Mo Physics Mo Problems

Just yesterday, Canvas published the first wave of breakout sessions from InstructureCon 2016 on their YouTube Page . Today, I burned through all the posted sessions.  They were all informative but there was one that is really going to force me to rethink the way I design my course in Canvas. It was a session entitled "Canvas in Elementary? Yes, You Can" by Courtney Cohron I started watching it thinking that I'd be sharing out to the elementary educators in my PLN.  But, I think it has essentials for great course design for all educators.  I'll embed the video of the presentation below, but I was amazed by the great resources designed in her district and her willingness to share them. In designing courses in Canvas, the district has designed a checklist to ensure effective instructional design principles across all course sites. Courtney works as a  District Elementary Instructional Technology Coach for  Noblesville Schools in Noblesville, Indiana.  I...

Having a class set of iPads in my room has allowed me rely heavily on the iMovie app as a platform for video editing in my classroom. It's worked well and students have been able to use it with great easy.  At times, the features of the iOS version are not as robust as the macOS version and that leads to some frustrations. But, it has worked well until students want to be able to work on projects outside of class and need to check out an iPad. This fall, we are going 1:1 with chromebooks.  So, I've been looking for alternatives that will maximize this new access to technology.  I thought I had found one in WeVideo, but it would cost $750 per year for my 150 students to be able to use it.  So, that is off the table. When I was pursuing my Google Certifications this summer, I discovered the power that YouTube has within as a web based video editing tool.  In conjunction with the graduate course I am taking right now, I created some video tutorials and col...

An article I read on Edutopia motivated me to take the first step into something I’d been considering for a year now.  That is organizing an edcamp at my school in the Elmbrook School District.  This blog post is basically an attempt to ask others in my district (or anyone else in my area) if they would be interested in being a part of this effort in some way shape or form. First off, if you are not sure what an edcamp is it is a free one day conference.  It is organized and run by educators for educators. I say educators but they’re usually open to any stakeholder who wants to register.  There is no set agenda before the day of simply a schedule divided into hour blocks for sessions to take place. At the start of the day, attendees pitch ideas for sessions which create the agenda for the day.   The idea is there are a number of sessions going on at any one time and participants are free to move to a session of their choice without any sort of p...

In Elmbrook, we just got access to the new Google Sites BETA. I have been using Google Sites for student portfolios for the last 5 years.  The navigation has always been cumbersome and not intuitive like the other Google Apps in the GAFE Suite.  Well, that will no longer be the case. The video below will show you how the new Sites is a ground up redesign in-line with the apps we know and love in the GAFE Suite.  Students will be able to make new web sites that look great without getting lost in multiple clicks to do a simple task. (If you find any errors in the video, please let me know.  I depend on my PLN to proofread sometimes.) If you don't have access yet in your district, do what I did and contact your Google Administrator.  A big thanks to our Google Admin Austin Nader for getting the turnaround done on this in less than a week! Google will continue to update the BETA version so it may not have everything you want now, but it'll be c...

I finished the audiobook of Daniel Pink’s Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us yesterday.  Today, I had to go to the library to pick up a physical copy to reread some sections.  This book is definitely a read - steep - reread.  There is a lot to digest and act upon.  The ideas Dan Pink brings out are deeply tied into the movement towards personalizing learning in our classrooms.  Rather than recap the entire book, I would recommend you take the time to listen to his powerful TED talk where he lays out the fundamentals of his argument.  Seriously, if you haven’t watched it or read his book, you owe it to yourself to watch it (also, read the book). The focus of the talk is from a business perspective.  But, I imagine you can think of how it relates to your classroom as you watch. What Pink puts forth with a slew of evidence is that There is a gap between what science knows and what institutions do.   T...

I had the opportunity to read a wonderful and super rich book about grading practices by Cathy Vatterott called Rethinking Grading : Meaningful Assessment for Standards-Based Learning . The book is not only for those thinking bout implementing standards based grading.  It has important, research based strategies that we should all be using in our classroom from crafting learning objectives, forms of assessment, and the power of feedback. I put together some of my takeaways from the book in a single diagram.  This image can't do justice to the depth of the book. My highlights covered over 10 pages in a Google Doc.  So, search it out and dig in. If you find errors in the doc, I'm always looking for help proofreading! Thank you

Over the weekend, I read Teaching Students to Self-Assess by Starr Sackstein .  It was a fantastic read.  The book focuses on the importance of reflection in the learning progress. This post only provides a few highlights. Her book has great student examples of reflections and discusses tracking progress over time using reflection.  I highly recommend reading and reflecting on what her book sets out. Why is reflection so important? If we want students to become more independent, life-long learners, they need to understand how they learn. Reflection involves analysis and evaluation which are higher order skills in Bloom’s Taxonomy. The results of reflection will help students make informed choices about how they personalize learning. The results of student reflections will help instructors modify their instruction to reach all learners. How does reflection fit into the learning cycle? The graphic below is one I made last month after reading John ...