ISTE 2018 Resources and Reflections

I've been back from ISTE for a week now and *almost* had enough time to reflect on the experience.

 It was a very busy few days, but it is still one of my favorites! Chicago was fun. It wasn't my favorite conference set up, but the non-conference food/fun was top notch.

We started with the pre-conference Seesaw Connect event. The opening Ignite Sessions were great and we made some great connections. Cara and I added several ideas from the opening session to our annual plane ride home list of ideas. (More on that later!)

If I present a session, my school will let me attend the conference. Knowing the ISTE conference acceptance rates I decided to submit multiple proposals. As luck would have it, all my proposals were accepted. It made for a hectic few days!

(Photo credit to @madbenjenmar)

Cara posted the link to resources from our AR + Green Screen = App Smashing Success session on her new blog. Be sure to check it out!

She also made this video for our session. It gives an overview of two of my favorite STEAM projects and collaborations.

I finished off Monday afternoon at the Tynker booth and then at the Google Teacher Lounge.

Here is the Tynker and Google Classroom: A Perfect Match! presentation I did with Daniel Rezac. Google had someone sketchnote each of the session in the Google Teacher Lounge. Post conference Google for Edu has been sharing a few of the sketchnotes on Facebook and Twitter each day. I cannot wait to see the sketch from my session!

Debbie and I presented Special Project Enrichment Courses: Giving Elementary Students a Choice in Learning on Tuesday. The resources are available here. After that poster I ran into Leslie Fisher in the bathroom. I overheard her talking about the next session she was presenting. I was disappointed that I didn't make it to any of her sessions this year due to my schedule, but I sent Debbie. Wouldn't you know it, she shared a good music resource for the session I recommended to our music teacher. 🎶

I had only 30 minutes between poster sessions. I was exhausted after 4+ hours on my feet, but I met some wonderful people. STEAM in Action is always one of my favorites to present.

I have to say one of my highlights was getting to see Nicole Rubin present during the Young Educators Ignite Session. This is just the first few seconds of her Ignite. I was in charge of recording and got a notification on my iPad that covered the time stamp at the top. I panicked and thought it was not recording when in fact it was recording. Oops! So for now the video is in two parts. Sorry Nicole!

I spent most of my time presenting and did not make it to many sessions, but I still have a list of takeaways. Last year Cara and I planned all the LEGO SPEC courses that we then presented this year. Here are our second annual ISTE reflections.

Links mentioned: 

Googsmacked  * Flipgrid * Merge Cube * Ozobot Certified Educator * LEGO Master Teacher * Certified BrainPOP Educator Program * Embed Code in Book Creator

Links mentioned:

TAG - Seesaw Ignite by Sophia Garcia Smith

Links mentioned:

Wonder Projects - Seesaw Ignite from Michelle Flicek

Everyday Excellence - Seesaw Ignite from Andy Leiser 

We also wrote out two pages of plans for our next big project ideas, but those aren't ready to share yet. Hopefully those will be blog posts of their own in the next year.

Another of my favorite parts of ISTE is meeting people and making connections. This year I got to meet some of my favorites IRL.

I've become a big fan of the #ShukesandGiff podcast.  I was the one that took this picture for them at their poster. I may have geeked out about about meeting them. I'm still disappointed I missed their Ignite sessions, but I think the idea behind their poster session may be a good fit for my school. We've been talking about documenting/sharing what we do using Google sites and their district has done a great job of doing just that.

I've long admired the projects that Tricia Fuglestad has shared on Twitter. I was thrilled when I got to talk to her at our AR + Green Screen poster. She even posted about one of my projects in her Ten Takeaways from #ISTE18 blog post. I have already tried out her idea for drawing with Keynote for iPad. I also have plans this summer to try out the DoInk Animation app. My 8-year-old has seen me playing with both of these tools and is begging to have a turn.

It was a busy few days, but I loved it. I've made new connections and am already making plans for next year!

Graphite by Common Sense

Spring break was a blur. We spent a few days with Mickey Mouse in Orlando. When we got back, we had family in town from four states. One cousin got married on Saturday. We had a bridal shower for another cousin on Sunday. It was fun, but we didn’t rest at all!

Every night this week I’ve planned to do a blog post. Every night something has come up. Oh, well!
I got an e-mail yesterday to let me know that I was approved to be a Common Sense Media Certified Educator. They sent on a badge for my blog.



I’m currently waiting for a blog redesign from A Bird in Hand Designs. I’ll add the badge to the side bar once I get my new look. I can’t wait!

One of the other sites I’m having fun with right now is Graphite.



From Common Sense Media, this site lets you search for reviews of apps/websites. It is a really neat idea.

I’d registered and written a field note before. Last night I came across this post. I decided to write two more field notes. As a result, I got an e-mail tonight with the code for a $25 Amazon gift card. The offer ends March 31.

I’ve started working on my application to be a Graphite Certified Teacher. I love sharing technology resources. I think it is a good fit!

Enjoy!

Common Sense Media Digital Citizenship

This week my fifth graders were on a field trip so I ended up with an extra planning period. I decided to use that time to work on my application for Common Sense Media’s Digital Citizenship Certification.

The application asks for documentation of how you have shared about the curriculum with the teachers at your school. I realized that I had done that, but I had not shared it clearly enough on my blog.  This post is not an application requirement. I’m not getting paid to post this. I just really think that digital citizenship is important, and I think Common Sense Media does a great job of giving teachers the free tools they need to do just that.



A friend shared a Common Sense Media newsletter with me last spring. She suggested that I sign up. Once I looked around the site, I fell in love with their K-12 digital citizenship curriculum. I remember being at a conference years ago talking about these same digital citizenship skills that no one is teaching. Who owns this? I decided that the STEAM Lab was the perfect place for digital citizenship.



My learning goal for my class this year is based on the ELA technology standard for each grade level. I use the elements of STEAM to teach that standard. Each of these lessons is linked to other ELA standards as well.

I was a little overwhelmed last fall so I decided to just teach the lessons as written. There were a few plans that I taught with low expectations. I was shocked at how much they enjoyed it! We had AMAZING conversations. I was surprised how many of our elementary students were I honestly felt like these lessons made a difference. It changed the way many of my students thought about their digital lives. From keyword searches to cyberbullying to copyright issues, these topics are part of our world today.



I started by printing the entire K-2 curriculum and the 3-5 curriculum. I keep them in a binder so that I have originals to make copies. I did not follow the scope and sequence, but picked the lessons that matched what I had going on. Days I was relocated to the Media Center due to construction in my classroom we did Digital Passport lessons on the library computer. On the other hand when I did not have access to computers, I decided to wait to do the keywords lesson.

Funny enough, I taught most of these lessons before I had computers in my room. They are designed to be as low tech or as high tech as you want/need them to be. One computer with a projector was perfect to guide discussions.



If you do have access to more, the Digital Passport is a website from Common Sense Media for grades 3-5. My students loved these games. The Twalkers game is the best I have ever seen for explaining the dangers of driving (or walking) while texting.  You should try it yourself. They have also released an iBooks version of the curriculum I plan to use in the fall.



The resources available make it idiot proof. They have included everything you need – videos, handouts, extension ideas, computer games to reinforce, and more. There are even resources for sharing with parents or other teachers.  It is well worth signing up and exploring these free resources.

* The pictures in the post were from a bulletin board display we did for digital citizenship week. My 3-5 students each created a Twitter strip with a tip or something they had learned about digital citizenship.

ClassTools.net Timer

This will be a quick one. I wanted to share a website I rediscovered this week. It is a musical web based timer from Classtools.net



We’ve been working on typing in the STEAM Lab. It is not their favorite thing to do, but we have to do it. I found that setting the timer for 5-7 minutes with classical music playing makes the whole process much less painful. My students know that I will reset the timer if they are not working. There was more typing and less talking.

I also use the timer for clean up time. You would be surprised how much faster students move while Mission Impossible is playing in the background!

One tip: I’d always picked my song based on the length. My husband played with the site and wanted to know why I didn’t just use the keyboard to adjust the time on the song I wanted. It took years for me to learn that.

On a separate note, please consider linking up your favorite St. Patrick's Day activity if you haven't already!

Clip Art: Sonia DeHart, Giftseasonstore

 

The linky will be up for another week. I am also giving my Sully Shamrock font to anyone who links up a St. Patrick's Day Post.

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Be sure to check out the others:

Five for Friday: The FETC Edition

I *should* be heading to bed right now, but I have several tabs open in my browser that I’m not ready to close yet. As a compromise to myself, I decided to blog about a few things I’ve discovered this week at FETC.

(I’ll be busy conferencing and driving back home, so I’m writing my Five for Friday on a Thursday night. )

1

educade.org

This morning we heard Lucien Vattel. He is CEO of GameDesk and founder of Educade. While I have dabbled with gaming in the classroom before, I had honestly tuned out previous mentions to this resource. When he started to show specific example during the keynote, I started frantically taking notes.

I already signed up for a free account and have filled my backpack with games and activities I want to try with my students. We saw examples of Motion Math, Dragon Box, Jason’s Rollercoaster, and Reach for the Sun being used in the classroom. I love how you can search for the games by age and topic!

2

BrainPop GameUp

Wednesday night at the exhibit hall opening event, I got to meet a celebrity.

For those of you who are not elementary teachers, that is Moby from BrainPop.  Today I went to a session on games and assessment. One of the resources mentioned was Game Up from BrainPop.



What impressed me most is that BrainPop has compiled games from other sources as well as their own creations. Again, these are easy to search and have many potential classroom applications.

3

Scan to Learn

I’ve been bit by the augmented reality bug. I am still so impressed! I posted about using colAR in the STEAM Lab earlier this week. I was even more impressed when they names colAR one of the four WOW resources at the Tech Share.

I plan to use Aurasma to add some augmented reality to our cardboard arcade, so I went to a session today about using augmented reality in the classroom.

Karen was fantastic. I do not yet have iPads in my lab, but I discovered some computer based AR sites, too. This video is one worth checking out.

I’m also thinking about using Heart Cam to give AR Valentines to my students. Nothing says, "Happy Valentine's Day!" quite like a virtual beating human heart from your STEAM teacher. I’m still working out the details, but I think it just might work!

4

Parallels Access

This was another WOW from the Tech Share. The idea is that you can remotely access programs from your Mac or PC on your iPad. The video explains it better than I can.

It is $49.99 for a year subscription, but as a conference attendee at the TechShare, I was given a subscription to try out through the end of the year. I’m excited to try it out once I get home. I’ll let you know how it goes!

5

The last one is too hard to pick, so I'll write about two. I guess that makes it Six for Thursday, but that's okay.

I went to an fantastic session on Google Apps. I just looked at the presenter info and discovered that one of the two presenters was Susan from The Digital Scoop.

Our eChalk subscription should be going live in a couple of weeks, so I was looking for ways to use Google Drive with my students. I was taking notes like crazy to keep up with all the fantastic things Jason and Susan have done with their classes. Thank goodness for Evernote!

I also went to a session about STEAM. I usually walk away from STEAM sessions disappointed because the presenter spent too much time talking about what STEAM is and not enough time talking about the ‘how’ and the available resources. Michael from 21Centuryedtech found a nice balance between the two. He said that he has a blog post coming up about STEAM resources that I can't wait to read.

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I’ve spent the last two nights in my hotel room pouring over the resources from the workshops, sessions, and speakers. I have quite the ‘to do’ list of things to try out when I get back.

I miss my two little ones and the Irishman, but I am going to enjoy one last night in a bed of my own without anyone to wake me up!

Math March Madness

I’ve mentioned before that I love SumDog. I gave a Tech Tuesday presentation to interested colleagues earlier this year. In the course of the training, someone mentioned having a tournament. I’ve been throwing around the idea all year. Now that March is here, it was time to act!

I managed to put together 16 teams from grades 1-6. I logged onto Sumdog and created teams based on each class. Then I entered an activity for each match-up. The two classes compete to have the highest average score. On Monday morning we will announce the classes that move to the next round in the bracket. Because the questions are adaptive, the students can compete across grade level for the highest number of correct answers.



I created this bulletin board to track scores daily. I used these awesome free basketball frames. I'm writing the scores on the teacher’s team sign using dry erase marker. The visual has been a big help to the students who weren’t too familiar with the bracket idea before this contest!



I often use SumDog contests in my classroom. I had monthly contests to find the “Top Turkey” and “Top Elf".” I offer the top 5 finishers a homework pass. To sweeten the deal I offer an extra homework pass for ever 5,000 correct answers. One month my top students answered over 15,000 math questions correctly. That is a LOT of math questions!



I created this little freebie that I use to award my “Top Dogs.” Click on the picture to download a copy for yourself!

While last year I did just fine with the free features, my school does now have a subscription to SumDog. For our summer challenge, the top student answered over 30,000 questions correctly. The numbers are impressive. The kids love the games. They will answer Common Core aligned questions for hours at a time. They do not view it as work – in fact they see time on SumDog as a reward! With numbers like that, I was able to convince my AP that it was worth the cost to get the reports and extra features.

This is not a sponsored post. I just really love using SumDog in the classroom and at home. I do not have to give nearly as many timed multiplication tests as I used to do. SumDog at home and school is a much less painful option!

Have you tried SumDog?

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I’m linking up my Spring Bulletin Board with a Techie Twist:

Happy Tuesday!

Links to Make You Boogie

I have a reputation at school for being a bit techy. I have loved following this linky the last couple of weeks, so I thought I would join in with a few of my favorite finds.

Up first is a website I use quite a bit for transitions. Need students to clean up from one activity and get out supplies quickly? ClassTools.net Timer is the answer.



What sets this one apart is the music. There is a drop menu of songs to choose from. Need a quick tidy? I recommend 57 seconds of Hawaii 5-0. Not long enough? Watch the kids scramble when you play 2 minutes and 30 seconds of Mission Impossible.

I keep saying I am going to try this with my husband. I wonder if 5 minutes and 37 seconds of Star Wars is enough time to do the dishes?

I also use this timer without the music for timed math tests. I enter my time and project it on the screen so students can track how much time is left as they work.

My other new favorite find is a bunch of YouTube videos perfect for a brain break. I found Koo Koo Kangaroo on Pinterest. The Irishman looked over at me while I was watching Dinosaur Stomp one night.

He couldn’t believe I was going to show that to my class. I did. They LOVED it. We have bookmarked all the Koo Koo Kanga Roo Dance Along videos, and we take a dance break 1-3 times a day.

Some of the favorites:

No Crust

LMNOP

A word of advice – the dance along videos are best for the classroom. One of the other third grade teachers did one of their regular videos by mistake and couldn’t figure out what the fuss was about.  I have them bookmarked and choose a student to decide which one we will dance to when we need a brain break.

What is your favorite site for a brain break?

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My  big project for the weekend was to set up a Facebook page for my blog. I'd love it if you would follow me there! I just read about posting freebies for Facebook followers and I hope to try that out in the next couple of weeks.

The Road to the White House – A Virtual Field Trip

The third and final presidential debate is coming to town in just over a month. With the first debate this week I thought I'd pass on a great resource for teaching about the debate process in the classroom.

 

(Click here for link)

My class was fortunate enough to get to participate in the "Road to the White House" program at Lynn University in person.

  

(I might be a little partial. The handsome Irishman interviewed in that clip is my husband.)

The university has posted his “The Road to the White House – A Virtual Field Trip” for 3rd & 4th Grade on their website. It includes lesson plans, printables, and ideas for teaching about debates in the classroom. He has even linked it to Common Core Standards. It is worth checking out!