Dawson County Schools Tech Update

The instructional technology committee did not meet in April due to spring break and student assessments. Our next meeting will be 1:00pm Thursday, May 12, 2016 at the Allen St. Technology Center.

I’m excited to announce the Board of Education approved at their regular meeting on Monday April 18, 2106 the proposal for a One to One initiative in Dawson County. Phase 1 of the implementation will provide a device for Grades 6-8 and all teachers. The approved vendor for the One to One is Apple and we will be providing students and teachers with an iPad Air 2. The Google Slides presentation, explaining this One to One initiative can be viewed by clicking this link. As we move forward, it is important to understand the reason we are embarking on such an adventure. The Dawson County Schools Vision Statement states we are district committed to preparing students to compete globally. By providing one device per student we will create more opportunities for personalized learning and better prepare our students to be competitive as they matriculate to college, vocational school, or the work place.

In other news, the Board of Education approved a full time Coordinator of Instructional Technology at their regular meeting on Monday. Mr. Brian DeRose is coming back to Dawson County after being employed at Lambert High School in Forsyth County as an Instructional Technology Specialist and Marketing Education teacher. Mr. Derose has been successful in integrating technology in his classrooms and coaching other teachers with their technology integration efforts. Please join me in welcoming Brian back to Dawson County.

DCSS has many talented teachers and this section will highlight their efforts to integrate technology in their instruction and provide a resource for others.

Ellen Harrison, ELA Enrichment & Business Computer Science teacher at Riverview Middle School.

One word the best describes how I teach: Creating

Current mobile devices: Personal iPhone 5S

Current computer: MacBook Air

What’s on my desk or classroom? MacBook Air, Mac Mini, 28 iMacs, Smartboard and Projector

What apps, software or tools can’t you live without?

This year, I would have been lost without Schoology http://www.schoology.com. I have used the free version of the learning management system for three years, but on our current AB schedule and teaching a new course, Schoology became an indispensable tool to keep track of 12 sections of students and their work.

Schoology helped me:

• Focus students on their daily tasks

• Build formative quizzes that graded themselves and provided a straightforward way to provide review and remediation for retakes

• Build rubrics that students see while working on an ACES assignment (for example) and also allows me to mark it, attached to the students’ submission

• Streamlined and merge a web page and lesson plans.

• Provide parents a way to not only view plans and work, but to see their students’ products and progress

• Quit carrying home reams of paper for grading, because we used the submission dropbox for assignments.

I am looking forward to learning about and using the enterprise version, given the DCBOE decision to provide Schoology to all teachers. While I have been transcribing grades from Schoology to PowerSchool and Gradebook, the enterprise version will automatically sync those two tasks. The time saved will be a gift!

Some of my sixth, seventh and eighth grade students have downloaded Schoology to their phones and made use of the personal resource storage space to save and transfer their photos for use in their slide presentations, rather than just using photos from the Internet. They have used Quizlet https://quizlet.com/ links on their Schoology page to study vocabulary on the bus!

Where do you find more ideas for technology integration in your classroom?

I joined ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) http://www.iste.org/ and subscribe to several ongoing newsletters and blogs through that community. I also read Tech & Learning http://www.techlearning.com/default.aspx. I built a Twitter https://twitter.com/ account and followed a lot of Google educators and professionals I heard speak at the ISTE conference when it was in Atlanta. There is a lot of ongoing information there. But, many times, I Google http://www.google.com for resources.

What advice would you give other teachers on how to integrate technology in their classroom?

First - know and understand that no tech could replace a good teacher - and there are times when good teachers must tell students to put aside their devices.
Accept that there are some students who will still need scaffolding on paper. They may still need a list of tasks, a sequence of steps, a rubric to hold. They get scattered and lose their way. Try not to build layers of tech if it makes the students lose focus. Break down tasks like you always have.

Start with the lessons that already work well in your content area. With the answers to your essential questions in mind, think about how your students could produce something on their workstation or device that communicates their own constructed understanding of the standard. Give them some choice about the end result and how they will get there. It might be Google Slides https://www.google.com/slides/about/, a Prezi https://prezi.com/, Powtoon https://www.powtoon.com/, or Animoto https://animoto.com/ - or a quick video of the student teaching the standard, recorded on their device.

Understand there will be a few bumps in the road; try to bounce and roll on!

iPads are certainly in our future for teachers and students. Here are some great resources for you to consider as you prepare for this integration. Here are a number of links for you to explore and consider for your instruction.

If you are new to using an iPad or interested in learning more iPad skills, be sure to spend a little professional learning time and watch the 3 iPad Tutorials found below the QR code. They come from a great YouTube channel, Technology for Teachers and Students.

http://www.teachthought.com is a great place to explore and here is another useful link:

54 Flipped Classroom Tools for Teachers and Students http://www.teachthought.com/learning/blended-flipped-learning/54-flipped-classroom-tools-teachers-students/ that features apps that run on iPads and other devices in labs and classrooms.

As you consider what apps you will use on your teacher iPad or student iPads, here is another great list from Teachthought.com http://teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/technology/52-of-the-best-apps-for-classrooms/

As a teacher considering how to use iPads and Google Apps in our classrooms here is a website made by a second grade teacher and technology specialist Sandy Patterson http://www.soaringthroughsecond.com/ She has great Blog entries with illustrations and example YouTube videos. Watch her video, Tattle Form with Google Forms, for a great lesson on using Google Forms, iPads and QR codes, found below our newsletter QR code. She has a great lesson for iPad rules for second graders http://www.soaringthroughsecond.com/search/label/iPad

If you are going to use iPads in your classroom, QR codes are a powerful tool for students with iPads or even Smartphones, to use a QR code reader app and quickly go to a web address without keying it in a web browser.

Here are some ideas about using QR codes in your classroom by the TatyGoRaELT site https://tatygora.wordpress.com/2016/04/12/find-new-innovative-ways-to-use-qr-codes-in-your-classroom/ and here is a great PDF list by Tom Barrett of 40 more ways to use QR codes in the classroom http://aftech.pbworks.com/f/40_Interesting_Ways_to_Use_QR_Codes_in_the_Cla(1).pdf

All through this current school year Dawson Co. Schools staff have learned to implement Google Apps for Education into their work day and related tasks, from using Gmail to using Docs, Sheets, Slides and more. Starting in the fall, students will have Google accounts with access to these apps and powerful collaboration opportunities. We will find ourselves coaching and teaching our students how to use these tools in our classrooms and this is a serious responsibility. Luckily there are many resources available to help us with this task. Many resources can be found in past issues of this newsletter and many more can be found on the internet.

Here are some PDF documents provided by Google that are great resources to keep close by as a reference:

GMail Cheat Sheet

https://apps.google.com/learning-center/products/gmail/cheat-sheet/

Google Drive Cheat Sheet

https://apps.google.com/learning-center/products/drive/cheat-sheet/

Google Docs Cheat Sheet

https://apps.google.com/learning-center/products/docs/cheat-sheet/

Google Sheets Cheat Sheet

https://apps.google.com/learning-center/products/sheets/cheat-sheet/

Google Slides Cheat Sheet

https://apps.google.com/learning-center/products/slides/cheat-sheet/

Google Forms Cheat Sheet

https://apps.google.com/learning-center/products/forms/cheat-sheet/

A Tip of the Hat to Kim Dutton, media specialist at DCMS, for ensuring that all the technology on their campus is up to date and GMAS ready.

A Tip of the Hat to Dawson County technology department members Carol Helton, Karen Wilson and Barry Kimsey for preparing student devices, servers and network services for GMAS testing.

A Tip of the Hat to DCMS Counselor Becca Wilson who created an introduction video for Dawson County Junior High parents to see at parent night.

A Tip of the Hat to Nicki Harvey and Kim DeRose who are using Quizlet Live at https://quizlet.com/ to review for the GMAS.

A Tip of the Hat BMES's Kerri Whitmire and Suzanne Smith. BMES Principal Cindy Kinney reports "they have worked extremely hard to set up and make sure we have enough devices to do 100 % Online Administration of the Milestones Assessment. They have also taken care of trouble shooting issues now to help ensure that we have a smooth testing administration".

A Tip of the Hat to BMES teacher Stephanie Danuser and media specialist Melissa Ryerse. BMES ILT Kerri Whitmire reports " Stephanie Danuser & Melissa Ryerse have worked with our students and staff to create motivational testing videos for our student body. The students videoed using the iPads, and then used iMovie to create the movies to share with our school. It was a great learning experience for everyone involved, and the videos have turned out amazing".

A Tip of the Hat to DCMS 6th grade science teacher Amy Worley. Jeff Clapper, DCMS Principal reports "Amy is constantly utilizing technology in ways which engaged her students and make learning fun!"

A Tip of the Hat to Cindy Estes, Rebecca Madsen and Carol Helton for their efforts at RES. Linda Bearden, RES Asst. Principal reports, " thank you for all the support they have given teachers and students during the GMAS Practice Test. RES could not have done it without all of your support! Also a special shout out to all of our teachers at RES. I so appreciate you giving up your classroom computers to create labs for GMAS testing. I know this is an inconvenience but you all have supported this effort and Kim Bennett and I both appreciate you all so much."

iPads are certainly in the future all DCS teachers and for more and more of our students. Here is a great resource about using iPads in the classroom "How Can I Use My iPad For Teaching? Practical Ways to Get Started"

https://teachingwithipad.org/opinions-and-other-ipad-articles/ Some of the tips are a bit dated, do not worry with Drop Box, your Google account will allow you and your students, unlimited storage.

I follow a number of different teacher Blogs as part of my professional learning network and I ran across this great post about successful practices to help you be a great iPad Teacher https://teachingwithipad.org/2015/03/23/10-signs-that-you-are-an-excellent-ipad-educator/

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