved in our teachers' filing cabinets. At some point, usually in the late spring, the teachers returned all of our essays and asked us to pick the 3 best samples to create a portfolio. I'd make the recommended changes my teacher had listed and hit print -- good enough. Knowing that my teacher was going to be the only one who would be reviewing my work (again) did little to motivate me to think critically and improve my writing. Usually, my score did not change. 

In my college years, after all my learning had been finished, I was again asked to build a portfolio as the cumulating task. After hours of scrapbooking and collecting artifacts, I had a beautiful 3" binder full of lesson plans, photos, and beautifully designed (and protected) pages only my professor would ever see. My hard work would never be looked at by a future employer or anyone in my industry. Although I was proud of the final product, much of my time felt wasted and little was actually learned by doing this task, with the exception of becoming a better scrapbooker. 
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If you think back to your educational years, I'd bet you have a similar experience building portfolios to demonstrate learning. Creating a portfolio of student work can be a very beneficial activity for both the student and the intended audience, but how we build them can be better than what I experienced. To do this, we can consider having students create digital portfolios. Essentially, digital portfolios are the same as a traditional portfolio, but what differs is the manner in which the learning is presented. What makes digital portfolios relevant is that they give students the ability to demonstrate growth of learning, skills, and reflection over time to an authentic audience. This authenticity helps build confidence and a sense of achievement for the learner as they share their work with the world. It also encourages them to go beyond "good enough." In secondary years, students can develop a brand or image for who they are as they apply for continuing education and seek employment opportunities. ​

The Google Infused Classroom, by Holly Clark and Tanya Avrith, outlines 3 different types of digital portfolios that could potentially be created by students in any grade level or subject, as a demonstration of learning. If you haven't read this book, it's a great one to add to your library. Here is a brief synopsis of the different portfolio types:
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The Process Portfolio: 
The purpose of the process portfolio is to make students' thinking visible by documenting and reflecting on learning. Throughout this process, students create, reflect, receive feedback, and publish. Students' very best work is mixed in with work that shows improvement over time.

The Showcase Portfolio:
The showcase portfolio highlights a student's very best work. This type of a portfolio is an assessment of student learning. The students create and then publish only their final products. The 3" binder portfolio from my college years was an example of a showcase portfolio. 

​The Hybrid Portfolio:
As you might guess, a hybrid portfolio is a combination of a process and showcase portfolio. In this portfolio, students create, reflect, receive feedback, then select one (or more) of their favorite pieces to share with a global audience. A hybrid portfolio can be a great way to carry learning forward from year to year as a student progresses through grades. My first experience with the high school essays was a hybrid portfolio. 

Although there are many options for creating digital portfolios, the new Google Sites and Seesaw are two of our favorite tools for this purpose.

The purpose of digital portfolios is to create an opportunity to share learning with a larger and more authentic audience. Sometimes this can feel frightening when thinking about student data and privacy. Instead of limiting an audience and locking down a portfolio, consider having students use their first initial and last name, or just a first name, to keep student work global but their identities private. Also, remind students not to share personal information such as their address or phone number on their portfolios. 

As you are considering ways to integrate digital portfolios into the student learning experience, it is important to remember that not all artifacts have to be digital. Snapping a photo of a physical piece of evidence, or recording a video of a student speaking, is a great way to allow the physical and digital worlds to collide and create a bigger picture of what a student can do! 

Welcome to week 3 of Jeffco Ed Tech's Twitter Challenge. Now that you've gotten the chance to lurk and read a few tips for posting a variety of tweets, you'll have the opportunity to become more connected on Twitter by both consuming and producing content during a chat. Save the date: Thursday, Oct. 19 @ 7pm MST! In this post, scroll to find information about how to participate and etiquette during the chat. 

Final Challenge: Lead Your Nest's V Formation
Participate in a Twitter Chat hosted by Jeffco Ed Tech. 

​Here are the questions you can anticipate during the chat: 


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​You can see who is following you by clicking “Followers” in the upper-left hand corner of your screen.  See who has joined your flock, and feel free to follow them in return.

Still haven't "dove" into
​the world of Twitter?

We are going to give you the wings you need to take flight. To celebrate Connected Educator Month, Jeffco Ed Tech is hosting a
                               TWITTER CHALLENGE!
Take part in a 3-week challenge to start to build your PLN (Personalized Learning Network). Following and connecting with educators on Twitter can help you gain knowledge and ideas to help transform the student learning experience. Details for starting the challenge are below.

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Challenge #2: Find some Flight Patterns.
Search for @jeffcoedtech and click the blue "follow" button to follow us on Twitter. Find some other Ed Heads to learn from. Here are some suggestions that we follow:

@COJasonGlass                         @GoogleForEdu                                          @iste
​@alicekeeler                               @JeffcoSchoology                                      @E_Sheninger
​@rmbyrne                                   @ShakeUpLearning ‏                                  @ColoradoSTEM

Challenge #3: Retweet.  Find a quote or article that someone you follow has posted. Click the icon to retweet their post. You can also show you like or agree with a post by clicking the heart icon.

Challenge #4: Start Watching the Flocks.
​Become a lurker by just checking in regularly and see what people you are following have to say and share. You will be building your PLN in not time!


TUNE IN TO NEXT WEEK'S BLOG FOR WEEK 2 OF THE JEFFCO ED TECH TWITTER CHALLENGE!
#jeffcochat

According to TeachHub, a resource in my PLN "In the education world, PLN stands for Personal Learning Network. What it means is that an individual has developed their own personalized "network" of fellow educators and resources who are designed to make them a better teacher".

For me, it is a way to further my learning and understanding of educational concepts that I am passionate about and support my work. My PLN allows me to easily connect with like minded educators from all over the world at my leisure. Learning and professional development can happen anywhere, even if I am at home in my pajamas or working out at the gym.

The following video describe in just over a minute, what a PLN is and how it can be beneficial for teachers to build their own network.

Mr. Bahlmann’s 4th grade class at Deane Elementary sits on the edge of their seat while the familiar tune of Google Hangouts rings throughout their classroom.

“Oh no!” says Digital Teacher Librarian Keri Douglas, “It looks like they’re not available.”
Not to fear, a chat box quickly pops up saying, “We need five more minutes to get ready. We transitioned late”. Another teacher somewhere across the country prepares her students to begin. Suddenly, her smiling face appears for the class to see on the projected screen and she announces the beginning of the Google Mystery Hangout.