Engaging Your School Community Through Social Media

What better way to communicate and engage students, staff, parents, and prospective families than through social media!  Engaging Your School Community Through Social Media suggests ways that we may wish to use school websites, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube to engage with our community.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/engaging-school-community-social-media-howard-stribbell

Do you believe in your students?

You Tube

The Third Teacher

...designing the learning environment for math and literacy

• developed by Loris Malaguzzi
• the foci:  parents, students, and environment
• how do we alter the environment to support our students?
• student centred
• role of teacher as guide/facilitator
• students can explore new surrounds
• let the sunshine in
• eg. a furniture should be able to do a variety of things
• community space has multiple functions
• open spaces that flow into one another
• about innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity
• technology is taken into cosideration for collaboration
• Bruce Mau -everyone can be a designer, community connections, realm of the senses, rewired learning, minds at work

Classroom Use:  students can collaborate more easily; the environment is flexible; learning environment is tailored to the students' needs;

Collaboration, Communication & Class Management

Kidblog

Google Images

• simple & easy to use
• there is one blog for the class
• no email address required  for students 
• add pictures and videos
• can be used for discussion
• can respond to blogs
• the teacher can revise comments and then publish if necessary

Classroom Use:  the opportunity to write to a global audience; share materials, share work, thoughts, videos & links; facilitate online discussions & collaboration; create a class publication; replace newsletters and stay in touch with parents. 

Google Images

Padlet

• cork board
• can drag & drip files, pics, videos
• can post videos, images, documents, maps
• good to use as a portfolio of class work
• good for visual diaries

Classroom Use:  students record books they've read; for group research; use as a show case for student work; use as a KWL Chart; formative assessment tool for student understanding; place a sentence starter on the wall and students complete it; allow students to ask questions about topics or assignments; used to collect feedback or a ticket out the door.

Class Dojo

Google Images

• behaviour management tool
• web based
• can be used with iPads and Android Apps
• helps teachers engage students
• allows tracking of behaviour
• shows students their progress

Classroom Use:  teachers require less time for classroom management; there is a focus on developing positive behaviour; students develop a sense of purpose with the positive reinforcement; PDF reports for whole class, individuals and parents; auditory cues; focus on learning skills and student goal setting.

YouTube

Planning, Instruction & Assesment

• a planning tool
• iCloud and desktop versions
• use for study notes
• use for brainstorming
• insert images
• includes icon library
• add links

Classroom Use:  independent research; critical thinking skills; analytic skills; brain storming; create flow charts & diagrams: for study skills; summarize information; lesson planning; curriculum planning 

• an instructional tool
• writing is no longer limited to text
• coding
• coding may eventually become part of our curriculum
• computer programming is an important skill to learn
• code.org
• this program is conducive for students in the primary grades
• it comes from MIT
• scratch.mit.edu
• can be used in several languages
• can build stories into this program
• can use design skills
• can be used in any area of the curriculum

Classroom Use:  introduce programming skills; to teach digital literacy; a medium for students to show what they know; use in the curriculum to help students to think differently and possibly understand better

• an assessment tool
  for formative assessment
• uses quick response tools
• web based
• free
• good because it takes little preparation teacher gives questions orally
• works on all devices
• can be used on a daily basis
• can create or import quiz into the program
  
  Classroom Use:  students can provide anonymous questions & answers; administer short quizzes, visual data; exit ticket; pre-assessment; collect background knowledge; quick check for understanding;
  
  
  
  
  

Google Drive

Google Drive is a great place to store and access files at anytime, from anywhere, on any device.

See the video below "Going Google with Google Drive".
YouTube

Using Google Drive in the classroom has so many advantages:

• students can access work/material from any location (home, school, vacation, hospital)
• students can work collaboratively from a variety of locations
• students can work on a document at a time when they are available
• work is synced across all of your devices
• all work can be stored in one location
• files and folders can be shared
• students can comment to group members
• there is a lot of space to utilize
• use to schedule parent conferences

No more lost or dog eaten homework! No need for thumb drives!

Today's Meet

Today's Meet allows the audience to backchannel while the speaker is talking.
Students are able to listen and talk during real time and this can give a voice to students that are reluctant to speak during class.  This is an internal discussion that remains active for a short time period. The chat can also be downloaded as a PDFand linked to a Twitter Hashtag if you wish.

You Tube

Use in the Classroom: students can make comments & ask questions; teacher can use feedback to tailor presentation and address audience needs; increase student engagement; allows students to speak up; used for discussions & brainstorming; formative assessment; exit ticket

Personal Learning Networks

...Opportunities to connect with people who are passionate about similar areas of interest and develop collaborative relationships. 

Our YorkUICT has become another Personal Learning Network -a platform for connection and collaboration.  We have been able to connect face to face, through Twitter, Google+, Twitter and sharing of Blogs.   Through these vehicles we have been able to share ideas and resources with one another as well as educators around the globe. With Personal Learning Networks, everyone's knowledge grows.

For our students, many of them are participating in Personal Learning Networks already.  Social Media brings information to students and at the same time allows students to access information.  It is important for us as teachers to help student's properly navigate this process.  

Will Richardson speaks about this in his video.

You Tube

Teacher Use:  to keep up with the latest trends; inform & enhance classroom teaching; professional growth

Constructivism Learning Process

Our course began with an introduction to Constructivist Learning.  In this model the student guides the pace of content and the teacher provides communication and guidance.  The emphasis is on students gaining strategies and processes in order to attain knowledge.  I really like this chart on Constructivism Methodolody:

http://www.excelsiorlearningcenter.com/Constructivism.html

http://www.alicechristie.org/pubs/

Classroom Use:  teachers pose questions & problems. guide students; allow for inquiry; multiple intelligences; group work; peers as resources

Symbaloo

Today we learned about Symbaloo.  Symbaloo allows one to access online websites anytime, and from anywhere!  This tool is great for organizing, accessing and utilizing a collection of information.  The video below will give you an introduction to this amazing "bookmarking tool"!

from YouTube

My Symbaloo Home Page is beginning to take shape, but I have a lot of work still to do.  Look out Delicious...you may not be sweet enough!

                                            Carla's iPhone Photo

I can see how this would be great to set up a variety of pages.  I could use a separate tab for parents,  colleagues and special education resource teachers. I really like the way that it organizes websites into a visually appealing format. Symbaloo also comes with some pre-made grids with recommended websites and a link to your Symbaloo can easily be shared with others

On many occasions, parents, colleagues and special education teachers are asking for resources to assist children with special education needs. It will be very simple to share my Symbaloo link with these individuals.
I will also be using this resource to share with all of our Special Education Teachers at our fall in service. I had already planned on sharing Online Resources with them. This approach will also help to reduce the amount of paper work that is often given out at such events.
Yeah!  There is also a Symbaloo App for the iPad and iPhone!

Classroom Use:  teachers and students can create and share their Symbaloos; teacher can provide students with appropriate links:  parents and students can access student websites and resources; 

Learning Lots!

Today we looked at Twitter, Gooru, Learn 360 and Flickr.  Wow! This is a lot to take in, but all worthwhile websites to explore further!!

Twitter

What is Twitter?

YouTube Video

Please see Tweets from #edresources on the top right hand side of the blog. I enjoy using Twitter as it is a great tool for Personal Networking!

Classroom Use:  back channeling; tweet about upcoming assignments or due dates; tracking hashtags; connect with the community; following issues; Live tweet field trips; ask questions; take and share notes; sync with a blog; chat with industry professionals; make recommendations; post videos; direct message students or parents

Gooru

Gooru is a search engine for learning and therefore a teacher's search paradise! Not only does it have search capabilities, but also the ability to study and create! Please allow me to practice linking a webpage to my blog.  To learn more about Gooru click  here.

Classroom Use:  find resources for students & classrooms; study skills

Flickr

Check out Flickr for interesting photos made by everyday people.  Store, Search, Sort and Share your photos here.

Classroom Use: visual literacy skills; writing prompts; story telling projects; create virtual field trips; create digital portfolios;

D2L/e-Learning Community

D2L/e-Learning Community will eventually be used by each student in the board for at least one course per year.The first screen you encounter is "like walking into the school building and is controlled by an administrator".  The second screen is "like walking into a classroom and is controlled by a teacher".  The information here is like a bulletin board in the classroom.  This site allows teachers to communicate and collaborate with other teachers in the province. According to the Ontario Ministry of Education, Ontarion students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 will benefit from blended learning within the next 3 years (http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/elearning/). 

Blogging

Blogger

Today we were introduced to Blogger which is a web-based program that allows one to create and customize a blog. What is a blog?
See the video below:

YouTube Video

We are using Blogger and are learning how to insert videos into our blogs. The video below will provide helpful information describing how to set up your Blogger Blog as well as embed a video.

YouTube Video

I have added one person on my blogroll!!
Did you know that Will Richardson has been blogging for over 10 years!

Classroom Use: create & share class/school information; post field trip information; post parent helper calendars; daily lessons for students who are ill or on vacation; creative writing prompts, striking visual images;

Stop Animation

Stop Animation Video Making... A Motivation to Learn!

Cool! I had never made a Stop Animation Video before, but really enjoyed this activity. Imagine the level of engagement as well as the motivation to learn! I can see how this activity could appeal to all learners including our students that are more reluctant to participate in learning activities. The video below briefly describes the process of How To Make A Stop Animation Video.
YouTube Video

We were off to the races and began by sharing ideas and looking at a few stop animation creations.  All of the members of Part 2 formed a group and we began working on a video called Diversity and Inclusion. We dropped our photos into Windows Movie Maker and voila.. our Stop Animation Video was formed. Please see our Stop Animation Video below!

A Stop Animation Lesson would definitely follow the Constructivism Learning Process in that students involved in this project would  be construct meaning as they learn and learning is social. This task is engaging and helps to inspire and motivate students' creativity and desire to learn.This task has 21st Century skills embedded into it:  Creativity, Collaboration, Community, and Critical Thinking.

In this case technology was used as a tool to tell a story.  Although developing the Story Line was not the focus, it involved assessment as learning. Assessment is built into the learning process and students have the opportunity to revise, self evaluate and receive descriptive feedback.  As was discussed by the group, this enriching task would be used as a cross-curricular lesson approach (perhaps involving Media Literacy, Language and Social Studies) and using multimedia such as this assists in addressing individual learning styles while also giving 'Boys Voices'. This task was introduced as a formative assessment, Descriptive Feedback would be important for students in planning for the next steps in learning.  Given more practice and opportunities to revise and reflect, a similar task could be done as a summative task.

Classroom Use:  digital storytelling; engage students in collaborative learning; problem solving; creativity

As we all know, motivation is key to learning and self-discovery is a part of this process.

A thought on Motivation and how this relates to students by Daniel Pink.

YouTube Video