Blog Archives

Coaching for Confidence and Competency

10/12/2014

Technology coaching is a lonely road, and one that many technology coaches must walk alone in their districts. Enter the Grant Wood AEA technology coaches group. This group was developed three years ago with the intention of giving technology coaches from a number of districts in the Grant Wood area the opportunity to collaborate and connect with other individuals in similar roles from outside their district.

This year the GWAEA Technology coaches have turned their focus toward developing coaching activities and learning opportunities for their respective staffs based off of data collected from the Clarity survey developed by BriteBytes. BrightBytes communicates information on an individual districts achievement with regards to technology in the form of the CASE score, standing for Classroom, Access, Skills and Environment. The technology coaches are centering their work this year around the Classroom component of the CASE score, specifically classroom behaviors that focus on teacher behaviors. Additionally, they will be developing a competency based model for teacher technology achievement that will lead to teacher confidence in the art of technology integration.

Additionally, the technology coaches will be developing coaching activities to use with their respective staffs and link that coaching activity to one of three different coaching models - cognitive coaching, peer coaching or instructional coaching. Finally the coaches will be developing a plan for implementation of their coaching activities and begin to develop tools for program evaluation with respect to technology coaching.

Kim Meyer, Director of Technology and Curriculum at Vinton Community School District helps facilitate a discussion around traits of successful coaches.

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NEW: The OneNote Class Notebook Creator for Schools

10/10/2014

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If your school is using Office 365 as a learning platform, you should be sure to take a look at the OneNote Class Notebook Creator that Microsoft recently announced. It gives teachers the ability to quickly create OneNote notebooks for all the students in their class.

The app creates private notebooks that are shared between the student and the teacher. No one else has access to these notebooks, but the teacher can access and edit any of the notebooks for students in their class at any time. The app also creates a content library. This is a view only Notebook that students can access handouts or other course materials. Finally, there is also a collaboration notebook where anyone in the class can share, edit and collaborate together.

The OneNote Class Notebook Creator does a lot to simplify the workflow of dealing with digital documents in the classroom, especially seeing how easy it is to set up. All you do is enter some basic information and let the tool do the hard work - i.e. create the notebooks and share them with all your students.

To get started, you need your 365 administrator to add the OneNote Class Notebook Creator app to add the app to your SharePoint site so that you can access it. Details on how they can do that are right here. Once it has been enabled, you can log in to your Office 365 account and get started.

A video demonstration of how to use the OneNote Class Notebook Creator is embedded below:

Do you use OneNote with your students? Will the OneNote Notebook Creator be a useful tool for you? Feel free to leave a comment below sharing your experiences.

~Jonathan Wylie, Technology Consultant

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Socktober with Benton Community 1st Graders

10/9/2014

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On October 9th, Grant Wood Technology Consultants spent the morning with a group of 1st graders from Benton Community Schools in the SCALE-UP classroom at Grant Wood AEA. The students along with several staff were celebrating Socktober. Which prompted my first question, what is Socktober?

From Soulpancake and Kid President:

“Every night in the United States an estimated 600,000 people live on the streets. This October, SoulPancake and Kid President want 2 million people to prove that even the smallest acts of love, like donating a pair of socks, can make a big difference in the lives of our neighbors who are homeless.”

For the 1st graders, the day was all about creating different artifacts to promote their upcoming Socktober event. Their teacher, Anna Upah, organized the event in the Scale-Up Classroom because of the amount of flexibility and technology that the space offers. The students were divided into small groups, each led by a Benton staff member. The activities of the day centered around literacy blended with technology: 3-D printing, poster creation, video production, Chatterpix, Tagxedo, letters to the editor, coffee cup logo design, T-shirt design and iPad storytelling. The projects created will be used to promote Socktober from their own voice to tell the story and why they think it is important. Their goal is to get a pair of socks donated from all 50 states.

In coming to Grant Wood, Benton students were able to utilize the 3-D printer. The students were tasked with designing a Socktober keychain which could be printed on the 3-D printer. The students and their teacher, Mrs. Townsley, started by using the Scale-Up wipe board wall to brainstorm a design and reviewed some sample objects that had been made by the printer. They settled on a tag-style keychain with the word “Socktober!” embossed on top. We then used Design Something, a Chrome app, to build our 3-D model and sent the .stl file to the printer. The students were able to watch one keychain being printed and were able to ask lots of questions about how it all works. During the printing time, they explored several great iOS apps that work with the 3-D printer. More keychains will be printed later and sent to the students through Grant Wood’s vanmail.

Overall, the Socktober creation session was a success. The students were full of energy and engaged. The SCALE-UP classroom, with its ability to easily be transformed, was the perfect location for this event. In a little under two hours, students completed a variety of projects to promote Socktober and the students headed on to their next stop, a field trip at St. Luke’s Hospital.

And the technology consultants retired for a nap...

-Jason Marshall and Amber Bridge, Technology Consultants

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Exploring 3-D Printing

10/8/2014

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3-D Printing brings to life ideas translated and manipulated on a computer to life. But, how does this practically fit into an educational setting?

At first, I was skeptical of its transformative ability. But then, I came across websites like Thingiverse.com and Autodesk 123 that allow you to download free templates of manipulatives that can be used in education. Fractions, hand and foot skeletons, frog dissections, the Mars Rover, and the great pyramid of Giza manipulatives which can all be printed from a 3-D printer. Teachers can even customize the designs have them fit even better into their classroom curriculum. Creating inexpensive manipulatives to use the classroom creates more of a hands-on environment for students to help them understand concepts in a whole new way.

But, how would I get it printed? Once you have created your design, schools in the AEA 10 area can utilize Grant Wood AEA’s MakerBot Replicator 2 printer through our Creative Services Department. You can submit an online form with your file, have it printed for a very reasonable fee, and ship it directly to your school through van mail.

Like many forms of technology, 3-D printing can help to bring students’ imaginations to reality. In problem-based learning environments, students can design prototypes to test, stretch and improve upon their initial ideas. And it's not just older students who can have their ideas come to life. Check out how Benton School’s first grade class utilized 3-D printing and Grant Wood’s Scale-Up classroom and 3-D Printer for a Socktober project.

My colleague, Jason Marshall, and I recently explored the MakerBot Printshop iPad app test out our printer. It was very easy to use and we were super excited to watch the process and see our creation come to life through the layers of melted string plastic building and building up to create the object.

-Amber Bridge, Technology Consultant

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The 'Magic' of Technology

10/2/2014

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I have always been fascinated by magic.
Fascinated and a little creeped out.
Sitting at a magic show this summer I pestered my daughter to help me figure out how the very tall assistant was not cut in half with those shiny metal sheets. My daughter gave me a very teenage look and shushed me!

I was thinking of magic today as I helped a few teachers connect to their school's new Google domain.
For some it went seamlessly.
Type in the new password - start up Chrome and all is well.
For a few we were worried - they had problems earlier so we anticipated issues. So, we were pleasantly surprised when all went well.

And then we came to that one!
You know how it works.
We did everything just like the others - well we did add a bit of cocky banter about our new found skills just before we touched the keys.
And them WHAM!
There was an error message we had never seen before and nothing worked!
We backed out of that spot and tried the process again.
And again.

And the poor teacher had to keep coming up with new passwords.
My guess is her final password did not contain fluffy and sweet words! :)

We walked away and brainstormed yet another alternate solution.
And when we returned it worked - sort of. For now.

And that brings me back to magic.

I believe.

I know that technology has been grown in the scientific test tubes of Microsoft and MIT and Apple and Google.
And I believe that their algorithms are at work.
But - I believe there is a touch of magic as well.

For me, there is no other way to explain the capricious nature of technology.
It seems to be there one moment and the next things have mysteriously changed.

So - it is just easier to believe in magic and move along.

The longer I work in this field the more staunchly I hold on to this truth...
Don't ask why it worked - simply celebrate that it did!!
(and whisper abracadabra every now and then!)

~Beth Swantz, Technology Consultant

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Coaching for Confidence and Competency

NEW: The OneNote Class Notebook Creator for Schools

Socktober with Benton Community 1st Graders

Exploring 3-D Printing

The 'Magic' of Technology

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