Highlights of 2016

2016 is coming to a quick end. This year seemed to have passed quickly, and I'd like to take a moment to reflect on 5 highlights of the year. Thanks to Daisy Designs to hosting this blog link-up.

Getting serious about my TpT store and it paying off. I've had an account for a very long time and I've posted things as a seller from time to time but I've never been too serious about it. I will say that my ELA teaching partner, Andi, inspired me to do better. With the encouragement of others and my inner, "You got this voice" my work has paid off tremendously. With my military husband and my struggle to find a job that I liked during our first relocation. I feel that my TpT store will come in handing when it's time for us to pick up and move again.

Collaborating with one of my closest friends and creating a blog together. I feel that 2017 has many great things in store of the both of us. Check it out.

Having friends visit for my husbands birthday and again for Thanksgiving meant a lot to me this year. You've been her for 2 going on 3 years and this was a first. Being so far from home makes it hard for friends or family to come and visit us. I really cherished that time with them.

Finally being able to go home, to Arkansas. I've haven't been home since we moved to Colorado from Louisiana in 2014. I hit the road with my 4 year old and 7 year old for a road trip to Arkansas this summer. I was able to see my brothers that I haven't seen in ages, spend time with cousins, and spend lots of time with my aging granny. 

We bought a house! My husband is a US Airman and we've only ever rented homes. We planned to buy when he was on is way to retirement in our home state of Arkansas. We finally took the plunge and decided to look for a home to buy here in Colorado. It was one of the biggest, scariest, and best decisions we've made this year. I am proud to be a homeowner.

Thanks tofor hosting this link up. Don't forget to check out here post. 

Until next time,

I Survived Week One

This past week was the first week of school and I survived. I was excited for school to start but I just need an extra week to actually get some rest before hitting the ground running. Teacher official started back last Wednesday but I received my students this past Tuesday. To start with, my first couple of weeks aren't typical since I teach a 1 to 1 iPad math class. When I taught a traditional class I would focus on classroom policies, procedures, and expectations the first week while slowly adding content into the mix starting day 3. This year the beginning of the year looks a little different.

This year the first week is all about class policies, procedures, and expectations. It's a lot of repetition and practicing what I expect from them. Since middle school 7th graders are learning to be more independent but still pretty much rely on teachers and parents at the beginning of the year, I hold off on giving out my Course Guide until the 3rd day of school. I know that the students are receiving tons of papers to be reviewed and signed by parents starting on the 1st day of school and I don't want my very important information to get lost in the shuffle.

GAFE Summit Colorado Springs, CO Summer 2016

I was astatic to get the opportunity to attend my second EdTechTeam's Google Apps for Education (GAFE) Summit. I faced the same challenge as the first summit when trying to decide which session to attend. Having an amazing team helped make the process easier since we were able to divide and conquer when there was too many good sessions to choose from during any given time slot.

As with my Fall experience, I left with an overwhelming amount of information to go back and implement this upcoming school year. I found myself geeky out a little more this time around. There were ideas that I attempted to implement last year but things didn't go over as smoothly as I would have liked. There were session that I attended that rectified my issues that caused so many aha and #mindblown moments. I am once again grateful to have been able to experience this epic time to grow, learn, and collaborate with fellow educators.

The Rundown
Opening Keynote
The opening keynote was eloquently delivered by Holly Clark (@HollyClarkEdu) about Digital Disruption in education. Learning should be amplified by technology and textbooks should by used as reference points. She used the definition of disruption as interrupting the normal progress or activity of something with something better. Using that definition means that disrupting education is to interrupt or change the existing system and improve it.

She talked about how Netflix disrupted Blockbuster which now no longer exist and how Uber is doing the same thing to taxis. She share an amazing video that you can find here or below. When you see a need you should make adjustments otherwise someone else will and you/your methods may become obsolete. 

She also talked about binge watching Netflix but we need to practice binge learning. When we as professional binge learn, we can't get enough of what we are learning (Similar to my GAFE experience; I couldn't get enough). We must create situation where our students binge learn, can't get enough of what we're doing in the classroom. We as educators must be restless learners. 

What is more important the answers or the questions? Traditionally education value answers, not questions but we must create an environment that is the opposite. Now is the time to to put the importance on questions and create Chief Questioning Officers.

Her last point was about adjacent possibles. Adjacent possibles captures both the limits and the creative potential of change and innovation. With adjacent possibles in schools we must allow for student agencies which give students ownership of their learning and requires deeper thinking. We must begin by telling students the problem and asking them to solve it. She lit a spark in me like no other.

Session 1
Sara Stuhr (@mrsstuhr5th) did a great job at demonstrating how to use Twitter in the Classroom with her presentation, To the Twittersphere and Beyond. I've been wanting to use twitter in the classroom for a while now. Especially now that I am a 1:1 iPad teacher with unlimited possibilities but I've been really nervous about how the parents and administration would respond. I'm going to begin by taking baby steps. I plan to have different groups or individuals tweet daily with the hashtag #frommathrm202.

First she addressed Student Engagement. She showed that this should be put in the students' hands and they should have ownership.

• Students should answer the questions: What do you want your parents to know? and What are you proud of?
• Twitter in the classroom should be used to document student learning by the the student.
• Students should be the force behind getting parents onboard.
• Tweeting should be a student job!  A differnt student can post the tweet for the day everyday.
• One con was parent backlash because twitter is social media. She stressed getting media releases for each students and never posting pictures of students when the parent does not give permission.

I was not really sold on all the pieces of parent engagement. I do feel that this peice is beneficial when parents are active on social media or twitter. Ways to get the parents involved.

• Set parents up and explain how to use it.
• Make it apart of the school culture.
• Make sure their are media releases for students' photos and always respect student privacy.
• Took the place of newsletters
• Twitter benefit: Parents can direct message you

Twitter can be used to building your PLN.

• Follow popular education hashtags to find other educators you may be interested in following.
• Popular Hashtags
• Tweetdeck.twitter.com is an amazing tool to multitask on Twitter. You can follow particular hashtags, messages, mentions, and twitter activity all in one place on one page without having to click through different pages or links.
• Find other educators to follow by following hashtags
• Top 15 Educators on Twitter

Twitter Chats can be used with your students or within a professional community.

• There is a question posted with a hashtag. 
• Individuals answer the question using the same hashtag.

Session 2 

One of my favorite session by far was with Daniel Sharpe (@get_sharpe) in Digital Badging: Level Up Your Classroom Google. I tried this last year but only ended up using the leaderboard but his explanation and method simplified the entire process. The way he has it set up also put it back on to the student which I love. Not only did he sure the sheets with the attendees but he also walked us through a very quick and easy process of creating badges with Google Drawings. 

How this works:

First, copy the Teacher and Students' sheets templates. You can find both using the link above.

Next, Connect your student template to the teacher template. Then share with your students. One of the most beneficial things I learned during this step works for every google drive item. To force google files to copy when downloaded, change the end of the url to /copy (everything beginning with the word edit after the forward slash)

Then you type the badge information in the teacher template. The beautiful thing about this step is that you can edit it all year and any changes made would automatically update on the student template. I love that I don't have to have all my badges on the 1st day because the students will be able to see all updates changes.

Now may favorite part about this, CREATING THE BADGES! He has a video tutorial for the process but it was so simple that I got "geek"bumps in my excitement.

After you create your badges and create unique codes for each one, you are done! Sit back and watch the magic transform your class. There is one thing that I am trying to work out. With the power in the students hands you give them the unique codes for the badges they earn. Students can share the code with peers who have not yet earned badges. I am working a formula that with change the digits to starts after entered. Fingers crossed that this will be possible.

Session 3

I enjoyed ePortfolios for Learning Using Google Sites with Nancy White.

The main points do student ePortfolios:

• Letting students take ownership of portfolios.
• Allow the students to reflect about why certain artifacts were chosen.
• At the beginning of the year, students should reflect of learning goals for future self assesement.

She provided a planning template: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByzloTthg-EVOVNXZnl1ZmdsSDQ/view The most valuable nugget I walked away from this session with is now knowing that you can create templates for sites that are as easy as fill in the blank to allow students to have uniform portfolios while still allowing for creativity and personalizations.

Session 4

Screencast Your Way to a Flipped Classroom with Brianna Mazzella (@BriMazzella) was very help as I am continuing my effort to flip my math class. She also opened my mind to untraditional possibilities that do not normally come to mind when you think about a flipped class.

Screencastify is a wonder chrome extentsion that with make flipping you class a breeze if you plan to make your own videos. You are able to record a video of yourself, your voice over a document, site, or image, or your live desktop with yourself in a frame. I have not used my laptop for video yet but I look forward to testing it out within the next couple of days.

She also gave a list of quick tips:

• Allow the students to create their own screencast.
• Flipped learning looks different in different situations.
• Students can view the video in class as you rotate small groups
• Students can view the video at home.
• Must use TAB mode to use additional tools during screencast
• Alt-F - Spotlight tool
• Can not use drawing tools in Desktop mode or CAM mode
• Drawings will not disappear from page to page in Present mode of Slides
• Alt-Z - Erase Drawings off the screen

Day 2

Opening Keynote

The opening Keynote for day 2 was amazing. Jay Atwood (@jayatwood) spark my interest with his keynote on Instructional Identity Crisis.

He began with these Four Pillars when it comes to educators teaching in the digital age.

1. Know what's trending
2. Have fun with it 
3. Learn from someone else
4. Give it ago

• He introduced me to The Selfie Game. Sounds interesting.
• Take a selfie to match a topic or title.
• We must setting SMART goals.
• Growth is better than you were yesterday no matter how little the change.
• Identity
• As an educator you must "Unapologetically" be you
• Think about who you are as a person, educator, professional
• Knoe that you are shaped by your experiences
• Generativity vs. stagnation
• You can’t be positive and contributing if you are stagnant or confused, a lesson we can all live by.
• Identity vs. role confusion 
• Professional learner takes:
• Motivation
• Strategies
• We must Learn. Unlearn. Relearn. I lesson we can all learn from .Yoda
• #ttwwhadi (A hashtage that had us all confused.)
• Means “That’s the way we always did it!”
• “But they love it!”
• To get better you must be willing to to change #disrupteducation
• Sunk Cost Fallacy: You spend the most time on things that are important to you.
• You must that old stuff go even if you’ve always done it that way
• Share
• Used to be "Show your work" now it’s "Share your work."
• Value is not in what you own, it’s in what you share! I'm considering puting this on my wall for motivation.
• “Everything is hard until it’s easy” #nailedit

Session 5

The Google Infused Classroom with @HollyClarkEdu was eye opening. I was able to add several more little goodies to my teacher tool box.

How do you hear from every single student?

• http://vocaroo.com/ is a cool voice recording site for laptops and chrome books but it doesn’t work on ipads/iphones :( 
• Let’s Recap is a wonderful tool for all device to student to video record responses to questions, passages, or videos. I most excited to try this little gem out. Can't wait to share the outcome after I use this with my students.

Session 6

I most excited about Showcase your Style with Sites and Blogger with @cmoor4 since I have been trying to figure out smooth way to incorporate blogging into my classroom. Last year KidBlog switched from free to paid after I set my students up and I did not want to introduce my students to a new platform so I put it off for a another school year.

One of the most valuable things I learned for this session was that giving your students a global audience was as easy as tweeting a hashtag. Share your students work with #commentsforkids!

Chris described sites are more uniform for portfolios while suggesting that blogger be used as blogs to document day to day in the classroom.

Session 7
Create. Annotate. Publish was a high energy session presented by @benjaminfriesen.

Create.

• Put the responsibility in the hands of the students.
• GreenScreen (Google App) can be used to put any background behind your students in a photo or video.
• Remember: You are not the sage on the stage. Let your students do the work (dance on the stage). 

Annotate.

• Is about the journey/process, not the product;
• Making connections;
• Commenting and collaborating; 
• Students can add Voice, Video, and Links; 
• Aides in the learning process.

Publish.

• Is about sharing work, 
• Giving an audience,
• You can take this a step farther by giving your students a global audience 

Tools:

• Google Drawings to create and annotate
• Create badges 
• Vocabulary (Frayer model/Unpacking Vocab) 
• Bubble Map 
• Timelines 
• Announcements 
• Posters 
• Animate Images 
• Comment on images to make annotations 
• Can link images 
• Seesaw to create, annotate, and publish

Session 8 

Data’s not so Scary with @jayatwood made me rethink the possibilities about using Sheets in the classroom. I am a data person and I have many ways for using sheets with add-ons and forms to collect data from my students that I use for planning for myself. Jay introduced me to new concept of having my students use sheets in class. I even had a conversation with my ELA half, @aadamsELA, about how she could use sheets in her class with writing and students are about to see all the statements in the sheet added via forms and collaborate or vote on their peers' responses.

bit.ly/jraDATA is a very useful spreadsheet shared with the participants to demonstrate the many uses.

Closing Keynote 

The closing keynote given by @smbeaverson https://twitter.com/smbeaverson was phenomenal. He started with the 4C's.

• 4C’s 21st Century Learning 
• Creativity 
• Communication 
• Collaboration 
• Critical Thinking 
• We as educators much think, "How can we use the 4C's everyday?" 
• I love the idea of offering quiet moments of creativity during the day in every single class. Is that something you think you can do? I am working on it.
• We must relinquish more control to the student 
• LOVE THE IDEA OF A STUDENT TECH TEAM! The Student Tech Team realy gave me geekbumps! I plan to work with @historicalipad to get this idea off the ground at our school.

Here's a fun fact:

• Currently every 2 days we create as much information as had been created up until the dawn of the year 2003. 
• I most excited to learn about RAT: A way to think about tech integration like SAMR
• Replacement: Do the same thing but using a different tool. 
• Amplification: Practice, above the teacher. Amplify the learning. Example: Flipped Learning 
• Transformation: Focuses on the students, student centered. Take risk and lead forward into the new ways and allow the students to work with it that will surprise you. 

Using RAT we put the learning into the hands of the students by being innovative and allowing the students to choose. I am looking forward to implementing RAT in my class this year.

This post was a mouthful and I hope you were able take, if not many, at least one gem away from my experience at the my second GAFE Summit. Leave comments below. I'd love to here from you.

Until next time,

LaDonna @MrsWelchKnows

Help me create a Future Ready Classroom!

The Google Apps for Education Summit

Getting the opportunity to attend the 2015 Colorado  GAFE Summit was an amazing experience. I learned so many things and walked away with so many nuggets. I also met some amazing people and got a chance to make connections with individuals in my own building/district that wouldn't have been possible otherwise. There were so many highlights that it's a little overwhelming.

The GAFE Summit organized by EdTechTeam and was held in Louisville, CO October 10-11.  EdTechTeam organizes global summits for education to inspire and empower educators. I must say that I felt both inspired and empowered after attending this event.

The first quandary I encountered was choosing a sequence of sessions to attend. Day 1 was not as hard as Day 2 though. After hearing presenters mention apps and add-ons I had previously never heard of, I started to re-think my 2-Day session line-up.

The Rundown

Day 1

Session 1 - Digitize My Classroom by Dean Dahl. I believe he is a Google Certified Trainer or Innovator. He talked about some awesome ideas that opened my eyes as I am on this quest to a paper-free classroom. He also talked about some awesome tools that are going change my classroom and maybe even blow my students mind once I use them in the classroom. He shared the idea of using autocrat for forms to automatically send out forms to students and/or parents. Anyone who knows my, knows that I have a form for everything and now knowing that I can set forms to send an automatic responds..."Mind BLOWN!" For instances, students would fill out a Re-test form and it was send a document to parents stating the students current test score and their plan to prepare for the re-take.

He mentioned asking parent volunteers to sign up for a Ski Trip and automatically sent out check-in information, guidelines, packing list, etc. Some other tidbits from his presentation include: 

1. Using drive for shared folders with colleagues and students.
2. Using ScreenCastify to record with 2 screens.
3. Connecting sites, forms, and YouTube.
4. Using OmniBox Times Extension through Chrome Browser.
5. Video taping (Flipping) you sub plans.
6. Students blogging for chapter/unit closure.

Session 2 - Put the Power of Learning in the Hands of the Students with SmartAMP by Kris Astle. I was starting to give up on SMART by this cloud-based resource is amazing and I am SOLD. Since I teach math in a class that thrives on collaboration, I was looking for a resource that is like Google Docs that allows students to work together on a common item but also allow them to sketch or draw on their iPad. SmartAMP is it. This is also my key to having a global classroom. SmartAMP allows you to create workspaces to be shared or to be worked on individually. Students can be in a common classroom or in classrooms across the globe.

Can be used for daily exit/entrance tickets.

You can take control of the workspace or give control to a student to control. You can set limits and guides where students go from one task to the next and you can see their progression. If students are working as a group, you can see exactly what each student contributed and their communication back and forth. 

There is a live demo at Preston Middle School on Fort Collins in Colorado to showcase students working with students in Canada on a common project. Sign up for a 6 month trial here. Tell them that LaDonna sent you.

Session 3 - 5 Google Apps to Help Differentiate Instruction with TextHelp by Kay Tepera.  TextHelp is a Google Extension App that is very useful in any subject area for students with Dyslexia, Autism, and English Language Learners. This is also good for struggling readers. This extension had many nifty tools such as text-to-speech, vocabulary list creator, text highlighter tool, etc. Although this is a paid resource, it is completely free for teachers using: goo.gl/kz0cSC. There is also an iPad app available.

Session 4 - Pump up Your Data with Piktochart by Amy Hitchner. Piktochart is a website that help you create infographics. Infographics tell a story with data, engage your audience, and appeal to visual learners. This session real appealed to me since I've been researching infographics for about a month now to introduce them to my students as a presentation tool. I found her presentation really easy to follow and so simplistic that I asked for permission to show her presentation to my students. I'm currently creating an infographic to share the class grades based on study habits, effort given, and taking advantage of additional opportunities. 

At the end there was a demo slam. The demo slam consisted of several representatives given 3 minutes to wow us with a tool, resource, or product.

2015 Colorado GAFE Summit Demo Slam

• peardeck.com

• block pop ups and adds - “add a block” extension

• google forms - get add ons - “save as doc” - get google form info in a more readable doc format

• google extension - “save to drive”

• talk into google apps - text to speech within google docs - under “Tools” menu

• google extension - manages many extensions - “extensity” - Quickly enable/disable Google Chrome extensions

• google extension - “chrome cast”

• google extension - “black menu”  - The easiest access to the Google universe

• google extension - “scrible” Smarter Web reading & research. Annotate, bookmark, save, manage & share online articles. Citations, bibliographies, reports & more

• google extension - “google tone” - Broadcast any URL to computers within earshot

• bit.ly/defunkify - improve the look of your google web pages

• K-6 free math online differentation - games - https://www.matific.com/us/en-us

• turn youtube clip into gif animation (15 sec or less) - type “gif” right after www.

• download youtube clip - type “ss” right after www.

• google extension - “read and write” - text to speech

• Google Cardboard - virtual reality in a simple way

• http://www.activelylearn.com/ - engaging reading lessons

• google extention - “speak it”- Select text you want to read and listen to it.

• google extension - “draft back”

This concludes Day 1 of the GAFE Summit.

Thanks for stopping by,

SURPRISE! I moved to Colorado...

As I was basking in the joy of the endless possibilities that this school year would bring, my husband received orders that would take us from Louisiana to Colorado. So with sadness in my heart I had to pack up and leave the most exciting school year ever.

Upon arriving in Colorado in September, I had an interview 2 days later. This was before we were settled, had a home, had our children enrolled in school or child care, before our belongings had arrived ad so on. I was blessed to be offered the position although I was nervous to take it, seeing that we had just arrived in the state. Reluctantly I accepted the English Language Development (ELD) math position. I would teach 6th, 7th, and 8th grade ELD math as well as a group of regular 7th grade math students. I viewed this as a learning opportunity and a chance to add another certification notch to my belt...

Let's see how this all works out. To be continued...

A new adventure

I've been teaching middle school math since 2008 and I love it! I'm super excited about being offered an opportunity to implement the Careers in Technology class for the 2014-2015 school year. My principal picks up on my "creativity and knack for all things technology" so he's taking a chances on me. I was also chosen as the Math Teacher Leader and asked to design Individual Student Data Binders (ISDBs) for the upcoming school year all while being apart of the Teacher Instructional Leadership Training (TILT) Team. Whoa...Now that was a mouth full! Did I mention my 5 year old was accepted into the magnet program? All of these exciting opportunities and endless possibilities makes me more eager about the upcoming school year than ever. Stay tuned and join me on my journey as I decipher my new normal of teaching a whole new subject.