The ABSOLUTE BEST TOOL for the Classroom

Every day of every week, App developers are coming up with new products and tools to make it easier to organize, impart, share and instruct us.  There are so many tools that can be a positive influence on our young people, and a few of those that are making the rounds as of late, or making a resurgence can be found easily by consulting with your district technology coaches and/or by doing searches for new tools. However, this Blog post will focus on the most important tool in the education business:  the Classroom Teacher.

The Classroom teacher has always been and will always be…the most important teaching tool in the classroom.  The teacher is the one that sets the tone.  The teacher creates the learning environment and drives instruction.  The teacher is one who looks at the students’ strengths and weaknesses, their learning modalities and determines the best way to deliver material.  Some students will learn best by hearing the information (Auditory), some will learn best by seeing the learning demonstrated (Visual), and some will be better served if they are allowed to participate in the learning (Tactile).  There are those students that perform best when using some of these modalities in combination.  Whichever ones are used in a particular lesson, the best tool for all of the learning opportunities is STILL the teacher!

The teacher, however, must deal with things that are distracting to the teaching process.  Discipline among the most common, others include, being a mentor to small groups, advisors of career paths to others, club sponsors, duty station managers, and to a certain extent, a counselor of life…all stress builders.

Going one to one with devices can also be stressful if not managed properly.  It is great to have a one to one device program in your building; however, this “blessing” can also be a distraction.  We constantly hear that students are going places on their devices to watch movies, check unapproved websites and social media platforms, and play games to mention a few.  We must realize that there are new websites that come on line every day, and the creators of these are always trying to find ways around content filters put in place at the schools.  We have even found a few that tout ways to get around school content filters…and if you see these, then you know that their mission is not in the best interest of the child, but in securing traffic and users for their sites.  Keep in mind, putting into action a good system of management now, makes it easier to handle as you move along in the school year.

Here are 10 Tips that will help with device management and cut down on the stresses they bring:

1.       Remind students of any Acceptable Use Policies you have in place…including their agreement to follow those policies.  It might not be a bad idea to review this often in your classroom.

2.       Practical Utilization:  Only allow device use when specific lesson plans call for their utilization.  Otherwise, devices should NOT be activated, open or even powered on.  It would probably be a great idea to have some sort of sign posted in your classroom that all can see that reminds students to stay in authorized areas on their devices.

3.       Use Courtesy Mode:  Students should have devices either closed half way down or turned to Face-the instructor, when content is being shared, or instructions are being delivered.

4.       Proximity:  Constantly moving around the room, even as students are using devices to complete assignments should be employed.

5.       Responsibility:  Remind students that by signing the Acceptable Use agreement, they are using the devices as the instructor directs, without going to other sites.

6.       Remind students that unauthorized use, including being on sites not designated as acceptable, is a violation of device use, and that such a violation could warrant the removal of the privilege.

7.       Do not leave assignments for Substitutes that require the use of devices. In fact, ask subs to have students collect on a front desk or store away devices while in that particular classroom.

8.       Administrative Support:  Talk with your administration, and ask them to reinforce the proper use of devices, along with proper care.  Their support is crucial to afore mentioned conditions seen in #6 and #7 above.

9.       Do not give students free reign to use devices if they finish an assignment early or in any “down” time.  Use of devices should be for instructional purposes. 

10.   Report to your Administration…and to I.T. by way of a Work Order, any sites that you deem inappropriate or unnecessary to your instructional needs.

Teachers are responsible for providing quality lessons and opportunities for students to be successful, and coaching them along the way to accomplishing those lessons.

 

Students are ultimately responsible for their own actions, and the following of guidelines and policies towards the successful completion of those lessons. 

The BEST tool in the classroom is and always will be the TEACHER!  

eLearning in the Georgetown County School District, SC

What is the eLearning Program?

The eLearning Program was successfully “piloted” in five school districts in SC during the 2018-19 school year.  GCSD wrote and extensive application and is proud to have been accepted as a part of Cohort #2 for the program beginning with the 2019-2020 school year.  

Districts that are a part of this pilot program can use eLearning days for an individual school or for the entire district for varying situations beyond the control of the district (ice storms, floods, hurricanes, natural disasters, etc.).  The day(s) will be counted as students attending school in PowerSchool as long as they complete work within the guidelines. This will serve to not only keep students moving forward in learning, but also prevent the district from having to create a “make-up” day of attendance later in the school year.  GCSD will use Google Classroom as our Learning Management System for this project.

The program specifies that students must be “engaged in learning” a minimum equal to 200 minutes to be acceptable.

Implementation 

Our eLearning LMS (Learning Management System) is Google Classroom.  Since this is a pilot program, as much training as possible was done up front and will continue all throughout the year to make it a successful venture.  Students will be taught how to complete work “offline” in the event that Wi-Fi is not available.  Students will be able to take home school devices, or may opt to use their own devices at their residence.  Assignments per subject will be loaded into Google Classrooms for completion.  Teachers will utilize Virtual Field Trips, Discus, the State Library, streaming video, Video tools, Google Docs, Slides, Drawing, and Sheets as assignments.

Communication about the eLearning Project

Teachers will have “Virtual Office Hours” while at home, to give students opportunities to communicate.  Teachers and students can communicate with each other within the LMS for clarifying questions about assignments using some of the following, but not limited to Google Classroom Private Comments, Remind, Email, Class Tag, Class Dojo, etc.

eLearning Mock Day (Trial Run)

The district set aside a day for all to practice the eLearning assignments, called a “Mock” eLearning day.  This will allow the IT team and the Instruction departments to prepare for the day.    

Communication between students and teachers (as far as instruction) should be seamless (as though the Teacher and the students were NOT at school).  Regular interaction from teachers may be necessary to assure a meaningful experience. 

Teachers will create assignments for each subject in a shortened version, and will allow students to go to, at least all four of the core areas to practice.  In the best-case scenario, it is recommended that the “mock” practice take place at the beginning of all classes…and not in one area for the whole day, because teachers are not available in the other subjects while the eLearning is being conducted

For An Actual eLearning Day

Kindergarten through Grade 2 students will take home “Learning Packets” preceding an official eLearning day. Grades 3-12 students will either use the school devices, (or opt to use their own) and engage through our LMS, which is Google Classroom.  

Teachers will have assignments loaded into their individual Google Classrooms.  All assignments collectively, should be a minimum of 200 minutes of engagement per student for each official eLearning day.  Students will work and turn in assignments via Google Classroom.  Schools are to work with students on a case-by-case basis with issues of connectivity at home.  Students will have 5 days from the return to school to complete makeup work given as a part of the eLearning day.  Work not completed within the five days will be graded according to the district/school/teacher’s grading policy, and the student will be marked absent. 

Feedback

After a “mock” eLearning Day, a survey will be administered to various constituents (district staff, teachers, parents, students, non-instructional staff, etc.) in the school community to determine how the project went, if there were issues, and to allow us all to concentrate on improving the pilot project process.

 Non-Instructional Staff

eLearning Days will also take into account projects for non-instructional staff members as well, such as:  Maintenance Staff, Teacher’s Aides, Clerical Personnel, Bus Drivers and Cafeteria staff.  

Teacher's Virtual Office Hours

Teachers will be available to answer questions that may arise concerning assignments using Email, Google Classroom, Google Meet, or Remind.  Your teachers should share the best options.  Office Hours will be:

• Elementary Teachers:  8:30 am - 10:00 am ... and ... 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
• Middle and High Teachers:  10:00 am - 11:30 am ... and ... 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm  

Teachers will inform students beforehand concerning the best way to contact them during these hours:  Email, Google Classroom, Google Meet, or Remind. 

Leadership Team

Administrators, Curriculum Coaches and Guidance team members will be monitoring through Google Classroom throughout the day.

Instructional Technology Coaches

The Instructional Tech Coaches for each level are available to instruct, coach, teach and model the use of the Google Classroom for effectively conducting an eLearning mock day and an actual eLearning Day.  They will be monitoring classes around the district on an eLearning day.

Integrating Tech at Any Level of Experience

Each of the last seven summers, my partners and I have enjoyed teaching a class as Adjunct Professors for the College of Charleston here in SC.  Marc, Doug and I really look forward to this class.  We teach Teachers how to use technology as a tool to enhance their lessons.  We make clear that the Teacher is the most important part of the teaching element. 

The class is 48 hours; squeezed into 3 weeks, meeting Monday through Thursday from 8:00 am – Noon.  There were some homework assignments, but most of the work was done in the class.

We began a few years ago doing the class completely paperless using Google Classroom as our Learning Management System platform.  Not only are we able to model what we’d like to see them using at their schools, the teachers in the class are now empowered to take it on to the next level and their student will be the benefactors!

 

We teach some of the basic tools for presentation, collaboration, creativity, innovation, and problem solving. We teach them how to set up their own classes, use their content standards and infuse the ISTE Standards (International Society for Technology in Education).

Students did a comprehensive lesson plan, “Turned It In” in our Google Classroom, and used Google Sites to create a website for their classes to be used in the Fall. 

Here is what’s so cool about our class this summer:  We had a new hire that just graduated in May of 2019, and a teacher that will be starting her 47^th year…two retirees and all kind of years of experience in between.  They all worked beautifully together.  Given the right situation and the right approach, teachers are NEVER too old to start learning how to integrate technology in the classroom.  Excitement was high for the start of another school year in August of 2019.  Cannot wait to see the ways this group will use their new skills!

Keith

Plethora of Tools. What’s the Best Tool?

There are an incredible number of web tools that come online every day.  If you are looking for a particular tool to help you in the classroom, it is probably already out there.  You may have to dig a little to find exactly what you are looking for, but more than likely, you can find something.  For those that are especially gifted in coding and tech language. If they have not found it…they write or create it.

With that being said, let’s get back to the tools that we know about.  Tools that help us collect data, analyze data, create videos, audio programs, podcasts and make digital books.  Tools that are coming on board lately have figured out that to make headway, they should work well when integrated with the Learning Platforms that are being used by educators…for example Google Classroom or Office 365.

Here in our little school district in Georgetown, SC, made a paradigm shift years ago from “find me a something cool: to do with my class to the more sound “Here’s my lesson plan, what might work well to enhance what we are going to be doing?”

Let us not forget that the single best tool in the toolkit for instructing kids is and will always be the teacher.  Teachers inspire us.  Teachers challenge us to be creative.  Teachers give us the confidence to be innovative.  Teachers lead us into collaborative learning.

If you are a teacher, you are very much appreciated.  If you are a student, let your teacher(s) know that you appreciate them.

 As for the  web tools, HERE is a link to some tools we have put together for Teachers to explore and use as they see fit in their classrooms.  Enjoy!

Keith