iDigital Leaders

Since the start of this school year, I have been wanting to start an iDigital Leaders group of students in our school. But as teachers know at the start of the school year with so many new initiatives I was not able to get it up and running. In January I had the opportunity to meet my fellow ADE’s at the BETT and also at the Apple regional meet. Speaking to them about it, I was inspired with ideas and getting the project off the ground.

My main objective was to get some of the senior middle school students to lead the iDigital Leaders. I had a few grade 7 students who have helped me since grade 6 and I spoke to them about leading this project with the grade 6 students. They were excited and we agreed that we would have to have a formal application process if we wanted to make this a success.

I decided to create a timeline which consisted of:

• Creating a promotion video
• Creating an application form
• Informing parents about the new initiative
• Email informing successful applicants of interview times
• Creating interview questions
• Email successful applicants
• Email Parents about ongoing process
• Inform staff about students selected

One of the first things I did first was to create a promotion video and a slide show for Grade 6 students at assembly. I kept the application form open for a week and received an overwhelming response. I sent individual emails to all students about the date and time of their interview. Due to the sheer number of students I had to run the Interview process over two days. I also involved some of the Grade 7 students who were going to lead this initiative to take part in the interview process.

After the interviews we have selected 20 students whom we were quite impressed by their level of knowledge, the variety of skills and their willingness to work as part of a team. The groups will be lead by the grade 7 pupils (soon to be grade 8) and were divided into three groups based on their interests which were:

• Social Media and Training
• Researching and Creative
• Technical and Coding

As iDigital Leaders, my goal is for them to be ambassadors for ACS Egham and have an opportunity to advocate what’s possible when we bring technology into teaching and learning,

Plus, the chance to collaborate with students, teachers and parents and share their ideas through different mediums.

Take a proper break… You’ll be much more productive if you do !

As a teacher there is the temptation that come the summer holidays, this is the best time to get work completed such as getting all schemes of work written up, lesson plans, student lists etc. 

During term time we all know that ‘time’ does does not permit us teachers to complete all the tasks above to perfection and detail as marking takes precedence.  

In my early years of teaching, I’d be thinking that being away from looking at the stuff I am responsible for was a dereliction of duty, a lack of commitment to the cause.

Today I am happy to report that I was very naive for thinking like that. My epiphany came after a holiday to the British Virgin Islands, a couple of years ago. I was shocked at how much more productive I was when I came back to work. I felt my energy levels increased and I was more positive and creative at my job.

These days when school closes for the summer holiday, I spend the first 3 days just sorting out my files, doing backups and deleting files and email that is no longer needed. I also make it a point to write a plan of things to do before the start of the new school year. 

A week before school reopens I look at that list and spend an hour each day working on completing items from that list and this helps me to get my mind thinking about the new school year.

After 14 years of teaching my advice is to revel in your time off and chances are that you will be more efficient and effective when you return back to school. And no matter what you teach in a school don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

In the wise words from my ex Head of Department who is now retired ‘ Teaching is a Marathon and not a 100 meter race. Remember to pace yourself and reserve your energy.’

Something that we all must strive to accomplish due at our workplace.

Reflection: ADE Week in Amsterdam

It's been two weeks since i’ve been back from the ADE conference in Amsterdam and quite frankly I am still recovering from it. The experience was wonderful and the people even more brilliant. Sharing of ideas as part of the community and meeting new people was a great experience. Friendships I hope to last a lifetime.

I spent last week just reflecting and jotting down all the different things I learnt from the institute but also from talking to different ADE’s from EMEA. I have started putting together a plan taking into consideration what are the priorities at my school and what would work in the short term. I am sort of breaking this down into Whole school ideas and individual subject areas.

My main focus for whole school will be iTunes U and training teachers how to use it. For Departments it would be iBooks Author and subject specific apps. One of my other goals would be to get together a group of students who will be my ‘Tech Ambassadors’ in the school and will train and promote the use of apps to students and teachers.

Below are my top three ADE highlights:

ADE Showcases:

These were three minute long showcases and were started of by the Alumni and 2015 ADE’s. This gave us all an insight as to how ADE’s were revolutionising teaching in their schools and making change happen. These showcases also gave us ideas as to how existing and new apps were being used across different subject areas and gave us an opportunity into looking at the workflow which is so important in our role.

Also if we needed more information all we had to do was to post a question in the discussion area of the iTunes U course or meet the ADE personally which was really helpful. One of the other notable showcases were the ones teaching SEN children. It was really moving to see how iPads have made a difference in their education and also how fortunate some of us are to teach in 1-1 iPad schools.

Bill Frakes:

We were very fortunate to be given a masterclass by award winning Pulitzer prize winner Bill Frakes. He gave us an insight into his life, his passion, some fabulous stories, but most of all how to take great pictures and in his words ‘It's all about the light’.

Follow Bill and Laura at:

www.billfrakes.com

www.nebraskaproject.com

www.strawhatvisuals.com

@billfrakes

@lheald86

Education Leadership: A time for change

Another highlight for me was being part of a great group of people who share the same vision as me but are in different roles within education. Just getting to know their story and being part of what they want to achieve and develop is itself an honour. We hope to share good practice, ideas but most importantly support each other with any queries and our projects going forward.

Finally I would like to say that being part of this ADE community keeps me buzzing with ideas based on discussions and forums but it’s important to focus on what will work in the classroom in our school and take small baby steps with our teachers in order to show them the big picture with numerous possibilities.

ADE Class of 2015

Received the most wonderful news of being accepted to the ADE class of 2015. All the hard work has paid off. I am honoured to have been selected and super excited to embark on this new journey and challenge. Looking forward to being part of and working with the ADE community.

Creating a stop motion film with EAL students

Over the last two weeks I have had the privilege of working with EAL students in their English lesson. In order to get them to talk and work with each other their task was to create a stop motion film of a gadget that has moving parts. Their film needed to be a minimum of 30 seconds albeit creative and original in groups of 2 or 3.

We first had students planning their idea on paper and then doing a trial of their idea and modifying it to make it work. They used various props such as lego, tubes, ping pong balls, arts and craft to make their idea work. It was amazing to see the quieter students speaking up trying to get their idea across and most importantly enjoying what they were doing.   

We showed students how to use the free iMotion app by Fingerlab for their stop motion film. The free version allows you to save the film directly to your camera roll. The students then took the film into iMovie and edited the start and the end. Some of the examples of work using iMotion and iMovie are below.

ECIS Tech Conference Munich 2015 - Sessions

Here is a brief synopsis of what I found useful from some of the sessions:

Apps:

Doodle cast pro - Alternative to explain everything

Adobe Voice

Pic Collage

Voice thread

Croak.it

Vine

Skitch

Blogging by Tricia Friedman @FriedEnglish101

Excellent validations on why blogging has a place in the classroom. Have students to plan out what they would like to blog, could be in the form of mindmap ideas or digital drawings. Start with the name of the blog, the main question of the blog and if possible ask them to draw out the main question to make it visible.

Another good suggestion by Patricia was to bring the mentors and professionals to the students to get on the spot professional advice. Also to encourage the culture of Quad blogging and to teach kids how to comment on articles and blogs.

Google Educator and Google Education trainer: Apps Events

This session was very useful as it gave an in depth insight into the difference between a Google Educator and Google Education trainer. It is something that I have been very interested in and wanted to complete for some time now as we use Google apps at my school. I have set a target to myself to be certified as a Google Educator by August. I am also interested in doing one of the training sessions held by Apps Events in the use of Google Apps.  

Thinking more deeply about Technology Integration in the IB: @pilarqibo

I was very interested in this discussion as we have just embarked on managebac and all the teachers are in the process of rewriting the curriculum across all grades. After discussions with our MYP and IB coordinator this is going to be my focus next year at my school. It was interesting looking at the guidelines for tech integration when planning a unit of work. More information and training needs to come out from the IB to have these guidelines imbedded when planning a unit of work.

Slam Sessions: Cool ideas for everyone to know and try out

• Using Quicktime player to project or mirror from an iPhone
• Google Keep on the laptops has more features enabled
• Addon in Google sheets for Mail merge
• writenowbooks.org - is like a youtube for books
• slidescarnival.com - templates for google slides
• Horizn App - excellent to film on the iPhone as it takes out the black line spaces at the side when filming
• Google drawings - To create hyperlinks to various documents when doing a project
• Appear.in - to use like skype without the need to have to log in
• Video Notes - Addon to drive. Allows you to take notes while watching a video and saves directly to drive
• Quiet Tube - Video appears without all the videos and ads at the sides. Especially useful when teaching different kinds of learners

ECIS Tech Conference Munich 2015 - Keynote Speech

The last couple of months have been manic with planning for new units in the MYP, reporting, observations for Stronge standards, my ADE application, training for my Google and MOS exams coupled with our IT department not sorting out issues for staff; it just felt like I was getting nowhere. The ECIS conference was just what I needed - motivation and to take things into perspective of where we are as a school and what needs to be done.

The Keynote was given by Kim Cofino @mscofino and she talked about the different kinds of learning in the classroom. She made the point of how ‘education needs to learn with technology the way students live with technology’. A point so relevant to educators to keep up with the tech savvy generation of students that we teach. she focused on 6 main areas in her keynote which I will summarise.

Lets take advantage of being Mobile and get students out and about to explore new areas around us. Trust them to customise their devices and teach them to be responsible administrators of their devices. Using social apps that our students use the most such as snapchat and twitter. Using interactive and media rich resources to track progress and engage students. Motivating students to keep learning, allowing them to connect with others, and to actually “be” a part of the content they’re learning about. Applying a more “just in time” approach, and allow students to engage with the content within the context of their course learning.

Uploading an image into Google Docs

Today I was told by the drama teacher that her students were unable to upload images and videos on the iPad from Google docs. After some initial investigation on the iPad, adding pictures to a doc was looking very bleak. I was able to open a picture in Drive and select the option to copy but as soon as I clicked the paste option it would only paste the link in the Google doc.

After doing a bit more research online, I finally managed to crack the solution though it wasn’t as straight forward as I thought it would be. It is easier to break it down into steps below.

Step 1:

On the iPad select Safari browser and go to google.com/drive and log on to your google drive account.

Step 2:

Once in your drive account select the desktop version on the top right corner or click the menu option on the left and select the desktop version link which is below the Terms of Service.  

Step 3:

The desktop version enables you to view Google drive as you would on a laptop or desktop. Select and open the doc you want to insert the image from the iPad. Then go to insert - image and select the image or video you would like to upload. Select ‘Choose existing’ and this takes you to your camera roll. Select your image and it should appear in the Google doc.

Step 4:

Once your image is in the doc come out of Safari and go into the Google doc app. The image that you uploaded through your browser will be in the Google doc. Continue typing and editing the document as normal.  

It is a long drawn process but it works. Google, if you are listening this is an area teachers and students would like a more straight forward process.

Using the iPad in Maths

I find it extremely fascinating to watch Grade 6 students using their iPads in a maths lesson. At the start of the lesson students use the iPad for a quick quiz or a challenge activity to figure out a problem set by the teacher. They then download from Managebac the teachers Powerpoint in PDF and open it in Notability on their iPad.

They start taking notes simultaneously while the teacher is explaining the Math problem on the whiteboard. Once the problem is understood the students then start solving the questions in Notability and save the work in their Math folder for future reference.

If a student has finished solving a problem the teacher then asks them to reflect their solution through Airplay on the whiteboard and it is really good to see a discussion between students and the teacher. I have found this method of learning to encourage some of the quieter students to participate and reflect their answers on the whiteboard.

Another way students use their iPad in Math is by downloading graph paper from the Internet in a PDF format and open it in Notability. This saves time for the teacher and students in drawing the axis and numbering it. Based on the math question they then plot the points on the graph and draw a straight line in Notability at the bottom of the screen and then cut and place it correctly on the graph.

It is encouraging to see the iPad used differently in a Maths lesson and not just for its use as a calculator.

Use of basic Apple features on the iPad

Two weeks ago, I was asked by the Upper school EAL teacher to come in during one of her lessons and show her students how to use some basic features on the iPad. I spent an hour showing students how to use notes, timer, keyboards in different languages, annotating images, upload work to Google drive, how to use the reader function for their research in safari and enable the speak function in accessibility.

Today in conversation with the EAL teacher it was good to know that the students were actually using some of the features I had gone through with them in their classes. This got me thinking that if students were properly trained in the use of mobile devices even the basic apps on the iPad could make a difference in their learning. 

I am a strong believer that if students are given direction in the use of apps and how to fully utilise its potential in their learning, it not only builds their confidence, but in the long run both students and teachers benefit in a classroom environment.

Animation in an English lesson...really!!!

Two weeks ago I was approached by a very enthusiastic english teacher who wanted to introduce iPads in her grade 6 lesson. The department had just written up a Mythology unit for the new MYP curriculum and one of the tasks was for students to create their own animated Myth video. The students would use their iPad to investigate several different myths and legends from different cultures. Once they understood the idea of a myth they would then have to create their own.

On discussions with the teacher the hardest part was finding an app that would be easy to use but have the features to draw and animate the outcome. Finally after going back and forth we decided to go with the app Animation desk Lite. The app was easy to use but more so gave us the flexibility to take a picture from the camera or an existing one from photos. The app also allowed us to export the final project by email or save it to our camera roll.

The students were working in groups of two and once they decided what myth they were going to create, they had to do hand drawn designs showing the various stages of their story. When we demonstrated the app to the students we were amazed at how quickly they picked it up and started coming up with even more ideas on what to add to their myth.   

We selected two groups of students who were working at a much faster pace and who understood how to use the app to demonstrate to the class their ideas and what they created so far on the app. For me having students explain to their peers how to use an app is very powerful, breaks barriers and encourages collaboration.

By the end of the week students had completed their hand drawn designs and their animation based on their myth idea. Their next stage was to export their animation and pictures of their hand drawn designs into iMovie and do a voiceover explaining their myth. Some of the students even added some background music.

At the end of the assignment it was brilliant to see the range of different ideas and the effort the students had put in without cutting any corners. The other impressive feature was using a range of apps to produce their final piece of work such as Animation desk lite, iMovie, uploading their work to Google drive and sharing it with their teacher.

I believe the next stage for the english department would be to display the students animations showing their various ideas on this topic through QR codes to parents, students and most importantly to existing teachers in the school. As teachers we are not very good at showing off the excellent work of our students but hopefully this is the start of something and will take off in the school. View one of the animations through the QR code below.

Comments in Google docs

During lunch in conversation with a Geography teacher, she mentioned to me how she was becoming increasingly frustrated at not being able to keep her comments in Google docs after the students had resolved them.

With Parent / Teacher / Student conferences coming up she wanted to show parents the comments on the first draft and the work done by students after resolving the comments, which was inadequate. She wanted to highlight to the parents that their child was not adhering to the guidance given in the comments. and there was no way she was going to screenshot each and every students work.

I tried a few things with her docs but the comments would not show even after making a copy of the file on her drive. On researching this further and testing it with various docs the only solution was to download the file in a Microsoft Word format which would show the comments in a Markup format. The other alternative was to download the file in a web page format which would Zip the file and show the comments in the bottom of the screen as a footnote.

On showing the teacher the two different solutions she was thrilled that this was far more simpler than having to screen shot or go back to the paper version, though I did mention to her that doing this for the entire class on a regular basis is impractical. Google docs may not be the answer to everything but it does take the collaboration feature to a whole new level either as a whole class or on a one-to-one level with your student. Try the app, its awesome!

 

A Parent Request

Last evening on my way home I was stopped by a parent in the car park requesting me to repeat one of my iPad sessions to parents on the use of iPad at Home and at School that I had held earlier this year. She mentioned that many new parents had been for the Lower School Internet safety talk and were now concerned about the use of iPads in middle and high school. She said if I organised a session like last year it would elevate their fears and give them confidence in how we were using the iPads in school.

Last year I held a Parent forum on iPads where I showed parents how the iPad was used in a classroom environment, procedures the school have in place such as Internet filtering, our Casper management system and most importantly the use of the iPad at home and dealing with situations such as when your child tells you that they have homework all evening on the iPad.

A big success at the presentation was that I got about 12 students from different grades to demonstrate various apps that they were using and explain to parents how it had transformed their learning, organisation and presentation skills. Parents were amazed to see students using apps such as iMovie, Keynote, Pages, Popplet, Book Creator, Notability, Explain Everything amongst others rather than PowerPoint which was traditionally used.

Students also explained how these apps were being used in different subjects such as Maths, Science, English, Languages, PE and Humanities. It made me very proud at the end of the session to think of the progress we had made in so little time. This would not be possible without the support from staff and the students. A big thank you to you all...

Saved by Google Docs

Yesterday afternoon in my tech lesson, after my initial starter the students began the tasks they had to complete as part of their project work. Within 5 minutes of them working I heard cries of anguish as they lost their connection to the Internet. On investigating further, it seemed that all the macs in the lab had lost the ethernet connection. I asked them to restart the machines and called the IT helpdesk to report the fault. Soon it became clear that the Internet was down in the entire building but strangely enough the wireless Internet was still working. 

As the students were doing their project work in Google Docs, I asked them to take out their iPads and continue their project. At the end of the lesson it was good to see the progress they had made and it got me thinking that without Google docs and iPads the lesson would have been wasted and students would ask me for an extension of their deadline date. Luckily in this instance my original deadline still stands.