Activity 9: Digital Citizenship

Scenario 2
Mr. Kirk is excited to use Google Apps for Education with his third grade students.  He jumps in with both feet and his classes are off and running.  Because he started so quickly, he never thought about putting policies and procedures in place.  After a few weeks, students are spending more time off task than on.  They are creating and sharing Docs as a way to bully each other, adding inappropriate comments in Google Classroom, and deleting or changing other students' work.  Mr. Kirk doesn't know what to do, so he suspends all technology use in his class, abandoning it completely and any of its benefits.

Before we do anything with students, whether using technology or not, it is part of our job in planning the activity to anticipate what might go wrong and plan for that.  As part of the preparation process we should be setting up policies and procedures that will ensure that students are engaged in an academic task that is meaningful to their learning while they are with us.  That is what their parents trust us to do and what we are paid for.   Mr Kirk needs to slow down, pull back and put some practices in place that will ensure that students are getting positives out of the technology.  He should not abandon its use all together.  After his mistake, he now knows what students will do wrong and he can train them how to correctly use Google docs and apps.  He has a good teaching opportunity in which students could help come up with the policies after some discussion. 

Scenario 4
Mrs. Janeway decided to have her middle school students create digital projects then use Snagit to create video presentations of their projects.  Mrs. Janeway discovered in the computer lab while her eighth grade students were creating their accounts that Snagit required parental permission for students under 13.  This didn't pose a problem for her eighth graders, but Mrs. Janeway panicked because the following period she planned to do the same activity with her sixth graders.


As an educator it is my job to make sure that the technology that I am using with students is appropriate for the age of the students that I am working with.  If Mrs. Janeway wants to use the Snagit app with her students, she will need to first discuss with her principal what she plans to gain by exposing her students to this application.  She then need to email or send a letter home to the parents of the students so that they can give permission.  She should have allowed at least two weeks for this process.  

I'm am SO excited to have a set of Chromes in my classroom as I really know that I will be able to enhance my instruction and have a more streamlined way to collect and analazye data so that I can provide even more timely feedback to students, but I AM REALLY NERVOUS too.  It comes with a lot of responsibility.  I'm new to a lot of the things that I want to use and I just don't want to go to fast and then end up like Mr. Kirk from above.  I know that we have a lot of talented people at EW that I can ask questions of that have used a lot of these platforms before.  I do wish Moundsview had a bare-bones technology or digital citizenship presentation that would help me to get started to make sure that I hit the main points and the must-dos for all.  

Activity 8: Assessment Part 2

Google Forms:
Wow!  I just learned a lot.  I am very excited to use forms in my classroom this year.  I just made a branching form.  I love that I can catch the students right away that are confused and have them watch an extra tutorial video.  Although I know that I can find tons of videos for free, I'd like to make some as well to best help my students.  I'm very excited to use this in my classroom.  I just did the beginning assignment, but look forward to learning more about forms when my brain is ready to handle all of the new information!

Unit 1 Lesson 1 and 2 Check-In

Activity 7: Assessment/Polling

Kahoot:  I have used Kahoot quite a bit in my classroom, but until now have just searched for quizzes that fit my needs and not made my own.  It was really simple to do and not all that time consuming.  I think that Kahoot provides a fun way to end class with a quick review.  I do not, however, think that it is a great teaching tool.  Some of the students get so focused on points and going fast that they just pick on of the multiple choice answers quickly and hope that it is right.  Also, sometimes the ones that are struggling with the concepts look at the screens of students who have already submitted and just pick what they did.  The time element make them feel pressured to just know the concept.  There isn't a chance for questions during the game for students who are struggling.

Link to my created Kahoot

Activity 6: Google Classroom

I really enjoyed exploring Google Classroom.  It is EXTREMELY easy to use.

I can not see myself using Classroom to have my students turn assignments in as I haven't been able to wrap my mind around how that could work in a math classroom, but I could see using it to post announcement about the assignments that are upcoming and have copies of the assignments if students need an extra copy.  I am wondering if the parents could have access to the assignments as well...if they could, it would be a way for them to stay involved.

Activity 5: Apps, Add-ons and Extentions

Add-ons
1) The google doc to form add on is lovely.  It is so nice to be able to take a formative check that we have already created and easily be able to make it into a form so that we can use it with our chrome books this year!  YEA!
  Practice Doc to Form
2) I also added the a highlight tool to make collaboration easier and g(math).

Extensions
1) One extension that I really like is Notable.  All PDFs open on notable and are easy to edit.
2) I am playing around with the musical timer extension.  My goal is to set it up so that music always plays during passing time.  It will be great to have the music play and not to have to actually go over to a device to turn it on and off.

Apps
1) I made a quiz on socrative and am very excited to use it.  It seems quite user friendly.  I only wish that I could see what the students see or at least practice a quiz.  I don't feel prepared to use it with students yet, but also am not sure how to play with it without having a class.

Activity 4

Google Document 

I have also put a ton on Notebook files, PDFs and Word documents into drive.

Reflections:

1) I use google drive all of the time in my teaching practice.  I collaborate with my co-workers as well as use it to organize and store all of my files.  I love it!

2) I haven't used drive a lot with my students.  I'm sure that I could use it more frequently in my Investigation class than in my regular math class.  Anytime I need the kids to make a spreadsheet, create a document or make a presentation, it will most certainly be on drive.

3)  Some negatives:

Students could make inappropriate comments on each other's work

Students could edit and ruin someone else's work

    Some positives

Students could help each other edit

Students can collaborate even when they aren't together

Activity 10: Collaborative Project

Activity 10