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!

Sketchup at MassCUE

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the annual MassCUE conference at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA. This is a great conference to connect with other tech-minded educators from around the state and beyond. I was very fortunate to be able to attend both days of the conference with colleagues from my school district.


In past years, I’ve attended sessions that helped me learn ways to support my colleagues with technology integration or enhance professional development delivery. This year, I was especially interested in attending sessions on topics I could use with my elementary students. One session that immediately drew me in was “Sketchup Ketchup.” This session was adding an Augmented Reality (AR) element to the Sketchup program. I had explored AR this summer when I discovered the String App (AR Showcase) and Aurasma Lite. I was giddy with excitement about the possibility of connecting Sketchup and AR.

The presentation was given by Crissy Donoghue and Donna McDonnell, instructional technology specialists from the Billerica Public Schools. The two colleagues did a wonderful job presenting an overview of Sketchup and demonstrating how the drawing program can be utilized by all grade levels. Their Slideshare presentation was great and they very graciously allowed me to share it in this post. I really loved how they used Sketchup with second and third grade students! Ms. Donoghue and Ms. McDonnell included directions on how to make a basic house using Sketchup which will be very useful when introducing the program at any level.

I had used Sketchup with 4th and 5th grade students last year to create 3D houses and I’m now rethinking when to introduce the program. I think if I start earlier with basic drawing techniques tied to math concepts such as shapes, angles and measurement, it will allow for more advanced creations in the upper grades. I’ve posted a few of the student creations from last year on my screencasting channel on and plan on adding additional samples from this year’s students.

Crissy and Donna introduced AR Sights as the Augmented Reality component that ties into Google Earth and Sketchup. You actually have to install the AR media plugin for Sketchup which will then allow you to “hold” your own Sketchup model. The process requires you to print markers off of the AR Sights website and you need to have a webcam to showcase the hologram models. This could be a potential obstacle if your computers don’t have built in webcams. The presenters developed step by step instructions for everything you’ll need to get started. I haven’t tried utilizing this AR piece yet but I look forward to doing so and will be sure to write an updated post once I do.

I want to thank both Crissy Donoghue and Donna McDonnell for their great presentation that has energized me to try something new with Sketchup this year. I also must thank Maureen Devlin ( @looksforsun) for inspiring me to write my first real blog post! Thank you ladies!

It's All Good

I’ve been thinking about blogging for a long time. I actually created this blog back in 2009 during a tech course but didn’t take the time to write any posts. I’ve always focused on developing a website to use with my students but didn’t see the importance of linking a blog to it; until now. I have Twitter to thank for that. Let me explain. I’ve become hooked on Twitter over the past six months and have found amazing educators to follow. These inspiring folks blog regularly and I have learned so much from them. I’ve started to tweet more and have gained a few followers. It was when one of these amazing educators asked me, “Have you blogged about it?” referencing a tweet I posted. That’s when it hit me: I should blog about the things I’m doing to share my experiences with others. Maybe the things I’m doing aren’t earth shattering or new to some of you out there. But maybe blogging will help me learn and grow as a teacher and my posts may help others as they try to utilize technology in education. Thanks Maureen ( @looksforsun) for inspiring me to finally get started! I look forward to where this blogging experience will take me because I truly believe “it’s all good” when learning and sharing with technology.