What's Up This Week

Google Docs with Students

This past week, I spent time with two different groups of students in Alcoma and Brooks Composite High School working with Google Docs. We began by logging in and setting up their drive. We talked about the utility of the drive and how it could help keep them organized and remove the need for an external drive. That was the straightforward part of the presentation. The piece that really got them excited was the collaborative nature of Google Docs. I created a Google Doc and shared it with two students in the room and my wife, who was working from her office in Brooks. The students were all amazed at how quickly ideas could be share. They got a kick out of seeing their comments appear on the document. As well, they were equally as impressed seeing the comments my wife made.

While it was a lot of fun, we also discussed how the share feature could be used to foster greater collaboration between members of the same class, different schools and students in different countries. In addition, we spoke about the ways teachers could use Google DOcs to provide students with feedback to promote their understanding. It was great to work with the students and see how excited they were about collaborating with each other. 

Sites and Stuff

I am often asked for websites or apps that teachers can use in their classrooms. As such, I thought I would draw your attention to a few that I think are both interesting and have great utility for your classrooms:

1. Read and Write for Google: This web based App provides premium features free for teachers. It is one of the better text to speech apps that I have come across. In addition, the premium features give you speech input for Google Docs. If you have students in your class who experience difficulty and may benefit from a text to speech app this is definitely a good one to try.
2. Virtual Researchers on Call: I have written about this site previously but am so impressed by it I thought it could use another mention here. VROC is a site which is free for teachers in Grasslands Public Schools. It is a database collection of experts in science, technology, engineering and math. Once you sign up and receive a log in from VROC, you will have access to their experts. You can take a look at recorded presentations, invite an expert into your class, or sign your class up for a STEM mentor. In addition, the Partners in Research component hosts live events with STEM professionals. Teachers and students can join the live stream presentation and Tweet their questions. This offers teachers a very quick way to bring experts into their classes.
3. Instagrok: This is one that came across my desk earlier this week. It is a very powerful tool to create dynamic graphic organizers with your students. You can input any search term into the search bar and Instagrok will create a web for you. All of the information on the web can then be expanded. You can increase the difficulty level of the web to provide you with more detailed search results. In addition, students can create their own webs and share them with other students. This is a site that offers a lot of possibilities for content in classrooms.

Connected Teaching and Learning

Early in my teaching career, an administrator asked all of his staff: "are you a school teacher or a classroom teacher?" His goal was for all of us to see ourselves as connected to all students and to one another, not just as isolated practitioners only worried about ourselves and the students in our room. 

The concept of connection has changed dramatically in the past few years. There is a wide variety of platforms which enable teachers to connect and collaborate. I already wrote about the collaborative power of Google Apps for Education. Today, I would like to share my thoughts about Twitter.

Twitter is an amazing resource for teachers. With Twitter, you have the capacity to develop an immense digital professional learning community. This means you can share and collaborate with and ask questions of thousands of teachers. For me, this resource has proven to be truly invaluable. There are so many ways to use Twitter for yourself and with students. I would be happy to meet with you and help set up a Twitter account. Below is a list to some Grasslands teachers who are already connected and on Twitter. I'm sure I've missed a few and, if I have, I apologize. If you are on Twitter and would like to add your name, either write a comment on this post or send me an email and I will update the list. Also, if you are on Twitter and would like to connect with other Grasslands teachers, please use the hashtag: #GPSD6. 

Thanks!

Grasslands Teachers on Twitter:

Sean Beaton: @backcountrynut

Vince Hill: @vhill01 
Nathan Hodgson: @BassanoBroncos
Alicia Olson: @ali_ciaolson
Jeneen Armstrong: @bassanojeneen
Tim Rodgers: @tpsrodgers
Amanda McCrimmon: @missMcCrimm
Linda Andres: @LindaAndres1
Bassano School: @BassanoSchool
Marg Grosfield: @MargGrosfield
Shawn Lachapelle: @lachapelles
Gord Bramfield: @nodgroadog