Digital Organization

I am always baffled by how a student’s desk can become disorganized so quickly and their folders a complete mess. Then we became a 1:1 classroom and began using Google Drive more frequently which lessened the mess in their desks, but increased the mess in their Drive. So towards the beginning the pilot we had our students create folders within their Drives to help sort all of the Docs, Presentations and other stuff that they were saving. We even had them create folders within their folders to further organize their work. For example a student would have a folder labeled “writing” and in this folder there was a folder for writing projects, word work, and reflections. In their math folder I had my students create a folder for each unit. In science I had them create folders for the different topics we studied like plants and space.

We then showed them how to move Docs that were shared with them into their folders and delete them from their shared with me folders. We had a really good system of making sure that their Drive was organized and all files were in a folder.

Then we got Hapara. Oh boy. This really messed with our system. We had to have our students put all of their folders that we created into a Hapara folder. (For more information about Hapara Dashboard visit this site). This was done so that we would have access to all of our student’s work without them having to share anything with us. We could also organize and keep tabs on their files. Now that everything was in a folder within a folder within a folder, the students became very confused. Our students continue to move things into folders and stay organized, but to find documents they now use the search bar. With the search bar the students no longer have to click on folder after folder to locate their work. They type in part of the title in the search bar and they can find everything with ease.

Another thing that we had our students do to become digitally organized was create bookmark tabs in their bookmark bar. We went through all of the websites that we use often and had the students add these site to their bookmark bar. Seems like a simple idea and I use the bookmark bar myself, but I never would have thought of having my students use this until Christi mentioned it. It is such a time saver!
Anyways, all this to say there are lots of little things that you can have your students do to personalize and organize their chromebooks and drives to make things faster, easier, and less messy.

Guided Math

This year I have been hearing more and more about the concept of guided math.  Basically, it is similar to guided reading in that students are broken into smaller math groups and given direct instruction in those small groups. They then work on independent activities that reinforce the lesson taught, or review material taught previously.  After hearing teachers from a school in the district present how they are doing guided math, I knew this was something that would greatly improve the math lessons in my classroom.  

The Chromebooks have been an integral part of implementing this program.  We have used them for students to create digital logs of their learning by taking pictures of the fractions they created, for students to watch and respond to videos on topics we have taught, with IXL to review skills, and to create documents that extend their learning by applying it to real-life scenarios.  When starting the 1:1 pilot, math was an area I thought would be a stretch for using the Chromebooks in my classroom.  Boy, was I wrong!  The resources available on the Chromebook give us the ability to greatly differentiate the activities students are doing in the classroom.  What I have loved is seeing all of the different activities going on in the classroom during math, and the high level of engagement students have for the activities they are participating in, whether digital, hands-on, or something in between!

Olympic Projects

The Olympics are one of my favorite events, both summer and winter.  Beyond that, it is an event that unites us around the world, and provides a unique learning opportunity that only comes around every 4 years for us educators (unless the summer Olympics are late!).  To celebrate this event, our classes worked with a partner to complete an Olympic Presentation on one country competing in the Winter Olympics.

In the project, students created a presentation containing facts about their country, a graph of the athletes participating in different events, a medal count graph, and mini-biographies on an Olympian.

The BEST part of this project was the enthusiasm my students had for it.  Every day, the students were bursting to share what they had seen in the Olympic broadcasts from the night before.  Some couldn't even wait until school! The weekend after the Opening Ceremonies I started receiving Edmodo messages telling me all they had seen already! On top of our school subjects, they learned so much about sportsmanship along the way - we had such candid discussions of how different athletes reacted to their wins and loses, and how those athletes handled things well or could have handled things better.  Without thinking about the academics of it, our students were writing reports, creating and comparing picture graphs, and studying countries around the world!

To end our project, students presented to the class.  We discussed this presentation skill - that we really shouldn't read right from our pages, and came up with the facts that would be most important to share.  We made a list to display and each group shared just key facts, elaborating when classmates had questions.  We were sad when the Olympics ended!

Seed Vocabulary QR Board

As we were growing our plants during the life science unit, we were reading about how plants grow and there were several vocabulary words that the students needed to understand to be able to fully comprehend how seeds grow. So instead of giving them a list of the words and asking them to define each,  I decided to provide them with an opportunity to engage in an inquiry project using multimedia resources.

I provided them with different resources about plants and seeds and asked them to find a vocabulary word that they didn’t know and wanted to learn more about. Once they had their word they had to create a definition for the word and find a picture that represented the word to provide further meaning for their classmates. Then they got to create a short video explaining the word and using it in context so that their peers would truly understand what they word means. After they created their document with the definition and their video we created QR codes. Then the students collaboratively designed and created a bulletin board.  They chose the pictures they wanted , where they wanted them, colored and decorated the board, and placed the vocabulary words where they needed to be.

     

Once our board was complete the students got to participate in a scavenger hunt to find the meanings of the different words. They were able to watch each other’s videos and learn from each other. They also got to teach another 3rd grade class how to use the tablets to scan the QR codes and were able to teach them more about seeds through their videos and definitions.

     

After we completed this activity we spent some time reflecting on how it went. Since this was their first time using the tablets to create videos and scan QR codes they had great advice on how to make it a more successful experience for the next time we would use them.

Coding the Classroom

Christi and I are thrilled (and a little terrified) about presenting at our district’s teaching and learning conference. Initially we called our presentation, “The Student Becomes the Teacher: Using QR Codes to Expand Learning Opportunities,” but then we came up with a much better name, “Coding the Classroom.”

For our presentation we created a website that informs teachers of what QR codes are, how to use them, and ideas for the classroom. Our goal is to inform teachers of how they can create a digital learning environment through the implementation of QR codes. Please visit our website to learn more.

QR Code Bulletin Boards

Making your classroom bulletin boards more interactive is easy with QR codes. I recently changed up three of my bulletin boards and added QR codes that link to activities, forms, websites, and student work. These QR boards are also great for students who finish work early and need something to do that is meaningful and connected to the current curriculum.

   Our current reading strategy focuses on visualizing. I found a few passages that helped students practice this skill. I made a QR code out of them and posted them on the board. There was also a great website that had a visualizing game for students to play that I made a code for. Finally I made a Google Form for students to use to reflect on what they visualized while they were reading. On my students' centers checklist I added "visit the Reading Board" as an activity.

   On my Writing Board, I posted the current theme vocabulary words with a QR code that links to a kid friendly dictionary definition. I then chose 3 of my students' essays to make a QR code for and posted them as "spotlights." The kids loved having their work in the spotlight and the other students enjoyed being able to read their peers work. And let's be honest, it is so much cooler being able to scan a code to read an essay than having the actual essay on the board.

   For my Math Board, I created QR codes of Google Forms that I made for our number corner curriculum. This month we have two graphs that the students analyze that I put into a form and I also made a form for the calendar pattern. The students fill out what they notice about the pieces and what the pattern is throughout the month. At the end of the month we look at the spreadsheet with all of their responses and have a meaningful conversation about it. I also included a QR code that links to a website that has challenge math problems for 3rd graders.

   Another bulletin board I am working on is a Book Review Board where students will post QR codes that link to a voice recording of their book reviews. For more information on this project click here.

Inquiry Based Astronomy Unit

For our current science unit on Astronomy, I decided to restructure how I was going to teach by focusing on inquiry and now that we are a 1:1 classroom, we had all of the tools and resources available to be able to do this effectively. My goal was to provide my students with more opportunities to explore and create.

As a team we decided on 4 main topics to focus this unit on: phases of the moon, stars and constellations, seasons, and planets. I created mini lessons on these four topics focusing on the basics that I wanted my students to learn. After I taught each lesson I allowed time for my students to generate lists of questions that they wanted to explore more about within each topic. They then decided who to work with, what they were going to do to learn more about their question, and what they were going to create to demonstrate what they learned. 

After the group or individual created a digital project, we made a QR code for it and added it to a bulletin board. My intention of creating the bulletin board was to allow my students a place to display their digital work and provide them with the opportunity to teach other students more about space. The projects ranged from a simple paragraph about the moon phases to a movie about 3 students’ journey to the moon. I also had students create poems, new casts, voice recordings, comic strips, and presentations. For Deerfield families and teachers, here are links to some of the projects that were created (make sure you are logged into your dps109 Google account to view the projects.)

• Going to Neptune Presentation
• Sun Poem & Collage
• Moon Movie

I then created a Google Form for students to fill out as they viewed the other students’ projects. This provided accountability and a chance to reflect on what they learned from the other students. I shared the responses with my students so that they could view what other students were learning from them and the comments and suggestions they had about the project.

The overall consensus from my class about this unit was, “Inquiry makes learning so much more fun!” They really enjoyed being able to explore topics that they were interested in and having the opportunity to become teachers. I even had students working on their projects during indoor recess and at home during their “free time.” We love inquiry!

Book Review QR Codes

In our classrooms, we are always looking for new ways to encourage students to read.  Teachers will try just about anything!  When we found a blog post about using QR codes to record students giving book reviews, I knew this was something that would encourage my students to read more.  The benefits went far beyond that, though!  Students worked on writing and paragraph organization, adding interest through vocabulary choice, and practiced writing for an authentic audience.

Mrs. Christopoulos is a 2nd grade teacher at our school who is doing the iPad pilot.  I was discussing this project with her, and we thought this would be a great opportunity for our classrooms to partner up!  I love when younger and older students can work together, because the leadership skills in the older students really comes out, and the younger students are so much more engaged in what they are learning.  This was true in this case as well, as I watched my students work hard to create well-written book reviews, and the 2nd graders were able to learn about a new app on their iPads with one-on-one teaching from the 3rd graders.

For this project, my students each chose a book from Mrs. Christopoulos’ classroom library.  Most were able to find a book they had read before, so they were able to begin working on their book review right away.  We then discussed as a class what needed to go into a book review - title, author, main characters, main idea or problem, and the reason someone should read the book.  As a class, we created a graphic organizer, and students used this information to write a paragraph about their book.  Here is where our new technology comes in.

Students each created an audio recording of their book review using the Chromebook App Voice Recorder.  These were saved to their Drive accounts, and students created a QR code link to the file using the URL Shortener Extension for Chrome. They shared this link with me so that they could be printed.  The QR codes were taped directly onto the back of the books for easy access by students.  As this was the first time, we took about two 30 minute sessions, and a little time during independent work time to create these.  Students can now work independently or in pairs to create new codes during their independent work time.

We then took our books back to Mrs. Christopoulos’ classroom to share with the 2nd graders.  The students paired up, and the 3rd graders showed the 2nd graders how to scan the code and listen to the recording on their iPads.  After they had learned how to do it, the 3rd graders circulated with their books and let the 2nd graders listen to different reviews.  We of course encountered a few bumps in the road, but overall it was a very successful event. 

 

I am excited for students to continue to create book reviews for the books in my classroom.  Other teachers in the school have expressed interest in how they can do this in their own classroom, even our librarian!  What a neat way to encourage all students to read more, by hearing about books from their peers!

For more information on how to create book reviews in your own classroom, see our website on using QR codes in the classroom here.

Interested in hearing about this from the 2nd grade perspective? Read about it here.

Organization in a 1:1 Classroom

To say I am organized is an understatement.  In my classroom, everything has a place, is color-coded, and labeled.  Now, getting 22 students to go along with that organization is another story.  But I try.  The organization involved with bringing Chromebooks into the classroom, or any device, was a lot more involved than I thought!  So Larissa and I wanted to share what we are doing to keep the Chromebooks organized throughout the day.

As mentioned before, our students have luggage tags on their Chromebook cases.  The cases were provided by the district, and are all the same.  This identifies their case from other students, both in our class and throughout the school.  These can be made any way you would like! These have proven essential as students bring their cases in each morning and pack up each afternoon.

When the students arrive at school, they usually leave their backpacks on a line by the playground.  This wasn’t going to work with the Chromebooks!  Over winter break, we stumbled on a great deal at Ikea for plastic bins.  These are set outside each morning and students place their Chromebooks in them when they arrive at school.  2 students carry in each bin to the classroom when the bell rings.

As students come in each morning, students take their Chromebooks out of their cases and places them in a dish rack.  I have 2 in the room, one for each side of the classroom.  Students store their Chromebooks here when they are not being used.  The dish racks were really cheap - one came from a resale shop and the other was clearanced at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and both have 14 spaces.  

They are a great, safe place for the Chromebooks to sit when they are not in use, and an easy place for students to grab them when they are needed!  The idea came from Pinterest, although I’m not sure who originally posted it.  My students leave their cases in the bins throughout the day, which I store under a table, out of the way.

What are you doing to organize technology in your classroom?  We are also working on some digital organization, stay tuned!

Day One With 1:1

Our first day with the Chromebooks was full of excitement (and lots of questions!) When the students walked in and saw big bins full of red cases, their eyes lit up and they knew immediately what was inside.

Even though our students are very familiar with using the Chromebooks, they have never had one to call their own. So Christi and I planned a few activities to do with them and let them have some time to just play around.

First we took a few minutes to go over our “Chromebook Guidelines and Expectations.” We were surprised by how many questions the kids had. Of course they wanted to know if they could get their own cover or case (unfortunately our district is not allowing this for the pilot) and they wanted to know how they could use them at home. They were particularly interested in finding out how to add apps and games to their Chromebook and wondered if they could take it with them on vacation :) 
Once they opened their Chromebooks they logged in and took a picture to set as their login pic. Their smiles went from ear to ear. Then we took them through Chromebook Bootcamp. The bootcamp presentation was created by Sue Ferdon (a tech coach at South Park Elementary School). It teaches the students more about the Chromebooks and allows them to become more familiar with some of it’s special features. The students really liked the tips and tricks with the keyboard. We gave them some time to play with these tools. Then they had a chance to personalize their background and settings.

Our district provided the students with bright red Belkin cases that fit the Chromebooks like a sleeve. Since they are all the same we wanted the kids to have something personal that they could use to tell theirs apart from their classmates. So we spent some time letting them create a “luggage tag.” Christi’s class was given half of an index card and a sticker with their name on it. They were then allowed to cut pieces of scrapbook paper to decorate their tag any way they wanted to. Larissa’s class was given a piece of paper with their name on it and a border around their name. They then got to choose a piece of scrapbook paper to put their name on. We then laminated the tags and attached them to the zipper with a binder ring. Both classes’ tags turned out to be very cute!

Overall it was a successful launch to our pilot and the students and parents have had nothing but positive feedback.

Here is a review of the things you should know and do for your first day…

• make sure all of the Chromebooks are charged (Some of Christi’s died and had to be charged before they could even be used) 

• have a plan of where you are going to store them
• make luggage tags for the cases to tell them apart
• plan for longer than you anticipate to go through your introduction, rules, and “play time.” The kids will have more questions than you think.
• be prepared to answer questions and know what your expectations and guidelines are going to be.
• have some sort of communication with the parents prior to sending the Chromebooks home and be prepared to answer their questions as well. (Check our Parent Resource Tab for all of the documents, presentations, and resources we provided our parents. Also look for questions and answers that we received from our parent meeting in the FAQs tab.)

They Have Arrived!

The Chromebooks are here and we are ready to distribute them to the students tomorrow. We can't wait!!!

Creating and Personalizing our Blog

Larissa and I both love creativity, uniqueness, and color and were not excited about having to use the templates provided in Blogger to design our blog.  So we went searching for more colorful designs and being teachers, we didn’t want to spend any money.  So our search brought us to Shabby Blogs, a fun site with a large number of choices for designs.

After spending a little too long looking through the options, we settled on one and chose a header to coordinate.  The site has a great tutorial to help you add pictures and font to the header.  It was very easy to add the header to our blog once we had saved it to the desktop.

Now that the page was colorful and creative, we continued to edit and customize, lining things up, making fonts match, and finding ways to place each part exactly where we wanted it.  The web is filled with resources to tweak each part of the page.  Here are a few we used in our process:

How to Center Your Header

How to Center Your Page Tabs

How to Make Posts Wider

How to Get Rid of the White Space at the Top

Finally, we added our own personal signature to the bottom of each post.  Warning - this was more complicated than we anticipated! We used the tutorial here, but instead of using picmonkey to add our font, we added it right in paint.  After that we followed the steps for adding a little doodle, and applying the signature to all of our posts.  We love this personalized touch!

With the use of these tutorials, and some time just trying things out to see what would work, our page was ready!  While this took some time, we feel that making our blog personal will help us to continue being excited about sharing all of our trials with our 1:1 implementation!

So try it out!  In case the links above don’t work, visit our Resources page to find all of them.

Preparing to go 1:1

In October of 2013 our very generous district presented an opportunity for teachers to apply for a grant to receive a class set of Chromebooks. Both Christi and I felt compelled to apply for the grant in hopes of creating a more inspiring, innovative, engaging and student-centered learning experience through the implementation of 1:1 technology.

And so our journey began with researching every blog post, twitter post, and educational journal we could find that discussed the topic of 1:1 technology. Our minds began to spin as we discovered the never ending possibilities. Our motto became, “Let’s take it one step at a time…”

After spending a great deal of time looking into how we would use these Chromebooks, if we were provided with the opportunity to receive a class set, we began writing our grant proposals. This was an exciting and yet exhausting process. (If you would like to read our grant proposals here are the links: Larissa’s proposal & Christi’s proposal.)

Fast forward two weeks later...both of our proposals were accepted and we were each going to receive a set of Chromebooks in January! We were thrilled and decided that we didn’t want to wait until January to begin implementing some of the incredible tools and websites available for our classrooms.

So we started slowly, which is our biggest advice to anyone who is about to implement 1:1 technology or any type of technology for that matter. We began teaching our students how to become more savvy with Google docs, presentations, and forms. We then signed our classes up on Edmodo and taught our students about the world of social networking within the confines of a safe and educationally engaging environment. We also taught our students how to become more effective researchers as well as how to safely navigate through the internet. (Check out our blog at a later date to learn more specifics about some of our early implementation of technology.) Our students began to feel more comfortable using the Chromebooks and exploring their potential.

The more we implemented the use of technology the more our students were inspired to create new ideas and learning experiences for themselves. We quickly learned that our students have the ability to teach us just as much about using technology and the benefits as we could teach them. We would often hear our students saying, “Well I think you could do it this way,” or “Could we use [blank] to do that?” This only inspired us to further explore and implement.

Now that we are only days away from receiving our Chromebooks we are filled with anticipation, fear, and excitement for all that is to come. Our blog will be a place where we will take you with us on our journey of implementing 1:1 technology. We hope to inspire and encourage you through our successes and much anticipated failures.

Please feel free to comment on any of our posts about your own personal experiences or questions you may have about our journey. We look forward to sharing with and hearing from you!