Digital Learning at Grant Wood AEA
  • Home
  • Learn
    • Green Screen
    • Stop Motion
    • Physical Computing
    • Free Media
  • Think
    • Blog
    • BrightBytes
    • Tech Coaches
    • Blended Learning
    • Think Make Innovate
    • Edtech Take Out
  • Grow
    • Pear Deck Resources
    • Makerspaces
    • GWAEA Online Resources
    • OER
    • Computer Science
  • COVID19
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Learn
    • Green Screen
    • Stop Motion
    • Physical Computing
    • Free Media
  • Think
    • Blog
    • BrightBytes
    • Tech Coaches
    • Blended Learning
    • Think Make Innovate
    • Edtech Take Out
  • Grow
    • Pear Deck Resources
    • Makerspaces
    • GWAEA Online Resources
    • OER
    • Computer Science
  • COVID19
  • Contact

Future Ready Reflections

11/30/2017

1 Comment

 
What’s the Future Ready movement all about?  A small team from Grant Wood has recently spent two days at the Future Ready Institute in Detroit, Michigan.   Future Ready about best practice to prepare our students for what lies ahead.  It’s a framework that leads to actionable steps to change the educational experiences for our students that at the center focuses on personalized learning.  

Check out the details of the framework here.  The Future Ready Framework is unique because it includes many voices in the conversation that are essential to a creating a student-centered environment in which our students will thrive. It brings to the table a clear vision for district leaders, principals, technology leaders, instructional coaches, and teacher librarians linking job-specific roles and responsibilities to the gears of the framework.
Picture
Here are our big takeaways from the Institute:

Amber: Even though this is the Future Ready Institute, I didn’t really feel like we were casting a long line into the deep future.  During many moments, we were asked to reflect and dream about education. What should learning be like in 5 years? What do we want classrooms to look like in 5 years?  

Five years is not that long from now.   Five years is a tangible amount of time.  It’s far enough out to be flexible and allow not only time to dream, but also learn, prepare, plan and execute ideas.  How can we make real changes in our educational system that are good for kids?  The core of the Future Ready movement is personalized student learning.  Students are the reason we became educators and should always be our main focus.  The future is now and the self-assessment built into the framework gives schools actionable steps and supports towards change for the near future which will have a direct impact learning for students.

Lynn: At the heart of the Future Ready framework is personalized student learning. It’s the “why” of the work. 

Over the course of the last two days, as we dug into the learning around the frameworks, we were confronted with a multitude of questions meant to help guide our thinking as we move to action. The questions weren’t about the “how” of this work, but rather about the “who”: Whose voices need to be heard? Are we considering the insights and valuing the input of those who are essential to and impacted by this work? 

Are we asking the right people the right questions? 

Perhaps that’s what I value the most about the Future Ready movement and the subsequent frameworks for each role. It brings multiple voices to the table to engage in the conversation.

Even though the students don’t have a framework for themselves, they are the heart of the Future Ready movement and frameworks. They are the most important “who” in the “why.” 

Andrea: Relationships, relationships, relationships:  It was clear that relationships are a large part of making this work.  I think differently about this statement now, after listening to the opening sessions from Tom Murray, the facilitator in my strands session, Shayla Rexrode, as well as the keynote from Jimmy Casas.  There are key ideas to establishing relationships which cannot be overlooked.  

Language - One must have a clear understanding of the language being used. We often hear “build relationships” but do we have a clear idea of what we want those relationships to look like?  Do we model what we want this to look like?  It all begins with leadership.  Ineffective leadership is the biggest barrier in our schools. It was clear when hearing the word leadership that it was not just a reference to district leaders. This language was referring to everyone in the room as a leader.  We cannot hide behind this or from this fact.  We have to own it and rise up to our leadership opportunities and challenges.  We must be relentless as we strive toward excellence in leadership.

Culture - your culture is the definition of your space. Jimmy Casas outlined three ways to build culture. Champion for kids; Expect excellence; Carry the banner.  Investigate what your culture looks like on a variety of levels from multiple lenses. How are you building your culture?  One example was of a Virginia principal, Hamish Brewer, and how he is making learning fun again and disrupting the traditional landscape in education.  How are you being relentless and disrupting tradition?

Find your tribe - Who do you count on to build you up and keep you striving to run the race? How do we build each other up?  How are we honoring each other’s core values? Do we understand each other and our core values?  Do we have empathy for each other?  Jimmy says, “Your vibe attracts your tribe.”  What is your disposition attracting or deflecting? Ask yourself this… would you be classified as an “awfulizer” or an “awesomizer”?  It is your choice how you want to live each day.  Never pass up an opportunity to make someone’s day with something as simple as a smile or a hello.  ​
Picture
We will be working more on the Future Ready Movement and what this can mean for our Iowa Schools.  Feel free to contact any of us with questions.

Amber Bridge - Digital Learning Consultant - @abridgesmith
​Lynn Kleinmeyer - Digital Learning Consultant - @thlibrarizen
Andrea Townsley - School Improvement Consultant @townsleyaj
​
1 Comment

​Emojis are Everywhere

11/17/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Picture
On a recent EdTech Takeout episode, Tony Vincent helped to give us all an Emoji Education to help us realize that emojis are more than just some cute images on your phone.  If you haven’t checked it out yet, you should give it a listen.

To be honest, I didn’t get the emoji hype.  Call me old-fashioned, but I often still use the traditional colon & end parenthesis for a smiley face (and would get frustrated when Facebook would autocorrect it!)  But, the turning point for me was when I began thinking of emojis as digital stickers.  Everyone loves stickers, you should see my laptop cover.  When you think of it as another layer on top of an image to bring greater context to an image/slide, it opens up a whole new world.  In education, Booksnaps are a great example of this.  Follow #booksnaps for more examples of people using this, but it’s really pretty simple.  When you read something brilliant and you just have to take a moment to pause and soak it in, take a picture of the text.  Layer it with emojis and text to annotate your view explaining why you think this part of the text is important.  Then, share it out on social media.  It’s a great way to share knowledge, make book recommendations and help you better remember this section of the reading.

Picture
And the Bitmoji, who doesn’t love the Bitmoji?  New to Bitmoji?  Be prepared to enjoy, Bitmoji allows you to create a customize cartoon version of yourself as an emoji AND automatically generates scenes for your Bitmoji that often relate to pop culture and the holidays.  As a team, we had a lot of fun with the Star Wars Bitmojis.  As an educator, it’s a fun way to give feedback or thanks to students, staff, or parents.  Include it in a thank you email to parents who volunteer in your class, or if a student creates a amazing project send them a fun Bitmoji to celebrate their awesomeness.

Picture
I’ve always had some serious emoji 💘. Using emojis seemed to help ensure my tone was read correctly (#sarcasmproblems). With the popularity of text messaging and the fading of the phone call, emojis were a pretty important development in a quickly changing communication tool. 

Not so surprisingly, my 👧👦  loved emojis as well, and quickly caught on to texting their  👵  with only emojis. It was a way of communicating a thought long before they were able to confidently compose a sentence.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is an emoji worth?
Just ask a youngster and they’ll tell you using emojis allows them to share their 💭 and be creative with independence. And that, 👩👨👩, is pricele💲💲.

Educators are ✍📓 of this and have started using 😉 in their classrooms. You can find students defining higher level vocabulary words in a series of emojis. There is also interesting  💬 around why certain emojis are chosen in their depiction.

“Can you relate to my representation of these two words? Let me explain why I chose them.”

lollygag: 💅😎💆
voracious: 🐅🏃😅

Other ideas include: 

  • Describe the events of a chapter or  📕.
  • ​Demonstrate the emotions the main character felt at the climax of the story.
  • Share your comfort level with this new skill.
  • Not to mention these great elementary ideas.

Bangor University in the UK found that “72% of 18-25 year olds find it easier to express their emotions if they are using emojis and feel it makes them better communicators.” (See video below) So despite how you may feel about the use of emojis, this data shows that we need to take a serious look at use and how to leverage it in our classrooms. ✌
Intrigued 😉? Read more.
What Your Emoji Says About You
Why I Use Emoji in Research and Teaching
Why Scientists Should Research Emojis and Emoticons
We are curious?  How have you used emojis in education?  Leave us a comment, we'd love to learn more from you!

Digital Learning Consultants
Amber Bridge (@abridgesmith) & Mindy Cairney (@teamcairney)
0 Comments

Sharing AASL Conference Learnings

11/14/2017

0 Comments

 
As with any conference you attend, you walk away teeming with information, inspired and rejuvenated. Last week’s American Association of School Librarian's (AASL) conference in Phoenix was no different!
​
​As I processed all my new learning and information, I tried to synthesize them into my big takeaways. It was a feat, but here they are:

#1: Standards

After two long years of work, the new AASL standards were released during last week’s conference. And it was worth the wait.

The new standards are comprised of six Shared Foundations (Inquire, Include, Collaborate, Curate, Explore and Engage) which are each explained with a one sentence key commitment, or belief statement. Each Shared Foundation is then broken into Domains, or learning categories (Think, Create, Share or Grow). Each of the Domains has three to five Competencies for the librarians and Alignments for the school library. These Competencies and Alignments are actionable and “measurable statements describing the knowledge, skills, and dispositions essential for learners and school librarians” (AASL, 2018).

I know that sounds like quite a bit to process, but the good news is that there are a plethora of supports put into place to help support and guide Teacher Librarians, administrators, classroom teachers and even parents or guardians in understanding the new standards.


Resources can be found at standards.aasl.org. As you scroll to the bottom of the page, you can dig into resources based upon your user experience.
Picture

​Once you’ve selected your user experience, you’ll have access to materials that include links to the standards, infographics and informational handouts and videos.
Picture

​Additional resources can be found in “Resources” along the top navigation bar. Select “Materials” to find additional supports.
Picture

There are also upcoming webinars to further your understanding of the standards. To learn more, visit http://www.ala.org/aasl/ecollab/upcoming.

# 2. Information Literacy

It was evident by the sheer number of session offered around media and/or information literacy that this is a hot topic on everyone’s minds.

Although there are a variety of resources to support conversations and lessons around these topics, my new favorites now include: NewseumEd’s Media Literacy Resources and Common Sense Education’s News & Media Literacy Toolkit.
​
Newseum

The Newseum, located in Washington, D.C., has created online educational resources and materials available to help support media literacy instruction.
Picture

On the Media Literacy Resources page, the navigation bar along the left-hand side of the screen offers options to make sorting through the resources more manageable. Especially helpful is the “EDTools” option.
Picture

The EDTool option allows you to filter resources by categories including type, grade and copyright.
Picture

The resources provided by NewseumEd include everything from lessons and activities to blogs and video blogs.

Common Sense Education’s News & Media Literacy Toolkit

Some of you may be aware of Common Sense Education’s Digital Citizenship Curriculum. While some of Common Sense Education’s News & Media Literacy Toolkit’s materials pull from this curriculum, what I found particularly helpful were the extra resources provided.
​
The toolkit is broken down into grade bands.
Picture

After selecting the grade band, downloadable lessons are available. The full lessons often include introductory videos, as well guides for lesson delivery.
Picture

Scrolling further down the page, teachers can access Classroom Essentials and Professional Development resources.
Picture
Picture

Both NewseumEd’s Media Literacy Resources and Common Sense Education’s News & Media Literacy Toolkit are user-friendly and comprehensive resources. But the best part? Both resources are free!

​# 3. Connection


I have stated numerous times over the years (and in several blogs) that connectivity is essential for Teacher Librarians. It’s important for us to be amongst other professionals, to network and make professional connections, and, hopefully, to make some personal connections as well. The energy and passion you could feel amongst Teacher Librarians in attendance at the conference was a powerful thing. Just taking a scroll through the #aasl17 Twitter feed and you’ll see evidence of the powerful connections being made and Teacher Librarians connecting others to their learning.

Check out the new Grant Wood Librarian hashtag #gwaealibs to connect to our learning from the conference.
Picture

​For my overall learning, be sure to check out my AASL Learning Padlet.

Lynn Kleinmeyer (@THLibrariZen)
Digital Learning Consultant

Works Referenced:
American Association of School Librarians. (2018). How do I read the standards? Retrieved from http://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/AASL_ReadingtheStandards_OnePager_2017.pdf


0 Comments

Calling All Compliments!

11/8/2017

0 Comments

 
As our fearless leader, Joe Crozier, repeatedly tells us at GWAEA,  “Everything we do well is because of relationships and everything that we don’t do well is because of relationships.” As teachers, we know that building relationships with our students is essential to a successful classroom, as well as fostering positive student-to-student relationships.  We recently learned about Stephanie MacArthur’s
​“
The Compliments Project” and became very inspired.
Watching these students share unique and amazing things about their classmates could move anyone to tears. As we reflected on this powerful project, we wondered what we could do to lift up our amazing educators in the Grant Wood AEA area. It is equally important for teachers to hear about the affect they are having on the world around them. We wanted to carve out a little space to allow us to celebrate and compliment all of our Iowa educators. 

So take a look around. Who is inspiring you? Who picks you up when you are feeling disappointed? Who is doing great things with their students and deserves a little recognition? Who is changing worlds?
Below you will find a Flipgrid Topic, “Calling All Compliments.” Please take a minute to add your thoughts and give someone a compliment! We would love to hear about all of the great things being done in schools in the GWAEA area.

​Ready, set, go!
All flips will be subject to moderation and will not appear until approved.
~Mindy and Gina
0 Comments

iPad & Google Apps for the Classroom (Part 2)

11/1/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Recently, I wrote a post called iPad and Google Apps for the Classroom: Part 1. In it I shared a number of quick tips and ideas on how students and teachers can take better take advantage of using Google apps on their iPad. The following post is part 2 in this series.

1. Switching Between Accounts on Shared iPads

One of the challenges of using G Suite apps in a classroom with shared iPads is the problem of dealing with multiple student logins. If multiple students are using multiple iPads, then it can quickly get messy. You don't want students accessing each others files accidentally, and especially not on purpose.

The solution is passcodes. When Student A logs in to the Google Drive, Docs, Slides or Sheets app on the iPad, get them to add a 4-digit passcode in the app Settings. This protects their account from unauthorized access on that device. When Student B wants to use the same Google app on that iPad, they add their account and also choose a passcode. From this point onward, when you launch the app all students need to do is choose the account they want to log in to, and then enter their 4-digit passcode!

Now, I know what you are thinking. What if students forget their passcode? Easy. Simply go to the app Settings, tap Manage Accounts, then Manage, and remove the account that the student forgot the passcode for. The student can then sign in again and choose a new passcode. This is not a perfect system, but with practice, it can be pretty efficient because it does solve some of those login issues you typically get with shared iPads.
Picture

2. Working Offline

Did you know that you can create new Docs, Slides or Sheets without any internet access at all? Well, you can! Once you get connected to Wi-Fi again, the app will automatically sync that file with your Google account in the cloud. By default, this only works for new documents, but you can work on existing files offline too by tapping the three dots next to the file you want to work with and toggling the button next to Available Offline. This saves a local copy to your iPad that will be available when you have no network connection, and it will sync to your account when you get back on Wi-Fi. If you tap the menu icon in the top left-hand corner, you should see an Offline filter. This is a quick way to see what files you have saved for offline access. You may want to check this periodically because offline files do use up storage space on your device.
Picture

3. Save Websites to Drive as Annotated PDFs

If you or your students are collecting research or want to archive a version of a web page as a PDF, you can do that quickly and easily from the Share menu on your iPad. Here's how...

In iOS 11, all you need to do is navigate to the web page you want to save, tap the Share button, and then tap the Create PDF button from the bottom row of icons. This quickly converts the website to a PDF and opens it in a new window. All you have to do now is tap the Share arrow again, and choose Drive. From here you can pick a folder to store your newly created PDF.

In iOS 10 (and earlier), navigate to the web page you want to save, tap the Share button, and then tap the Print button. Next, pinch outwards with two fingers on one of the print preview thumbnails. This quickly converts the website to a PDF and opens it in a new window. All you have to do now is tap the Share arrow again, and choose Drive. From here you can pick a folder to store your newly created PDF.

If you want to take some notes or add highlights to the text, be sure to tap the pen icon to open the annotation tools before you save to Drive. This reveals a selection of pen tools, shapes, and text objects that you can use to annotate your PDF. This can be useful for reminding you why you saved a particular article or to call out sections that you want to use in your research.
Picture

 4. Present LIVE on the Web with Google Slides for iPad

Many presentation tools like PowerPoint and Keynote give you the ability to present your slides over the web in a live broadcast. With this option, people can follow your slides in real time and hear you presenting the content. To do this in Google Slides, tap the Play button and choose Present to new or existing meeting. Next, create a meeting ID and tap Invite to share your presentation with others. Then all you have to do is tap Present to get started.

You can turn on your microphone as required and toggle between your slides and a webcam view by tapping the camera icon once you are live. This is one of the simplest ways to start a live broadcast with others because they can see your presentation in a web browser and they don't need an account or other software in order to join the learning! Note that this is a one-way communication. Your audience can't talk to you or ask questions, but it could be a good accessibility option for students who need that accommodation.
Picture

5. Create Stylish Graphics with Snapseed

Snapseed is a powerful image editor that Google acquired a few years ago. It has a lot of fantastic options for creating striking images with the filters and adjustment tools. However, one of the lesser used options is the ability to add text over an image that you captured with your camera or one that you retrieved from your Camera Roll. There are a number of stylish, modern "word art" styles to choose from. You can change the color, size and position of the text on your image. This can be a great way to share magic moments from a conference keynote, to create blog post images, or simply to share the learning in your classroom with parents. It's quick, easy to do and gives professional looking results. Alternative apps for this purpose include Canva, Adobe Spark Post and Word Swag.
Picture

Wait, there's more...

If you have enjoyed this series of posts, stay tuned for part 3 where I will round up some more of my favorite tips and tricks, and if you haven't read part 1 yet, you can do that here. If you are a seasoned Google iPad user, feel free to leave a comment below with your own favorite uses for making the most of Google on the iPad. I would love to hear what you are doing in your school.
Jonathan Wylie (@jonathanwylie)
Digital Learning Consultant, Grant Wood AEA
0 Comments

    Connect



    Blog Feed

    RSS Feed


    Like Us on Facebook

    Digital Learning at Grant Wood Area Education Agency

    Promote Your Page Too

    Our YouTube Show

    Picture

    Our Podcast

    Picture

    Our Tweets!

    Tweets by @DLGWAEA

    Authors

    Stacy Behmer
    Jonathan Wylie
    Gina Rogers
    Amber Bridge
    Beth Swantz

    Mindy Cairney
    Lynn Kleinmeyer
    Corey Rogers


    Archives

    November 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014


    Categories

    All
    3d Printing
    4Cs
    Assessment
    Augmented Reality
    Best Of The Web
    Blogging
    Board Games
    Coding
    Collaboration
    Communication
    Computer Science
    Connected Classrooms
    Creativity
    Device Deployment
    Digital Citizenship
    Digital Classrooms
    Elementary
    Flipped Classroom
    Formative Assessment
    GAFE
    Google
    Google Apps EDU
    Google Expeditions
    Green Screen
    Hattie
    Innovate
    Ipad
    ISTE
    Literacy
    Make
    Makerspace
    Office 365
    Pear Deck
    Personalized Learning
    PLN
    Podcast
    Professional Learning
    Research
    Service Learning
    Student Choice
    Think
    ThinkMakeInnovate
    Update
    Video
    Virual Reality
    Wakelet
    Web 2.0
    Youtube

Grant Wood Area Education Agency extends equal opportunities in its employment practices, educational programs and services, and does not discriminate on the basis of color, gender, race, national origin, religion, creed, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, disability, veteran status or as otherwise prohibited by law. If you believe you or your child has been discriminated against or treated unjustly, please contact the Agency’s Equity Coordinator, Maria Cashman, at 319-399-6847 or 800-332-8488. Grant Wood AEA, 4401 Sixth St SW, Cedar Rapids, IA 52404.

It is the goal of Grant Wood Area Education Agency that the information on our website be accessible to individuals with visual, hearing or cognitive disabilities. Good faith efforts have been made to ensure that our site complies with the world wide web consortium’s web content accessibility guidelines. Learn more here.