5 Musts for the "Tech-Tense" Teacher

I had the pleasure of leading a few computer training meetings during our before school festivities. As I'm sure you know, all of our teachers were gung-ho about implementing new technology tools into their curriculums! For some teachers, you say "technology in the classroom" and they shudder. Others press you for details expecting you to have all the answers on how to use tech in their particular classes.

At my school, we are just beginning to unlock the potential of Google in the classroom. Every one of our middle school students now has a Google chrome book full time. The question has been, "How can we make this a successful initiative?" Some teachers are still not sold on using the chrome books in their classes; they may consider themselves "tech-tense". I've come to the conclusion that proper implementation has to be driven from the top down. Without the leadership expecting chrome book connections from teachers, the initiative will fail. It is no longer accepted for teachers to say they don't see the need to use chrome books in every classroom because, well, there are chrome books in every classroom.

I do not have all the answers, but I love to help out. However, I want my colleagues to rely less on me and learn to plan their own lessons with the chrome books in mind.

Teachers must RESEARCH.
I teach English, Bible, and Media in the middle school. I've used Google tools for a few years now. My go-to is Google Docs. I love that you can get into and edit your documents anywhere and on multiple devices. Responding to students is a breeze once the doc is shared. And Google Classroom is getting easier and easier to use for teachers and students. I can show you how to use these things, but I need you to apply it to your own class. Sign up for Google Classroom and spend 10 minutes learning it. It's what we teachers do, right? We bring in new resources all the time. It's time to research how to use a Google Doc in History or Science or even Math.

Teachers must PRACTICE.
There are times when I learn the basics, show the students what I want, and then let them run with it. Sometimes the students take it to a level I didn't expect, and they wow me. More often, though, students only do what you've instructed them to do. And to teach a skill, I need to know the skill first. I've known how to type a document for forever, it seems, but a Google Doc has some cool pieces I didn't originally understand. It has a research function where you can look up something on the Internet you just finished typing. Using this tool, you can also cite your sources. And one of my favorites to use with students is the revision history. Say they've selected the whole document to switch it to double space everything and they accidentally hit a key and erased it all. While the undo button is a savior for kids (and myself!), sometimes it doesn't work perfectly. Go to the student's revision history and see minute by minute the changes that were made. Restore the version with a single click, and viola! you have the entire document back. You can even see what the collaborators are writing at any moment. The point is you have to practice on a Google Doc and understand the toolbar before you can help the students with it.

Teachers must SERVE.
While I may not have time to go around to all the teachers to help them individually, it's my top priority to connect with my students. So I have to walk around and teach them how to use their chrome book and specifically their Google Doc. If there's trouble with the wi-fi, I need to take extra time to help them with a work-around. If the parents have a question from home, I need to make myself available to answer those questions.

Teachers must demonstrate FLEXIBILITY.
When I took my first educational tech class, the professor asked us to share our biggest "tech-fail". I think that says a lot about how often issues with technology could hinder a teacher's plans. Unfortunately, when a tech-fail occurs, class time is wasted. (And I haven't found a workaround for that!) However, having a Plan B is necessary. In my classes, we always have a consumable vocabulary book or a new writing project or a book we can fall back on. That independent work gives me time to get online and search for a solution or call our Tech Director for advice. Sometimes the activity will need to be pushed forward a day (or even scrapped!).

Teachers must SHARE.
I've tried to tell you some cool things regarding Google Docs and Google Classroom, and I hope teachers at my school can see the value in those tools. Options for more tools should collaboratively be brought to future staff meetings or Tech Tuesdays to share. Padlet, Kahoot, Socrative, and Evernote are terrific tools that can be applied to multiple subjects, and there's so much more! As teachers share what they're researching and trying out in their own classes, discussion that transfers it to particular subject areas will hopefully follow. And listen to the students! I have noticed students walk in and share their joys from a previous class in which chrome books were used. I, too, have seen students frustrated. This is a great time to let the students discuss solutions with each other and then encourage their previous teacher to try again the next period or day.

I don't think implementing technology is a perfect science. There are too many what-ifs and school specific philosophies, but when the leadership involves itself and sets up a clear plan for their teachers, I believe that tech success is just around the corner.

10 Take-Aways from EdTechTeacher Chromebook Workshop

After using an iPad cart for 2 years and a chromebook cart for half a year, our middle school is heading 1:1 with chromebooks. I jumped on the opportunity to head to the San Francisco Bay Area in June with our tech guy to learn more about chromebook implementation. We were blessed with 2 wonderful presenters from EdTechTeacher, Avra Robinson @avrarachel and Brenda Doucette @doucetteb.

I, of course, wanted to learn how I would be using the chromebooks in my own English and Bible classes (not to mention my computer classes), but I also entered with the perspective to watch out for other subject area ideas that I could bring back to my colleagues for use once school starts in the fall. Suffice it to say, I came back with chromebook overload, but I'm going to attempt to unpack it for others' benefit. Grab it if you want.

C-R-C-D Framework (collect-relate-create-donate)

We didn't dive into philosophy much, but this was a helpful framework to organzie my thoughts into what I want my students to accomplish with their devices. From Professor Ben Shneiderman - Leonardo's Laptop, it focuses in on what we want students to DO. That's one thing I always try to push in my classes - get the students to create something and then share it out.

Evernote

I've used this before to archive information, especially from workshops or other meetings. I think the best description for Evernote would be a digital form of traditional spiral notebooks, except that you can save websites, photos, and even video along with your notes. It's powerful, and I can see students using Evernote to organize their school lives. It can be used across all devices, too. The free basic service works well (unless you want to keep multiple videos which need more storage than the free service provides). Other archiving options given at the ETT workshop were Google Docs and Google Keep.

Google Docs

We spent a significant amount of time, especially on day 1 of the workshop, exploring Google Docs. Not only can students type their "papers" in Google Docs, but they can research while in the document, cite information in different formats, and even edit PDFs. Of course, the collaboration aspect of Google Docs is, in my opinion, the coolest. Being in the same document as somebody else has many advantages, and commenting back and forth is so valuable when it comes to peer (or teacher) editing.

Vocaroo

This is a registration-free space for you to record your voice. Have students record for each other and share the link. It is saved as a link and can get pasted or embedded anywhere. Teachers can share feedback right on a student's Google Doc. I'm definitely using Vocaroo for end of paper summation comments this year.

Thinglink

This one has so many options. Use a photo and tag it with links to other locations. Lisa Johnson @techchef4u is a whiz with Thinglink. Spend some time reading her stuff and be inspired. Get some ideas on how to get started with Thinglink here - make sure to scroll down and see the teacher who used a class picture to create ePortfolios for her students. I've got to study more of her stuff.

Padlet

You can use Padlet in your classroom when you want to gather student input. Imagine having students place thoughts or answers on your whiteboard in front of the classroom, but that whiteboard is on their own chromebook screen and it holds every student's contribution on a collaborative "wall". What could you use this for?

Tackk

Tackk.com is an online space that I would consider a mini-website. Students can use this as an online flyer to share information about a book they've read as a kind of book report. They can link other web pages or videos to it. It scrolls like a web page and can include multiple headings. They can easily change the theme, colors, and fonts. I use something similar as an online home for my soccer team. It's called smore.com and varies just slightly from tackk.com.

Google Classroom

If your school has Google Apps For Education (GAFE), then I would highly advise setting up Google Classroom for your self-contained classroom or for each of the classes you teach. Students can sign up using your class code. You post assignments and resources here, and then students use Google Apps to complete the assigned work. They create and turn in their documents (or forms or drawings, etc.) within your Google Classroom, which transfers ownership to you, then you can give feedback and return their work, which transfers ownership back to them. If you've thought of going "paperless" at your site, then this is the place for you.

PrintFriendly

Sometimes teachers may want to assign an online article or other Internet reading to their students, but they want to adjust it slightly or simply keep it in a more secure location like your own Google Drive. A handy way to do this is to use PrintFriendly to turn the web page into a pdf and then edit some of it down. Using DocHub in conjunction with PrintFriendly allows further editing and even export into Google Drive. Once it's in your Google Drive, you can place it almost anywhere online, but I would suggest putting it in your Google Classroom as an assigned reading.

Google Forms

Google Forms are a super cool way to poll students. If you do it right, students could even poll each other. Creating a form and sending it also creates a spreadsheet with responses, which then allows you to evaluate the responses given. Another way you can use a form is to simply collect links from students. If they have edited their website and you'd like to see it (or grade it), then you could create a quick form for students to post their website page link. Any online work the student completes can be turned into a link that can then be handed in using a quick form you create.

And there you have it, my 10 takeaways from the EdTechTeacher chromebook workshop I attended in Menlo Park in June. Special thanks to Avra Robinson and Brenda Doucette who led a very engaging 3 days!