Google Drawings and Infinite Possibilities

This Week’s Topic in Focus:  Google Drawings

Each month our Digital Learning Team will take a look at a G Suite for Education feature that will hopefully empower you to dive deeper into educational uses for this tool.

An often overlooked and definitely underused program in G Suite is Google Drawings. Drawings gives the user a blank canvas that, just like every other application in the Google product line, allows for creativity and collaboration. At its most basic, Drawings acts as a desktop publisher. Start with a blank canvas, add text and images, then download or share. Drawings can be downloaded as a PDF, png, or jpg. Drawings can also be published directly to the web! What is special about this product are the limitless applications for the classroom.

Drawings as a Note Taking Tool:

• Sketchnoting is the idea that students create a personal visual story as they listen to a speaker or read a text. Use Drawings to have students create their sketch note then have them share their notes with the class. (Want to learn more about sketchnoting? Here is a great portal to multiples links created by Kathy Shrock: http://www.schrockguide.net/sketchnoting.html)
• Graphic organizers have been used for decades to help students organize their thoughts as they interact with material. Use Drawings to have students create their own graphic organizers or create your own organizers to share with the students. Here is an excellent resource from Matt Miller at Ditch That Textbook: http://ditchthattextbook.com/2015/02/19/15-free-google-drawings-graphic-organizers-and-how-to-make-your-own/
• Students can now interact with web content in a more meaningful way. Share a web page or resource with students, have them take a screenshot, import it into Drawings and then annotate it.

Drawings as a Collaborative Space

• Many teachers like Padlet because it allows students to share ideas in a collaborative web location. The same function can be completed by creating a blank Drawings canvas that is shared with students. Students can create their own sticky notes, share images, and even share links. The nice part of this is that this is all completed within your school district’s Google organization and no third party sites are required
• Group projects with poster requirements have never been easier than when they are done with Drawings. One student creates the poster, shares it with their group, and now all students can contribute digitally.

Drawings as an Assessment for/as Learning

• Students create diagrams during lab work
• Students create an infographic to showcase understanding of a concept
• Students create a Drawing that explains their process and thinking on a math problem
• Students use Drawings and Google Maps to teach about historical or geographical concepts
• Students create a poster for projects like the science fair

Drawings to Inspire Creativity

One of my favorite uses of Drawings recently came from Meghan Treglia and Stacey Reeder, sixth-grade teachers at Mercer Elementary (@mrsmegtreg and @staceyreeder). Their classes were challenged to create a new emoji to fill the gaping emoji hole we all experience on social media. Students had to design survey questions for their peers to seek out exactly what type of emoji was needed. They also created rubrics for what qualities each emoji needed to have and how the presentations to the class should look. Students worked in their collaborative groups to create their emoji’s and presentations. The classes went through multiple rounds of “Creation and Defense” sessions, with the kids voting for their favorites based on sound argumentative reasoning. My vote was for the “Shaking My Head” emoji but the winner of the 2017 Emoji War was the TRAMPOLINE!

These suggestions are just the tip of the iceberg! So many possibilities, so little time! If you are interested in learning more about Google Drawings and their applications in the classroom, contact your FHSD Digital Learning Specialist for assistance and coaching.

If you want to explore on your own, these two resources should help get you started:

• http://alicekeeler.com/2015/01/10/getting-started-with-google-draw/
• http://www.shakeuplearning.com/blog/google-drawings-cheat-sheet-for-teachers-and-students/

Contributed by Melanie Zolnier @libary_techer

Schoology Test Banks and Learning Objective Alignment Take Assessment to the Next Level

This Week’s Topic in Focus:  Schoology

Test Banks

Each month our Digital Learning Team will take a look at a Schoology feature that will hopefully empower you to dive deeper into you use of this powerful tool.  

Assessment should be a tool in our classrooms that not only informs educators and students of the learning that is taking place but it can also empower learners as a part of the learning process. If you want to learn more about how to design effective assessments and want to know how to develop assessments as learning, Assessment that Matters by: Kim Meldrum is a great read worthy of your time.

Typically the three primary reasons why assessment stays affixed as an of learning rather than an as learning process are 1) Formative assessment is not used frequently enough, 2) Assessment results are not processed quickly enough for just in time learning 3) There are not enough banked questions to provide variation within any given assessment where the assessment can be used repeatedly and still remain reliable.  

Schoology provides a solution to all three of these typical roadblocks by combining its online Test/Quiz feature with its Question Bank feature.  Schoology’s Test/Quiz Feature allows educators to quickly build assessments that provide learners with immediate and customizable feedback.  When combined with the power of the test bank feature assessments can be built that strategically pull from banks of questions that are aligned to learning targets or sets of questions that all revolve around a specific skill.

Test Banks are an underutilized but super helpful feature in Schoology.  To learn how to create and use test banks check out the Test Banks Tutorial on Schoology.  Once you’ve learned how to create test banks for your classes, the next step will be to decide how to organize your test banks in order to best serve you as you build your assessments.  I suggest that you create your test bank in packets specific to each learning target (by objective or specific skill) so that when it comes time to create an assessment (or a checkpoint/formative assessments and a then a culminating assessment) using your test banks you can set the assessment(s) to randomly select a certain number of those questions from each of your test banks that are strategically aligned to the skills and learning targets you want to assess.

By creating assessments this way, you provide your learners with a strategic assessment within targeted skills and can allow learners to take the same assessment multiple times if necessary while still maintaining valid because of the variation from the test banks. Allowing multiple attempts at proving skill acquisition is one of the first steps toward as learning assessments.

Speaking of learning targets.  Did you know that you can use the Align Learning Objectives feature to tag your questions with specific learning targets (Common Core and all state standards are already pre-populated in Schoology)?  This allows you to use the Mastery Tool to see how your students are performing on each of the learning targets you have aligned.  

FHSD educators:  Contact your  building’s Digital Learning Specialist for assistance and coaching.  

All educators: Feel free to use the comment feature to share how you are currently using assessment in your classroom especially if it relates to Schoology’s Test/Quiz , Test Banks and/or Align Learning Objectives Features.

Contributed by Kyle Mack @ProfKyleMack

Breakout EDU

This Week’s Topic in Focus:  Cool Tools

Each month our Digital Learning Team will feature a tool that is super cool while also super beneficial to your classroom.   Here is the one we have on tap for you this week!

What’s Breakout EDU?

For many of us the GAFE Summit was our first exposure to the craze of Breakout EDU.

Inspired by the Escape Room concept, students use critical thinking, collaboration and creativity to solve a series of questions, puzzles and solve mysteries to unlock a series of boxes.  Breakout EDU helps to create rigorous and engaging learning environments where students are up and out of their seats, moving around, and actively engaged in their learning.

All games are designed with the same physical items, so once you have the box you can play any Breakout EDU game.  Boxes are available for sale on the Breakout EDU website or open source instructions are available to make your own.  Check with your DLS to see if boxes are already available in your building.  

Interested in trying out a Breakout EDU?  There are online communities with pre-made games created by other teachers ready for you to use.  These communities allow you to get ideas, ask questions and share your successes.  Checkout the Breakout EDU website as well as the Facebook Breakout EDU Groups to join by subject area.

If you cannot find a game that meets your learning objectives create your own Breakout EDU game using the official template.

Debra Smith’s 6th graders at Maddux featured below are working on a Breakout EDU “Spyder Heist.”  She reports they loved the problem solving and worked in fluid groups to solve the different problems that had both printed and digital elements. What tripped them up were the little details and observations.They are awaiting the next one with high enthusiasm.  Debra assembled her own kits as the cost was much lower.  She states that Amazon has most of the materials available.

Two other teachers that have used Breakout EDU in their classroom in Forest Hills are Jill Ramsey at Sherwood Elem and Tiffany NeCamp at Summit Elem.  Krista Willertz at AHS and the THS Science Department are just getting started.

FHSD educators:  Contact your  building’s Digital Learning Specialist for assistance and coaching.  

All educators: Feel free to use the comment feature to share how you are currently using Breakout EDU.

Contributed by Cheryl Kemper @CherylLKemper

Control Alt Achieve - Eric Curts

This Week’s Topic in Focus:  Control Alt Achieve: Transforming Education with Technology

Each month our Digital Learning Team will feature a person or blog that we feel exemplifies and supports our mission and goals. Our hope is that you find so much value and worth in their work that you add them to your own Personal Learning Network.

G Suite for Education (formerly Google Apps for Education) has completely changed the educational playing field. The G Suite vision to help teachers and students share and learn together in innovative ways has taken teachers and students out of silos and allowed a collaborative environment to take hold in classrooms and school district across the country. Not only are students and teachers able to work more collaboratively, G Suite apps like Google Classroom, Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Google Cast have streamlined workflows, allowed students to take ownership of their learning environment, and opened the doorway to new ways of learning.

With all of this technology at our fingertips, it sometimes feels overwhelming to stay abreast of updates, changes and new features. In addition, it is often difficult to know exactly the best or most creative way to use these tools in your classroom. That is where ERIC CURTS comes in. Eric is an Authorized Google Education Trainer and a Google Certified Innovator who is just full of creative and helpful ideas for how to most effectively use Google tools in your classroom. He is the author of the blog Control Alt Achieve: Transforming Education with Technology. Control Alt Achieve features pedagogically sound suggestions and activities that can be implemented immediately in any classroom, no matter what the grade level. Eric keeps his readers updated on new releases and features in the G Suite apps. His blog also offers fun, quick activities that teachers can use. A Forest Hills favorite was the “Build a Snowman with Google Slides” activity.

Let Eric help guide you on your G Suite for Education journey by following his blog. You won’t be disappointed!

http://www.controlaltachieve.com/

Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ericcurts

Contributed by Melanie Zolnier @libary_techer