The Guantlet has been Thrown...

Thanks Steve Wick (@rechargeedu) for sharing this! 

I had the opportunity to visit the architectural firm PBK last year with Klein ISD's new Transform Academy. We watched -very intently- how a high-functioning team operates; and it was truly a mind-blowing experience. 

I realized how we are -as educators- grossly underestimating the skills our students will need to be competitive in their futures. They require Avengers©-like collaborative skills, problem solving ninja skills, and (among many others) be creative innovators. I hear so often how teachers (in 1:1 environments across Texas) use their tech as glorified worksheets or for warm-ups and are very unwilling to change the way they have done things..."because they have 'worked' for so long". At the risk of ruffling feathers, I ask this question: How can we get our students to the "PBK mindset" of innovation and asking questions, this "edutopia", if you will; if so many educators still focus on the answers, rather than the questions?

We must equip them with tools and skills to nurture their inner creators. Thank goodness we have so many amazing resources literally, at our fingertips! We use Google apps in our class to create, collaborate, and innovate. I tossed out the projector and brought in interactive panels and an HD TV. My students collaborate in a variety of ways and have become skilled at working with others, as it is done holistically -every day- in my class. They create with Google Drawings, evaluate and give feedback using Google Slides, experience and experiment with Google Cardboard, Google Earth, and Google Maps, and they will begin communicating with others, globally, using Google Hangouts.

I want to equip these students with the knowledge and skills that will transform their lives, not just their learning. Won't you join me, and help our students be creative independent thinkers that work well with others that possess a global mindset? The gauntlet has been thrown...now it's time for us all- teachers, principals, directors, superintendents, parents- to step up, grab that gauntlet, and leave those worksheets behind.

Have You Moved Over the Google Side? Part 2

In Part 1 of this series, I introduced several uses of Google Drawings for a collaborative experience. In this post, I will focus on a few ways you can use Google Slides along with Google Drawings to encourage students to create, share, and provide feedback.

After teaching them little tips and tricks with Google Drawings, I had them share their creations in Google Slides. I created a shared Slides presentation and had each team share their Google Drawings. They were to leave a comment on several of the slides (this is a great way to teach them verbiage for constructive criticism). I heard many of them ask a student, "How did you do that?" or "Wow! I wish I had thought of that!" It is so rewarding to hear them discuss their work in a collaborative setting.

After a training I did in Klein ISD in 2015, I had the participants give feedback at the end of the session. I wanted them to see they could use this to have students reflect on activities, lessons, experiences, etc.

I came across several ways to use Google Slides in the classroom and my favorite has to be the beginning of the year activity by Alice Keeler ! It is brilliant! Especially, for those of us who struggle with learning our students' names!

I would like to take this one a little further and make it also and end of the year activity (since I teach 8th graders, and they are about to start high school). This is a fun activity that will allow them to see their growth through the year if you add reflective questions.

Google tools are so much more than some people have experience with...especially Google Drawings and Google Slides. Most people think of Google Slides as simply a presentation software; but it is so much more. I hope you share this tool with your students and allow them the opportunity to experience Google in all the creative ways they should be used!

Have You Moved Over to the Google Side? Part 1

I am a geek and love Star Wars. 

I also love Google tools, so I decided to use the theme, "Are You Ready to Slide Over to the Google Side?" for my tech session on Google Slides. 

It was fun and best of all, I had teachers using the collaborative features and they LOVED them! Most had never used Google tools for collaboration. These tools are fantastic for all classrooms but I am finding so many incredible things that benefit our Foreign Language students! I will be sharing these in a series of posts since they will be filled with tons of engaging activities!

The first tool I want to talk about is Google Drawings. This is not just a "Paint" for Google. There is so much more to this program than meets the eye! The best part of Google Drawings is the ability to have more than one person work in the drawing at the same time. There are some fantastic ideas out there on the internet using Google Drawings, but these are some of my favorites:
Creating a Timeline:
When creating a timeline, your students must know the information as they must research whatever it is they are going to place on the timeline. If you have them in teams of 4-6, they can be responsible for certain events/periods. For example: A Walk Through History Timeline
You can assign students different Eras that you want them to cover and they are responsible for those sections of the Timeline. You can do one in Foreign Languages for Wars in Spain, or A timeline over Pablo Picasso's paintings/styles, etc. I did this one for a training session on Google Drawings in my district:

Another clever use of Google Drawings is to create your own graphic organizers in teams. You can actually "see" the thinking process as they can comment in the drawings and help one another. One graphic organizer we did in class was discuss a character from a Movie Talk we did (this example is done in English for the sake of all language teachers):

Sylvia Duckworth does a wonderful job with her SketchNotes. I encourage my students to draw the definitions of words as this helps them remember the words much better. You can check her SketchNotes here.

The kids really enjoy working with each other using these tools. I hope you will allow your students the opportunity to collaborate and create!