Challenge: Blogs in the Classroom

What did you create and why?

I created a blog for Learning Support at my school. I created this as a place for parents of students in Learning Support to be able to look at our newsletters, find important information, and see work their student has completed in Learning Support. 

What went well for you?

Creating the blog and posting to it was relatively easy and quick. It was also easy to add a picture to the text and make it look nice.

What was challenging?

I didn't run into any issues or struggles as of yet but I haven't delved that deeply into the ins and outs of blogging, just the basics. I'm sure something will pop up to frustrate me sometime. :)

What did you enjoy?

I enjoyed customizing the blog and being able to invite my colleagues to publish to it as well. I think it's more user friendly than our classroom Swift page to add to.

What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families?

I would like to see if this blog gets more traffic than we normally get from parents of our students. I am going to create a link on our Swift page for students and parents to use. I would like to be able to post student work as well as the newsletter we send out with important information about Learning Support. This might be easier for some parents to access than their child's backpack. :)

Chromebook Basics

Chromebook Basics Challenge

by Katherine Ramsey

• What did you create, and why? 

         I didn't create anything for this challenge. I ready articles and took a quiz. I scored 81.25% on the quiz which is a passing score, but just barely.

• What went well for you?

       The lessons were easy to follow and seemed to flow together well. 

• What was challenging?

        There wasn't anything particularly challenging about this one. I should have paid a little better attention to some of the information provided in order to get a better score on the quiz.

• What did you enjoy? 

         I enjoyed learning how to help students with their Chromebooks. I didn't realize their "CapsLock" button was a magnifying glass. I do now.

• What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families? 

         This information may be useful when 7th graders start in the fall with little experience with Chromebooks.

Google

Google Keep Challenge

by Katherine Ramsey

• What did you create, and why? 

         I created a Google Keep note and shared it with Christa Polzin. I couldn't figure out how to share it to the blog. This could be a great way for students to manage their homework reminders. It could also be a great tool for students to work on ideas together.

• What went well for you?

        It was fairly easy to create the note, change the color, make it into a list, and share it with someone.

• What was challenging?

        I wanted to insert an image from the internet but that didn't seem to be a capability. Also, I couldn't figure out how to share it to the blog.

• What did you enjoy? 

         I enjoyed learning about a new way to keep track of things.

• What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families? 

         I could use this with students to have them create notes with questions they may come up with when doing their homework - they could help each other. I could also use this as an area for them to store reminders for themselves. It might have an application for collaborating with other teachers or with parents.

Infographics

Google Drawing Challenge

by Katherine Ramsey

• What did you create, and why? 

         I created a poster in Google Drawing that shows the key words to look for in word problems. The poster has four sections and each one gives several examples of words that mean each of the four main operations. Under addition, it shows all together, sum, and, both, total, and in all. I envision us adding to this list as the year progresses. I plan on sharing the file with students so they can add to it as well.

• What went well for you?

        It was fairly easy to create the poster after watching the video. I appreciated knowing how to set the page size before adding anything to the project. The hints that were offered in the video were really helpful. Entering information into the poster, resizing things, copying and pasting all went well for me.

• What was challenging?

        There wasn't anything challenging about this one for me. The video really helped to lay things out for me.

• What did you enjoy? 

         I enjoyed coming up with a creative way to display information for students. This will be much better than me just writing the words on a piece of poster paper.

• What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families? 

         I will use Google Drawing for a few different things this year. I know that I will use the poster I created throughout the year. I could have students use Google Drawing to prove their mastery of concepts throughout the year. It would be nice to have them create a poster in Drawing to illustrate their knowledge of fractions or budgeting. I don't see a way to use this to communicate with families.

Google

Google Slides Challenge

by Katherine Ramsey

• What did you create, and why? 

         I created a Google Slideshow to introduce students to my classroom in the fall. It will provide students with very basic information about the expectations in my class. Most of the lesson is me talking, the slideshow has interesting things to look at but most of the information comes from me and whole class discussions.

• What went well for you?

         It was easy to find templates online. It was difficult to choose just one. It was pretty easy to insert a video from YouTube, pictures, and text. I found it fairly easy to figure out how to move things, copy and paste, and change fonts and colors.

• What was challenging?

        The biggest two challenges were time and lack of knowledge. I found that time slipped away as I was browsing for a theme to use. I also spent a lot of time looking for just the right videos to add into the slide show. I spent a good bit of time tweaking the way things looked. My lack of knowledge frustrated me a few times as I really wanted to create a specific thing (words in the shape of a heart) but couldn't figure out how to do that through word art. I finally decided that it must not be possible.

• What did you enjoy? 

         I enjoyed learning how to set up an engaging slideshow for students. I am excited to use the collaborative element and have students create a slide in a class slideshow to prove their knowledge at some point next year.

• What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families? 

         I will use Google Slides a few different times during the year. I'm sure once I get more familiar and comfortable with it, things will come together much easier and faster than it did today. I will use the collaborative element and have students create a slide in a class slideshow to prove their knowledge at some point next year. I don't see a way to use this to communicate with families.

Challenge: Google Docs

I created a Goggle Doc to share with my teaching partners that is a working list of all of our Title 1 Reading groups. While this may seem mundane, I am hoping that this will really help us with organization. In the past, one of us has been in charge of making one list or another which has lead to multiple versions, not knowing which is the most current, and not having access to copies when you need them.

Honestly, I have a decent amount of experience with Google Docs so it was quick and easy to use. Having the time to create this was nice though because we don't tend to do new things at the beginning of the year. The likelihood of us transitioning to Google Docs for all our shared work just went up dramatically!

The only thing I found challenging was the small changes from Word to Docs in the formatting toolbar. I couldn't find where to make the margins narrower and the formatting for tables is also different which was just a little annoying.

I honestly really enjoyed having the time and reason to do this over the summer before the cray beginning of the year rush.

I created this doc with the intention that we start to share all of our docs on Google so that we all have access to the things we create for our team. I think it will streamline a lot of processes for us. I plan to use this with my team. I have also been thinking about using this more with my 6th grade students for shared activities in writing group. They are highly motivated by using their Chromebooks at school so I think they would enjoy having an excuse to do an activity on them in group.

Google

Google Docs Challenge

by Katherine Ramsey

• What did you create, and why? 

         I created a Google Doc to send home with students on the first day of classes this fall. The letter has two main purposes: to give parents information about me and to get information from parents. The letter tells parents what supplies students will need, how they will be graded, and how parents can reach me. I ask for basic contact information from parents/guardians and ask if the student has access to the internet. I also offer extra credit for students if their parents send me an email (the act of sending me an email just about guarantees that my emails to them will not end up in their Spam folder).

• What went well for you?

        Most of this challenge went well. My familiarity with Microsoft Word translated over to Google Docs quite nicely. Formatting was essentially the same as with Word. I found the insert picture to work nicely and had a variety of pictures from which to choose. The fact that the document saves automatically made it to where I didn't need to worry about saving which is a nice feature.

• What was challenging?

         Some of the shortcuts in Word, don't work in Google Docs. In Word I type "--" and it makes one long bold line. In Google Docs, it makes two short lines. Not awesome. I couldn't find an option for inserting a date (in Word it is Insert - Date). I got over it and really decided that I didn't need a changing date - I just changed it to the school year.

• What did you enjoy? 

        I enjoyed using the Insert Picture function. There seemed to be more options for pictures than I had with Word. I enjoyed knowing that I have my welcome letter done and ready to go in September.

• What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families? 

         I will use Google Docs to communicate with students, parents, and colleagues. I like the fact that we can have ONE live document and collaborate on the document at the same time. I plan on using Google Docs for assignments - make a copy for each student. I'm looking forward to seeing all the ways I can use Google Docs in class.

Challenge: SMART Notebook

I created a SMART Notebook page for use in Kindergarten reading intervention groups. This page reinforces letter/sound correspondence and helps students practice hearing first sounds in words. I created this page because many of the students in my groups struggle with these skills and often need them presented more than most which can exhaust what the curriculum has to offer. As a result I often need to create more activities for my students. I will create more activities that align with the scope and sequence of the curriculum I use.

I was surprised at hose easy and simple it was to create a basic page with very little experience with the app. It was easy to see using this with my small groups.

Using the activity builder was challenging. The search function seemed to have a strange layout and the activity builder didn't work right away. Although operator error may account for this.

I enjoyed the process of planning a simple idea in my head and seeing it come together rather quickly. It was a gratifying process. :)

I have plans to create pages for each letter as it is introduced in the curriculum so that I can extend all lessons. I would also like to think of more pages to go with each letter, more activities to create.

SmartNotebook

SmartNotebook Challenge

by Katherine Ramsey

• What did you create, and why? 

         I created a SMART Notebook lesson on telling time to the nearest five minutes. I will be able to use this as a formative assessment and review of telling time in the fall. Many of my students do not know how to read clocks (analog or digital). This will be useful in helping to assess their knowledge.

• What went well for you?

         Finding a SMART Notebook on SMART Exchange was fairly easy. I was also amazed at the number of activities that I could create in a notebook. I'm looking forward to using the timer. I can see posing a problem and starting the timer to get them to work the problem quickly. There was a very interesting Fractions - Decimals - Percentages activity that I want to explore more as well.

• What was challenging?

         Finding the tools. Some of them were pretty straight forward, but I had difficulty finding where to click in order to add the sound. I also had difficulty with editing the file once I downloaded it from SMART Exchange. I will need to do further research on how to create lessons using this tool. 

• What did you enjoy? 

         I enjoyed learning how to use this tool. I enjoyed looking at the Interactive and Multimedia add-ons. There are a ton of things that I can do with this. I always knew there was more to it than what I was doing with it. I'm sad to say that all I've really used it for so far is showing how to do a few things live like it's a chalkboard and playing hangman with my class.

• What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families? 

         I will use SMART Notebook lessons to present ideas and have interactive lessons. It seems like a nice blend of a slide show and working on a white board. I don't see any application for this to be used as a way to communicate with families.

Google

Google Classroom Challenge

by Katherine Ramsey

• What did you create, and why? 

         I created a Google Classroom for one of my classes for next year. I will be able to use Google Classroom to make announcements, create assignments, ask questions, and grade assignments. It will be a great way to make sure students don't "lose" their assignments as they will be digital. My school is a 1:1 Chromebook school so all students have Chromebooks. I used Classroom a little last year, but plan on using it more next year.

• What went well for you?

         Creating the classroom and adding an announcement. I had done both of these previously. I was excited to finally learn how to add a file to an assignment that gave a copy to each student. I couldn't figure this out on my own last year and ended up "handing out" the papers via Hapara's Smart Share since I knew how to do it there. I'm excited that I'll be able to do it all through Classroom next year.

• What was challenging?

         Nothing was really challenging on this one. I was excited to finally find out how to give each student a copy via Classroom.

• What did you enjoy? 

         I enjoyed setting up my new Classrooms for next year, creating the themes, adding announcements and questions. I also really enjoyed learning how to give each student a copy of assignments. I think I mentioned it two or three times ... I'm really excited about this part.

• What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families? 

         I will use Google Classroom with all of my classes next year in order to make announcements, ask questions, and give assignments. I will also use it as a way for students to turn in homework so I can grade it and give them direct feedback. The person in charge of our Mustang Success program is given access to all of our Classrooms so she can give students their missing work. I don't see a way to use this to communicate with families - other than to have students log in and show their parents the assignments.