Integrating technology in the classroom
Here it is, the February Issue of #ProjectPLN. A big THANK YOU to all who contributed and to @thenerdyteacher for letting me be a part of it! Take a look inside to contribute to our March issue.
What it is: Enter the Group is a fabulous online tool that makes it simple to work with, and organize, groups online. The tool has similar functionalities to Wiggio. Enter the Group includes shared calendars, site email, file sharing, instant chat and message boards, the ability to create private groups and classrooms, tasks and assignments, polls, blogging, Twitter, and question/answer forum, and best of all: it is totally free! Enter the Group has some really nice classroom features that other online group management sites like Wiggio don’t have. The built in blog feature is useful for the classroom setting, it provides students with a place to reflect that can be set as “private” so that it is a closed network for your classroom or school. This is especially helpful in schools where administration and the school community is hesitant to enter the world of blogging! Enter the Group Classrooms provides a virtual classroom space that can act as an extension of the physical classroom. Teachers and students can interact, keep track of due dates and special events, share files, post messages, and more. Students can take their learning with them anywhere and access the resources they need anytime. Enter the Group is easy to use and has really helpful tips and video guidance throughout the tool. No matter what your technology ability level is, Enter the Group has made it easy to get started.
My favorite thing about Enter the Group? They understand that the classroom is about learning, from the classroom page: “What do we do in classrooms? Simple answer is we learn. The longer answer is we; listen, ask questions, start debates, get group feedback, work on assignments, take tests and exams, present our work and perhaps many other things I haven’t thought of as well. Should all these things stop once the bell sounds and the students walk out the door? We all know the answer is no.” Enter the Group isn’t about the technology, but about the learning opportunities that it enables.
How to integrate Enter the Group into the classroom: Enter the Group is a way to extend learning beyond the walls of your classroom. Use it to extend conversations, debates, and offer support through online discussion; help students (and parents) keep track of assignments and classroom events, keep track of and share files so students who are absent are never left behind, to collect shared resources and information (a kind of “digital textbook” that you create for/with your students); to expand on class topics with video; and to create a collaborative learning environment. Students can use Enter the Group to plan and organize projects that they are working on in groups, providing a virtual meeting space outside of the classroom to collaborate. Enter the Group is perfect for students who are out with an illness or to continue learning opportunities when pandemic illness or bad weather keeps us from the physical classroom (anyone had SNOW problems this year? 🙂 ) Enter the Group provides a platform where students can continue learning and collaborating from any Internet-connected computer.
Do you have students collaborating with another class in another state? Another country? Enter the Group is a great place for students to work together, discuss, debate, and share. The ability to create a private network adds a layer of security and manageability to the online group.
Enter the Group also makes a great platform for working with colleagues and for professional development. Share important dates, files, and reflections within the group. Enter the Group is a nice way to gather and share resources from one centralized location making it easy to add to, and grow, year after year. No more, “remember that great lesson we used last year? What was that site/resource again?” (I cannot tell you how many times I have had THAT conversation!)
Tips: Enter the Group provides a few options for sign-up. Teachers, parents, and students can sign up with an email address (don’t forget to use tempinbox.com or mailinaitor.com for temporary inboxes for students who don’t have an email account), Twitter, or Facebook. It would be nice if Enter the Group had a feature like Wiggio where group members could join without registering-this is really helpful in elementary classrooms.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Enter the Group in your classroom
I often get asked how I managed to integrate technology into my classroom before I was a technology teacher teaching computer classes in a lab (with every child on a computer). I must preface this post with: I am not an expert. I taught second grade for one year and had two computers in my classroom and no computer lab for the school. I used what I had and found a system that worked for me. With that in mind here is how I made my 2 computer classroom work:
My goal as a teacher is to individualize instruction whenever possible. I am very aware that each of my students comes with different strengths and weaknesses, learns differently, at different rates, and with different interests. I remember looking at the curriculum I was provided with by the school and feeling a distinct disappointment in it. I knew as I read through the lessons each week that some of my students just weren’t going to get it. I knew that some of them would love the subject if it was approached in a different way. I knew that some would just need it at a different pace. With this in mind, a few weeks into my first year, I decided to structure my class around centers.
My problem: space was an issue. With 26 seven and eight year olds, supplies, and 26 desks, there was little room left for individual center areas. Since I couldn’t have my students physically moving around from center to center, I decided that I would create a system where the centers came to them. With 26 students and five days in a week, I split my students into five groups for each subject. These groups were created by grouping students by similar ability levels. Throughout the day the groupings would change (I used colors because it made sense to me). For example: one student might be in the blue group for language arts/reading, red group for math, and green group for science. I saw every single one of my students in their small group of 5 in what I would call my “conference” center for every subject, every week.
At the beginning of every week I would introduce the whole class to the concepts we would be learning over the course of the week. I introduced students to their “tubs” (colored plastic tubs that were full of necessary supplies for each center) and we discussed the “big ideas” of the week. I had 4 tubs (and my conference center) so that each day my student groups were working on a different task but by the end of the week all of my students had completed the learning for the week. My desks were grouped into 5 clumps in the room. Because the groupings changed, a group of desks didn’t necessarily equate to all of the group member sitting at the work space. For each subject we usually started class as a whole group, we would play a game as a class, watch a video clip, do an experiment, or learning something new together. After the initial introduction, I had a leader from each table pick up that table’s tub for the day. I met with the fifth group in my conference center where I could work with students in a 5 to 1 grouping. If you aren’t doing something like this, I HIGHLY recommend it. Meeting with my students in smaller groups several times throughout the week gave me huge insights into my students and made me a better teacher.
Tubs had a variety of activities and prompts in them. All activities were designed for self-guided learning and flexibility. I had a rule that unless someone was barfing or bleeding (the 2 b’s…if you’re in elementary you know what I am talking about) they were not allowed to disturb my conference group. This cut down on the distractions and let students know it was okay to make mistakes in their learning. One of my “tubs” always held instructions for a computer center. With two computers and 5 students, this meant I could find activities that were short enough for each student to successfully complete them in the time they had, or I could find activities that they could complete together. For skill building games and activities, students usually held a mini relay race. The first student would complete a level or set number of problems and pass play to the next student. This worked really well and kept students from getting too out of control because the wait time was minimal and they were “silent cheering” the other students on. (I had “Go Team” signs that they could hold up next to each computer so they could cheer without disturbing anyone else). For activities that needed to be completed by each individual student, I added a secondary game or activity to the tub that could be completed while students waited. For example, if it was a skill building game or activity, I had students who weren’t at the computer play a file folder game together while they waited for their turn within their small group.
For writing activities or activities where students were going to use the computer to create something, I made another tub activity that would prepare them for their computer time. For example, if they were going to create an animation on something like The Zimmer Twins, I would use another tub for them where they would prepare by writing a script and planning the storyboard. Because of the way the tubs rotate, it was easy to ensure that every student had done the prep activity before the computer center.
My other tubs had a variety of activities in them, each one of them was flexible in the way it worked. Students might perform an experiment and write/draw/discuss as a group, practice their spelling words in a way that made sense to them, play a math game, write, etc. For each subject I had a standard tub where the activity didn’t really change from week to week. For example, language arts had a spelling practice tub every single week. Math had a fact practice tub every week. In the standard tubs I included a Tic-Tac-Toe activity board where students could choose which activity they would complete to practice. This let students practice basic skills in a way that was fun and made sense to them.
At the end of every day, I would re-fill each tub with the necessary resources and supplies so that it was ready for the next day. On Friday afternoon I would fill all of the tubs up for the following week. At the beginning of the year the tubs were extremely time-consuming to keep up with. I got smart second semester and enlisted my students in helping me create the tubs for the following week on Friday afternoons. (duh!) By the end of the year it was part of our routine and didn’t require so much prep on my part.
Because I was working with second graders, I knew that not all of my students would be able to read directions for the tub or remember the directions from the beginning of the week. For detailed tubs, I included a tape recorder (iPod, what was that?) with recorded audio instructions for the tub. This helped tremendously when their were multiple steps involved. Students knew where they could help themselves to extra supplies like paper, crayons, books, scissors, dictionaries, etc.
On Friday I spent some time at the end of the day to meet with each group so they could show me their mini portfolio of learning for the week. This gave me a chance to do some formative assessment and plan any adjustments that were needed for the following week.
I didn’t have the luxury of a projector that first year of teaching. If I had a projector, it would have opened up the learning opportunities greatly! I am a big believer in playing to learn and technology lends itself so nicely to both. When I help teachers integrate technology into their lessons I often recommend creating a game where a game wasn’t meant to be played. For example, when we were studying paleontology and dinosaurs, my students and I went on a virtual dinosaur dig. I found a great virtual dig that we could do as a class. We pretended to get in our jeeps and travel to the dig site. Each student received a “special” paleontologist journal where they could record observations. Students took turns coming to the board during the dig and helping unearth the dinosaur. The other students sketched what they saw and took careful notes so the dinosaur could be reassembled later. This was a grand adventure for my students that made for a fun day (digging M&M’s out of cookies didn’t hurt either.) I look for opportunities to play with my students whenever possible. Even older students love this (anyone want to solve a forensic case as a class?). Play and learning are closely connected. I am always looking for ways to make learning fun and engaging whether we are limited to a class of 26 and one projector, or 26 students and 2 computers. You can do it!
Using the tub system meant that I got to spend a lot of time with my students. That conference time was so valuable. It let me meet all of my students exactly where they were at and provided the opportunity to work with them on a more individual basis. As I said before, if you don’t have something like this in place, I highly recommend it!
After I developed my Bloom’s re-imagines, I started including them in the tubs. As part of the tub work, students could talk about the learning they were doing and what categories it fell into in Bloom’s Taxonomy. Back then my Bloom’s wasn’t as fancy as it is today, it was hand drawn and copied 🙂 My how times have changed! I find that students learning is even richer when they are thinking about their learning. Bloom’s Taxonomy gives students a nice framework to do this in.
How about you all? What technology resources do you have available to you and how do you utilize them?
What it is: Phile is a fantastic new way for communities to “create a useful, lasting body of knowledge just by talking about the stuff you love.” Phile makes it easy for groups of people work together on building collections and discussions based on shared passions. Phile turns knowledge, opinions, and discussion into useful websites. Turn any passion into a community of collaborators by creating one place for them to gather. Phile lets you structure your site to gather the information that matters to your community of learners. Phile does an outstanding job of keeping your site organized as people add to it. Phile is truly as site all about conversation and sharing information. Phile automatically keeps all information organized and easy to find. A group creator creates and customizes the “stack” (site) design. Group members add and edit pages in the stack. Members can share resources, discuss in forums, on stack pages, etc. Recent activity is populated on the home page including new pages, reviews, comments, etc. Phile is currently a free service, the plan is to keep a portion of the service free with ad support and a paid service that has additional functionality. For now, Phile is in beta and completely free. Phile is fairly easy to navigate and has an intuitive interface. There are helpful hints and tips on ever page directing you in the use of Phile (great for those of us who are too busy to endlessly play!). I created a Phile for edreform, feel free to join me in collecting resources, article, videos, etc. relevant to the education reform discussion!
How to integrate Phile into the classroom: Phile is a great way for teachers to collaborate and share information. Phile could be used for starting a variety of groups that would help organize information in one, easy to access, place. Phile could be used to start a Children’s Literature group where members submit children’s books along with reviews, ratings and comments (any book-a-day people want to jump in and create that?).
Older students could join the group and add their own reviews, ratings, and comments on the books they are reading. This could become a place where teachers could quickly find literature that has been reviewed by other teachers, students, and parents.
Phile would make an excellent directory for ed conferences (and virtual conferences) held around the world. Because many of these conferences happen year after year, it would be a great place for new teachers to learn what is available to them and for veteran teachers to continue conversations and learn which conferences are rated as the most worthwhile and why.
Phile would be a great place for teachers world-wide to share, collaborate, and rate lesson plans, websites, videos, etc. in their area of specialty.
Phile is ideal for sharing iDevice apps for education, with the built in rating system and excellent organization it would make sharing and finding educational apps a breeze!
How about creating Phile’s for the discussions that happen in our education chats on Twitter every week? The Phile could contain information and links about the chat, important ideas and information that was shared during the chat, and give us a place to expand the conversation beyond the 140 characters when it was over. I’m imagining this for #edchat, it would be wonderful to have a place to send those who are new to #edchat to get a feel for the topics that we cover.
The possibilities with Phile are really endless, it is a fantastic platform that is like a mashup of a Ning and a wiki. The interface is really well designed, it makes information so easy to find and sort through.
As I said above, I created a Phile for edreform to be a collection of resources, articles, links, and discussion. Feel free to join and help me add to it. A Phile is only as good as its community!
Tips: Phile does require an email address for sign-up, it may not be appropriate for use with elementary students unless you are accessing it as a class.
Please leave a comment and share ideas for how you might use Phile in education. Anyone want to start a Children’s Literature Phile? I think it could be great! Let me know if you are interested and I will be happy to pass your name onto the developer of Phile.
Last Thursday I joined Dean Mantz and the wonderful ladies at Livebinders for an interview/webinar about creatively thinking, digital natives/immigrants, and education. I also talk about my start in education and introduction into technology. If you missed the live webinar, you can check out the video archive below.
Thank you all who came to support and encourage me!
The January Issue of Project PLN is here! This issue was all about your educational goals for the new year. We appreciate everyone sharing with us and meeting some new PLN faces. I often get the question, how do I join a PLN (Personal Learning Network)? It could not be easier, just interact with other educators on blogs through commenting, through conversation on Twitter, through connections on a Ning, or face to face. As soon as you do any of those things you are considered part of the PLN! I suspect that ALL of you are part of a PLN in some capacity, even if it is just talking education in the teacher’s lounge over lunch. Enjoy meeting some new educator friends in this issue of Project PLN and be inspired by their goals for education this year!
Nick and I hope that you will participate in the next Project PLN, below is the topic for February and ways to participate:
When we think of February, we think of love. Love is the main reason we do what we do each and every day in education. Educators have a passion for what to hear why you are passionate about education. Share with the world why you get up each morning and do what you do. February is Passion month and we want to know why you are passionate about education. Feel free to contact though email projectpln10@gmail.com or Twitter @projectPLN. We would love to have your thoughts ready to share by January 8th. Thanks again for your continued support of Project PLN.
Project PLN is a monthly magazine that @thenerdyteacher and I put out for free. We collect posts from educators around the world focused on a singular topic and mesh them all into one spectacular magazine. The goal is to help us all get to know our PLN (Personal Learning Network) better and spread the great things that are happening in education. We would love your help for the January issue. Take a look at the topic below and how you can submit your post for the January issue.
January’s Project PLN topic:
Every new year brings a new commitment to who we are. We set goals to accomplish to make ourselves better people. In education, it is no different. We want to know what your goals are for making education better for you, your students and everyone around you. Education reform is going to continue to be a hot topic, so let’s show the world what teachers are going to do help. Feel free to contact though email projectpln10@gmail.com or Twitter @projectPLN. We would love to have your thoughts ready to share by January 8th. Thanks again for your continued support of Project PLN. We hope you enjoy the holiday season!
The post doesn’t have to be a new one, if you wrote another post on exactly this topic, feel free to submit it to us! When you email us, please be sure to include your name as you would like it to appear, your Twitter handle (if you have one…you should!), and a URL to your blog, website, wiki, linked in profile, etc (if you have one). Thank you for your contributions!
What it is: Responsibly is a new way to gift your friends, released just in time for the holiday season. Purchase Responsibly wine for your friends and 100% of the purchase price gets donated to a Donor’s Choose project. Talk about killing two birds with one stone! It works with 3 easy steps:
1. Go to Facebook and choose which friends you want to gift.
2. Friends are encouraged to pay it forward by gifting their friends.
3. Funds are matched and donated to fund a Donor’s Choose project.
Cool huh? I love gifts that are further reaching than just the physical gift given. Not only will you be spreading cheer to your friends, you will be spreading cheer and learning to classrooms and students everywhere. That is a big deal.
From the about page (because I couldn’t have said it better myself!):
Responsibly is creating a platform for social philanthropy. We have created a mechanism that allows individuals to simultaneously share with friends and give back to society. We at Responsibly believe that doing good and feeling good do not have to be mutually exclusive. By connecting products in which 50% of the price tag funds corporate matched projects validated by Donors Choose, we can proudly say that 100% of whatever you spend at Responsibly.com will go towards helping our children get a step closer to the gaining access to the education they deserve. Coupling this with the social network that Facebook has created, hopefully, you can help inspire others to contribute to this cause.
One of the things that continues to astound me is the way that social networking is being used to change the world. I see this on a regular basis through Twitter, organizations like Donor’s Choose, TED and the movements that it spurs, and now Responsibly. Genius I tell you!
What are you waiting for? Head on over to Responsibly now and start gifting, spreading the word, and making the world a better place.
Side note: I am talking with Responsibly about how they might be involved in helping to make #TwitAcad (scroll down for all posts that mention this) a reality. Now we are talking!
Everyone could use FREE professional development. As an organizer of the Reform Symposium, I wanted to personally invite you all to our annual Reform Symposium Conference for New Teachers (but don’t be fooled, it is really for ALL teachers), which will take place on Saturday, January 8th, 2011. You can attend this worldwide conference from the comfort of your home or anywhere you have Internet access. We have some of the best educational speakers in the world involved. This conference provides you the opportunity to connect with educators and professionals in the field of education worldwide. Over 2400 educators from 59 countries attended our last conference in July. This year we will focus on interactive presentations that help teachers with creating engaging classrooms and lessons, building relationships with students, improving literacy, working with interactive whiteboards, and much more. This year we look forward to 2 keynote speakers, 18 presentations, and open discussion on classroom management, a panel discussion on parental engagement, a mentor program, and an open lab for hands-on support in helping you continue your professional development in online educator communities. You have never attended a conference quite like this one! Join us for one session or multiples.
The Reform Symposium virtual conference has opportunities for continuing education credits, connections with educators around the world, an amazing lineup of raffle prizes (including prizes to EVERY educator who registers for the conference), and fantastic keynotes and presenters.
Check out the Reform Symposium website here or download the brochure here.
Please pass the word about this free conference, print out the brochure and stick it in the teachers lounge, stick it in teacher’s school mailboxes, and pass this post on to the administration at your school.
We hope to see you all there!
Did you know that I am other places around these interwebs other than iLearn Technology? It’s true! Sometimes I have to remind myself that not all of my readers have been with me since 2007 hanging on my every word (I know, I’m shocked too) and may need a refresher from time to time on where else they can find me.
I used to be a computer teacher and technology integration specialist. These days I am still working in education as a consultant, offering PD, writing, and working on starting a school. When I was a computer teacher, I taught elementary and made this website for my students. It is separated by grade and subject and has my very favorite websites (at the time- I haven’t updated it recently) on it. These are what I used most often with my students and needed fast access to. I bet you will find some fun websites you can use with your students, or pass it along to your students knowing that everything they find there will be a safe place for them to be.
I write another education blog that is a collection of my dreams for what I want education to be. It is called Dreams of Education, not as many followers there but great conversations!
I freelance write for The Apple on occasion about a variety of topics, usually technology, always education.
I keep a blog where I record great stories of learning, it is called Stories of Learning (imagine that!)
I keep a blog all about iDevices (iPods, iPads, iPhone) apps and their uses in education it is called iPad Curriculum.
I have a Facebook fan page for iLearn Technology.
I write with other incredible bloggers on Cooperative Catalyst and Confident Teacher.
I am an Apple fanatic and have written two magazines about using Apple products in education. (I wish I had time to do some more of these!)
I am on Linked In here (I’m not very active there but check in on occasion when I remember to).
I am on Twitter here (I am good about checking in here).
I have created a few websites that I used with my students but will share with you including:
(I’m pretty sure I have more of these floating around but this is what comes to mind at the moment- I tend to make a website for EVERY project I have going at any given time :))
I do keep social bookmarks but use a platform that doesn’t seem to be free to use any more (except for me?) Simply Box.
When in doubt, search ktenkely it is the name I use everywhere on the interwebs.
A few tips and tricks for iLearn Technology- if you are searching for ANYTHING type in the keywords into my search box…9 out of 10 you will find something great! Don’t know exactly what you are looking for? Do a multiple category search (find it to the right of this post in the sidebar). Select items from as many of the drop downs as you would like and click “search” Every post or tool that matches that criteria will come up. I sort posts according to Blooms Taxonomy level, grade level, subject, and resource type. Go ahead and give it a try, I know you will find something you can use!
iLearn Technology has a store- in it I sell lesson plans, flipcharts (for use on the Promethean), and my Bloom’s Taxonomy images (Peacock, Umbrella, Tree, and Pin wheel). They are all $.99/ download. I use this money to keep my blogs and websites going. I add to my store occasionally so check back every once in a while for some new finds.
I am a Promethean certified trainer (although it has been 6 month since I have done a training!) I keep my Promethean resources here.
I hope in all of these resources you find something that is helpful for you!