Aim to Be Awesome, Not Perfect

In my role as an Instructional Technology Specialist, I try to provide professional development and helpful hints in a variety of ways. One way I reach my staff is a weekly Tech Treats newsletter. This method can take a while.  At first, very few people read it, partly because it was buried in a principal's weekly memo. But it is catching on - especially as teachers learned they could bookmark it like a website and refer back to it as needed. It isn't at 100% - I don't think it ever will be - but it is enough that I will keep doing it. Want to make one for your staff?  Here are my tips: It's a Google Slide, because  It's easy to format  I add the newest slide at the beginning  It's easy for teachers to search to find previous pages It can be bookmarked  Put "need to know" stuff in there, especially action items with deadlines Include information for a variety of technology comfort levels Include new fun things - for Thanksgiving and C...

One of the readings for my EDLD 5303 class is a site about Reflection for Learning .  I have found it to be a very useful site, one that I could refer to a lot when sharing ideas about e-portfolios. For example, the site has suggestions and examples of reflection with students, including sentence stems and bridging questions  to get students thinking, which I think is really useful. The author of Reflection of Learning references a book called "The Portfolio as a Learning Strategy" (Porter and Cleland, 1995), and includes this quote - "... in the power of reflection that helped us move beyond seeing about portfolio as a mere alternative to traditional assessment to appreciating its value as a learning strategy.  In this capacity, portfolios become vehicles for reflection in which learners examine where they have been, where they are now, how they got there, and where they need to go next." (p.34) This really got me thinking - is a portfolio a product? A strategy...

     So as part of my new-ish job, I am trying to learn and practice new strategies so that I can share them with teachers.  Since I am a former math teacher, I practice with math lessons I used to teach. One of the new things I have been learning about is Hyperdocs . I highly recommend you click on that link and learn more about them! Also, you should check out this episode of the Google Teacher Tribe podcast where they talk about Hyperdocs! I am really impressed how they are taking student- directed learning to a whole new level.  I have done something like it before (see my Probability Slides assignment  or my Proportional/Non-Proportional slides assignment ) but I hadn't ever thought of including all the student work in the same document! Anyway, I had to start playing.  I started with my Proportional/Non-Proportional assignment and turned it into this Hyperdoc . I was definitely impressed with how much more engaging the hyperdoc looked. ...

Technology can be scary, especially if you are someone who doesn't use it often or it seems like it always has an error when you use it.  But it can be a great teaching tool - it can engage students and possibly make your life a little easier.   So, if you want to start small, start with Google Docs.  Have students work in Google Docs - whether they are taking notes, typing a paper, or gathering information -  rather than writing on paper or tying in Microsoft Word.   Here is an example of something my daughter did in 4th grade in Google Docs.   If you are feeling brave, create a folder in your Google Drive and share it with the students.  Have them turn their files into the folder, rather than print.