Reflection on April 20-21, Ontario GAFE

The following post was written for Bear Essentials (my school’s staff weekly newsletter).  I have a regular column “On-line with Lisa.”  I will cross post the columns to this blog.  This post was originally written for the newsletter the week of April 26, 2013. It has been slightly modified to reflect an online format.

Reflection on April 20-21, Ontario GAFE (google apps for education) Summit

Last weekend, I was one of 100 UGDSB participants out of 525 total participants at the Google Summit sponsored by ECOO and hosted by Eastwood Collegiate of WRDSB.  I’d like to share a few of the ideas that I found interesting from Sunday morning’s keynote by Molly Schroeder (@followmolly on twitter, Google certified teacher and Google Apps for Education certified trainer).

Google loves being in BETA.  Part of their philosophy is “launch early and iterate.”  The idea is that you don’t have to have something perfect before you try it out.  If something doesn’t work, or becomes obsolete it is not a failure, it is simply a part of a larger path to find something great.  Someone has actually created a graveyard for google products that google has killed (http://goo.gl/4XXfE).  You can leave flowers at the headstone for the google project you miss most.  I left a flower on iGoogle and Google Reader.

Kids are in beta.  It is part of our job to help them fine tune so they can launch.  It is important for students to be able to think about where they are in the journey, and not just be told “this is important for your future.”  

Interestingly enough, as I was thinking about writing this, and reflecting on the idea of “being in beta” from the google summit, I ran across a blog by Shelley Wright called “Beta: The Courage to Fail and Change.” (you can find it at http://goo.gl/QCUfN)  She writes: “I’ve decided to live my life in Beta. Always incomplete. Always failing. Always trying to get better.  ...  What if our kids learned that failure is a good thing, something to be embraced, instead of something to be avoided like the plague.  What if teachers were set free to teach messy, fail often & “fail fast”, as Seth Godin says. ... What if teaching & learning was a fluid process that was never finished?”  I love serendipity.

Another nugget from Molly’s keynote: speed date devices, apps or websites, but marry the transferable skills.  I really like this and think it’s tied to idea of being in beta.  Try something; use it while it works; let it go when it’s done (or when you are).  It is the ability to take the skills or knowledge you gain and apply them to another situation.  

The last big take away I’d like to share with you is that everyone has experienced something not working the way you wanted/expected.  The fact that it didn’t work isn’t what’s important.  It is what you do with that experience that is important.  Problem solve.  Hit ‘refresh.’ And keep trying.

GAFE and feedback

The following post was written for Bear Essentials (my school’s staff weekly newsletter).  I have a regular column “On-line with Lisa.” This was a guest post written by David Harvey, and English teacher at ODSS. This post was originally written for the newsletter the week of April 12, 2013.

I am a better teacher this semester than every semester before it.  This is not hyperbole, but a direct result of using ugcloud.  ugcloud is a board-supported cloud-based (no hard drive required) service where I create documents in an excellent, auto-saving word processor (google drive), share documents with students and colleagues, and where I receive and provide feedback on all of my students’ work through our ugcloud email addresses.  When I’m working with student writing, ugcloud becomes interactive and allows me to highlight everything from specific words to particular punctuation to entire paragraphs and make corresponding comments in the side margin.  The student sees both the highlights and the comments.  When the student clicks on either the highlighted section or the comment in the margin,  the corresponding information is highlighted.  There is a very concrete and clear link between their writing and my comments.  ugcloud also allows me to make an overall comment on a piece of writing which I often do when I’m done reading it.  

My teaching has become accelerated through ugcloud as it has allowed me to give students more precise, concrete, full-sentence feedback by the mid-term than I can usually manage in an entire semester.  The interim report, which often causes me great concern due to a lack of information, caused me no stress whatsoever this year, as at that point, I’d read and thoroughly commented on 6 pieces of formative writing in my 1D class and 9 in my 4U class.  The cloud makes things more efficient and effective, and while part of this is my ability to type faster than I write, another part of this is the closing of the feedback loop.  

We know that the shorter the time is between the work and the feedback the more likely the learning and, with the cloud, students no longer have to be in class (or even in the same country) to receive feedback, nor do they have to wait for me to mark 30 pieces of work before they get theirs back.  I mark them in the order in which they’re submitted and they can watch me work with their document in real-time.  As a result of the speed of things, I have never had a clearer understanding of my students’ abilities, nor taught them each so much on such an individual basis so early in a course.  I can open up their email folders and instantly see everything they’ve written, the order in which they submitted it, all of my feedback, and then each keystroke of editing the student has made while applying their new understanding.  

This is a game-changer.  While I’ve never accepted technology as the great saviour of education - and still don’t - I’ve never discovered and used a technology with such great benefits to both myself and my students.  I haven’t collected a single piece of paper from either class this semester - not one.  More importantly,  I’ve seen a level of improvement  in their work by midterm that I usually hope to see by the end of a course.  

I’ve witnessed what I consider three legitimate educational revolutions in my 14 year career, and this is the most recent and the most powerful one in terms of what works best for me and what works best for students.

Twitter post for ODSS

The following post was originally written as a post for my school's weekly newsletter (Bear Essentials) in which I have a weekly column. It was written the week of March 22, 2013.

Twitter has gotten a bad reputation.  But, like most things, twitter is as valuable as the user makes it.  And it can have as many uses as people who use it.  Here are some ways people at ODSS are using it.

Share information with students

There are classes, clubs and teachers who are using twitter to communicate information with students.  Some examples:

@ODSSBakeshop @ODSS_News @ODSSlibrary

@ODSS_Bears @NGWEDWE @ODSSUnger

I try to use the hashtag #ngwedwe for school wide activities/information

Professional Learning Network (PLN)

For some people, twitter is a great place to share what you are doing, and see what other professionals are doing.  There is a large community of educators on twitter who regularly share what they are doing and what they’ve found (articles, ideas) that is of use to them professionally.

Uses in class:

There are a lot of students using twitter.  It doesn’t hurt to engage students in places they are already using.

You could follow someone/organization related to your subject.

OR follow a hashtag about an issue or current event

OR you could use classroom hashtag as an exit ticket to check for understanding

Sarah Le (@sarle83) is having her grade 11 English class tweet Macbeth.  Each character has a twitter handle that Sarah set up, students will take on a character and tweet about events from that perspective as well as respond to others’ tweets.  

If being out there and public makes you nervous, you could have students create fake tweets to show understanding of an issue, time period, character, important figure.  Use classtools.net and choose TWISTER.  Here is a slideshow example

Blogging at ODSS (Bear Essentials post)

The following post was written for Bear Essentials (my school’s staff weekly newsletter).  I have a regular column “On-line with Lisa.”  I will cross post the columns to this blog.  This post was originally written for the newsletter the week of March 18, 2013. It has been slightly modified to reflect an online format.

Classes are blogging at ODSS. Below is a list of class blogs currently (February - June 2013) engaging students at our school. Part of the point of getting students to blog is that they are writing to an authentic audience beyond their classroom teacher. It would be greatly appreciated if YOU would take a look and leave a comment. Hopefully the blogs have been written in a way to inspire a conversation. Your comments help keep the conversation going.

If you are interested in some suggestions about how to comment, you can check out “Tips for Leaving a Good Blog Comment” by Bill Ferriter.

English Classes (students in these classes are all contributing to the same blog)

http://3uwithsle.blogspot.ca Sarah’s ENG3U class blog

http://schouteneng3u.blogspot.ca/ Dirk’s ENG3U class blog

http://msbeng3u2013 Holly’s ENG3U class blog

http://msbnbe3u.blogspot.ca/ Holly’s native studies class blog

History Classes (students in these classes are all contributing to the same blog)

http://2Dwithsle.blogspot.ca Sarah’s CHC2D class blog

http://chc2punger.blogspot.ca/ Lisa’s (my) CHC2P class blog

Erin’s CHC2D class each set up their own blogs here are a few:

http://chloealbertshistoryblog.blogspot.ca/

http://chc2dconnorhawleyyan.blogspot.ca/

http://chc2d1kelseygallant.blogspot.ca/

http://granthamshistorydebates.blogspot.ca/

http://roanhistory.blogspot.ca/

http://patrickjhistory.blogspot.ca/

http://clairemacdonaldcanadianhistory.blogspot.ca/

Media Arts - Alanna’s students have created individual blogs to talk about their process/progress through the class. Here are a few

http://hannahwiththeworld.blogspot.ca/

http://towhomitmayconcearn.blogspot.ca/

http://dropofthedime.wordpress.com/

http://weallseethingsdifferently.blogspot.ca/

http://thewordsofaging.blogspot.ca/

http://austinstrangemusic.wordpress.com/

http://bloomingbones.blogspot.ca/

http://stainedglasseyes.wordpress.com/

Digital Presence

As part of my quest to become a Google Certified Trainer I have to demonstrate my digital presence.  This is kind of freaking me out.  I don't think I put myself out there very much and when I do I get very nervous.  This morning I forced myself to comment on a blog post by Doug Johnson (the Blue Skunk Blog).  I stressed and worried about it.  I had a thought, then I thought I should share it.  But was it 'worthy'?  Would others readers just say 'well, duh'?  Who am I to add value to the discussion that was going on?  Could I add value?  My comment wasn't as long as most of the others - does that mean it wasn't as 'deep'? Then I changed my mind about a billion times as to whether or not I should use my full name (I eventually did).
Then I got this response:

Hi Lisa,
We've been using the SAMR model in our district as well - and for some of the same reasons. Thanks for reminding readers of it and how we can move between levels.
Yeah, reading these comments is a real treat for me. I quoted you in my last blog post!
Doug

And here is the blog to which he is referring.  I am a little embarrassed at how excited I was to see my name on someone else's blog.  Someone that I've actually never met, but whose work I appreciate and follow.  So cool.
The moral of this story: Take a chance.  Just like I appreciate someone taking the time to comment on something I've written (and I appreciate it a whole lot!!!), others do too.  I tell my students to comment and add to blog discussions, this is another instance in which I have to model what I teach.  It does feel a little like risk taking, but like other risks, the payoff rush can be exhilarating.

I'm back!

OK, it's been a while...

I've been very busy.  I'd like to briefly share a little of what I've been doing.

PLP (Powerful Learning Practice) action research is done - sort of.  Have a look at what our group did on our Rhymes with Orange website.  Although our year with PLPnetwork is over, we will all continue to get our students to develop critical thinking skills is a visible way.  We all have ideas about what we need to change.  As it is an action research project, I think this is to be expected.  We didn't get it exactly right the first time, but we believe that we are on a good path and are going to continue to work at it.

I've also been working on a weekly post on our staff newsletter.  I've written a number of them, but I've also asked others in my school to write about their use of IT in their classes.  I have decided to post those on this blog as well.  So you will see them soon.  I will include the original date of publication in the staff newsletter with each publication.

Last week I spent two days at a Google Bootcamp run by Learn Style.  It is my intention to get my Google Apps for Education certification.  It was a heavy 2 days, with lots more heavy work to come, but I think I'm up for it.  At this point, I actually think the 9 hours of exams will be the easy part! I will try to blog about the experience so far soon.  Getting this blog up and running again is going to be an important part of this process.