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Friday, October 23, 2015

SAMR Series - Modification

SAMR Series
As we continue our 5 - Week series on the SAMR model for technology integration, we will finally get "above the line" into the transformation stage.



The past two weeks we have looked at the Substitution and Augmentation levels, which mostly enhance your classroom tasks, but do not essentially transform them.  The modification stage of the SAMR model is defined as the point in which the technology allows for significant  task redesign.  In the ongoing example of using a word processor to type a paper.  We started on the first level of SAMR saying that there was no difference in the task between writing and typing the paper.  Then we went up to Augmentation and started using the different features of the word processor (spelling and grammar check, word count, formatting, etc...).  As we take this same task above the line into Modification, we can add in Google Docs and the ability to collaborate world-wide on a document.  This task would not be possible without the use of the technology and with the collaboration piece the task looks different all together for the most part.  The writing still exists, but in a collaborative manner.

MRVED Business

Upcoming Meetings
October 27, 2015  Math
October 28, 2015   Superintendents' Council
October 29, 2015  Business

November 3, 2015  Title I Teachers
November 4, 2015  Phy Ed/Health
November 5, 2015  Social Workers

Mussel Field Day with CURE
The MRVED and CURE teamed up to provide a training for teachers on the importance of and how to identify fresh water Mussels.  CURE brought in Bernard Sietman, who is one of the leading malacologists in the United States.  Bernard is so knowledgeable about river mussels and river environments, it was AMAZING!  The weather was also AMAZING!  Check out the slide show of pictures to see how our day went.  Thanks to Peg at CURE for the opportunity and pictures!


MELT Call for Presentation Proposals

MELT Call for Presentation Proposals
It is that time of the year again!  Time to start looking for teachers to present at the MELT (MRVED Educators Learning Together) Conference in January.  The past few years we have had some great presentations by our local teachers.  Hopefully this year can be better yet.  Last year, there were over 90 sessions to choose from throughout the day with about 1/4 of them being led by local teachers.  My goal is to get to 50% led by local educators.  This is a great opportunity to share some of the awesome and unique things going on in your classroom.  If you would like to present, please fill out the form (linked below).  If you know of someone that would do an awesome job, encourage them to present.
Payment:
  • $100 - Present one, 1-hour session
  • $150 - Present the same 1-hour session twice
  • $150 - Present one, 2-hour session
  • $200 - Present two different 1-hour sessions
Please Note:
  • If you want to present as a team, only one proposal needs to be made.  The person that makes the proposal will be the contact person for that group.
  • Submitting a proposal does not commit you to presenting.  You are only providing the MRVED with information that you are interested in presenting.
  • Brandon will contact you by the end of October if your session was selected.
  • You may fill out more than one proposal.
Possible Session Ideas:
  • Cross-Curricular Projects
  • School Readiness
  • SMART Training
  • CPI
  • Teaching Vocabulary
  • 6+1 Traits of Writing
  • Writing in the Elementary
  • Daily 5
  • Daily 3
  • STEM/STEAM
  • Coding
  • Technology: SMARTBoard, Tablets, Content Area, Grade Level, Apps

MELT Call for Presentation Proposal Form

PBS Get Your Tech On


Let PBS help you Get Your Tech On this school year with a power-packed mix of free tools, support, and professional development to help you navigate the digital age of learning!

Visit the Get Your Tech On collection to access tech-themed lesson plans, games, and videos, sign up for PD webinars, and enter the sweepstakes for a chance to win prizes for you and your classroom. HINT: The more resources you explore, the more chances you have to win...
  • A trip to Austin, Texas to attend the TCEA Conference
  • One-on-one and group trainings with PBS edtech experts
  • A fully "teched-out" classroom with Google Chromebooks for each student and a document camera

Tech Tip - Quiziz

Quiziz
If you are familiar with Kahoot and loved Kahoot, you will LOVE Quiziz!  Quiziz follows the same premise as Kahoot, but in a slightly different way.  With Kahoot the questions are completed one at a time, meaning the questions do not move on until all answers have been collected, or the timer runs out.  With Quiziz, the students can go through the questions at their own pace (with a timer).  The cool thing is the teacher can still see real-time data, so it can be used as a formative assessment tool.  The other stark difference between Kahoot and Quiziz is that with Quiziz the questions appear on the student screens.  Whereas in Kahoot, the question appears on the screen in front, and the student devices are essentially clickers.  Quiziz is awesome if your students are getting tired of Kahoot.  Give it a try today!


Tuesday, October 13, 2015

MELT Call for Presentations

MELT Call for Presentation Proposals
It is that time of the year again!  Time to start looking for teachers to present at the MELT (MRVED Educators Learning Together) Conference in January.  The past few years we have had some great presentations by our local teachers.  Hopefully this year can be better yet.  Last year, there were over 90 sessions to choose from throughout the day with about 1/4 of them being led by local teachers.  My goal is to get to 50% led by local educators.  This is a great opportunity to share some of the awesome and unique things going on in your classroom.  If you would like to present, please fill out the form (linked below).  If you know of someone that would do an awesome job, encourage them to present.
Payment:
  • $100 - Present one, 1-hour session
  • $150 - Present the same 1-hour session twice
  • $150 - Present one, 2-hour session
  • $200 - Present two different 1-hour sessions
Please Note:
  • If you want to present as a team, only one proposal needs to be made.  The person that makes the proposal will be the contact person for that group.
  • Submitting a proposal does not commit you to presenting.  You are only providing the MRVED with information that you are interested in presenting.
  • Brandon will contact you by the end of October if your session was selected.
  • You may fill out more than one proposal.
Possible Session Ideas:
  • Cross-Curricular Projects
  • School Readiness
  • SMART Training
  • CPI
  • Teaching Vocabulary
  • 6+1 Traits of Writing
  • Writing in the Elementary
  • Daily 5
  • Daily 3
  • STEM/STEAM
  • Coding
  • Technology: SMARTBoard, Tablets, Content Area, Grade Level, Apps

MELT Call for Presentation Proposal Form

Friday, October 9, 2015

MRVED Business

Music Teachers Meet
The Music teachers gathered at the MRVED on Wednesday, October 7 for their annual best practice meeting.  As usual the day was filled with great discussion and awesome ideas were shared all around.  The morning was centered around grading practices and a "standards audit".  The afternoon consisted of lots of sharing and planning for MELT.  Overall, it was a great day with a great bunch of educators!

MELT Call for Presentation Proposals
It is that time of the year again!  Time to start looking for teachers to present at the MELT (MRVED Educators Learning Together) Conference in January.  The past few years we have had some great presentations by our local teachers.  Hopefully this year can be better yet.  Last year, there were over 90 sessions to choose from throughout the day with about 1/4 of them being led by local teachers.  My goal is to get to 50% led by local educators.  This is a great opportunity to share some of the awesome and unique things going on in your classroom.  If you would like to present, please fill out the form (linked below).  If you know of someone that would do an awesome job, encourage them to present.
Payment:
  • $100 - Present one, 1-hour session
  • $150 - Present the same 1-hour session twice
  • $150 - Present one, 2-hour session
  • $200 - Present two different 1-hour sessions
Please Note:
  • If you want to present as a team, only one proposal needs to be made.  The person that makes the proposal will be the contact person for that group.
  • Submitting a proposal does not commit you to presenting.  You are only providing the MRVED with information that you are interested in presenting.
  • Brandon will contact you by the end of October if your session was selected.
  • You may fill out more than one proposal.
Possible Session Ideas:
  • Cross-Curricular Projects
  • School Readiness
  • SMART Training
  • CPI
  • Teaching Vocabulary
  • 6+1 Traits of Writing
  • Writing in the Elementary
  • Daily 5
  • Daily 3
  • STEM/STEAM
  • Coding
  • Technology: SMARTBoard, Tablets, Content Area, Grade Level, Apps

MELT Call for Presentation Proposal Form

Upcoming Meetings
October 14, 2015  MRVED Common Date
October 22, 2015  Art Best Practices
October 23, 2015  Principals' Council
October 27, 2015  Math Best Practices
October 28, 2015  Superintendents' Council
October 29, 2015  Business Best Practices


Please note:  There will be no update next week due to MEA break.  Have a great break!

Parent/Teacher Conference Tips

Parent/Teacher Conference Tip
As a new teacher, I remember thinking to myself, "what do parent/teacher conferences even look like?"  "How do I conduct a conference?"  As a new teacher, I had never been to a parent/teacher conference in my life, either as a student, teacher, or parent.  I had no clue what to expect.  Edutopia has developed a great guide to walk you through a parent/teacher conference and offers some great advice for those who have participated in a "few" conferences.  As we approach the parent/teacher conference season, I suggest giving it a look today!

Edutopia Parent/Teacher Conference Article

Edutopia Student Led Conferences

Tech Tip - Google Expeditions Pioneer Program

Google Expeditions Pioneer Program

What is the program?
Expeditions teams will visit selected schools around the world, starting with the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Brazil. Each team will bring a complete Expeditions kit with everything the teachers need to take their students on journeys anywhere. The team will show teachers how Expeditions works and help set it up before class.

There is no charge or cost involved in the program.

What are expeditions?
Expeditions is a virtual reality platform built for the classroom. We worked with teachers and content partners from around the world to create more than 100 engaging journeys - making it easy to immerse students in entirely new experiences.

What you need
A minimum of 6 interested teachers. In order to take as many students as possible on an Expedition, we'll visit schools showing the most interest first.

A committed point person to help schedule the school visit and coordinate the day of the experience.

You can sign up by filling out the Google Expeditions Pioneer Program form.


SAMR Series - Augmentation

Augmentation
We will continue our 5 week series on Dr. Ruben Puentedura's  SAMR model with examining the Augmentation level of technology 

Last week we talked about the substitution level of the SAMR model being the level of tech integration where the technology acts as direct substitute of what is already being done in the classroom.  With the example being given that if we have students hand-writing papers in the classroom, using a word processor instead would act as substitution because the task of writing the paper has not changed.

As we focus on the Augmentation level, the technology still acts as a direct substitute but there is a functional change in the task.  Let's take the word processing example a little further.  The task is to write a paper, we use the word processor to type the paper.  If we start to use the feature of the word processor, such as spell-check and grammar check, we start to see functional improvement.  We could also use the word processor to change the formatting or add in different fonts that we wouldn't easily be able to do if we were writing by hand.  So as you can see, the task of writing the paper stayed the same, but there is some functional improvement to using the word processor.

For most, using the functions of a word processor are a given when typing the paper, but the examples serves as a good illustration as to how the SAMR ladder works.  Often times, we forget to tell our students why we are using the technology and how the technology will make the task easier or better.  It is vital that we point out to our students the "why".  Because if we don't, then some students may struggle to see a reasoning behind what we are doing.  These are the ones that will typically say, "can I just do this with paper and pencil, because it's easier".  These students have not been told or shown why the word processor makes the task better.

Next week we will look "above the line" and get into transformational practices of technology integration.


Friday, October 2, 2015

MRVED Business

Upcoming Meetings

October 7, 2015  Music Best Practices
October 9, 2015  CURE Event (all day) Mussels in the River
October 14, 2015  MRVED Common Day
October 22, 2015  Art Best Practices (Mini Meander)
October 23, 2015  Principals' Council (11:30 a.m. Start Time)
October 27, 2015  Math Best Practices
October 28, 2015  Superintendents' Council
October 29, 2015  Business Best Practices


SAMR Series - Substitution

SAMR
As mentioned last week, we are starting a 5 week series on the SAMR model.  Last week we looked at the overview of the SAMR model.  Over the next 4 weeks we will examine each level, starting this week with Substitution



One thing to keep note of is that being at the substitution and augmentation levels is not a bad thing.  We are still using technology to enhance our practice.  Dr. Ruben Puentedura has clearly stated that this ladder is not used to judge or make people feel like what their doing is not enough.  We are all trying to get better and the SAMR model allows us to see how we are using the technology in the classroom to enhance and eventually transform our practice.

Substitution
The substitution level of the SAMR model is exactly what it says.  When using technology in the classroom it acts as a direct tool substitute with no functional change.  An example of this would be having your students type a paper versus writing a paper.  The task is still the same with no functional improvement.  You may say the word processor has spell check, yes it does, but this will be addressed in the next level of the SAMR model.

Another example is reading a book on the iPad vs reading the actual book.  The task of reading is the same with no functional change to that task by adding in the iPad.

Many teachers are at this level when bringing technology into the classroom.  They find a tool that can replace what they are currently doing in the classroom and use it.  Therefore, there is no functional change in their practice due to the technology, they are simply substituting the technology to continue doing what they have always done.  Again, it's not a bad thing to be at this level, it is merely the bottom rung on the SAMR ladder.  We can always strive to climb the ladder and find new and exciting ways to bring technology into our classroom.

Tech Tip - GoNoodle

GoNoodle
If you are looking for a way to incorporate movement into your classroom, check out GoNoodle.  My 2nd grade daughter loves GoNoodle.  It has a variety of short, fun video clips to use in the classroom that will get your kids moving.  They have categories of clips from stretching, to kinesthetic movement, to calming techniques.  These can be used as a quick warm up or cool down after an activity.  Little kids love them and I would guess older kids might get a kick out of them from time to time.  Check it out today!

50 Tips, Tricks, and Ideas for Every Grade (PreK-7)

50 Tips
We Are Teachers is a website I follow on a regular basis.  This post caught my eye.  50 Tips, Tricks, and Ideas for Every Grade Level is an awesome list of exactly what the title says!  Some of the tips, tricks, and ideas are probably already things you do in your classroom, but others might be that "go to" idea for your classroom this year.  Glance through the lists for your grade level today, you won't be sorry you did!



The Works Museums E4 Conference

E4 Conference
When: Tuesday, November 3, 2015, 8 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Where: University of Minnesota Continuing Education and Conference Center, 1890 Buford Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108.

What: Join hundreds of educators for our annual conference on the why, what, and how of elementary engineering education:
  • Gain practical knowledge and share ideas with colleagues
  • Get ideas for your classroom
  • Workshops presented by K-6 classroom teachers and informal educators
  • Over 20 workshops to choose from
  • Earn 5 CEUs

Cost: Conference Fee: $125

Fee includes CEUs, lunch, and parking!