Nirvana At Last?

It's been some time since I last posted on this blog.  Yes, the regular school day and the flow of the school year remains as busy as ever.  However, that was not the primary reason for not posting.  My issue was that I became "lost" in the dizzying array of ways in which I could achieve my final goal.  Also, it was important to listen to my students as this helped to influence my direction.

As mentioned in an earlier post, the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act must be considered when we choose cloud based applications.  We need to ensure that data that students may post is encrypted and that it resides on Canadian servers.  Considering that many of our possible options sit on American servers, one must be careful when choosing sites to post student data, especially that which assesses or evaluates student performance.

Over the past few months we have had development in this area.  Google, along with the proper encryption software, is now a good alternative.  Microsoft, due to open it's Canadian data centres in due time, is also a good option.  Google produces Google Classroom which I have been a user of since it was first released.  Microsoft has it's own hidden gem in OneNote which is probably the best digital binder that one can find on the Internet.  Both apps are free.

So what's the problem?  Simple.  Because both Google Drive/Apps/Classroom and Microsoft OneNote are so robust, I became caught up in choosing just ONE of the applications to do it all for me.  I was finding that neither platform could necessarily do everything that I wanted to.

My unit and assessment workflow is as follows:

• Have discussion and present materials in class.
• Allow students to review materials, movies, and discussions at home.
• Give students and assignment and provide formative feedback along the way.
• Place final assessment data in a place for both students and their parents to access, but more data than simply a grade and summative comment.

At first I decided that Google Classroom and the Google Apps could handle all of this for me.  And it did for about a year.  The problem that I began to encounter was that I couldn't handle all feedback being written.  I was writing all of the time and that was affecting my effectiveness as a teacher.  Yes, I used add-ons for the Google Apps (such as Kazena or Screencastify).  The problem was that I was being hung up on video render times which was slowing me down.

I then used OneNote to put all of my teaching data in.  OneNote gave me a digital binder for students.  I was able to push materials and assignments out to students.  What I really appreciated was being able to attach video or audio directly into the app (I'm using a Windows 10 machine).  I didn't need to wait for rendering because that was happening on my PC and would sync in the background.  Just as I thought that I found "Nirvana", my students popped my bubble.  OneNote was a pain to type in for students.  Those who tried to open embedded Word documents couldn't use them on Chromebooks as a Chromebook will try to open Word documents in Google Docs.....which does not handle fancy Word formatting well.

What did I eventually do?  I came up with a new workflow.  I looks like this:

• We begin with a new unit.  All materials are in OneNote as students can access these on all devices.
• Discussion boards are with cloud services like Padlet or even Google Classroom Questions.
• The assignment is placed on Google Classroom and completed there.  Comments can be left for students in Docs or, better yet, I can have direct discussions with students.
• Final assignments are downloaded out of Google where I assess them.  I have a Microsoft Surface that employs a digital pen.  Work can be marked up with the pen.  This can be done on an iPad with different apps.  I also insert a rubric at this time for grading.
• The final product is moved to OneNote (a click of a button) in a special student section that only they see.  I can then easily leave overall audio or video comments.
• Grades are placed into my online grading software.  A link is then give to the feedback page in OneNote which students and parents can see more detail.

Although this has been the workflow for about two weeks, it feels like it's working!  In the next post, we'll talk about how to set up OneNote for use with your classroom.

Finding The Perfect Canvas

It's been quite awhile since I last posted.  Writing report cards will certainly curtail your blogging as it took three weeks to write comments and then another week to recover from the experience.  I feel more "myself" and can write again. :)

Part of the delay is that I have been re-evaluating how I use technology in the classroom.  My area of interest has always been around the area of assessment.  As little as five years ago, the teacher was the one who tended to do enter grades and comments in a computer system.  The student would go and receive their assessment data and pass that on to their parents.

Then came the advent of Google and everything changed.  We had kids become self-assessors and partners in assessment with us.  Suddenly, that electronic gradebook wasn't quite as important.  We invited students to self-reflect using rubrics, comments, and audio/visual.  We would become co-collaborators with students.  However, their parents were not always getting this information as there was no "platform" for a parent to be able to login to.

In mid-2014 we were introduced to Google Classroom.  We had a nice merge of all of the great things that Google had to offer.  Students were able to go to a management system where they could pick up their assignments, complete them, and then turn them in.  However, if you are using categorical grading and using rubrics to report, the system is not perfect as teachers cannot attach rubrics.  We can share a rubric on Google and then paste in the link.  Parents had one place where they could view data and then see the supporting work.

It was my plan to move forward with this in the 2015-2016 school year.  After receiving a class set of Chromebooks, I thought that I was all set.  And then the Freedom Of Information and Privacy Act (FOIP) starting creeping into conversations.  Being in Canada, there is some discussion over whether student information and school work can reside on Google's U.S. based servers.  Our school district is continuing to investigate this.  I decided not to wait.

Two solutions that I'm currently investigating are FreshGrade (www.freshgrade.com) and Microsoft Office 365.  Both are located on Canadian servers and, thus, do not violate FOIP.  I have been experimenting with Office 365's offerings and will write a serious of posts about that experience in the coming weeks.  The bottom line at this point?  Office 365, while quite different, can easily be used in a school setting.

The other option is not so cut and dry.  I am currently piloting FreshGrade with other teachers in my School Division.  I have purposefully not been in contact as I wish to have an unbiased experience with it, and in turn do not wish to bias others.  I will also write a series of posts about FreshGrade in the future as well.  The bottom line at this point?  I'm not sure if I like it or not.  There are aspects that are fantastic about it....but then there are parts that can possibly leave the parents of older students confused.

Wherever my experience lead me, there is no doubt in my mind that 2016 is shaping up to to be a fantastic year of discovery for both my students and myself.  More to come soon!

The Next Time, You Drive

This past week marked our first parent/teacher/student conferences for the year.  We did have a "Meet The Teacher" night earlier in the year, but we do not necessarily talk student learning styles and academics during that meeting.  This was the big one where it's time to give parents a peek into their child's performance.

Perhaps the one thing that made me most excited about 1:1 Chromebooks (or any computer for that matter) is that students had immediate access to self-assessment.  Through my action research project with FSD over the past few years, I certainly did find a measurable difference when students could discuss their areas of strength and growth directly with their parents.  Whether that improves overall improvement remains to be see but the level of engagement has been higher.  Rather than having students passively wait for the teacher to pronounce a grade, when they are active in the assessment and reflection roll then they are more likely to make the necessary changes.

Prior to parents coming in this past week all of our Grade 7 students were required to reflect on their first six weeks of school.  Our Learner Profile's first page is all about characteristics of learners.  Rather than waiting for me to fill that out, I have my students fill it out and adjust it every 4-6 weeks.  This gives them ownership over the document.  Most of the teachers in my building have adopted this method and find that it makes the whole reporting process that much better simply because the student has explained areas of strength and growth.  More importantly, the student has said how he or she is going to follow that next step.

In the past I have done this on paper and then pulled it out during conferences.  However, it is about "managing the paper".  Also, I had to rely on all parents and students being at this conference.  I also use these documents when writing the Learner Profile and love to use my student's words in the comments.  Again, when the comment comes directly from the child parents respond to that.  but trying to read what some of my students actually wrote was an exercise in translation.  Finally, I relied on my students being at school on the day that we were completing our self-reflections.  If they were away then they had to finish at break time or at home....and then the paper would get lost.

How can technology help?  Google Classroom has made that process simple.  I re-created a "student-friendly" version of what we are scoring on the Learner Profile for my students.  Breaking down the language and providing examples helps students when self-assessing.  We discussed the template as a whole class, first.  Once they were happy with it, and could understand it, I "pushed" the document out to each student in Google Classroom.  Now, I have control of seeing each student's progress as they are typing; can allow them to finish at home without worrying that they're going to lose the work (My God....junior high backpacks are like a black hole...); and I can even set a due date and monitor who has passed in their work.

This past week, students came in with their parents during conferences.  We pulled up their document onto the big screen (80 inches of pure high definition glory, thank you very much!) and were able to view their self-assessment.  Parents immediately engaged their child and the back and forth conversation was fantastic!

The downside of all of this?  I was doing "the driving" of the computer and, therefore, I was leading the conversation.  I love student-led conferences (with a teacher nearby to answer questions).  As I was nursing my voice and walking around half-asleep on Friday after plowing through a rapid fire of 15 minute interviews, I though to myself "Why couldn't the students just run the machine and lead the interview?"  It's not like I was going to head out for some fast food while they ran the show.  I would still be there to talk about specific concerns and academic next steps.  But I sure could have saved my voice and energy by allowing the kids to lead the meeting.  The kids are thrilled to show their parents technology that they (the parents) have no understanding of how to operate.  Talk about engagement.

So kids, the next time you can drive and lead the conversation.  I'll be your proud teacher watching you do all of this and my voice will thank you!

1:1 Chromebooks!

On Thursday of this week a wonderful gift appeared at my classroom door - Chromebooks for each student in my math and science class!  In reality there are thirty Chromebooks so students will have to share between the two homerooms that I teach, but what this does afford is that each student will be able to pick up a Chromebook when they enter my math and science classroom.

1:1 computing has often been seen as a "nirvana" of teaching.  We all want it.  The big question that still needs to be answered (at least in my eyes) is whether or not we can make a difference in student engagement and progress using this technology.  I want to believe that it can.  The next two years will be proof of that.

While each student in my classroom will have a Chromebook, most of them have either a smartphone or iPod and many of them have a personal tablet.  Rather than restrict my students just to a Chromebook, I'm encouraging that they continue to use their other devices in conjunction with the Chromebook.

In my own teaching I continue to use multiple devices throughout the course of a day.  I'm not necessarily a fan of a laptop style computer for when I'm involved in active teaching or assessing with students.  I find the laptop to be almost a "barrier" to the conversation that we're having.  The kids are so interested in what I'm typing that they cannot focus on the task at hand.

When I work with my students, I'll often show up at their table (I have five tables in my room with six students around each table) and roll my chair right in to be a part of the crowd.  For this, I find my phone (an iPhone 6 Plus that has the most gorgeous big screen!) or an iPad suits my needs.  These devices do what I need them to do - capture work and discussions at the point of creation.  A laptop would get in the way of that.  My phone or tablet is perfect for snapping photographs and annotating those photos with voice recordings or ink.  My dream device would be a Microsoft Surface 3 for this purpose.  It's portable and you can yank off the keyboard and use that fantastic pen to conduct your annotations.  However, if you learn how to sync up your iOS devices with Google then it's almost as effective.

When I teach (remember that I'm a math teacher and you cannot get away from showing kids effective algorithms and direct teaching), I simply connect my iPad to an Apple TV which is connected to my eighty inch (!) TV.  I use a JOT pen with the iPad and OneNote to ink.  This allows me the flexibility to move around my room and teach.  I'm not fixed at the front of the room.

Where does a Chromebook or laptop fall into this?  After the students are gone and I'm left to planning and assessment, I can take the notes that I made "on the fly" and I put those into a published piece.  That requires a keyboard.  Again, the Surface is a good choice because you can simply add a keyboard.  While I can do that with my iPad, and there is a fantastic Google Drive, Classroom, and Docs app for this device, I'd rather work in the "pure" Google environment.  The Chromebook works great as it runs Google Chrome and has the keyboard.  The best part - it's the best $200 out there!  That's one area where Surface can't compete (at least not yet).

So, my plan for my students is for them to almost be "platform agnostic".  It's not about having an iOS device or a Google device or a Microsoft device.  It's about them choosing the right tool for the job.  You wouldn't hammer a picture nail with a sledge hammer would you (....OK, maybe you would if you're desperate but you sure as heck would be inefficient!).  Sometimes you have to choose what's more effective for the job.

Our journey begins this week.  On deck for 7S and 7P is self-assessment using Google Drive apps.  We'll see which devices the students use most often during that process.