My technology integration goals for a new school year

This school year I will be transitioning into a 4th grade classroom after about 15 years as a digital coach. Prior to my work as a digital coach I taught 4th grade for eight years. Over the course of my travels from school to school as a digital coach, I've met a lot of awesome teachers doing a lot of awesome things with their students. I've worked with many of them and explored many digital tools. Now I'm ready for my own classroom!

I'll be team teaching with a reading coach who will focus on ELA. I will teach math, science, and social studies for the other half of the day. Naturally I've done a lot of reflecting this summer on what I want to do with my students. I've thought long and hard about how I envision using technology as a tools to help my students. I've come up with this list that I don't feel I can compromise on. None of these digital tools or opportunities was available when I was in the classroom before, so I look forward to seeing what my students and I can accomplish with them.

Mystery Skype - I'm so excited to have my own class this year where I can do as many Mystery Skypes as I want! My goal is to Skype with all 50 states.

Global Learning - I've signed up to participate in Adventure16 and I want to investigate projects at Digital Explorer to find something for my students to participate in. I realize our social studies focus in 4th grade is Nevada, but I strongly feel that students should become global citizens as well. My goal is to find a global project we can team up with someone to work on and then find something local as well.

Interactive Notebooks - I'll be using Interactive Math Notebooks, but I want to explore adding a digital component with the goal of being a full digital interactive notebook next school year. Ideas I have are to use augmented reality with the printed version (links to demonstration videos, digital manipulatives and tools, etc) and explore something like Google Slides for full on digital notebooks next year.

iPad tools - I know I'll have at least 7-8 iPads in my room, but I hope to have a complete cart. Regardless, a few apps I want to have students use are Book Creator to create math books either as a digital portfolio or skill/unit based evidence of their learning. Explain Everything would be the perfect companion app for this project.

GAFE - students have full access to Google Apps for Education, so we'll be taking full advantage of those tools, including Google Classroom.

Blogging - I'm a strong believer in blogging so my students will definitely be using blogging as a way to reflect on their learning. I'll continue this blog with a focus on digital tools I discover and how we are using them in our class. Our class website will also have a blog as the home page to keep parents informed of our work.

Remind - speaking of keeping parents informed, I also plan on using Remind on a regular basis. I was on the parent end of it this summer with a non-school related event my kids were involved in and I absolutely loved it!

Websites - there are several websites that will be woven into our class work: XtraMath for math fact mastery, explore typing.com to increase keyboarding skills, GoNoodle for those important brain breaks, and EdPuzzle to hold them accountable for videos we see.

Plickers - our school has CPS Responders but I don't really like them. I'm going to use Plickers instead, which I think will give me a lot more flexibility and power with my formative assessments.

Presentation tools - I am big on teaching students proper presentation skills and giving them a variety of tools to demonstrate their learning. I also can't stand PowerPoints, so instead we'll learn how to use powerful tools like ThingLink, Haiku Deck, and Adobe Spark.

Video making - I will have a green screen station set up in the corner for students to create videos to demonstrate knowledge and learning. I'll have Do Ink's Greenscreen to integrate with the other video and picture apps.

Augmented Reality - I mentioned using AR with interactive notebooks, but I really want to explore using AR in a variety of other scenarios as well. I'll need to explore a few apps and see real case uses in the classroom.

Whew! Now that I look back at that list I see a lot of fun this year! I don't think I've bitten off too much, because a lot of this will integrate well with our curriculum. I always love to see real use examples from other classrooms. Please share your ideas and tech integration goals with me in the comments below!

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Summer EdTech Challenge: #8: It's a small world!

Welcome to the Summer EdTech Challenge! Summertime is a wonderful time to be a teacher! It's the perfect time to recharge your batteries, catch up on trends in education, read for pleasure, and learn new things. How about taking the opportunity to learn new tech skills or try out new tools and strategies?

Each Monday this summer I'll post a simple tech challenge, something you can do between dips in the pool and binge watching your favorite TV show. These challenges are practical, easy to implement ideas to help you develop your tech skills and start next year off on the right technology foot!

The world is becoming a very small place. With today's technologies we can watch events unfold as they happen, communicate with experts in other countries and continents, and visit places we wouldn't be able to otherwise. It's actually a pretty small world out there and teachers have the opportunity to give students unique global experiences.

Through these global experiences students can learn that:

• they are part of something bigger
• the world needs to be taken care of
• the world is (figuratively) flat

Here are a variety of ways you can bring the world into your classroom.

Mystery Skype - this is a fun country- or globe-trotting game where students connect with a class in another location with each trying to guess the location of the other using yes or no geographic type questions. I've played this game with classes in second grade up to high school. We've connected with classes in nearby states as well as New Zealand, Canada, and Venezuela. Younger grades can do a Mystery Number type activity, while older grades could do a Mystery Book or Mystery Element for science classes.

Skype - while Mystery Skype is one of my all time favorite activities, Skype can be used for much more than that. Microsoft's Skype in the Classroom site has many activities classes can do via Skype. Bring in an author to discuss their books or the writing process, connect with a zoo to learn more about animals, follow an expedition to the north pole, or bring a content expert into your classroom.

Global Read Aloud - read a book out load to your students during a set 6 week period. During that time make connections with other classrooms around the globe that are reading the same book. The depth of the project and the tools used (Skype, Edmodo, Twitter, etc) are up to the teachers. There are books to choose for all grade levels, including kindergarten.


Adventure 2016 - participate in the world's largest cultural exchange on November 17. Classrooms around the world will connect online that day to share what its like to be child in their part of the world.

The Global Classroom Project - is a rich resource for finding new ways to connect, share, learn and collaborate globally. You can find all kinds of projects to collaborate on with classrooms in over 35 countries. You come up with the project and use this site to advertise and connect with others.

Kid World Citizen - this website is a treasure trove of resources to help your students become global citizens. There are games, recipes, music, art projects, and even service projects that can be done locally or globally. You can search by country or topic such art, food, language, or celebration.

Digital Explorer - this site is about more than just making global connections. This site provides rich, curriculum-based resources to help connect students with explorers and scientists to learn about and solve global problems. This site provides real world ways for your students to get involved with global problems and solutions.

Since I am returning to the classroom this year as a 4th grade teacher I am committed to doing Mystery Skypes with my class. My goal is to Skype with a class from all 50 states. I've also signed up to do participate in Adventure 16. I'm going to explore some of the resources on the Digital Explorer site to find one my students can get involved with.

The challenge for this week is to explore the global education resources above and sign up for one for the upcoming school year. These are just a sample of projects and sights available. Feel free to do a web search for other resources and find one that appeals to you. The challenge is to become a global educator and help your students become global citizens. Let me know in the comments what you discover and commit to!

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It's a Small World After All: Connecting Classrooms Globally

Today's world is becoming smaller and smaller. It's so easy now to connect with a teacher or class on the other side of the globe. At the same time, students don't always have the opportunity to travel or have experiences outside of their own state or region. With some simple Web 2.0 tools and a little effort, you can connect your class with others and help develop 21st century skills that all students need.

Recently I presented at the Clark County School District 21st Century Skills Mini Conference held at Sawyer MS. I shared various websites that teachers can easily use to connect their classroom with others. Click the link to see the presenter notes.

It's a Small World - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

I'd love to hear other ideas or resources you use to connect your class to the world!

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Global projects for your students

The ISTE Standards for Students include many opportunities for students to work collaboratively to support and contribute to learning.

Communication and collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.

1. Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media
2. Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats
3. Develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures
4. Contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems

I love involving students in global projects where they have opportunities to collaborate with other other students to contribute to a common cause. Many of these global projects require teachers to sign up early in order to make those connections. It may be the end of this school year, but it's time to start thinking about these projects for next year. Take some time to check them out and sign up your class!

Global Read Aloud

I worked with several classes this year on the Global Read Aloud. It was a great experience communicating with other students to hear their thoughts on a common book. It was neat to know that other classes shared a love for reading and found commonality in a great book. This year's Global Read Aloud is structured a little different, but it still promises to be a great opportunity for anyone involved. Choose a book to read, connect with a class, and discover a common love for great books! Sign up as soon as you can - the official project start date is Oct. 6, 2014.

Save Our Rhinos

This project was started by a teacher in Capetown, South Africa after watching some rhinos during a vacation in 2012. Realizing the enormity of the problem of poaching, she launched this project to bring awareness to the plight of rhinos - calling it the Save Our Rhinos project. Classes can sign up to host a traveling rhino (much like a Flat Stanley project) and complete a few other activities to promote awareness of the endangered rhinos. The project is scheduled to be completed by December 2014, so be sure to sign up before space runs out!

The Global Classroom Project

Started in 2011 by two teachers on opposite sides of the globe, The Global Classroom Project is a rich resource for finding new ways to connect, share, learn and collaborate globally. You can find all kinds of projects to collaborate on with classrooms in over 35 countries. You can check out a variety of projects from the current year and start making connections.

Mystery Skype

Mystery Skyping is probably me new favorite activity. I tried it for the first time this year and was blown away by how engaged the students were. I've scheduled several more Mystery Skypes before the end of this school year. I've heard about classes Skyping with all 50 states and many countries around the world. That's a goal I want to have for next year: Skyping with all 50 states!

Adventure '14

This a global cultural project scheduled to take place in November 2014. For one day this year you can take your class on a worldwide adventure with 275+ Schools from 30 Nations without leaving your classroom! Thousands of children across the globe would like your class to join them on possibly the world's biggest virtual cultural exchange!  Using a webcam and projector you'll meet children from across the world, get to know a little about where they are from, and work with them on a global project! More information and sign up can be found at the Adventure '14 webpage.

There are many other ways to collaborate globally. What have you tried in your classroom? What other projects can students get involved with? Let me know in the comments below!

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