Super Quiz Infographic

Made my day...

Sometimes the simple things can make my day.  I created a video about adaptations for my science class last year.  I left it to public view on YouTube.  I didn't always do that, because sometimes copyright made me nervous.  Almost a year later, I get a comment on my video...

And just because I was curious where Keira was from and I was surprised to see that she goes to school in Vancouver!  It was pretty cool to think that a student in Canada is learning from my video.

It made my day...

iPad and Collaboration Frustration

So, today I am stuck.  I never thought that I'd say this, but I am frustrated with the iPad.  I have always been an iPad supporter.  I have used to to create videos in a flash using iMovie, using ExplainEverything to create unique tutorials, and Skitch to annotate and create unique images.  I believed that this was the ultimate creation tool!

And then I ran into this.... a teacher approached me and explained that his district switched from a MacBook 1:1 initiative to an iPad 1:1 initiative.  With the MacBook program, he had transformed his classroom into a collaborative world using Google Apps for Education.  Students were able to collaborate on presentations in a way that he had never been able to before.
Now as a iPad school, iPads are not proving to be collaborative.  In fact, the Google Slide app is so limited that students can not even put images into a presentation created on the iPad, only text.

I have found a few apps that allow for a creative, collaborative whiteboard space.  But they are very informal and do not have the sleek look of a presentation.  I have started to explore some web 2.0 tools to see if they will work on the iPad.  But, I am starting to realize that the free world of web 2.0 now has dollar signs in its eyes.  Many of the programs I learned about 4-5 years ago now have fees associated with them or are very "clunky" on the iPad.

So, where does this leave my teacher.  I'm still looking, if you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Guide on the side...considering Hapara

As teachers begin the journey from the sage on the stage to the guide on the side, there often begins the worry of "What is that group doing over there?" I think that one of the biggest hurdles to get over is the idea of trust of in your students.  Most students really do want to be at school and be challenged to collaborate and create when they are there.  We as teachers need to create the environment that allows students to practice this style of learning.  When we have that environment established, it is easy to trust that your students because they will be engaged in the learning process.
But, when teachers are making the first steps towards this process, which I plan to elaborate on in later blog posts, it's hard for them to feel comfortable in this newly created environment.  It's easy to know what to look for when everyone is working on the same task, but when we allow students to have choice in the learning process it can be a little harder to spot the off-task, the confused, and those students that need the personal conversation.  More veteran teachers have a higher teacher "spidey sense" to alert us when a group of students is starting to go awry, but sometimes technology and student computer use can make it harder to detect.
Are there some tech tools that can assist us?
There is one product that can, at a glance, give us a nice snapshot of what students have open on their computer.  Hapara allows there to be a teacher dashboard where you can see all of the tabs that your students have open on in their Chrome browser.  It can be super-easy to see who has appropriate and non-appropriate sites open.  It also gives teachers the ability to close those tabs as well.
Two things to be aware of:
1) it only monitors the Chrome browser.  Great if you are a Chromebook school, not so great if students have access to other browsers.  Hopefully, students see how awesome the Chrome browser can be especially when you teach them about the different Chrome extensions to improve their computer use.
2) You don't want to be chained to the computer.  Being the guide on the side, you need to be able to be at different table groups.  You need to be available to chat, guide, and question students who are at different points of the learning process.  Keeping an eagle eye on the Hapara page will definitely hinder this process.
It has good potential, but it's important to remember the downfalls of this program as well.  I'm going to continue to think about this topic for future blog posts and if you have any suggestions, please let me know!

Exploring Explore-Flip-Apply

I felt very fortunate to have stumbled across Ramsey Musallum's work on Twitter a couple of years ago.  As I was forging through my 1st year of flipping in 2011, I was often been smacked in the face by his common sense and simplified approach to flipped learning.  The use of google forms continued to transform what I was able to understand about my students.

This summer I felt lucky to have been in the audience to watch his keynote address at FlipCon13.   At the time, I was struggling with parts of flipped classroom implementation.  I felt as though there were great benefits of the flipped learning, but as a science teacher, I felt like I was losing the questioning and the student's ability to build their own knowledge which are such important parts of the science process.  I was very inspired my him sharing his journey that reminded me so much of my own.  It was great to get hear how he turned his flipped learning experience into one with an emphasis on inquiry.

Through a master's class this summer, it allowed me to further process and explore this journey with my class this last fall.  I explored an implemented the method of explore-flip-apply with one section of students during my chemistry unit and wrote a paper about it for my master's class.

http://amberbridgesmith.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/0/0/11003739/bridgeiapfinaldraft.pdf

I have been so interested in this process I have rolled this method out to my other 3 sections of science class.  Thanks for the inspiration Ramsey!

Google Forms as Rubrics

As a teacher, there are so many obligations and extras that come up from time to time.  So, when something comes up that makes my life easier, I take advantage of it!
I am lucky to have a iPad available to use in my class.  One way that I use it to assist in grading is that I use it in tandem with Google Forms.  First, I will create a Google Form off the the rubric that I have created and shared with students on the assignment.  When you have finished creating a Google Form, it will ask you if you want to share or embed it.  I copy the embed code and put that into a Google Site that I have created for myself.
Then, when I'm ready to grade my assignments, I pull out the student assignment papers and my iPad and I can just touch on the buttons in the Google Form on the iPad and submit a form for each student..so, easy!  Each time I click submit, it sends the results to a spreadsheet that I can work with very easily.
When I have finished grading, I go to the spreadsheet and I will run two features that I really like that is part of Google spreadsheets.
1) I use a vlookup to search for the students and their responses.  This way it automatically looks up and it puts it into alphabetical order.  No more weeding through a big stack of responses, it does the work for you. This has become part of beginning of school routine to set up a template that I can use the entire year.
Next, I copy this page and paste the values only into a new spreadsheet that I have set up with student emails.
2) I use the formemailer script on google forms where I can set up an email template and it will automatically send each student an email with my grading responses in it...love it!

Pumpkins and Cheer

Every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the science department at my school cracks open the 70s yellow curtain divider that separates the 7th & 8th grade classrooms and we host a co-unit together.  7th & 8th graders are put into mixed grade groups and we explore science in a very hands-on way.
This year, the teachers were very inspired by the show Punkin Chunkin on Discovery/Science channels.
With a little assistance from a 7th grader who had a book called Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction, which was able to give students some design templates to get started with, students have been building small catapults out of ordinary things and working to launch pumpkin marshmallows as far as they can.  It has been great to see their excitement with how far they have been able to launch their pumpkins!
One aspect that inspired me from the show was the basis of charity.  The Punkin Chunkin event money supports multiple charities both locally and nation-wide.  With this I put the word out to our fantastic staff, to see if anyone wanted to contribute to the cause.  With their amazing support and pulling out from their own pockets, we were able to gather $100.  From this, we told the students that the student group who shot their marshmallow the farthest would have $100 donated to a charity of their choice.  Last week, the student groups chose their charities they want to compete for.   They were very excited to choose their charity and many of them expressed that "that's pretty cool."  I'm so happy to offer students another opportunity to find a way to invest in the projects that we are doing.