Suzanne's Ed Tech Reflections

A lot of people seem to view the iPod touches as old technology but here in Creighton School District we still love these tools. And our teachers always find great ways to use them to support learning in the classroom, especially during reading and math learning centers. Last year we had an opportunity to deploy some new Gen 5 iPod touches to several of our classrooms. Do to some unforeseen circumstances we had to hold off one of our the iPod touch carts until this school year. We were very excited to get this cart of iPod touches prepped and deployed to one of our new third grade teachers for this year. She is very excited and ready to move forward. We are usually pretty conservative in our choice of iPod touch cases but in this "case" went a little wild. These cases were ordered from Amazon and came in bundles of 10 that included 5 different colors. I just love the variety! And the circle pattern. They have just the right amount of translucency for our numbers...

The Arizona College and Career Ready Standards (Common Core) require a greater balance between reading fiction and non-fiction in the classroom. In addition, we want students to be reading nonfiction content that is relevant to their lives and interests. Last year we discovered Newsela ( https://newsela.com/ ). Newsela is a site that brings daily news into the classroom and provides a way to foster reading comprehension. The news articles are from major publications and rewritten at different Lexile Levels. All students in a classroom can read the same content but at a level that is appropriate for them. The articles are of high interest and cover a wide variety of topics including science, health, money, and sports. The texts are common core aligned and many have quizzes to test comprehension and close reading. There are both free and premium accounts. Newsela is quick and easy to use. Teachers register, create classes, and add students. Teachers can assign specific arti...

Creighton School District has been using the Gaggle ( https://gaggle.net/ ) student email and communication system for many, many years. We were actually one of the first adopters of the system in Arizona! Because of the security features it is a great way for students and teachers to communicate in a safe, friendly environment. Many wonder why it is called Gaggle. On their website, company president, Jeff Patterson, states that is an "easy way for teachers to watch over their gaggle of students." It is great for us because we know that any inappropriate messages and communications are blocked by their system and the teacher/administrator is notified. They filter for inappropriate words, images, and cyberbullying content. The programs is very effective. Over the past few weeks I have visiting in our 1:1 iPad classrooms to help teachers and students set up Gaggle on the iPads. We are using the Gaggle app but we also like to set up Gaggle through the Mail app on the iPads a...

It is always fun to visit our iAchieve classrooms and see the informative posters teachers are using to help their students use mobile devices effectively in the classroom. Every classroom is a little different depending upon the teacher and the needs of their students. Here are a couple of examples: I'll be checking out more classrooms soon!

iAchieve teachers are great at conducting checks for understanding and formative assessments with their students. They try to utilize the iPads and iPod touches as much as possible. They use whiteboard apps such as Explain Everything or Educreations for students to write responses. Online response systems like Poll Everywhere are always popular. And, apps such as Socrative work well and are a favorite with students. This summer at the ISTE Conference we learned about Kahoot! ( https://getkahoot.com/ ) during a presentation by Adam Bellow and Steve Dimbo. Kahoot! is referred to as a game based classroom response system. We introduced it to our flip learning teachers during PD this summer. It is a fun and engaging way to see what your students know about a topic. Kahoot! is easy to set up and use - and accounts are free. Students do not need an account; only the teacher. After creating an account, teachers are given a code for students to use to join the teachers room and begin ask...

At the beginning of the school year our iPad Flipped Learning teachers hold parent meetings. These meeting are to inform parents about flipped learning and the requirements for students taking the iPads home. They are a great way to begin the parent - student - teacher relationships for the school year. Teachers are required to have each student's parent or guardian attend a meeting and sign an agreement. It is difficult to get 100% attendance at a meeting so the teachers often schedule two meetings or meet individually with parents when they can attend.           Parents are always very receptive to the information and opportunity for their child to use an iPad to support their learning. We get lots of questions but even reluctant parents tend to change their minds when they hear and see how the iPads and flipped learning can impact their child's learning.             In add...