Teaching with Technology

Using educational technology to enhance the learning environment and increase student engagement!

Online Learning Opportunity

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Happy Friday! We’re in the middle of our first full week of school since returning from Christmas Break – and I’m struggling just a bit 😉 I’m missing my random afternoon naps and going to bed without having to set an alarm for the next morning! ALL THE COFFEE is being consumed!

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking about our on-demand, everything available at our fingertips society. Earlier this week, for example, one of my daughters asked me what the temperature was in Florida near our favorite vacation spot. If I had asked my mom this same question 25 years ago when I was her age (yeeesh!) she would have said, “well, I’m not sure.” My response was, “Hey Siri. What’s the temperature in Destin, Florida?” Siri’s response was that the temperature in Florida in January was MUCH more pleasant than in Missouri – big shock, right?

While components of our “on-demand” culture can sometimes lead to impatience and a bit of laziness, we can take advantage of this constant availability of information to learn what we want to learn when we want to learn it! I

f you’re like many teachers, you probably aren’t super satisfied with the professional development provided by your school and/or district. PD days might not be focused on areas you wish to improve, or maybe these days are devoted to meetings with no actual professional development!

Wouldn’t it be great to learn awesome strategies to use in your classroom to enhance student learning, and do so in an “on-demand” environment?

YOU CAN!

The Illuminate: Technology Enhanced Learning online course is AVAILABLE NOW! Here’s what you can expect:

–> A variety of discussions surrounding various topics in educational technology

–> Weekly challenges that allow you to practice and apply what you learn

–> A culminating project that you can design to use in your classroom

–> A fantastic community of teachers who, just like you, want to learn how to use technology in their classroom to positively impact student learning!

Sound like something for you? Register today by completing this form to join the first cohort! The class opens Sunday, March 1!

Any questions? Email me at bethany.illuminate@gmail.com

Thanks for reading 🙂

Current Events Article Template

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Happy Sunday! I was home Friday with a sick kiddo and, though I thought I would be able to start planning for my online course (that starts on Monday) while she rested, I didn’t … we snuggled and napped, and I’m perfectly fine with that! While I was prepping for my sub at 6:00 yesterday morning, I realized that one of my advanced government classes was at the perfect point in our unit for a current events article review. I feel like I do a less than awesome job in my classroom of highlighting current events because I just have SO much content! So … I created this current events article template to use not only for class yesterday, but throughout the year for extension opportunities.

It seems as though, in our current political climate, we’re confronted with “breaking news” ALL THE TIME. Quite frankly, it’s exhausting! Instead of telling my students to choose a current events article – which probably would have taken the entire class period for them to do! – I provided them with a few articles from which to choose. While they were reading, they completed the current events article template and submitted it before the class period ended.

Students who prefer to create a screencast, infographic, or other product to demonstrate what they have learned could most definitely do so including components of the current events template.

The articles students were able to choose from when completing this assignment ranged from the recent increase in age to buy tobacco products to the resolution passed by the House of Representatives to curb President Trump’s war powers dealing with Iran. 

If you’re interested in using this template in your classroom, please feel free to do so! Check it out here!

Have a great week!

Thanks for reading 🙂

“Wait, are we playing Family Feud?!” Review Game Tool

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Happy Thursday of the first week back to school! I’m struggling to get back in the swing of setting alarms and not getting my afternoon nap … please tell me I’m not alone! The first two days of the semester in my classroom were spent reviewing content we had learned earlier in the year and trying to remember how to “school.” I was looking for an activity that would help my students review the Articles of the Constitution, which is unfortunately not the most exciting topic for high school juniors to discuss! I knew I had to jazz up the review game to keep them engaged … it’s one of those times when I really wish I had one of those “staples easy buzzers.” Speaking of buzzers …

Enter Buzzin Live!

Using the Share to Classroom extension, I sent my students to Buzzin Live and told them to click “join.” On my computer, I selected “host” and then displayed the join code on the whiteboard. I knew this would happen … I mean, hey, if you see a giant green button on your screen that says, “buzz” what are you going to do? Press the button, right?! And that’s what my students did 🙂

The response? “Wait, are we playing Family Feud?!”

I gave them a few minutes to get it out of their system before I locked them down, so to speak. Buzzin Live gives the host a few different options …

–> Selecting “one buzz only” locks out other players from buzzing in
–> Choosing “play buzzing sound on the host (first buzz only)” allows sound on the host device only from the first student who buzzes in

When you’re ready to start the game, exit the settings screen and pose a question to your class using whatever review activity you choose. When students are ready to answer the question, they tap the green “buzz” button on their device. Their name is then displayed on the host screen and other students are locked out. When you’re ready to move to another question, click reset all buzzers and ask away!

In the event of a clickfest – all of your students keep tapping the green “buzz” button on their screen – simply click the “toggle lock” option to lock all participants.

My students LOVED using this tool for our review game about 10 unconstitutional scenarios! Using the buzzer definitely added an element of fun to our game!

 

My One Word – 2020 Edition

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Happy New Year! Does it really seem possible that another year has come and gone? I’m realizing more and more as I get older exactly how right my parents were when they said, “it goes by quickly!” Heck, I realize every day how right my parents were about basically everything in life … don’t you wish you could share some of the wisdom you’ve acquired in your thirties with your teenage self? But, would you listen? Nah 😉

While I’ve never really been a person to make New Year’s resolutions (I find them to be an added stress to my already crazy life!) I jumped on the One Word challenge a few years ago and found it to be a MUCH more achievable alternative to the, “I won’t do _____ anymore” resolutions. My first “word” challenge was BETTER – I wanted to focus on being better in all areas of my life from motherhood, marriage, teaching, and health. Last year’s word was GRIT, which I think describes my personality very well! I’m constantly on the go, giving my all in all areas of my life which can be pretty darn exhausting 🙂

So … what will the word be for 2020, you ask?

Drumroll, please …

PROGRESS

That’s right, my word for 2020 is PROGRESS, which is a great combination of grit and better. Here are a few other words that come to mind when I think of progress.

-> CONTINUE – I love all of the components of my hectic life. I’m extremely blessed to be the wife to a wonderful husband and the mother to two amazing daughters. This year, I’m looking forward to the continuation of our fabulous life and I’m so excited to watch my daughters grow and learn throughout the year. I’m also fortunate to continue to do what I love on a daily basis – I get to (attempt to!) inspire the future while geeking out about Social Studies. Seriously, where else can I do that and get paid for it?! I will continue to share my passion for using technology in the classroom to enhance student learning with teachers all over the country through my seminars, conferences, and workshops, and connect with teachers all over the WORLD through my blog and social media. What a great life!

-> BETTER – yes, I know I’ve already used this word in a previous One Word post, but when I think of progress, I also think of being better. Throughout 2020, I’ll focus on making progress by becoming better when it comes to all of my relationships – with my husband, my daughters, my family and friends, and with God. Words like “better” and “progress’ imply that a person is already doing something, and they want to keep doing it, just to a higher level. I think that pretty accurately describes my goal for this year 🙂

This year, my goal is to continue to make progress – to keep going – in all areas of my life. I’m excited for this new year (and new decade)!

What’s your word for the year?

Thanks for reading 🙂

Quick, Collaborative, Formative Assessment with QR Codes

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Happy Sunday, all! It’s been a bit since my last post – between submitting my first draft of my second book, CREATE (another post about that soon!), celebrating our oldest daughter’s birthday, and keeping up with all of the crazy that is our life, I haven’t been able to share a post or podcast episode with you. ARRGGHH! So much to share, so little time to share it! In talking with a colleague last week about ideas for formative assessment/review stations using QR Codes, I realized how long it’s been since I’ve shared a lesson idea with you that involves these lovely little squares. I love listening to my students discuss and reflect on course concepts with this quick, collaborative, formative assessment strategy!

In addition to using a school-provided Chromebook in our classroom, I also frequently allow my students to use their cell phones in class. (Check out my cell phone policy here if you’re interested!) And, when we’re working with QR Codes, my students have found that just using the camera on their smartphone is so much easier and quicker!

There are many ways to create QR Codes for your students, ranging from websites to extensions, but my favorite way to make these cute little squares is by using a Google Spreadsheet Add-On called QR Code Generator.

To create a QR Code review activity for your students, open a Google Spreadsheet and search for the add-on linked above. In column one of your spreadsheet, include vocabulary terms, countries and/or capitals, themes or components of literature, or any other concepts you want your students to review or apply. In my case, my students were applying what they had learned about the powers of Congress. They scanned a code that included ascenario. Using Article 1 of the Constitution, students discussed with their group whether or not Congress had the authority to do what the scenario described. As students came to a conclusion, they completed the Google Form quiz, with a “yes, Congress can because…” or a “no, Congress can’t because …” The conversations that occurred with my students around the concepts they learned in class were awesome! AND … they were analyzing a primary source to find the answers. WOOHOO!!

Definitely give QR Codes a try in your classroom! If you’re looking for more ideas and details about how I use QR Codes in my classroom, be sure to check out Chapter 1 of Illuminate: Technology Enhanced Learning!

Thanks for reading 🙂

 

Offering Students CHOICE: CREATE in the Classroom Series

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Happy Sunday, my friends! I’ve been a bit MIA lately for a few reasons: first, I’ve been spending every spare minute writing my second book, CREATE, which will be published by DBC soon! More on that later 😀 Second, in addition to teacher-hood, I’m also a pretty busy MOMMA! My daughters, ages 7 and almost 9, are involved in ALL of the things, ranging from piano lessons to ballet/tap/jazz multiple nights a week, as well as basketball and soccer practices and games. It is CRAY-CRAY every day in the Petty household, especially since my husband (a finance manager for a car dealership) works super unpredictable hours. We often find ourselves eating late suppers at our favorite Mexican restaurant so we can all be together for one meal each day! I know you know exactly what I’m talking about – we’re all busy people! To help welcome CREATE into the world, I’m starting a new series to debut each component of the title/acronym … you know I’m a sucker for a good acronym! Welcome to the first installment – offering CHOICE in the classroom!

 

Through intentional tech integration, teachers can offer their students more CHOICE when it comes to how they plan to demonstrate their learning. Are you a fan of essays? Go for it. Would you prefer to create a visual representation of what you’ve learned using a sketchnote, mind map or something similar? Be my guest. Do you want to try your hand at creating a game to demonstrate what you’ve learned? How about a tweet? Do it! Students take more ownership and pride in a project in which their choice is taken into account. If you think about it, we all take more ownership and pride in work when we have had an option on how we share information.

How do you provide students with CHOICE in your classroom? Every unit HyperDoc in our American Government class includes an extension page that students can complete to earn Bonus XP and review for their unit assessment at the same time. I always include a choice board aka Show What You Know BINGO which includes many options for students to create demonstrations of what they’ve learned. Students appreciate the opportunity to choose what they create to demonstrate what they’ve learned. Sometimes providing choice isn’t an option because of course standards, learning targets, etc. But, when we can provide choice, doing so can increase student engagement and quality of work!

How do you encourage choice in your classroom?

Thanks for reading 🙂

Tips for Using Google Classroom – Tip #5

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Happy Thursday! We’re in the middle of Homecoming Week in my district – today was “decades day” and I was a bit stumped as to what to wear. I settled on my Declaration of Independence shirt that I bought over the summer when we were in Philadelphia for ISTE and am representing the ’70s … the 1770s that is! Yes, I’m a nerd 😀 Even though we’re a third of the way through October, we’re still technically in 1st quarter, which means we’re still technically in back-to-school mode, right? Therefore, finishing my back-to-school with Google Classroom series today is just fine! Don’t judge – this semester has been super hectic!

What’s the final tip for using Google Classroom?

DRUMROLL, PLEASE …

Archiving Classes!

Yes, archiving your classes is tip #5. While there are many different perspectives on the best way to create sections in Google Classroom, such as creating a new section in Classroom each quarter, for each unit, etc., I have anxiety about actually deleting a class or deleting content from the Classroom stream when I’m finished with the course or the unit. Therefore – I archive my classes at the end of each course.

Archiving class sections has three main benefits for me:

  1. Pacing: I really REALLY appreciate the ability to look back at previous years to be sure I’m making adequate progress. Sometimes, particularly in my dual credit classes, I find myself getting bogged down in my favorite topics, including the US Constitution, Greek Mythology, the Colonial Period, and the Protestant Reformation. It’s nice to be able to glance at the previous year’s section of each course to make sure I’m plugging away as I should!
  2. Reusing Posts: Have you used this feature? In Classroom, when you’re creating an assignment for a class, you can select “reuse post” to, for lack of a better phrase, “reuse” an old post from a previous, ARCHIVED class section. Can’t do that if you delete your class section!
  3. Accessing Student Assignments: Accessing student assignments is, in my opinion, much easier to do in an archived section of Classroom than searching around my Google Drive, digging through dozens of folders in an attempt to locate a file.

Do you archive your classes? What other tips can you share about using Google Classroom?

Thanks for reading 🙂

 

 

Using Google Classroom – Tip #4

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Happy Saturday, all! I took a mental health day yesterday and it was fantastic! I think teachers are all too often shamed (directly or indirectly) for taking a day off – and that SHOULD NOT HAPPEN! Yes, yesterday was my high school Homecoming parade(this is my 15th year out of high school!) and Grandparent’s Day at my daughters’ school. Since my mom is still teaching (this is year 30 something!) at their school, that only leaves my dad to do double-grandparent duty. Which means, Momma is coming to Grandparent’s Day! Fortunately, my daughters’ school recognizes that not everyone has grandparents that are able to come, so they make all visiting adults feel welcome 🙂 Even though we’re nearing the end of September, I still feel like it’s “back to school” time, so I’m sharing another one of my favorite tips for using Google Classroom!

It’s no secret that I’m a HUGE fan of Google Classroom. We use it as a landing page in all of my classes. All of the assignments, materials, and resources that my students need to access for my classes can be found in Google Classroom. It’s all RIGHT THERE! My students appreciate the fact that they don’t have to search all over the place to find objectives, HyperDocs, ELFs, extension opportunities, task lists when their teacher takes a personal day, etc. Google Classroom, which celebrated its fifth birthday last week, is a great fixture in our classroom.

Now, on to the tip!

DRUMROLL, PLEASE …

The fourth tip for using Google Classroom is …

MOBILE APPS!

Yes, that’s right! Download the mobile app to your phone to make your life easier on the go! Are you sitting in the doctor’s office waiting for an appointment? Whip out your phone, open your Classroom app and get caught up on evaluating student work and providing feedback.

Did you take a personal day and forget to share a task list with one of your classes? No? Does that only happen to me?! Simply open your Google Classroom app and share needed info with your students!

Google is always making updates not only to Classroom, but also to the mobile apps in order to allow seamless usage between the app and the website. It’s FABULOUS.

The Classroom app (on my iPhone and iPad) has saved my tail many times over the last few years. How do you use the Google Classroom mobile app?

Thanks for reading 🙂

Tips for Using Google Classroom – Tip #3

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Happy Friday, all! If you’re getting back into the classroom this week – welcome back! If you’ve been in session for the last three weeks like me, how’s it going?! In case you missed it, I shared an image earlier this week (or was it late last week??!) with some tips for using the Share to Classroom extension. Be sure to check it out here if you haven’t!

I started the Top Tips for Using Google Classroom series late this past summer and am excited to share with you the next installment – Tip #3!

A bit of a backstory – in addition to teaching high school Social Studies during the day, I also teach Educational Technology online for pre-service teachers. I’m a busy gal 🙂 The college uses a learning management system that is, lets put it this way, is not my favorite, and I’ve been allowed to use Google Classroom instead. PRAISE THE LORD! Since I teach multiple sections of the same course, I use a lovely trick when assigning work, posting announcements, sharing materials, and asking questions: select multiple classes!

When you create a post, simply click on the dropdown triangle next to the name of your class, and select all of the classes with which you’d like to share the post. Easy – peasy! This prevents me from forgetting to assign a specific resource or assignment with my classes and helps ensure that the assignments are the same name across all classes.  Also – it’s a huge timesaver!

Keep sharing your favorite Google Classroom tips in the comments!

Thanks for reading 🙂

Gather Evidence of Learning with Google Forms

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Happy Thursday! Today was the last day of the week with students for me – we’re in PD tomorrow and then off on Monday for the Labor Day holiday in the US. My school year is off to a GREAT start and I hope you’re enjoying an awesome transition back to school. I’ve revamped a few things in my flipped classroom this year to help me be more present individually with my students in their learning. I. AM. LOVING this new checkpoint system that I’ve implemented. Here’s how we’re using Google Forms to gather evidence of student learning in my “in-class” flip. Get ready for an E.L.F!

First thing – I’m a sucker for a good acronym. If you read my last post on increasing collaboration in my classroom with the B.O.A.R.D. strategy, you know what I’m talking about! As I was revamping my plans for my Government classes this summer, I wanted to focus on improving two things: collaboration among my students and increasing individual discussion and feedback on learning with my students. Enter the E.L.F.

I know you’re curious by now and are ready to learn what E.L.F. stands for, right?

E.L.F. stands for “Evidence of Learning Form!” My students said the acronym should actually be “EOLF” and my response was, “oh yes, we always say we live in the USOA, don’t we?” My point was made 🙂

After two to three videos, my students complete an ELF that I share with them using Google Classroom. (The locked form option in Classroom is still super glitchy, so I don’t use it just yet). If my students get a 100% on the E.L.F. they can either move on with their videos or start an extension activity on their HyperDoc. If they get less than 100% on their E.L.F., I go to them with their results pulled up on my iPad, and we talk about what they missed. If they’re still not quite clear on what they missed, I have them re-watch the video with the specific content, then I chat with them again. Most of the time, they’ve cleared up their misconception and are ready to move on. Sometimes, I open up a drawing app on my iPad to sketch out an example or explanation. This has been FANTASTIC!

What goes on an E.L.F., you ask? Two to three questions that ask students to apply what they’ve learned – no spitting out definitions that they copy and paste from Google here!

If you come into my Government classroom, here’s what you’ll see:
–> students working asynchronously about 1/3-1/2 of the class period
–> students working on extension activities
–> students checking the XP leaderboard on Classroom
–> students creating products such as games, presentations, conversations, etc., that demonstrate learning
–> me bouncing around from student to student, answering questions, clarifying misconceptions, explaining concepts in multiple ways, while sitting on the floor, a stool, or perched on a table
–> frequent formative assessment through E.L.F. activities and whole-class review games
–> a Keurig that is almost always running because I’m a coffee-holic

The E.L.F. and B.O.A.R.D strategies are exactly what I needed to add in my classroom this year! I feel like my students are focusing on learning content, collaborating with their peers, creating, and thinking critically. I’m loving it!

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Thanks for reading 🙂