#ISTE17 Presentation Resources

It was such an honor to present and share at #ISTE17! What an amazing experience learning amongst some of the most innovative educators and leaders in the country. This was also my first journey to Texas (they don't lie- the BBQ is amazing). By request, I am sharing the resources from my sessions so those #NotAtISTE can access the presentations!

Rockstar Blended Learning

This session focused on how to implement an effective blended learning model at the classroom level. Presented alongside my former colleague Amanda Haughs, Digital Innovation Coach for CUSD, we explored different blended learning models (flipped, rotation, flex) and the benefits and challenges of each. We then shared our favorite tools to integrate into blended instruction. My favorite part of this session involves teacher choice, where teachers were able to team up and dive deeper into the tool they saw meeting their instructional needs (with task cards to support learning).

See slide deck below for all of our resources:

Get Off the Stage: Google Apps and Ed Tech Make Instruction Student Centered

bit.ly/getoffthestage

This was my first time presenting with my new SFUSD colleagues, Tom Mullaney and Dr. Kristina Mattis! In all honesty, this wasn't my session. Tom has created the session based on the work he has been doing with Digital Breakouts and was unable to physically attend the conference. Like a true team, we pulled together and Kristina and I served as his live proxies while he joined virtually through Google Hangouts.

The QR code above will direct you to all of the resources shared in this session which included:

Tom Mullaney's Virtual Appearance

• A sample online lesson using Google Sites and culminating with a Digital Breakout.
• Resources that support the design of truly interactive online design such as Verso, Ted-Ed and Ed Puzzle
• Design tips for using Google Forms as digital "locks" and to provide students with instant feedback.

Questions on these fabulous resources? Just ask the expert @TomEMullaney!

Gamify Your Formative Assessment

The Gamification Crew: Lindsey Blass, Cate Tolani, Dr. Kristina Mattis

This is, quite possibly, one of my favorite sessions that I have ever done. In this session Cate Tolnai, Dr. Kristina Mattis and I pulled together our research and strategies for gamification. Presented in a casual Poster Session environment, we were able to connect with many educators from districts across the country and have awesome in depth conversations about their experiences and needs in in regards to gamification and formative assessment. We explore gamification vs. game-based learning, and how elements of gamification can be incorporated into formative assessment to help motivate and incentivize learning. In our slide deck below, you will not only find oodles of fun, you will find our suggestions for game-based tools that support a gamified learning experience.

Tips for becoming a #PresenterofISTE

Throughout the conference, I engaged with some amazing educators who submitted sessions for ISTE and didn't get selected to present. As any regular conference presenter can share, we have all experienced this feeling of "What was I missing? Why didn't I get selected?" While each conference has unique presentation attributes that they look for, my best advice on submitting for ISTE presentations is:

• They require research. As you are implementing fabulous instructional strategies, make a point of seeking research that backs it up and bookmarking this for when #ISTE18 applications open!
• Know how your content relates to the ISTE standards. Just like we plan standards-based instruction for our students, our ISTE presentations are standards-based as well. Explore the ISTE Standards for Educators (2017 version just released!) and ISTE Standards for Students.
• Try for a Poster Session. Acceptance rates are much higher than for concurrent sessions, and you get to connect with and influence just as many educators in a fun and casual environment.

Best of luck and see you at #ISTE18!

Ready...Set... #ISTE17!

As I gear up for #ISTE17 in San Antonio next week, I am loving all of the excitement and buzz across Twitter; #PresentersofISTE gearing up for creating inspirational learning experiences, PLNs connecting over the opportunity to meet IRL, veterans of ISTE blogging advice to newbies in order to maximize the conference going experience. This last one had me thinking: What advice would I give to other attendees of ISTE? My biggest piece of advice: KNOW YOUR GOAL.

Why are you attending the conference? What do you hope to get out of it? What do you hope to bring back to help further the passion projects and work that you do on a daily basis? Answering these questions before hitting the conference is so important! Just like working with our students, if we don't clearly define our objectives, how will we reach out target? And then I asked myself... have I answered these questions?! Time to reflect...

My #ISTE17 Goals

1. Gain insight and ideas on effective models for online and blended learning. 
One month ago I made a huge transition out of a coaching role in a district I had worked in for almost a decade to a new role as a Digital Learning Integration Designer for San Francisco Unified School District. In this role, I am able to build partnerships across the district in order to expand the implementation of blended and online learning in support of our district's work towards innovative educational equity (inspired by our Vision 2025).

Working with an amazing team of thought partners in the Department of Technology, we have started creating systems and supports for this type of innovative instruction. At #ISTE17, I hope to connect with other districts from across the nation who are working to create the same types of instructional shifts. I plan to attend sessions that share experiences in implementation  of blended and online learning. I also hope to gain deeper understanding of how others have effectively used badging and micro-credentialing to implement a competency-based approach for demonstrating mastery.


2. Explore the latest research and practice in design of physical environments that support personalized instruction.

I have the privilege of serving as the Director of the CUE BOLD Symposium, which focuses on the crucial relationship between lesson design and learning environment design. As I continue diving deeper effective implementation of personalized learning models, I look forward to learning more about the types of physical environments that have been proven to support student learning.

3. Connect with others that have a similar focus so we can support learning beyond the conference.
A saying that often gets tossed around my professional learning networks is, "The smartest person in the room is the room." As someone in a highly specialized position, building a network and community of others exploring the same passions for impacting education is so very important. These connections will allow the learning to continue beyond the conference through the ongoing sharing of resources and strategies. I hope to make some new Twitter connections, join/create some new specialized Voxer groups, and follow some new podcasts/blogs that will inform my practice. After all, we are #BetterTogether!


Call to Action: What are your goals for #ISTE17? Please post and share!

#Sketch50: Join the Movement!

Cowritten with Cate Tolnai for the Ed Tech Team Blog

Across the world, educators and students are uniting with one simple goal: to complete and share one drawing a day. The #Sketch50 movement, while amazingly simple in it’s foundational goal, strikes on something much deeper: sketching as a means of unleashing creativity, building artistic confidence, and tapping into growth mindset.

It all started with an email titled, “I have an idea :).” Cate Tolnai, an Academic Technology Specialist for Santa Clara County Office of Education, was still buzzing on the EDUhigh of the 2017 National CUE conference when she reached out to members of her sketchnoting network and asked them if they wanted to take part in a social experiment with her. Cate writes: “What if we set out to do a push for a sketch-a-day campaign to get anyone who has the sketching bug to just do it? We could start on the following Monday, and that would be 50 days of sketching culminating on May 16, which is National Drawing Day.” Lucky for Cate, the group she reached out to has a habit of saying yes to innovative ideas, and just like that, the movement was born. Within the next few days, the group had a domain, a website, a variety of social media accounts, and a spreadsheet to collaboratively generate prompts.

It didn’t take long for this movement to attract thousands of hungry educators and creators. The prompt on Day 1 was to sketch a lightbulb. Hundreds of posts emerged including themes of inspirational educational quotes, students and families drawing together, and perhaps most significantly, teachers and students who were hesitant in their artistic abilities jumping in. From digital doodles in apps like Procreate and Paper53 to sticky notes and notebook paper -- sketchers young and old are finding their #sketch50 entrypoint.

Another exciting and unexpected outcome of this viral movement has been the interest of select professional artists and authors to share and inspire #Sketch50 in their own way. Based off of emails and tweets from Pablo Diaz, Wanda Terral, and Cate Tolnai, the group has partnered with Mike Rohde, Mauro Toselli, the Sketchnote Army team, Wendi Pillars, Sunni Brown, Javier Perez, and others. Their generosity of time, daily sketches, and donations of books and webinars have made an incredible impact on the thousands of sketchers included in the #Sketch50 community.

The themes covered across the 50 days of sketching include: Communication, Personalized Learning, Design Thinking, Sketching Basics, Celebrating Success, Social Justice, Creativity, and Growth Mindset. All are invited to earn Sketch 50 Digital Badges hosted on the Badgelist platform that aim to celebrate the individual progress of each sketcher and help her capture and share her #sketch50 journey.

Since the movement focuses on active learning while having fun, it seemed appropriate to culminate on National Drawing Day with #PlayPD sessions hosted by moderators and passionate sketchers throughout California. PlayPD hosts pop-up, informal professional development sessions where educators gather to experience EDUtools/strategies and brainstorm their implications for instruction.

For more information on the #Sketch50 movement, please connect with us! It is never too late to join in the fun!

*Sketch50.org
*Twitter: @sketch50 and @Play_PD
*Facebook: sketch50 Instagram: sketch_50

You can also contact any of the #Sketch50 organizers (Cate Tolnai, Lindsey Blass, Wanda Terral, Pablo Diaz, Ann Kozma, Genevieve Pacada, Jo-Ann Fox, Misty Kluesner, Nicole Delasio, Matt Miller, and Sylvia Duckworth) on Twitter or via email at sketchfifty@gmail.com. Whether you joined the movement on Day 1 or plan to join on Day 50, we encourage you to lean into your growth mindset and throw some creativity into the universe!

Strategies and Tools to Make Your Math Class AWESOME in 2017

In 2016 I dove into my second year as a Math & Technology Coach. I had relationships in place, teachers ready and willing to test out innovative strategies and tools, and a much more solid understanding of what it takes to bring engagement, excitement and life to a math classroom while not sacrificing clearly defined goals and learning objectives.

Our district is not in a unique space right now where we have just adopted a new Common Core curriculum for mathematics. While this curriculum serves as a solid guide, it is not our script or our bible. As teachers, we need to know our standards and which ones are essential, our learning targets (what is it we want students to be able to DO?) and most importantly we need to know our students. I've been very fortunate to regularly be in classrooms around the district, and have found the following strategies and tools to be the most effective in terms of promoting student engagement (see here for research proof points that higher engagement can translate to achievement).

Ever find yourself saying "Turn to page 234 in the textbook" and anticipating zombie like stares accompanied by groans and growls? (Note: If you are trying to build up your Zombie army in case of a potential Zombie Apocolypse this is not the way to do it! They will revolt.) Consider the alternative; identify what you want your students to learn (the standard unpacked), look at page 234 and decide what components might be most valuable for your students, and then adapt the lesson utilizing one of the following tools or strategies that guarantee higher engagement!

1. 360 Degree Math

The idea is simple: Put up whiteboards around the room. Each student has a space on the whiteboards. Work that was formerly done on worksheets is now done at the whiteboards. This allows for:

• Increased opportunities for collaboration
• Instant formative assessment: teachers can instantly identify and address misconceptions
• Movement! (Try incorporating Music Cues to really liven the room up)

Check out this blog post for more details on benefits, strategies, and examples of 360 Math. Since this post in September, I am happy to report that almost one third of our middle school math teachers in the district have now redesigned their learning spaces and are incorporating 360 degree math!

Photo Courtesy of the awesome Ed Campos

To quote Ed Campos (a leader in the 360 Math movement) from his Ignite at CMC North this year, "We're gonna build a wall. No wait, we're gonna build 3 or 4 walls- and our walls are going to be about communication and collaboration not discrimination and segregation." You can catch Ed and see a fully redesigned classroom at CUE BOLD in May (an event all about classroom redesign and lesson design for 1:1 learning environments- not to be missed!).

2. Cignition

5th-8th grade teachers (especially 6th grade), I just want to say, you're welcome. This is the tool we've been waiting for; the tool that tackles the age old dilemma of helping students understand operations with fractions. Cignition's Fog Stone Isle game allows students to practice and apply conceptual understanding of operations with fractions through building houses and gardens in their own virtual, Minecraft-esque world. Teachers get reports on where students are stuck, and student engagement is through the roof (common question: Can I keep playing at home?). Many of our CUSD math teachers are already utilizing this tool during station instruction (5th and 6th grade have introduced it during the study of fraction operations, 7th and 8th grade are using it to reteach these skills that are so crucial for success in meeting their grade-level standards). The tool is free and the customer service of the Cignition team is exceptional.

3. Quizlet Live

Had you asked me a year ago about Quizlet in the math classroom I would have sighed and said, "So you can drill and kill the students with flashcards?" However, now with the release of Quizlet's newest feature, Quizlet Live, I see so many possibilities of this tool supporting engagement in practicing application of mathematical skills and concepts. You create a flashcard deck which can include term definitions, expressions or equations to be solved, matching concepts (i.e. equivalent ratios). When you launch your game and students log in, they are instantly placed in random groups. Watch the momentary chaos ensue as students try to find their teams, "Elephants! Where are the elephants?! Elephants come to this table!!"). The coolest thing is, you need all of your teammates to be successful in this game since you don't know whose screen will display the correct answer. We tested this out in Kathryn Horn's 6th grade math class with a game on ratios. The students were begging for a second and then third round of the SAME GAME! Each time they were grouped with new teammates and had the opportunity for repetition in practicing the skill while their engagement never decreased.

4. Desmos

Desmos art by CMS student William Xu, James Peng's class

I used to recommend Desmos to bring graphing concepts to life, but now with all of the new features in Desmos it can be used for virtually any mathematical concept.

• Desmos Activity Builder: Build (or access thousands of existing) self-paced lessons that can include graphs, open-ended questions, images and more! Watch students progress in real-time from your teacher dashboard.
• Desmos Polygraph: Students are matched with a partner and use academic language to describe different pictures (could be graphs, visual representations of fractions, etc.). Very similar to the "Guess Who" game us old people used to play!
• Desmos Card Sort: The latest tool to be released, Desmos card sort is just like it sounds. It allows teachers to create lessons that allow students to sort objects into groups or categories (i.e. geometry shapes classification). 

What to learn more about Desmos? Go to learn.desmos.com .

5. Hyperdocs

Sketch by Misty Kluesner, Rolling Hills

Last, but certainly not least, we have one of the most effective ways to personalize instruction in your math classroom. Many of our CUSD teachers have started incorporating Hyperdocs into their math instruction in order to move away from the traditional whole class, teacher directed delivery of content and to move towards instruction that is highly personalized. The most effective use I have seen of Hyperdocs in the math classroom has been the incorporation into station rotation models. Creating Hyperdocs that are low-floor, high-ceiling is crucial for the personalized learning experience. At Teachers Give Teachers, you can access, copy, and modify existing Hyperdocs (as well as share those you create!).

Later this week, I will be presenting on Hyperdocs in the Math Classroom at the California League of Schools Teaching With Technology conference. Below is my presentation, which include links to sample math Hyperdocs at different grade-levels as well as resources and ideas for creating math specific hyperdocs.


Please let me know as you incorporate these tools and strategies into instruction, and reach out as I can support the effort. Let's make math class AWESOME in 2017!

Personalized Learning: Beyond the Buzz Words

For years the biggest buzz word in education has been differentiation, in reference to tailoring instruction to meeting individual academic needs. Recently with shifts in instruction to align with Common Core Standards/ 21st Century skills more buzz words have been popping up: personalized learning, individualized learning, blended learning... how are all of these terms related to differentiation and how do they REALLY look in action?

Let's start with some definitions that can help us demystify the buzz words. According to the National Education Technology Plan personalization is the big umbrella that individualization and differentiation fall under. While differentiation still means providing content access for varied levels of academic need, individualization is now being described as the pacing of a lesson supporting an individual student's needs. Beyond all of this, personalization also includes providing student choice in learning. As you can imagine, providing truly personalized instruction is no easy task. One of the best parts of my job is having the opportunity to brainstorm and then support teachers in the implementation of new strategies and tools that help to personalize instruction.

What does personalized math instruction look like in our district?
We serve a diverse student population with a wide range of learners, and therefore personalized instruction is crucial to ensuring success for all of our students.

Our math teachers have implemented a variety to tools and strategies that support this. We currently have district work groups looking at identifying essential standards, and then unpacking those standards to establish learning goals within units of study. The two main strategies that our teachers are using to personalize instruction in order to support all students in accessing the learning goals are blended learning and integration of high quality tasks. 

Strategy 1: Implementing High Quality Tasks
Task selection is crucial to reaching learning goals. Over the past two years our Math Cadre has worked with the Campbell High School District with an emphasis on how to select, design and implement high quality tasks. Strategically selected/developed tasks have embedded differentiation with a low floor (entry points for all) and high ceiling (deeper application of concepts). Experts like Dan Meyer and Peg Smith have guided us through this process and helped develop a wealth of expertise in this area. Please continue to pull on me and your cadre members as a resource for using the following task sites:

• Formative Assessment Lessons: Try to implement several of these tasks a year as aligned with your learning goals/major units of study.
• Mathalicious: Promotes critical thinking around real-world applications.
• Illustrative Mathematics: CCSS aligned instructional and assessment tasks.
• Inside Mathematics: Problems of the Month and Performance Assessments
• Robert Kaplinsky Lessons and Dan Meyer 3-Act Math: Students engage in inquiry based problem-solving with relevant topics
• Visualpatterns.org: Using geometric growth patterns to provide natural context for algebraic reasoning

In addition to working on task selection, our math cadre has also done a significant amount of work on questioning strategies. Choosing the right questions to either assess or advance student thinking while engaging in a task with students allows for differentiation; providing supports and extensions all within the conversations you have with students. Want a crash course in questioning strategies? Ask me or a cadre member... we even have a planning tool that will help you anticipate the different approaches and plan your questioning accordingly!

Strategy 2: Blended Learning 
Many CUSD teachers are implementing blended learning in order to personalize instruction for our students. Blended learning is defined as a mix of face-to-face and online instruction. Blended learning also allows for more targeted instruction, with teachers being able to pull small groups, strategically plan their grouping as heterogeneous or homogeneous, and incorporate intervention and enrichment into their lesson design.

Just a couple of tools/Strategies that support personalized learning in the blended station/rotation model:

At Campbell Middle School, Margaret Hulgrave has been using EdPuzzle in order to do an in-class flip of instruction, where students receive direct instruction online and she is able to use her time with students to pull small groups for intervention and/or going deeper with application of concepts. EdPuzzle allows you to take any video and embed questions (multiple choice or open-ended), include voiceover clips and more!

Recently Pedro Garcia (CMS) and I built a Hyperdoc on Integer Concepts to use with his 6th grade students. The Hyperdoc reviewed the concept, gave students an opportunity to apply their learning, and provided an extension activity that went deeper with the standards. Hyperdocs are more than just a Doc with links, they are a mechanism for transforming instruction through providing an engaging ways for students to access content at their own pace and with choice.
Jamie Strand (Sherman Oaks) created an awesome Hyperdoc to provide her students with choice while reviewing the concepts of GCF/LCM.

When implemented effectively, blended learning allows teachers to individualize content by allowing students to work at their own pace in a way that is not possible with stand and deliver instruction. Are you a CUSD teacher ready to start implementing blended learning stations? Come join our learning circles on Tuesday 11/15, 11/29, and 12/13- you can register at pd.campbellusd.org... there are 4 spots remaining!

Top 10 Chrome Extensions for Teachers

Chrome extensions increase the functionality of your Chrome browser, allowing for an enhanced browsing experience. So what does that mean exactly? Let's break it down: Chrome extensions (accessed from the Chrome Web Store) allow you to do really cool stuff that you didn't know was even possible. They can make you more efficient, organized, and creative. However, you should beware as there are good extensions and there are bad extensions.

Good extensions/bad extensions photo from @EdTechAri and the RUSD team's presentation at #CUE16

Let's explore some of the good extensions! Here are 10 favorite extensions for classroom teachers!


1. Move it

Never forget to get the kids up for a stretch again! This extension allows you to set certain time intervals in which you would like movement breaks. According to the time interval you set (i.e., every 10 minutes) a new tab will open prompting you and the students to get up and do a quick stretch. Stretches include jumping jacks, wall push-ups, climbing invisible ladders and more!

2. Share to Classroom

Use this extension to instantly push websites out to your students. You can also create assignments, announcements, or questions directly from a webpage (without the extra steps of copying the URL, going into Classroom, and creating the assignment). This extension is a must for teachers and students who regularly use Google Classroom.






3/4. Tab Scissors/Tab Glue

Ever have the need to have two tabs open next to each other? Maybe you want to have a spreadsheet with your grades open next to your gradebook or research open next to a research paper you are typing. With tab scissors, you can cut two tabs apart into two separate windows so they appear side-by-side and with tab glue you can glue them right back together!

5. Cite This For Me: Web Citer

Feeling lost now that the research tool in Google Docs and Google Slides has changed to explore (and lost the fancy citation features)? This is the extension for you! With this extension you can build a bibliography, choosing between APA, Chicago, Harvard, and MLA citation formats. You can even attach the quotes to the citation. This is the extension we all wish we had in grad school!







6. Goo.gl URL Shortener

Long URLs driving you and your students crazy? This extension allows you to instantly create a shortened URL of any website. Bonus: It also automatically generates a QR Code (QR code scavenger hunts? Yes please!). Plus, you can view analytics for how often your URL has been visited using the Details feature.




7. Awesome Screenshot

As teachers, how often do we need to take screenshots of web pages and insert arrows, text, etc.? This awesome extension allows you to take screenshots and then takes you to a new tab where you can instantly annotate the screenshots. Even cooler feature- you can capture an entire page in a screenshot (even parts that aren't visible!).



8. Eyedropper

Bored of the same old colors for your fonts, backgrounds, slides, etc.? Want an option to use the colors from the most beautiful beach you've ever visited? This extension will make you instantly feel like a graphic designer! Use it to grab a color from any webpage or photo and instantly generate the hex code for that color.

9. Screencastify

This fabulous extension allows you to access all of the screencasting features of Screencastify with just one click on your extensions bar. Record tabs, your entire desktop, or from your camera. OR choose my favorite option, which is Embed Webcam (this means you can have video of you talking in the corner while capturing the content of your screen). Ready for the real zinger? You can set it up to upload your screencasts directly into your Google Drive!



10. Extensity

But wait a second, you told us to add all of these extensions and now we can barely see our omnibox (yup, that's the fancy word for your URL bar). Not a worry my friends! Just add the extension Extensity and with the simple flip of a switch, you can collapse or expand all of your extensions, opening just the ones you want to use.

CUSD teachers, let me know if I can support you in adding/using any of these extensions!

What are your favorite extensions? Share them on this Padlet!

Starting a Math Revolution

We hear that the days of forward facing rows are over, that the teacher is no longer the disseminator of all information and the students are no longer passive consumers of knowledge. Teachers in CUSD are working hard to make this a reality; to make their classrooms interactive places where students take an active role in their own learning. Last year many of our middle school math teachers started using blended learning to individualize instruction. They used digital tools to administer formative assessment so they could get an instant snapshot of their students needs. This year, they are taking it to the next level with a low-tech tool that is quickly proving to be transformational: whiteboards.

What's with all the whiteboards? 
After attending Ed Campos' session on 360 Degree Math at CUE Rockstar Math, several of our teachers came back motivated to implement it in their own classrooms. What is 360 Degree math? The idea is brilliant in its simplicity: whiteboards are placed all around the classroom and each student has a spot on the whiteboards to complete their work. The teacher's primary location is in the center of the room, with the ability to float to individuals needing assistance.

The benefits include: 

• increased movement
• opportunities for peer support
• an instant snapshot of what each student in the class is doing
• Huge benefit: the teacher is able to quickly identify common misconceptions and address them in a timely and relevant manner

But where do the get all those whiteboards?!

Many of our CUSD teachers got creative as wall whiteboards are expensive and not readily available. Anna Lawrence from Monroe recommended going to Home Depot and grabbing some shower board, which proved to be a $65 solution for CMS teachers James Peng, Pedro Garcia, and Maria Cammisa (have them cut an 8 X 4 piece of shower board into four 2 x 2 pieces).

Let's see it in action!

Students in James Peng's eight grade classroom solve a problem from Jo Boeler's week of inspirational math.

Other Tips & Tricks

• Don't plan on having students standing for the entire class period! Even standing doesn't count as "movement" if you are just stationary. Alternate between table work, 360 problem-solving, and rotating around.
• Incorporate music cues into the 360 math routine.
• Have students rotate to respond to each others' solutions (awesome for my favorite math practice: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others)
• Build in "My Favorite No" as a warm-up to help establish the mindset that we learn/grow from mistakes.

Additional Management Tips

• James Peng and Pedro Garcia use strategic student placement with playing cards. The students have a playing card on their desk with an associated card on one of the whiteboards. This allows you to shake up pairing throughout the period.
• Velcro markers, erasers (pieces of cloth work) and needed materials in pouches where the students will be working.

Sold! Ready to join the 360 Math Revolution?

• CUSD teachers, simply reach out to me! I am happy to support you in getting started and continued implementation of 360 degree math.
• Ed Campos and I will be presenting 360 Math as a CUE Rockstar Jam Session at Fall CUE. More info here!