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Snapchat to Reflect; I am Sold!

7/3/2017

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I am SOLD on book snaps! After hearing about book snaps and seeing them on twitter and at ISTE, I decided to try out the concept. (Big shout out to Tara Martin, she is the one that came up with the idea!) I have been on snapchat with my kids, just because it's a place they are and I wanted to understand it. However, the thought of using it as a learning tool had never entered my mind.  So the first few book snaps that I tried were of course to my own children.  After their initial response of rolling their eyes, I actually got really good feedback, as in you should do this with students and they would respond well. 

Learners can use snapchat to create book snaps without ever actually sending their work through the app. Everything they create can be saved and shared through a mobile devices camera roll. 

Watch how to create a book snap in Snapchat below. 
A recap of what all the icons represent on the Snapchat screen:
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 1) Discard your Snap                  5) Set a timeframe for your Snap
                2) Add emojis                               6) Save your photo to your Camera Roll 
3) Add a caption                          7) Add a Snap to your Story        
                  4) Doodle                                      8) Select recipients and share your Snap
 So much information can be transferred in one image or in a string of images in a video.  To combine a series of snaps into a video watch below.
It's a creative process that allows the learner to go as deep as they want to show their learning. 

The next time you are reading a text try creating either a snap or story that shares a reflection.  




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Helping Teachers Move Their Learning to the Sticky Zone

6/6/2017

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Over the past year, our leadership team has taken steps to encourage and support adult learning on our campus.  We have committed to moving from an environment of prescribed professional development tasks to personalized learning. This has meant giving up much of the control over the learning process and trusting that the teachers on our campus are actively involved in learning that impacts them professionally and personally.  

As I reflect on the learning that I observed throughout the year, I noticed that some adult learners, just like some of our best students, are good at giving information back to those that are asking for it.  Nothing new is being created, but a transfer of information occurs. Sticky, hard learning that creates change is much different than that.

Erika Andersen, a writer for the Harvard Businees Review,  addresses four key attributes that are present when an individual is learning in her blog post, "Learning to Learn”.

  • Aspiration  -  The level of which someone wants to learn something.
  • Self-Awareness -  Evaluating yourself accurately and striving for objectivity while reflecting on feedback from others.
  • Curiosity -  Diving in until one understands something that has made them wonder. Learning to ask questions that moves learning along. Following questions up with actions until new learning happens.
  • Vulnerability -  Putting oneself out there and starting as a beginner and embracing the journey of becoming good at something new. ​​​​
As we turn learning over to educators to drive their professional development, we must share tools/strategies that can aid them as they work through the attributes that are associated with deep learning.  Andersen states, “Once we become good or even excellent at some things, we rarely want to go back to being not good at other things.”  As our student's world and work environment continues to change rapidly, becoming comfortable with not being good at things, and growing has to become a part of every educator’s mindset. 
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Sharing and discussing these attributes with teachers as they set learning goals can help guide discussions in how far out of their comfort zone the learning they are embarking on is taking them. Each year sharing their learning and it's impact on student achievement needs to be something that is visible and celebrated.

​Let's close with VULNERABILITY, as we support teachers and their learning we must celebrate and acknowledge the process of learning to learn at each step of their journey, the highs and the lows. 

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What are you doing on your campus to help adults continue to develop and grow as learners?

* Make It Stick by Peter Brown,Henry L. Roediger III and Mark A. McDaniel, is a valuable resource if you are interested in learning about the brain side of learning. Jennifer Gonzalez also has an interesting podcast about the book.
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Using Video-What happens after they hit  play?

2/26/2017

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When I polled students in five classes earlier this year and asked students what media they prefered when seeking help in understanding a concept or task, 100% of the students said video. Though videos can never replace the personal dynamic between educators and students, they can be used to pique interests, ignite conversations, focus learning and differentiate content.

We have such an advantage when using video in the classroom today. Technology allows us to establish a baseline of each student's knowledge and what they want to learn. The use of technology also allows for students voice, understanding and interest to be assessed. Two tools that teachers can use with videos are EdPuzzle and PlayPosIt.  Depending on the purpose of the use of video, one of these tools might be more effective than the other.
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  • Insert free response or multiple choice questions during the video allowing for quick checks for understanding. 
  • Teachers can prohibit students from fast-forwarding through videos and assign each video a due date.
  • Insert an introductory comment, a conclusion, a remark, or a verbal prompt. 
  • Do a complete voice over of a a video.
  • Access student data from individual student responses.  Classes can be imported from Google Classroom. 
  • Students are required to create an account or log in.
  • EdPuzzle is free to all educators.
When embedding in our LMS, I found that students needed to refresh their screens sometimes to allow video to play through. 
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  • ​Teachers have the ability to insert multiple choice, free response, and reflective pauses throughout their videos, allowing students to interact as well as serving as a formative assessment. 
  • The teacher has the ability to enable students to be able to rewind and watch a segment of a video to gather more information before answering a question.
  • Audio can be added to their answer choices in multiple choice questions.  (Audio comments can not be added in the actual video as in Edpuzzle)
  • Students do not need to create an account to participate in a video that is shared by a teacher, they simply join by using a code. 
  • Provides analytics for teachers that include student performance data as well as interaction data. 
  • Playposit has a paid subscription that allows teachers to embed a number of other types of questions and elements as well.

One noticeable difference between the two tools is that while both tools allow a video to be shared through a link or embedded, Playposit allows teachers to use a video he/she has designed in Broadcast Mode. Broadcast Mode allows a teacher to project the video whole class and as questions and stopping points are inserted student screen go from a blank blue to an interactive environment. Depending on a teacher’s purpose and learning outcomes, this option gives them a completely different strategy in which to use video in their lesson. 
Some “A-Ha Moments” in working with video that I have found. 
  • Short and sweet beats drawn out any day
  • Use technology to allow for formative assessment 
  • Utilize transcripts and closed caption resources
  • Pushing play and having students watch and just take notes is not an instructionally sound practice.
If you are going to be working with teachers and want to take a look at the PD structure I used to introduce teachers to these two tools below is an example.
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What the Tables and Chairs Taught Me

7/16/2016

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It seems like a simple question, "What are we going to do in here?" 
This past week I had the opportunity to help lead EdCamp Leadership Texas. In preparation to host EdCamp Leadership, we set aside time to make sure that the facility was ready for the event. We began setting up by visiting the classrooms that breakout sessions would be held in. Then we moved into the main space that educators would gather in. As I entered the room with my principal, he looked at the large space and said, "What are we going to do in here?" What an awesome question as it sent us in a totally different direction from what we normally do.   

In the past, whenever we have set the room up, it has been rows of tables with chairs. His simple question turned into an experiment of how we could arrange the tables and chairs in a way so that people could interact and meet each other. We spent about a half hour experimenting with different configurations. We moved things around until we came up with a different footprint for the room. We needed to accommodate 100+ people. After the event, we reflected and discussed how we felt changing the flow of the room and arranging the tables in a new way brought a different energy to the room.  We simply needed to think inside the box that we had and not do what we had always done before.


At EdCamp Leadership, I also had the privilege of meeting Christine Dismuke, @cmdismuke2 . She passionately shared her experience with classroom redesign and the positive effect she has seen it have within her own classroom. I encourage you to check out and share her blog, The Deskless Tribe.  

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The topic of space & design is a conversation we need to continue to have as educators. Considering the space and how it is best used during professional development is now something that we will always do. I will look at learning spaces in general in a different light moving forward.

If you have experience or insight on learning environments, please share what you have learned.
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Get Creative with Your Faculty When You Head Back to Campus!

6/30/2016

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As summer hits the midway point, it's time to start thinking about welcoming your faculty back to campus. Are you looking for some creative, fun, active ideas? I have a few ideas to share from our campus, Ipadpalooza in Austin and ISTE in Denver this summer.

The first is an experience  that we offered on our campus last year. Using Goosechase, our faculty participated in a scavenger hunt.  We are a comprehensive high school with a large zone. We chose to do a scavenger hunt for a few reasons. We wanted teachers to have an opportunity to meet teachers they didn't know. We let teams form on their own with one rule. The one rule was that there could not be more than one other person from a department on a team. Teams formed in groups of 5. We also wanted teachers to explore the geographic zone in which our students live. The scavenger hunt was also an opportunity for teachers to visit and thank the businesses that support our school throughout the year. In Goosechase, you can pre-select missions that they have designed or design your own. We had a creative member of our admin team design our tasks to make them specific to our community. Many of the missions he just tweaked from an idea that Goosechase provided in their mission bank. Each mission was worth a different amount of points.  The teams set out in cars to compete for the grand prize which was a half day off during the year. Teachers are motivated when you give them "time".  The feedback that we received from the scavenger hunt was wonderful. Funny stories of the time spent together in cars and getting to know each other were shared  during the post hunt debrief.  Throughout the scavenger hunt, teams posted pictures as they accomplished a mission.  Posting to social media earned them extra points. The images that came in were great and shared the story of the day our teachers had with our community. Great PR as well.  Watch a one minute video of a Goosechase scavenger hunt.  *Please note that there is a fee to run a Goosechasewww.goosechase.com/solutions/k12/ Scavenger Hunt as a large event or school wide. Teachers can use the tool for free with individual classes. 
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The next idea for team building is to design an Amazing Race for your faculty to compete in. Janelle Maurier shared her free iBook at IpadPalooza. The iBook, Professional Learning AppMazing Prescription, is available to download for free in the iTunes store. I can't create a link to it but if you go to the itunes store and search you will find it.  It's an electronic interactive book with great ideas to create your own race organized using the tool Thinglink.  

At ISTE, Josh Gauthier shared additional information about creating an Amazing Race.  His presentation can be found under ISTE in Denver 2016 "Amazing Race Instructions". Theme music from the Amazing Race can be played in the background when you introduce the challenge.  The feedback from educators that had participated in this in the sessions I attended was positive.  These two resources should get you going in the right direction to create your own Amazing Race!
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The next idea is Breakout EDU. The Breakout EDU bus was onsite at #ISTE2016 and Breakout EDU CEO Adam Bellow's along with Steve Dembo from Discovery Ed ran a great session on PD. The Breakout EDU approach creates a gaming challenge for teams to work in. ​
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Breakout EDU does require a basic kit so that the games can be played. Kits can be purchased through Breakout Edu or the can be assembled by a school by gathering the supplies that are listed at Breakout Edu's website. 

Over 200 Breakout EDU games have already been written. Some of the games are more polished than others. Any of the games can be adapted to your own needs as well.  Breakout EDU games are all  Open Source. You’ll need to register with Breakout EDU and then access the games and their details behind a password protected site.
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The last idea that I have to share is a team challenge that you can create on you own. Design challenge activities for teams to complete and award badges along the way.  The challenge could include activities similar to the challenges described for the Scavenger Hunt or Amazing Race. List each challenge on a shared Google Doc in view only mode. As team's completed a task they could submit their evidence through a linked Google Form. Once a form has been submitted for a task a designated group reviewing submissions could issue badges to the groups. Badges can be created and awarded in Badgelist or Credly.  Badges could be worth different amounts of points as well.  A leader board could be updated throughout the challenge on the Google Doc.  If funds prohibit using the Goosechase platform a Badge Challenge could be an alternative solution.
Each of the team activities listed above are great options to strengthen teams. They are also all learning activities that teachers can apply to any content area. After you run one of the challenges encourage teachers to imagine the ways in which students could also develop challenges for courses and flip the role of teacher and student in creating the challenge for other students to complete. 

What other team building activities have you heard of or experienced?
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Leaving things better than we found them...

3/27/2016

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As the week comes to a close I am reminded about living life passionately and leaving things better than we found them. This past week was a tough one at my high school. A senior and her sister, that graduated in 2014 both lost their lives in a car accident on the way home from Spring Break. Death and tragedy are never invited, wanted or something that makes sense to any of us. 

Following the accident I witnessed a student population come together and work for the greater good and honor the students that lost their lives in the accident. We talk a lot in education about authentic learning and allowing students space to create real world solutions and connect their learning.  This situation was real and what this group of students did was move into problem-solving mode to do something that would honor and help the surviving members of these girls families.  As they came together, they found a passion, basketball and came up with an idea to hold an event to benefit the families affected by the accident.  The accident also took another student's life that attended a local high school, and left a student in critical condition yet from another school. The group planning the event wanted to make the fundraiser about all victims and not just the sisters from their high school. They came up with a basketball event that would have a team named after each victim in the accident, and they reached out to our large city to get the best players from area high schools to play. They did more than that; they also connected with athletes that had graduated and are now playing in college. The planning team launched their idea on social media and were blown away by the response that they received. Real ideas, real communication, real results, all done by students. 

Now I have to admit when they showed up at school with their enthusiasm and plan in motion with no viable venue, I thought oh goodness I hope there is a field house available. The district I work for graciously provided a venue when our principal reached out to them. The rest of the planning....well let's just say was amazing. The planning committee all took on different roles, from coordinating basketball players, bringing on help to organize the athletic event from a major university in our city, students to advertise, students to get media involved and students to bring sponsors on board. The students even appointed a point person to make sure the school's administration was  up-to-date.  
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My post cannot begin to document or detail all of the work they did. What I can offer is...that it has been fantastic to see students work together and make a difference. I heard more than one student say this week, "I can't believe that we have been able to reach so many people and get responses...." These students felt the power of hard work, planning, vision and what can happen when a group of individuals come together and work for a common cause.

After the funeral, I happened to come across a Twitter post that shared the following video with Inky Johnson. Knowing your why, how and what ignites your passion and puts you in a lane to leave things better than you found them.


A family laid to rest two beautiful young women today.  Both of these girls time on earth was brief but powerful. They left all of us better than we were before they came into our lives. The student group working to honor them is following their lead and making us better as a community.  The event will take place this week, and I can't wait to see and experience it with them.​

As educators, how can we encourage our students to find their voice and experience the power of making a difference through their learning and actions? 
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