Summer Learning

This Week’s Topic in Focus:

This will be our final post of the 2016-17 school year.  We want to thank all of you who have tuned in each week and hope that you have been able to implement some of the suggestions or strategies in your classroom. If you have missed posts, please feel free to look back at any of our earlier entries. All of our prior posts are organized by the four categories we covered each month: Cool Tools, G-Suite for Education, Global Connections/PLN, and Schoology. For easy navigation to posts of interest, simply click on the keyword located in the banner above.

We all have our to do list of things we hope to achieve, revisit to refresh and get ready for the next school year.  In today’s blog we will feature a few items per each category that we suggest should make it onto your reading/exploration list for the summer.

Melanie and Kyle’s Tips for Summer Awesomeness

• Schoology - Schoology has new features on the docket for the 2017-18 school year. We believe that these new features are going to make the Schoology experience more robust for both you and your students.
• Google Integration - Google and Schoology will be more seamless than ever before.  Google Docs and other drive apps will now be embedded and shared with students in a simple interface that lives completely within Schoology. Check out the Schoology- Google Integration Announcement video to learn more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0IVWfQrGiw
• New Assessment Features - Schoology is launching a brand new set of Next Generation Assessment tools that will knock your socks off!  Review the full list of question types on Schoology’s support page.  
• G-Suite for Education
• Level 1 Google Certified Educator - Consider becoming a Google Certified Educator.  You can use the self paced training modules to attack this on your own. Going through these modules will help you take a deep dive into the G-Suite for Education apps and you will learn impactful features that you are probably not aware even exist. Please contact Kyle if you are interested in working with a group during first quarter next school year.
• Google Classroom - Schoology is and will continue to be our Learning Management Platform but we also highly recommend supplementing with Google Classroom for workflow management and integration to third party apps. Read this blog post by Alice Keeler if you are ready to get started with the basics of Google Classroom. If you have already dabbled in  Classroom and are ready to go further, her post about next steps will be worth a read.
• Cool Tools
• EdPuzzle - We posted on this topic a back in January, Read the post if you missed it.  This tool alone has been a huge asset to anyone who has started their blended learning journey.  
• Extensions in Chrome Browser - When it comes to choosing a browser Google Chrome blows the competition out of the water because of its unique library of extensions and apps. Our personal favorites are Screencastify, Grammarly and Diigo.  Learn more by visiting this extensions and apps database from Shake Up Learning. The database can be filtered by category, grade level and subject so that you can find the right extension or app for you!
• Global Connections/PLN
• Top Eleven Follows - We’ve shared several PLN follows in prior months.  Here is a list of our top ten for you to explore:
• http://catlintucker.com/
• http://www.controlaltachieve.com/
• http://alicekeeler.com/
• http://www.controlaltachieve.com/
• http://googleteachertribe.com/
• http://ditchthattextbook.com/
• https://www.edutopia.org/
• http://www.edudemic.com/
• https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/
• http://www.teachthought.com/
• http://www.coolcatteacher.com/
• http://fhsdinnovate.blogspot.com/  :) #selfpromotion
• Feedly - As shared a couple of weeks ago, Feedly helps you keep track of all of your favorite blog and resource follows in one location.  Learn more by revisiting our prior post.

Cheryl’s Summer Surfing Tips

Okay, whew!!! You made it.  Now kick back,  relax and explore some of these great sessions that were at the Gafe Summit in November.  If you missed the Gafe Summit or were there it’s always great to go back and revisit.  There are 2 ways that you can tackle this.  We asked each person that attended to add #onenewthing to a Google Slide Presentation, that was the biggest take away from the Gafe Summit.  If you click on the school icons you will be able to see slides from individuals at each school with their biggest take aways.  The other more comprehensive way is to click on the session time.  Each session that was offered during that time period will be listed with a link to all the materials, presentations and contact information that were shared.  Sit back browse and pick presentations that interest you to explore.

Gafe Summit Resources

Want to get your “Google Game On” this summer?  Check out this Walsh University course taught by Cheryl Kemper.  Google Tools in Education

Contributed by Cheryl Kemper @CherylLKemper @ Kyle Mack @ProfKyleMack   Melanie Zolnier @libary_techer

Curating Content From Your PLN

Curating Content from Your PLN

This Week’s Topic in Focus:

Each month our Digital Learning Team will feature a super tool that is super cool while also super beneficial to your classroom. This week, we are featuring three different tools that you can use to curate content from your PLN; Diigo, Feedly and Google Keep.

When creating a PLN, the sheer amount of content that you interact with can be mind-boggling. You read a great tweet that has content you want to remember for always!  You stumbled on a blog that has realistic suggestions that you want to incorporate into your classroom. You find an article that was meaningful and full of insights that you relate to.You found a rock star blogger and you want to read every single thing that they write! Oh, what to do with all of these knowledgeable people and their amazing resources? How do you organize or curate the content that you want to keep?

There are three tools that could be very useful in the curation of content from your PLN; Feedly, Diigo, and Google Keep. Each tool has definite strengths and depending on your needs, can be used in isolation or together for maximum, professional librarian style curation! Feedly and Diigo offer a free basic account for users, but as always, there are upgraded accounts available. Google Keep is a free component of G Suite.

Feedly: www.feedly.com - At it’s core, Feedly is an old fashioned news aggregator. Select websites, blogs and Youtube channels that interest you and add them to your news feed. Instead of having to remember to visit your favorite websites and blogs each week, you can instead just visit Feedly and review everything you missed since the last time you checked in. What makes Feedly so useful though are the ways you can customize your feeds by category. Your feeds can be categorized into topics such as edtech, innovation in education, classroom management, or frosty beverages to make after a really long day at school. Feedly also has a cool feature called “Boards.”  Boards are digital spaces where you can pin material from your current feed or directly from the web using the “"Save to Feedly Board" chrome extension. These boards are great for when you are working on an initiative and you want to put all of your research material in one place. With the free account, you can create up to three boards. No more desperate searching for that article or blog that touched your soul but disappeared when you accidentally closed your browser! Feedly will keep it all in one place for you.

Diigo: www.diigo.com - Diigo, which stands for “Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other Stuff” is a tool that allows the user to store, organize and annotate content found on the web. By using the bookmarking and tagging system in Diigo, you can create an online library or collection of material that is useful and meaningful to your projects and personal learning. Whether the content is from a blog or webpage, you can simply use the Diigo chrome extension and save it to your Diigo library. When saving material, you have the option to add tags for easy organization and retrieval. You can even mark the item as “Read Later” which will then show it as new content when you login to your Diigo library. One of the best features of Diigo is the ability to annotate any content that you find online. Once material has been saved via the extension, Diigo provides tools for the user to highlight specific phrases or content and add personal sticky notes. If you want to do more than just collect URLs, then Diigo is an excellent option for your curation needs.

Google Keep: keep.google.com - Google Keep is a multi-use app that has recently seen some upgrades which could make it a valuable curation tool! Every G Suite user already has a Google Keep account, and you might have even used it in the past to make a to-do list or jot down some important information you didn’t want to forget. Keep’s sticky note feature is excellent because within each sticky note you can copy and paste links, add images and type in your own material. Individual notes can also be shared with collaborators in the same way that Docs, Sheets, and Slides can be shared. There is even a new feature where you can load your Google Keep notes as a side panel in Google Docs. This will allow you to drag and drop items from Google Keep right into the flow of your writing. (See this article by Eric Curts at Control Alt Achieve for more on this). But what makes Keep an excellent curation tool is your ability to save web content to Keep by using the “Save to Keep” extension. After you have found an article or blog that interests you, click on this extension and then “add a label” so that you can easily find it in on your Keep board later. As your PLN grows, you can add new labels to Google Keep at any time! And since Google Keep is always free, you will never need to worry about your curated content disappearing.

Whether you choose to use one of the three suggested tools or decide to travel down your own path, curating your PLN content is valuable and worthwhile! You just never know when you are going to want to revisit something you read, and falling down the black hole of Google trying to re-locate it can be a very frustrating experience! Happy curating!

Contributed by Melanie Zolnier @libary_techer

The Keyword: Google’s Very Own One Stop Resource for All Things Google

This Week’s Topic in Focus:

Each month our Digital Learning Team will feature a connection that we feel exemplifies and supports our mission and goals. Our hope is that you find so much value and worth in that resource that you decide to add that resources to your own Personal Learning Network. Check out this month’s featured item:

Image acquired from: GoAndroid

The Keyword: Google’s Blog

Finding out updates, releases and all other types of Google related news used to be quite a chore.  The outlets for this sort of information never seemed to be consistent and it was difficult to know what was Google generated and what was being produced by non-affiliated sources.  All of that changed last year when Google launched its new one stop blog: The Keyword.  

Any time Google has something cool it wants to tell the world, they post it to this blog!  

• Did you know that Google Earth has just received a massive facelift, and is now entirely web based (yes, you can now use Google Earth on Chromebooks!).

• Have you had an opportunity to explore the Google Arts and Culture site?  Google has created vignettes packed full of rich super high definition images, video, and map integrations accompanied with textual information and links that thread information together in a manner that fosters inquiry and exploration all on an aesthetic but simple web canvas.  Check out the Made in Italy Project as an example. To get an understanding of what I mean by super high definition images, check out The Starry Night by Van Gogh and zoom in.  Notice the violent brush strokes that make his work so distinct as well as the minor cracks that present themselves due to over a century’s worth of aging.

• Did you know that Google Maps, now automatically translates all reviews in your native tongue? If you travel abroad, you will now be able to search for restaurants and other attractions and read reviews from those in the area translated in the English language.

                Image acquired from: The Next Web

• Autodraw, a new tool that uses artificial intelligence to guess what you are trying to draw and then makes a suggestion of related drawings for you to choose from, has not officially launched!  Drawing on your phone or computer has been a slow and painful process, until now.  

All of these tidbits were gathered from the homepage of Google’s blog at the time I published this post.  Because it is a blog, every post is archived by date so that I can easily search and retrieve it for later use.  

You can also surf blog.google by product.  See what Google has to say about Google Docs or YouTube.  Products are not only limited to the icons shown above. Finally, you can surf by topic.  One of those topics is education. 

Regardless of how frequently you visit or what products or topics might interest you most, there will always be some new resource or artifact of inspiration waiting for you at The Keyword, Google’s Official one stop resource for all Google News.  

Would you like to integrate something you see on The Keyword but need some help?   See your DLS to kickstart a conversation - Cheryl, Kyle or Melanie.

Contributed by Kyle Mack @ProfKyleMack

Setup your Classes in Schoology Now for Next Year

Setup your Classes in Schoology Now for Next Year

This Week’s Topic in Focus: Transitioning Schoology Courses

I know that most of you are super excited to start thinking about next year already! You have hopes! You have dreams! You have BIG PLANS! And now, you can begin creating your Schoology course for the next school year RIGHT NOW! Oh, happy day!

Acquired Image From: atomiclearning.com

Creating Your New Course

The required fields for creating a new course are

• course name (remember to title this according to the FHSD Schoology Common Agreements),section name (automatically defaults to section 1 if you do not edit)
• subject area
• grade level
• grading period

In order to select the proper grading period you will need to scroll down to the bottom of the list and select from the following options:

High School / Middle School

• HS/MS 2017-18 SY -  If your course is year long select this box
• Quarter 1
• Quarter 2 - Select Q1 and Q2 for Semester 1 courses
• Quarter 3
• Quarter 4 -  Select Q3 and Q4 for Semester 2 courses

Elementary

• ELEM 2017-18 SY - If your course is year long select this box
• Trimester 1
• Trimester 2
• Trimester 3

Additional Grading Period Info:

• You might notice that some grading periods are gray while others are black. You can still build a course within a grayed out period, but students can only access those grading periods that are in black because they are within the current date range. Gray grading periods will become black once they catch up to the current calendar date.
• “Summer Lead In” - This is a new option for those teachers who want to work with their next school year’s students during the summer months. This feature has been requested by several AP teachers who would like to assign work prior to our September 5th start but it is not limited to just them.

If you want to use some or all of the material from your current course in next year’s course, remember these following steps:

1. Create new course with correct grading periods.
2. Copy materials from 16-17 course to your new course.
1. Move all material by copying to “Resources” and then adding to your new course from your resource page.
2. Copy individual items or folders directly from the 16-17 course to your newly created course .

In both scenarios only materials are copied over; not due dates, students or student submissions.

*If you need assistance please see your DLS or view our previous blog post titled: Saving Course Materials to Resources and Using Archived Courses.

3. Unpublish any materials that you do not yet want the students to have access to.

Would you like to explore features in Schoology in preparation for next year?   See your DLS to kickstart a conversation - Cheryl, Melanie or Kyle.

Contributed by Cheryl Kemper @CherylLKemper @ Kyle Mack @ProfKyleMack   Melanie Zolnier @libary_techer

Quiz Games in the Classroom

This Week’s Topic in Focus: Quiz games in the classroom

Each month our Digital Learning Team will feature a tool that is super cool while also super beneficial to your classroom. This week, we are featuring quiz programs that allow you and your students to create, play and share learning games.

There are many online quiz programs out there, but today let’s take a deep dive into Kahoot, Quizizz and Quizlet. As you will see in the table below, each program is unique with specific purposes for your classroom.

Kahoot	Quizizz	Quizlet/Quizlet Live
https://getkahoot.com/	https://quizizz.com/	https://quizlet.com/
Kahoot is multiple-choice game based system that is designed to be played by the entire class in a synchronous environment.	Quizizz is a multiple-choice game based system that can be played individually or in a classroom setting. When played asynchronously, a Quizizz can be assigned as homework or individual work.	Quizlet is a program that allows students and teachers to create study sets and then practice their sets through flashcards and mini-games. Quizlet Live lets the teacher take study sets and turn them into classroom games that require group participation.
Features multiple choice quiz style games ordering and sequencing games with Jumble create surveys for quick feedback or polls Use Kahoots to drive class discussions add videos, images or diagrams to each question create your own Kahoot or select from 13 million Kahoots created by fellow users	Features multiple choice quiz style games Quizizz can be played in class or assigned as homework games include fun avatars and memes quick access to student performance data in an easy to read table format add images to each question create your own Quizizz, use a Quizizz made by someone else, or find already created individual questions to add to your own Quizizz	Features flashcard creator that allows teachers and students to create study sets independent practice within Quizlet in a variety of ways including matching, spelling, and rapid fire recall study sets can then be opened in game format by using Quizlet Live collaborative /social learning within Quizlet Live randomized team creation allowing for flexible grouping use your own study sets or search for sets created by fellow users
Game Play designed to be played as a competition the faster the answer is given, the higher the point value top three finishers for each game can be highlighted in “podium” mode students play on their own devices: computer, laptop, phone or tablet (download the app) best played as teams within the classroom fosters social learning students do not need accounts to play but do need accounts to create	Game Play designed to be played as a competition, but those elements can be removed from game play relation of point values to speed can be eliminated from the game students play together but each at their own pace students can play on their own devices: computer, laptop, phone or tablet (download the app) students can play in teams fosters social learning students do not need accounts to play	Game Play quiz style game can only be played in Quizlet Live students must play in collaborative groups because correct answers are dispersed amongst all group members game requires 12 unique terms game requires a minimum of six students students are randomized into teams each student must have their own device: computer, laptop, tablet or phone teams race to match all terms with definitions incorrect answer resets the entire team score back to zero first team to match all 12 (or more) terms, wins
Tools save Kahoot results to Google Drive in a spreadsheet format individual results recorded by self selected screen names podium to highlight top three finishers	Tools include your own memes in quiz games to give it a personalized feel detailed reports for each quiz includes overall percentage and breakdown of individual questions removable leaderboards	Tools classes can be linked to existing Google Classrooms study sets can be shared directly to Google Classroom classes can be created within Quizlet so that all student names are preloaded for easy group creation
Quick Start Guide	Video Tutorials	Quizlet Basics

Pedagogy - The why behind online quizzing.

Now that you are familiar with the three different programs, let’s focus on why you should consider using them in your classroom. At the most basic, these game-based programs offer your students the opportunity to review for a quiz or a test. The content can be curated or created in a very short amount of time and the results are recorded for formative use.

Online quiz tools enter the pedagogical conversation as they can be leveraged to develop highly engaged classrooms.  If engaged learning is driven by learner success, curiosity, originality, and relationship (Strong, Silver and Robinson) we should design our trivia style quiz environments in a manner that builds into the learner. With these four principles in mind,

• Success - the need for mastery
• Curiosity- the need for understanding
• Originality - the need for self-expression
• Relationship - the need for involvement with others

the learner should recognize his/her successes and understand where to strive toward next (S), use the automatically collected digital data to provide formative feedback that will drive further inquiry (C), proffer learner identity and recognition via gamification principles (O), and do so within a learning community where everyone has some opportunity to interact with one another through collaboration (R).

As mentioned earlier, the four critical components of developing engaged learning are learner success, curiosity, originality, and relationship.  These four components were first recognized and expounded upon by Strong, Silver and Robinson back in the mid 1990’s. Their contributions provide us with the factors that drive engagement while Schlechty’s work provides us with what evidences of engagement we can easily observe within in our learners which are best summarized in three parts:  (1) <Learners> are attracted to their work, (2) <Learners> persist in their work despite challenges and obstacles, and (3) <Learners> take visible delight in accomplishing their work.  

Schlechty also designated 5 different levels of engagement in the classroom.  Once these levels are fully understood, educators can then begin to understand the type of learning environment they are cultivating based upon the percentages of each level of engagement each learner manifests from one lesson to the next.  As you will notice, in the infographic above, the highly engaged classroom does not consist of only engaged learners.  Instead the overwhelming majority of learners reside within the engagement and strategic compliance levels.  Likewise, the Pathological Classroom does not consist of only rebellious learners.  

It is also important to note that engagement is not the final destination for our learners nor should it be the pinnacle of our learning environments.  “Engaging students means getting kids excited about our content, interests and curricula.  Empowering students means giving kids the knowledge and skills to pursue their passions, interests and future” (The Innovator’s Mindset, p.96). Engagement is on the path to empowerment.  It is a critical and difficult step and requires attention and development, but it is by no means the ultimate goal.

Resources Used in Research for this Post:

The New E’s of Education

The Innovator’s Mindset

Strengthening Student Engagement: What Do Students Want

Successful Gamification Case Studies

Engaging Students: The Next Level of Working on the Work

Contributed by Kyle Mack @ProfKyleMack and Melanie Zolnier @libary_techer