Wednesday, June 14, 2017

InnEdCO 2017 -- Makerspaces/Innovative Learning Lab

Building an Innovative Learning Lab:
1) Meet with teachers to come up with a plan to use the library

2) What projects can students collaboratively working on in my space?

3) Partnerships: who can I meet with to make my Makerspace better?
     -EdTech specialists
     -Maker materials donations -- could the Steck community help?
     -Local Business sponsors
     -Hill MS teachers

4) Storage -- research how to have functional storage
    -reach out to others that have the same issue with space
    -fund through Donor's Choose/PTA grant?

Resources:
http://www.demco.com/goto?MAKERSPACE
Amazon storage shelves
https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/how-to-build-your-makerspace

InnEdCO 2017 -- #COllaporative -- energized PD

For the 1st session, I attended the #COllapportive panel session.

Presenter's slide deck: bit.ly/copdrev
#COllapportive website: http://www.collapporative.org/ 

#Collapportive is a social learning group
-meet once a month in a space in Lakewood, CO
-more of an EdCamp model where the participants set the agenda
-community building setting for educators

 *Build a website just for PD -- great way to house resources & archived notes
Ideas around PD:
-more choice for teachers
-app/tool sharing
-showing Ts tools they can make their own: Twitter, District-paid websites, Donor's Choose, Engagement tools/ideas

Resources:
mindSpark Learning -- free Professional Development space
-teachers can attend free sessions on a wide array of topics
-meeting/hangout space for teachers


Tuesday, June 13, 2017

InnEdCO 2017 -- My presentation -- 3D printing

This morning, Paige Dersham and I presented about our experience with 3D printers, TinkerCAD, and Donor's Choose. I was fairly anxious about having to present for 2 hours, but it went really well.

Here's our slide deck: 


If I was to change anything, I would want to add a Google Doc where we could share out all the tricks we learned while working on TinkerCAD. I had teachers showing me tricks I didn't know someone could do. It would be great to have one spot, like a Google Doc, where we could share all those fantastic ideas.

InnEdCO 2017 -- Classroom Redesign

For my second session of the day, I attended a Classroom Redesign session with Paige Dersham and Meegan Bennet

Slide Deck:
http://tinyurl.com/yc6ohasu

My notes:

Redesigning My Classroom

Issues:
-tables are tough to move
-electrical cord for projector cart stretches under tables
-teacher desk takes up too much space
-old promethean board doesn’t work & needs to be removed
-no area to write on the walls -- make thinking visible
-not much room to store makerspace materials
-Where to I put the RedCat speaker system?


Old promethean board -- turn it into a mobile green screen?

Learning Landscapes:

Layout of my room:
I have 2 classroom which make up our Library/Computer lab where the students work with laptops. Below are the layout of both spaces.


  1. In red, I labeled the changes I’d like to make to both spaces. The biggest change would be removing my look-up stations & teacher desk.
  2. I’d like to add storage along the wall in place of the teacher desk\look-up stations for our makerspaces
  3. I’d like to make the extra space a place for students to work in small groups -- I need to come up with norms & expectations around this extra space


Monday, June 12, 2017

InnEdCO 2017 -- Snapshots

Infusing Engineering into a Science classroom
Paige Dersham
Presentation link

Create your own Coding Club Using Google CS First
Megan Cosmos
Presentation Link

Tips & Tricks:
  • Use Google Forms
  • Record logins asap
  • Get parent permission
  • Encourage sharing & discussion
  • Logged into Google CS First and Scratch
  • Prepare - Plan - Play


Their materials:
  • are completely free and available online
  • are targeted at students in grades 4th-8th (ages 9-14)
  • can be tailored to fit your schedule and needs
  • involve block-based coding using Scratch and are themed to attract students with varied interests

     

InnEdCO 2017: Google Expeditions

All Aboard: Google Expeditions

A hyperdoc to work through during the presentation:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jhhdrSKPcRXQNrNBANiCB6vRKFxDCEKzusXpzTMLsJU/edit?usp=sharing

I'm Cardboard: http://www.imcardboard.com/
-different types of Google Cardboards
-https://edu.google.com/expeditions/#get-started

Uses in the classroom:
-virtual fieldtrips -- students can visit the places they're studying
-not recommended for students younger than 3rd grade
-presentation tool
-could use it on an iPad instead of the Cardboard (iPad app)
-can we create our own expeditions?

Ways to fund:
-Could the district buy a couple of class sets (including cardboard & phone)?
-Could we use just a small station of Cardboards?
-Donor's Choose to crowd fund it


The Planning Process:

Pre-Expedition Prep
  • Preview the expedition from both the teacher and student perspectives, establish talking points and supporting activities
Before the Expedition
  • How are students building background knowledge to prepare for the expedition?
During the Expedition
  • How are students recording and processing what they learn from the expedition?
After the Expedition
  • How are students synthesizing and analyzing what they learn from the expedition
  • What additional learning / inquiry was inspired by what students experienced on this expedition?



Additional resources:


InnEdCO 2017 - Google/Chrome Apps, Extensions, Add-ons

Google/Chrome Apps, Extensions, Add-ons:
Pam Herr

Google App -- similar to apps on your phone but work on the Chrome web browser
-access them on the left hand corner of the top toolbar in the Chrome web browser
-some are free, some paid
1) Google Keep: allows to take images in Google Keep and covert to editable Google Doc
    -snapshot of newspaper clipping: now interactive in Google Doc
    -Ss learing different types of  angles: taking pics of angles in Google Keep and adding them to Google Docs
    -ELL students building vocab by taking pics in Google Keep and adding definitions in Google Docs
    -Grading papers in Google Keep: allows you to store pre-loaded comment w/ explanations (ex., comma splice with link to understanding comma splices)
2) WeVideo: like iMovie for Google but it's cloud-based (limited free storage)
3) LucidChart: web-based mind mapping
4) ClassDojo: student behavior software
5) Padlet: online version of a cork board messages or mind mapping -- good way to show student's thinking
6)Blendspace: create lessons in a blended learning environment in 5 minutes
7) EdPuzzle: make any video your lesson by including questions (MC, short-constructed response) and explanations
8) Brainitz: similar to EdPuzzle

Chrome Extension -- live on the right side of the url address bar of the Chrome browser to enhance the web environment (some extensions will slow down your browser) -- find them in the Chrome web store
1) Save to Google Drive: allows to save anything your viewing on the Chrome browser to your Google Drive
2) CleanPrint: control how you want to print a web page by eliminating images, advertisements, etc
3) Save as PDF: save any web page as a PDF
4) InsertLearning: turn websites into interactive lessons ($$$)
5) Shareaholic: share the website your viewing
6) BetterTube: makes the YouTube home page wider, lets you remove videos from feed, quick video watch mode and more.
7)Read&Write for Google Chrome:  allows text to speech - play, pause, stop buttons - annotation features

Google Add-ons: run along side Google Apps like Sheets, Docs, Slides, Classroom and Forms
-10 Add-ons for Google Classroom:
http://ditchthattextbook.com/2017/02/16/10-add-ons-to-google-classroom-you-must-try/
-Add-ons for Google Docs:
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2016/01/10-of-best-google-docs-add-ons-for-teachers.html

InnEdCO 2017 -- Keynote Speaker

Building Blocks for the Future of Schools
-Dr. Scott McLeod (Dangerously Irrelevant)

Amazing vs Normal
Kids doing amazing things outside of school:
-Student blogging about school lunches
-Students creating video tutorials on video games

How do we give students the opportunities to do amazing things?

Formal learning vs Learning outside of school (often far more engaging and meaningful)
-How do we begin to give students voice/choice in what they learn?
-Project-based learning -- Genus Hour projects
-Engagement is the key - How do we increase engagement in our classrooms so kids aren't bored out of their minds?
     **Coming from a person who didn't care for school growing up - the most important thing we can do is increase student engagement**

4 Big Shifts:
-Higher level thinking -- moving away from regurgitating facts to solving problems
-Student agency -- student have voice/choice
-Authentic work -- real world application within the larger community
-Technology infusion -- technology allows for the 1st 3 shifts (above) to happen in innovative ways

Helpful resources:
http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/resources/3-big-shifts-8-building-blocks-and-some-guiding-questions
http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2013/08/7-building-blocks-for-the-future-of-schools.html
http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/resources/trudacot 
http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2017/03/where-do-we-set-the-bar.html