Soaring Around the World!

With the start of a new school year comes a new set of challenges for our students and staff.  One of the major challenges for us as a school is ensuring the rigor of our curriculum is commensurate with the expectations of the Common Core State Standards.  Our staff quickly saw that the path to this more robust set of skills could not be achieved by relying solely on the tried and true methods of the past.  What our teachers started over the Summer of 2013 was truly remarkable.

Willard teachers gathered together over the summer months to collaboratively plan a themed curriculum that connects to our PBIS model of "SOAR Like An Eagle (i.e., where SOAR is an acronym for Show Respect, Ownership, Attitude, and Responsibility.)"  During the 2013-14 school year, Willard is "Soaring Around the World!"

Every grade level has chosen a specific continent to focus on, and students will be researching climate, native animal species, different maps (e.g., topographical, geopolitical, etc.), languages, and the cultures and traditions found in the countries located on that continent.  To this end, Willard is looking to set up Skype chats with classrooms on each continent!  We have established a Skype lesson, and are eager to make connections with students around the world.  Please do not hesitate to join our lesson or contact us via email if you are interested in connecting with us via a Skype chat.

[Insert School Name] App

A few weeks ago, I detailed my first adventure with app creation.  Knowing that my staff and I were going to have to ramp up our implementation of the Common Core State Standards and also knowing that states across the country have already created tools to facilitate implementation of the standards, I developed an app, CommonCoreResources, that is intended to organize and identify the many tools that are being used across the country.

To build the app, I used The App Builder, which is a very intuitive and user-friendly tool.  To be truthful, most of the work involved was in gathering information and planning the layout, not in actually building the app itself.  With the minor exception of having to insert some HTML code into text fields to insert links, the tool contained absolutely everything I needed.

The CommonCoreResources app provides some reference points for my staff within the larger context of a professional development program.  It was only when the dust settled on this effort that I began to realize some other potentially promising opportunities for a school app.  A Willard School app, which has been completed and is awaiting launch, offers the following:

• Much like the CommonCoreResources app is designed to be a one-stop-shop for all things Common Core, the Willard School app serves a similar function relative to information about Willard School.  Any announcements and upcoming events can be shared with the school community and updated immediately.
• The app provides increased communication and contact with our school families.  While I make weekly calls to parents to provide an overview of the upcoming week, the app provides our families instant access to any school-related information, whenever they are looking for it.  It ensures our doors are always open to them.
• Although I am looking at Schoology as an exciting option for our school's Learning Management System (that offers a plethora of communication options), the app also provides increased contact points for our staff, both with our families and with each other.

In short, there are lots of benefits for having an app for your school.  It is fairly easy to create and update using The App Builder.  I'll keep you posted on how the app is received by the school community once it's launched.  Also, the logo above was created using the InstaLogo app.  Design elements are particularly challenging for me, and although a bit pricey, the app did produce exactly what I was looking for with minimal hassle, which made it worth the cost.

Doctopus

In a previous post, I explored the script Flubaroo and how it streamlines assessment creation and grading in Google Docs.  Flubaroo and Doctopus were both buzzwords that I initially heard about from other tech friends.  They seemed like things I should learn and know about, so at a recent conference I attended a session on Google Docs and the Common Core presented by Mark Fijor.  At the session, I learned enough about Doctopus to know that I needed and wanted to know a lot more.  I finally had a chance to explore a bit with Doctopus and see just how helpful it can be in distributing, collecting, and organizing content in Google Docs.

So what is Doctopus and how do you get started?  Doctopus is a script that can be added to a spreadsheet in Google Docs that can help you assign work to students and send email notifications to students with your grades and personalized feedback.  The first thing you'll need to do is create a class roster (with emails for notification) in a spreadsheet in Google Docs:

  Create your assignment in Google Docs.  Create a copy of your class roster spreadsheet (preferably with the assignment name in the title:)

Next, create a folder with the name of the assignment.  Now, you are ready to insert and install Doctopus:

Once installed, Doctopus will walk you through four steps to get set up.  Step 1 establishes how to want to share your assignment: groups, individually, individually but differentiated, or whole class:

Step 2 prompts you to choose what to copy and distribute by identifying the file you want to share, which is preferably stored in assignment folder.  Step 3 asks you to choose your destination folder and to set up file naming and notifications.  If you have set up a folder already (in a previous step) simply use that folder name for your assignment, and establish naming convention for the submitted student assignments, e.g., Student Last Name + Title, etc.  There is also a prompt for the email notification subject line and a personalized note to include with the email message.

Step 4, the last step, reviews your settings and gives an overview of notification email.  When you click "Run Copy and Share", the Doctopus script runs, and the spreadsheet opens with links to the students' work, when it was last edited, and adds columns to populate grades and individualized feedback that can be emailed to students.  You can also attach a Goobric rubric to the assignment (which I will probably investigate in greater detail in a future post.)  As a way of visually summarizing all of this information, I created the following semi-flowchart in the Explain Everything app:

I am definitely excited about sharing Doctopus with my staff.  It seems as though what Flubaroo was to multiple-choice and true-false assessments, Doctopus is to extended- and constructed-response assessments, as well as a valuable tool for Google Docs organization!

New App: CommonCoreResources

Over the course of the past year, I have had many conversations with staff about the implications of the heightened expectations of the Common Core State Standards.  Invariably, the conversation turns to questions about tactics (e.g.,How do we approach this work?) and strategy (e.g., How exactly does our work need to change for students to meet the expectations of the Common Core?)  While I do believe that there is no formulaic, uniform answer that will work for all people in all places, I also believe that everyone, everywhere is working very hard trying to figure out the answers to the same questions.  Wouldn't it benefit us all to have a look at the good work that is out there and use it as needed to inform our professional practice?

And so, this week I visited all of the state Department of Education websites.  Some states have done truly remarkable jobs at creating valuable, informative resources that support teachers' work in implementing the Common Core.  Other states have...published links to the great work that the aforementioned states have done.  (Cough, cough.  Ahem.)  I added in links to resources from places like the CCSSO, Achieve The Core, ASCD, and many others.  The goal was to create a one-stop-shop for teachers looking for tools to support their practice, ranging from PD materials to Units of Study/Curriculum Maps to Assessment Resources.

I used www.theappbuilder.com to create my app.  It was very intuitive and easy to use.  Most of the work was finding the content and constructing a plan for how to lay it all out.  TheAppBuilder tool made the construction of the app very easy indeed.  I had to learn a little bit of HMTL when trying to insert links into text description fields in the tool, but aside from that, TheAppBuilder was very user friendly.

I owe a great deal of thanks to Dr. Wesley Fryer, who led a fantastic session at the ICE13 Conference on app creation.  Without his insight, I never would have been able to start (let alone finish) something like this.  The link to the app is: http://myapp.is/CommonCoreResources.  Please feel free to use it if you like, and I welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section!

Beginnings

  I attended the recent Illinois Computer Educators' Conference in Saint Charles, Illinois, and was absolutely amazed by both the depth and quality of the presentations.  I am the principal of a K-6th grade school in South Elgin, Illinois, and thought we were starting to implement some exciting things related to technology.  We procured a classroom set of iPads using external grants, document cameras for every classroom, and have significantly upgraded our building's tech infrastructure.  All great first steps, but when I saw the incredible things that are happening out in the educational landscape, I saw just how much more was possible.
  I was inspired to start this blog to chronicle our journey through a full tech upgrade at our school, from resource procurement and management to changes in pedagogy using technology.

  We are all collectively taking our first steps toward tech integration and implementation.  Some big questions remain in front of us.  Resource questions: Chromebooks or laptops?  Schoology or Edmodo?How many iPads?  Which apps?  Pedgogical questions: How to best integrate technology given the more rigorous expectations of the Common Core State Standards?  How to define the content (i.e., what students should be able to know and do at every grade level, although the PARCC Model Content Frameworks help there) and process (i.e., what skills students need to demonstrate their content mastery) skill gaps at every grade level, and create and implement plans to address those gaps by the 2014-2015 school year?

  When I've got that figured out, I'll let you know.  In the meantime, we're on the path!