Ed Tech Blog
On the pages under the drop-down menu on this page you will find archives for blogs written by Bob Frye and by Holyoke High School teachers Mike Cotto and Heather Fuller.
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Dear superstar teachers, I now have morning Office Hours:. office hours from 7:30 to 9:00 AM M-Th. I will, of course, be available at other times by pre-arrangement and always by email. The question of summative/ formative assessments and evidence of learning has come up several times in the past few weeks. As midterm exams and report cards approach for teachers, and we continue to strive to give actionable feedback to students and parents, educational technology can greatly simplify this time consuming task. Tasks low of the Depth of Knowledge (DoK) scale can now almost entirely be graded by technology, leaving more time for teachers to give feedback on higher Dok skills primarily through Google Docs. For quick informal formative assessments try : For documenting and feedback on student progress try: For formal and larger summative assessments try: Featured Tech of the week: Edulastic is an assessment database to find, create, and assign state standard-based formative and summative assessments. It has a library of already created and editable assessments and the ability to build a variety of different style assessments, multiple-choice, fill in the blank, matching, graphing, ordering, and writing. Many of the assessments are self-correcting, provide great data collection tools for reteaching, and supporting future planning. Edulastic easily integrates with Google Classroom. Please see the handout to walk through setting up an account and getting started. Of course, I am available to walk anyone through how to use this tool during office hours or another convenient time. Digital Resource of the Week: Facing the Future is a set of lesson plans on Global Issues and sustainability. They “provide educators with the educational materials and resources they need to ignite their students’ interest in complex global issues while helping them achieve academically.”
Have a great week!
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Dear nurturing educators, During district PD I had planned to offer a PD on “Gamification”. Because of changes in district plans, I wasn’t able to offer it. In this week's newsletter: an overview of this concept and some ideas on how to start in your classroom. Gamification is a twenty year old educational buzzword related to student engagement. One definition is: the use of activities and external rewards to encourage motivation in non-game contexts. It is designed to to increase a person’s experience or engagement with a course, goal or system. In our context of remote and hybrid learning, engagement is an ongoing challenge that gamification can help. This is an introduction to ideas and tools. I would be happy to meet with teachers to customize materials or brainstorm specific activities and content for your class. Here is a longer Blog post on the subject from Matt Miller and Ditch that text. Make sure you check out the interactive syllabus! Many of these first resources have been shared in earlier Newsletters and most involve some cost to access all the features. Level 1 - Primarily content mastery based. Adding game-based instruction elements to lessons. Utilizing platforms like Quizlet, Quizizz, Gimkit, Kahoot, or the others below to bring competitive knowledge games into your lessons. These four platforms offer easy to use activities for individual and small group practice of vocabulary and concepts and modes that create competitive whole class games. These are great for Do Now reviews of earlier material or Formative checks for understanding at the end of lesson. Also, a great way to review before tests. You can award homework passes, prizes, or bonus points for winning teams and individuals to increase engagement. Flippity is my go-to for templates for game boards, dice, spinners, and quick simple games all built on a Google sheets platform. Uno for proofs in Geometry class. Includes a virtual Deck of Uno Cards. Shut the Box is a numbers sense game built by Alice Keeler on a Google Slides platform. Make a copy and watch the video for rules to play. Factile lets you play a premade or custom Jeopardy-style game. Level 2: Primarily critical thinking and problem solving based. Role playing games, Scavenger Hunts and Breakout rooms are designed for individuals or small groups to follow a series of clues or puzzles to solve a problem. Along the way, students gain content knowledge. Scavenger hunt using QR codes placed around the classroom, campus, or even city. Students scan the code to complete a task or solve a problem and access the next clue to the next code. You can link to curated collections in Sway or Wakelet to keep students on task. Great activity in a PE class. Why limit your scavenger hunt to your immediate area? Use Google Earth to make your scavenger hunt into a global field trip. Here’s a complete lesson Art History: Italy Save the planet by solving Calculus problems also several Art History simulations LMS that combines role playing and completing quests (lessons) Classcraft Breakout rooms Very similar to scavenger hunts. Students have to solve a series of puzzles to “escape” or win the challenge. Here is a Pinterest collection of a ton of free, premade escape rooms for all ages. Tech Resource of the Week: MoneySkill. A free curriculum for either Middle School or High School college on managing money. You can use whole or in part to teach the basics of income, expenses, budgeting, saving, investing, credit and insurance. MoneySkills can be added to math or Social Studies classes to bring “real-world” applications to your subject. Link to original
Happy New Year, intrepid educators! Welcome back after what I am sure felt like too short of a break! I am sure no one is shedding a tear to put 2020 in the rearview mirror. The new year (and what looks like new patterns in our school day) is a great time to establish or reestablish class routines and limits. Aside from assessing, reinforcing, and upping our digital skills (see info here), we can reset (or maybe, in this case, reinvent) our class procedures. Students often come back reinvigorated with high hopes for a better new year. Setting them up for success with the trio of routines, limits, and anchor points can sometimes extend those New Year's resolutions. While I know everyone has this foundation, it’s great to remind ourselves of what we can do to promote success. Routines are what happens in what order in every class. This is especially important for our students and our times; the more uncertainty and unpredictability outside school, the more they need it in school, virtually or in-person. They are looking to you for that stability. Remember, it takes six to eight weeks of consistency to set a routine. Limits can be class expectations, norms, non-negotiables. They are the things that set behavior expectations, something that can never be ignored and always addressed. And Anchor Points are daily check-ins or grounding at the beginning of every class, preferably done individually, to get a read on where individual students are at and what they might need that day. These are the foundation of relationship building. I urge you to think about how these three legs of the stool can give you balance in the year moving forward. Nearpod The District has purchased a district-wide Nearpod subscription for all teachers! Log in with your HPS Google account, and your existing account will be upgraded without the loss of content, settings, or other work.
Tech Tool of the week: Flocabulary Flocabulary is owned by Nearpod and can now be integrated into a Nearpod lesson from their Create Board or, as always, a stand-alone lesson. Flocabulary uses a rap video (with supporting lesson components) to deliver content to students. Check out this “Year in Rap” video here (also a younger student version available). After watching the video, look to the sidebar on the left for activities: Flashcards, Vocab game, quiz, and “lyric lab,” where students are challenged to write rhymes about the week's news. To create a class on Flocabulary by importing your students from Google classroom, create an assignment, and share the code. Link to original
Hello weary educators! I apologize for the share settings on the interactive notebook last week. The share settings are fixed and you can access those slides through the newsletter here. This week I will keep it short: I will be offering two Nearpod PD’s on Jan 4th; beginner and intermediate, as well as a Google classroom and gamify your curriculum on Jan 5. If a large group or fast-paced PD doesn’t work for you, or you just want support in fine tuning specific issues, please shoot me an email to set up a one on one meeting. Tech tool of the week: Classroomscreen is a virtual background that displays a variety of common teacher tools as widgets that are easily added, modified, switched between and deleted as you run your class. It also has simple classroom management tools that help students stay on task. Three features that seem most useful: A repeating timer to use for a jigsaw activity; A really simple whiteboard that you can layer (Open a blank whiteboard on top of a graph paper whiteboard); and a random name picker. It also features attractive customizable backgrounds both still and animated photos (or add your own) . Need more info or practice with any of these resources? Join me! I will be returning to office hours on Tuesday 12/15. Office hours Tu-Th 1:30-3:00 and anytime by email. I can also come to your school for an in-person session. [email protected] Join Zoom Meeting Hope you all have a wonderful well-deserved break! Hang in there! Link to original
Hello distinguished scholars, It looks like the typical “reset” after the Holiday break will, like most things this past year, be anything but typical. Barring new surges, it is likely we will gradually move back to the classroom. However, the digital skills that we, along with our students, gained over the last year will continue to serve us well in whatever setting we’re in. The new year is a good time to review and reinforce skills as well as reexamine our Google classroom and digital structures, practices, and routines. That being said, this week I share some resources for your digital work with your students. There is also a resource to share directly with your families to reference. Tech tool of the week: Digital notebook for Google tools. Digital notebooks, made in Google slides, are a great method to work with students remotely. They are a reference tool that review (or present new) information and ask students to complete a few tasks that become a reference sheet to prepare for tests, or in this case, provide a reminder of best practices in Google basics. Make sure you read through each section and understand what you need to share with students in addition to the notebook. (for example, you need to send all your students the email that they are asked to respond to in the “using email” section. Here is a lesson plan resource for a “Unit zero” of “ready to learn” digital skills. Tech Resource of the week: Digital Skills reference spreadsheet. This resource is for both students and parents and is great to share with families to consult when they are first learning or run into roadblocks with common digital tools. At the top, there is also a link to a teacher version with more details on how to use these tools effectively in your classroom. Student facing tech of the week: Gimkit was a personal favorite for my students last year. I used it regularly as a warm-up, review, and exit ticket to lessons. It was developed by a High School student and is great for memorizing facts, concepts, and skills because it is based on time (you can set), as opposed to Quizizz or Kahoot, that takes you through a set of questions once, and repeats questions until the time is up. It combines answering content questions with the strategies for accumulating a cash balance. Once students answer a few questions correctly they can “buy” things such as insurance against wrong answers, more value per correct answers, streak rewards, and freezing competitors. As always it takes a few plays to uncover all the “jellybeans” hidden in the game, but that adds to the fun and competition for students. Lots of premade “kits” you can copy and modify. Here’s the bad news: Gimkit changed its pricing model this year. Thirty-day free trial then they only allow a small number of players per game in their free version. The good news? One of the most reasonably priced subscriptions available; $4.99/mo… well worth the small investment. Ask your tech lead or Principal for funding. As always, I am available to walk you through using any of these resources in your class. Link to original
Happy Holiday Season, Like most of 2020, I suspect this will be a season of firsts and new traditions as well. I hope no matter what, you can ease into a nice extended break! Not sure what to get that educator on your gift list? This is an inexpensive, short and handy reference guide: “Google from A to Z” They’ll thank you all year! Tech tool of the week: Flipgrid is a video response tool allowing students to engage in discussion or presentation virtually. Flipgrid is one of two “outside” platforms integrated into Nearpod (the other is Flocabulary). Flipgrip will also now be installed by the district on K-2 iPads. Students like Flipgrid because it allows them to re-record until they are satisfied. It also has a variety of fun filters and ease of use that mimics the feel of a Snapchat. Teachers create accounts and then establish “groups” (could be class, subject or activity based) and then assign “topics”, or prompts for discussion. Click here for more details. Pedagogy of the week: I previously mentioned the Four C’s that Google bases it’s lesson planning on (Critical thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity). And I also mentioned the Five E’s that make up Nearpods lesson planning ( Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate). Neither of these is implicitly linked to technology. Today’s model is SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition) and is the explicit foundation of technology integration in instruction. Almost every tech tool allows students to enter technology at the different levels of the SAMR model. For example, here is an example of how FlipGrid fits into it and here is how Nearpod fits: Flipgrid & the SAMR Model
As always, I am available to walk you through using any of these resources in your class. Link to original Hang in there valiant educators! We are almost to Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks! Hopefully an opportunity to rest and recharge before heading into winter! Tech Tool of the week: Flippity is a website that allows you to turn a Google Sheet into two dozen or so useful classroom tools. The site includes: Random name generator, Quiz game, Scavenger hunt, Mad-lib generator, Bingo card, Board game generator, Timeline generator, Crossword / Word search generator, Snowman (hangman) game, Tournament bracket, Certificate maker, Word cloud generator, Leaderboard, Matching game, Click and drag objects, Scavenger hunt and more! Very intuitive and easy to use. Each activity has a demo and very clear step by step directions. Click here for an example of directions for the Random Name Generator. Teacher Resource of the week: cK-12 is a collection of subject resources including online textbooks, simulations, adaptive practice, study Guides, and PLIX (Play, Learn, Interact and eXplore) for math and science concepts. Many of the activities have automatic grading to give you and your students insight into mastery and gaps in specific skills. The resources are both customizable and can be directly assigned through Google Classroom. Student facing resource of the week: Quizizz is an interactive quiz game that can be assigned synchronously or asynchronously to help gamify your curriculum. It can be used as a lesson onto itself, as a fun formative assessment, or suitable for use at the beginning of class as a quick review for previously covered material. There are many premade and customizable quizzes and lessons. Intuitive and easily integrates with Google Classroom. As always, I am available to walk you through using any of these resources in your class. Link to original
Dear keepers of the past and holders of the future, I will keep it brief this week as it was a short week and many of you are busy submitting grades. I have gotten a lot of questions about the differences between Nearpod and Peardeck. Click here for a side by side comparison. They are quite similar; neither is flawless. It is really a matter of personal preference as to which works best for you and your students. If you would like a walk through of either, please reach out and I’d be happy to meet with you. Office hours M-Th 1:30-3:00 Join Zoom Meeting and anytime by email . I am also available for in-person meetings at your school. I hope you can all relax and enjoy this weekend a bit! Link to original Hello essential workers! I hope everyone can find time to relax and take time for themselves! You can't take care of students unless you take care of yourself! Nearpod update: Teachers are experimenting with Nearpod and discovering the benefits and limitations of the platform. I am available to help walk you through the functions and to answer questions. One great source of support I have found is the “Nearpod educators” community on Facebook. There are 35,000 Nearpod users there to share tips, give ideas, and answer questions. There are also communities of Peardeck users, and every subject where many useful ideas are shared. What to do when you run out of space in your free account? You can delete lessons from your library or become a Nearpod certified teacher. You will learn the platform, looks great in your Teacher’s goal, and get a six-month upgrade to your account. Troubleshooting for loading pages and lagging issues: If you or a student is having difficulty loading a particular program or poor computer performance try these two steps: 1. Close any tabs or pages you are currently not using and refresh your browser. 2. Close the browser and shutdown the computer (not just close the top, but power off) and restart. You will have to log back into all applications. Featured Tech of the week: Edulastic is an assessment database to find, create, and assign state standard-based formative and summative assessments. It has a library of already created and editable assessments and the ability to build a variety of different style assessments, multiple-choice, fill in the blank, matching, graphing, ordering, and writing. Many of the assessments are self-correcting, provide great data collection tools for reteaching, and support future planning. Edulastic easily integrates with Google Classroom. Please see the attached handout to walk through setting up an account and getting started. Of course, I am happy to walk anyone through how to use this tool during office hours or another convenient time. For step by step directions, click here. Digital Resource of the week: Google's Applied Digital Skills site. A library of lessons for use with students in all subjects and a whole host of Tech tutorials. They have ready to go lesson plans in all subjects suitable for students from grade three and up. Even if you don't use their lessons, they can offer inspiration for your lessons. While Nearpod extolls the five E's in lesson delivery, Google uses the four C's of digital / 21st Century education. Example of a teacher module: Trying to organize an unruly Google Drive? Try this quick tutorial. Example of a student module: ELA/Writing an “if-then” story. Lesson plan here. Student facing resource of the week: Factile is an online Jeopardy-style game with several play/study options. Another tool to gamify and engage students in your curriculum. Great icebreaker for reviewing previous lessons, check for understanding, home study, or review concepts at the end of a unit. Lots of editable premade games, or build your own. The free version, of course, has limits to the number of custom games you can store. Peace and love to all! |
AuthorRobert Frye is a retired 33 year veteran Of Holyoke Public Schools Archives
April 2021
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