Picasso Head

I spent last week as a fifth grade art teacher.  I suppose it's more accurate to say that I team-taught fifth grade art with our art teacher.  My lesson was an activity culminating an entire unit about Picasso. During this unit, they looked at Picasso himself and studied artwork from his various periods.  To be honest, I had no idea that Picasso had various phases: realism, cubism, blue, and rose.  The abstract artwork us non-artsy people assign to Picasso was actually just a small fraction of his repertoire.  These students knew all that before coming to me to do some "Picasso art" on their computers.

We focused on creating abstract art, like Picasso's, using www.picassohead.com, a drag and drop art site. The site is user-friendly enough that a kindergartner can see success with it. (Seriously, I used it in kindergarten the last couple years.) All you need to do is drag and drop facial features into your canvas.  From there you can increase or decrease your feature sizes and mess around with colors. Of course, since this is Picasso art, it was never intended to be realistic. The more abstract the better. Mrs. Rigg, our art teacher, wasn't just content with students creating a simple head.  She wanted multiple faces and she wanted them anchored to the bottom of the canvas as well.

Overall, the students created some incredible artwork with very limited options.  It was great fun to work with another teacher and find myself in a place I never thought I'd be... teaching art.

Blended: A Book Review

Title: Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools
Authors: Michael B. Horn and Heather Staker
Review:

I could be wrong, but I think most schools and districts jump into a blended learning model (or what they would call blended learning) without a lot of planning about how it will work.  They buy the hardware, ramp up the wifi capabilities, and figure that teachers will work out the rest of the details.  While it's true there are teachers who will make it happen, the harsh reality is that most teachers are too busy to use the technology effectively.

Blended is a book that can help solve that problem.  Horn and Staker think through all the ramifications of what administrators and teachers should consider before launching a blended learning program.  And, believe it or not, they spend very little time talking about technology itself.

The true focus of this book -- and consequently, blended learning itself -- is in the subtitle: disruptive innovation.  If we continue to teach like we've always taught we will never truly see blended learning work effectively.  If we make our blended learning about technology, we will never truly see blended learning work effectively. Instead, we need to put our attention on the way teaching and learning happen in our schools.  (Spoiler Alert: It no longer looks anything like the way we were taught as kids and probably not how we were taught in college.)

While the text of the book was helpful, the best part of the book for me was the video links weaved into the book.  This gave me a look into what other schools are doing so I could see it in action.

Perhaps my biggest takeaway came from Chapter 3: "Start with the Rallying Cry." "The most successful blended-learning programs are much more deliberate and generally share a common starting point: they begin by identifying the problem to solve or the goal to achieve. They start with a clear rallying cry." (page 98) I think the number one important idea is to ask your principal why are we attempting a blended learning program, then run with that goal in mind.

While Blended is a book meant to be read and absorbed by administrators and lead teachers before blended learning is implemented, I also think it would be a great book to be read in those schools where computers or tablets were dumped in teachers' laps with little training or planning.  It's time to put some serious effort into a sustainable blended learning model in our schools.

Google Classroom

Back in 2012, I went to a Google Summit in Columbus, Ohio. When I arrived at the convention center I had never heard of Google Apps.  I drove home that night a believer. I used all things Google whenever possible and tried my best to convince my school to take the plunge into GAFE. It took a painstaking year till the decision was made to go...Microsoft.

I'll admit I was disappointed, but once the decision was made I strove to be the best OneDrive user the school would ever have.  I attended (and even presented at) a Microsoft Symposium and put a lot of time into training my computer students on how to best use Office 365 products. If you were a reader of my old blog, you may remember how I experimented with various Office products to find the best fit for certain aspects of school.  (If you are an Office 365 user, please do yourself a favor and learn everything there is to learn about OneNote Class Notebook and use it religiously in your classroom. You won't be sorry!)

When I started interviewing for Kentucky public schools, I knew that this Office 365 background would be super helpful for me.  You see, all Kentucky public schools are Microsoft schools -- so I thought.  I was surprised when in my first Boone County interview to hear them mention Google Classroom.  In fact, I was so surprised I didn't even think about it till after the interview was over.  I did ask about it in my second interview (for another position).  Apparently, Boone County made the decision to go with Google even though Microsoft was available to them.  By my third interview (for yet another position), I made sure I had more Google knowledge under my belt.

Great for Boone County!  Better for me.  I'm back where I want to be.

So that leads me to today.  I'm coming from an iPad/Office 365 background and sitting in a Chromebook/GAFE school.  My job is blended learning, which means I need to help my colleagues navigate the Google waters as they figure out how to infuse digital learning into their instruction.  Good stuff, but I have a lot to learn.

Back in 2012, when I threw myself wholeheartedly into Google Apps, Classroom didn't exist. While I feel proficient in the basic apps (Docs, Slides, Sheets), I have no idea how to proceed with Classroom.  It's taking a lot of reading, piggybacking off other teachers' classes, and observation.  It's going to be a wild ride, but I'm looking forward to the end product -- what things will look like come May when we know what we're doing around here.

I'd love for you to read about the adventures as I blog about them and please... give me whatever ideas you happen to think of yourself.  For instance:

• Who is a GAFEr I should follow on Twitter?
• Whose Classroom blog should I be reading faithfully?
• What is the best book on the subject? 

Thanks for reading along!

Chrome Camps

There is such excitement in the air this year as our students are walking into a really sweet deal.   Every third, fourth, and fifth grade student gets their own Chromebook to use in school.  And they are (literally) squealing with delight.

My job this week has been to run "Chrome Camp," where I go into each of the twelve classes using the Chrome books and to teach them the ropes.  It's been both fun and exhausting!  It's great to joke with them, walk through all the icky rule stuff, and help them get started.  I've also enjoyed photobombing their profile pictures.  The great thing is that these kids see me as "the keeper of the Chromebooks," so I walk into their room as a superhero before I even open my mouth.

However, it's exhausting work too. I'm not used to not having my own classes.  I'm really just a visitor in these classrooms.  I don't know the kids, their teachers, or the class culture yet. And I'm well aware that there is more on display than the wonderful Chromebooks I'm talking about.  There have been numerous with login info, and it's been hairy getting the students off and running

Overall, it's been awesome to get into classrooms and start the process of moving my school toward blending learning.  Setting up the Chromebooks is understandably one small step in the process but it's been an important one.  And I'm feeding off the students' enthusiasm.

Here are some main themes of my Chrome Camp talk.

• What 1:1 means and who really owns the Chromebook.
• How to take care of your Chromebook.
• Things to do and not to do with your Chromebook (both the physical machine and digital content).
• Parts of the Chromebook.
• Log in and make a profile picture.
• Sign the Chromebook Contract. 

The contract is a Google Form where students read and agree to statements about treating the Chromebook correctly while being good digital citizens.  This can be used if a student displays improper use of the technology and we need to have "an uncomfortable conversation" with them.

Since I am not the originator of the presentation or the contract, I need to create an original version of these before I can post them on the blog.  Hold on tight.

How are you kicking off your year with Chromebooks?

Starting Out

I was told that we would get a slow start to the year.  While I fully believed that statement, I had no idea how slow the start would be.

Like most teachers, I'm used to the first few days of school being exhausting.  You're on your feet more than you're used to.  You're talking more than you're used to.  You're thinking more than you're used to.  Then you go home and collapse.  This year... not so much.

The first three days consisted of impromptu meetings with my RTI and blended learning teams and projects that came out of those meetings.  I never thought I would become adept at stringing power cords in charging carts, but after three Chromebook carts and one iPad cart, I feel like I could do that in my sleep -- over and over again.  I helped out with first grade math screenings, and I got to know my team members.

I have to laugh, because people will ask me how I like my new job.  "So far, I haven't done anything.  I like it a lot!" I laugh then add that things will start to pick up soon.

Wait... Let me back up a bit for those of you who don't know who I am or what I'm doing.

I am a 22 year teaching veteran.  For those first 22 years, I taught in three different private schools in three different states.  I have taught 4th, 5th, and 6th grades and spent a good chunk of time as a computer teacher and tech lead in a PreK-12 setting.  My main foci were on iPads, OneDrive, and Renaissance Learning.

For Year #23, I am in my first year at Yealey Elementary School in Boone County School District (Kentucky).  I am the blended learning teacher. My main thrust will be helping third through fifth grade teachers and students learn to use Chromebooks in their classrooms.  I will certainly help in other capacities, like iPads in 1st grade or collaborating with our art teacher, but the Chromebooks are what got me here. I certainly hope to post often and show you what we are learning here at Yealey and how we can incorporate these machines into a PBL setting.

It's going to be a long process, changing the trajectory of a school, but I'm excited to see what's going to happen around here.  But for now, I should take a stroll down the hall to try to figure out more teacher names.