I'm surprised I hadn't blogged about this when it happened. I was able to teach a Google Calendar class to our faculty when we split into the different google apps. I was a little unsure at first that I wouldn't have enough knowledge to be able to answer questions or show people everything they needed to know about Google Calendar.
However, it was really empowering to be able to share my knowledge with others. I also found out that I knew way more about the calendar than I had actually thought. I think that just my enthusiasm about calendar helped others see how cool (and helpful) it really is. I use it for absolutely everything!!
Everyone that came to my session was sharing calendars and trying and practicing things. I know that Katie Garvet and Shona Koetteritz were excited about being able to share information about each kids.
The last thing that really came from this was not only people increasing their use of google calendar (i've seen it a bunch), but also our discovery of the app iCalendar. It's an app for your smartphone that links your google calendars, plus then you can add things to it personally as well. It is the most amazingly useful app I've found so far in terms of calendar use. The only downside is that if I add an event to my calendar from my phone it doesn't add it on my calendar when I'm on my computer. In that way it's kind of one sided. However, honestly I use google calendar on my computer for all my school business (which is not linked to my phone), so it hasn't been that big of an issue so far.
Thursday, June 4, 2015
Leading the Math Dept
It has been difficult being the SIC leader in a department that isn't too excited about the idea of transferring everything into a one-to-one world of teaching. It's not that they are against it, but I think that the way that math is taught (or the way we think it should be taught) and our new curriculum make it difficult to combine with technology. I've been struggling all year with how to convince them and myself that it can be done and done successfully.
When we met as a department and went over things we just started researching things that we could use easily in a classroom as an extension to help our students. I think the idea of being completely paperless in a math classroom will never happen, but if we can help our students solidify their learning by using technology then it's worth the effort. We instantly started talking about Geogebra. It's offered on the chromebooks, which is awesome, but really is only applicable for Geometry and maybe the Algebra 1.5 courses.
The more we searched the more websites we found that seemed to be just tailored towards elementary education. Kahn Academy would be a really awesome website to use. We discussed the idea of a backwards classroom, but still have it all be in the classroom. The idea was that the first thing we would do is have students watch a video on Kahn Academy (as a warm up) that gave instruction. Then we would use the remaining classroom to help solidify what was taught on that. Even if reteaching is involved, it would be good for them to see it and hear it in a different way and from a different person. I actually got really excited about this idea. If students are watching a video on their own with headphones, they have less distractions and are probably able to watch and listen a bit better.
At the end of our meeting I know that I was much more excited about the idea of using technology in my classroom. Even the idea of maybe giving our finals on google was brought up. I think we still have to work on that a bit more. It's going to be very exciting next year in the math dept. We are all making that a goal of ours and look forward to increasing the use of technology in an affective way.
When we met as a department and went over things we just started researching things that we could use easily in a classroom as an extension to help our students. I think the idea of being completely paperless in a math classroom will never happen, but if we can help our students solidify their learning by using technology then it's worth the effort. We instantly started talking about Geogebra. It's offered on the chromebooks, which is awesome, but really is only applicable for Geometry and maybe the Algebra 1.5 courses.
The more we searched the more websites we found that seemed to be just tailored towards elementary education. Kahn Academy would be a really awesome website to use. We discussed the idea of a backwards classroom, but still have it all be in the classroom. The idea was that the first thing we would do is have students watch a video on Kahn Academy (as a warm up) that gave instruction. Then we would use the remaining classroom to help solidify what was taught on that. Even if reteaching is involved, it would be good for them to see it and hear it in a different way and from a different person. I actually got really excited about this idea. If students are watching a video on their own with headphones, they have less distractions and are probably able to watch and listen a bit better.
At the end of our meeting I know that I was much more excited about the idea of using technology in my classroom. Even the idea of maybe giving our finals on google was brought up. I think we still have to work on that a bit more. It's going to be very exciting next year in the math dept. We are all making that a goal of ours and look forward to increasing the use of technology in an affective way.
Monday, May 4, 2015
Organizing the chromebooks.
If anyone walks into my room the first thing they will probably notice is organization. I'm probably to the point of slightly OCD about how I like my room to be. Most people say my house must be the same (HA). Anyways I love running a classroom where my students know where everything go and I don't have to worry about things getting put back in certain ways.
The chromebooks are no exception in my mind. When I got the chromebooks it was a big mess of cords, wires, power strips and all different chromebooks in dish drying racks. For someone with OCD tendencies, this was an absolute nightmare. I had to figure something out.
The first thing I did was organize the chromebooks by their numbers. Obviously most teachers have figured this out. I am VERY particular about keeping the chromebooks in order (80-89) in the rack. This is because I have assigned every student in my class a specific chromebook number that they are only allowed to use. We have had times where inappropriate things have been placed on a chromebook or laptop and no one knew who had used that particular device. My goal was to decrease the likelihood of this happening by assigning each student a specific number. That way if something were to pop up on a chromebook I would know who is assigned that number and we could hopefully track down the culprit.
Again the benefit of having an extremely organized room. The students know exactly where to locate their chromebook and where to put it back when they are done.
Here is what my chromebooks look like on a daily basis.
The chromebooks are no exception in my mind. When I got the chromebooks it was a big mess of cords, wires, power strips and all different chromebooks in dish drying racks. For someone with OCD tendencies, this was an absolute nightmare. I had to figure something out.
The first thing I did was organize the chromebooks by their numbers. Obviously most teachers have figured this out. I am VERY particular about keeping the chromebooks in order (80-89) in the rack. This is because I have assigned every student in my class a specific chromebook number that they are only allowed to use. We have had times where inappropriate things have been placed on a chromebook or laptop and no one knew who had used that particular device. My goal was to decrease the likelihood of this happening by assigning each student a specific number. That way if something were to pop up on a chromebook I would know who is assigned that number and we could hopefully track down the culprit.
Again the benefit of having an extremely organized room. The students know exactly where to locate their chromebook and where to put it back when they are done.
Here is what my chromebooks look like on a daily basis.
Then the next problem was all the cords and wires. I HATE cords and wires. I am constantly using those ties from the grocery store to tie the wires together (all over my house) so that I don't have to deal with them!
I just happen to have some random zip ties hanging around my classroom for some reason. I decided to tie together sets of ten chargers together so that it would look more organized and students would have an easier time locating a charger when they are done using chromebooks.
Here are some photos of the chargers that are zip tied together. It's been a saving grace!
It still looks pretty messy under the table, which I really don't like. However, it's WAY better than what it looked like before. Plus it's a lot easier to move the chargers around for things like PARCC testing and such.
I've been really happy with how the chromebooks are organized in my room. Anne has used some of the zip ties to help organize her chromebooks as well. I continue to find a way to make my room look less cluttered, but I'm very happy with the procedures in my class right now.
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Horrible Horrible Horrible
Maybe others can give me insight on this. But exactly how am I supposed to use the chrome books if the chrome books don't actually work??
This week I spend a long time creating a quiz for my Geometry 1.5 students. Using our new curriculum we are given a question bank to choose from. The quiz made from the question bank is downloaded into Word. No problem I thought. I'll just copy and paste it into a google doc for my kids and they will be able to open it and take the quiz on the chrome books.
Wrong.
First, none of the equations enter into Google docs, which means that I got the privilege of going through and typing up every single problem as a new equation (terrible use of my time). When class time came around half of the chrome books wouldn't connect to the internet. The ones that did were so slow that not even google classroom would load. I ended up having to print off the quiz and give half the class a paper copy anyways because their chrome books wouldn't load. On top of all of that, grading is going to take about 5 times as long having to go into each students quiz.
I thought these were supposed to make our lives easier? Even if I wanted to use the chrome books for a class discussion or cool interactive learning sites (because there are a bunch for geometry) I wouldn't be able to because the school cannot handle that many chrome books in use at once....Jenny Byrd and I were just discussing how some classroom materials have yet to arrive, but they are available for online use. There is NO WAY I would try to get all my students online at the same time using these chrome books. It would be a disaster. Already I'm going to have to throw out the results from this test because it is just not fair to the students.
I think that chrome books are really awesome for some subjects. I've seen Lutke use them brilliantly and Paul as well. However, the use of chrome books in math just seems counter productive. The students don't know what they are doing (or how to enter their answers) and a multiple choice test is just not realistic in a math setting.
If I'm missing something here someone please tell me, because at this moment I am ready to throw these out the window.
This week I spend a long time creating a quiz for my Geometry 1.5 students. Using our new curriculum we are given a question bank to choose from. The quiz made from the question bank is downloaded into Word. No problem I thought. I'll just copy and paste it into a google doc for my kids and they will be able to open it and take the quiz on the chrome books.
Wrong.
First, none of the equations enter into Google docs, which means that I got the privilege of going through and typing up every single problem as a new equation (terrible use of my time). When class time came around half of the chrome books wouldn't connect to the internet. The ones that did were so slow that not even google classroom would load. I ended up having to print off the quiz and give half the class a paper copy anyways because their chrome books wouldn't load. On top of all of that, grading is going to take about 5 times as long having to go into each students quiz.
I thought these were supposed to make our lives easier? Even if I wanted to use the chrome books for a class discussion or cool interactive learning sites (because there are a bunch for geometry) I wouldn't be able to because the school cannot handle that many chrome books in use at once....Jenny Byrd and I were just discussing how some classroom materials have yet to arrive, but they are available for online use. There is NO WAY I would try to get all my students online at the same time using these chrome books. It would be a disaster. Already I'm going to have to throw out the results from this test because it is just not fair to the students.
I think that chrome books are really awesome for some subjects. I've seen Lutke use them brilliantly and Paul as well. However, the use of chrome books in math just seems counter productive. The students don't know what they are doing (or how to enter their answers) and a multiple choice test is just not realistic in a math setting.
If I'm missing something here someone please tell me, because at this moment I am ready to throw these out the window.
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Let's get the ball rolling!
Super excited to be able to be the leader of the math department in becoming 1-1 and being a google educator. There are still a lot of hesitations on my part concerning using all this wonderful technology in the classroom. I've seen some awesome things in Tom Lutke's room and it makes me jealous that I don't get to teach a subject that is more welcoming to that kind of innovative thinking. It seems that so many times we get stuck in our ways and it's so difficult to change around what we know and what we are used to.
I'm eager to learn and excited to try different methods using the Chrome books, but I'm also cautious because I don't want my classroom 'experiments' to negatively affect the students learning. I feel as though it's going to be a fine line to walk until I can start to understand what works and what doesn't.
I'm eager to learn and excited to try different methods using the Chrome books, but I'm also cautious because I don't want my classroom 'experiments' to negatively affect the students learning. I feel as though it's going to be a fine line to walk until I can start to understand what works and what doesn't.
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