Another NCTIES conference is in the books! This year, I served as the organization’s president in addition to the Student Showcase committee chair. And this beloved student event was back - the first Student Showcase since 2020 due to COVID. In 2022, we limited additional large gatherings such as the Student Showcase and our evening TIES Together event.
This year’s Student Showcase was considerably smaller, but no less impactful than years previous. Teachers still came to listen to the students tell how they used digital tools to enhance learning and understanding of curriculum standards. We had projects with robots, drones, publications, data collection - so many different uses for the digital tools in our state’s schools were showcased. Also this year, we introduced an Esports strand to the Showcase and included an Esports Arena with a few teams from various counties competing. It was an awesome addition and will return next year! Check out the gallery on the NCTIES Student Showcase website.
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This month, in second grade, the teachers I've been working with decided to really amp up the hands on instruction to solidify the connections students make when learning about landforms and maps.
Students learned about various landforms and then created maps that included them....but these were no ordinary maps! These maps were for Ozobot travelers. Guided by a set of map specifications, students created and illustrated these maps. Some maps even included smaller versions of the landforms made with air dry clay. In this lesson, the students also practiced what they'd learned about using rulers. A highlight - at the end of this unit, students were given the choice of which landform they'd like to see in person given the chance. Then, we went on virtual field trips to a volcano, a waterfall, and a canyon. They were in awe. And I'm pretty sure they will not soon forget what they learned.
Recently, I had the privilege of working with middle school science teachers to show them what was available in MERGE Explorer to supplement instruction. Their minds were blown!
As they looked through the content, they quickly saw resources that aligned with so many upcoming standards! As they dug deeper into each, conversations shifted to how they could structure class to incorporate these activities into station rotations.
I always enjoy these conversations as they find the sweet spot where pedagogy and technology meet.
One of our favorite holiday movies when my children were younger was A Christmas Story. In one particular scene, Ralphie listens to the Little Orphan Annie radio show and becomes a member of the Little Orphan Annie Secret Circle and receives his decoder ring! He listens intently for the secret message in the sponsorship segment at the end - only to realize it was an advertisement for Ovaltine.
So what does this have to do with Digital Learning? Well a few years back, I stumbled across a podcast by GenZ Media called The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel. As I listened, it reminded me of that scene - the sitting around the radio, hanging onto the dialogue and sound effects, listening to the advertisements that were actually part of the podcast at times promoting Pruitt Prep. As a middle school ELA and social studies teacher, I thought about all of the wonderful ways this podcast could complement my classroom and support the standards. And then, I had to redirect my efforts so this idea to incorporate serial podcasts gradually slipped to a lower priority. Every now and then, I’d pop back over to the Gen Z Media site and check out new releases. Last summer, I fell in love with Young Ben Franklin. I listened. I took notes. In my mind, an activity began to take shape that combined listening skills and primary source content. This hyperdoc of sorts was born! I thought it would be a perfect fit for and ELA/Social Studies crossover in grade 8 since we cover American History combined with the NC events that coincide - there are actually more than one might think! It sat. I shared. No one seemed as excited as I did. I moved on. If you'd like to make a copy of it, HERE is the link. I would ♥ for someone to use it! Then I saw the Benjamin Franklin Ken Burns film on PBS. SWOON! I made connections to the podcast. Even though it is fiction, the facts woven throughout were reinforced with this film! My energy was renewed once again. I’m sharing this resource on Twitter also in hopes that someone might use it and let me know how it goes! Than, I went to ISTE in June. I saw this post on Twitter by Lisa Highfill while I was catching up on all the things I missed - you just can't make it to everything at ISTE!.
It was then that I noticed it looks like Gen Z Media has added several new titles I really want to check out, I see that there is a second season of the adventures of Young Ben Franklin - I can’t wait to get started! I understand change....but this switch to square has NOT been easy for those of us with non-monetized sites, It took me way too long to 1) switch to the Square log in credentials for both blogs I manage and 2) to get logged in once I DID as instructed. I sure hope the third one which I edit has been switched over by the owner!
Ok...moving on. Hopefully, I can get logged in quicky next time! Thanks to NCTIES, I had the opportunity to attend ISTE this week - and it was a FULL week!
Because NCTIES - the North Carolina Technology in Education Society - is an ISTE affiliate, I started my ISTE adventure by attending the affiliate meeting. This was a fabulous opportunity to learn with and from other organizations around the world. The breakout groups helped give insight into what other affiliates are doing to support their members throughout the year. NCTIES has had many conversations about this same topic! I, and the other two from our organization that attended, brought these ideas back to share at our retreat later this month. Look for exciting things to come from NCTIES! I attended many sessions, but the poster sessions were my favorite overall. In these sessions, educators had prepared a brief statement to share on their topic, but the BEST part was the takeaway! Each had a shortened link to QR code for visitors to take and review later. Let's face it - any EdTech conference is A LOT, so being able to leave with a way to revisit the resources is priceless. I encourage anyone who presents at conferences to do this! When I present, I put that shortened link on EVERY slide. Conference attendees often session hop trying to maximize their learning so someone can pop in at any time - I want them to quickly join in the fun! Another great part of the poster (and playground) sessions was the organization. Each strand or theme that had been identified based on the special interest groups. When someone joins ISTE, they have the ability to join multiple groups based on their job and interests. As we work to grow both posters and playgrounds, I thought that this structure was something we could possibly work towards with NCTIES. At a large conference like ISTE, there are big names from major companies offering evening gatherings. I went to many - even participated in a second line from one event to the other. All arranged and sponsored by several EdTech companies. My favorite, however, took place one morning. Adobe had planned and arranged a photo walk around the Bourbon Street area that highlighted many historical locations. We ended our adventure at Café du Monde where we had the world famous beignets and café au lait. While not quite the historic level of New Orleans, NCTIES happens every year in downtown Raleigh. There are still some striking architecture and monuments - and food halls with a variety of unique food options. This type of walkabout would make a great pre-conference session! The vendor floor was hoppin' from the minute it opened. I was one in line waiting for the doors to open! We had a list of vendor booths we wanted to make sure we went to first thing! And as a bonus, because we were early - warm beignets! The vendor floor at ISTE is always another place of learning as companies often have a schedule of brief presentations by users of their products. Sometimes these are big EdTech names, and sometimes you find ordinary educators like me sharing their district's journey with a product. Perhaps the most significant part of the ISTE22 journey was the honor to be a part of the group attending from North Carolina. Our state is the FIRST to provide every educator an ISTE membership. The ISTE membership provides access to professional learning opportunities that align with those self-identified interests I mentioned earlier. I've been a member of ISTE for a few years because it is something I value. As a member, the email communication about upcoming events and opportunities to expand your knowledge and grow your professional learning network always gets opened - and I often sign up for some webinar or another. Even if I can't attend live, they are almost always recorded for you to watch when you can! I'm thankful to NCTIES for allowing me to attend as a representative of their organization. I'm thankful for the hard work of those at NCDPI who worked to make the ISTE membership available to all teachers. I look forward to seeing how NCTIES, as an ISTE affiliate, can further support teachers both with getting the most of their ISTE membership and as they create rigorous, engaging lessons and activities that utilize technology.
I interrupt my normal blog posting schedule to bring you this special May edition - because, well, check out the title of the post.
Not to brag, but I’m quite a hit with the first graders! I can’t walk down the hall without a side hug or high five these days. While I may not have received the same level of enthusiasm as I did with my middle schoolers, there was this one time a van full of kids were waving and screaming my name as I tried to walk into a taco Bell once. Ahh, I do miss those days… Anyhoo, in my last post, I wrote about the intro to Dash. The follow up activity was even more glorious! The teacher and I worked on a data collection sheet. We collaborated using Google Docs. She noted the basic things, then we tweaked the language and created something that could be printed for the students to write on. HERE is our final product. The plan was for them to test three different types of balls with the launcher attachment for Dash. Each group was given one of the standard plastic ones that came with the attachment, a sheet of printer paper, and a sheet of aluminum foil. What they did with those last two items was up to them! Some kids made VERY dense paper balls, others were loosely formed. The same held true for the foil. Before Dash got involved, he can be a little needy until you get him connected to a device, we started by having them predict how far each would travel as they adjusted the speed (force) and write their predictions - practicing all the skills here! While they were having those conversations in their groups and writing things down, I connected Dash to each iPad we were using. Since they were already familiar with the Dash Blockly app, the hardest part for them this time was that they could ONLY use the block of code specified. Every now and then towards the end of the activity, I would hear Dash make a noise. I tried not to giggle as I gently reminded the students that code block wasn’t needed today. Inside, I was clapping - they had remembered so much from the last lesson! We set up their rulers - they unfolded into yardsticks - and launch stations and reviewed how to measure if the ball went past the end of the yardstick. We reviewed how to use the basic calculator if they needed to use it. We looked at the code block and practiced adjusting the speed. Then, they got to work. With the first launch, at 10% speed, nothing much happened. As they incrementally increased the speed, things began happening. Measurements were being taken. Data was being collected! As they finished testing each ball, they made their notes about the results. When they were finished, they drew conclusions about why. Actual results varied by group.
After the activity was done with these first groups, the teacher and I discussed the activity and decided that on the second day, we would bring in a food scale so the kiddos could weigh the balls and formulate theories about how this might have impacted the launch of each. When the scales didn’t show much variance in the weight of the three balls, a few students theorized that the plastic ball was hollow, so that is why it went the distance it did.
This lesson was a HUGE hit. It gave us so many other pieces of data about how these kiddos were faring. This was the first “normal” school year they have had! I think they are on course for a spectacular year in second grade - those teachers better watch out!
In March, I spent time with some sweet little first graders as I introduced them to the Dash Robots their teacher received with a grant - just as COVID closed schools. She also had some of the task cards designed to introduce them to the robot, but as we reviewed them, we realized the students needed a more basic introduction and, most importantly, time to explore. I must say, while Dash is a pretty cool robot, I do not like that all of the materials that support instruction for this guy require subscriptions and additional purchases. And don’t get me started on Teachers Pay teachers! Y’all, I was a classroom teacher and bought so many things with my own money - and it’s only gotten worse for teachers over the years. Most teachers would LOVE to use the cool resources for the classroom that Wonder Workshop has, but when you have to write a grant just to get the equipment, finding a sustainable source for the additional subscription most likely isn’t going to happen. So after scouring the interwebs and reading numerous twitter and blog posts, I saw an activity that I could easily modify to create the perfect introductory activity! Needing inspiration, I went to the Dollar Tree, my go-to store for all things when creating activities for professional learning, facilitating meetings, and teaching the kiddos! On this trip, I found a four-pack of foam dice. ? I decided to make a Roll and Code activity! Using Google Docs, a table, a royalty free image of each side of a die, and a screengrab from the (free) Ozoblockly app for programming Dash, I created a very quick introduction to Dash. Since the teacher only had three robots, we decided to split the class in half and do this lesson over two days.
We started with small group instruction - each Dash robot had a pit crew of three. One to make sure Dash behaved (he’s a chatty little guy!), one to roll the dice, and the other to run the iPad and drag the code blocks over. Once the activity began, students rotated through each of these specific roles.
This proved to be the perfect way to let them begin. Once they had completed a few rolls of the dice and run the programs they built, the conversations shifted to, “what does this make him do?” and “I wonder how far he will go if we change the speed?”
I tweeted about it and have since shared the Roll and Code with a friend and colleague in a district to the north - and she has used it with her kiddos! They also loved it! By introducing coding in a non-threatening way, we effectively laid the foundation for the next lesson they were going to do with Dash and his launcher attachment!
SUBTITLE: Virtual Reality in the time of a Global Pandemic Between Google doing away with Expeditions and COVID, our VR enthusiasts have been struggling! I wrote about this a few months back. Our district had some Lenovo headsets that had been sitting in their original delivery boxes since before I arrived in August - of 2020. During our office time before winter break, two of us worked on getting these suckers unboxed, charged (the headset AND the remote), and connected to the network - the latter was no easy task! Our network admin had some specific hoops we had to jump through. Then, the devices needed to update….sometimes that meant jumping though the connection hoops again. Then we could connect to YouTube, being sure to set up voice search - more on that later! We went in numerous circles, but we FINALLY got them connected! Since the YouTube app was pretty much all we could use with these outdated devices, I assembled a playlist of 360° videos on various Penguin colonies for the teacher to choose from. She selected the one that best aligned with the learning outcomes for the lesson and created the response questions students should be able to answer after viewing. Due to COVID, we made sure to add a few layers of precaution that were not done with previous virtual reality experiences.
Since there was no way to group start/stop, each device had to be queued up individually. Time consuming, but worth it! I mentioned the voice search we set up. Here is where it saved us huge amounts of time - to find the video, we called out the name, selected it, then all the kiddos had to do was use the remote to click the play button. THAT was enough of a challenge! Did I mention these were second graders? Even so - they did GREAT! In early January, I loaded up the little red wagon, grabbed hand sanitizer, Lysol spray, and wipes, and took this adventure to one of my schools right after winter break. A teacher and I I took her first graders to sit among the Adelie penguins in Antarctica. All of the hard work to get to this point was sooooo worth it. ♥ DISCLAIMER: Later that week, our district shifted the last two school days before the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday to workdays and reinstated the mask mandate due to rising COVID numbers….but those numbers did NOT include the kiddos or adults that went on our journey with us. On Monday, the last day of February 2022, I am loading up the wagon once again. This time, we are off to explore waterfalls, canyons, and volcanos to wrap up a unit on landforms. I can't wait!
I am fortunate that the district where I work has made sure that all schools have 3D printers. The last few were delivered and set up in the school libraries in September.
3D printers can be polarizing - you either love the idea of using them with students or you are adamant it will not happen on your watch. At one of the elementary schools I serve, the art teacher reached out about using these with her learners. We sat down and brainstormed ideas that would have students creating - and printing - something that was standards aligned and age appropriate. Since in the winter, after Christmas break, all of her students create snowflakes using a variety of techniques, we settled on doing this! We discussed which grade level to work with and settled on grade 4 based on their math standards - we could tie in symmetry and angles! We knew we would need to get them into Tinkercad and familiar with this creation tool well before taking them through the design process to create their snowflakes. We started by creating a class. I added the art teacher as a co-teacher. This way, I could add the students. Since the students were under 13, they could not just join with their Google accounts - per the Terms of Service and Privacy policy at Tinkercad. Each had to be manually added and the nicknames customized so they matched the usernames the students were used to using. Next, over the course of four weeks, beginning the week of Thanksgiving, we made sure the students could get logged into Tinkercad. We then started them on the Getting Started tutorials to help them get acquainted with how Tinkercad works. Some students struggled. The reasons varied. For some, it was because they did not read the directions and impulsively started clicking and dragging. And that is OK - that is how some students (and adults) learn! For others, the issue was with fine motor skills - specifically: using a Chromebook track pad instead of a mouse. Once they made it through the first few tutorials, their sense of accomplishment soared! After winter break, the students will finish up the tutorials and begin the process of building their snowflakes. I am working on breaking THIS step by step guide into manageable tutorials with video demonstrations as I try to appeal to all learning modalities in the classrooms. Here is the FIRST ONE for building the center of the snowflake. I can’t wait to see their creations - and I am eager to get these printed so they can have tangible evidence of their accomplishments! |
AuthorJeannie Timken Archives
March 2023
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