Sitting here at 6PM after the first day of the google summit for education my brain is overloaded. Not the normal exhaustion that a school day brings, but a plethora of ideas and tools that I am excited to learn. Here I offer a few of my reflections and key take-aways as well as a list of the apps that are either completely new to me or I am excited to explore more. If you have other thoughts or other useful apps that you know about or learned this week please share them in the comments below.
Start, stop, share. I love this phrase because it is simple. For change to happen on a large scale it needs to start small and have a clear direction. This simple phrase has given me that direction. It is clear attending this conference that people are excited to start the journey that we all need to take to define 21st century learning. People are open to sharing ideas and failure is encouraged in every session I attend. We, like our students, are life long learners and I cannot wait to begin modeling that with my students and encouraging the explore because learning truly is an adventure!
Here are a few key questions and comments that made me deeply think about myself as an educator and is interesting food for thought.
- What form of literacy will students need in the 21st century? Is posting/ commenting on facebook/ twitter the new look of civic engagement?
- communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking => are students doing this EVERY day?
- there is a massive teacher gap, technology is pushing us to innovate and sometimes fail, but it is an adventure
- We work in an industry whose greatest measure of success is change
- before students are asked to present to the whole class, have them present to small groups
- assessing students on collaboration and other 21st century skills needed => goes on report cards but not transcipts
- a teacher asked students to find an oceanographer on twitter and ask them to help with a project
- scheduling times with students to take reasessments on google calendar
- teachers need to demonstrate what getting frustrated looks like so that students can see the proper way to deal with it
- “Students should have their own personal (public) twitter. It will be on their resume some day”
- “I prefer google community (with reminder texts) because I get a notification on my phone – planners take up too much space”
A list of apps that I learned about today
Apps I LOVE
g(math) – google add-on; I love this because it allows me to write formulas, expressions, and equations into google docs and forms. Really excited about the graphs that I can make in forms.
Google Calendar – I already use this, but like the idea of setting appointments with students. Especially with math reassessments needed to demonstrate proficiency
Google Keep – keep.google.com – A student found this and shared it as away to make awesome checklists. I haven’t had a chance to explore it, but I remember being very excited about it.
TLDR – cool app; not sure if I’ll use it as a math teacher. Shortens articles so students can see if an article is right for their paper. Stands for “too long didn’t read”.
Twitter Bingo – okay, this is more of idea, but I loved it! Used on a field trip or possibly for opening inservice to make an experience more interactive!
Tweet Deck – check it out if you love twitter.
Screencastify – easy way to record whatever is on the screen
Apps/ Websites I Plan on Exploring More
code.org, madewithcode.org, blackgirlscode.org – using code to bring equality to classrooms; teaching a 21st century skill to all students
Google Draw – this looks like an awesome way for students to organize ideas; if you have ways you have used it please share!
Move it – chrome extension that gives students a mental break
Skype Qik – I was told it is like snapchat, but can be 42 seconds long..intriguing. Did you just get the snapchat notification about “snap pay”? My mind can’t even begin to handle this.
Mostly there are tons of things, but I am hungry. Who is going to party tonight?! I’m happy to learn of awesome things you have done and share my seemingly small resources compared to the giant known as google. Please comment. I’m all about learning more! @mr_ulrich_uw
*not proofread and I’m a math teacher so get over any grammar/ spelling issues…*