Cisco WebEx | A New Virtual Classroom Tool

"This technology allows teachers to bridge the gap between school and community without the time, safety issues and expense of a field trip.  [It] allows us to increase the number of stakeholders in the education process which provides students with a much more diverse education.  Students can be face to face with someone in their desired field which can increase the buy in by students to their own education."

- Lisa Tomlin | Teacher NCWHS 

"I think this tech has incredible potential for educational use.  First it allows instructors to visit the class room without having to travel to school therefore increasing the number of hours available to teach.  Second, it allows recording so the seminar can be saved for rewatching or viewing by other classes.  [WebEx] also allows for multimedia presentation using videos, webpages, computer coding, graphical displays and any number of file formats.  The audio and video into the room allows for [the outside party to view] the classes."

- Dr. Andrew Bland | MD Nephrology 

These two quotes, the first from Lisa Tomlin (Science teacher at Normal West) and the second from Dr. Andrew Bland, MD Nephrology, demonstrate the vast potential found within our new Cisco WebEx system.  This system is made up of multiple parts.

Google Takeout | Getting Your Stuff Out of Google

What

(1) Download an archive of all of your Google data (files, emails, videos, etc...) and take it with you.  (2) Transfer your files and emails to another Google account.

Who

Anyone with a district Google account (Staff, students, etc...)

Why

Graduation | Leaving or coming into the district

NASA Comes to Normal

What do an Oceanographer, Business Manager, and Education Specialist have in common?  They all work for the Jet Propulsion Laboratories (JPL) at NASA and recently participated in a video conference session with a class of fifth graders at Sugar Creek Elementary!  The NASA professionals shared their experiences on the Mars rover program and fielded questions filled with excitement from eleven year olds for almost a full hour.  The experience was a demonstration of the immense educational potential when solid pedagogy and technology combine forces!

Google Lit Trips and Tour Builder

Tour Builder is all about telling a story.  With this resource you can build a clickable, interactive story that guides students to different places around the world.  Watch how Bobby Lake, a high school history teacher, talk about the stories he creates for his students using Tour Builder.

make sure to read the whole post for more!

Custom Unit 5 Google Templates

Staff and students can now submit their own template designs to a special Unit 5 template gallery accessible in Docs, Sheets, and Slides!  This can be used to make a great tool (magazine template, tracking tool, etc...) easily accessible to users across the district!  As an initial example, you will find a 2017 Calendar template in the Google Sheets area to play with.

So how do you access and submit templates?  Well, it's very easy...

YouTube Video Editor Trick!

One of the questions that I get all of the time is regarding video editing for student projects.  My go-to suggestion these days is the YouTube video editor.  There is nothing wrong with Movie Maker (the age old standard), but there are some advantages to the YouTube editor that I would like to outline.  You may find something here that you like and inspires you to try it out with your students or personal projects!

Streamline the recording & uploading flow

I go in and out of many classrooms these days and see students still recording video on flip cameras and hand-held video cameras.  Once recorded, these video files must be removed from the recording device, transferred to a computer, and then imported into the video editor of choice.  With YouTube, there is an easier way!

The traditional way

Rubric Grading and More with Goobric and Doctopus

Have you ever wanted to...

• Add audio feedback to a student's Google Doc assignment?

• Seemlessly move from one Google Doc assignment to the next when grading?

• Grade a Google Doc using a shared rubric that is visible and able to be manipulated on screen?

Check out our new series of videos focusing on the use of Goobric/Docotopus (Google addons and extensions) to incorporate rubric grading into your use of Google Classroom.

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Amazing New Google Slides Feature: Q&A

Update: Q&A is live on our Google Accounts!!

This feature has not quite hit our GAFE doamin yet, but we are eagerly awaiting it.  You can try it out on your personal Gmail account.  It's...amazing!

Posted by Michael Frederick, Google Slides Engineer 

(Cross-posted on the Google Docs Blog.)

Public speaking can be intimidating — even for veteran speakers with phenomenal ideas and experiences to share. Take Shree Bose, for example.

Google Comments: Getting e-mail Notification with Comments

I had a teacher ask about getting notifications on comments to/from student papers. I showed her this little trick which will send an e-mail notification each time a student leaves a new comment on their paper or adds to a comment the teacher has provided.  Check out the details.

Tech Talk: YouTube

Welcome to a new level of communication

We district and building technology coaches are always looking for new ways to collaborate with our colleagues from around the district.  We all have amazing ideas of how to use technology to improve student learning outcomes, and many of us implement these strategies in our classrooms.  But it can be difficult to share these techniques with others due to the vast logistical constraints place upon us all.  So we thought up a new system!  Read more, and see our first discussion after the jump!

Quick Polling Has Arrived in Google Classroom!

Cross Posted from the Google for Education Blog

Posted by Brittney Fraser, Google Classroom Software Engineer 

Google Classroom helps teachers and students communicate and learn together. Today we’re making the learning process even easier with a new polling feature that helps teachers quickly check for understanding, gather feedback or gauge interest. Here are four creative ways teachers are using polling in their classrooms.

Why every educator should be using Google Communities

The blog Ctrl + Alt + Achieve post below really dives into why Google Communities should be used within education.  Eric Curtis gives many great idea and suggest many Google + Communities in which you can join to expand your personal learning network.

I follow Eric and get a lot of great information which I push out to teachers and collaborative colleagues.

Why every educator should be using Google Communities

Just remember in Unit 5 students don't have access to Google + so you may need to use other resources which would allow you to incorporate some of these strategies into your curriculum. Google classroom and Poll Everywhere are great resources to start with.

Amber O'Day - Instructional Technology Coach

Engaging students in an Early America Blended/Discovery Learning Unit

Goal:  Create a blended/discovery learning environment for students to engage in interactive lessons and activities while learning material and making connections between the past and present.

Look out students of the 21st century!  I decided it was time to think outside the box to get students more engaged. I needed all students answering questions and making connections, not the few who raised their hands. My classroom needed to be upgraded to a more blended and discovery experience. So, I did a little research to find programs that could get students more involved in their own learning.  

Tech PDA Recap

What an amazing four weeks!  My heart grows abundantly each year during this PDA time as we are able to work alongside so many passionate teachers at one time on improving student learning experiences.  Here are just a few snippits from our sessions...

"Getting to experiment and create with the new technologies is helpful. Having it modeled and getting to try it out right away is helping me remember what to do after class."

"I really feel like it was well organized. i felt like you were really able to meet the needs of a very diverse group of people. thank you for always being so patient with when working with some of us "novice" learners."

"I love that forms is user friendly and it can be used in so many ways. I recently surveyed students about using technology to help me plan instruction. I can’t believe that they like to use technology rather than listen to me for a class period!"

"I used google forms for a couple different things this week in class. 1. I used it to take anecdotal information as my kids were working and give them feedback on their progress. 2. I used google forms and DocAppender to let the kids keep track of their responsibilities in class and track how they are doing using my feedback from their daily work. I also used Draftback to show some of my students how much time they were wasting. This helped them to see that they did have enough time to complete their work, they were just using their time to do other things. After I showed them everything that they were doing, they were much more focused and completed much higher quality work. "

"Loved EdPuzzle for Heat Transfer video! I definitely want to use it for some reteaching in other units next year - I’m challenged to find ways for students to revisit content when the rest of the class has mastered something.  I put links to documents into my assignment menu (Google Doc) to centralize access for my students."

What Did We Do?

Our topics were wide ranging, and the classroom opportunities that they lead to were equally broad.  In fact, here are each of the working documents from Sean's PDA in published Google Doc form.

• Week 1: Core Google Offerings
• Week 2: YouTube and Chrome
• Week 3: Exploring Google Add-ons, Extensions, and Hidden Features
• Week 4: Google Classroom

Fruits of Our Labor

Finally, here are some of the fruits of our collective labor of the past four weeks.  And if you want to learn more about any of the items you saw in this post, just contact your district instructional technology coach!

• EdPuzzle Video Lessons: Puerto Rico | Inside Chipotle | Acapulco

• Google/SchoolWires Integration: Spanish HW page | The PEAK (using Sheets as an embedded HW page)

• Teacher YouTube Channels and videos (feel free to subscribe!)

HS Lifestyle | JH FACS

  
          

Sean Mullins | Secondary Instructional Tech Coach

STEM READ Professional Development

What would you do if a supervolcano erupted, your house caught on fire, you are all alone, and you had to travel across the country to reunite with family? Find out with the fast paced thriller, Ashfall!

The author, Mike Mullin, visited schools in Unit 5 and District 87 during the week before the Teacher Professional Development and provided some insight into his creative writing process while discussing the science aspect of the volcano and how he obtained his research. Mullin was engaging and students were able to interact with him before, during and after the presentations.

Hangouts III: Live Stream; Record with Hangouts on Air

Hangouts on Air (HoA) is a Google service that enables you to live stream your Hangout to YouTube and automatically records the event and publishes it to YouTube when completed.  You may ask, "why would I want to do that?"  Let's explore some exciting possibilities, and how to implement them!

Hangouts Post II: Connecting to the World

The world is quickly becoming smaller, more connected, and eager to share.  Google Hangouts lets us bring that world into our classrooms and professional lives like never before!  Here are a few simple ideas for using Hangouts to broaden the horizons of your classroom.

Hangouts Post I: Connect with a Colleague

For our first in a series of posts on the value of using Google Hangouts in your work, I want to walk you through how to set up your first communication with a colleague in our district.  Topics in this post will include…

• Accessing Hangouts for the first time
• Searching for colleagues
• Starting a text based chat
• Doing your first video chat
• Sharing your screen with you colleagues

Computer Science Education Week Recap

You may not know it, but this week (12.7) is Computer Science Education week.  This also coincides with an emphasis on the Hour of Code project, which promotes the language of computer code to students (and adults) of all ages.  Here are a few blog posts and sites from around the web that can help you get started with incorporating computer science into your classroom (yes, anyone can do it in any subject!).

Video Conference with Google Hangouts

Hangouts have arrived for teachers through our district Google Apps for Education (GAFE) accounts.  This is a wonderful resource that can be used to bring a variety of educational opportunities in our classrooms.

• Create teacher groups (grade level, teams, departments, etc...) and keep in touch through text messages


• Conduct video conferences to streamline cross district PLC meetings


• Connect with teachers/groups outside of the district for professional learning opportunities


• Share your screen with other teachers/coaches to help troubleshoot problems


• Connect your classroom to classes around the world for exciting learning opportunities


• And much more!

To start using Hangouts, navigate to https://hangouts.google.com or download the app on your personal devices.  Once you login with your district Google account, you will be all set to start finding others and starting the collaboration!

We will be releasing a series of Teacher's Corner posts that highlights these different uses.  Check back each week for new information, and if you want to dive in headfirst, contact your instructional technology coach!

Sean Mullins | Instructional Technology Coach