The #HourofCode

December 9th-13th was Computer Science Education week and students at Nathaniel Morton participated in the week long #HourofCode event. The premise behind the event was to introduce computer programming or “coding” to as many students as possible noting that anybody can learn to code. From the Code.org website, "Computer science develops students’ computational and critical thinking skills and shows them how to create, not simply use, new technologies. This fundamental knowledge is needed to prepare students for the 21st century, regardless of their ultimate field of study or occupation."

Because this was my coaching week and not my teaching week, I set up a schedule to meet with all the classes during their independent lab time. I met with students and teachers in the computer lab and introduced a variety of programming applications. Students explored Blockly, Botlogic, Espresso Coding, Scratch and Kodable using both the desktop computers and iPads. 

Students worked independently and collaboratively to solve problems and challenges. It was interesting to observe the students work their way through the programs and also to see how they tackled the problems put before them. Students of all grade levels found the activities engaging and just plain fun. 



I created a coding page on my website where students are encouraged to continue their coding adventures on their own www.mrswinsper.com/coding.html Looking forward to exploring these resources with my students throughout the year!

Holiday Card Exchange

One of my absolute favorite projects happens every December: The Holiday Card Exchange. This is one of those special activities that I do with only the second grade classes. This annual project developed by Jen Wagner is a perfect way to get started with collaborative learning.

Each classroom was teamed up with 28 other classrooms around the world to exchange cards. An additional card was sent to Project Amigo for students in Mexico. Classrooms created original cards and mailed them out at the beginning of December. When the classrooms began to receive cards, students were very excited to learn about similarities and differences between themselves and their partner classes. 

In terms of facilitating the project, I sign the teachers/classes up and receive all of the emails related to the project. I get the envelopes, print address and return labels and write a letter to be sent to families requesting stamps. I put the bulletin boards together to display all of the awesome cards received as well as to map out locations. Jen Wagner truly does all of the hard work organizing the groups and we are fortunate to benefit from her expertise! 

This year’s theme was hats, mittens and scarves. All of the cards received were collected for a display which included a map with stickers showing the senders' locations. Cards were received from twenty-nine states and three Canadian Provinces! It is always such a memorable project!

 

Visit Projects by Jen to learn more about this and other online projects.

First Grade Animal Facts

I just finished working with Mrs. Morgan's first grade class to help students share their learning about bats, owls and spiders. I spent some time during literacy centers working with small groups to introduce the iPad minis and the Doodle Buddy app.

Each student then drew an animal and saved the picture to the camera roll. 

Next, I used the totally awesome AirDrop feature to send all of the pictures from the six iPads to one. I was then able to upload the photos to the Shadow Puppet app where students then recorded one fact they knew about their chosen animal.

We ran into a few glitches with the Shadow Puppet app that I wanted to share. We had created a "cover" for our fact book but because no one recorded anything on that "slide," it was deleted from the Shadow Puppet.

A second issue is obvious when viewing the movie below. You can hear all the students voices but something happened when I uploaded it to YouTube. It seems to get "stuck" on certain pictures. The voices are still there and recorded but it doesn't move to the next slide. When viewing the project within the Shadow Puppet app, there doesn't seem to be any problem at all. Here's the first published piece where you can see/hear the issue:



Here is the Puppet again simply embedded from the Shadow Puppet site with the HTML code.



Even with the issues, I would highly recommend Doodle Buddy, AirDrop and Shadow Puppet as a means of creating, sharing and publishing student work! I would probably do less pictures and recordings or separate a project out into pieces so it's not so long. Overall, it was a super easy project and I'm sure we'll be using these tools again soon!

Creating and Publishing in 4th Grade

Over the summer, my school was able to purchase six iPad Minis for general student use. I'm thrilled to have the devices in my school and couldn't wait to get them in the hands of the kids. Of course, I would love to have a class set of iPads but, after getting 5 Smartboards in the building, finances were low. I truly appreciate that we at least have six and I know we're heading in the right direction.

One of my responsibilities as elementary tech coach is to manage the minis, install apps and facilitate use throughout the building. Slowly things have fallen into place and the iPads are seeing more action outside of the computer lab. You might be asking, "What can you do with only six devices?" My answer is creating and publishing!

Input and Output Tables using Explain Everything

 

One of the fourth grade teachers, Miss Sullivan, is excited about the potential of using technology with her students but didn't really know where to begin. After chatting about what she was currently teaching in class, we agreed I would visit during Math Workshop. I brought up the six iPad minis plus my own personal one and ran a technology station for an hour. Groups cycled through on Day 1 where I introduced them to the Explain Everything app. The students spent our 20 minutes together exploring the app and trying out the features and tools. Nothing was saved from this first session but students were instructed I would return the next day to help with creating math screencasts. Miss Sullivan commented on how engaged all of the students were during the process and was looking forward to the next day!

On day two, I found the students were prepared to demonstrate their knowledge of input/output tables. They had planned their tables, made design choices and immediately began to use the Explain Everything app. Most chose to take a photo of the table template and then imported it into the app. We talked briefly about how to record and save and they were off and running! Some students finished within 5 minutes and others took 20-30 minutes to complete. Some needed help and support with the tools in the app while others were offering help to their friends.

After about 90 minutes, all students had cycled through the tech station and had successfully completed and saved their screencasts. I actually had set up a computer lab Google Drive account prior to using the app & saving the movies. This made things super easy to just upload the movie (not the project) directly to Drive. I was then able to share the folder of screencasts with the classroom teacher. Here's an example created by DJ that we just loved:


All of the screencasts were great for their first attempts at it! Surely they weren't perfect but as a group, the teacher, students and myself spent another hour down in the computer lab watching the videos and discussing "Screencasting Tips" for next time. Here's the list generated by the students:

Things we did great:

• Good explanations
• Really neat writing
• Right answers with humor
• Speaking loudly and clearly but not yelling
• Using regular voices

Things we need to improve:

• Background noise
• Spread out!
• Others should whisper if not recording
• Speak loudly and clearly
• Make sure we finish both the audio and video
• Be respectful of others-don't interrupt
• Practice
• Be neat 

The students were really thoughtful about the great and not-so-great screencasts. No one was overly  critical but they were more concerned about how to do a better job for a larger audience next time. How awesome is that? I'm really excited to have the time in my schedule to work within classrooms to help teachers and students use technology! Looking forward to a year of fun-filled learning with tech!

Mystery Skype Reflections

Over the course of the school year, my students and I participated in several Mystery Skype sessions with others from around the world. I wish I had gotten started earlier in the year and with more classes. That will be a goal for next year for sure. Also, my job change from tech teacher to tech coach put a damper on things because I actually had less access to the lab due to a substitute teacher filling in for me during my pilot program. That's a topic for another post though.

All of the students who were able to Skype thought it was cool seeing students from other classes on the board through the computer. One of the tricky parts of seeing my classes only twice a week was not having the flexibility to drop everything for a Skype session. I think this is where I may have to work at better scheduling during my teaching times or collaborate with classroom teachers during their "extra" lab sessions.

We used Google Earth, paper maps and a questioning form I created with Google Forms to help us narrow down the questions. Each class approached the mystery process differently with some students working with a partner or brainstorming in small groups. Students had options and took turns asking questions of the other classes. I actually had students record with a digital camera and video camera as well~all great records of the work we were doing. You can visit my Mystery Skype page here.

I think I may try to set up some general video chat sessions rather than limiting myself and my students to Mystery Skype or Location calls next year. I will surely explore other options and share any new ideas I try. I would highly recommend anyone who is interested in a mystery location call/chat to check out Cybraryman's Mystery Location page on the web before you get started. 

Technology Coaching

I feel very fortunate to be able to pilot a "technology coach" role through the end of the school year. By working alongside teachers, I hope to help guide the use of technology to empower teachers and engage students in their learning. I will align my efforts with the International Society for Technology in Education's (ISTE) National Educational Technology Standards for Coaches (NETS-C). Staff within both of my buildings are encouraged to complete my Technology Coaching Form to begin the collaboration process. I look forward to providing resources for my colleagues and on the Links for Teachers page to assist in this process. Please don't hesitate to contact me for help!

Mystery Skype-Take 1

I first learned about Mystery Skype back in April when I attended Edcamp Boston. Here's a great blog post from Mrs. Yollis' classroom explaining the process. I thought it would be a great thing to try with my students in the computer lab. Unfortunately, one thing got in the way of another and the 2011-2012 school year ended without an attempted Mystery Skype.

Now that the new school year is in full swing, I knew I wanted to start setting up some Skype sessions as soon as possible. Thinking that my district is "America's Home Town," I figured Thanksgiving season was a perfect time to get started. I sent out a tweet and got a response almost immediately! Then I got another and another! Now, I'm relatively new to participating on Twitter so I was truly giddy that other teachers were willing to give this Mystery Skype thing a shot with a newbie like me! Since I am a technology teacher and I work with students in grades K-5, I am flexible about working with whatever time-frame is best for my Skype partner; it's just that I can't guarantee an exact match to their grade level. I don't think this is such a big deal because students will be asking yes/no questions and I have tried to keep the sessions within one grade level.

Christy Rockwood was so gracious in offering up her experience at Mystery Skype calls but for several reasons (Hurrican Sandy/power outages/no network at my school) we just weren't able to connect prior to her field trip to Plimoth Plantation. I'm still optimistic we'll Skype another time!! At this point, it looks like my first Mystery Skype experience will be with Suzanne Yoder and her fourth grade students on Monday afternoon. On Tuesday afternoon, I've scheduled another Skype call with Heather Reilly and her fourth grade class. I have two different fifth grade classes scheduled for these calls but I know I'm going to want to plan many more during the year.

I'm planning on having students record the Mystery Skype sessions and I will be sure to write about the experiences once completed. The anticipation is so exciting!! I just can't wait!