New Year, New Beginnings

Its day three of a new year here at the Delaware Area Career Center and there have been quiet a few changes from last year. Our staff has been reorganized in preparation for our building merger and we are now in three separate teams. One of the focuses this summer for our south campus team was how to better prepare students to be successful in our unique learning environments to begin the year(see earlier posts if you are just joining our journey). Reflecting back on the first two days I think we did a much better job of preparing students to jump in to our system. Heres what our schedule looked like for those days. Disclaimer: We only have students for half of the day, the other half they are in their labs so we have about a 3 hour window with them. 

Day One:
1. Started with formal introductions of our staff and administrators

2. Split our group in half. One half was given an orientation and login information on how to use the Chromebooks. The other half did some great team building and get to know you activities to break the ice.

3. Once we switched we broke students into 4 different groups. In these groups we had each one attend a different session 1. Session one was on policies and how to start their day 2. Session 2 was with their math instructor going over class set up on Blackboard or Google Classroom and getting them going on their first assignment. 3. Session 3 was with the science instructor doing the same. 4. Session 4 they completed learning style inventories and another get to know you activity.

4. With only about 30 minutes left until lunch students were given time to complete their first math videos and assignments

Now I know of these sessions don't seem like the most exciting but I think overall we had a good mix of team building activities getting students out of their seats and giving them the necessary skills and knowledge to get them going.

Day 2 was more tech focused and went as follows:

1. We again started them with some team building activities. We wanted to get them talking to one another and make sure they were awake. Our new English teacher, Mrs. Friece,  had some great activities that had the kids laughing and talking.

2. We again broke them into 3 smaller groups. In these sessions we went over the basics of Google Docs, Classroom and Drives as well as having them download some different extensions that we thought would help them be successful.

3. After our tech sessions we split the group in half and had them switch between their English instructor and myself,  their government teachers since we are the only ones who have every student in our setting. After quick intros, discussion on expectations and class set up we gave students the last hour or so to get to work and ask questions.

Moving around and talking to students after all this they seemed to be comfortable with our way of doing things and were really excited to get going. Day three seems to be a reflection of that sentiment as they have really gotten after it and seem to be comfortable in our new learning environment but of course we are in the honeymoon stage :-)

There were lots more changes from last year that we will be sure to update you on over the next week or so. Hope everyone's year starts off as well as ours did.

Hears to a new year and a new beginning.

Three Reflections On Year One In The Open Space

Year one in our open academic setting with a full staff is in the books and was a resounding success. Enrollment is up,  our space is being expanded and the student exit surveys show a high satisfaction with the set up, delivery and approach. That being said there is always things that can be improved. As we move into the summer here are some things we as a team will be reflecting on:

Testing
One of the biggest issues this year with students working at their own  was having a quiet space to take assessments and an easy place to monitor students to maintain test integrity. Some ideas we had to remedy this:

1. Dedicating part of the new space to be a quiet work/test area monitored by different staff members throughout the day
2. Dedicating a specific chunk of the day as "Quiet Hour" where the whole space would be quiet to complete any assessments that required monitoring.

We are waiting to see the new spaces before making a final decision.

Pull Out Sessions

A three hour block of time can be quiet awhile for kids to be working independently on various tasks. A goal for next year will be finding the right balance between independent work days and days that have more direct instructions. Feedback from the students show that they would like to meet as a class at least once or twice a week. As we meet this summer finding the right balance will definitely be something to discuss. 

Cross Curricular Projects/Activities

The open concept has provided more opportunity for collaboration amongst peers than I have had combined in my 5 years of teaching. The team did a fantastic job in monitoring students and gaging progress throughout the year. An area for us to improve on is creation of projects or activities that incorporate the different disciplines within one project, unit or activity. Personally, I'm looking forward to being able to collaborate with the English teachers next year. My schedule this year had me in the opposite campus as my English counterpart. Being in the same space with 2 next year will be great especially with the heavy focus to the examination of primary sources. 

Another great resource we will have next year is a STEAM lab with a 3D printer. I would love to design a project that ends with the creation of something with the printer, nothing like making student learning tangible.

Have any great cross curricular projects or ideas for a 3D printer? Share them with in the comments or on twitter.

@mrbhale

@mathmitchellr

@MrsBKelley1

The Dynamics of Desmos

If you teach math in a blended environment and have never used Desmos, you are missing out!



As an Algebra 2 and Precalculus teacher, I've embedded this free online graphing calculator into the curriculum. I taught the students how to use it (which doesn't take much time because it's really intuitive!) and encourage them to use it in lessons.

Though I could spend days on this topic, for now I'll provide you the basics. Keep in mind this resource does so much more than just graphing functions, which I encourage you to explore.

This year in Precalculus, students have used Desmos to explore the following types of functions -

Polynomial, Exponential, and Radical 
 

Conic



Trigonometric


Parametric


Polar


As mentioned before, this is just a small taste of the power of this FREE online resource. Enjoy!

@MathMitchellr

Password Protect using Forms:

Google Forms is a great tool for assessments. One issue that came up in our digital learning environment is giving Quizzes/Tests that students can only access in class with teacher permission. The way we work around this is to password protect these quizzes/tests. Here’s how:

1. Create a text question called "Password:" .

2. Select Advanced Settings from the bottom left corner. Then select Data Validation.

3. Select Text and Contains

.

4. Put your Password in the TEXT field. 

Custom error text allows you to create a message that appears if the password is typed incorrectly.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Final note: I post my quiz on the page after the password. The Add section button at the right allows you to create a second page to your form.

Happy Googling #nextgenhs - @Mathmitchellr

Easy tool for making the switch to Google

A lot of educators and administrators see the task of converting all their documents to Google formats to be daunting. With this quick 4 step  process is made easy.

1. First open up your Google Drive.


2. Select the cog in the corner of your drive

3. Next, select the "Settings" option

4. The setting menu will then appear, from here make sure the box next to "Convert uploaded file to Google Docs editor format.

Once this setting is enabled all Word documents and PowerPoints uploaded to Google Drive will automatically convert and your work will be completely ready to implement. Big time saver and a big hit with our staff who thought it would take too long to convert all their hard work.

Making the Switch To Google

Getting a staff on board to make a switch to a new technology can be incredibly difficult. Especially when that group is a made up of a high percentage of "seasoned" educators. Our small district had been using the Blackboard Learning Management System (LMS) for the past 5 or so years. Many of our staff had slowly been building curriculum on the LMS. Starting in the 2014-2015 I piloted the HP Chromebook 14 with a group of freshman as well as some of our other teachers piloted it with a small group of 25 seniors. With the success of our pilot and the opening of our new academic area our school decided to go essentially all in with Google Apps for Education.

How we got buy in...

The original pilot was a lot of trial and error. Our biggest mistake was not seeking out any formal professional development. We thought since we had a working knowledge of Sheets, Docs and Slides we would be good to go. It took us a while to realize the great potential in Classroom and Forms. 

Near the end of our pilot year, we realized the potential we had in changing our school and the way we delivered content. We committed to buying more Chromebooks for both campus and we were on our way. 

Our first step was creating a "Google Team." This consisted of teachers who had either incorporated GAFE apps into their classroom during the pilot or were comfortable enough to help other instructors learn the basics of the apps. The group was led by one of our tech department members who has been one of the most helpful an supportive people I have worked with in education. Having a tech member on our side when the rest were very pro Microsoft was a Godsend.

Using the "Google Team" and a generous stipend from the school we offered a 2 day teacher training day before the school year began. During our two day together we covered the basics of all things Google. From Sheets, Docs and Slides to the newer Hangouts and the almighty Classroom At the conclusion, each teacher had the basic tools needed to start their journey into all things Google. 

Along with attending our training before the school year, teachers were required to meet these basic requirements throughout the year to qualify for the stipend:

1. Utilize Google Forms as a formative assessment tool in the classroom.
2. Create a Google Site or a Google Classroom to centralize information for your students.
3. Create a Google Calendar that is shared with your students. Include assignment due dates and other
reminders that are pertinent to your class.
4. Create and facilitate opportunities for student collaboration in Google Drive.
5. Use GAFE to collaborate or share with your PLC’s and other teacher teams.
6. Explore Apps and Extensions that may be useful in your classroom, and find a way to integrate them.

With these goals in mind we were off and running with our first full year of school wide access to GAFE. Each student and staff member was given their Google account at the beginning of the year with no mandated expectation of use. At the beginning of the year, GAFE was used primarily by almost our entire academic staff. Some much more so than others but by the end of the first quarter all academic teachers had attempted to use it at least a handful of time. Second quarter is when things really took, as lab instructors, many of whom did not buy in at the beginning, began to see the ease of use and the opportunities. They saw how quick the chromebooks were to log in and how students were quickly proficient in using them. Many of them who had not come to the before school training were now interested. They began asking questions, meeting with our "Google Team" after school and on planning periods and asking for more PD. Now we had them...

Next Steps

Half way through the year, we provided a Google Workday. The concept was just an open day where staff was able to meet with a "Google Team" member and work on whatever they wanted to continue the journey to all things GAFE. Topics ranged from how to upload files into Drive to how to differentiate for students using Google Classroom. Many of our instructors, both academic and lab, were hooked. Since this training, the chromebooks we have available for any teacher or student are signed out before school even starts. Lab instructors are lining up waiting to get their hands on them. This is exactly how we wanted it to spread, organically as they saw the benefit not forced and mandated. 

Next Year

We are looking to grow the use even more. We have around 80% of our labs using the chromebooks weekly, some who incorporated technology sparingly in the past so we feel we've been pretty successful from that stand point alone. Two labs have decided to actually write the purchasing of chromebooks into their student fees so that every student, both full day or half day will have access. We're also planning more work days in the future to hopefully have 100% buy in. For the more veteran "Googlers" we are continuing to self evaluate and look at add ons and apps that can further the educational experience for our students. We will sit down sometime before the end of the school year and finalize a plan moving forward. Lots of exciting stuff to come, more blog posts as they come.

Quick advice for those looking to take the Google plunge

1. Create a team of "experts" who work well with other staff members and are passionate about ed tech
2. One of the biggest complaints I hear from educators is "I don't have the time," find time in your PD schedule to dedicate to just working. It was a big hit with our staff and we saw things take off after this day. 
3. Level your PD for staff. We provided everything from beginner sessions to advanced sessions to keep everyone engaged.
4. Get buy in from tech staff from the beginning having these guys on board from the start makes things go much smoother. 

Good luck and feel free to contact any of us for further advice...Happy Googling!