First Semester in Review

First semester is in the books and it has been a wild and crazy ride on Tuesdays down in the collaboration room of the library. We have given away digital badges, t-shirts, and food! All the while learning how to effectively integrate technology to support our content and pedagogy. We hope to see you at a TPACK Tuesday 2nd semester! Checkout some of the topics we covered 1st semester.

Think Pair Share with Google Docs
Solve Your Workflow Problem with Google Classrooms
Explain Your Thinking with Movenote
Tic Tac Toe to Formatively Assess Students
Change the Way Your Students Watch Videos
Curate Web Resources and Create Graphic Organizers with Padlet
What to Do with All that Data?
Hour of Code

Climbing the SAMR Model with Student Self Assessments

Student self assessment is a meta-cognitive teaching strategy proven to have a huge impact on student achievement. It allows students to see the progress they are making toward learning targets and that the purpose of class is to learn, not just earn a grade. The SAMR model can help us understand how using Google spreadsheets can transform a self assessment.

SAMR was introduced to the staff at our October institute days. It stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition. If you would like more information on SAMR checkout Taking a Hammer to SAMR by Joe Robinson our Instructional Technology Coordinator.

The first rung of the SAMR model is Substitution. At this level, technology does not really enhance learning, it just replaces the paper and pencil with a screen and keyboard. For example, simply copy and pasting the self assessment into a Google spreadsheet and not using any of its functionalities would qualify as Substitution.

The second rung of SAMR is Augmentation. At this level, technology performs the same task but with some improved functionality. Students sharing the spreadsheet with their teacher to periodically check in during a unit would be an example of Augmentation.

The third rung of SAMR, Modification, is when technology begins to transform the old task. At this level, several times a week students can reflect and track their progress toward learning targets by updating the same spreadsheet. Teachers can see student growth by using the revision history function to see previous versions of a document. Students can also demonstrate their comprehension of the learning targets by posting links to artifacts of their learning. Now the spreadsheet is not just a self reflection but a digital portfolio.

The last rung of SAMR is Redefinition. In this rung, technology allows for new tasks that were previously inconceivable. Students can neatly organize all the important unit information into several sheets of the spreadsheet. For example, one sheet can include essential questions and resources. Another sheet can contain key terms, definitions, and images that represent each term. The spreadsheet is now a well organized digital portfolio that include all the important unit information which students can continue to revisit and update during a unit of study. Checkout a sample spreadsheet for a unit of study in Economics.

Hour of Code

December 8-14th is Computer Science Education Week. Last year, 15 million student gave coding a try and this year it’s estimated that 100 million student will join worldwide. 

What is this Hour of Code?
It’s the first step to showing students what computer science is about. We are lucky to have a great Computer Science program here at BHS, and this is the opportunity for more students to trying coding. Hour of Code is a self directed activity that can be completed by students.

Why Hour of Code?
Once students see what they can create, it inspires them to keep learning. No previous experience is required and students get to learn at their own pace. The basics of computer science help develop creativity and problem-solving skills of 21st century learners.

Try It!

Give it a try and find out how engaging coding can be for students. Start by visiting https://holidays.madewithcode.com/project/lights to create a pattern that will light up one of the christmas trees in Washington DC. Then try one of the coding tutorials and activities at http://code.org/learn. A good one to start with is Angry Birds!

If you would like to participate in the Hour of Code event during December 8 - 14th, visit http://hourofcode.com/us for more information.

What to do with all that data?

Google Forms are an assessment tool that have become popular with a lot of our staff. I’ve seen staff use Forms to survey students, create self grading quizzes, bell ringers and exit tickets. Forms allow you to include a variety of question types, embed video and images. Responses immediately populate into a spreadsheet. Checkout the Edtech Website for a tutorial on Google Forms.

Creating and administering a Google Form is the easy part. The real challenge is determining what to do with all the data after collecting it. On our October Institute days, we defined a formative assessment as any assessment during the learning process that is used to modify teaching and learning activities for the same group of students. Below are two strategies you can use to manage the data in a Google Spreadsheet and quickly make adjustments to teaching and learning activities.

First, use the summary of results feature to get an aggregate view of student responses. This feature shows you a bar graph or pie chart for each question. In addition, you see the percent of students that choose each response. Use this view to immediately clear up any common misconception or sticking points. Simply click “Form” and “Show summary of responses.”

Another tip is to set up conditional formatting within the spreadsheet. Conditional formatting will color code the spreadsheet, so that you can instantly pinpoint individual students that are grasping the concepts and which ones need further intervention. Checkout the tutorial below to learn how to set up conditional formatting in a Google Spreadsheet.

Stop by TPACK Tuesday this week to discuss Google Spreadsheets and conditional formatting.