From: Mike NiehoffSystems/Leadership CoachFresno County Office of EducationRe-blogged from Changing is LearningI believe in and have used the Four C’s as foundational elements for much of my professional work for years. I love that some educators have added their versions of a fifth or sixth C as well. Whether it’s four, five or six C’s, they are relevant and important. My intent here with the 8 P’s is not to be cute or coy. Rather, it is to pick up where the Four C’s leave off and work towards more specificity and application. So, here we go with the 8 P’s of education:PassionIf educational success is going to be based on in-depth thinking, producing quality work and having an impact on one’s career opportunities, we need to focus on students’ passions. Passion is somewhat innate, as well as sometimes hard to identify or apply to all educational environments. But that’s why we need to make it a focus. If we read about, write about, speak about and interact with information and experiences related to our passion(s), there is great likelihood for individual buy-in, ownership and engagement. It’s not as important what we read, write and speak about, but rather that we do it at high levels and see skill-based impact. Our students’ long-term success and self-actualization will be directly based on how we challenge them and facilitate for them the opportunities to tap into their passions and then apply them to their working lives. There are the educational critics who are saying that passion is being over-emphasized. However, our inner desire to pursuit our life’s work is something that all students and adults alike will have to continue to tap into and re-discover their entire lives in order to guide their daily direction. We’re not training for jobs, but for professional lives right?PartnershipsMost educational and career experts agree that collaboration is a skill that is more important than ever in the 21st century professional environments. But in addition to partnering with one’s peers, students need to experience partnerships at all levels. All students need school-based and community-based mentors. All students need experience working on things that have larger implications and impact beyond their school environments. This personalized and necessary experiences will come from their collaboration and partnering with non-profit organizations, local businesses, corporations and government agencies. We have known for years that students benefit greatly from being on teams, performance groups and student organizations. This is good, but we need to take it to the next level for all students. All students need community-based experiences related to their interests and skill areas where they can see true collaboration come to life with mentors and leaders in a variety of professional arenas. Partners and partnerships need to include all: peers, teachers, administrators, professionals, community leaders and any PLN partners.PersonalWe are hearing this word a lot and for many good reasons. Truly high levels of learning and mastery come from personal investment and relevance. These come from ownership. And ownership comes from passion and purpose. The more we can provide students voice and choice - personalization if you will - the more they will reach true mastery. Educators can build choice and options into every educational endeavor and we need to do so. Additionally, we need to expand our definitions of what is ‘academic’ or ‘educational’. There is not a question, topic or individual interest area that cannot be investigated, researched, developed, pursued and expanded upon - but we need to let go our teacher-driven interests and embrace those of our students. This will take time, as our students have not been trained this way. They will need to learn that their own areas of interest are the most relevant.PresentThere may not be a performance task for real world assessment more important for our students to master than that of the presentation. Most interviews are now essentially presentations. The ability to synthesize information, prepare it in a visual manner and then deliver effectively to audience will be something that all young professionals benefit from regardless of any industry or career sector. If they can sell their ideas along with themselves, they will always have professional opportunities. This is the 21st century version of public speaking. Professional Presentation Skills, or lack thereof, may be one of the most common professional gaps or divisions for many years to come. Presenting is teaching and teaching is the highest form of demonstrating learning. All of our students need to extend themselves in becoming experts of select content and ideas and then deliver that publicly and effectively to various audiences. Schools will have to watch a lot of TED videos among others.Problem SolvingThis is not just for math class, but math will be a great place to start. This is not the traditional version of solving problems. Rather, this is about students having more open-ended projects, challenges and tasks that require them to go through several iterations in order to see improvement. Like many have written before, there will be opportunities to practice, fail and improve. We can’t give them the answers to complex situations that require their critical thinking. We can provide the time, the trust, the support, the technology, the networks and much more. But they need to go through the process of experimenting and taking risks in order to advance through a process. This is one of the most foundational life and professional skills that they will need. And they have to practice this skill repeatedly.ProfessionalIf we want our students to produce high-level work, we need to create professional learning environments for all of them. This includes everything from their classrooms, equipment, resources and collaborators. Everything our students pursue going forward needs to have a professional connection to the real world. If tools and resources are used in industry to produce similar or related work, then we need to do the same in school. No longer can we have watered-down education versions. Whatever course or activity we offer to students, we need to make sure we are teaching them with the most current technology and resources. Think media, science, writing, designing, constructing, coding and so much more. Then think about having our students having the same access as the pros do. Additionally, this applies to the collaborators. Our students need to connect to mentors and practitioners in their professional interest areas. This is whom they need to present to, get feedback from, network with and be mentored by to say the least. Finally, our school facilities need to look like 21st century workspaces vs. 20th century one-room schoolhouses. Costs and efforts here can be considerable. But it’s what has to be done.PublicThis is something that is now paramount in the pedagogy of the 21st century. Since school began, we primarily did our work individually and most importantly for the teacher alone. Sure, there were exceptions such as performing arts, sports and a few others. But our academic work was done in isolation and our product was delivered to the teacher. The tide has turned and student work now needs to be public. When students collaborate digitally and otherwise with peers, mentors, public partners, etc, there work, even before the final product, is public. When they present their final products or projects to peers, staff, parents and community members, it is public. When they publish on-line, share on social media, enter a contest or partner with community-based entities, there work is public. They get feedback from minute one, have an audience throughout and see a larger purpose in all that they do. By the way, this goes for teachers now as well as students. Call it transparent or what you want. Things that are public have legs and meaning. Embrace it and optimize it.PublishI think we can all agree that writing, and writing effectively, is paramount in our academic and professional worlds. Writing has always been important and is as important as ever. What’s changed in the last few years is that publishing is not something reserved for a ‘blessed’ few. Publishing is now something available to all on-line and is often how our young professionals will forge a professional identity. Writing now without publishing is like singing without a concert or show, or playing sports without a game. Whether it’s through social media, YouTube, ITunes, blogging, their own websites our countless other digital vehicles, publishing is now available to all. What use to be reserved for the elite (authors, university professors and academicians) is now available to all. We need to challenge all of our students to have a web presence in order to share their digital portfolios on an on going and focused basis. The old adage of "publish or perish" may now extend beyond professors and be more relevant than ever.So, is it possible that our future educational endeavors with all students could work to include the 8 P’s? Let’s hope it’s at least worth considering.Passion, Partnerships, Personal, Present,Problem Solving, Professional, Public & PublishTo learn more about an upcoming summit, register for an EdTechTeam Summit featuring Google for Education in your region, or contact EdTechTeam about custom professional development and organizational change coaching.EdTechTeam is a California Benefit Corporation and global network of educational technologists dedicated to improving the world’s education systems using the best technology and learning principles available. EdTechTeam produces Future Ready Schools summits and custom professional development for teachers and school leaders around the globe.

Guest Blogger:Jessica Pidkowa Senior High Social Studies TeacherRundle College Senior HighMuch like a great night out on the town, the EdTechTeam GAFE Summits are fast paced, full of energy and involve a lot of meeting new people. When you are living in the moment of the Summit, you don’t want to stop! You take it all in during the keynotes and sessions, and you certainly don’t want to miss out on anything. When you get back to your hotel room at night, you feel inclined to create new resources right away, fearing the dreaded ‘use it or lose it’ phenomenon. On top of that, you meet some amazing like-minded individuals so you are arranging to connect with them after the conference to learn more of their tips and tricks! And then you repeat it all the next day…So this all sounds fantastic, right? Absolutely, and it is. But just beware of what I would call the ‘Google Summit Hangover’. No, it is not alcohol induced, but it does involve the same euphoric feeling followed by becoming rather fuzzy headed. I experienced my ‘hangover’ on my plane ride back from the Summit. Seated next to a woman who had just attended a conference about neuroscience and the autism spectrum, she saw me feverously jotting my Googly notes and took this happenstance as an intellectual opportunity to discuss educational pedagogy. I could have brought up some of my new ideas for increasing student engagement, discussed methods for differentiation, or ways to provide immediate feedback to students, but unfortunately, my side of the conversation was more along the lines of "At my conference I learned…. um stuff…. Docs…. Forms…. um… interactive…. thingies". Needless to say, I don’t think I represented myself in the most intellectual light, and not surprisingly, the conversation didn’t last long. Having pushed myself to do it all at the Summit (and I am so glad I did!) the adrenaline rush ended abruptly, resulting in one small side effect of becoming quite empty-headed on the plane ride home.Fortunately, this side effect was not permanent and the next day I was no longer suffering symptoms of my so-called ‘hangover’. I am now happily applying the wonderful things I learned to my high school classroom. But just a few words of advice for when you are coming home from your next summit: It might be a good idea to plan to watch TV on the plane ride home, perhaps even tuning in to something extremely educational such as The Bachelor.What's your Summit Hangover Story? Share it with us in a comment..we'd love to hear it.To learn more about an upcoming summit, register for an EdTechTeam Summit featuring Google for Education in your region, or contact EdTechTeam about custom professional development and organizational change coaching.EdTechTeam is a California Benefit Corporation and global network of educational technologists dedicated to improving the world’s education systems using the best technology and learning principles available. EdTechTeam produces Future Ready Schools summits and custom professional development for teachers and school leaders around the globe.

Padlet is an amazing FREE tool to inspire teachers create a collaborative learning environment on any device. It works much like a digital bulletin board, but it is so much more powerful and FUN.Starting is easy1. Go to Padlet.com2. Sign-up for an account3. Create a 'Wall' using the tools on the left hand side of the screen.You can personalize the wall in almost anyway you can imagine. You can also get a personalized webpage address to share with students.What can you do with the Wall?1. Pose a question for students to answer2. Post a writing prompt and let students share their answers - to help each inspire each other.3. Ask prediction questions4. Give students a place to share videos, pictures or screencasts.5. Create a  collaborative brainstorming environment6. Make a "Parking Lot" for student questions7. Interactive Maps or GraphicsThe possibilities are limitless! In the end, Padlet easily allows teachers or students  to create amazing digital artifacts of learning.  It can make student thinking visible, give every student a voice and allows students to show their work.To get started here is a great tutorial from Lisa Highfill one of the amazing presenters at GAFE Summits.Don't forget to download the Chrome Extension  and Chrome App to get the most out of Padlet.Finally, what do you use a Padlet for? Share your ideas on this collaborative Padlet created by  Phillip Cowell a teacher from an International School in Beijing, China.To learn more about an upcoming summit, register for an EdTechTeam Summit featuring Google for Education in your region, or contact EdTechTeam about custom professional development and organizational change coaching.EdTechTeam is a California Benefit Corporation and global network of educational technologists dedicated to improving the world’s education systems using the best technology and learning principles available. EdTechTeam produces Future Ready Schools summits and custom professional development for teachers and school leaders around the globe.

It's not too late to read these popular articles!What did I learn? Search Google News ArchivesMath Apps and Google Drive A Winning CombinationGoogle Apps Around the WorldThe How (and Why) It's Time To Create Digital PortfoliosWhy Schools Should Teach Technology Not Ban It!To learn more about an upcoming summit, register for an EdTechTeam Summit featuring Google for Education in your region, or contact EdTechTeam about custom professional development and organizational change coaching.EdTechTeam is a California Benefit Corporation and global network of educational technologists dedicated to improving the world’s education systems using the best technology and learning principles available. EdTechTeam produces Future Ready Schools summits and custom professional development for teachers and school leaders around the globe.

Google is making Classroom even more fun and personal by making these fun changes.1. Say Cheese!You can now upload your own images to Classroom to use as a unique class theme. Classroom will now help you crop the image and then pick a matching class color. If you don't have a great picture you would like to use, they have added some additional images and patterns to help make your classroom more personalized. What does this mean for teachers? Make your class more personable by adding a class photo or action shot!2. Quick LookUsers can now view the About page in the mobile apps (iOS and Android) for easy access to their class materials and resources. 3. Create AwayUsing the iPad App - students can now add images, videos, and any other files to assignments from other apps on the device. What does this mean for teachers? Students can make a screen cast on Explain Everything and upload it to turn in as an assignment.4. Smiley Faces Unite! Go emoji crazy because they are now available on the Android app.What does this mean for teachers? If you haven't talked to your students about proper use of Emojis you might need to now.5. Faster SpeedsGoogle made updates that will increase the speed of the app’s performance - making homework even easier to turn in on time :)As a reminder here is a tutorial on the greatness that is Google Classroom on the iPadFor more fun with iPads join us at an iOS Summit in your area.To learn more about an upcoming summit, register for an EdTechTeam Summit featuring Google for Education in your region, or contact EdTechTeam about custom professional development and organizational change coaching.EdTechTeam is a California Benefit Corporation and global network of educational technologists dedicated to improving the world’s education systems using the best technology and learning principles available. EdTechTeam produces Future Ready Schools summits and custom professional development for teachers and school leaders around the globe.

Reblogged from Mrs.Wideen's Blog Kristen Wideen teaches 2nd Grade in Windsor, Ontario Canada and is an Apple Distinguished EducatorPhoto taken by Christine CousinsMath is Harder When Using an iPadI do not use a lot of worksheets in my math program.  So much so, that last week, I gave a worksheet during math to my grade 2 students to do and one of my students cheered.  CHEERED! For a worksheet!  I asked the child in my class why she cheered.  I figured that she would have responded with, "I like worksheets."  If she had answered that way, I would have been fine with that. I believe that we all have our own learning preferences and some children enjoy doing worksheets.  However I would never have anticipated what she said to me.  She responded with,"I like doing worksheets better than using the iPads because I don't have to think as much."  I was speechless for a second... then I dug deeper and asked her to explain how worksheets are easier.  She responded with,"On the iPads, I have to show my work, explain my thinking and make sure it is my best work because someone other than you might see it on my blog or on Twitter."  "Wowza!" (I actually said that out loud to my student) she giggled and I continued thinking about what she had said.In other words, there are two major reasons (other than they are engaging and fun) to continue using the iPads and social media during math class:Using the iPads leads to a higher level of understanding because students have to explain their thinking with pictures, numbers, words AND their voice.  If you use social media in your classroom like we do, it leads to higher quality work because there is a larger audience that may see the student's work.  As I continued to think about what my student had said, I thought about the recent math activities that we had done on the iPad.  My student was right.  It typically takes longer to complete a task on the iPad because there are multiple tasks that need to be completed.  We usually do an anchor chart with the learning goals and success criteria for the task.An example of a finished product Sidhak's SkeletonAn example of a finished product Ryan's BlogCould I have handed out worksheets for the students on these two math concepts?  Of course.  Would it have taken less time?  Probably.  Do I think they gained a better understanding of the concepts?  Definitely!  I also love using these pieces for assessment purposes.  These two examples were completely done independently and I can go back to their blogs and look at their work whenever I want to.  So can their parents.  A very powerful tool if I do say so myself.Will I continue to use the iPads and use worksheets on some days?  Of course. In fact, I gave out a worksheet today for my students to complete.  They said, "It was an easy math class today."  Hmmm, maybe I need to give them harder worksheets..Thanks to Kristen for letting us reblog this amazing story.For more fun with iPads join us at an iOS Summit in your area.To learn more about an upcoming summit, register for an EdTechTeam Summit featuring Google for Education in your region, or contact EdTechTeam about custom professional development and organizational change coaching.EdTechTeam is a California Benefit Corporation and global network of educational technologists dedicated to improving the world’s education systems using the best technology and learning principles available. EdTechTeam produces Future Ready Schools summits and custom professional development for teachers and school leaders around the globe.

Guest Post by Rushton HurleyNext Vista for Learning Keynoter for all EdTechTeam SummitsAt the Solano Summit (California) in February, I presented a session called, "Making Your School Something Special." A new buddy from that gathering, Dan Shane of the Hanna Boys Center (http://www.hannacenter.org/), challenged me to take the ideas I was presenting about memorable learning and success, and with them provide a checklist that allows a teacher to think through how a lesson rates on the scale I provided.Here's the scale we discussed:* powerfully memorable* generally effective* weak, but easy* waste of timeAs I see it, we should aim for pushing all of what we do into the top two categories, with the distinction between the middle two being the operative piece. I wasn't working to come up with STHAA (Something That Has An Acronym), but rather to put something together that allows one to tie one's lessons to the success of the school as a whole.Below are five ideas. I was tempted to include two negatives, but instead I'll separate them out and start with them as the points of departure:* The activity/lesson isn't simply a reward for good behavior.* The activity/lesson doesn't simply require people to listen and take notes.That established, here's my shot at a checklist:* The activity/lesson prompts students to grapple with related ideas and find connections to other learning.* The activity/lesson is more about students figuring something out, and less about applying a formula.* The activity/lesson allows students to use individual talents and creativity to describe and build on their insights with what is taught.* The activity/lesson involves a level of learning that both teacher and student would agree has meaningfully advanced the student's understanding.* The activity/lesson has an outcome that would make for a compelling case as to why parents would choose the school for their children.What do you think? I'm sure I've left off important thoughts, and would welcome your input on what needs to be added to the list or the points of departure.To learn more about an upcoming summit, register for an EdTechTeam Summit featuring Google for Education in your region, or contact EdTechTeam about custom professional development and organizational change coaching.EdTechTeam is a California Benefit Corporation and global network of educational technologists dedicated to improving the world’s education systems using the best technology and learning principles available. EdTechTeam produces Future Ready Schools summits and custom professional development for teachers and school leaders around the globe.

It was a historic week for the Tech Sherpas. Thanks to EdTechTeam, four students from central Maine joined me for educational opportunities across Alberta, Canada. The students presented to over 1,000 educators from around Edmonton. (and won the Demo Slam :)The week in Alberta, Canada was capped off with an energetic Student Summit at Black Gold Regional School District in LeDuc. One hundred and fifty students coded, animated, modded, taught, learned and and engaged in a learning experience like none other.The event culminated with a group of little wizards creating a district wide student tech team website. Collaboratively, students researched domain names, designed logos, and built a custom website for their school board with links, resources, and lots of selfies! The whole thing can be found at www.studentmagic.orgI was amazed at how quickly that one idea, forty-five minutes and thirty amazing students could take the building blocks of a transformational project that will help teachers, give back to the community and ultimately provide a platform for all the students to learn.So, what are you waiting for - go get started!! Ask the EdTechTeam how you can bring an extraordinary student learning experience like this to your district.edtechteam.com/requestTo learn more about an upcoming summit, register for an EdTechTeam Summit featuring Google for Education in your region, or contact EdTechTeam about custom professional development and organizational change coaching.EdTechTeam is a California Benefit Corporation and global network of educational technologists dedicated to improving the world’s education systems using the best technology and learning principles available. EdTechTeam produces Future Ready Schools summits and custom professional development for teachers and school leaders around the globe.

What is a backchannel you ask?A backchannel is a conversation that takes place alongside an activity or event. In most cases, this happens using a digital or mobile device. There are many different ways you can backchannel. You could use Twitter, Today’s Meet, or Google Moderator just to name a few. Having a backchannel is a great way to open up a conversation to all students in class and expand on any discussion.Benefits of a BackchannelIt can provide quieter students with a place to ask questions without having to raise their hand in class.Teachers can share resources such as videos, photos, helpful links, and answers to questions about the subject without having to stop the flow of learning.It can supplement and enhance classroom discussions.Allows students who rarely raise a hand to express themselves via a medium they find completely engaging.Allows students to use their mobile devices in an information, oriented way.Twitter As A BackchannelAfter attending conferences, and experiencing the power of a backchannel on Twitter, I liked the idea so much that I set out to do it in my classroom. What happened next was beyond my wildest imagination. Adding Twitter to our reading of The Outsiders turned into an impactful experience. What evolved were some of the richest conversations that I had ever experienced while reading this  book. Here is how it unfolded:Picking the HashtagBefore I could begin, I had to decide on a hashtag. With social media - Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc - hashtags (the # symbol) mark keywords or topics as a way to categorize messages. In order to do this activity, I had to choose a hashtag that no one else was using so that we could categorize our conversation and separate out our backchannel tweets from the rest of the world’s conversation.Since #Outsiders150 was an open hashtag, and made sense as a categorization of our book, it was time to begin. First, I gave a simple lesson on Twitter and hashtags to my students. The lesson was quick because 85% of my students were already on Twitter. However, to ensure that I reached all learners, I put together a supplemental YouTube playlist that I had curated on the basics of twitter for those who needed additional help. Along with explaining hashtags, my Twitter lesson included a look at the anatomy of a tweet to help fill in the gaps that students inevitably had about effective tweeting.Lessons in Digital CitizenshipBefore jumping into the Twittersphere, we needed to do some digital citizenship front loading. Together we came up with ten criteria for effective tweeting and "norms" that we thought would keep the conversation on task and focused. This lesson in acceptable use, had to be done collaboratively to get student buy-in on friendly tweeting, which it did. Due to this part of the lesson, there were not really any problems in this activity associated with inappropriate tweets.Reading and TweetingAfter the lessons in Twitter and digital citizenship, it was time to read The Outsiders. As we began reading the book, students were allowed to use their phones to tweet about the reading. Students without phones, used a computer. Here is a sample of one of the tweets that fueled a complete redesign of our understanding of the book’s theme and our sharing of ideas.The Outsiders, it is about social interactions and bridging the gap between people - based on differences. So when one student tweeted #don’tjudge, It was a powerful indication that they were getting the theme of the book.The Retweet EffectThe student, Dillion, tweeted something pretty personal and that was retweeted over 250 times, which is social media’s way of showing that everyone involved agreed with his message and were most likely empathetic and understood the story. His tweet helped all of us in the class to get to know him better - and the theme of the book - in an entirely different way than a simple class discussion would have allowed us in the past. Since that student rarely spoke up in class, this was an eye opening experience for all of us. Tweeting gave him a voice he had not used in class before. The experience fueled a rich discussion on twitter and intangibly gave the other students permission to go deeper and to say things they might not have - without that sacrificial-like tweet. From that point on, I watched as kids commented on ideas they might otherwise not have, and got chills watching students being completely immersed in the message of the book, so they could tweet more effectively and creatively about it. It was almost magical.Next time you wonder if Twitter might be right for the classroom, remember this unexpected story. Think of the voices you might get to hear when you give all students the tool to have a voice - and backchanneling might be the perfect tool to let that happen in your classroom.The Connected Student Series: This post first appeared on Edudemic on April 15, 2014To learn more about an upcoming summit, register for an EdTechTeam Summit featuring Google for Education in your region, or contact EdTechTeam about custom professional development and organizational change coaching.EdTechTeam is a California Benefit Corporation and global network of educational technologists dedicated to improving the world’s education systems using the best technology and learning principles available. EdTechTeam produces Future Ready Schools summits and custom professional development for teachers and school leaders around the globe.

Twitter’s new Periscope app has quickly become one of the most buzzed about new apps out there.The new app allows people to live stream what ever they want, from news stories to unexciting events like two dogs playing...which was just being streamed and had 184 viewers. Where did this idea come from? Twitter states..."What if you could see through the eyes of a protester in Ukraine? Or watch the sunrise from a hot air balloon in Cappadocia? It may sound crazy, but we wanted to build the closest thing to teleportation. While there are many ways to discover events and places, we realized there is no better way to experience a place right now than through live video. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but live video can take you someplace and show you around."Because of its fledgling status - most of the streams being posted right now are a bit mundane as people begin to experiment with what could be. Right now on periscope there are haircuts, walking dogs, getting ice cream and some crazy experiments.But how might Periscope be useful in the classroom?One has to remember that this goes live to the public so be very careful about getting permission and showing actual student faces.Here are five ideas that might allow students to use this effectively in the classroom:1. Broadcast lessons for those students who might not be able to attend because they are sick or away from school.2. Broadcast plays and performances happening at school for parents who can not attend due to other obligations.3. Broadcast students doing work/projects in class for parents to see - this could help spark conversations at dinner and allow parents to see the culture of the classroom.4. Allow students to broadcast their speeches or steam questions to help them find people who might be able to offer a better answer.5. Give students a soap box to broadcast their speeches, learning or ideas.Today, I watched one teacher live stream a call for comments on blogs her students were doing - and she walked around showing her students writing the blogs. Kudos to her for being an early adopter.Since oral language is a really important skill to develop - periscope just might be the global audience some students needs to articulately broadcast their ideas and questions.It will be interesting to see what happens with Periscope...it could be an interesting journey!To learn more about an upcoming summit, register for an EdTechTeam Summit featuring Google for Education in your region, or contact EdTechTeam about custom professional development and organizational change coaching.EdTechTeam is a California Benefit Corporation and global network of educational technologists dedicated to improving the world’s education systems using the best technology and learning principles available. EdTechTeam produces Future Ready Schools summits and custom professional development for teachers and school leaders around the globe.

Reblogged from Kasey BellShake Up Learning BlogShut the Front Door!Yes, You Can Differentiate With Google Forms!This post was inspired by a comment I received during my "Digital Differentiation with Google Apps," session at the Texas Google Summit in Brenham, Texas. Michael Ogg, aka @PrincipalOgg, shouted, "Shut the front door," when I showed how to use branching in Google forms. Thanks, Michael for one of the best comments I’ve ever had during a presentation!How to Use Branching in Google Forms:By "branching," I am referring to the option in Google forms to, "go to page based on answer." You may or may not have noticed this little check box when creating a Google form. This little box can make a big difference, and can offer ways to use Google forms to differentiate for students.By utilizing the, "go to page based on answer," feature, respondents can be given different questions based on how they answer. For instance, if a student answers incorrectly, they can be taken to a review video and be given the chance to answer the question again. Here is a short example of a Google Drive quiz to demonstrate this idea. (Click here to see the Google Drive Quiz example, below are just images.)Google Drive Quiz Example QuestionI designed this quiz as a review example for Google Drive. If respondents answer incorrectly, as indicated in this image, they will then be taken to a review page with a tutorial. Then they will be asked to answer the question again, as seen in the image below.Google Drive Quiz Example QuestionHow To Insert Page Breaks in a Google Form:The key to making this work is to create a page break after each question. You can only choose another page once other pages have been created. But once you get this pattern down, it is very easy to do. Google Forms is probably the easiest of all the Google Apps.The possibilities of this feature for formative assessment are endless. Questions could progress and get more advanced for students who need more of a challenge. This is a great idea for review before an exam.You could also use Google Forms as a "choose your own adventure," type of activity. I hope to have an example of this soon. The gears are turning! Be sure to check out my other Google resources for educators.How could you use this feature in your classroom?Shake Up Learning by Kasey Bell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.Based on a work at www.shakeuplearning.com- See more at: http://www.shakeuplearning.com/blog/shut-the-front-door-digital-differentiation-with-google-forms#sthash.vyisCXk3.dpufTo learn more about an upcoming summit, register for an EdTechTeam Summit featuring Google for Education in your region, or contact EdTechTeam about custom professional development and organizational change coaching.EdTechTeam is a California Benefit Corporation and global network of educational technologists dedicated to improving the world’s education systems using the best technology and learning principles available. EdTechTeam produces Future Ready Schools summits and custom professional development for teachers and school leaders around the globe.

By Kyle PaceReblogged from Learning is LeadingKyle Pace is a valued member of the extended EdTechTeam and an Instructional Technology Specialist from Lees Summit, MOIf you think about the staggering amount of edtech services out there, coupled with the numerous types of devices, it can feel pretty overwhelming to most people. We go to edcamps, conferences, webinars, etc. and get filled up with so many new ideas and resources but we don’t know where to start. Have you ever had either of these feelings?Looking at it through the workshop facilitator/presenter lens, I’m just not into trying to cover 60 tools in 60 minutes or whatever other catchy title there is for it. That’s just not my style. I think we (leaders, presenters, etc.) need to keep this in mind when sharing with the intent of moving teachers forward with technology integration. The last thing I ever want to do is see someone get overwhelmed with too many choices. I will tell people this that I’m meeting with or presenting to on whatever the topic may be; especially if our time together is pretty limited. I’ve seen the look on teachers’ faces that shows their brain has been flooded and they don’t know what to do next. Like I said, there’s so many options out there for us and our students. I’d rather only share 3 ideas with you to dive into and pick from, and you try 1 of them and get really good at it. The old adage of ‘less is more’ most definitely rings true with technology integration.Even so, when trying to get teachers to focus their learning with incorporating technology, there is often an unnecessary urgency. Here are some of the commonalities I’ve heard teachers say:"I want to try this, this, and this and have my students using all of them within the next week." (too much at once)"Yeah but Mr. ‘teacher down the hall’ is having his students using Hangouts, coding, and robotics." (feeling the need to compete)"I’m only doing ____ right now in my class, which I know isn’t much." (feeling that what they’re doing is inadequate)Here’s how I always respond to these type of statements: the point is not to see how fast you can move forward, or how many new ideas you can move forward with at once, the point is to just move forward! Forward movement matters! If you’re embracing new ideas by trying them, refining them, and trying them again then don’t discredit yourself. You’re in a learner first mindset and that is huge!I decided to explore my creative side again by using Canva (my newest learning adventure) to recreate a quote that I love to share with teachers I’m speaking to. I tried to find the original source of the quote but all I could turn up was that the author is ‘unknown’.To learn more about an upcoming summit, register for an EdTechTeam Summit featuring Google for Education in your region, or contact EdTechTeam about custom professional development and organizational change coaching.EdTechTeam is a California Benefit Corporation and global network of educational technologists dedicated to improving the world’s education systems using the best technology and learning principles available. EdTechTeam produces Future Ready Schools summits and custom professional development for teachers and school leaders around the globe.

 CC María 'tatica' Leandro from FlickrHave you ever heard about or decided to try something new online only to find yourself still learning it two hours (or longer) later? Do you end up getting a bit frustrated after a bit of time?I moved to the district level last year and have been coaching teachers on how to use and integrate technology into their learning spaces. All too often, I find teachers who are too afraid to click buttons or just get overwhelmed at the amount of information there is "out there." Admittedly, there are some programs that are just, well- confusing. However, most of the programs online share many common elements that will help you feel comfortable- you just need to know what they are.Getting to know one platform really well will help prepare you for many others. For instance, I am typing this draft in Google Docs. I know that in Google Docs I can: share documents with others, comment on work, add images and diagrams, etc. When I am learning other programs I assume they have the same features- I just need to know where to find them. For example, if I need to collaborate on what I am doing in something like LucidPress, I’ll click around to find something that looks like it will let me share the LucidPress document with someone else. Not all programs have these features but it is truly surprising how many do.When I am first looking at a new technology I ALWAYS look for a video that provides me with an overview of their best features and where to find them. Most companies will have this video on their homepage or somewhere easy to find. If I cannot find a video on the company’s website, I’ll search YouTube for a quick tutorial that someone else has made. These videos almost always let you know the coolest features of a program and what it can do for you rather than spending a ton of time searching around for them.Another step I take is to look at the pricing tab on the website. Most companies will have a tiered pricing that show what you can get at each price level. Many companies offer education discounts or complementary accounts for educators for their full versions although sometimes you do have to email and ask for it.Once I decide to create an account with something new, I always go into the account settings (usually found in the upper right-hand corner of the site) and explore what I can do to customize my account. Will they let me add my photo? Do they allow me to connect to Twitter or integrate my Google Drive with it? Many times account settings will let you do things you never knew existed!Finally, once you decide to create, don’t spend HOURS on your first creation, especially if you are screencasting for the first time. The more times you use it and the more comfortable you are with your new-found treasure, the better you will get at your creations. Tip: The first time you screencast something, you will HATE it. Inevitably you will probably redo your screencasts 2-4 times. Even then you will want to spend hours making it perfect. Don’t spend hours making it perfect. It will never be perfect. Done is better than perfect.Overall, don’t fret. Use the video to help you know what a site will let you do and then explore for a bit. Pretty soon you will be a pro at vetting software and have much more time on your hands! Kate Petty is an EdTech TOSA at Saddleback Valley Unified School District in Mission Viejo, CA. Kate is a Google Certified Teacher and Google Education Trainer. Her passion is Project-Based Learning and she is having a lot of fun traveling around teaching others about it. Kate likes spending time with her family, chocolate, and wine- although not necessarily in that order.To learn more about an upcoming summit, register for an EdTechTeam Summit featuring Google for Education in your region, or contact EdTechTeam about custom professional development and organizational change coaching.EdTechTeam is a California Benefit Corporation and global network of educational technologists dedicated to improving the world’s education systems using the best technology and learning principles available. EdTechTeam produces Future Ready Schools summits and custom professional development for teachers and school leaders around the globe.

Wow - it’s been less one year since Google Classroom came out and already it has taken classrooms everywhere by storm. With the addition of some great updates - Classroom is becoming not only wildly popular but a really easy way both get started with Google Drive and organize your classes for the power users.Now Google is making updates to the mobile app - and teachers everywhere will be able to keep up with their classes no matter where they are located. So, if Hawaii is calling you for Memorial Day…don’t worry you can check student work from your phone  - while getting your dose of mood boosting - Vitamin D and listening to the waves crash in the background.Three things you can do from your mobile device:You can now grade assignments which includes the ability to add private feedback. I know when I am grading homework from the beach - I am always much nicer and a little more lenient. So if you really do make it to Hawaii this would be a good thing to try from your lounge chair.Create and edit assignments on the go, including the ability to make a copy for every student.Create a post or assignment by taking a photo. This will be great for taking a photo and having students write a creative writing response…or asking what scientific theory made a certain photo possible.Make sure to follow the Google Classroom Blog for more updatesTo learn more about an upcoming summit, register for an EdTechTeam Summit featuring Google for Education in your region, or contact EdTechTeam about custom professional development and organizational change coaching.EdTechTeam is a California Benefit Corporation and global network of educational technologists dedicated to improving the world’s education systems using the best technology and learning principles available. EdTechTeam produces Future Ready Schools summits and custom professional development for teachers and school leaders around the globe.

Reflection on the Indiana GAFE Summit 2015Chantell ManahanOriginal Post: Laughing, Learning, Leading BlogI’m not quite caught up for this busy week because I spent last weekend working and learning at the GAFE Summit in Franklin, Indiana. I love all things Google, and my first summit didn’t disappoint!The event organizers did a wonderful job, and Franklin Community High School was an amazing place with friendly hosts. Even though more than 500 educators attended the conference, most with 2+ devices, our wireless connections were wonderfully fast and reliable. The building is equipped with amazing furniture which allowed for easy movement and plenty of comfort; the school even has charging areas with student-designed furniture! In addition to the expected adults in charge, Franklin had a team of students who gave up the weekend to serve as guides and resources for the event. Students even attended sessions to learn more about Google, and having a student join in a session about the new Hoosier Student Digital Leaders program sponsored by the Indiana Department of Education was an amazing opportunity. The young man was a perfect ambassador for the program, interested, attentive, eager to learn, and ready to add his voice to the conversation.  I can’t wait to get a student technology team in place at our school to offer our own students such opportunities for leadership!The keynote speakers were dynamic and inspiring, as expected! Google Evangelist Jaime Casap stressed the importance of creating and collaborating--not "group work," but true collaboration where students contribute equally to solve a problem. To stay relevant, Google is always trying to improve and building on its success, and we need to ask the same of our students. If they have mastered something yet, its our job as educators to offer them more opportunities to improve, show growth, and reach mastery.  If mastery is achieved, we need to push our students beyond that boundary and get them innovating. In that same vein, Jaime, touched on digital citizenship by explaining that digital citizenship is the minimum requirement in today’s world and the future. To keep improving, we need to teach our students to be digital leaders! Finally, he reminded us that we’re educating students for a future that doesn’t yet exist. By recalling his own journey with technology in education, he showed that the tech we are so fanatical about today will be our own children’s or student’s Commodore 64. They are using the worst technology right now that they will encounter. I learned some new tips and tricks for GAFE, and I even had time to create two new class activities for this week during the training. Michelle Green’s presentation on Amazing Race and Iron Chef inspired activities led me to create one of each for my students, and Adam Seipel’s Google Drawings session helped me create a beautiful, digital graphic organizer to help my students prepare for Socratic seminars at the end of our reading. Thanks to the Google Drawings session, I’ve also decided which GAFE feature I will spotlight in my Google Trainer application! Some of my favorite ideas came from collaborating with the other attendees about the presentations; the presentations simply inspired the conversations we shared! In Matt Miller’s awesome presentation on Google Hangouts, one teacher shared the brilliant idea of using Google Hangouts on Air to broadcast and record morning announcements in the school. I love this idea; a leaky roof several years ago ruined our broadcast room, so a secretary has been reading announcements in the morning. This solution will offer a cost-effective solution to engaging students in creating announcements, and an easy way to distribute and archive them for our school! Most of all, I was impressed by the number of Indiana educators willing and able to give up an entire weekend to develop their Google skills and integrate technology into their classrooms! We are modeling the digital leadership for our profession and our students! I can't wait to try even more tricks I learned, and share them to make learning more relevant and engaging for my students! How will you inspire digital leadership today?

What does your classroom say about the learning that takes place within the four walls of your room? Is learning dull? Bright? Cluttered? Organized? Exciting? Full of compliance? Are students seen as only individuals or is teamwork a priority in your room? Has your "teacher desk" turned into a "teacher corner"? Yikes. Over the past year and a half, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time working with staff members to create intentional inspiring spaces on campus. Why? We see them every day: deserving faces. Our students deserve to learn in places that are fun to be in, that make them excited about learning, and that foster creativity. Spaces that that inspire, not require. Think about your favorite coffee shop, wine bar, or another neat space where you find yourself wanting to spend time simply because of the environment and space. For me, comfy seating is a must, and great music, laughter and cheerful decor go a long way too. Last year, one of the 3rd grade teachers at Penngrove came to me and shared that she wanted new desks because hers were too big. Being the supportive principal that I strive to be, I invited our Chief Business Officer (CBO) to campus to take a look at the classroom and see if we could purchase some different desks.When that attempt went nowhere, I pretty much told Ms. O’Neil, "Sorry, just do the best you can." About a week later Ms. O’Neil came to me and said, "Amy I HAVE to get rid of these desks, they are getting in the way of learning for my students." That was all I needed to hear. I was all in.Within a week, Ms. O’Neil transformed her classroom. A fun trip to IKEA, a little bribery with her fiance and my husband, a couple of Winter Break "vacation days" and we were in business! Desks were replaced with tables. White board paint filled the room. A variety of seating options scattered for student choice. A table for Chromebooks. Fun carpets. Less "stuff." Less teacher. More students.  After the transformation in Room 7, little spaces all over campus began to change. A teacher "storage room" was turned into the "5th grade lounge." An old book room suddenly had a couch, bean bag chairs, twinkling lights, and became the hip hangout for 6th graders. Special reading corners and nooks popped up overnight. And all because our staff was reflecting on inspiring spaces and deserving faces.For anyone ready to wrestle with this exciting adventure, these guiding questions may be helpful:What vibe/feeling do you want to create for the students in your classroom? What does your classroom say about you? What do you value? If students were given the choice, would they come to your class each day? Would they want to be with you? In your room? Far too often, we fill our walls with too much stuff, just because it is what we have always done. Consider simplifying. Fewer distractions. Less clutter. Not as many bulletin boards. Allow yourself to create a blank slate. A clean canvas. Re-think your space and make a few simple changes that create a happier learning and working environment for all. After all, everyone is worthy of inspiring spaces. Especially deserving faces. You can learn more about inspiring faces at an upcoming Future Ready Summit near you! We'll be in Orange County on June 20th and in the Tri-State area Nov. 7th.Amy Fadeji is the principal of Penngrove Elementary in Petaluma, California. In her third year as principal, she has found herself reaching out to educators across the country to build a growing network of innovative and inspiring colleagues. After attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and later the University of Southern Mississippi, Amy taught second and third grades for seven years in Mobile, Alabama and San Anselmo, California before launching her career in administration. Amy is passionate about supporting teachers, modeling and encouraging risk-taking, and collaborating with other educators around the country. You can follow Amy on Twitter (@mrsfadeji) or read her latest blog post at mrsfadeji.blogspot.com.

Movie making and digital storytelling do not have to be multi-class activities. They can be done in minutes and be a great way to recap classroom learning. A great app to try for iPhone and iPad is YouTube Capture. It is possible to shoot, compile, edit and upload to the web in minutes. More than likely, you should even be able to cobble together enough student devices even if you are not in a 1:1. YouTube Capture takes all the complexity out of digital storytelling and keeps the focus on the content. You can do some lightweight editing like trimming clips, add music and upload straight from your device (or export to your camera roll). This is an advantage because it will keep your students from spending all their time on themes, transitions and keep the focus on what they are saying, learning or showing.  Encourage your students to be documentarians of their learning. Capture video of science labs, art projects, poetry clips, proper phys-ed techniques, paper note sheets, or even main ideas in a lecture. All of those digital artifacts sitting on camera rolls can then become content for students to mix and remix into classroom rewinds. YouTube is famous for their year-end YouTube Rewind and you can take a page out of their book by having your students recap and reflect on their learning (minus the high production value) at the end of a unit or lesson. Take all those learning experiences and digital artifacts and synthesize them into a classroom rewind.  Rewind Tips:Teach your kids about the rule of thirds when filming.  Set privacy to unlisted to allow for easy sharing.You can skip posting to YouTube by exporting finished videos directly to the camera roll (this can be a little tricky).   Another piece of advice...give up the Oscar...it does not have to be perfect. Turn down the volume on the music so it does not overpower the audio in the video clip.  Have students submit video links to a Google Form so they can watch other video and review from each other’s videos.  Ben Friesen is an EdTechTeam member and Digital Content Specialist based in Minnesota and you can see him present at EdTechTeam Global Summits around the world! Say hi @benjaminfriesen.

I recently attended a GAFE summit conference in Tennessee and presented on implementing Google Drive with kindergarten and first grade students.  One thing I love about conferences is getting awesome ideas to try out from other attendees.  After the session, a teacher came up and asked if I had ever tried playing Battleship with my students using Google Drive, which I hadn’t.I normally set up a public Google Drawing and demonstrate a game of Tic Tac Toe with students as a means of teaching collaboration and sharing and to teach the kids how to share and open a document, but a game like Battleship?  Nah, it sounded a little too complex.However, curiosity got the best of me the following days. First chance back in the classroom, I pushed back our regular plans for the week and gave Battleship a chance. My schedule is set up so I have four classes of each grade a week (k-4).  It may be unfair, but the first class usually helps me get things oiled and working smoothly for the other classes. I created a public text document and had two tables on it. The top one was for my ships and the bottom was to keep track of their torpedoes.  The first run-through didn’t go so well. I didn’t demo as well as I should have and the map was way too big. I set it up 15 x 15 and left too much of a variety of ships. Some of the kids created the wrong size or too many or too little.  There were too many misses in such a short class time to actually enjoy playing the game.The second class went much better. The playing area was narrowed down to 8 x 8 and the ships were just 4 blocks long and they had to put four ships on the map. We then confirmed with our neighbors (not our enemies) that our ships were in fact 4 x 1 and that we had just four. We had half the class divide up around two computers on opposite sides of the room.  After about six or seven shots (including some teacher advised locations…:), the students got the idea. We went over key vocabulary words like hit, miss and ship sunk! We also worked on coloring in locations of hits and misses on the maps by either using specific letters or by filling in the cells. They also utilized the undo button, which solved a lot of unnecessary hand raising for help during the first class when they accidentally adjusted the map or colored in an entire portion by error.It went extremely well the second time around. We worked on hand signals and mouthing our torpedo shots instead of shouting them. Surprisingly, it didn’t get very loud in the room.We set a timer of about 15-20 minutes. The goal was to sink as many ships as you could and if all of them were sunk, then you started over. Plus, the kids worked on map coordinates without even knowing it.Thanks to that kind stranger for telling me about this excellent idea. The kids learned many valuable tech skills at the same time.  Give it shot; you’ll love it and the kids will too.Use Mark's Battleship template here! Mark Littlefield is the lower school technology coordinator at University School of Nashville where he teaches technology to grades k-4.  He can be found online at www.mrlittlefield.com or on Twitter @littlemarkfield.

Move over Game of Thrones and House of Cards, the Google Education on Air Lineup is full of the same thrilling plots that make us watch one after the other but for our own practice! Here's an easy way to grab your laptop, some wine, and snuggle up in bed this weekend for your own professional development.First, make sure you philosophically set the stage and breeze through Day 1's Keynotes, a great mix of leaders in different industries designed to get you thinking about the big picture. After all, you wouldn't jump into Season 4 without at least watching the recap, right? The interface is better than any of your cable provider's On-Demand technology, and you can toggle to the one you want, take a screenshot of that a-ha moment, or go back and relisten.Here's a few gems.The Economist Intelligence Unit looked at What are the Skills of the Future, and Zoe Tabary shared some insights into her research investigating digital literacy, leadership, and creativity and whether those skills meet the needs of employers. A salient point from the report was:But the support for this is lacking. Zoe kicks things off with a panel about being #futureready and digital leaders! We loved seeing Jaime Casap and Ken Shelton who present at our events share HOW we can prepare for these skills with student-centered strategies.I know we're all making change in our classrooms and schools, but it can be so infuriating when we have the best intentions. Lisa's talk discusses how to anticipate and activate change, and these three steps she covers is such a good start to thinking about change in learning technologies at your school!Lisa Bodell, "Make Change Happen: Three Tools for Better Problem Solving."Jennie Magiera, "Power to the Pupil." Jennie got to edu-nirvana with three lessons! How to cultivate curiosity, how to outwit obstacles, and how to play purposefully. Get inspired!Richard Curtis,"Take Part in the World's Largest Lesson." World's Largest Lesson is here to help this be the last generation to be threatened by climate change and the first generation to end extreme poverty, and teachers make this happen!Day 2 is full of Hands-on and interactive strategies you can take straight  to the classroom. Here's just a sampling of awesome ones, but dig in, watch a bit, take some notes, and move onto the next. The beauty is that they are always here!Data's Not So Scary | Jay Atwood | Session Materials Data and spreadsheets sometimes get stigmatized for being tough, but Jay's smooth style helps anyone understand how to make the best use of data with your students. I love that he pumps his example spreadsheet with notes with hints and tricks, so an interactive template! Love!Extreme Pedagogy Makeover Using Multimedia Text Sets and Hyperdocs | Lisa Highfill | Session MaterialsLisa's style is so fun to listen to, and I particularly loved her notes on how to package your lessons using Google Docs.Google Apps Admin Console Best Practices | Peter Henrie | Session MaterialsPeter goes through the admin console in such an easy and step-by-step way, especially for such a complex topic!You Think You Know Google Search? | Lisa Thumann | Session MaterialsYou and your students Google ALL DAY LONG. Get these quick and easy efficient tips and modifications for students, like microphone search, using Google as a dictionary, and more!There were SO many more fantastic sessions we couldn't possibly highlight them all, but you can! Let us know which were your favorites.Please follow these amazing presenters, and go to see them present live at our EdTechTeam Global Summits! Which is the next one near you?

Original post: "When Students Completed Their First PBL" by Kaitlin Morgan"Picture a classroom...the first thing most of us think of is a square room with rows of desks….this traditional classroom space is the product of an industrial-era model education. Just like factories, schools were designed to categorize students by age and (supposedly) ability, then deliver curriculum in an assembly line format." As a history teacher, this statement made by Kevin Brookhouser in his The 20time Project hit me in the gut. One group discussing their thesis: Although more women are represented in the workforce, a wage gap still exists- impeding women from advancing in society- making it necessary for them to be paid the same amount as their male counterparts..While my classroom does not look as Brookhouser described, elements of my instruction still did. I was increasing rigor within my content, but I still had to teach my students in way for them to do well on our CST style benchmarks despite the recent inclusion of short responses. This had been weighing heavily on my mind so when I heard this quote at the EdTechTeam Google Summit in Minarets earlier this month, I felt guilty and ashamed that I was not making my students "future ready."Thankfully, I was not alone in my concerns and convictions regarding the way to teach history, even prior to the Google Summit. My department head was also feeling the same way so we collaborated and came up with a PBL (Project Based Learning) lesson for our students to complete regarding the Civil Rights Movement, which was a modified version of one I found online. Rather than just lecturing and informing students in an engaging way about the Civil Rights Movement, we decided to have students explore various minority groups (African Americans, Hispanic Americans, LGBT, and Americans with disabilities--one group requested to do women, which I allowed) in literature, politics, movies, and working place. In their groups, students selected a specific area of a certain American group to do a research project on; for example, LGBT in movies or Hispanic Americans in the workplace (instructions here).After students selected their topics, I explained that what they cover was up to them completely. For example, if they were research African American in movies, they could do actors, directors, representation in film, etc. The only set criteria I had was that two students in the group research from 1900 to 1975 and two from present day. Based on that criteria, I asked them what they expected to find/discuss and they came up with milestones, compare and contrast, progression of rights/equality, etc. I then set them free to do general research on their topic. We did a Pear Deck discussing how to evaluate resources, including discussion of Tree Octopus and the CA Velcro Crop and then after a day or two of information gathering, I had students complete (as a group) a Research Thesis; even though they weren't writing a paper, they still needed to come up with a guiding statement to help keep their slideshows, videos, or posters focused. The group leaders then share their document with another group, who evaluated their thesis on the rubric provided. We did two rounds of this officially and if a group did not receive at least a 3, then I met with them individually to help.  As students began their presentations (all chose to do a Google Slideshow...there was some interest in Prezi, but their Chromebooks needed a Java update), we discussed expectations for presentations by brainstorming what make a good presentation: Finally, their ten minute presentations began after about a week and half of work and students evaluated each group on a four point scale. By the end of the week, everyone in the class had a great deal of knowledge dropped on them. As a teacher, this entire process was very strange to me. While they were researching and creating their presentations, I stood back and guided them when they asked for help instead of spewing information at them. When I did teach, it was regarding skills that they needed for the project rather than information and details. Yet I saw the students engage in the material in ways I hadn’t seen before. Almost all of my students were on task and excited about the project since they were given the freedom of what they could discuss and research. I heard them arguing over whether a site was a legitimate source and excitedly brainstorming ways to engage their audience. By the end of the project, I was surprised at how much they were getting out of the project that didn’t involve me directly teaching. As self-centered as that sounds, its true. I grew up with teachers that stood up and directly explained information. Even though I made my direct instruction engaging and thought provoking, I was still directly explaining information to them in an assembly line fashion. It was very strange to step aside and allow students to find their own way through a historical period. It was even more strange that I couldn’t give the students an assessment at the end of the unit since every students learned so many different things; it worried me that maybe the students didn’t learn anything from the research, but I know from their passionate conversations, presentations, and eagerness to complete the project that they did get something meaningful out of it.   While this project was not a 20time project that Kevin Brookhouser discussed, I felt as though I had taken a step in the right direction, away from the assembly line classroom. Kaitlin Morgan is a Google Certified Educator and Social Science Teacher in the Central Valley of California. She recently attended the Central Valley Summit this month and you can find her online @missmorgan810.You can learn more Future Ready techniques at an upcoming Future Ready Summit-- EdTechTeam has one coming up in Orange County and in the Tri-State area.

In 2010 and 2011, I made a point of visiting as many innovative schools as I could. I wanted to see what made them different... and if there were things I could help share with other schools. One of the things that struck me then (but took a few more years to come into focus) was the importance of Inspiring Spaces for learning.One of the first times I remember visiting what I now consider a Future Ready School (long before James Sanders gave us the phrase to describe what we were seeing) was at Minarets High School in 2010. They had gone 1:1 with laptops - and were working hard to be "all" project-based learning. Not coincidentally, many of their learning spaces didn't look like an ordinary school. Their Media Lounge in particular struck me as important. This was the building originally designated as the Library, but as Jon Corippo and Mike Niehoff pointed out to me at the time, if they had called it a Library "kids wouldn't have come." Instead they created a space "more like Starbucks" with couches, high top tables, monitors, and plenty of shared gathering spaces... nevermind the view they took advantage of. (And, yes, they still presented a collection of 10,000 books in easily accessible and attractive shelves.)The Media Lounge at Minarets High SchoolSince 2012 I've had the good fortune to be able to visit many more innovative schools all over the world... the host schools of the EdTechTeam Summits featuring Google for Education. One of the first International Schools I visited was Singapore American School, where I found a wide variety of themed learning spaces and flexible furniture (often on wheels), and once again I was struck by the fact that it didn't feel like an ordinary school. At the American School of Bombay even the book shelves and walls were on wheels, and teachers (in a large shared area) reconfigured the space to meet the needs of the day. Incidentally, there were no bells at the elementary school of ASB... teachers decided when was the best time for their students to go outside or take a lunch break. The space reflected the flexibility in their practice.At Parklands College in South Africa the importance they placed on technology serving a purpose (rather than being an end unto itself) was also clear in their spaces; their students worked in sustainable organic gardens and an impressive recording studio - neither of which looked or felt like school, and both of which allow students to express themselves in very human ways.  Iolani School in Hawaii also showcases a sustainable garden on top of the Sullivan Center, and the bottom floor is home to an expansive makerspace, where (among other things) students experiment with generating electricity while biking in order to power appliances (or video games). The students are also responsible for redecorating the building elevator each quarter, complete with sound track, lighting system, and design elements they manufacture on the first floor. The focus on student agency is evident even in their interior design.The Maker Space at Iolani School (2014)In New Zealand, Albany Senior High School has a building that powerfully reflects the culture of the school, with wide open learning commons (again with flexible furniture). If you can win the game "where's the teacher?" then the principal says they're doing it wrong. Glass conference rooms surround the commons for when small groups need a separate space for collaboration, and all teachers share multidisciplinary office space... not unlike what we've seen in Google's offices, which are modern spaces designed for highly effective collaboration (and creativity). The school buildings and grounds at Albany are even rich with evidence of students 20% projects (the Impact Projects that all students spend all day every Wednesday on)... including murals, windmills, gardens, open source software, and more.Learning Commons at Albany Senior High SchoolBack in the United States we have also been lucky enough to host an annual event at New Technology High School in Napa Valley, where they have been 1:1 with laptops since 1996, and where they have institutionalized project based learning, complete with their own online learning management system (that looks and feels a bit more like social media, and what might be called a digital learning space). Their classrooms are all glass walled and double wide (with two teachers' classes in them... making traditional teaching methods all but impossible), and the shared spaces once again feature flexible furniture reminiscent of a starbucks... but with the addition of several projectors and monitors students can hook up to for a shared visual focus as they work.Gunn High School in Palo Alto, host of our flagship summit has also experimented with new learning spaces, including classrooms with Idea Paint to make the walls "white-board" writable, individual white boards for students, rolling furniture, and a variety of gathering spaces. The IDEA (Innovation, Discovery, and Engagement Area) at Glenbrook North High School in Illinois also sported idea paint on the walls (and columns), a variety of collaboration spaces, and easy access to all the resources of the library.Classroom at Gunn High SchoolBy early 2014 our team was coming to the conclusion that Inspiring Spaces were an important part of our host schools' success with students. We believe it is not a coincidence that the schools that inspired us all look so radically different from traditional schools (and from each other, too, for what it's worth... there is no one way to do learning spaces well... but there is a common way for doing them poorly that we need to move away from). This belief led us to include "Inspiring Spaces" as one of the elements in the visual "honeycomb" we developed at this time last year to illustrate what makes a Future Ready School. We feel each of the elements is important - and dependent upon the others. You can't just add devices to a school (to go 1:1 with Chromebooks or iPads for instance) without also changing the learning spaces, especially if you want to move from substitution (and perpetuating the old ways of "teaching) to redefinition (and previously inconceivable new experiences for students).Now we're ready to take the next step in sharing what we've learned for the benefit of other schools... and it begins with us needing to learn a lot more ourselves - and needing to build our team's capacity in this area. We've gotten to work with around 3000 presenters over the past three years producing summits around the globe, and there was someone who stood out to us as particularly well prepared for this effort.David Jakes was a public school science teacher and technology coordinator before he left to join the Third Teacher Plus and spent the next two years working with designers and architects to create learning spaces in schools. David was a featured speaker at last year's flagship summit at Gunn High School, leading a strand of sessions on Inspiring Learning Spaces. Over the past year, I've learned a lot from David about the process behind designing effective spaces, the need to help schools and districts develop their own drivers for their designs, and the wide variety of furniture and finishings available - not to mention a whole new vocabulary around architecture and design. I've also learned how important professional development is for the educators involved, both before and after a new space is created. When David became available in March, we knew it was time to act, and started talking to him about the possibilities.David Jakes, Director of Learning Spaces, EdTechTeam, Inc.I'm thrilled to announce that David is now working with EdTechTeam to help design and launch our Learning Space Design Studio. We're set for a soft launch (or pre-launch) at ISTE this year and a hard launch at our flagship summit in July back at Gunn High School. Today you can already reach out to us via our request form for help redesigning your learning spaces - or for the professional development you might need in preparation for that process. We look forward to working with you to create Inspiring Spaces for your students, whether you've got a minimal budget for your own classroom - or a community bond to modernize your school. Let's build something better together...#FutureReady #InspiringSpaces #SpacesMatter #DreamOutLoud #OnlyTheBeginningPS. David is only one of several new members of the EdTechTeam in the past 12 months, many of whom I haven't properly introduced. Stay tuned for a number of other introductions here on the EdTechTeam Blog in coming weeks. 

I can’t imagine a better email than the one I received saying that my grant application for a class set of Chromebooks was selected. For the past several years, I have been anticipating the day my school goes 1:1. I always imagined we would be purchasing laptops, preferably Macs. But, in the past two years we have started purchasing Chromebooks in order to be ready for the CAASPP (California's State Test). I couldn’t be happier with them. They provide the functionality students need at a more reasonable price than laptops or tablets. So, I’m excited for the grant. With it, I hope to show my colleagues, administrators, parents, and district what we can do when the students have access to devices every day. I teach 6th grade English, and my students have two periods of English, one period of Composition and one of Literature. I hope to have my students complete almost all their written work using the Chromebooks. I haven’t used it yet, but I’ve heard only good things about Google Classroom. So, I plan to have students use it to submit all their work. My district already has Google Apps accounts set up for my students, so it should be an easy transition.  One of my goals for my students is for them to be published authors. For the past four years my students have participated in National Novel Writing Month. It’s a program that attempts to get adults and students to write a novel in the month of November. My students spend the last week of October planning an outline of their novel. Then, they spend every day in November writing. Each day I teach a short lesson about a writing strategy, and then the students practice using that technique as they write their novel. The students set a word count goal for the month and have written between three and twenty thousand words in past years. After the students finish writing, revising, and editing their novels, I compile them and publish them in a book using createspace.com. Because createspace is owned by Amazon, our books our for sale on Amazon. The students bring in money and I order copies for them. My goal is for them to realize that they can be published authors and to spark their interest in writing. A few new (to me) tools I’m considering using next year are remind.com (to sent text messages with due date reminders to students) and Class Dojo (to help with class management). I also signed up for a free trial of Net Support School. It’s software that allows the teacher to monitor the screens of a classroom of Chromebooks. I’ve used Remote Desktop in the past with Macs, and found it to be a great tool for making sure students are staying on task. I look forward to hearing what the other teachers receiving the grant plan to use.   After hearing about the grant, I looked in to professional development that I could attend this summer. I signed up for a week-long class at Stanford’s Summer Teaching Institute called "Transforming Teaching with Technology." I’m excited to have a week without distractions to get ideas and make plans for making the best use of the Chromebooks. Like every student and teacher, I’m looking forward to the summer off. But, I’m also excited to engage my students in reading and writing while using the Chromebooks next school year.David Pickett is a 6th grade English teacher at Ralston Middle School in Belmont, CA, where he also serves as a technology leader and head of the English Department. He grew up in Fresno, CA and was lucky to have a series of great elementary school teachers. In particular, his 6th grade teacher made the year fun and educational by using project based learning. My favorite project was one in which we created our own businesses and sold products from a refrigerator box "store." That teacher inspired me to become a teacher. The EdTechTeam Student Device Grant application is open! We review and award quarterly. Submit your proposal here.

We were so thrilled to be joined today for our Lunch w/ EdTechTeam series by Molly Schroeder, our Director of Summits. Molly is a Global Digital Age Learning Specialist, Google Certified Teacher and Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer. She presents nationally and internationally at conferences, workshops and conventions on how to integrate Google Apps and other emerging technologies into learning. Her background is in Elementary Education and she also holds a certificate in Educational Technology and Gifted Education. Find her contact information below and watch our lunch with her and read the transcript below! We hope you come to see Molly at an upcoming summit soon.Contact InformationEmail: molly@edtechteam.comTwitter: @followmollyGoogle+: +MollySchroeder WENDY: If you have any questions or if you’re following this from Twitter or a Google+ page, please feel free to tweet @followmolly or @edtechteam or on our EdTechTeam Google+ page, we’ll monitor that if you have any questions for Miss Molly.  But just a little background of Molly, here’s her Twitter.  But right now, other than directing our Summits, which is a huge job, how many EdTechTeam Summits, Molly, do we have going on this year alone?   MOLLY: Well, for 2015 we’ll have over 100.  So, we just added another one today in December, TBD.  We can’t publicly announce it yet.  So, yeah, we’re still adding Summits for 2015. WENDY: That’s crazy.  And Molly is at almost all of them, practically it feels like.  She’s a road warrior and out there, but she’s also a Google certified teacher, so you might have seen her in the Google Certified Teacher Network.  She’s going to be at the Moonshot EDU Summit, which I think just closed their applications, right, for Amsterdam? MOLLY:  Nope, it’s open until June 26th.  So, it’s moonshotsummit.org.  You can apply at the one day training at the Amsterdam Google office, and applications are pretty easy, and they are due by June 26th, and we’ll choose about 40 people to attend that with us.  So the question is, if you could wave a magic wand and change something about education, what would you do?  And we’re just going to try to put some big thinking around that. WENDY:  Awesome.  And Molly will be there as one of the lead learners there, so of course you’re going to have a great time, but you’re also going to have an Apps for Education certified trainer.  And you’re in Minnesota now, right, Molly? MOLLY:  I am.  I’m in the middle of a really great summer thunderstorm here,  But yeah, I’m just in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  That’s where I have my home office, and I’m a frequent at the Minneapolis airport. WENDY:  And you achieved your Delta status this year, right, Molly? MOLLY:  Yeah.  Yup, it’s been awesome just to kind of really have that global audience as a network of people to work with, and it’s really a lot of fun to be able to travel around and meet all the just super empowered teachers that are choosing to be at the Summits on the weekend and really empower them to go back and change their classrooms, so it’s been really fun. WENDY:  That’s awesome, Molls.  And you also have...you’re my biggest travel fashion icon, and I think you have a new travel purse. MOLLY:  I do.  This one, you know, bags are very important to women.  This is the cute new Lulu Lemon little travel purse, and it’s a great spot for your phone, it’s got like six different pockets, and it’s just like that really good collapsible size, so I just got it, you know. WENDY:  Could it fit an Android or an iPad device? MOLLY:  An iPad mini for sure, or an Android, yeah, probably a 7 or a 9, definitely, but you’ll see it at ISTE, so keep your eye out. WENDY:  Awesome.  Thanks, Moll.  I learned about Molly’s fashion from Tieks, the… MOLLY:  Oh, yeah, the online… WENDY:  Collapsible ballet flat.  Awesome.  Thanks for giving us your fashion tips as being our Director of Summits.  You’ve gotta be wearing the right stuff. But Molly, tell us, this is Lunch with EdTech Team, right?  And for me it’s a little early.  I’m in Portland, Oregon, everyone, and... there’s a new salad place by my place that’s a garden bar that you can just go do it yourself, and being EdTech people, we kind of like to customize everything, so those salad places are my favorite.  What are you going to have for lunch, Molly? MOLLY:  I have a delicious turkey sandwich waiting for me, so yum. WENDY:  Yay! MOLLY:  It’s very exciting, very exciting lunch today. WENDY:  Well, tell us, what’s your next Summit that you’re going to be at? MOLLY:  So, next week I am gearing up to lead the Illinois Summit which is in Homer Glen, Illinois, just outside of Chicago, and we just sold out with 500 people attending, which is really exciting, and I’ll be leading that with one of our other EdTech team featured speakers, Kate Petty.  So, we’re going to be at Illinois Summit, and we’ve got an awesome program of people and a lot of featured speakers that are joining us.  And then in two weeks I’m going to be out in Colorado.  We just finished the Breckenridge Summit.  We’ll have another Summit in Boulder in October, but I’m going to do a little custom PD with a school district in Steamboat Springs.  So, EdTechTeam not only puts on Summits, but you can hire us to come to your school and do custom PD for whatever you want us to do, so you let us know the theme of the day, and we’ll make ourselves available to do sessions and keynotes and all that stuff available for you too. WENDY:  Awesome. And I’m looking just right now at the schedule for Illinois just for folks to know what does Molly like to present on, and I know my favorite sessions from yours are always your Chrome apps and extensions, and I also really enjoy some of the Sites stuff you’ve done, but it looks like in Illinois you’ll be doing Google Classroom and Personalizing Chrome for Learning on a Chromebook or a Laptop.  What’s your favorite session that you like to do and what can folks expect to see from you? MOLLY:  Well, I just did a session in Breckenridge, a brand-new session, called Assessment in the Digital Age. Probably one of my least favorite parts of teaching was doing the assessment part, but it’s so important, and if you start thinking about if kids are learning, that’s what you’re in charge of: figuring out if they have or not.  So, I’m loving a new extension and website called docent.edu for that, and that’s a Google Apps extension. It’s actually a cool startup company by two teachers here in Minnesota, and it allows you to customize any webpage with discussions and questions, so that’s really cool, and add sticky notes and embed different things on the webpage.  And then another new favorite extension in my Chrome Apps one in Google Tone, if people haven’t used it, and we were able to share our website resources using Google Tone at the Breckenridge Summit, which was really fun.  So, if you haven’t seen either one of those, you should check them out for sure.   WENDY:  Well, I just saw on the Twitter feed and the docent.edu won the Demo Slam at Breckenridge, I think, so that’s awesome. MOLLY:  Yeah, it did.  It’s really, really impressive.  So, yeah, the cool new little extension, personalize websites and kind of provide some feedback within a website.  WENDY:  Where else you gonna be this year, Moll?  Where else you heading on the Summit tour? MOLLY:  Well, I’ll be at ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) this month, which we are really excited about. Maybe I’ll just do a little shoutout that we are going to have a booth with Max Cases at the ISTE conference, and so we have an entire teaching leader of little 20 minute sessions of some of our most awesome featured speakers at all Summits.  So, literally the EdTech Team Max Cases booth is like a Summit within an ISTE, a Summit within a conference, so we would love it for you guys to stop by, there’s going to be a photo booth, and there’s just going to be stuff going on all day long with our featured speaker.  So we hope it’s a place to hang out and network as well as learn, and then, you know, visit the other guys too, Max Cases who do a lot of protective gear for your iPads and your Chromebooks and any kind of digital devices that you have in the class.  So, I’ll be at ISTE and I’ll be at the Moonshot Summit, and then in August I’m  at Orange County.  I’m at our Palo Alto Summits in July  as well.  We have two weekends in Palo Alto.  These are sort of our flagship events.  We have one the weekend of July 11th and 12th.  Pre-Summits in between that whole week, and then another full Summit the 19th and 20th, I think, whatever the weekend is.  So, really excited about those events too. If you haven’t been to one in California and Palo Alto, you’re missing out. It’s our big flagship one. It’s fun. WENDY:  I know a fun time with Molly is I know you like to do your weekly yoga.  What is your favorite pose in yoga that you’re working on right now? MOLLY:  Oh my gosh. Well, I did do a headstand this morning, so I am working on that, and that is, that’s good, I know. I’m kind of thinking that I was pretty proud of myself doing that.  But I’m perfecting my chipping in golf too, so those are sort of my two past times that I’m going to be working on those this summer. WENDY:  Awesome. Well, again, you can follow Molly @followmolly on Twitter, @edtechteam on Twitter as well.  Go to gafesummit.com if you want to see the schedule of events that Molly is helping head up as Director of Summits for EdTech Team, and you can just share on Twitter at #gafesummit, or for our iOS Summits for iPads, which we have one in NorCal coming up soon as well, right, this July, Molly? MOLLY:  NorCal, yep, it’s going to be awesome.  There’s a full three Summits.  It’s going to be an awesome, awesome time.   WENDY:  Awesome, and anything else that folks have to look forward to this year with EdTech Team and with Summits?  Anything else to keep on the horizon? MOLLY:  Yeah, you know, I just think that our sessions are changing so much and I there’s always a fresh variety of what you’re going to learn at them, so even if you’ve been to one, I heard a stat one time that somebody said that Google changes over 150 things every year, so we just try to stay fresh and keep it fun and the networking of being together is just seriously the best part of it.  It’s empowering, it’s exciting, it’s energizing and contagious, so we just love everybody who chooses to spend their weekends with us.WENDY:  Yay!  And we love you, Molly. Thank you so much for joining us.  Have an awesome turkey sandwich, and thanks for all of our viewers.  We’ll have this up on the blog so you can watch it again and read the transcript and hopefully keep sharing with us online.  Stay in touch, everybody.  Have a good lunch, Moll.Come see us next week with Michael Wacker, our Chief Learning Officer! RSVP here for the June 11th Hangout On Air at 12:00 Noon Pacific.

We had an amazing time at our 3rd Annual Hawaii Summit this past March, and Claire Sakata, 6th Grade teacher from Makalapa Elementary School in Honolulu! Claire's "Chrome Crew" student tech team so enjoyed learning from their teacher and the extra goodies she brought back they wrote a pretty darn awesome Thank You Slide Deck, complete with great ideas you can use with your own students.Happy Warm and Fuzzy Friday all!Stay tuned: the 4th Annual EdTechTeam Hawaii Summit is about to be announced! Where and when will it be...