The Power of the PLN

Today I attended #educamprotovegas and it was really great meeting so many passionate educators.  This event was a free UNconference.  People came, shared and learnt.  I recommend attending an EduCamp if you can.  

Today I saw firsthand the power of the PLN (Personal Learning Network).  A group of passionate educators coming together to share ideas to improve student learning.  #educamprotovegas was an event where I was fortunate enough to meet some of the people that I follow on Twitter.  It was really nice to put a face to a name and I was really impressed with all the great ideas that were shared.  

It was a real time version of what many educators are involved in online.  Developing and fostering connections, sharing ideas and working together for the benefit of students.  The PLN helps to break down the barriers of space and time and allows teachers to connect with others.  It get us out of what Steve Mouldey (@GeoMouldey) calles our own echo chamber, where we only hear our own ideas.  

So I fully recommend developing a PLN, connect with those in other schools, join Twitter, or Facebook or any other online tool that allows you to step outside your little part of the world!

Because if I had never joined twitter I would never have gone to #educamprotovegas and i would never have heard Kimberly Baars (@MissesArtech) talk about the Makersphere and all of the amazing things she is doing in it!  I would never have got to see a huge number of great little tools like OneTab, a chrome extension that can help manage all those browser tabs you have open at once that you don’t want to lose or forget.  If I hadn’t gone I wouldn't have had the chance to share some of my own little tips and tricks.  It was nothing mind blowing but it is always a great experience sharing tools with other educators in the hope that it might help them in some way.

I am a big ideas person.  And today my PLN was really helpful because it helped me to see the small little steps and the tools and resources that can help to make big ideas a reality.  So to my PLN and everyone at #educamprotovegas I would like to say a huge thank you and I look forward to seeing you all next time.

Thanks for reading my rather short and quick post today for Day 21 of #28daysofwriting.  And I would like to thank Annemarie Hyde (@Mrs_Hyde) for organising and running the day and being so welcoming.  I would also like to thank Steve Mouldey (@GeoMouldey) for his idea of an echo chamber and finally Kimberly Baars (@MissesArtech) for her inspiring talk about the Makersphere - Very sharp for a BT, will definitely be someone to watch out for in the future.

11 Great Digital Tools for the Classroom

It’s day 7 of #28daysofwriting.  A week down, a quarter of the way through.  If this were a marathon the lactic acid would be starting to build up.  Today I thought I would just share some of the digital tools and apps I have used effectively.  I hope you find the list useful.

So here goes, here is a list of some of the best hardware, apps and web tools that I have used over the last few years.  They are in no particular order, just a random pile of thoughts and ideas that I can manage in 28 min at 9pm on a Saturday night!

1) Google Docs:  The go to simple document write in the GAFE (Google Apps for Education) set of tools.  Fantastic for work that doesn't need to look amazing.  It has a brilliant commenting system that can be used for students to collaborate on work and as the teacher you can and highlight sections that need review and attach your comment to the particular section of the work.

2) Google Slides:  Much more powerful than a slide show creator this is the place where you can create documents as you would in publisher or word with layers and directional text.  It takes a bit of getting used to and you have to remember the dimensions for A4 paper for the page setup but if you want to make something pretty in GAFE... use Slides.

3) Google Forms:  Great way to survey your class and community.  Can also be used to create quizzes.  From here all of the data goes to…

4) Google Sheets:  This is excel for GAFE.  Great for sorting raw information and data and you will need to use it to set up classes and students if you are using Hapara Teacher Dashboard.  There are some really cool add ins for Sheets.  My favourite is Floobaru an app that allows you to mark and analyse students answers from a Google Forms quiz.

5) Hapara Teacher Dashboard:  This is an invaluable tool for any school wanting to use GAFE effectively.  It allows you full control over all of you students’ accounts.  You can see all of their recent work at a glance and can even see their screens if you have the right set up.  You can group students and Smart Copy templates and work into their Google Drives.  I would definitely recommend this tool.

6) Storybird: This great little web tool is a place where students can select amazing pieces of art to use as inspiration for their writing.  The students loved it and we had some amazing story come from students using this tool.  Definitely give it a go!

7) Piktochart:  This great online tool is amazing for making class displays.  It makes those awesome longform infographics and with very little experience you can make great looking displays.  They can also be embedded into websites.

8) Prezi:  This is an interesting alternative to the traditional slide show.  The slides sweep and zoom in and out around an image or diagram and it is much more visually appealing.  Student will enjoy the change and like presenting their learning in an interesting way using this tool.

9) Garageband: The go to music creation tool.  If you have access to iPads or Macbooks this is an amazing piece of software.  Students can produce professional sounding music in no time at all.

10) iMovie: Really intuitive and easy to use video editing software.  I have used it with both junior and senior students and they love it.  Great for recording reading too.  It has a cool feature call Trailers which come out like … Movie Trailers and its a great way to share  learning and what has been happening in the class or school.

11) Scratch & Scatch Jnr: Web and iPad versions allow students to learn how to code computer programs in a simple and visual way.  Great way to introduce coding into a class and is a great activity to use in Maker Time.

Well I better stop there  have 2 minutes of the 28 left.  I hope you enjoyed the list it is far from complete!  Maybe I will do a part two… Thanks for reading the post and please comment on any tools you find really useful in your class.

Goodbye Dear Friend

Today is a sad day for me… I have to say goodbye to a very dear friend.  We have worked closely for the last year and he has taught me so much about how I can work better, share with others and improve the way my students learn.  We had our differences, sometime he did not work as well as I thought he should but eventually I learnt that he just did things a little bit differently to the other guy I worked with.  In the end he was my go to guy, the one I went to with almost all my idea.  I guess that made some people uncomfortable, it was different, it was a change.  But I loved every minute of it.

Today I say goodbye to my Chromebook,  I have to give him back.  A change in class level has meant he is no longer mine.

In all seriousness though the challenge to go to GAFE was set at the end of 2012.  We had a year to trial it and see how it worked.  My team and I were expected to dabble and play around.  To see what we might be able to achieve.  

We did the right things, went to see high performing schools using GAFE, we were signed up for Hapara.  But we refused to dabble, we took a risk… go all in.  This change in mindshift was totally empowering.  We were going to make mistakes, we were going to get it wrong at times, we were going to have to deal with the naysayers.  

But we did it anyway,  we did it without enough devices, we did it with devices that didn't work as well as they should.  But we adapted, we made it work.

The journey was amazing.  We knew the pedagogical shifts we wanted to make; to be more collaborative and more creative.  We wanted to scaffold our students so that they could see the kinds of things that could be created.  S we did things differently, we made out writing books look like Google Docs with a comments margin, we made graphic organisers that the students could use online and on paper, we showed student how to layer when making posters on paper and explained how it was the same in Slides.  

We worked out how to use GAFE tools for their strengths,  Docs for ongoing growing documents with specific feedback, Slides if you wanted to make things pretty, Sheets for handling and filtering data.  

Our students loved it, feedback that wasn't gone when they turned a page, that for whatever reason they seemed to care about.  The ability to create documents they were proud of.  Those students who had poor presentation skills were no longer disadvantaged.  Suddenly our Dyslexic and struggling writers had access to speech to text, another barrier down.  The world was opened up to us.  

In short the year was an amazing first step.  

Now I have to adapt.  GAFE is probably less of a focus where I am now.  It will be about iPads.  So I am looking forward to learning about app smashing, about finding new ways to motivate younger students to develop the mindset of collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and effective communication.  To see their young minds expand to see the possibilities that their generation has.  My current school reminds me of the first school I worked at.  We had a brilliant vision back there that is so applicable; Rural School, Global Outlook.

We are not limited anymore by our geological location.  We can travel through time and space in our classrooms and that is one of the most exciting things about being in education today.  So get out there, be brave, jump all in to whatever you see as being important.  Remember - Whatever is Worth Doing is Worth Doing Well!

I hope you enjoyed this Blog post, it felt a bit rushed as it is part of the #28dayofwriting challenge where you write for 28 minutes every day for the month of February.  Thank you for taking time to read this post and if you are taking part in #28dayofwriting, good luck and I look forward to seeing your posts.