Littles Can Too

We often think our youngest learners couldn't possibly use technology independently to create individualized work. We know they can get onto apps and play games or read from a certain reading site such as Epic or Scholastic. But truly create and show their learning seems so out of reach. HOWEVER, this is not the case! We need to give our youngest learners the benefit of the doubt. They can and will be successful using tech in meaningful ways when given the opportunity to do so.

Is this easy to begin with? Absolutely not. They must learn how to log in with their unique login. Not an easy task, but they don't get any better at it by NOT doing it! Start them practicing day 1. This practice can start on a laminated paper keyboard, looking for and circling each of their letters/numbers EVERY day when they come into class. Then it can move to logging in on a physical device. By the time they move to the physical device they will be familiar with where to find each of their letters/numbers in their user ID and password.

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Logging in is just the first step in the battle. Now you have to teach them HOW to use an application, such as Google Slides, Flipgrid, Seesaw, etc. They need to know the basics of the tool first before they can start to use the tool to show their learning. This step is very messy and chaotic. Don't give up because the first time seems so overwhelming! The next time you show them the tool, they get a little better. Before you know it, students are helping each other problem solve and creating beautiful pieces to show their learning. Just remember, when you first show a new tool, it takes a bit of learning that tool, before students can use it to showcase their thinking/learning.

If we start with our youngest learners teaching them to be independent in their learning and thinking, we will create students who are able to think critically, create, collaborate and communicate more effectively! Our littlest learners deserve the opportunity to show what they can do. Don't be afraid, they can do this!

If you have suggestions or things you have done with young learners using technology, I'd love to hear about them. Please leave a comment and share!

Job Embedded PD

I'm currently sitting and reflecting in a 1st grade staff development day around writing. (Yesterday I had the privilege of being part of the Kindergarten writing day.) The conversations happening as these teachers grapple with best practices around teaching writing is phenomenal! How to set up writer's workshop in a primary classroom is daunting. But these teachers are fully present and tackling this yearlong task. (You'd think setting up would be a beginning of the year thing. However, truly running a writer's workshop with young ones, you are constantly reteaching and "setting" up your workshop!) The thing I love most in these conversations, is that we don't all agree on the details of how to accomplish, but we all agree on wanting to be the best for our kids. This adds so much richness and depth to the conversation. New ideas emerge and the conversations go in directions we never saw coming.

I love how the Enumclaw School District brings together groups of teachers throughout the year to hear the same message and get them talking about their practice.How often do a group of teachers from across a district really get to sit with each other and have deep meaningful conversations focused on best meeting the needs of our kids? THIS IS SO POWERFUL! I feel fortunate to be part of this system and be able to join in these tough conversations. Enumclaw is a place where teachers strive to be better. What a great environment to work in!

And what might you ask is the Instructional Technology teacher doing in a Primary Writing PD? I'm learning...right alongside these amazing teachers. I'm stretching my thinking about ways I can support them in their work. 

I love this job!

Today has been a amazing day, so far, filled with HS students stopping by my office needing help with their Blog. (Edublogs has some quirks--yes that's a polite way to say it--that we've been trying to figure out.) Why do some students have the widget Class Blog and others don't? Why are some pages showing published but aren't actually showing? How do I change font/color? Why aren't my widgets showing? ALL of the students have been beyond respectful and delightful to work with. It's nice to have my office filled with students looking to problem solve and not just sit here hoping I can figure it out. (Maybe it was just nice to have my office filled with students and not just me by myself!!) Unfortunately our problem solving and brainstorming has not been able to solve all of the issues yet. However, I have learned a ton about Edublogs just sitting with these kids. I actually offered my job to one of them and made him stay longer than he wanted so he could help me! I'm sure he was thrilled with this! I'm hoping more kids stop by throughout the rest of the day. It's a great feeling to be connected--at least for today! Now back to doing some research on Edublogs! If you have any tips and trick about using this blogging site please share your knowledge!!

Mind Blowing PD

I've had a goal since the day I started my new job as Instructional Technology Support Teacher. This goal was to go to as many of the District's trainings as I could. I need to see and hear what teachers are learning about in various topics so that I can think about how technology can be implemented to help support them and their students. So far I've been able to be a part of ELA training K-5, Secondary Leadership Cadre, and recently math K-5 and 6-12.

Today I'm going to focus on the math training. In the elementary training we are part of an online course through Stanford taught by Jo Boaler. In her sessions thus far, she has talked about math being an art. Something that students can explore and find the beauty in. Math should allow freedom to see solutions from many different angles, with tasks that have a low floor and a high ceiling. (This same term was used in the 6-12 math PD when referencing the types of problems or tasks students should be exposed to.) I love how the idea of problems that allow students multiple avenues to solve with lots of room for thinking, transcends grade levels!

In this latest session of Jo Boaler's class we learned about the importance of number sense and how daily math or number talks can help improve all student's number sense, even for those students in high school.  I love the idea of math talks. I think I would have been so much more successful at math, had I been a part of math talks. I've always thought I was good at math, but what I was good at was computations using specific algorithms. I truly did not understand why I was doing what I was doing. Even working through a couple of problems in this session, I was second guessing and rethinking my answers.  The first problem to solve was 18 x 5. Then later we had to solve 25 x 29.  My first reaction was to get a piece of paper and pencil and solve the problem. However the instructions were to solve it in your head without writing it down. To really think about the problem and make sense of it in your head.  After my initial panic, I slowed down, took a breath and really started to think about different ways to put the numbers together. That's when I began to understand. As part of this session, we got to see the conversations of real students (university level students) and how they approached each of the problems.  The conversations of the students was very powerful and seeing multiple ways to solve the same problem was very eye opening. Many of the strategies I would have never have thought of. And yet, when they were explained by the students, I understood and was able to see the problem in a different light. Really working on number sense through math talk is incredibly powerful tool that ALL teacher can possess.

Even after all these years of doing math, I had the experience of understanding math. MIND BLOWN!  The implications of what this could mean for students is staggering. It's time we get students to see the beauty in math. That math is not this stagnant, blah subject. Instead, math is  fluid and creative and full of wonder and freedom that enables all students to think, learn and succeed!

Guinea Pigs

The part I love most about my job is going into classrooms and seeing what teachers are doing! I love seeing students engaged with technology and without it! As I've stated before, I firmly believe technology has a place in all classrooms, but it is not the be all, end all of teaching and learning.  These past couple of weeks I have spent some time in a couple of middle school classrooms (English and Math.) These teachers were very gracious inviting me in to observe what they were doing. I was blown away in both classes with not only how the teachers handled the use of technology, but how the students did.

In the English class the students were being introduced to Blogging as another avenue to write and write lots. The preface to the lesson was "Today you are going to be guinea pigs! You are going to start your own Blogs and it might just be a train wreck!"   I love that the teacher used the term "guinea pigs". This lets students know that this is all experimental. Who knows if it will work or not, but we're going to try.  This approach takes the pressure off the students to be perfect or masters of something completely new. Failure was perfectly acceptable and expected! Anyway, back to the lesson!  The lesson started with asking kids what questions they had about Blogs. It was no surprise that the most prevalent question was "What is a Blog?" Students were then asked to research and find answers to their own questions. They had 10 minutes to do this and then had to share their findings. Then a quick demo of how to start their own Blog and join the class blog was given. After that students were set free to start setting up their Blogs. It was incredible to watch these 8th graders have successes and struggles with this new learning. Every student was engaged and busy, even if they were frustrated. Students helped each other navigate setting up and personalizing their blogs. Students were so engaged that when the class was over they all groaned because they weren't finished! (I should note that this particular group of students is a large class, full of struggling learners, who can be prone to disruptive behaviors. Without that knowledge before hand, I would have never known because there was not a single behavior issue!) Student engagement was high, even if they were nervous about Blogging!

The next class I visited was a Math class. The teacher was experimenting with a new learning tool called Pear Deck. (This add-on turns Google Slides into an interactive lesson where students have a voice and can show their learning.) The students in this class were guinea pigs too, they just didn't know it. The teacher was taking a risk trying out something new.  The risk paid off. During this lesson on Slope Intercept Form, students were given different problems to solve using their Chromebooks. Students' answers were displayed anonymously on the screen, so feedback was immediate. The teacher could also instantly see who was struggling and give them extra support during the lesson. Once again in this class, students were completely engaged. (Although few of them goofed off by writing extra things on their screens. This was taken care of by the teacher respectfully reminding the students of how they should be conducting themselves and letting them know she could see who made the comments, even though what was displayed on the board was anonymous!) The students weren't just absorbed into their devices, they were working together to talk out how to solve problems. Although technology was being used, students were still asked to talk and explain their thinking to each other. The use of the technology enhanced their learning by giving them practice and immediate feedback. As I walked around, all students were participating and were engaged in their own learning.

My point to all this rambling is that when we engage students and give them a purpose for their learning, they rise to the occasion! These middle schoolers were focused. They were active participants in their learning! Could this have happened without technology? Absolutely! However, these two teachers were experts at integrating their use of technology to not only increase student learning but increase student engagement. Does this mean these teachers won't have days when their students are completely distracted and not engaged? Of course they will! After all we are working with young minds who are still learning to navigate the world around them!

WHAT, WHY, HOW--Oh My!

I have been very fortunate this year to be able to attend lots of different trainings that have been offered to teachers throughout our district. Why would the Instructional Tech Teacher need to attend K/1 writing training or 2nd-5th Small Group training or be part of a Middle or High School PLC? I believe with my whole being that Technology CAN'T be separate from what teachers are already doing in the classroom. Good instruction is good instruction~ no matter the grade level.  Throughout our system I see teachers striving to become better, to reach more students. They are all grappling with the HOW. We know the WHY...we need students to love learning and be engaged so they can create, collaborate, communicate and problem solve. The HOW is tricky. But what I notice as I meet with teachers, is that no matter if they teach Kindergarten or High School, it's all about the instruction. Teachers throughout our District are asking WHAT and WHY as they think about their own instruction. Lessons are being intentionally developed through the lens of  reaching more of our students in an authentic and meaningful way.

So what does this have to do with technology? In an article by Edutopia called Why Do We Need Technology Integration the author states:  More and more studies show that technology integration in the curriculum improves students' learning processes and outcomes...Students are engaged in their learning using these powerful tools, and can become creators and critics instead of just consumers.

Technology is a tool to help improve the good instruction that is already happening. It can't replace the teacher or the good instruction. However, it can make our job easier, engage students, take us(teachers and students) to places we never thought possible. 

My goal is to learn as much as possible, through various staff development opportunities, so I can have meaningful conversations with teachers about HOW we integrate technology. Technology can't be separate from what we are doing. It can't be ONE MORE THING teachers need to fit in. Technology has the power to transform our teaching and our students' learning! Now we just need to figure out the HOW!

Have you ever tried something new, something that seemed like it could be magical? You plan, you envision, you prepare. The day finally comes when you'll use this something new with your students...and the reality is far from the vision!  This happened recently in a first grade classroom I went into. I wanted to try Autodraw with them so they could record their thinking through pictures. I brought in a pile of new styluses, had the link set up in Classroom and a group of eager 6 year olds ready to learn something new!

We had lots of steps to get through first (logging onto the Chromebook with their login, not generic session, joining Google Classroom, clicking the link to Autodraw...) all before we could actually do the work. The kids were amazing! They were following directions and doing everything just right! Did I mention these 6 year olds were working in collaborative pairs? Not only did they have to follow the directions, but they had to make sure they were working together and sharing the Chromebook. Not an easy feet! But they were doing it and doing it better than I had anticipated!

Then came the actual assignment. After a quick demonstration of how Autodraw works, they were set to show their thinking. They needed to create a picture showing their favorite character or part of the class chapter book they were reading. The students instantly started talking with their partners to figure out what they were going to draw. Great ideas were flying around! AND THEN...they started to draw. This is where REALITY struck. The styluses that were meant to make drawing easier didn't work. Their fingers weren't sliding across the touch screens easy enough to create a fluid line. They were struggling to create a picture. They were getting frustrated---oh wait... perhaps it was me getting frustrated! They kept plugging away at it, trying to find better ways to get their drawing to look the way it should. The lesson didn't go as I had planned, however the students were really engaged and excited about trying something new! They never gave up! They didn't care how "messy" learning something new was. They were determined to draw their thinking.

As educators we can learn a lot about perseverance from a 6 year old! We need to remember to take a deep breath and keep trying! The mess is so worth the potential gains!

Tech is messy! We need to allow ourselves and our students to get messy in order to create an environment where they can create, collaborate and share their thinking