Teaching with Technology

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

3 Reasons to Read Illuminate Before the End of the Year

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Hey, all! Happy Friday to you and happy first day of Easter Break to me! I am READY for a break – I’m sure you know exactly how I feel. It’s the end of the year, teachers and students alike seem to be hitting a brick wall and motivation can be lacking. Do you need something to light a fire in you to end the year with enthusiasm and energy? Illuminate is the book for you! Here are my top three reasons that teachers should read Illuminate before the end of the school year:

1. Motivation (XP, Take What You Need)
Oh yes, motivation. That thing that helps people push forward toward a goal – I remember that! It’s no secret that motivation can wane quite a bit toward the end of a semester, especially when we’re nearing the end of the second semester of a school year. Summer is getting closer and the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter! A few years ago, I learned about the concept of gamification of learning at a conference and immediately thought, “this seems like a lot of extra work.” I fell into the same motivation slump that my students were experiencing – teacher facepalm moment. When I finally jumped into the gamification pool, the results were awesome! Students love earning XP for completing assignments, “bonus missions,” and winning games. During 4th quarter, I find myself “throwing XP around like confetti” to help give my students that extra boost of encouragement. Check out Chapter 8 of Illuminate for a guide to getting started with XP and gamification!

2. Virtual Field Trips (Google Earth, Nearpod)
My students LOVE going on virtual field trips. Heck, I LOVE going on virtual field trips! Really, though … who doesn’t?! It’s fun, educational, and super engaging for students at all grade levels. As a high school Social Studies teacher, we use virtual field trips almost daily to connect with places, people, and concepts we’re learning about. Are you discussing the branches of government? Check out the White House, Supreme Court building, and the Capitol building! Learning about French monarchies? Tour the Palace of Versailles! The possibilities are endless and the result is an engaging component to your lesson, using technology. Interested in learning more about taking your students on virtual tours, but also helping them create their own virtual reality? You’ll love Chapter 2 of Illuminate!

3. Demonstrate Learning with Memes (IMG Flip, Google Drawings)
Memes … they’re EVERYWHERE! We see them, and so do our students. When we can connect pop culture with class content, student engagement can go through the roof! As a year-end activity, my Government students create memes that describe concepts they’ve learned in class. I preface the activity with this: “pretend that you’ve just met someone who only speaks ‘meme’ and you must explain the concept of ________ to them using a meme.” The products that my students create are fantastic! Definitely check out Chapter 3 of Illuminate for more tips on using memes in your classroom, but also how to encourage your students to create representations of what they’ve learned!

Have you read Illuminate, yet? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks for reading 🙂

Try This Tomorrow Podcast – Fight End-of-the-Year-itis

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Hello and happy Friday! I’m writing to you today from the comfort of my kitchen table – yup, that’s right! I took the day off! This hardly ever happens, but honestly, I’m not really “off” (are teachers ever really “off?!”) … I’m at home catching up on grading, guest posts for other blogs, videos for my upcoming online course (yay!!!), and finally sharing Episode 3 of my podcast, Try This Tomorrow. Check out the show notes from this episode and be sure to listen to Try This Tomorrow: Talks with Teachers where you get your podcasts!

Episode 3: 3 Tips for Fighting End-of-the-Year-itis

Teachers and students alike often find themselves dragging a bit during the fourth quarter of the school year! In my case, the weather is getting warmer, the sun is out later into the evening, the birds are chirping, and my daughters just want to go play outside and have fun – same, ladies. SAME. However, my students and I are not only finishing up our curriculum but are also preparing/reviewing for standardized testing – that glorious time of the year that NO ONE likes. So, I’m trying to keep things engaging in my classroom by using fun review games like Flippity, Heads Up, Kahoot, Quizizz, Quizlet Live, and these fun activities, as well as “throwing XP around like confetti.”

I also share a tip in this episode of something that I’m doing to shift my mindset from “I have to …” to “I’m thankful for …” It’s something simple and quick that I can do in the morning when I get to my classroom or before I leave my house.

I hope these tips from Episode 3 will be the dry shampoo you need to help you push through the end of the school year! The dry shampoo part will make more sense when you listen to the episode – ha!

As always, thanks for reading & listening 🙂

Encourage Collaboration with This Padlet Format

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Happy Monday! It’s sunny and 70 degrees in my neck of the woods, which makes staying motivated in the classroom a challenge for my students AND their dear teacher 🙂 Please tell me I’m not alone! This will be the first summer in about 5 years that I haven’t taught a face-to-face summer school class, and I’m really looking forward to being able to sleep, drink coffee on my patio, and take afternoon naps at my leisure during our break! As my dual credit students were discussing the impact of medieval thinkers last week, I decided to create a “grid” Padlet for them to use to share information and to encourage collaboration – I was met with groans and complaints because they wanted a different Padlet format! Here’s what happened …

 

Padlet is a fantastic tool for collaboration (I geek out about it quite often) and is used almost daily in my classroom. Padlet offers many formats that are great for classroom use including the “wall” and “grid” options that post student contributions on the wall in compact squares.

While this is a great option, students aren’t able to collaborate with each other on posts that they’re working on. One person is basically designated the “typer” while other people in the group feed information to their classmate. While this is a great option, my dual credit students prefer to use the “shelf” option in Padlet because they can all contribute to the topic/individual/concept that they’re assigned to research. 

Needless to say, when I created and shared the “grid” instead of the “shelf” Padlet with them … it wasn’t pretty! “Mrs. Petty! Change the format to the one where we can all type!”

My bad, friends. My bad!

Fortunately, I can quickly switch the format of any Padlet that I create. I changed the format to “shelf” and all was right with the world once again.

Crisis averted.

How do you use Padlet in your classroom?

Thanks for reading 🙂

April Mystery Post – Teaching with Technology

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It’s April! Can you believe it?! I feel like this school year has literally flown by and I’ll be dipping my toes in the Gulf of Mexico sand before I know it! We’re only a few days beyond the beginning of the month, so I’m not SUPER late in sharing the Teaching with Technology mystery post … right?! Without further adieu, here it is!

DRUMROLL, PLEASE….

The topic of the April Mystery post from Teaching with Technology is …

FLIPPITY!

Yes! I chose a tool to highlight this month because it is just darn awesome! Last month, I had the opportunity to share tips and strategies for using Google Classroom to enhance Social Studies instruction with teachers in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Indiana, and Ohio (5 cities in 5 days!) and the BIGGEST takeaway seemed to be the awesome opportunities that this FREE tool provides!

I sufficiently geek out about Flippity in Illuminate and my students love it, too! If you haven’t checked into Flippity before, be sure to put this on your to-do ASAP list. Here are just a few ways that we use Flippity templates in my classroom:

  • BINGO review games
  • Random name picker (It’s a wheel! Super fun!)
  • Bracket creator (fantastic for our Presidential and Amendment Bracketology – more coming soon!)

One of my favorite features of this technology tool is that the templates are Google Sheets! That’s right – activities you create through Flippity are stored in your Google Drive — WOOHOO!

Flippity also offers a Google Sheets Add-on, but I prefer to create my activities using the actual site.

That’s it! Definitely check out Flippity and add this great tool to your technology treasure trove!

Thanks for reading and happy April 🙂

Remembering My Why – Teaching with Technology

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Happy Saturday, friends!! You made it to the end of the week! I’m writing to you today from my kitchen counter, feeling so glad to finally be home after a whirlwind week of speaking at seminars throughout the eastern part of the United States. When I say whirlwind, I really mean WHIRLWIND week! I flew from STL to Chicago and then to Rhode Island on Sunday, presented an all-day session in Providence then rode to Bristol, Connecticut. I presented an all-day session there on Tuesday, then hopped on a plane to Indy … we arrived super late Tuesday night – or super early Wednesday morning! – and I presented my session there. Then, I rode to Columbus, Ohio Wednesday night, and presented my session there on Thursday. Thursday afternoon, I rode to Cincinnati, delivered my presentation on using technology in the Social Studies classroom, rode to the airport, flew to STL where my husband and daughters picked me up for the ride home!

WHEW! What a week! I’ve been SO incredibly blessed by this opportunity and am absolutely ecstatic about the fact that I’ve been able to spend my spring break week sharing something I’m passionate about – using technology to enhance Social Studies instruction.

Check out the basics of what I shared this week …

  • Using technology like Nearpod and Edpuzzle (along with their Chrome extensions) to enhance learning in the classroom
  • Getting the most out of Google Classroom in the Social Studies classroom
  • Time-saving tips for using Chrome including extensions, bookmarks, right-click options, and keyboard shortcuts
  • Tips and tools for encouraging students to create representations of what they’ve learned
  • Fun and effective formative assessment
  • Strategies to easily implement effective assessment capable learning practices
  • Tools and resources for using and creating BreakoutEDU activities for your classroom

It. Was. AWESOME!

I’m so fortunate to have been able to share these presentations with so many amazing educators, and I can’t wait to do it again! Even though I’m absolutely exhausted, I feel rejuvenated at the same time to go back into my classroom on Monday and try to continue designing an engaging learning environment for my students. Being with these great educators helped me remember my “why” for becoming a teacher. It’s not the money or the fame – we all know that, though – ha! It’s because I want to have a positive impact on the future through each of my students. Here’s a quick video that I share at the end of my presentations to help teachers remember their “why” and also see why knowing their “why” (sorry for the “why” redundancy!) is so important.

As you’re watching this video, pay attention to how the people around the man singing respond when he knows his “why.” Look at the impact he has on those around him when he knows and feels his “why.” How awesome is that?!  When we know and remember why we do what we do, we have a greater impact on those we serve, whatever our path.

What’s your why?

Thanks for reading 🙂

 

Create Smartphone Apps with Google Sheets

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Hello, friends! Do you ever stumble upon an app, site, or tool and have no earthly clue how you got there, but are totally thrilled that you did? That is 100% what I’m feeling right now as I write to you today about Glide – a super fantastic tool that lets ANYONE create smartphone apps with Google Sheets WITHOUT CODING. That’s right. Create an app without coding. YAY!!!

Here’s how it works:

  1. Go to glideapps.com and sign in with a Google account. Since your new apps will be made from an existing Google Spreadsheet, you’ll need to be signed into a Google account.
  2. Select your Google Spreadsheet, and Glide will import the data, creating a default app that you can manage.

Each sheet in your Spreadsheet will be a different tab on your app. You’ll notice in the screenshot below that my Spreadsheet has three sheets, which means my app has three tabs.

Next, you’ll be able to customize your app by selecting “edit sheet” on the left, or by clicking on an icon on your home screen and choosing “add component” in the top right corner of your screen. Add the option to comment, take notes, send an email, or link a URL to a button.

Each column of your spreadsheet will be a different property of your app. The sheet of the app listed below shows two columns on the “unit” tab of my app. When users see the Foundations and Formations of Government unit on the app, they’ll see the Bitmoji image I included as a link on my spreadsheet. Awesome, right?!

When you’re ready to launch your app, simply click “open app” at the bottom of your app creation screen. You’ll see the option to share the app or open it on your device by scanning the QR Code.

When you scan the QR Code, you’ll see a pop-up with directions on how to add your new app to the home screen of your smartphone.

That’s it! You’ve created an app using a Google Spreadsheet with NO CODING. You won’t be able to download the app from your App Store unless you opt for one of the premium account options that Glide offers. I’m a teacher, so I chose the freebie!

Any time you need to update your app, just log into your Glide account, click on your created app and then “Edit Spreadsheet.” Back on your Glide screen, you’ll be asked to reload your Spreadsheet which lets Glide add your updates to your app.

It’s that simple!

I’m excited to add “create your own app” to the options on our Apply HyperDoc page! Since Glide works with a Google Spreadsheet, our students can also collaborate with their peers on app creation – again, with NO CODING required! Super cool!!

Have a fantastic rest of the week and thanks for reading 🙂

 

 

Turn OFF Desktop Notifications for Padlet

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Hey, all! Four of my six high school classes are currently working with Padlet in some capacity this week, and both of my online classes are collaborating on a Padlet as well. If you haven’t noticed – I LOVE THIS TOOL! Yes, I know they changed their free option last year – I remember the sheer panic that occurred on Twitter – but I’ve dealt with it and have cleaned up my old/under/unused padlets in order to make room for the new. Thank goodness!

I’ve gushed about Padlet before, but here’s the real reason for this post…

I’m sure I’m not the only one that has clicked “accept” at some point in time when a dialogue box pops up on my screen while I’m frantically trying to create something to use as part of a lesson, right?

Don’t lie, you know you’ve been there, too 🙂

At some point in time, I seem to have enabled desktop notifications for Padlet, no doubt thinking it would be fantastic. It does sound great, right? I’m immediately notified when someone updates or adds to a padlet wall that we’re using.

Except …

I’M IMMEDIATELY NOTIFIED WHEN SOMEONE UPDATES OR ADDS TO A PADLET WALL THAT WE’RE USING.

Seriously. My dual credit students were viewing a presidential documentary prior to beginning our unit on American imperialism and BAM. We hear near constant “dings” and see messages appear in the bottom of the screen because students in my online EdTech class were adding resources to their class padlets.

I mean, hooray that my students are collaborating and sharing!

But, holy moly. If I heard one more ding over the voice of a historian discussing the influence of William McKinley’s presidency, I was probably going to lose my mind.

If you’ve found yourself in the same boat, here’s how to fix it.

Simply open the Padlet and click on the “lock” icon on the address bar. You’ll see a list of options appear – click on the notifications dropdown menu and click “BLOCK.”

You won’t regret it.

Maybe you’ll need to set a reminder on your phone so you remember to go back and check on the responses to the padlets you’re using in class. Maybe, you’ll go back when your class is finished viewing the documentary and adjust the settings so you are notified of any changes to the padlets. Maybe you won’t 🙂

I hope you’re having a great week and you can use this trick to save your sanity!

Thanks for reading 🙂

March Mystery Post – Teaching with Technology

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Happy March! I don’t know about the weather in your neck of the woods, but here in Southeast Missouri, March is coming in like a LION! Thursday and Friday of last week were ice days for us, and we’re expecting 4-6 inches+ of snow tonight into tomorrow morning. I love snow days and we’ve definitely had our share this year! In keeping with the tradition of the last 6 months, here is the monthly mystery post from Teaching with Technology!

Throughout the last few months, we’ve looked at formative assessment, QR codes, the flipped classroom, teacher self-care, and more great topics. What, oh what, will our topic be for March???

Hmmmm…

DRUMROLL, PLEASE …

The March Mystery post topic from Teaching with Technology is …

GOOGLE FORMS!

That’s right, Google Forms are absolutely amazing. As I say in my book, Illuminate, Google really hit a home run when they introduced Forms. They’re so versatile, can be used for just about anything, and are a fantastic way to intentionally use technology to illuminate learning.

One of the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the school year was to use pre and post-assessments for every unit to get a clearer picture of student growth in relation to our learning goals. Of course, I used Google Forms to administer the assessments, but instead of only gathering the data on the Google Sheet that collects the responses, I decided to create a spreadsheet for my students to collect evidence of learning and progress. Check out how we chart learning targets here using available technology.

I also love using Forms for summative assessment and probably will begin to shift my assessments from my LMS to Google Forms soon. Why? Because of the ability to lock students into the Form when it’s assigned from Google Classroom (and when they’re on a school Chromebook)!! That’s right! Locked Forms is currently in beta testing, but when assigning a Form (using the quiz feature) in Classroom, teachers can toggle a lovely little button to turn on “locked mode.” When students begin the quiz, their screen completely locks and will not allow them to exit until they submit or close the quiz. The response from my students has been hilarious – “wait, it just locks us out of everything?!” and “hang on, let me figure out how to destroy this, Mrs. Petty.” To date, they have not been able to “destroy” the locked form which is absolutely fantastic.

How do you use Google Forms in your classroom? Check out these posts for more ideas!

Thanks for reading 🙂

Social Media Book Study – Teacher Resources

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Happy Monday! We’re one week into the “Illuminating” social media book study, and I’m having a blast keeping up with all of the great resources and ideas that our teacher group is sharing on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!

Here’s a quick rundown of what was shared last week …

On Monday, our study began and our teacher group shared a few “must follow” educators across social media. Who would you add to these suggestions?

On Tuesday, we talked about awesome formative assessment tools …

On Wednesday, our teacher group geeked out about the flipped classroom concept, which is one of my MOST FAVORITE things to talk about …

Thursday, we talked about virtual reality and virtual field trips …

And on Friday, our teacher group looked outside of the edu realm to reflect on a “non-edu” book that we’re reading or that we’d recommend, and I’m sharing my current obsession … OUTLANDER! I’m on book 6 of the series and want the books to GO ON AND ON!!

I’m having SO much fun with this book study style … have you joined the fun, yet? Be sure to follow me on Twitter (@Bethany_Petty), Instagram (@bethanypetty_educ8), and Facebook (http://facebook.com/usingedtech) to catch our daily topics!
Thanks for reading and joining the discussion!

 

 

Try This Tomorrow Podcast Episode 2: Inquiry Inquiries

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Back to back posts? What the WHAT?! That never happens, but today is your lucky day! As you’ve read, I launched a podcast last month for teachers called, “Try This Tomorrow: Talks with Teachers,” because I wanted to share not only my perspectives on education, but also ideas and strategies from other teachers from around the world. Yesterday, I recorded an episode with MY FIRST GUEST, Trevor MacKenzie to learn about using inquiry in the classroom.

I don’t know about you, but when I first heard about inquiry my mind immediately went to topics like genius hour or 20 time or passion projects – things that are typically supplementary or ancillary to the curriculum. I’m SO GLAD that I talked to Trevor yesterday because he totally cleared up this common misconception that I, along with many other educators, had/have about the use of inquiry in the classroom!

One of my goals in my podcast is sharing applicable, easy-to-implement strategies that teachers can use in their classrooms tomorrow – hence the name of the podcast! I took this idea from the end of the chapters of Illuminate which wraps up the chapter by giving teachers easy-to-implement ideas they can use right away.

I am SO EXCITED for you to hear what Trevor has to say about using inquiry in the classroom and how you can “dive into inquiry” on Monday!

Be sure to check out Trevor’s resources for implementing inquiry as well as both of his books at trevormackenzie.com and listen to the Try This Tomorrow podcast, episode 2!

Thanks for reading & listening 🙂