• What did you create, and why?
• I created an information form for UW students who will participate in a practicum this fall to do the school-wide hearing screenings. My hope is their responses will provide information to help me plan training for this group and for efficient communication access to them.
• What went well for you?
• Creating questions, answers.
• What was challenging?
• I didn't find an answer to one of my questions in the "help", so I figured it out on my own.
• What did you enjoy?
• I enjoyed reating the form and the ease of sending it to several people at once!
• What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families?
• I will share it with my assistant. I can see creating more survey forms for parents as feedback on their experiences with my staff and me this year.https://goo.gl/forms/li1tAQtNwjl50oKr2

Kahoot

What did you create, and why?

 I created several Kahoots this year and added and modified some of my previous Kahoots. I modified and shared a Kahoot with a variety of questions to share with my colleague who is working on the same novel (Monster).


◦What went well for you?
The kids have so much fun playing and get very competitive at demonstrating their knowledge.




◦What was challenging? It is slightly time consuming adding images, music, and quality questions.


◦What did you enjoy?

It is always fun challenging students and increasing their competitiveness.


◦What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families?

https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/2072a3a1-ab4d-4725-ac83-ba14df9391d7

Powtoons/Storyboardthat

What did I create and why!I created a storyboard for the Tell-Tale Heart and The House on Mango Street. This provides students another avenue to create a storyboard and analyze the symbolism of specific quotes in the story. It is amazing how students are able to find scenes and characters to fit a variety of stories.

What went well! The students were seamlessly able to manipulate characters, scenes, and text to match the details from both stories. The site uses google login to simplify the loin process.

What was challenging!

It is always challenging to have students focus more on analysis than on graphics!

What did I enjoy! It was easy and fast to create an example for the students to follow.

I plan to use this tool to help with writing narrative stories and having students learn the elements of plot. I will share this with my English department.






Made with Storyboard That

Groundhog Predictions with Google Sheets

Groundhog Predictions in Google Sheets

What did you create and why?

For several years I have had students track the weather for six weeks after Groundhog Day and decide if we had winter weather or early spring weather.  Three of those years, I had a teacher from NJ join us with her class and we shared results across the country.

I originally created forms in Word that we printed out and filled in by hand.  We shared our results on a blog.  For this assignment, I created the data collection page in Google Sheets.  This can be shared with multiple classrooms in real time.  Students can compare weather data with our colleagues in other parts of the world.

What went well for you?

I have avoided spreadsheets most of my life.  I found that creating documents in Google Sheets was quick and easy.  I watched several videos online of what other teachers created.  I plan to use this as a data collection tool for students to use in many lessons.

What was challenging for you?

I need to learn more about adding formulas to cells.  At this point I want students to figure out the weekly average temperature, put I could have added that to the sheet so it was automatically calculated.

What did you enjoy?

I enjoyed seeing what other teachers have created and adapting this to my own lessons.

What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, or to communicate with families?

I have a number of other data collection lessons that were printable, but I will adapt them to Google Sheets.  I found a video to show students how they can create their own charts and graphs.

Google Forms

What did you create, and why?

One of our main goals in the English department is to have students be able to cite textual evidence to support inferences and claims. I created an online form to collect data from a summative assessment (collections) , which I used for my evaluation. The form gave directions and included both multiple choice questions and an extended response paragraph. I also collaborated with Rachel Gronvold to create an online assessment for the Monkey's Paw. I used Flubaroo to score the multiple choice answers and a typed rubric to score responses to the writing prompt. Once I wrapped the text in the Excel spreadsheet, it was really easy to score student responses.

◦What went well for you?
This simplified the process of collecting data for my comprehensive teacher evaluation for groups 6.1 and 3.1.

◦What was challenging? There was a slight learning curve to understanding how to use Flubaroo.

◦What did you enjoy? I enjoyed being able to easily access and organize my data for my teacher evaluation.

◦What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families?

I plan to communicate with Building staff on ways to use Google forms to simplify the assessment process.

http://goo.gl/forms/WINl6oNeVuPThKWz2

Google Classroom

Google Classroom


What did you create, and why?

I created classes for each period and used all types of activities from assignments to discussion posts to announcements.


•What went well for you?

It was easy to create a central place for students to access their coursework in Classroom. Students had a central place to find out what the tasks were that needed to be completed for each class.

•What was challenging?

The grading system was the biggest challenge. Grading in classroom and to Skyward was time consuming.


•What did you enjoy?

I enjoyed learning how to use Doctopus and Goobric. I was able to create a spreadsheet with Doctopus, ingest all students assignments, and grade them with a rubric that was automatically sent to their gmail when completed. It was still time consuming for grading late work.

•What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families?

This is great for an assignment where you have a clear grading rubric and are looking to collaborate with colleagues to score student work.

Google Sites

• What did you create, and why? 

I created a website for our 8th grade English Department on our second unit of the year in collections. We collaborated by posting documents and Google slides for the reading analysis of the texts we selected.

• What went well for you?

All team members contributed with ideas to strengthen the unit. This meant there were certain aspects that we did not have to plan for individually. A member of the group (Ms. Gronvold) created the online assessment. Since the Collections site was not working, we were able to have a multiple choice assessment and use Flubaroo to grade the assessment.

• What was challenging?

The biggest challenge was our timing in implementing the unit. 

• What did you enjoy? 

I enjoyed the collaborative process and the fact that we have a place where we can fine tune the unit for the next year.

• What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families? 

Sites can be used and shared with department teams across the district and will hopefully simplify the planning process when we collaborate to design instruction.

Link to site

https://sites.google.com/a/edmonds.wednet.edu/english-8/

Challenge: Lessons Redefined (SAMR)

By Marsha Scott

Two SAMR lessons:

• 2nd grade “Water Detectives”
• 5th grade Opinion Writing

What did you create, and why?

I created SAMR lessons using Kahoot.it and Google drawings with English language learners. In the first lesson, I developed a Kahoot game with second graders. Students read the story, “Water Detectives,” an informational text on saving water. Usually after each unit, I quickly review the story, vocabulary words, and skills before the test. For this challenge, students created questions from the story and then I typed the questions into Kahoot. (game pin #857793). Writing questions from the text challenged students and it also helped students pay attention to details.

For the second SAMR lesson, I used Google drawings and created a template for 5th grade ELL students. At the beginning of the lesson, students used Google docs to write an opinion piece on whether zoos protected or harm animals. After students’ submitted their first draft, I noticed most of the pieces were either one paragraph or two sentences. My building coach suggested using Google drawings to break up the writing by using text boxes. Below is an example of one textbox:

What went well for you?

The second grade lesson using Kahoot went well because students were actively involved with writing the questions. It assessed their understanding of the story and students loved seeing their questions “in the game.” With 5th graders, using Google drawing helped them to organize their writing pieces by first using the textboxes and then copying them into Google docs.

What was challenging?

Teaching the 5th grade students to copy the text from Google drawings into Google docs to form paragraphs was a challenge.

What did you enjoy?

For the second grade lesson, I enjoyed students trying to create “challenging” questions to stump their peers. Now students request playing Kahoot for every story that we read. I enjoyed using other Google tools to support the learning of my 5th grade ELL.

What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families?

I would encourage other teachers to become familiar with the SAMR model and find ways to integrate technology into their lessons.The SAMR Observation Tool helped to determine ways to integrate technology.

Challenge: Lessons Redefined (SAMR)

By Marsha Scott

Two SAMR lessons:

• 2nd grade “Water Detectives”
• 5th grade Opinion Writing

What did you create, and why?

I created SAMR lessons using Kahoot.it and Google drawings with English language learners. In the first lesson, I developed a Kahoot game with second graders. Students read the story, “Water Detectives,” an informational text on saving water. Usually after each unit, I quickly review the story, vocabulary words, and skills before the test. For this challenge, students created questions from the story and then I typed the questions into Kahoot. (game pin #857793). Writing questions from the text challenged students and it also helped students pay attention to details.

For the second SAMR lesson, I used Google drawings and created a template for 5th grade ELL students. At the beginning of the lesson, students used Google docs to write an opinion piece on whether zoos protected or harm animals. After students’ submitted their first draft, I noticed most of the pieces were either one paragraph or two sentences. My building coach suggested using Google drawings to break up the writing by using text boxes. Below is an example of one textbox:

What went well for you?

The second grade lesson using Kahoot went well because students were actively involved with writing the questions. It assessed their understanding of the story and students loved seeing their questions “in the game.” With 5th graders, using Google drawing helped them to organize their writing pieces by first using the textboxes and then copying them into Google docs.

What was challenging?

Teaching the 5th grade students to copy the text from Google drawings into Google docs to form paragraphs was a challenge.

What did you enjoy?

For the second grade lesson, I enjoyed students trying to create “challenging” questions to stump their peers. Now students request playing Kahoot for every story that we read. I enjoyed using other Google tools to support the learning of my 5th grade ELL.

What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families?

I would encourage other teachers to become familiar with the SAMR model and find ways to integrate technology into their lessons.The SAMR Observation Tool helped to determine ways to integrate technology.

My Review of Easy Bib

Easy Bib

What did you explore and why?

As a substitute teacher, I am looking for resources that I can use quickly and easily to make my host classroom run smoothly.  Several times this year, I have talked with fifth and sixth graders about the problem with plagiarism and the importance of citing sources.  Easy Bib is a good tool to teach and it is an approved extension so I can introduce it to all classrooms.

What went well for you?

At this point I am trying out the tool for myself.  I like that it is a search engine as well as a way to create citations and manage projects.  If I show up in an upper elementary classroom and need a short research lesson to teach, I can demonstrate the extension and allow students to try it out for themselves.

What was challenging?

When I taught the different fifth and sixth graders, some were engaged in their classroom assignments and some wanted to use the tools for entertainment that was not appropriate for the school setting.  I can see why apps and extensions are limited through district accounts.

What did you learn?

I have been trying out several tools that create bibliographies.  I like the format of this one, and I notice that the paid version has even more features.

What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families?

At this point, it is a good research lesson to use at short notice.  I can find out from the classroom teacher what projects they are doing and adapt it to the class I am in.

My Review of Easy Bib

Easy Bib

What did you explore and why?

As a substitute teacher, I am looking for resources that I can use quickly and easily to make my host classroom run smoothly.  Several times this year, I have talked with fifth and sixth graders about the problem with plagiarism and the importance of citing sources.  Easy Bib is a good tool to teach and it is an approved extension so I can introduce it to all classrooms.

What went well for you?

At this point I am trying out the tool for myself.  I like that it is a search engine as well as a way to create citations and manage projects.  If I show up in an upper elementary classroom and need a short research lesson to teach, I can demonstrate the extension and allow students to try it out for themselves.

What was challenging?

When I taught the different fifth and sixth graders, some were engaged in their classroom assignments and some wanted to use the tools for entertainment that was not appropriate for the school setting.  I can see why apps and extensions are limited through district accounts.

What did you learn?

I have been trying out several tools that create bibliographies.  I like the format of this one, and I notice that the paid version has even more features.

What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families?

At this point, it is a good research lesson to use at short notice.  I can find out from the classroom teacher what projects they are doing and adapt it to the class I am in.