tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25534837662910590892024-03-12T22:52:51.788-07:00Barron's Blended-Learning (and other) Endeavors I'm a high school English teacher moving into the world of blended-learning (I'm using more technology in my classroom). This blog will be about my adventures (or misadventures) in that process.Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.comBlogger53125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-67204633439757295852018-03-18T18:18:00.002-07:002018-03-18T18:18:29.186-07:00Battling the Cue BluesSo, I'm starting this blog post during the 2nd day of CUE. Who knows when I'll finish it.<br />
<a href="https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/ebc0b6a2-146a-4f39-9283-1704639cd4c7-12eaa46f-a528-4bd0-9a23-d4b92ea927b0-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" class="bitmoji-image" data-downloadurl="image/png:13925.png:https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/ebc0b6a2-146a-4f39-9283-1704639cd4c7-12eaa46f-a528-4bd0-9a23-d4b92ea927b0-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" data-src="https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/ebc0b6a2-146a-4f39-9283-1704639cd4c7-%s-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" height="200" src="https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/ebc0b6a2-146a-4f39-9283-1704639cd4c7-12eaa46f-a528-4bd0-9a23-d4b92ea927b0-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" width="199" /></a><br />
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Honestly, I'm a little disappointed so far this year. I'll still come back next year because maybe it was a fluke. I left many sessions early so far, and the planning of the rooms did not go well. If you follow me on twitter, you knew how I felt about the <a href="http://lesliefisher.com/">Leslie Fisher</a> debacle.<br />
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Since they were smart enough to put her in Oasis 4 on Thursday, I was able to see her Tools You Can Use Tomorrow session, which I saw at ISTE. There was a ton of stuff that was new that I was learning about for the first time and lots of new additions to things I already knew. One thing that I need to look into that she mentioned was<a href="https://insertlearning.com/"> Insert Learning</a>. Their webpage says:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "lato"; font-size: 15px;">InsertLearning is a Chrome extension that lets you turn websites into interactive lessons. Our toolbar is preloaded on this page so you can try it out without installing anything or signing up. Click on the buttons to transform this text."</span></blockquote>
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I need to figure out what I can try this out with. I'm thinking maybe something informational to prepare either my 11th graders for <i>The Great Gatsby</i> or my 10th graders to <i>A Midsummer Night's Dream</i>. <span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Any suggestions on good websites for either of those?</b></span><br />
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I skipped the Thursday keynote in order to (barely) get in and see a session by<a href="http://brentcoley.com/"> Brent Coley</a> about Google Forms. He didn't revolutionize my thinking about forms, but he definitely had me thinking of some pretty neat uses for them. I use a Google sheet to keep track of parent contact. He uses a gForm. I didn't think about using that, which would give me a time stamp that I don't currently have. So, I need to create a form or add the time to the date when I fill it out. I think I'll also be turning the PLC minutes into a gForm so I have all the information throughout the year in a spreadsheet. Oh, the joys of being the "boss" (read: the bullet-ridden messenger).<br />
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I enjoyed the Google Innovator's Slam that featured people like<a href="http://wondertechedu.blogspot.com/"> Alice Chen</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/gochemonline">JR Ginnex-Orinion</a>. I found out that EdTechTeam's <a href="https://www.edtechteam.com/blog/2018/02/checkmark-v1-0/">CheckMark</a> extension can now be customized; so, I might use it now. I also got some neat little hacks to gSlides with videos that I might give a try (you can autoplay and shrink a video for music in the background of a presentation)....<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiliMLIzEtGIz2u1o14NIo02W_UBMwDxB2azuuW9GcgmqJ15IUGwDzkqqqEt3DxrV1H2GMqvkTB7Zxg5vt8qiWIb8Oe6YtH4jBa5sCKRDlELzPfTRF5hIoNaxEwp4qH_w4LtIri1lPE-3fc/s1600/3493681c-a915-4a29-b266-9eba3bf23e08-12eaa46f-a528-4bd0-9a23-d4b92ea927b0-v1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="398" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiliMLIzEtGIz2u1o14NIo02W_UBMwDxB2azuuW9GcgmqJ15IUGwDzkqqqEt3DxrV1H2GMqvkTB7Zxg5vt8qiWIb8Oe6YtH4jBa5sCKRDlELzPfTRF5hIoNaxEwp4qH_w4LtIri1lPE-3fc/s200/3493681c-a915-4a29-b266-9eba3bf23e08-12eaa46f-a528-4bd0-9a23-d4b92ea927b0-v1.png" width="200" /></a><br />
It's the last day of CUE. Took a break and am coming back while I wait for my first session. Apparently, the "theme" of putting big-name presenters in smaller rooms has continued. They have <a href="http://alicekeeler.com/">Alice Keeler</a> is a smaller room already filled (pretty sure I won't be able to get into her next session, which I planned on going to) while other rooms have a sprinkling of people in it. For those that don't know, Alice is a Google Classroom Guru. If you use Classroom, you need to check her out.<br />
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I've already learned something about a tool I use that I didn't know and <a href="https://twitter.com/KtBkr4">Kate Baker's</a> presentation hasn't even started. I had no idea that<a href="https://www.activelylearn.com/"> Actively Learn</a> had a gDoc<a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/actively-learn/gkocijlodgfnpkgndnmeghkchhjljmjc?utm_source=permalink"> add-on</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIo-UTsTsA8RfmabCqrSJQhyEsOiWC4rHhPoz9qUqR8ZnUJgNuSfX6qEYbF3eQv0jS0YNnQSvybilDcXn43DamyboXwnYsS99PB27g8M8dkRC3eNR_E8LfjR8KvlGffYBtTelVAGXgyd9C/s1600/0e16a8dc-aefb-4b2c-b009-023c4b23f2d4-12eaa46f-a528-4bd0-9a23-d4b92ea927b0-v1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="398" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIo-UTsTsA8RfmabCqrSJQhyEsOiWC4rHhPoz9qUqR8ZnUJgNuSfX6qEYbF3eQv0jS0YNnQSvybilDcXn43DamyboXwnYsS99PB27g8M8dkRC3eNR_E8LfjR8KvlGffYBtTelVAGXgyd9C/s200/0e16a8dc-aefb-4b2c-b009-023c4b23f2d4-12eaa46f-a528-4bd0-9a23-d4b92ea927b0-v1.png" width="200" /></a>So to reflect on yesterday (Friday), my morning sessions pretty much sucked. It was a mess with not being able to get in for Leslie Fisher, too many people, and I left all the sessions I actually got into early for one reason or another. I had an over-priced lunch in the Rocks Lounge at the Renaissance and then checked out <a href="http://twitter.com/annkozma723">Ann Kozma</a>'s Diamond Time session. It was a great session. Totally hit me in the feels, especially the #LAM (Life Altering Moments) section. One of our students was shot at the Vegas massacre, so that hit home. The rest of Friday was kind of a dud for me.<br />
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Yeah! Got into the 2nd Alice Keeler, so I'll continue with this once I get back home from the Springs of Palms....<br />
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I lazed about the majority of the rest of the weekend. My calves were certainly sore. Saturday's sessions were much better, despite the issues I've already stated. I really enjoyed the Kate Baker presentation. I really need to find a way to incorporate and try out <a href="http://goformative.com/">Formative</a>. I may try it with my colleagues the next time I need to do some PD instead of trying to fit it into what I'm doing in class. I also learned that with PDFs, I can also add graphic novels to Actively Learn.<br />
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Alice Keeler's session on Classroom tips was really good and that was a session that could have been a double session. The biggest thing that resonated with me was the fact that she doesn't make copies of any of her gDocs, Slides, etc. She names the versions and restores back to the "original". I think I may give that a try with some of the things I do, especially the stuff I use every year and make copies and rename with the date to keep track. That would certainly help illiminate (eventually) my "archives".<br />
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I go in for a morning presentation on the premium aspects of <a href="http://noredink.com/">NoRedInk</a> tomorrow, taking the rest of the day off for my CT scan, and then back for ILT meeting and then physical therapy. I may have to take the next day off too.Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-5916246475791705112018-03-16T10:40:00.003-07:002018-03-16T10:41:07.359-07:00Let the Flogging Commence<br />
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Wow! I just looked at the last time I blogged (August). I feel horrible. Then again, I don't.<br />
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It's been a really tough year this year. We changed our school calendar up three weeks. I may have mentioned that in my most "recent" post. That has been really hard for both teachers and students. We've been so ingrained in how things used to go. We feel like we have more time for things because of where they used to be in the school year.<br />
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The English department in the district is, after like 15 years, adopting a new "textbook" (read: curriculum). We chose StudySync. If anyone out there has experience with that, shoot me your thoughts. One of my team members and I worked together and tried both contenders out. We personally liked StudySync better, but now I'm a little concerned because the district is throwing the baby out with the bathwater and shifting and moving novels and things around to other grade levels because of where they are in the StudySync curriculum. Without teacher input of course. This is not a good year to be the department chair.<br />
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My 11th graders are probably this least studious I've ever had in my 12-year career. Everyone seems to be having trouble with them, especially the ELA and Social Studies teachers.<br />
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Since February, I've been battling with pneumonia. I've taken 5 days off (6 including this coming Monday for a CT scan) because of this, not including the time off getting pulled out for meetings and for conferences (CATE and CUE). This is more than the last 6 years combined. I've been very lethargic because of this and am WAY WAY WAY behind on grading (instead of just WAY behind).<br />
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I'm currently at CUE now. I'll try and write up about CATE and CUE. Maybe I can do it Monday after or before my CT.<br />
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If you are in the OC area, there is a #MarchforOurLives event at Centennial Park in Santa Ana at 2 p.m on March 24th.<br />
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<br />Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-84232183319377568152017-08-19T16:28:00.001-07:002017-08-19T16:28:40.679-07:00The First Week Hangover<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN1QN_LjK36Wb6ZLm5GDGU31DSEpDIMvb-tzlSzVxCQyia36sXzAG1F5Pi9zO_q5dp6y1AIjw8ResqLGLuY804Trc9qgPpy17BobbZle3NIXqwKeTtCGGxUku3vmP4YmeCo0JT933nru5I/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-08-19+at+3.15.59+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="672" data-original-width="1058" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN1QN_LjK36Wb6ZLm5GDGU31DSEpDIMvb-tzlSzVxCQyia36sXzAG1F5Pi9zO_q5dp6y1AIjw8ResqLGLuY804Trc9qgPpy17BobbZle3NIXqwKeTtCGGxUku3vmP4YmeCo0JT933nru5I/s200/Screen+Shot+2017-08-19+at+3.15.59+PM.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Screenshot of my Saturday <br />morning Facebook status</td></tr>
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Well, the school year has begun. Yeah?<br />
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My district made the wonderful (🤔😒😕) decision to start school about three weeks earlier than it normally would. It also made the decision to start with a completely full week of school. I really like getting eased back in with a half week. When does your school year start? Full week? Half week?<br />
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The week before, when I was planning out the first week, I was really grateful for my blog (someone has to be right?). It was great to go back to <a href="http://blendedbarron.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-first-half-week-of-school-2016.html">this post</a> and see what I had done and how it had worked the year before.<br />
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We had shorter class periods all week this week for Week of Welcome (WOW). We had our now elusive seminar at the beginning of each day this week. I'm having a hard time connecting with this group of kids. I don't know if it's the "chemical" makeup of this particular group, the fact that I barely know them (I could maybe remember 3 of their names outside of the students that are also in my English classes - though I don't really know their name and faces yet either), or that I just had such a great relationship with my previous seminar that my gauge is off.<br />
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Anyways, since we had shorter class periods and an entire week, I broke things down a little differently this year. <br />
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On Monday, I passed out all the important first-day documents, and I read through portions of the syllabus with the kids, pointed out the late work policy, and that they needed to bring Chromebooks, but if they didn't I had them covered. I then showed them the <a href="http://blendedbarron.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-tools-of-tradeso-far.html">class set I accumulated in 2014</a>. I told them it would cost them a class participation point though if they used one of mine (by the end of the week, 2 of the classes all had theirs and in the remaining 3 only a few needed to borrow one). Then, we did a <a href="https://kahoot.com/">Kahoot</a> that was about me and the room. It was the same one we did last year. It worked really well and helped me begin crafting relationships with a few students who found that I liked to watch <i>Game of Thrones</i> because of it.<br />
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The day was interesting in the way that the energy between me and the students really had a drastic change between Periods 2 and 3 where I switch from CP to Honors. The 10th-grade honors students just really gave back nearly the same amount of energy that I was giving to them. Just really drove home that this group of kids is my niche.<br />
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The next day, I had them take a first-week survey. There were some memorable responses to some of the questions. <br />
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For instance, I had a question that asked if there was another name<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">—</span>other than their name on the roll<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">—</span>they would like to be called. <span style="color: #0b5394;">One of the students said I could call him a stick of butter as long as I was consistent</span>. I'm going to like this kid. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDPhWkEBlKIlOZgWibZj0TLIvJ4sRGrT3Av7QYi9BQjapQUAZwm6xLXynR30ulr5eGMHweC4QfWnjtcnZA-GXQxEB-MPGCzjhyphenhyphenWFNdCsg_UqF7gWkkSlcznhiQRMTJvp6r09nXHdgHnzi5/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-08-19+at+3.52.21+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="64" data-original-width="716" height="35" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDPhWkEBlKIlOZgWibZj0TLIvJ4sRGrT3Av7QYi9BQjapQUAZwm6xLXynR30ulr5eGMHweC4QfWnjtcnZA-GXQxEB-MPGCzjhyphenhyphenWFNdCsg_UqF7gWkkSlcznhiQRMTJvp6r09nXHdgHnzi5/s400/Screen+Shot+2017-08-19+at+3.52.21+PM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This was an intriguing answer to what they liked most about the previous year.</span></div>
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Here is an unedited sampling of some of their favorite jokes they shared with me (you are welcome):<br />
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<ul>
<li><style type="text/css"><!--td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}--></style><span data-sheets-userformat="{"2":513,"3":[null,0],"12":0}" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"What did the buffalo tell his son when he left to college? Bison"}" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">What did the buffalo tell his son when he left to college? Bison</span></li>
<li><span data-sheets-userformat="{"2":513,"3":[null,0],"12":0}" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"What did the buffalo tell his son when he left to college? Bison"}"><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span></span></li>
<li style="font-size: 13.3333px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I told my girlfriend she drew her eyebrows too high. She seemed surprised.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Why did the quadrilateral get late to school? Because it was on the Rhombus</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Q: What did the DNA say to the other DNA? A: Do these genes make my butt look fat</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">why did the duck go to rehab? because he was quack addict!</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">what's forrest gump's password? 1Forrest1</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Teacher: "Kids, what does the chicken give you?" Student: "Meat!" Teacher: "Very good! Now what does the pig give you?" Student: "Bacon!" Teacher: "Great! And what does the fat cow give you?" Student: "Homework!"</span></span></li>
</ul>
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Wasn't sure how to take that last one, but thought I would share it anyway.<br />
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This transitioned them into the updated <a href="http://breakoutedu.com/">BreakoutEdu</a> from last year. There were, of course, those that didn't like it because it was a challenge but when surveyed, the students mostly seemed to like that they were challenged and had to think critically. Here are the some of the survey results from that activity:<br />
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Wednesday and Thursday, I got kids signed up for <a href="http://noredink.com/">NoRedInk</a>, <a href="http://app.versoapp.com/">Verso</a>, and <a href="https://www.activelylearn.com/">Actively Learn</a>. Thanks to the Breakout, they were already signed up for <a href="http://classroom.google.com/">Google Classroom</a>. I had practice activities for Verso and Actively Learn and a planning diagnostic for NoRedInk. The purchase order for Actively Learn hasn't come through yet, so I'm back to a free plan. I'm anxious to get back to the Team Plan, especially since I have a cluster of ELs in my two 11th-grade classes and would like to set up some differentiation for them. A lot of students, including many of those ELs, didn't complete the Actively Learn assignment (answer 2 questions and make one annotation shared with the class), so I sent out a comment on Google Classroom encouraging them to finish it this weekend and I'll look at them again on Monday.<br />
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Friday was spent getting student's blogs set up and showing them how to make a post. I had planned on doing a reflection on <i>Kid President's Guide to Being Awesome</i>, but I think I'll have to find time to fit that in next week. I might push back the narrative essay a day and have students do it Monday.<br />
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I've also realized, after a week of doing the exact same thing in all my classes, that I wouldn't want to teach the same prep all day. I did it once about 6 years ago, but I need the change of pace more now I think.<br />
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How did your first week go? I hope it was a good one.<br />
<br />Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-6800543094778520452017-08-02T19:58:00.000-07:002017-08-08T14:52:23.320-07:00I've Done Bad, but Google Classroom Has Done Good<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Well, I haven't done much better in being a more consistent blogger, have I?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">My excuses are kind of piss poor too, or maybe not really. June was crazy, as the last weeks of school usually are. Then I was off to <a href="http://iste.org/">ISTE</a> in San Antonio (Had a nice trip, but wasn't that crazy about ISTE this year. Maybe more on that later) before I came home and got a call for a surgery I didn't think was going to happen, and then I had said surgery and was recovering from it. Surgery wasn't that serious (deviated septum), but it did take a big chunk of energy from me. Now, I'm getting prepared to go back to school.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">We have a really short summer in our district this year. Preparing for and recovering from my surgery took the majority of my July and now school starts in less than two weeks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I have a lot of <a href="http://feedly.com/">Feedly</a> posts to read through, so I should definitely have some Read Reports coming out. Maybe I'll space them out some.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But I'm super duper, mega excited for the new <a href="https://www.blog.google/topics/education/10-ways-were-making-classroom-and-forms-easier-teachers-school-year/">Google Classroom updates released this week.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I'll admit, the animation in the Google for Ed blog post about the updates got me really good thinking that there was a way to toggle between a Teacher View and Student View, but since that doesn't seem to be a possibility, it was...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But let's talk about some of the updates that actually DID happen:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiD7ugyQ9KNuXowwACBEifq6qXWbFG1XhNkECyvQrhfWKqkyPKiqtOdG3rFyo1gf3SN8ORJbT5nyDR3rHyv7BZnuUuwemSKif2Nc33I_Gz3SdHrFMPJwl5X9r3D1ASK6tO1-h9TdQBcHCA/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-08-02+at+7.32.35+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span></a><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Single View of Student Work:</span> If you go to your Student tab, you can now click on a student and see all the assignments for that student. You can also filter that page for work that has been turned in, graded, or is missing. For someone who deals with a lot of late work from apathetic 11th graders, this is my favorite update. I think this is the one had me like...</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span> <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;">Reorder Classes: </span>This is the one that most people have been waiting for. You can now click and drag your classes around on the homepage to put them in any order you want. This also changes the order in which they appear on the drop down menu. This is great for those of us that want to put like classes together even if they aren't next to each other during our day. For instance, last year, I could have had my 1st and 4th period 11th-grade classes right next to each other.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;">Decimal grading</span>: Pretty sure this one is self-explanatory (If it's not, there is a link above you can use). This was only an issue for me on occasion, but sometimes you just don't want to give that full point for something, so now you don't have to.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">There were 5 other Google Classroom-specific updates, but I'm kind of apathetic to them, so I don't have much to say on them (Hey look! I'm acting like an 11th-grader).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Overall, this update had me feeling verklempt.</span></div>
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Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-83996042168382086832017-05-24T08:06:00.000-07:002017-08-02T19:01:51.188-07:00The Shakespearean Insult Wall Meets the Internets.I know it's been awhile (and I was doing so well). But, my excuse is that the month of April and most of May have been really crazy. This is especially true because I'm also the department chair and we had official federal visits, the school-wide administration of the ACT to the juniors, and now we're into SBAC testing.<br />
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I wanted to do a quick post on an experiment of sorts I just did. For the past couple of years, when doing any Shakespeare, I do a Shakespearean Insult Wall. I used to do it the "old-fashioned" way, with poster paper and sticky notes.<br />
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A post shared by Miss Barron (@missbarronsfhs) on <time datetime="2016-05-11T19:02:43+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">May 11, 2016 at 12:02pm PDT</time></div>
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A post shared by Miss Barron (@missbarronsfhs) on <time datetime="2015-06-29T22:30:33+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Jun 29, 2015 at 3:30pm PDT</time></div>
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I had been contemplating on switching it over to <a href="http://padlet.com/">Padlet</a> the last year or two. This year I finally did it. It worked out really well. I had the students create accounts so I could tell who was saying what, and I made it so I had to moderate comments, so that only ones done following the directions and complete would appear. <br />
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I think I'll do it again next year. <br />
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Side note: I'm really liking Padlet this year with the changes they've made/things they have added (COMMENTS!).Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-37286100948687477242017-03-07T07:43:00.000-08:002017-03-07T07:43:19.187-08:00Kid President Blog 3<br />
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It's actually #6 for my students, but I'm behind so I checked and the last one I did I labeled #2, so this is the 3rd one where I've decided to participate and model for them as they write their own blog posts.<br />
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I had them read #68, "Be Kind". I think it's especially important to try and be kind to people right now, so that is why I chose it.<br />
The helpful prompts to help the students out for this reflection were:<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>What do you think about kindness?</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Do you find it hard or easy to be kind most of the time?</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>When is it easiest for you to be kind?</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>When is it hardest for you to be kind?</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Was there something KP said that really stood out to you? </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I think kindness is an extremely important trait to have and to show to other people. I think grace goes hand-in-hand with kindness because you don't know what other people are going through and often need to forgive and show grace to others who don't show kindness to you. "Killing" people with kindness is often quite an effective weapon, and when others are shown grace when they feel they don't deserve it, it can have quite a transformative effect on them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Most of the time (I think), I find it easy to be kind most of the time. I actually think I find it more difficult to be mean to people, but that's not necessarily the same thing. The absence of kindness is not cruelty, and sometimes I think it's worse to be apathetic than it is to be in the negative about something instead of the positive. As the saying goes, "there is a thin line between love and hate", but apathy is often a blurred line and it's hard to figure out how to cross it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I think it's easiest to be kind when others are kind to you, so - obviously - it's hard to be kind when someone is being mean to you. I do think there are people out there that make it impossible to be kind to them. But, you need to at least try. And, if your kindness doesn't have an affect on them, then don't be mean to them, that's when apathy is acceptable. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Kid President's advice to pause and remember that that when someone is making it difficult to be kind to them, or are being mean to you, to remember that they are a person too. I watched something once where a man explained what his wife did when people were just not being their best selves. She always assumed that they did it for a very important reason. For example, if someone cut them off in the car, she would say something about how they must be trying to get to the hospital, etc. I think that's really good advice that I especially need to heed when I'm driving.</span></div>
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Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-15111253470876735822017-03-06T13:30:00.001-08:002017-03-06T13:30:53.409-08:00Reflections on CATESo last month, I attended the <a href="http://cateweb.org/">California Association of Teachers of English (CATE) Conference</a> with a few colleagues.<br />
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First, and ironically, it was last, Kwame Alexander - poet and Newberry Award winner for <i>The Crossover</i> - spoke at the last keynote. He started with a reading of his poem, "In My Closet, On the Top Shelf, Is a Silver Box", which left me gutted emotionally. I then went and bought all his non children's books and read that poem to my classes. They felt it too. I highly suggest looking into his poetry, especially with National Poetry Month occurring next month. I will be reading a poem a day to my students. Any suggestions?<br />
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Looking back through my notes, these are a few things that stood out to me.<br />
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A session about independent reading by Amy Matt. That is something that my dep<span id="goog_1675543395"></span><span id="goog_1675543396"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a>artment holds sacred as 5% of a student's overall grade, but something we especially struggle with. I'm definitely using some of her materials to incorporate them into my Book Review blogs. I'm also going to try out the speed dating idea at some point (probably next year to be honest). I think I'm also going to take time, once, maybe twice, a week to have students read in class. I may start this with my 11th graders after next week. I'm also going to set individual reading goals for my students instead of a one size fits all. This is easy to do in the Accelerated Reader program we use.<br />
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I had a couple of dud sessions. Particularly those that promised to help reduce the amount of work in grading. I have a book I bought a few years ago that I've never read that I need to find. Something about not working harder than your students are.<br />
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I found out about another Reading and Tracking tool, similar to <a href="http://activelylearn.com/">Actively Learn</a> and <a href="https://www.owleyes.org/">Owl Eyes</a>, called <a href="https://www.commonlit.org/">CommonLit</a>. If we don't end up expanding or renewing our Actively Learn account, I may check it out next year and give it a try. I signed up just in case, and to maybe use some of their questions. I'm always on the look out for good questions.<br />
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I found out about the app, <a href="https://www.serialreader.org/">Serial Reader</a>, from <a href="https://twitter.com/JenniferNauman3">Jennifer Naumann</a>. It breaks down classic lit into bite sized chunks. The app will send them a 20 minute (or less) section of a book daily.<br />
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I went to a session by the<a href="http://www.thezenteacher.com/"> Zen Teacher </a>and every teacher should check out his site. I bought the book, and he has inspired me to be better about taking care of myself. I've mediated much more consistently (even if it's only for a few minutes) than I ever have.<br />
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The awesome <a href="http://www.catlintucker.com/">Catlin Tucker </a>was there for a keynote. I really like her story time idea. I need to go to the bookstore and look through the children's books for some good ones that could teach teenagers good lessons. I think I'll read one to them each month and then have them reflect on them in a blog.<br />
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I had a really good time in my last session about unlocking Shakespeare's rhetoric. The presenters,<br />
Kelly Boske and Melinda Malaspino, did a great job and I wish one of the colleges down here did a Globe Academy. I might try a few of the techniques with my 10th grade honors class when we read <i>A Midsummer Night's Dream</i>. Though, to tell the truth, after that session, I'm getting the hankering to teach <i>Taming of the Shrew </i>again.<br />
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Stay tuned for a Kid President blog, I'm having my students do one for the first time in a while today.Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-10828298110349496972017-02-28T08:24:00.000-08:002017-02-28T08:24:10.442-08:00The Read Report Enters 2017I need to do a post on my experience at <a href="http://cateweb.org/">CATE</a>, but I'm determined to get caught up on these articles.<br />
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It was interesting how so many articles I had saved just didn't seem to interest me anymore the way they did when I first read them. I eliminated a lot as I browsed through them and ended up done with 2016, so all I have left is 2017, so I'm only a month (or two) behind now.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Volunteering_SVG.svg/2000px-Volunteering_SVG.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Volunteering_SVG.svg/2000px-Volunteering_SVG.svg.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">source: wikimedia</td></tr>
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Through a guest post on <a href="http://cultofpedagogy.com/">Cult of Pedagogy</a>, Krista Taylor talked about <a href="http://angelsandsuperheroes.com/2016/09/05/hate-pd-try-voluntary-piloting/">Voluntary Piloting instead of PD.</a> It reads much more like graduate studies work than a blog post but was an interesting concept. I don't think anyone likes mandatory PD, especially when it ends up being something you already know/do, or not really something that you could implement right away. I don't think my principal would even have the authority to okay some of the stuff that she talked about in the post (giving continuing ed credit), but I liked the idea of a group of teachers piloting something and sort of creating a structured support group. I feel that would have been beneficial for those of us piloting <a href="http://activelylearn.com/">Actively Learn</a> on our campus.<br />
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I've been working and figuring out ways to incorporate blogging in my classroom since last year, so a post by Jacqui over at Ask a Tech Teacher about <a href="http://askatechteacher.com/2017/01/18/why-use-blogging-in-your-class-and-how-to-do-it/">Why and How Students Can Blog</a> caught my attention. She talked about how students can collaborate by commenting (something my students have to do) and co-writing (not something my students do). Designing a profile was also discussed. This one I'm not sure I'm on board with. I don't even let me students use their full names on their blogs and ask them to make sure they are unlisted. Privacy and protection and all that. That segues right into their digital footprint. Having them reach out beyond their own classmates and trusted others scares me a little. Maybe next year, and maybe with parent permission slips. She talked about many other things, but the last one I want to touch on is reflection. It's one of the reasons <i>I</i> blog, and it's one of the main reasons I have the student's blog. Writing down your thoughts, regardless of if you have a prompt to answer or not, is really helpful in a multitude of ways. I know that blogging about the things I do in class, help me analyze what does and does not work. I have the students do the same with their Passion Project portion of their blogs.<br />
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Again, back to Cult of Pedagogy and a post by Jennifer Gonzalez on <a href="https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/ed-tech-tools-2017/">6 Ed Tech Tools</a> to try this year. The 6 tools are <a href="http://nearpod.com/">Nearpod</a>, <a href="http://planboardapp.com/">Planboard</a>, <a href="http://slack.com/">Slack</a>, <a class="" href="http://peergrade.io/">Peergrade</a>, <a href="http://newsela.com/">Newsela</a>, and <a href="http://sketchboard.io/">Sketchboard</a>. I've used Slack before (though not with my students) and am thinking of maybe using it next year to sort of create a community help board for my classes. I signed up for Peergrade, but in the crazy that this past month has been completely forgot to try it out with my students and their Chinese Culture Research Projects. I like to try most things out with my more dependable and easier to manage 10th grade honors students, so maybe I'll give it a try with the next essay. I have a Newsela account but never use it. I might use it to print up lower Lexile articles for my EL students the next time I need an Article of the Week.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Passion_2013.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="64" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Passion_2013.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
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I tried the Passion Project out for the first time last year with BOTH of my preps. This year my version of the 20% Time/Genius Hour is only with my 10th-grade honors. A post over at A Meaningful Mess about <a href="http://ameaningfulmess.blogspot.com/2017/02/5-ways-to-find-students-passion.html">5 Ways to Find a Student's Passion</a> definitely caught my eye. I agree with Andi McNair that having a <b>conversation </b>with students is an excellent way to help them figure out what they are passionate about. How to turn that passion into a project with a learning goal...is something else entirely. <b>Observation </b>was the next way, and that is something that I can do in class more than out of it because I don't see them too often outside of my classroom (there is no recess in high school). She then talked about something that I want to remember to try next year, which is <b><a class="" href="http://thrively.com/">Thrively</a></b>. Apparently, there is a strength assessment that students can take to help them find what they want to learn about. The penultimate way was <b><a href="http://diy.org/">DIY.org</a>. </b>It will help students learn by doing. The last one was <b>outside experts</b>. This is one that so many 20Timers talk about, but not one that I think I could really pull off with equity. Our district is a Title 1 district with lots of areas of crime and violence. My school would have a leg up because it's in a better part of town, but it would still be difficult to connect these students with mentors. <br />
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Continuing with another post by Andi McNair, she posted: <a href="http://ameaningfulmess.blogspot.com/2017/02/dont-assume-ask.html">Don't Assume, Ask!</a> This is critical I think not only of teachers to students but students to teachers. But, as the adult, the ownership lies with us. I need to get better and have been working on it, about just assuming that my students (especially those 11th-graders) are just lazy and ask them why they didn't do their work. She also talks about not assuming things about administrators and their decisions either. That one is a little trickier for me, but I do tend to be the one that will step forward and address an issue (elephants don't belong in the room).<br />
<br />Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-88589231890186556602017-02-18T10:24:00.000-08:002017-02-18T10:26:37.508-08:00The Read Report Lives: the trilogy<br />
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Shall we make this journey to get caught up on all my saved <a href="http://feedly.com/">Feedly</a> posts a trilogy? It will probably be more.<br />
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We reach the "summer" months with a post by Jacqui over at <a href="http://askatechteacher.com/">Ask A Tech Teacher</a>. Jacqui writes about the <a href="http://askatechteacher.com/2016/05/12/5-must-have-tools-for-ed-conferences-2-2-2/">7 Must-have Tools for Ed Conferences</a>. Now, I love Ed Conferences. I'm at one right now (<a href="http://cateweb.org/">CATE</a>).<br />
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<li>Her first suggestion is a navigation app on your phone. She suggests <a href="http://waze.com/">WAZE</a>, and I agree, but I would also have a backup like Google Maps. Depending on the conference, you may need to travel around the city to find your sessions, let alone if you are driving to the conference itself.</li>
<li>Her second is to download the conference app if they have one. I've been to a few conferences that don't have a <a href="http://sched.com/">Sched</a>, and it drives me crazy trying to decide and keep track of possible sessions to attend. <span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Here is a little personal tip when going to conferences and dealing with the schedule: Choose multiple options for each session so that if one turns out to be a dud or full, you can go right to another choice instead of searching through the schedule to find something else.</b></span></li>
<li>Next? Don't paper and pencil it. Bring tech that is easily transportable. My first year at CUE, I brought my laptop for use in the hotel room and my iPad for the sessions. I no longer bring my iPad and instead bring my Chromebook and only my Chromebook. If I charge it overnight, I don't (usually) need to charge it during the day. It's light-weight, and taking notes on a keyboard is easier for me than trying to do it on my iPad. I have my phone for anything that needs a QR code, but now I won't even need that thanks to different Chrome extensions.</li>
<li>Note taking. Jacqui talks about <a href="http://evernote.com/">Evernote</a> and <a href="http://gingerlabs.com/">Notability</a>, but I tend to create a shared notes document with my Technology Committee or anyone else that is attending the conference, so we can all add to our resources (and sometimes divide and conquer the sessions). Nothing works better than Google Docs for that. In the past, I would create a table of contents, but now I just use the heading functions and the outline tool.</li>
<li>Messaging App. You're basically going to need Twitter. Most conferences have hashtags that you can use to share and converse about what is happening. I use <a href="http://tweetdeck.twitter.com/">Tweet Deck</a> so I can have multiple columns of hashtags open.</li>
<li>QR Reader. Numerous apps you can download for this.</li>
<li>Digital Scanner. She talks about using it for business cards. I've never used it for that, but I have used it for making copies of receipts for reimbursement. I use the app <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tiny-scanner-pdf-scanner-to/id595563753?mt=8">Tiny Scanner</a>, on my iPhone.</li>
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Heading backward into March, Alice Chen wrote about how sharing <a href="http://wondertechedu.blogspot.com/2016/03/how-sharing-on-social-media-helped-me.html">on social media helped her become a better educator.</a> I'm nowhere near as a prolific tweeter and she certainly has more blog cred than I do, but I do agree with her. Blogging, however sporadic I may be with it, forces me to reflect on what is going on in my teaching. While I know that some people do read these blog posts, they don't seem to spark conversations (yet?). As I've gotten more active on Twitter, I find myself building a more robust PLN and creating conversations. The trick with Twitter is finding the right hashtags so people see what you have to say.<br />
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Jumping back to May, and another post by Jacqui, we have a post about u<a href="http://askatechteacher.com/2016/05/25/use-the-samr-model-to-spearhead-technology-in-your-classroom/">sing the SAMR Model to direct your technology integration</a>. I definitely agree with much of what she wrote about. Her suggestions remind me a little of <a href="http://twitter.com/catlin_tucker">Catlin Tucker</a>'s suggestion about (and I paraphrase) learning to use one tool really well before adding other tools to your box (and then use the ones that you like the best/most in your tool belt). We have Federal Program Monitoring this year and in our mock assessment, one of the evaluators mentioned how there was a lot of substitution going on by teachers. Well, of course, there is. We've only had 1:1 for one grade level for a year. It is going to take time for many of the more veteran teachers to integrate tech in the classroom beyond what they do on the whiteboard.<br />
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I'll stop there. For today at least. If you have any blogs that you follow, let me know. I would love to add them to my Feedly.<br />
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Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-17546394582291942392017-02-14T14:42:00.000-08:002017-02-14T14:42:05.709-08:00The Read Report Lives (Part 2)Continuing on in trying to catch up and be a better blogger, here are a few more articles from my Feedly and my thoughts on them.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrTdgABHGaD7CZOnbE6pM2a3KJxmkGUKFJR9JEIJKWrMwHBBfMEDz_hcuv1LEmOzCYPQ87aVdmlabTETqzThtb13HO48GXBJiV7q8M_0jdMTDkPZ0b2D0IgPTKcb0lX9U_PngCgeOmfk8U/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-02-10+at+3.07.42+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Screenshot from Google Classroom" border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrTdgABHGaD7CZOnbE6pM2a3KJxmkGUKFJR9JEIJKWrMwHBBfMEDz_hcuv1LEmOzCYPQ87aVdmlabTETqzThtb13HO48GXBJiV7q8M_0jdMTDkPZ0b2D0IgPTKcb0lX9U_PngCgeOmfk8U/s320/Screen+Shot+2017-02-10+at+3.07.42+PM.png" title="" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
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Back in April 2016, Google's Education Blog talked about <a href="https://blog.google/topics/education/4-ways-to-use-polling-in-google-classroo/">4 Ways to Use Polling in Google Classroom.</a> If you use the Question function on Google Classroom (GC), and choose multiple choice instead of short answer, you can create a way to poll your students without creating a Google Form. I had forgotten about this since I don't tend to use the question function and instead use <a href="http://app.versoapp.com/">Verso</a> for online discussions. But, I've already set one up for next week to help my 11th graders, who are doing a very big research paper, self-monitor their progress. The blog also mentioned it's a good way to get student feedback, for exit tickets, and to guide student discussions.<br />
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At the end of the same mother, Sylvia Duckworth from EdTechTeam, talked about taking her knowledge of (what was then) GAFE for granted and what she did to make sure to pass the Google Level 2 exam. She offered <a href="http://blog.edtechteam.com/2016/04/3-tips-to-rock-google-level-2-edu.html">3 Tips to Rock the Google Level 2 EDU Certification</a>. I'm sure I kept this because it was my plan over the summer to get my Level 2 Certification, but that didn't pan out. Then my district offered Level 1 Certification courses, but I already had mine and so I asked if Level 2 would be offered. They said it would be, and it was, but the class in December got cancelled. It is now in May. I've gone and checked out some of the training modules, but I haven't had the time to really look at them or the resources our Program Specialist put together. Maybe I can get some of that done during Spring Break in April (Ha. Then I would have come full circle). One thing I have done when looking at the modules is I go straight to the Review Quizzes and see what I don't actually know and then study that instead of reading over information that I've already figure out on my own in my usage of the G Suite products.<br />
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<a href="https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/9935306-116134476_1-s1-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="bitmoji-image" data-downloadurl="image/png:7134.png:https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/9935306-116134476_1-s1-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" data-reactid=".0.0.1.2.1.0.$7134" data-src="https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/9935306-%s-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" draggable="true" height="200" src="https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/9935306-116134476_1-s1-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" width="199" /></a><br />
In May, Jennifer Gonzlez at the Cult of Pedagogy posted (and podcasted) about <a href="https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/how-to-use-twitter/">ways to make better </a><a href="https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/how-to-use-twitter/">use of Twitter.</a> She talks about finding your tribe, having conversations, sharing, participating in Twitter chats (mine is #caedchat - though I need to get more involved with it), do research, and communicate with students and parents. Now, I have my personal twitter, which I use for the first 5 things Jennifer mentions, but I created a school twitter for my students/parents. I don't get much traction out of the latter, but then again, most of the kids seemed to have moved to SnapChat.<br />
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In that same month, Valencia Clay over at <a href="http://edutopia.org/">Edutopia</a> posted about <a href="https://www.edutopia.org/blog/intrinsic-motivation-vs-standardized-tests-valencia-clay">Intrinsic Motivation vs. Standardized Tests</a>. I think, at the time, I was interested because I had been working on my action research project with my two partners, and a large part of it involved extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. She'd used a lot from the work of Daniel Pink and his book, <i>Drive</i> (which you should read), but one thing in her article really caught my attention. One of the questions she says we should have students explore is "<span style="color: purple;">How will achieving well on this exam impact me a year from now, five years from now, ten years from now</span>?<span style="font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">" </span></span> Now, I'm admittedly biased against any <i>high-stakes </i>standardized testing and think there is too much of it. I also think there is too much no-little-stakes standardized testing (my 10th graders take 5-6 a year). But, some of these standardized tests <i>can </i>impact a student. Our 11th-grade students take the SBAC and have the EAP questions attached to it. That can impact them because - depending on how well they do on the mixture of questions (SBAC and EAP) - it determines whether or not they need to take ERWC or any remedial English or Math courses in college (it essentially replaces placement tests).<br />
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I think that's a good plethora for now. Next time, we'll cover the month of June and maybe more.Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-44453858377790357052017-02-09T16:56:00.003-08:002017-02-09T16:57:58.299-08:00The Read Report LivesSince the new semester has begun and both my preps are working on research papers, I have a little more time to be a better blogger. It will, of course, catch back up to me when these papers are due.<br />
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I haven't done a Read Report in a really long time (about a year), but I have been checking up on my <a href="http://feedly.com/">Feedly</a> and saving posts.<br />
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This will be a nice way to refresh my memory about things.<br />
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<a href="https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/10136854-116134476_1-s1-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="bitmoji-image" data-downloadurl="image/png:6894.png:https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/10136854-116134476_1-s1-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" data-reactid=".0.0.1.2.1.0.$6894" data-src="https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/10136854-%s-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" draggable="true" height="320" src="https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/10136854-116134476_1-s1-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" width="318" /></a>Going all the way back to October of 2015, Jennifer Gonzales, gave her <a href="https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/speaking-listening-techniques/">Big List of Class Discussion Strategies</a>. She breaks them down by high-prep, low-prep, and ongoing strategies. Of the high-prep strategies mentioned, my favorite and the one that has basically replaced my attempts at Socratic Seminars is <b>Philosophical Chairs</b><i style="font-weight: bold;">. </i>I haven't done one in a while, but I plan to do so soon with the anticipation guide for <i>The Joy Luck Club.</i> I find that anticipation guides are good ways to incorporate Philosophical Chairs. I usually give them a "worksheet" where they can mark where they stand on a big idea or theme from the novel. I also usually have them write down <i>why</i> they agree/disagree. Then, usually the next day, we move about the room and defend our positions, seeing if we can persuade others with our analysis to move on over to our side.<br />
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Jacqui Murray also wrote in October of 2015. Her post was about <a href="http://askatechteacher.com/2015/10/21/let-students-learn-from-failure/">Let[ting] Student Learn from Failure</a>. I think this one caught my eye way back when because I completely agree that it is necessary. I tell my kids all the time that we learn best from our mistakes, but that doesn't seem to deter their fear of failure. She suggests many things in the post, but the two that stood out to me were her comments on the "Mulligan Rule" and letting students see you fail. Now, the former is something I offer, but probably not explicitly enough since no one ever takes me up on it. So, I need to find a way to make it clear that students can resubmit essays or projects to make them better. The latter is something my students see me do all the time. It usually appears in the typos of the work I present to them, but it can run the gamut all the way up to a lesson that just totally bombs.<br />
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Again back in October 2015, my friend Crystal Kirch talked about the <a href="http://flippingwithkirch.blogspot.com/2015/10/success-of-week-teachmeet-beckman.html">TeachMeet</a> she did with her colleagues. They "had three 2-minute sessions of teachers sharing something awesome they do in their classes with technology followed by 1-minute of reflection and debriefing with colleagues." So, each session was probably around 5 minutes, for a total of 15. I would love to do this with my staff. I think I'm going to take it to my tech committee and see what they think before I go to the admin to ask for time.<br />
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Another Jacqui Murray post (still 2015, but I've moved on up to November at least), talk about what she thinks are the <a href="http://askatechteacher.com/2015/11/03/5-best-typing-tutors-for-everyone/">5 Best Typing Tutors</a>. The ability to type on a normal keyboard, rather than one on a smart phone, is a skill that is severly lacking in many students. I honestly feel that we need to bring back some technology course that many schools and districts have done away with. These skills are especially pertinent with the onslaught of 1:1 programs.<br />
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We finally jettison into 206 (February) with a post from EdTechTeam about <a href="http://blog.edtechteam.com/2016/02/under-hood-google-docs-revision-history.html">Google's Revision History</a>. I love this tool, not only for fixing my own mistakes, but to catch kids who I suspect of plaigarizing their work from another student. If things go into a document in one fell swoop with minimal entries in the revision history, it stinks of copy and paste.<br />
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Going back a month with a post from Jennifer Scott about <a href="http://mrsjentechnology.blogspot.com/2016/01/living-in-learning-moment.html">Living in the Learing Moment.</a> She talks about when to sit and give synchronous feedback to students and when we roam around the room. This is something that I think I will always struggle with, but am better at than I was when I started my blended-learning endeavors. I think if I can get my workload down, I could feel more able to roam around the room than I already am. I use many different "formulas" to keep myself out on the floor with my students. Somethings I do the half-and-half: 5 minutes at my desk and then 5 minutes on the floor. Other times, especially if I'm grading, I do the quota: After every X number of assignments, I'll get up and roam around the room.<br />
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I think I'll leave it there for now. Maybe in a day or two I can work on getting all caught up.<br />
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<br />Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-22169670195205248052017-02-07T14:34:00.000-08:002017-02-07T14:34:04.897-08:00OCCUE Techfest 2017<br />
Here is my slide deck for my first conference presentation. I wanted to do something for those of us that <i>already</i> use Google Classroom. We don't need to know the basics, but it would be awesome if we could learn some tips and tricks to maximize its usage, right? This is a live document and I will be adding to it.<br />
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The room was pretty packed, so I think I hit on a need that some of this conferences often lack.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="389" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1bX6BljWgOBAhPa6ufM8_wDQMW_N11n38wEb6wJ-M-BM/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="480"></iframe>
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If you have any tips or tricks that you would like to share for Google Classroom, please leave a comment. If you would like me to include it the next time I present on Google Classroom, let me know and I'll give you proper credit.<br />
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I also went to three other sessions besides my own.<br />
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The first one on an app for the tablets called Argubot Academy by <a href="https://www.glasslabgames.org/games/AA-1">GlassLabs</a>. It combines gameplay with teaching kids how to discover and identify the correct type of evidence to support their arguments. Despite the fact it's geared towards middle schoolers, I think my students could find it fun and useful. I won't really be looking into it any further until it's available on the Chromebook, which is something that they are apparently working on according the to presenter (<a href="http://twitter.com/compton1206">Laura Compton</a>).<br />
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The second was about the classroom management app ClassDojo. I once signed up for a few years ago, but it seemed a little too elementary school for my students, and maybe it still is in regards to the aesthetic of the icons for the kids. But, I might give it a try next year. It had a lot to offer in keeping track of specific behaviors and assigning specific points for those behaviors. It might do the kids and I well to have certain behaviors be worth more and subtract more for their participation grade. I particularly liked the suggestion by the presenter, <a href="https://twitter.com/TracyEdmisten">Tracy Edmisten</a>, to use a zero point value to keep track of the number of times a student goes to the restroom.<br />
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The last session I went to was about using <i>Hamilton</i> in the classroom. The biggest takeaway I got from that was finding out about the site <a href="http://genius.com/">Genius</a>. It's a site where people can read up on annotations about lines in a song, or even add some themselves. The annotations seem to be really thorough.<br />
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Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-44421328417058100092017-02-02T12:23:00.001-08:002017-02-02T12:23:05.938-08:00And the Semesters Turn, Turn, Turn<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">First, I'm nervous/anxious/excited to try my hat as a presenter at the <a href="http://occuetechfest.blogspot.com/">OCCUE Techfest 2017</a>. I'll share my slide deck with you all after Saturday. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">I am so bad at this blogging thing. I'm sorry it's been so long, but like any of you teachers know, things get busy. But with my last final done for the semester and all my grades (pretty much) in, I have a moment to breath and try and reflect on this past semester.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> </span><a href="https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/10215342-116134476_1-s1-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" class="bitmoji-image" data-downloadurl="image/png:10695.png:https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/10215342-116134476_1-s1-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" data-reactid=".0.0.1.2.1.0.$10695" data-src="https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/10215342-%s-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" draggable="true" height="200" src="https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/10215342-116134476_1-s1-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" width="199" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><a href="http://blendedbarron.blogspot.com/2016/11/add-ons-can-save-lives-or-at-least-time.html">My last post</a>, back in November (shame *clang, clang* shame *clang, clang*), talked about add-ons, including <a href="https://getjoezoo.com/">JoeZoo</a>. Well, since then, JoeZoo has made some changes. They now have the add-on called JoeZoo Express and they have the web app. It's still a really useful add-on to use, but you'll have to jump through some hoops (like getting your district to install it to get all the features) to get the full array of features. I used to use it mostly for its MonkeyChecker, but I find I really like the rubric function a lot. If you set it up right you can get it to do all the adding to get the score for each essay. I may move to JoeZoo for the big 11th-grade research project coming up instead of Goobric.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> </span><a href="https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/9990897-116134476_1-s1-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" class="bitmoji-image" data-downloadurl="image/png:6407.png:https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/9990897-116134476_1-s1-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" data-reactid=".0.0.1.2.1.0.$6407" data-src="https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/9990897-%s-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" draggable="true" height="200" src="https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/9990897-116134476_1-s1-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" width="199" /></span></a><a href="https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/9990897-116134476_1-s1-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"></span></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">Each year, I feel like I have less and less time than I did the year before. For next year, I really need to decide what is most important for the students to know (I know, we all say this every year), and take more time. I need to decide what is and isn't important, and this includes for common assessments. If I don't think my students really need to know X, then maybe I'll adjust my own copies of assessments and not test for X (or convince my PLC we don't need to include it).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">Looking back at my workload this past semester, I need to move forward with assigning deeper, more meaningful assignments. Again, many of us say this all the time, but it's hard to get myself to do it because I feel so much of a work of literature is meaningful and I want to share <i>all</i> my knowledge with the kids about it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">I also think that when I try and add meaningful assignments (like the Passion Project for my 10th graders and Kid President Blogs for both 10th and 11th), I feel like I'm falling behind the other classes because I have to take time out of the week to do these things that other teachers are not. That puts some pressure on me to try and catch up. It kind of makes you feel like a bad teacher if you aren't able to go the same pace as everyone else. You aren't one, but you sometimes feel like it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">Next year's Poe unit for my 10th graders will include less poetry I think. I can easily cut out "<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/44889">Ulalume</a>", but I really don't want to give up "Dream Within a Dream". And, I certainly don't want to cut out "<a href="http://poestories.com/read/eldorado">Eldorado</a>", "<a href="http://poestories.com/read/bells">The Bells</a>" (perfect for talking about sound devices) and "<a href="http://poestories.com/read/annabellee">Annabel Lee</a>". I <i>can't</i> cut out "<a href="http://poestories.com/read/raven">The Raven</a>" (you can't talk about Poe without reading "The Raven".</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">If I cut out one of the three short stories, it will probably be "<a href="http://poestories.com/read/blackcat">The Black Cat</a>". Despite its difficulty, I want to continue to do "<a href="http://poestories.com/read/murders">Murders in the Rue Morgue</a>" because it's a departure from what Poe is known for and the birth of the detective story. In case you were wondering, the last story is "<a href="http://poestories.com/read/masque">The Masque of the Red Death</a>", and that is NEVER coming out (ah, symbolism). I think I might also switch it back to starting with the stories and ending with the poetry.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">I'm nearly paperless in my 10th-grade class so just about everything is due through Google Classroom. I think one of the problems with time that I am having is because the technology has made the students...lazier (for lack of a better term). If I were to assign a "worksheet" on symbolism in "The Masque of the Red Death" on paper and it was due the next day, students would typically go home and finish whatever they didn't in class and bring it back done the next day. That is overwhelmingly not so with these kids when an assignment is online. The majority of students still haven't' finished it the next day in class. We've had this discussion multiple times and I just have to get better about putting a time on the due date and giving homework cards to those students who don't have it in on time (I will admit that going to blended-learning has negatively affected how I handle homework cards consistently).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">My 11th graders, by in large, have the same problem regardless of if it's an online assignment or a paper one (I'm less paperless in this class), but many of them try and use the online aspect of an assignment as an excuse for poor motivation and achievement.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">My goals for this semester:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span><a href="https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/10136878-116134476_1-s1-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" class="bitmoji-image" data-downloadurl="image/png:6686.png:https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/10136878-116134476_1-s1-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" data-reactid=".0.0.1.2.1.0.$6686" data-src="https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/10136878-%s-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" draggable="true" height="200" src="https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/10136878-116134476_1-s1-v1.png?transparent=1&palette=1" width="200" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Ease up on my workload. I don't need to grade every assignment. </span></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Get better with electronic assignments and homework cards.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Throw it back to how I used to be as a teacher and come up with more project-based assessments with choice (still have to do the common assessments with 11th grade though).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Get more helpful screencast videos done for the students.</span></li>
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Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-85481593136111446702016-11-01T13:13:00.000-07:002016-11-01T13:13:26.323-07:00Add-Ons Can Save Lives, Or At Least TimeIt's been awhile since I've made a post about anything other than Kid President. It's been a very busy year. I no longer have to worry about my Master's Degree, but I'm department chair this year and become a site rep for the union. We also have had a lot of administrative absences for various reasons and a few of us have been picking up some of the slack when we can.<br />
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Last week, my Safe School Ambassador "club" hosted an Anti-Bullying Week. That kept me pretty busy, but that's a kind of busy that is definitely worthwhile. We got some help from one of the AVID classes and created a "Take What You Need, Give What You Can" board to share<br />
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A photo posted by Miss Barron (@missbarronsfhs) on <time datetime="2016-10-24T21:30:25+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Oct 24, 2016 at 2:30pm PDT</time></div>
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I'm, as always, behind in my grading. One thing that helped me so far this year is a Google Doc add-on called <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/joezoo-express/cjfkajggdjbpjheohdjdapdoblepkahh">JoeZoo</a>. It's not perfect. It would be great if you could go from giving grammatical feedback on an assignment, to grading it (using a rubric to give it a grade) instead of having to go back to the start screen. But, if you use many of the same rubrics for different assignments, it's pretty handy. I just had to set up my districts narrative rubric once, and now I can use it with multiple assignments. It saved me a lot of time and it will show the students the areas they need to work on.<br />
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It also integrates with your Google Classroom (GC), so you don't need to enter in all your students and assignments. If you have them in GC, it's there in JoeZoo. I still suggest edits for mistake students make because the feedback function is not foolproof.<br />
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I discovered two new Docs add-ons the other day as well that I'm pretty excited about, though like JoeZoo, they aren't foolproof (apparently, it's nigh on impossible for AIs to identify comma splices). These two add-ons have similar functions: proofreading. One is called <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/gradeproof-proofreading-w/jdfpoahdpflhjfknlmplddpiknmgmlbi">GradeProof</a> and the other is <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/proofread-bot/djancbfmkanmnofhdfindoppiapcgnbf">Proofread Bot</a>.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLPfXxjai6ZioeQ7kqN4y7gMN3TLY7spxYPjL4bCucbV7ew5hhDoulqsMSOkNXRglPqT19x05TbFS9ilY72o-gSO5N3Iaw5QE2yzhYL93GwBBp-Cge0G3kCeJiuS-8qPj_H7GxW7OJ3w4F/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-11-01+at+11.04.12+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLPfXxjai6ZioeQ7kqN4y7gMN3TLY7spxYPjL4bCucbV7ew5hhDoulqsMSOkNXRglPqT19x05TbFS9ilY72o-gSO5N3Iaw5QE2yzhYL93GwBBp-Cge0G3kCeJiuS-8qPj_H7GxW7OJ3w4F/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-11-01+at+11.04.12+AM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">GradeProof Screengrab</td></tr>
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GradeProof reminds me of Grammarly in function and aesthetic. I really like it. It gives statistical information too like how many words, sentences, etc. the paper has. It also gives a readability score and a "grade level". The grade level isn't really what most teachers would consider a grade level. What it is is a number of years it is estimated one would have to be in school in order to underestand the text. So, my students and I figured out that the higher a readability percentage, the lower the grade level was.<br />
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Proofread Bot is interesting in that it explains the error and why it shouldn't be made. I like that about it because it teaches along with guiding you through corrections that maybe should be made. This tool in particular could assist students in self (and peer) editing. Here's a video to see it in action:<br />
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I was a little surprised to hear about the change in name for GAFE to G Suite. I'm curious how that will affect the Ed Tech world. For instance, will EdTechTeam rename their GAFESummits?<br />
<br />Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-75832950590888674272016-10-07T13:11:00.000-07:002016-10-07T13:13:08.475-07:00Kid President #2 <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/Kid_President_in_White_House_2013_Easter_Egg_Roll_Promo.jpg/220px-Kid_President_in_White_House_2013_Easter_Egg_Roll_Promo.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img height="16" id="2bvgj473jfmu" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhEAAQAOUdAOvr69HR0cHBwby8vOzs7PHx8ff397W1tbOzs+Xl5ebm5vDw8PPz88PDw7e3t+3t7dvb2+7u7vX19eTk5OPj4+rq6tbW1unp6bu7u+fn5+jo6N/f3+/v7/7+/ra2ttXV1f39/fz8/Li4uMXFxfb29vLy8vr6+sLCwtPT0/j4+PT09MDAwL+/v7m5ubS0tM7OzsrKytra2tTU1MfHx+Li4tDQ0M/Pz9nZ2b6+vgAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACH/C05FVFNDQVBFMi4wAwEAAAAh+QQFMAA5ACwAAAAAEAAQAAAGg8CcMAcICAY5QsEwHBYPCMQhl6guGM5GNOqgVhMPbA6y5Xq/kZwkN3Fsu98EJcdYKCo5i7kKwCorVRd4GAg5GVgAfBpxaRtsZwkaiwpfD0NxkYl8QngARF8AdhmeDwl4pngUCQsVHDl2m2iveDkXcZ6YTgS3kAS0RKWxVQ+/TqydrE1BACH5BAkwADkALAAAAAAQABAAAAZ+wJwwJ1kQIgNBgDMcdh6KRILgQSAOn46TIJVSrdZGSMjpeqtgREAoYWi6BFF6xCAJS6ZyYhEIUwxNQgYkFxwBByh2gU0kKRVHi4sgOQuRTRJtJgwSBJElihwMQioqGmw5gEMLKk2AEkSBq4ElQmNNoYG2OVpDuE6Lrzmfp0NBACH5BAUwADkALAAAAAAQABAAAAaFwJwwJ1kQCDlCwTAcMh6KhDQnVSwYTkJ1un1gc5wtdxsh5iqaLbVKyVEWigq4ugZgTyiA9CK/JHIZWCsICCxpVWV/EzkHhAgth1UPQ4OOLXpScmebFA6ELHAZclBycXIULi8VZXCZawplFG05flWlakIVWravCgSaZ1CuksBDFQsAcsfFQQAh+QQJMAA5ACwAAAAAEAAQAAAGQcCccEgsGo/IpHLJzDGaOcKCCUgkAEuFNaFRbq1dJCxX2WKRCFdMmJiiEQjRp1BJwu8y5R3RWNsRBx9+SSsxgzlBACH5BAkwADkALAAAAAAQABAAAAaJwJwwJ1kQCDlCwTAcMh6KhDQnVSwYTkJ1un1gc5wtdxsh5iqaLbVKyTEWigq4ugZglRXpRX5J5DJYAFIAaVVlfhNrURqFVQ9DYhqCgzkzCGdnVQBwGRU0LQiXCRUAORQJCwAcOTChoYplBXIKLq6vUXRCCQ22olUEcroJB66KD8FNCjUrlxWpTUEAIfkEBTAAOQAsAAAAABAAEAAABobAnDAnWRAIOULBMBwyHoqENCdVLBhOQnW6fWBznC13G8nZchXNllql5Bg2xA1cZQOwShwCMdDkLgk5GVgAUgAie3syVDkTbFIaiIkIJ0NiGnp7HiNonRVVAHEuFjlQFVQVAI0JCzYjrKCPZQWnf1unYkMVWrFbBLVoUIaPD8C6CwCnAMhNQQA7" width="16" /><img border="0" height="200" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/Kid_President_in_White_House_2013_Easter_Egg_Roll_Promo.jpg/220px-Kid_President_in_White_House_2013_Easter_Egg_Roll_Promo.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: Wikimedia</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It's actually #3. Or, it is for my students. I didn't model blogging for them last time (shame on me). But since it has been a while from my last post, I decided to do it for them today. It's not that I haven't had anything to say. I've just been busy. I'm sure all of you more than understand that. I envy those of you who are better blog stewards than I am.<br />
<br />
So, this time around, I had my students read #8 in the book: "Focus on the Awesome." One thing that I think that is awesome is that my students are blogging. They don't all particularly enjoy it yet (but they will), but one thing I've noticed about my students over the years, anything that is different = hard = don't want to do it. Once it becomes easier for them, I anticipate that they will enjoy it.<br />
<br />
Another thing that I think is awesome is the fact that one of the authors of the book is now following me on Twitter. Never thought that one day I would get excited about who was following me on Twitter. But then again, I never really thought I would be anywhere near active on Twitter either.<br />
<br />
I'm hoping that the students will eventually not need the prompts I come up with the help them write their reflections, but here are the prompts they can mix and match for this particular assignment:<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: purple; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="color: purple; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-ac68e97b-9fd4-86b3-9373-94e7c0bd22b0" style="background-color: white;"></span></span><br />
<ol start="3" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Reflect on #8: “Focus on the Awesome”</span></span></div>
</li>
<ol style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: lower-alpha; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Do you agree with Brad and Kid President? Should we focus on the awesome?</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: lower-alpha; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What might be some benefits on focusing on the awesome?</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: lower-alpha; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What might make it difficult to focus on the awesome?</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: lower-alpha; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Who is someone in your life that helps you to remember to focus on the awesome?</span></span></div>
</li>
</ol>
</ol>
<br />
I do agree with Brad Montague (the one now following me on Twitter) and Robby Novak. We should focus on the awesome. It makes you feel better mentally, which will only help you feel better physically. It's not particularly easy to do, especially if you're predisposed to being negative. It's going to take practice.<br />
<br />
There are some days that will happen where it just seems like nothing is going right. Those days might make it difficult to focus on the awesome. But, the fact that you can survive days like that and come out on the other side is pretty awesome if you think about it.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnCBp-E96UMtXT_VDGSwuyU0JlbZ1bvK0cK56TTEkK408V0uwvmr1Ufejn8c349UNMh_U_nPJkvIsKqEb8Dr4HgzLG_YaVCl-KTPXhfdWYYEmcFuibB6D_MILM3cuo134MQ-Ara01dbn27/s1600/3822.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnCBp-E96UMtXT_VDGSwuyU0JlbZ1bvK0cK56TTEkK408V0uwvmr1Ufejn8c349UNMh_U_nPJkvIsKqEb8Dr4HgzLG_YaVCl-KTPXhfdWYYEmcFuibB6D_MILM3cuo134MQ-Ara01dbn27/s200/3822.png" width="200" /></a>I think Robby Novak himself is a pretty good reminder to focus on the awesome. I especially feel this way since I've learned that he and his biological sister both have the same "Brittle Bone Disease" and were adopted by the Novaks. If <i>he</i> can focus on the awesome, I certainly can. The people who are currently in my life that help me to focus on the awesome are my best friend of 20 years, Christel, and her two boys (her youngest has a smile that can't be called anything other than awesome), and my students. My students can also make it hard to focus on the awesome, depending on the day and/or period, but the fact that I can be a part of their lives and maybe make a difference for them is absolutely awesome.<br />
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<br />Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-13289971330097538552016-08-30T12:28:00.000-07:002016-08-31T13:29:55.963-07:00Kid President Blog PostI'm doing a little modeling for my classes today (two of them at least) and writing a blog as they do their first one of the school year.<br />
<br />
Over the summer, I began to read <i>Kid President's Guide to Being Awesome. </i>I thought it would be kind of neat to have my students read and respond to some of the vignettes in the book. Today, with my 11th graders, I began that journey.<br />
<br />
On Sunday, I went to four Barnes and Noble bookstores to get eight paperback copies of the book (one for each group in class). Yesterday, I started the 11th graders on their blogs. I helped them get their blogs set up and a draft post for their first blog post, which they are doing right now.<br />
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It was really cool to walk around the room and hear the students reading "The True Story of Kid President" to each other. I'm really hoping they get something out of this.<br />
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They can write about whatever the story made them think or feel, but if my 11 years of teaching have taught me anything, it's that you need to have prompts anyways. So, I came up with two to help those that need a little push:<br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-cf17f9de-dc18-a91e-db4e-44613912fe9b"></span><br />
<ol style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><ol style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: lower-alpha; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: inherit;">What reason can you find to dance?</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: lower-alpha; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: inherit;">What could you stop complaining about? What could you start celebrating?</span></span></li>
</ol>
</ol>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Jazzart_Dance_Theatre_-_69185.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="162" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Jazzart_Dance_Theatre_-_69185.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: WikiMedia</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The fact that I had students reading to one another, and reflecting (in writing) during the first week of school without much push back is definitely a reason to dance. I'm kind of known for doing happy dances anyways. When students seem to take to something I took a lot of time to plan out for them, and it seems to go well, it is definitely dance time. I sometimes do it in front of the students too. Other times, I do it in my head.</span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span> <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span> <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">I could probably stop complaining about how tired I always feel. I should probably go to the doctor and see if there is anything I can do to get a better night's sleep. That would probably help a lot. I could also work up my stamina again and do more walking. That's supposed to help sleep, or so I hear.</span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">I am celebrating, on a small level, the fact that I did pretty well in maintaining my weight loss over the summer. I didn't really lose any more weight, but I was able to keep myself from really gaining any either. I might have even gained some muscle since many people are commenting that it looks like I lost more weight. I could also celebrate the fact that I was born without any debilitating disorders like Kid President was. I had a student a few years ago with "Brittle Bone Disease". I loved his laugh. It was infectious. </span></div>
Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-64494018290090852232016-08-27T20:08:00.002-07:002016-08-27T20:08:48.045-07:00The First (Half) Week of School 2016<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw9g3L6P8Q1dZye4oqhOHJ5NRtm1E5Mra3kAHhnIp22mtGinfXOpjaKAXVpKa7B3D6IuzT8NvrXV-fG_A6nL4k4Z8l6oj_UGy4t0Pf11Y_ThZJXCWSherzogipbfV1Sw_bK6dlp_Wv9Bqw/s1600/6366.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw9g3L6P8Q1dZye4oqhOHJ5NRtm1E5Mra3kAHhnIp22mtGinfXOpjaKAXVpKa7B3D6IuzT8NvrXV-fG_A6nL4k4Z8l6oj_UGy4t0Pf11Y_ThZJXCWSherzogipbfV1Sw_bK6dlp_Wv9Bqw/s200/6366.png" width="200" /></a><br />
I didn't sleep in any day, at all, during the summer. I always woke up in the 6 or 7 o' clock hour. Every. Single. Day. I find this very unfortunate.<br />
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It seems to be a trend that is continuing even after the school year has started because now I'm waking up somewhere in the 5 o' clock hour.<br />
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But, it's back to the "grindstone". Though this grindstone isn't making a lot of noise. So far, my students are soooooo quiet. It's kind of disconcerting really.<br />
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I'm teaching the same preps this year (English 11 College Prep and English 10 Honors), but they flip flop back and forth between periods, which is kind of annoying and will probably get more so when we start doing different activities. A minor issue, I know.<br />
<br />
So, a post on the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/breakoutedu/?fref=ts">Breakout EDU facebook group</a> rolled through in the days before school started from <a href="http://sallyhoyt.blogspot.com/2016/08/breakoutedu-on-1st-day-of-school-why-not.html">Sally Hoyt about a back to school digital breakout she did with her students</a>. She gave me permission to modify it, so I did and gave it a try.<br />
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Like Sally, I started out with a Google Form student survey. Once the students were done with the survey and had clicked SUBMIT, there was a link to the 3-lock digital breakout I'd created for them.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0HHe2iid0NTQ_FzPyXVUnb4XNY9iEuVS2oQYQAwBZc4bQ0_bV506nlQfKOxYpDysVaUADPCBFag_GbGt5gk2ISN59hc1-CDJ9toCz1IQF6mVX7YcKK3RDadcnPAF4lXjMol7K_G0gFM2p/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-08-24+at+2.07.36+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0HHe2iid0NTQ_FzPyXVUnb4XNY9iEuVS2oQYQAwBZc4bQ0_bV506nlQfKOxYpDysVaUADPCBFag_GbGt5gk2ISN59hc1-CDJ9toCz1IQF6mVX7YcKK3RDadcnPAF4lXjMol7K_G0gFM2p/s400/Screen+Shot+2016-08-24+at+2.07.36+PM.png" width="352" /></a></div>
Many of the students didn't read the confirmation page and closed the tab, which created some problems, but we navigated through them.<br />
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I had clues built into the data validation for each lock.<br />
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The first lock was a date lock, and I followed Sally's Breakout and chose Back to School Night. Ours happen to be on the same night. Many of the kids thought the clue about going back to school meant that day: the first day of school. Some kids were getting upset with me because they didn't understand and thought they had to put in the date I gave in the example so they would type the date in the correct format, which of course, didn't work.<br />
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I followed Sally's example, to a point, with the directional lock as well and used it to lead them to <a href="http://classroom.google.com/">Google Classroom.</a> I had given them a sheet with all the codes for all the Apps we would be using in class, which included Classroom. The clue talked about how if you couldn't find your way, you may need to GOOGLE your way to the CLASSROOM. Some of the kids picked up on the clue right away, others thought they had to find the coordinates to the school on Google Maps.<br />
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Once they were in Classroom, there was an announcement with a link to this document:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Q7xLsenAx6EeIyMFtviekPOCWxQn1V2U6SDdLaNaPuHK4n3RnorRQXeHgH4WKhQNwJDifZlpuuoIBGJeK_7p5lYWz0si3QG0gqkyHt1Uz1I3XRXJ3UtXV7ALfTy2GXlzcQf8ukvTnL3-/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-08-24+at+2.07.21+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="357" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Q7xLsenAx6EeIyMFtviekPOCWxQn1V2U6SDdLaNaPuHK4n3RnorRQXeHgH4WKhQNwJDifZlpuuoIBGJeK_7p5lYWz0si3QG0gqkyHt1Uz1I3XRXJ3UtXV7ALfTy2GXlzcQf8ukvTnL3-/s400/Screen+Shot+2016-08-24+at+2.07.21+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Many of the kids figured out the code, but couldn't quite figure out (read: were not reading the help text for the lock) and were writing out the entire word instead of the first letters.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5FHFxJf51VHlTGsW2Jid5V4Re1EyBQEBoXRg6T17hZT2pylSFVJJXlx1XROWsbCHQ1wyn5stmiF8e1AZYUiGWt8r1enTEmThZGjGvmByjT7sfcettbHzJWy9LdIe_nfC16lvwzp1k3O9l/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-08-26+at+5.48.27+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5FHFxJf51VHlTGsW2Jid5V4Re1EyBQEBoXRg6T17hZT2pylSFVJJXlx1XROWsbCHQ1wyn5stmiF8e1AZYUiGWt8r1enTEmThZGjGvmByjT7sfcettbHzJWy9LdIe_nfC16lvwzp1k3O9l/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-08-26+at+5.48.27+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5FHFxJf51VHlTGsW2Jid5V4Re1EyBQEBoXRg6T17hZT2pylSFVJJXlx1XROWsbCHQ1wyn5stmiF8e1AZYUiGWt8r1enTEmThZGjGvmByjT7sfcettbHzJWy9LdIe_nfC16lvwzp1k3O9l/s400/Screen+Shot+2016-08-26+at+5.48.27+PM.png" width="277" /></a>I'd given the kids a half sheet of paper "introducing" myself and telling them they could find more <i>about me</i> on my website (one of the pages on my site is titled "About Me"). Where the following infographic about myself could be found. I borrowed this idea too. I thought it was cute.<br />
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If the kids paid close enough attention to what I talked about in note (how many schools I've taught at, how many degrees I have, how many Google certifications I have, and how many colleges I've been to), they would pick up on the numbers and order for the 4-digit lock. <br />
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I had one girl figured it out, on accident, by deducing that few meant 3, multiple meant 2 (for her at least; but hey, it worked!), etc. from how I worded my clues. I might need to be a bit more vague next time.</div>
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Once they had all the locks right, they clicked NEXT and that lead them to...</div>
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I decided to add a few questions to gauge how students felt about the Digital Breakout. Here is a sampling of some of the results:</div>
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I had a few kids report that they liked nothing about it, but many of them said they liked the challenge, some liked how "sneaky" I was with my clues, and many of them liked the mystery of it.<br />
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A lot of the kids realized that the objective was to hit all four of the "Cs": Creativity, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Communication. Some missed out on the communication part because they were trying to do it alone.<br />
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Overall, I think the Breakout was a success. I think I'm going to do one for <i>The Crucible. </i>I think I'll do the "old-fashioned" Breakout for that. I need to find one for a book that has already been done and modify it. It would make me feel a little more confident in trying it out than if I tried to do one from complete scratch.<br />
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The Breakout didn't take up the whole period, so I had a <a href="https://getkahoot.com/">Kahoot </a>all about me and the room ready to go. The kids really had fun with this one despite the fact that they'd just met me. I used it to point out where the station for staplers, sharpeners, and a hole punch is; and, how to go about turning in late work or getting their absent work, etc. Here were my two favorite questions, the first one comes right after a question about whether or not I have a sense of humor:<br />
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The next two days, I spent practicing some of the Apps we will be using during the school year with the students. We used Google Classroom both days as the springboard for the other three. I really like the new topics feature they added, by the way.<br />
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First up was a diagnostics assessment on <a href="http://noredink.com/">NoRedInk</a>. This is an online grammar learning tool that I found out about from <a href="https://plus.google.com/+EstherWojcicki">Esther Wojcicki</a> when she came to present at our district on Moonshots (bought the book, have the book, haven't read it yet). Four of the five classes are having the most trouble with connecting clauses with colons and semicolons. My 4th period needs help there too, but they were having more trouble with active and passive voice. So, I now know what my first official NoRedInk assignments will be for the students.<br />
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Then it was <a href="https://app.versoapp.com/">Verso.</a> I really like Verso. I discovered it last year during CUE after having a hallway chat with my friend <a href="https://twitter.com/crystalkirch">Crystal Kirch</a> before we headed to lunch with another friend. I could have sworn I blogged about using it last year. Apparently, I had meant to and never did. I really love Verso, and the kids seemed to like it last year in the few times we used it. I plan to pretty much use it for any online class discussions this year. The students' responses are anonymous to students, but not the teacher. The kids mentioned how they liked the idea of anonymity because that way they would feel more confident and comfortable responding honestly and thoughtfully knowing that other students don't know what response is theirs, but they can't be mean to each other with impunity since they are accountable to the teacher who can tell who said what.<br />
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Here is the video that the students watched for their first "flip" (What Verso calls an activity) that they did as practice. There was an accompanying question:<br />
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Lastly, I introduced them to <a href="http://activelylearn.com/">Actively Learn</a>. As I blogged about last school year, <a href="http://blendedbarron.blogspot.com/2016/01/two-months-of-turmoiltranquility-tested.html">I really like Actively Learn</a>. My school is test piloting it with a Team plan for 6 of us, so I get some special goodies this year. One thing I noticed is that when I sync my Google Classroom classes with it and then create an assignment, it creates a draft for the assignment in my Google Classroom. That was really cool. For this practice session with the kids, I chose a current event article from the catalog on music and how it affects the brain. It has only two questions, which I thought was perfect for practicing. <br />
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I was really surprised at how thoughtful and thorough many of the answers were from the students, especially from my 11th graders. Many of them wrote quite a bit. They seemed to like when I went over to the computer and started grading their answers and they would get the feedback in front of them already.<br />
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A similar product to Actively Learn reached out to me over the summer through Twitter about their product and this blog. They talked about my readership. I wasn't aware I had a readership. Readership are you out there? Would love to hear from you.<br />
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The product is called <a href="http://owleyes.org/">OwlEyes</a>, and it is certainly worth a look. Their slogan on their home page is: Read. Annotate. Collaborate. It's completely free and houses a bunch of readings from the public domain, and they were going to be adding (should have already added at this point) some texts from <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenberg</a>. It seems really interesting, and if I didn't already have Actively Learn, I'd probably give it a try with my class. But, we are paying for Actively Learn, and I don't want to overwhelm my students with Apps that carry a similar purpose. I did sign up anyways, just in case. I like having my username saved. I also liked how they have some analysis already embedded into their texts.<br />
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Here are two short videos that Samantha over at Owl Eyes sent me:<br />
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<br />Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-8941518270524880622016-06-26T17:18:00.002-07:002016-06-26T17:18:30.473-07:00Nurturing Learning Communities Reflection 7 (the last)<br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-c13d9f34-8f2c-994c-65b2-65a6005e4106"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The LAST prompt EVER (can you tell I'm excited to be done?): </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"> </span><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Are you getting burnt out yet? What is making you feel that way? How can you sustain momentum? After you finish this course will you continue? Why or why not? Have you made any connections to other school districts or universities? What are you learning from them? </span></i></span></span><br />
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I write this as I wait for the opening keynote at <a href="https://conference.iste.org/2016/">ISTE 2016.</a> So, am I burnt out on connecting with other educators? Um...no. Am I burnt out on my Master's program? Um...yes.<br />
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Don't get me wrong. It's been very enriching to go through this program (there were a few exceptions). But, I'm ready to be DONE. It was very hard to balance my education with creating time to enrich my students' education.<br />
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I've already talked<a href="http://blendedbarron.blogspot.com/search/label/NLC%20Reflections"> in previous reflections</a> about the connections, or lack thereof, that I've made. I won't stop participating in PLNs and getting involved on Twitter and Google+. Despite <a href="https://twitter.com/billselak">Bill Selak's</a> suggestion during today's Ignite session, I'm wary of Snapchat. I think I'll be a holdout. I carefully straddle the line between giving to much access to my students of myself and trying to be an innovator. I tend to err on the side of not giving too much access.<br />
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I'm sure I'll learn a lot from them in the next few days at ISTE.<br />
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<br />Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-73373070074429389432016-06-18T16:25:00.002-07:002016-06-18T16:28:05.801-07:00Nurturing Learning Communities Reflection 6<span id="docs-internal-guid-666aeac6-65c2-679f-69f6-8ce4b5a5a6b0"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here was this week's reflective prompt for my class: </span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Do you have any global connections? How did you acquire them? If you don’t how will you try to make global connections? What do you hope that your global connections will do for you? What can you do for them? </span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I know that I have "global" connections, but they are indirect connections through PLNs and such. I have <a href="https://twitter.com/BlessTheTeacher">one person from Germany</a> that recently added me to one of their lists and followed me on Twitter and o<a href="https://twitter.com/MrMikeKauf">ne from the Dominican Republic</a>. Is that global enough?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This did make me think about the fact that I don't think you can force connections. This is a world of lurking more than dialoguing between each other. At least that how I feel right now, as I tried to engage people last week in various discussions with questions posed to various hashtags. I got no response other than people adding me to lists or favoriting my tweet. I'm not trying to scold anyone with that, but it is a bit hard to make connections, at least meaningful ones when people don't respond.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Like I said<a href="http://blendedbarron.blogspot.com/2016/06/nurturing-learning-communities_12.html"> last week</a>, I think Google+ might be better for making connections. At least if you are a part of the <a href="https://plus.google.com/+Edtechteam">EdTechTeam's Google+ community</a>. I really enjoy <a href="http://edtechteam.com/">EdTechTeam</a>. I went to one of their FutureReady Summits last summer, probably a year ago today actually, and right around Thanksgiving, I went to one of their GAFE Summits. I'm going again in <a href="https://ca.gafesummit.com/oc/2016">August</a> as it's in my neck of the woods. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It was during the last summit in Temecula, that I started making some of my connections. I was able to do that through the <a href="https://plus.google.com/communities/113549679347009160225">GEG SoCal</a> Google+ Community. At both the summit and at CUE, they did a meetup, which is both intimidating and fun. If you wanted to get started with finding a GEG (Google Educators Group) for your area, start <a href="https://www.google.com/landing/geg/">here</a>. I highly suggest it.</span><br />
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<br />Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-81514426045203756812016-06-12T09:13:00.002-07:002016-06-12T09:13:59.292-07:00Nurturing Learning Communities Reflection 5This week's journal prompt asked me about what tools I'm finding most beneficial to my learning community. By tool, I'm assuming they mean what platform.<br />
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I would have to say that right now, I'm finding Google+ the most beneficial. At the very least, it's being the most communicative. I feel a bit like I have to be a little spammy to get a response, and I'm not entirely comfortable with that. Google+ won't allow for sending one post to multiple communities, so I have to make a public post and then share it with the communities I think the post would apply to. I may be irritating those in multiple shared communities.<br />
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Depending on what communities respond, I may just start sharing with those communities in particular. Right now, it looks like the winner is <a href="https://plus.google.com/+Edtechteam">+EdTechTeam's community</a>.<br />
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I've purposely asked specific questions on Twitter with PLN hashtags and gotten no direct response. I've had a lot of people add me to their lists, but no actual responses to the questions I posed. <br />
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This is in anthesis to what I've read and been told about Twitter. I wonder if it has something to do with the end of the school year. Maybe Google+ is taking over as the educator's preferred way to interact with groups of like-minded educators?<br />
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The prompt also asked me about Open Education Resources (OERs) that I have found. As part of my requirements for the NEA Foundation grant I received, I had to sign up for their OER site, <a class="" href="http://www.curriki.org/">Curriki</a>, and contribute. In using the search term "open education resources", I found the <a href="https://www.oercommons.org/">OER Commons </a>site. Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-17810890028588946012016-06-05T09:04:00.000-07:002016-06-05T09:28:13.011-07:00Nurturing Learning Communities Reflection 4<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">This past week was...sad and scary. I didn't really do much in trying to connect and got myself out there on my PLNs. Maybe after sharing this blog post, I'll go out and ask a question about trust and see if I get any responses, which I can then discuss</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"> next week.</span></span><br />
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">So why did I fall short in participating in my PLNs this week? Why was it both sad and scary?</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">On Monday, Memorial Day, I got an email from my principal that a senior (whom I had as a sophomore) had passed away from an apparent suicide. I've since had this weird vague sadness about it. There is some disconnect because I don't have an empty seat to remind me of his absence every day, but I do have my memories of two years ago of a smart (if not slightly apathetic about school) kid rapping and beatboxing under his breath. I have my memories of the student who spoke so eloquently and philosophically about life and music; though I didn't always understand what he was saying, I got the meaning behind the words. </span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">I also have my anger. I will admit. I have my moments where I'm angry at him for doing it. Also my anger at the school for only telling his current teachers about the services and not the entire school. He had teachers all four years he was at our school. He had other teachers who cared about him.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">His family started a <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/26xukdw">GoFundMe </a>to help with expense, they are almost at their goal. Please consider donating.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">That was the sad (<a href="http://www.rafu.com/2016/05/friends-of-steve-okamura-taking-action-to-stop-drunk-driving/">or part of it</a>) so on to the scary. On Thursday, after school, I had just done a walk around the school and sat down to gather my things to head to class when a shelter-in-place call went out over the loud speaker. I went to lock my door and pulled a teacher and about 20 kids from the hallway into my room, turned off the lights and pulled down the shades. I called the office to let them know I had 20 kids in my classroom and to ask what was going on. I was told an armed intruder.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">It took about 20 or 30 minutes before we were given the all clear to resume what we had been doing. Luckily, there hadn't been an armed intruder, but the possibility of one. The suspect turned himself in to police before he entered the campus.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">So, how do you deal and cope as an educator when life gets real?</span></span>Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-27287369032815302982016-05-30T10:56:00.001-07:002016-05-30T10:59:17.619-07:00Nurturing Learning Communities Reflection 3<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">The suggested prompt for this week was: <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>What have you seen that you think may violate creative commons, fair use, or copyright law? Did you do anything about it? Why or why not? </i></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9KkPxwNMzEQVC0vW7DR9sdaVDiHjUzWrN8vCrDlCU8orpHYGzs6B_mGjkuJtOeVOnJ4zQ28DXc6EMbJU0b68-u9GtNxWRhKDzTASydtHKdrQdLNozoizzb0qj0SsgUfKsdsjfo0aQWI0R/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-05-30+at+10.50.16+AM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Personal Screenshot</td></tr>
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</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9KkPxwNMzEQVC0vW7DR9sdaVDiHjUzWrN8vCrDlCU8orpHYGzs6B_mGjkuJtOeVOnJ4zQ28DXc6EMbJU0b68-u9GtNxWRhKDzTASydtHKdrQdLNozoizzb0qj0SsgUfKsdsjfo0aQWI0R/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-05-30+at+10.50.16+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"></span></a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">Nothing but the work my students complete comes to mind. I've been trying to instill the need for students to respect people's work by doing image searches that filter for those allowed for reuse. I go as far as to do an image search on their blog posts about their Passion Project for the images they use to make sure they show up under such a label and mark them down when they don't. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Since I've started to make such an effort not to use anything that isn't labeled for reuse, I know how hard it is to ignore some excellent images because they haven't been labeled as such. It's a process that is going to take time. Especially since when you do an image search for "labeled for reused" and then filter for such, you get a group of photos <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=labeled+for+reuse&safe=off&espv=2&biw=1401&bih=718&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj79_rLrYLNAhVN_WMKHTzoCxQQ_AUIBigB#q=labeled+for+reuse&safe=off&tbas=0&tbm=isch&tbs=sur:fmc">like these</a>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I do notice that a lot of the people I admire in the EdTech world, particularly those that blog, do their best to follow copyright laws and adhere to creative commons practices. I always do my best to give credit, where credit is due. This applies in particular in the education world where we want to share and build off of other's great ideas.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Then this made me think of those who don't want to share for whatever reason they may have: insecurity over their ideas or competitive need to be the best. In class, we've been talking a lot about PLCs and PLNs (<a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjUz53yqYLNAhUP3GMKHQd3DMcQFggjMAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FProfessional_learning_community&usg=AFQjCNHDrXp_BzLPPi3iY_Ig485Z6K5YVw&sig2=frSu2-5uQ-TX98kCjIEh1A&bvm=bv.123325700,d.cGc">Professional Learning Communities</a> and Professional/<a href="https://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/pln-challenge-1-what-the-heck-is-a-pln/">Personal Learning Networks</a> for the acronym-impaired). We talked, in particular, this week about trust in both and what both PLCs and PLNs need to work well. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I think some PLCs don't work very well because sometimes schools, districts, the teachers within it themselves create an atmosphere of competition. The point of participating in a PLC is for the benefit of all the students, not just one set of students. So, trust is broken when educators hold back things that worked for them because they want their students to do better than the other teachers.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">What I personally need from both and PLC and PLN is reciprocity. I can't continually give and not get anything in return (and this itself could lead some teachers to stop sharing). I think, from experience, that when educators are just starting to build and explore PLNs, they are going to, more naturally, take than give. Now that I'm getting more comfortable communicating and sharing in the social media world of education, I've been making the effort to share more instead of just take. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It's okay to capture up great ideas for awhile; but at some point, you should start to give back. Sometimes, being reciprocal isn't always about sharing your work and ideas, but giving feedback to those that do. It doesn't need to be tit-for-tat. </span></span><br />
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Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-6344948367395847502016-05-22T11:47:00.000-07:002016-05-22T11:52:17.902-07:00Nurturing Learning Communities Reflection 2<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;">So, two classes down, six more to go.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">This week we were supposed to start contributing to the networks we "joined". I had already been building networks on these platforms, but I was a lot more passive about it. So, I've gone out of my comfort zone and started to try and take a more active role with my contributions.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">This isn't easy for me because I don't like pushing myself on to other people. I don't invite myself over to other people's homes or parties, metaphorical or not, even when I know I am probably welcome. I don't want to force someone to be fake nice to me.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">So am going about contributing by sharing articles or information that I think may be of use to people. I started with trying to start a dialogue on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter about <a href="https://t.co/Ie3Y9WFmkh">Google Spaces</a>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;">So is Spaces a way to try & cross file sharing with social media? <a href="https://t.co/Ie3Y9WFmkh">https://t.co/Ie3Y9WFmkh</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/occue?src=hash">#occue</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/futureready?src=hash">#futureready</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/edchat?src=hash">#edchat</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/edtech?src=hash">#edtech</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/edtechchat?src=hash">#edtechchat</a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;">— Mindy B (@Miss_MindyB) <a href="https://twitter.com/Miss_MindyB/status/732288806678716416">May 16, 2016</a></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;">On the Facebook group and on Google+ I started a very brief dialogue, but it fell flat on Twitter. That's the thing about social media. You can put yourself out there and no one has to return the favor and respond. I put myself out there with this blog, but very rarely do I get responses to my posts. However, thanks to the blogger data, I know that people read them. On the social networks, you don't usually know if people read your posts, so it can be a bit discouraging. That's why I think it's good to start slow.</span><br />
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On that note, that's why, knowing in particular that my classmates might be struggling with getting into Twitter, when I read the blog/podcast mentioned below, I used it as an opportunity to try and contribute meaningfully to Google+ and the cohort's facebook group.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ultimately, you just need to keep trying. I'm hoping this class will push me to build strong networks of people who will support me and allow me to support them.</span></span>Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-44886518425428175642016-05-14T09:06:00.001-07:002016-05-14T09:06:25.401-07:00Nurturing Learning Communities Reflection 1<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7w8xwzGLyVfmIw9IjFElhhlAS5nmamKHiy3Wt8cYPkojBmfokxBAChJ0kiKFNbqJjiVi46ofblIpEeYPjX6UhR0Uchwvloqb81RayqMyTVUfQZ-JALktY23yplo175d5z5Zlf55qXQjiA/s1600/6003.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7w8xwzGLyVfmIw9IjFElhhlAS5nmamKHiy3Wt8cYPkojBmfokxBAChJ0kiKFNbqJjiVi46ofblIpEeYPjX6UhR0Uchwvloqb81RayqMyTVUfQZ-JALktY23yplo175d5z5Zlf55qXQjiA/s200/6003.png" width="200" /></a>So on Saturday, a week ago this posting, I walked in my graduation for my MAED. <br />
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I am not, however, actually done. I have one more class: Nurturing Learning Communities.<br />
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For this class, we'll have to journal weekly, so I'm going to take the opportunity to use this blog to do so. My hope is that maybe it will help me blog more consistently as a whole after the class is over.<br />
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For our first assignment, we were instructed to join three new social networks and make connections with 50 people per network. Our instructor, in our face-to-face meeting, felt that number was a little too high to make it meaningful. I kind of agree for those that are just dipping their toe in reaching out to the educator community on these networks. You want to start slow and try and build relationships and not just lists and circles and groups of people you never end up dialoguing with.<br />
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I am already plugged into most of the effective networks. So, I hope I will be forgiven for not joining new ones. But, this assignment did push me to reach out and add more people to my circles on <a href="http://plus.google.com/">Google+</a>. I had to think carefully about the people I wanted to add. I just didn't want to add people whose names were unrecognizable or that I knew nothing about. I went through my G+ communities members and added people to my circles whose names I recognized from <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjO2OmU99nMAhVE5WMKHXqOBbAQFggcMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gafesummit.com%2F&usg=AFQjCNG0XOSgb3QyWAmo1KtiH7po1RaYOQ&sig2=drzc-TBqd41N9qaQReI-sw&bvm=bv.122129774,d.cGc">GAFE Summits</a> and<a href="http://cue.org/"> CUE</a> and <a href="http://edtechteam.com/">EdTechTeam</a> interactions.<br />
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This assignment also pushed me to find out about <a href="http://twitter.com/">Twitter</a> lists. I had noticed in my <a href="http://tweetdeck.twitter.com/">TweetDeck</a> feed that people had added me to some of their lists, but never really looked into it. So, I found some lists that looked promising and subscribed and created a few of my own.<br />
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I'm hoping that this class will push me, even more, to reach out and create PLNs on these platforms. What platforms do you use? What do you like about one over the other?Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2553483766291059089.post-37429594508607003052016-03-23T10:26:00.001-07:002016-05-09T15:57:03.530-07:00Cue 2016 Takeaways and Thoughts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Like the last few years, I was really excited to attend the <a href="http://cue.org/">National Cue Conference </a>in Palm Springs this year. One more year and I can nab a 5-year member badge ribbon.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Our school had a very large contingent this year with 12 people (including two admin).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">One day, I'll feel knowledgeable enough to present. It's a goal (#goals).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The opening day Keynote with <a href="https://twitter.com/thebradmontague">Brad Montague</a>, co-creator of <a href="http://goo.gl/zwOxoJ">Kid President</a>, was</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">His positivity and energy and love for all were so palpable. It was really inspiring. The quotes and information that stood out were:</span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-4c647548-960d-221e-7da0-b04af4a192d8" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">”You were once a child, too”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Be what you needed when you were younger”</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>“Lots of things are contagious: fear, anger, hate...viruses. But joy, hope, love are the best kinds of contagions.” </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Treat everybody like it’s their birthday”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Haters gonna hate. Huggers gonna hug!”</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Keep sharing your voice</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You are powerful</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>It doesn’t matter who gets the credit. It matters that it happened.</b></span></span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Choose joy!</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">I missed out on my friend <a href="http://flippingwithkirch.blogspot.com/">Crystal Kirch</a>'s session on Flipped Classrooms because her room was overflowing with people, and there wasn't any room. Isn't that AWESOME?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">I left my first session part way through. It wasn't what I thought it would be about. I can't use Minecraft with my students since it doesn't work on a Chromebook. There is more to game-based learning than Minecraft people!</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/9205465-116134476_1-s1-v1.png?palette=1" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" class="bitmoji-image" data-downloadurl="image/png:6564.png:https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/9205465-116134476_1-s1-v1.png?palette=1" data-reactid=".0.0.1.2.1.0.$6564" data-src="http://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/9205465-%s-v1.png?palette=1" draggable="true" height="200" src="https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/9205465-116134476_1-s1-v1.png?palette=1" width="199" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">I then went to a session by <a href="https://plus.google.com/+AliceChenWonderTechEdu/">Alice Chen</a> because it's <a href="https://twitter.com/wondertechedu">Alice Chen</a> (and it had the word Zombie in</span></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> the title). I really loved her two journal templates and Question and Answer Challenge. I haven't done any dialectical journaling with the students this year. I may try the Buddy Journal with <i>A Midsummer Night's Dream </i>with my 10th graders at the end of the year instead (or maybe in addition to). I may do the Team Journal with 11th graders and <i>The Great Gatsby, </i>or I may switch it. I think I may even try the Question and Answer Challenge with my 10th graders and the "American Translation" section of <i>The Joy Luck Club</i> (JLC) on Tuesday!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">She had another idea that I really liked as well. It involved taking a piece of text and putting it into a Google Doc to share with the students. Give students commenting access and have them, essentially, annotate the text as a class. They can ask questions about parts they read that confused them or they want to discuss. Then, the other students in the class answer the questions in the comments, creating discussions in the margins. I think I may give this a try with the parable in the last section JLC and with my 11th graders and "The Lowest Animal" this week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Next, I went to <a href="http://twitter.com/optimistmalia">Malia Hoffmann</a>'s session on Building your Personal Learning Network. She was my first professor in my Master's program when it started last year (two more classes to go). I'm not new to PLNs, though I'm not an expert on them either. I got some good information (but not a Kindle fire) and was able to share some of my own. I learned about <a href="http://cybraryman.com/">Cybraryman</a> who curates a list of <a href="http://new%20blog%20post%20about%20all%20the%20crazy%20that%20has%20gone%20down%20goo.gl/zwOxoJ%20#edchat #edtech #caedchat">educational edchats</a> on Twitter. I participate in some of them outside of the actual chat dates. My goal is to try and start synchronously participate after I'm done with my Master's. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span> <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">I finished off the day with a few of my colleagues at the Google for Education Certified Innovators Panel SLAM. Here are a few things that I found noteworthy that I didn't know about before:</span></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Using the accessibility features on the Mac to create a magnifying glass for screencasts (maybe) and presentations. (<a href="https://support.apple.com/kb/PH11488?locale=en_US">Directions here</a>)</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/craftytext/kjgfnioibniobfkjcjjfikmhecajpcio/related?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon">CrafyText</a> - "</span></span>CraftyText is a simple app. It allows you to enter text, which then shows up big in the center of the screen. It works on top of your favorite website."</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a class="" href="http://sortd.com/">Sortd</a>- Helps you organize your email into lists and move them around based on priority. I have created lists for emails from students and one from professional colleagues.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sas-writing-reviser/fhjdkpmenphkpeogpeljncfmbkknmkje?utm_source%3Dpermalink&sa=D&ust=1458525758714000&usg=AFQjCNEIta1XAc-satgidxlzqmg6-8wsbw">SAS Writing Reviser</a> - this is a Google Doc add on. Essentially, it can be used by students to check their paper for possible needed revisions. It will look for a number of things like wordiness, passive voice I'm going to start using it with my own writing as I finish my Master's program.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/form-values/cggfolheomgjfjibllgbakdnjdiiienb?hl=en-GB">Form Values</a> - I apparently already had this installed. I never used it before though. It basically will save form values (or question options) that you use a lot for you so you don't have to constantly retype them.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a class="" href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/draftback/nnajoiemfpldioamchanognpjmocgkbg?hl=en-US">Draftback</a> - is a Chrome extension, so it will only work in Chrome with Google Docs. It basically creates a movie that plays through all documents revision. This would be good for both teachers and students. It could also be a good plagiarism prevention tool.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I really like slams. I get a lot of good ideas to share with my school through the Weekly Tech Tip I share out. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I didn't go to Friday morning's keynote. I might try and find it on CueTube, but since the speaker has a focus on coding, and as an English teacher I have yet to find a reason to try and incorporate that into my curriculum, I took my time getting ready in the morning instead.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">My first session was about Tech Tools in the Writing Classroom. There really wasn't anything new but the speaker was engaging. I did have some minor takeaways though:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Since the brain likes novelty, don't tell kids they have 5 minutes for something. Tell them they have 4 minutes and 44 seconds to complete something (and then don't actually time them).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Use the <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiElavP1NDLAhVW0WMKHQy6AoUQFggcMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bostonglobe.com%2Fnews%2Fbigpicture&usg=AFQjCNFSS-7gcsHvRWSmufoWmn337pKa9Q&sig2=hQWa6AX8iFDzrUcHxbHaig&bvm=bv.117218890,d.cGc">Boston Globe's Big Picture </a>site for visual writing prompts.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">When using something like <a href="http://todaysmeet.com/">Today's Meet</a> to back channel, let kids know that you can make a PDF of what they say in it and send it to their parents if need be.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Next, I went to a session presented by <a href="http://twitter.com/lhighfill">Lisa Highfill</a> with a few of my colleagues. She's known as one of the pioneers of the <a href="https://sites.google.com/a/googleteacheracademy.com/2014-07-30/agenda/room3">Hyperdoc</a>. A few possible takeaways that I might use:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Have students create memes of their favorite lines from literature</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Have students annotate text using the highlighting function and commenting functions on a Google Doc</span></li>
<li><span style="color: magenta; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Next year, instead of having students do reading logs, have them do reading BLOGS!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Use a slide deck that is publically accessible to help students choose their next book to read.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">We toured the exhibit hall after that. My colleagues got free cases for their Chromebooks. Mine was too cutting edge and they didn't have one for it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">One suggestion I have for CUE next year in regards to the exhibit hall is to bunch all the similar booths together. That way you can avoid areas that don't pertain to you whatsoever (which as high school English teachers was a great number of the booths), or adequately comparison shop.</span></div>
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<a href="https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/7197112-116134476_1-s1-v1.png?palette=1" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" class="bitmoji-image" data-downloadurl="image/png:3474.png:https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/7197112-116134476_1-s1-v1.png?palette=1" data-reactid=".0.0.1.2.1.0.$3474" data-src="http://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/7197112-%s-v1.png?palette=1" draggable="true" height="200" src="https://render.bitstrips.com/v2/cpanel/7197112-116134476_1-s1-v1.png?palette=1" width="199" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Then one of my colleagues and I headed over to the Hard Rock (which I personally think was kind of tacky, especially considering the price) for a session that was about game-based learning, but was really about how an elementary school district created a game-based learning platform. That is not something that we, as two teachers without any district personnel, could really learn from, so we left.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I went to the OCCUE affiliate meeting for the first time. I need to get more involved next year, but certainly not as a board member. I won a MakeyMakey, but I gave it to the Librarian for her Maker Space.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Saturday morning I got up, packed up, and headed to the convention center. I nabbed some information from one session on badges before it began for my Action Research Project for my group in my Master's program. Then, I put on my tech leader hat and headed off to <a href="http://twitter.com/jcorippo">John Corippo</a>'s session on Rock Star PD. Despite the fact that it was geared towards administrators, I found it enjoyable and filled with good ideas. I wish my administrators had been there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I kept my tech leader hat on and stayed in the room for the next session about TOSAs and Tech Leaders collaborating. But, this was another example sessions not actually "advertisting" what they were "selling" and I left with my friend Crystal Kirch who gave me some tech to look into called Seesaw and Verso. So, it wasn't completely wasted. I then spent a nice lunch with her and another friend, taking the next session off (which sounds like a solid plan considering there was a power outage).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I nabbed a couple of presenter resources on ELD stuff before the last session I went to with <a href="http://twitter.com/isabelleselak">Isabelle Selak</a>, which was about using NaNoWriMo in school. It was a good presentation, and I think that next year I might try it out as an after school club with students and teachers who are interested in trying it out. I'm always torn about trying things like this out during class because I get pulled in the direction of covering the required district content and teaching my students in a way to be best prepared to critically think and write, and these roads hardly ever meet at a crossroads.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I have VERY mixed feelings about the closing keynote. I found I agreed with much of what she, Pearl Arredondo, said <i>in the keynote</i>, but one thing she did say put me on the pro-charter alert. But after doing a little googling, I see that her actions don't seem to be matching up what she is saying.</span></div>
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<br />Miss Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12993578652626733997noreply@blogger.com0