Getting the most from Chromebooks

Good morning on a FINALLY sunny day in Colorado Springs! There are good vibes around me because our school received two new Chromebook carts this week. It's always a good day when new technology shows up in the building!

Half of my job is teaching students about broadcasting, but the other half of my job, being a "technology specialist" is supporting teachers in the use of educational technology. My technology specialist position has been pretty quiet... teachers may be using technology, but they are not asking for support. I keep telling myself that it is the first quarter and this year the teachers are completely inundated and overwhelmed.

I am not the type of teacher who sits idly by and doesn't cherish and use the gift of time that I'm given. So I've been trying to think of new ways to get teachers to use Chromebooks, iPads, and desktop PCs. In my last five years as a 1:1 teacher, I've had many conversations about the use of technology in the classroom. Many teachers shy away from because of a few reasons:

1) They do not know how to use an application and want to learn before the students in order to model while also keeping control of the class. Because they don't have time to learn the technology, they do not use it. I've realized that part of my job is supporting teachers in the use of the application. This can be done through a screencast or YouTube tutorial. 

2)  They do not know how to use an application, and even if it looks cool, they do not know how to apply it to their content. This prevents them from creative insight which helps think outside the box. I started putting together a spreadsheet of ways to use various web applications with the four core contents to help promote innovative thinking. 

This document is still a work in progress (it is woefully incomplete).

Until teachers start using me as a resource, I will use my time to create documents like this to get teachers to use my time! :) I hope that more teachers will come to me to think through their unit and use technology applications. I said this before, but my principal's goal was to have every student access technology once a week. This can happen as long as teachers are bringing Chromebooks and iPads into the classroom (or are going to the lab).

Thanks for reading. We go on FALL BREAK next weekend, so I'll see you in three weeks!

- Rachel

@historicalipad

My Teacherspayteachers website

Help me help the teachers.

Happy Saturday, colleagues!

I'm all over the Colorado Springs area this morning. I was "hired" to take pictures at a local bike race (after they caught wind of my photography Facebook page), so I'm taking my talents to South Beach (i.e. on the road).

So with that, this will be a short post. I am putting together a training for new 1:1 iPad teachers at Skyview next week. I want to increase their iPad familiarity by demonstrating how to use applications in their content areas and demonstrating how technology can help them increase the depth of knowledge (DOK) of their lessons. I put together this handout for teachers.

See anything missing? Help me help them and fill out this survey!

Thanks for reading. I'll see you next week :)

- Rachel

@historicalipad

My Teacherspayteachers website

Successful "back to school" nights with 1:1 devices

Good morning, colleagues!

I. Am. Exhausted. It's been a long two weeks in my new job, mostly because I was required to attend three "back to school" nights for the three, grade level iPad teams. This was my first time attending three different grade level meetings, and it was an experience!

When I first starting teaching 1:1, we did not have a special back to school night for 1:1 students and parents. We still had parents attending our traditional back to school night with the entire staff. It worked okay, but parents had a lot of questions, and the teachers did not always have the answers. We, as a 1:1 staff, realized that we needed to place more importance on meeting the students' and parents' needs when it came to the iPads. So three years ago we started having separate  1:1 back to school nights.

They were a disaster. The first year we were in the gym, and no one notified the custodial staff that we were having a special event? The custodial staff turns off the air conditioning at night to save electricity/money. So we had more than 150 parents sitting in a gym with no air conditioning. It was miserable. So last year, we notified the custodial staff AND decided to meet in our classrooms. Unfortunately, the air conditioning still could not keep up, and it was hot... not as bad, but still terrible.

So this year, we split 6th, 7th, and 8th grade nights, and held the meetings in the cafeteria which is the coolest room in the entire building. We held the 8th grade meeting first, and it still did not go well. What were the biggest issues? 1) The wifi was unable to process so many people on devices in one room. We had an open wifi so that students could log into their devices. I have a suspicion that parents and students also connected their personal devices (hey, free wifi!). We found out later that we really can only have 90 devices connected per Meraki box. We had two boxes set up in the cafeteria but then discovered that one was not fully connected by an IT specialist. WHOOPS. 2) Most of the 8th grade parents had students on a 1:1 team since 6th grade, so they didn't need all of the information they were given. They were itching to get out of there, but our principal was planning on a 90-minute meeting.

So after a not great night, my principal, our 21st C specialist, and I got together to discuss how to make this better. We knew we needed to have it figured out before our 6th grade meeting. The good news is that I feel like we finally mastered the formula! Even one of the 6th grade teachers agreed :)

#1: Parents were given the iPad when they came in the door. This was not any different than what we'd done in the past, but we had directions on the screen for how to log in to the iPad. This meant that the wifi was not overwhelmed with too many devices at once.

Parents also filled out a questionnaire once they got connected.

#2: Teachers presented information about their classes. My principal told them she wanted the teachers to present, between the four of them, for 30-45 minutes. LOL. By the last night, she told them to talk for no more than five minutes each! Parents had access to their presentation slide deck, and if they had questions, they could stick around to address the teachers.

#3: I went over logging in directions one more time and explained why the questionnaire was necessary. I then told parents that they could stick around and get logged in, or they could finish at home. Then I dismissed them to check out. We finished the 7th and 6th grade meetings in less than 60 minutes (compared to 90 minutes for 8th grade). Getting the parents out promptly was incredibly important.

So, if you are starting 1:1 teams in your school or you haven't held a special "back to school" night for your 1:1 teams, I encourage you to think about trying this next year :)

Thanks for reading. I'll see you next week! 

- Rachel

@historicalipad

My Teacherspayteachers website

1:1 iPad Classroom Observations

Good morning colleagues!

This past week I was fortunate to visit three middle schools in the St. Vrain Valley School District. Almost the entire district has 1:1 devices (except for class sets in the elementary), encompassing 55 schools with about 32,000 students. All secondary students use iPad minis. I am lucky regardless as I have been a 1:1 iPad teacher for the last five years. The reason why I visited these schools is to see how the devices are utilized in an entire 1:1 school.

What I saw was eye-opening.

1. The district has their act together.  Because they are such a large community, they had to plan for the implementation well before they purchased or even decided what devices to use. The teachers had time to use the devices before they used them in the classroom. The teachers get training from instructional technology coordinators and learning technology coaches. There is a common language among the district, so while visiting three different schools, the teachers and students said very similar things. Posters across the schools were also similar. Most importantly, they have a shared vision. As we visited classrooms, it seemed like every teacher was on board with the vision. It made me realize that District 49 needs to find a cohesive vision that does not change every year. And as we continue to use 1:1 devices, we need to be transparent and get the community on board. I do not feel like there is enough communication about why there are iPad teams at Skyview and how learning with the iPads is supposed to be purposeful and meaningful for the students' current and future education and future occupations. 

2. The three schools were not any more advanced than my classroom. Most of the classrooms that we visited were simple substitution (on the SAMR model). I was disappointed that I did not see "more" - more student choice, more collaboration, more critical thinking. To be fair, we all have days where we have those typical, boring traditional lessons. But it was hard to see so many students listening to a teacher talk when they all have an iPad Mini in front of them. To be fair, I saw limited student disengagement which was exciting. And I think every student that we talked to was excited to have that device in front of them at all times.

3. There is inconsistency in every school. Some classrooms were better than others. At Trail Ridge Middle School, we saw two math classes that collaborate every day during Science class. It was fascinating as the two classes worked together to use both Math and Science concepts to create space shuttles for their space unit. Those students were so engaged that they did not even notice when we walked into the classroom. Then there were classes where the teacher lectured in the front of the room with the lesson on the front screen. The students were "grouped," but there was no discussion between them. There were some lost opportunities in a few rooms.

4. It's important for a student to explain what they know, but... there still has to be a point to what they are learning. I watched some students sit through classes that were not engaging, and when I asked them a question, they would dive into a spiel about their objective and what they were studying (but totally not answering my question). It felt like they had been coached and were not demonstrating learned knowledge and skills.

In the end, I was grateful to visit these classrooms and would love to do more observations in the future. I may also need to be a slight stalker and contact some of these teachers to potentially collaborate. There are exciting prospects on the horizon!

Some other things I pulled from observations:

 I loved this poster from a teacher's classroom. It's letting Ss and Ts know that phones are a part of students' world, and as a teacher, you respect that.

 I thought this was a great checklist handout. I know it's traditional and simple, but I think this would be beneficial for goal setting for the class AND staying on task throughout an extended project. I use checkpoints to keep Ss focused, but this would take it to another level.

 I loved at this 1:1 school that ALL posters in the hallway used QR codes. It's not anything groundbreaking, but it makes it clear to the Ss that the devices will be used. All QR codes let to Google Forms for the students to fill out. Many teachers also had #observeme posters, but they also included a QR code that let to a Google Form for an observer to lead feedback. Brilliant!

 In another classroom, the teacher had the students use post-it notes to put down goals for the day. It was simple but effective. The teacher kept asking the students about their goal and what they still had to do. The Ss had to reflect throughout class which was impressive.

 I loved that a teacher used risers to make one table a standing table. I've been reading about teachers getting rid of their teacher desk, and after seeing this, I think I am going to get rid of mine. My desk is literally full of crap that I rarely use, so why do I have it?! I have been looking at a table from Ikea that I could raise with bed risers. My plan is to use the table as both my teacher desk AND as a great place to converse with Ss. 

Thanks for reading! I'll see you next week :)

- Rachel
@historicalipad
My Teacherspayteachers website