He's Makin' a List & Checking It Twice....

Need to mark off who is naughty or nice?   Or perhaps all of your holiday break to-dos?

Here are three Google options for you!


Google Keep 

Google Sheets

Google Tasks

Don't forget to double check all of your blessings too!  Have a great holiday break everyone!

Have a favorite font? - Make it a Default!

What are your "go-to" fonts in Google Docs? 

Wouldn't it be nice to have your most-used font as your default? 

Mine is now set to Cabin.  

See the steps below to change your Google Doc font to one of your favorite fonts!

1. Open a Doc and Choose your New Font Style, Size Etc.

2. Type some text and highlight it.

3. Select > Format > Paragraph Styles > Normal Text > Update Normal Text to Match

4. Select > Format > Paragraph Styles > Options > Save as my Default Styles

5. Open a New Doc and See if the Default Font has Changed.

Enjoy typing in your favorite font! Let me know if you have any questions!

Thankful for Rubrics

More in more in my teaching I have been finding the need to communicate detailed feedback to my students.  Simply marking items wrong on a test is not the only way I want to communicate to my students how they are growing.   I would love to turn the grading game into one of "leveling up" rather than "knocking down".

For this very reason many of us are incorporating performance assessments into our evaluation strategy toolbox. Rubric scoring can give more of a sense of achievement in its nature to see one acquiring skills rather than being knocked down by missed test questions.

For years I knew that rubrics were the tool I wanted to use to assess my students, but there was always some part of their development or employment that left a bad taste in my mouth.   Sometimes they just took too long to make, but premade rubrics were too vague.   I would get frustrated as well when the math just did not work out in the student's favor.  In addition they would often establish a "ceiling" to some of our best students.

As I continue to design, implement and revise the rubrics I use in my classroom, I wanted to open up the discussion about how you all battle with fairly evaluating student work.  Additionally I will use this Tech Tuesday to share out some of the resources I have found while taking courses, through blogs and during the ACTFL conference this weekend.   Please use the comments to share other things you have found and work for you in your classrooms.

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For Quick Rubric Design & Personalized Feedback: 

The Single-Column Rubric

Resources:

Edutopia: 6 Reasons to Try a Single-Point Rubric

Cult of Pedagogy: The Single Point Rubric

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To Weigh Categories & Auto-Calculate Scores

Rubric Tab

Resources:

Teacher Tech:  Epic Rubric on Google Sheets

Make a Copy of the Template 

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To Calculate Fair Numerical Grades from your Traditional Rubric

Roobrix

Resources:

Roobrix Score Calculator*

Common Errors with Rubric Scoring

Turning a 4-Point Score into a Letter Grade

*Change your settings so that the "1" has your desired value (e.g. 50%, 60%, 70%).

There are certainly more tools and ideas out there such as Google Forms & Orange Slice.  

Google Classroom is even coming up with their own rubric feature that is currently in beta testing, so be looking forward to that feature as well! 

Comment below with your tips & techniques for rubric scoring. 

As always reach out if you would like me to come and work with you on your next rubric. 

NEW Easy Grade Google Form Questions

Google Forms Quizzes are awesome because they:

• self grade
• give quick formative assessment data
•  easy to edit, enhance & adapt
• can be in "locked" mode on district Chromebooks 
• Ss cannot access other websites while taking the quiz

And, all was well and fine when questions elicited only one correct response.   However, when an open-ended question was given, teachers were manually scrolling through individual responses or using the spreadsheet to view answers.

Both were cumbersome and time consuming.  Leading us to limit ourselves to DOK Level 1 style questions when using Forms.

But the wait is now over!  

In your Google Form "Quiz" Responses you will notice a new button called "Question".

By choosing "Question" the teacher can grade each open-ended response quickly by going down through the list.  Evaluating all of the class's responses for the same question at once.  

Scores are automatically tallied in the total.  

The grading process is similar to those of Actively Learn and EdPuzzle.

There are options to:

• quick check "correct" or "incorrect" 
• give partial credit
• add feedback

Now go back in those Google Forms and add your Open-Ended questions!  
Analyze., Explain., Predict., Compare., How?, Why?, Elaborate., etc

The Google Classroom QUESTION

The Google Classroom Question feature is quick, easy and versatile.   If you have a written assignment that involves only a paragraph or two of text, it is worth looking into. 

Teachers can easily scroll through responses, assess and give feedback without opening 30 documents.









Teachers at SMASD are also using the Question feature to provide a platform for classroom discussion.   Simply turn on the "Students Can Reply to Each Other" switch.   Note: Cool thing is that students can only see peers' answers AFTER they themselves have provided a response.

• History teachers have had students make comments and ask questions while watching a video. 
• Language teachers have used questions and replies for interpersonal speaking tasks.  
• ELA teachers have used the discussion board as a place to post presentations/projects.  Classmates are required to view 2 projects, and post reactions and questions to them.  Great alternative to having every student present in front of the class! 

See how our own Mrs. Meeker is having her students peer review presentations via Google Classroom Questions.  Students answer with a link to their project.  Peers reply with 2 things they learned and a question they have. 

Google Classroom Questions are a great no-prep solution for quick responses, feedback and discussion boards.  

How have you used Questions in your classes?   Comment below. 

Want a helping hand setting up your first question? Contact jtamburlin.youcanbook.me

Creating a YouTube Playlist

One of the popular tips from the Google Session during the October In-Service was creating a YouTube Playlist for your classes.

YouTube Playlists are collections of videos to help you organize them by content or topic.  These lists can be private to you, or can be shared with your classes and/or colleagues.   They are live lists, meaning that those who have the link will see when you update the content by adding or deleting videos.

Ideas for YouTube Playlists:

- Unit Planning
- Flipped Learning

- Videos to Help with a Research Project

- Future Ideas for Activities to Try

- Tips and Tutorials

- Themed Background Music for your Lesson

Watch this video below to see how to create a playlist and add videos.

Are you missing the option to create a new playlist???

Watch this video below to see how you can quickly change your YouTube settings to allow for playlists by creating a channel.

*Special thanks goes out to Mrs. Jackson & Mrs. Gabler who helped to solve this mystery for those who could not create playlists during the in-service.

Tech or Treat

Today finds me hanging out in the flexible learning space in the SMAMS Library.

The event is a "Tech or Treat" PD opportunity, focused on differentiated learning.

There are three learning stations at "Tech or Treat":

• Google Forms
• For Mastery
• Students have to get all of the answers correct before submitting

• For Remediation & Challenges
• <Go to Section Based on Answer>
• Upon answering incorrectly, students can be directed to a worked example or tutorial, before attempting to answer again.
• Upon answering correctly, students can level up to a harder question

• Quizalize
• For Mastery
• Turn on the "Mastery Mode" so that missed multiple choice questions will be re-entered into the quiz again, and again until the student gets them right. 

• For Remediation & Challenges
• Based on the student's achievement, he/she will be sent to an appropriate follow-up quiz, activity, video, etc. 

• Differentiation Design 
• What are you going to differentiate in your lesson... 
• the content?
• the process?
• the product?
• How are you going to differentiate... 
• by student interest? 
• by skill level? 
• by learner profile? 
• Are you going to include...
• centers?
• flexible groupings?
• student choice?

Then...  will you find your groupings by a pretest or something else?   Will there be direct instruction at all?  What will that look like?   What happens after formative assessment results are taken? 
How will the summative assessment be conducted? 

A differentiated lesson plan has so many layers and potential combinations of strategies.   The MS is creating a Differentiation Design Team of teachers to pilot some design frameworks this year.

Are you interested in building a lesson plan this way for your department or grade level?  Reach out to me and we can work though this together!  jtamburlin@smasd.org 

In the meantime please stop by the MS Library for our second day of "Tech or Treat" tomorrow, Wednesday, October 30th.  Here are some pictures from what we have in store!  

SMA Device Care

As more and more devices roll out here at SMASD, we need to be more and more careful on how we use and transport our iPads, Chromebooks & Laptops.

The SMAMS Geek Squad Tech Assistants have come up with the following device care video.  Please take two minutes to view and share it with your students.

If you would like to print any of our slides to use as posters in your classroom, you can see the slideshow HERE.

Special thanks go out to:

*ACS: Advanced Computer Solutions for their tips and advice.
*Mr. Micale's 3rd Grade Class for their expertise and best practices.
*Mrs. Defilippi's SCORE period for their willingness to demonstrate.
*SMAMS Geek Squad Tech Assistants for putting this slideshow together.

Chromebook Tips & The Geek Squad

More and more Chromebooks are finding their way into our classrooms.  In today's TechSpot I want to highlight some of the keyboard and touchpad functionalities of the device.   As teachers working on mainly Windows machines, it makes it challenging to offer tips to students as they are working, especially at the elementary level. 

Below I have remixed a resource from another Google Trainer that illustrates some of the key functions, shortcuts and, my personal favorite, touchpad capabilities! 

Consider sharing this resource with your students by: 

• displaying it through your projector during free time
• to allow for self-discovery/exploration learning
• print the poster and display for students to reference while working
• print on 11 x17 paper if possible
• if not Print > More Settings > Scale > Fit to Page
• post on Google Classroom as a "Material" 

As always you will be fascinated with how quickly the kids can pick up on these tips!

I especially love the touchpad tips, consider starting with those!  

Click HERE to open the infographic in Google Drawings.

Feel free to File > Make a Copy of this document to save for yourself. 

Have other questions about the way your devices operate?   

• SMAMS has started a Tech Assistants - Geek Squad who are putting together resources to help teachers and students work with our devices. Check out what we have so far, and offer ideas for new posts in the comments below!   Once we get a good bank of resources we will start sharing them in a common space.  

Click HERE to open the site.  

Note this is a working brainstorm sheet, students are still figuring out permissions, etc. 

October 2019 In-Service Presentations

Maybe, just maybe, by now we have recovered from Monday and Tuesday's In-Service. 

Truly a case of "So many great ideas & so little time." 

Most of our presenters have been gracious enough to add links to their resources to this spreadsheet. 

Use it to refer back when implementing a new idea you learned, or to take a tour of the sessions that you were unable to attend.

As always feel free to contact me or any of the presenters as you bring in your newfound ideas to your classroom!  We are all here for you!

Open Spreadsheet by Clicking HERE

App Smashing with Docs & Keep to Help with Writing

Last week as I was running around being techie, I came across students in Mrs. Hart's class on their Chromebooks.

Below was what I saw on a screen:

Not only was this fantastic doc template pushed out through Google Classroom's 

"Make a Copy for Each Student"  so she could watch their progress as it happened but.... 

The students were using Google Keep notes to guide their writing, right there within Docs!

To my understanding, students 

• went to keep.google.com to create their notes, while doing research much like index cards
• categorized the notes by "label" and/or "color" to be their Health Project notes
• opened the notes while writing within docs

Also - you will see the checkboxes in the top note!  I am envisioning this note to be pushed out by the teacher as the "must-includes" for the assignment. 

More...
- Don't forget notes can be collaborative! Students can share notes for group projects.  Ts & Ss can have feedback dialogue within a shared note.
-Split screen will work on all our devices for the research portion.

Toby Tab Collections

Want to save hours a week?   Check out Toby for Chrome!

This summer while attending some online meetings for my graduate classes, I noticed that my instructor had a super-organized home screen.  He had links to websites, presentations, worksheets, etc categorized by the courses he taught, including his HS Biology courses. 

Toby is a Chrome Extension, that creates a homepage for you where you can save and organize frequently used tabs. Save them by course, unit, or lesson!  Also, this screen will follow you from classroom, to classrom, Surface to home computer, etc.  Never be anywhere without your links! Sound interesting click HERE to try it out!

Need more convincing?  Join me on this tour of how I use Toby from day to day, as well as see how to build, edit and move a collection.  I promise the investment is worth the returns with this one!

Let your voice be heard! - October's In-Service

Have you ever heard of an EdCamp? 

EdCamps are participant-driven, informal learning opportunities for teachers.  

In a traditional EdCamp all participants show up in the morning and brainstorm ideas of topics that they would like to know more about.  After a list of topics is created, particpants who are well-versed in the proposed areas will volunteer to facilitate each discussion.

From there a schedule is made and particpants attend the sessions of their choice. 

EdCamps are free, and we have some great ones in our area: 

• EdCamp DuBois - in July @ DuBois Area Middle School
• GCC EdCamp - in April @ Grove City College
• EdCamp Happy Valley - in March @State College Area HS

Our October in-service is a spin-off of this model.  We are just crowdsourcing ideas and presenters in advance to create a schedule that will logistically meet our needs.

Dr. Wortman has put the word out for presenters.  Click HERE to volunteer your expertise.

Below is a Padlet I have created for everyone to brainstorm ideas of what they would like to learn.  

Before you make your "choice", let your "voice" be heard so your needs/curiosities 

can be addressed in the session offerings.

Hit the "+" to add an idea.   

Give it a "thumbs up" if there is a topic you would like to see on the list of sessions. 

Your voice may just inspire someone to lead up a session.

Thank you for your participation in making the October In-Service a meaningful learning opportunity!

Click HERE to open the Padlet in a new Tab.

(all votes and ideas are anonymous)

Write on that site!

Most of us here at SMASD are working with ActivBoards and pens to project and teach.

When it comes to writing out notes & examples for our students with the pen, 

we head to ActivInspire for our digital whiteboard. 

But, what happens if we want to annotate a resource that is on the web, 

in a tab in our Chrome browser? 

#1 You have the option to "Desktop Annotate" within ActivInspire

• Pros: 
• Availablity of  the entire ActivInspire toolbar
• Easy to switch back to ActivInspire when finished annotating
• Cons: 
• ActivInspire must be open
• The pen marks do not "scroll" with your webpage

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#2 Install "Page Marker" Chrome extension

• Pros: 

• Get a pen, without leaving the browser
• Easily save/download your annotations as an image 

• for any student needing a copy of notes, Google Classroom, or for your records
• Annotations will scroll with you on most webpages.
• Cons: 
• scrolling not available for Google Docs
• work around File > Publish to the Web > Open url

Page Marker certainly isn't a tool I use everday, but it is nice to have in your back pocket for a quick note while teaching, demo-ing, creating tutorials etc.

What tricks have you found when teaching to quickly markup your screen? 

Let us know in the comments below! 

Guardian Email Summaries in Google Classroom

For many of us Google Classroom is our go-to base for assignments and resources for our students.

Without their students' login information, parents cannot see what assignments are coming up nor resources you have posted.

Under the "People" section in Classroom you have the option to "invite" guardians.  Some of your students may already have guardians listed.   To invite them all you need to do is add in their email address.  Open House / Parent Teacher conferences are a good time to get those addresses.  Otherwise they are in eSD.

How to get parent email addresses in eSD

Check to See if Summaries are Enabled!

At times by default they are turned off....  be sure to turn them on for your courses!

Note: A student only has to be added to 1 class.  Therefore if all homerooms, or advisory periods created a classroom, and added the guardian email addresses, all students would be covered, and it would carry over from year to year.

Once the email address is added the guardian will be offered the option to receive periodic summary emails for their student's Google Classrooms.  Parents will not have full access to your classroom, they simply will get an update on Missing Assignments, Upcoming Assignments & Announcements.  

Check out this video to see how a parent signs up.

Examples of Summaries: 

eSD in a TAB & Roster Grids

Happy Tuesday Everyone!   Welcome back.  eSD has certainly been the focus for us all these first few weeks on the technology front.  Therefore we will be periodically offering tips for its use as well as other instructional tech tools.

Last week I sent this tip to a handful of SMASD Teachers via email to see if it was worthwhile.  Shortly after, an inbox full of "thank yous" made me realize that this is something we should share on the Techspot.

Get eSD Teacher Connect in a TAB.

When we open eSD it opens first in a tab in our browser, but then when we click the Teacher Connect button in the upper right, we are forced to work out of a new window, which can be cumbersome.

Check out this video to see: 

• How to get your gradebook/attendance in a tab in your browser
• How to go straight to Teacher Connect (gradebook) bypassing the main eSD My Page.

Print a Roster Grid

I believe this was touched upon in our training, but how quickly I can forget.  Thanks to Paula for figuring this one out!

Check out this video to see: 

• Print a blank roster with a grid to hand mark grades, attendance, participation etc.

Slowly but surely we will get all this down!  

Did you figure out a trick ?  Need help with something ?  Leave a comment below! 

End of Year Tech Check! - Save the Files!!

Only one more Tuesday to go!

The year has surely flown by.  You have all done so many great tech-infused activities in your classrooms, that we want to be sure we have them safe and secure for next year!  Take the following steps to not be a victim of file-loss in September!


1. Save your Files - Your teacher machine & Surface may go through re-imaging this summer. Be sure that you don't have anything saved locally (e.g. on your Desktop).  All of your files need to be in your Z Drive on the network and/or your Google Drive to be sure they are safe. 

Let me know if you would like me to stop by and see that you have everything where you need it!

2. Archive Your Google Classrooms- Start with a clean slate next year, and avoid any unnecessary Ss comments, submissions etc over the summer.  You WILL still have access to the classrooms next year for reusing posts, etc. 

3. Get your To-Do lists ready. Google Keep and Google Calendar are great resources for planning out the start-of-year reminders.  Set yourself an alert for those first in-service days about the great ideas you have to improve your classes in 2019-2020!

Have a great end of the school year.  

Let us know what you need 
& any ideas you want to brainstorm for the fall.