Voicethread

A colleague of mine showed me the power of voicethread. Not only does it have amazing power and potential for teachers and students learning a language, but also for students that would appreciate a different media for story telling. Voicethread is a great app that both teachers and students can use to tell a story or to collaborate asynchronously on a project or documents.

As soon as I saw what could be done with this app, I was very excited to create something for my son. He is almost 5, and loves for me to read to him. One of his favorite books it "Goodnight, Construction Site". I want to be able for him to listen to me read this to him long after I am gone. With the help of voicethread, this is definitely a possibility. The dynamics of voicethread allow you to import pictires and annotate them with a voice recording. So, I was able to take photos of the pages of the book and then record myself reading the book.

Imagine the power of this as a differentiated station for ELL students who struggle reading. You could have voicethread ready with a book or chapter of a book so that all your students can interact with the literature you are using.

Here are some great examples of how teachers are using voicethread.

Wooclap

I had a Google hangouts conference call with a representative from the developers of a web based program called Wooclap. The intent of this program is to increase the level of engagement of your audience. This has amazing potential and great implications for teachers and presenters alike. Needless to say, I was intrigued at the prospect that I could engage my audience in a more deeply and personalized manor than before.

Wooclap is a platform that uses online and text capabilities of your audience members coupled with multiple choice, polling, picture recognition, pick a number, and short answer format response type questions. At any point in a presentation you can insert a question which has been created beforehand using specified graphics and text of your choosing. The applications in all grade levels and content areas are endless. I am very excited to use this some time in a presentation soon!

Twitter Chats

#haysedchat

We had our second Twitter Chat yesterday. The topic was Classroom Management. If you have never been in a twitter chat, I have to tell you that it is kind of fun! The pace can be fast, and there is a lot of information that is presented in a relatively short period of time depending on the format of the chat.

The idea behind a twitter chat is that a group of people that have similar interests, for instance, Ed Tech, or just education in general, can be addressed and discussed. What is exciting is that you can synchronously network with other professionals from all over the world and simultaneously garner resources, ideas, and make contacts that you can keep for the future networking. Typically, some of the people that participate in these chats have been doing so for a long time, and have great insight. What I like to do is to check out who they follow and follow those people. This is a great way to grow your Professional Learning Network (PLN). If you participate in these chats enough people will request to follow you.

It is important to note the format of the chat structure:

Questions posed by the moderator will be given like this:

Note that Q5 means question 5, and the hashtag is #haysedchat. You have to include the hashtag for your comment to be included in the overall chat discussion.

To respond to a question, a format typically used is:

I highly recommend the use of tweet deck. What is beneficial about this program is that you can monitor several different aspects of your account that you can not otherwise. Let me show you what I mean. 

Get Tested

Not that kind of test...

Google Certification is a great way to learn, and to increase your "street cred." I will caution you now that I have taken and passed Part 1, it is not for the faint of heart. I have not been stressed like that in a long time and I remember now, why I avoided taking the GRE when I was trying to find a Grad. program that did not require it. Needless to say, historically, I have not been a good test taker. This test has a limit of 3 hours and tests your ability and knowledge of using Google Apps for Education: Google Docs, Calendar, Mail, Youtube, Sheets, Forms, Classroom, Slides, Search, and Sites.

Google gives you a pretty good idea about what kind of information will be tested. I studied all the information that they provided, but really, unless you have actually interacted with the apps themselves they preparation materials they provide is not going to help you. Here is the training page for the Google Certification Exam. When you are preparing for the exam, make sure that you have a block of time, no less than 3 hours, and that you are in a place free from distractions. You will take a test that has 20 multiple choice questions, and 11 tasks with 2-5 parts to each task. Your knowledge of the apps and the application of each will be evaluated.

The questions and tasks themselves were not difficult. Actually, they were quite basic i.e. part 1 exam is actually called "the basics". What was challenging about the whole thing was that you had to be efficient in the demonstration of your knowledge and understanding.

I finished my test with about 10 minutes left of the 3 hours that are given. If you do not submit your test within three hours then you automatically fail. So, my advise to you is use your time wisely.

First days of Digital Coaching

Hello and welcome to what I hope will become a vehicle that can be used as a resource for those who are also coaches, for teachers to generate ideas and thoughtful discussion, and for any curious administrators on how you might be able to support your Digital Learning Coaches and teachers.

As I began this digital journey my supervisor, Jamie Locklin, responded to a question about what a typical day would look like. He replied, "Every day will different, one day will not look like the other." I could not imagine what that would actually be like, and I am happy to say now that he was not exaggerating. There was really no preparation that I could have made that would have allowed me to be ready for the demands of this new position.

In my mind, I would dream of presentations and ideas that could be implemented into schools that would improve student achievement and teacher productivity. I began to read anything that I could get my hands on and I asked lots of questions. I had to remind myself though that I needed to be patient. I had to make sure that I met the needs of my teachers and my district. These needs took precedence over all my ideas and desires. I was consoled by the inspired vision that my director has. I knew that he had a plan, and that our effectiveness would be tied to the efficient allocation of our time and attention, especially since we are a team of 5 serving a district with 22 schools and over 1300 teachers with almost 20,000 students.

For those just getting started, here is what I would recommend:

1) Get into twitter and build your Professional Learning Network (PLN)

2) Get Feedly or a curator of RSS feeds and begin amassing resources that have the potential to enlighten your teachers or team. Read all you can to learn the new trends and tools that are being developed.

3) Start a blog so you can simultaneously reflect on your growth and practice and also build a portfolio, a central place that you might be able to keep all your inspirations and ideas.

4) Build contacts within your campuses. Talk to teachers and other instructional coaches so you can open the doors to collaborate.

5) Learn basic video editing; making instructional video will help you to help your teachers.