Thursday, February 8, 2018

A Student-Centered Approach to Using Google Classroom #TCEA #TCEA18 @AliceKeeler

A Student-Centered Approach to Using Google ClassroomTCEA 2018Alice Keeler


Use Google Slides to give students voice.

Create content in Slides Master mode, then add slides while going through your presentation.

Allow students to edit your presentation. If your content is in the slides master, it's easy for you to reformat or re-add your content on the fly.

When things go wrong, remember "Slides are free, make a new one!"

Google Classroom is Google Drive management, it's not necessarily student centered.


Tips:

  • Always start with Google Classroom. Have something there for the students to work on from the moment they walk into class. Teacher should Talk LESS.
  • Start the names of all assignments/posts in Google Classroom #001, #002, #003, etc. 
  • Post assignment instructions in a linked Google Doc or Slides so you have more formatting options. Can integrate videos, screen shots as needed
  • Provide LESS directions. Step-by-step means teacher is doing all of the thinking. Leave some decision making up to the students. Students need to be able to choose appropriate tools.
  • Provide Choices. (Students don't often get to make choices. They even have to ask permission to go to the bathroom. So when faced with choices, they often freeze.) Attach multiple options to an assignment in Google Classroom. Focus on the learning objective, not the assignment. Ex: "Model the Solar System" instead of "Make a poster of the Solar System." Students might do something crappy. Let them redo/retry. But let them try the big ideas!
  • ASK. How does student voice influence what happens in your class? If your lesson plan goes completely 100% the way you planned it, then students weren't involved. Use the Create Question feature in Google Classroom to get feedback from all kids. Be brave at the end of a lesson and ask kids, "What was crappy about this lesson?" or "How would you grade this lesson?" 
  • Have regularly provide evidence of what they're doing. Ask them to upload a pic of what they're doing right now or add a pic to a Google Slides show.
  • Have students set short term goals. Create an assignment asking for their week's goal. They can reply in a private comment. 
  • Design for Collaboration instead of individual activities. 
  • Focus on Feedback




All original work in this post by Sandy Kendell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Please see specifics on my re-use policy before re-posting/re-using any of my blog content.

Monday, February 5, 2018

Badging and Gaming, Rewarding Quality Work #TCEA18 #TCEA

Badging and Gaming, Rewarding Quality Work

TCEA 2018 Presentation


Dr. Karen Jackson
Instructional Technology Specialist
Temple ISD



Link to presentation: https://goo.gl/jtTF2b

Session Padlet for Questions and Sharing Resources: https://padlet.com/karen_jackson/TCEA2018 

Badging and Gaming can be used with any audience you are responsible for: Students, teachers, administrators.

Earning badges and playing games can be lots of hard work and tons of fun.

People have been using games to motivate for a long time.

Remember S & H Green Stamps? That was gaming!!!! (Blast from the past...)

Starbucks Rewards (Personal side note...I know nothing about this...)

How about those Certified Educator badges from Google, Microsoft, Seesaw, etc...

Benefits of gaming:

  • Urgent optimism
  • Social Fabric
  • Blissful Productivity
  • Epic Meaning
  • Real Time Interaction
  • Constant Feedback


Example of badges for professional learning shared by another session participant:



Example: "Badges of Conquest" event with 32 Student Teachers in online class (see info on slides in presentation.)

  • Created a background using Padlet. As they leveled up they added their badges to their Padlet and shared with classmates.
  • First year, emailed badges to participants (that was a lot of work)! (Idea: Use canned email responses with attachments.)
  • Next year, uploaded badges to student Google Drive folders
  • Third year, had assignments which included creating their own badges.
Suggestions: Include lots of interactivity and accountability: students interact with each other - not just you!

IDEA: Use Symbaloo learning paths to manage. Gameboard-like

CAUTION: Don't overdo! Maybe have participants earn badges once every 6 weeks?

IDEAS:
Super Quick Badge I made using
Canva! Search for "badges" and
tweak a pre-existing template!
  • Celebrate wins
  • Celebrate accomplishments
  • Look for positives
  • What is the Epic Win?
  • Get Continuous Feedback. 
  • Celebrate the learning. Especially if the learning comes from a mistake! Fall in love with solving the problem!
  • Have students create badges.














All original work in this post by Sandy Kendell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Please see specifics on my re-use policy before re-posting/re-using any of my blog content.