8 Techs to Organize the School Year

I taught strictly 6th grade for years. While I used to identify myself as a 6th grade teacher when asked what I do, these days I just say I teach in the middle school. However, I'm still holding onto 6th grade English Language Arts, and I'm working to organize the upcoming school year for student growth. To that end, I plan to establish 8 techs that will encompass my 6th grade ELA classroom.


Smore.com

Last year Shannon Miller inspired me (unintentionally on twitter, mind you) to try out this free flyer site. She called it a mini-website, and it has transformed the way I think about communicating with parents. It is organized from top to bottom, so scrolling down is a necessity, and it allows for a good array of design, background, font, and color options. I use it to link to anything I want, be it a Google Calendar, videos, forms, etc. Check out these options:

I've used smore.com to organize resources for presentations, to set up a thematic unit on coding with kids, and as a website for my soccer team. Now I plan to use it as a class website. It's quick, easy, informative, and pleasing to the eye. It replaces my Google Site, which I had previously made way too complicated.


Remind

I started using this last year with the high school soccer team I coach. Previously called Remind101, it is a "text out only" service--no return texts. I had my players sign up via text so that I could send out text reminders to them about upcoming practice or game times or other general announcements about the season. This year I plan to give my 6th ELA parents the option to sign up for my "class" via Remind. All you have to do is set up an account, create a class, and you receive a unique phone number and code. Parents (and/or students) can text that number with the class code and voila! they are linked to your Remind account. I plan to use this when I've updated grades on our school's grading system, added something new to my smore.com site, or for other general announcements for the whole group. I'm quite curious to see how many parents take this bait at our annual "Back to School Night".


Google Docs

I've you haven't had students use Google Docs, then you haven't lived. Once all the confusing tech requirements get cleared up, students thrive when accessing their document from anywhere they have an internet connection. Beginning with the power of Google Drive (not to mention Slides, Sheets, Forms, and Drawings), students have the power to turn in paperless assignments by sharing them with the teacher or fellow students for editing purposes. Unlocking the collaborative nature of Google Docs is where the real magic happens. All you need is a Google account to get started, but your students each need one, too, which is a great reason to have your school or district on Google Apps for Education. I don't mind having students work with pencil and paper, but drafting and publishing is taken to another level with Google Docs.


Kidblog

As I've blogged about before, Kidblog has opened up opportunities for my 6th grade ELA students. We were able to connect with some Australian buddies from Canberra, and a whole different level of motivation for student writing was unleashed. You, of course, can choose another blogging platform, but what I love about Kidblog is that the teacher chooses the privacy settings. It can be as private or as public as you decide is right for your class. For us, we shared our blogs with only one class abroad. This year I hope to expand and add in a few more classes around the country or globe. Much of what we will do is create drafts in Google Docs and import or copy our writing into Kidblog as our main publishing tool. I typically grade the students on their revised and edited Google Doc, provide feedback, and then have students post their writing on Kidblog to begin their conversations with each other.


Evernote

I have used Evernote personally as a note-taking tool off and on for the last year or two, but this school year I want to take another leap with my 6th grade ELA students (and likely my other middle school classes too) in creating ePortfolios with Evernote. While Google Drive would be an effective way to organize all the students' writing, I want to have a central location for anything they might do in class, even other than writing. I plan to set up students with their own Evernote accounts using their GAfE emails. I can then teach them how to document their own work throughout the year or the semester. In Evernote, students will set up their own "notebooks", calling one of them ELA6. From there, students will create a "new note" within the "notebook" for each project or assignment we decide is worth documenting. With a free account, students will have enough space to link to their Google Docs, write reflections, and take and store pictures of their work, even annotating on top of the image if they desire. Tagging their notes allows for easy organization and retrieval. Video and audio takes up a lot of storage, so there will be little room for that. By the end of the year, they will have their own record of how they progressed. They could even add on to this the following year if they so desire, or if other teachers decide it is worth it for them. It's my first year attempting this, so we'll see how it goes!


ThreeRing

While I could use Evernote to organize student work for myself, I am fascinated with the possibilities ThreeRing offers. I first heard about ThreeRing from Drew Minock and Brad Waid while watching The Two Guys Show. ThreeRing allows a teacher to set up multiple classes, create a class roster and proper tags, and then choose a student, group, or whole class to share posts with. The main idea here is to easily document student work using an iPad. With ThreeRing I can snap a picture, add a note, record audio or video and post it under a student's name. It stays private, and I now have a record of student progress for myself, the teacher. I can use it to assess, to lead a parent-teacher conference, or simply for future reference. I think the power of this platform, however, is in the possibility of parent communication. I can set it up so that every time I post something new for a particular student, that student's parent who has a ThreeRing account receives an email stating that their child's ThreeRing has been updated. Click on the link, and there's the instant feedback that a parent often desires. They can communicate back if they want. It's that easy. Read more about it here.


Planbookedu.com

While the above platforms are free to use, I have to share just one paid service. Last year I purchased planbookedu.com, and it worked like a dream. I typed out my plans for the week, specifying steps for the lessons, as you would do in any planbook, color coded them by class, and then I printed them out for the week. You could bump your plans forward a day if you fell behind, and you could even insert links as necessary, which I opened in a new tab and projected from my computer onto the screen. And for you Common Core enthusiasts, you can even turn on the standards to show what you're covering. I will pay for this year after year until I find something as good for cheaper or for free.


Blendspace

Finally, something I just heard about this week from Richard Byrne on his Free Technology for Teachers blog is Blendspace. Formerly known as EdCanvas, its premium features have now gone free. I am still unsure of how it all will work for me, but it is marketed for face to face, blended, or online models of teaching. It looks promising for those of you who would like to try flipping your classroom from time to time. It sets up in a box-like pattern on your computer screen, and you use the video or upload functions (along with many others like research or quiz) to drag material into each box. Using it as a lesson plan, the class period is sequenced out ahead of time. I would use my iPad linked to my class computer and projector to open up box 1 to share whatever video, link, presentation, or text I want to show the students first. When that's finished, I would click on box 2, then box 3, and so on, until the lesson is finished. It looks quite promising and is worth a peek.

So there you have it. These are some of the encompassing techs I needed to flesh out so that I could organize my life as I enter a new school year. Of course, I have plans for using many different apps and websites for day to day use throughout the year...QuickKey for assessment tracking, Padlet for class brainstorming, Kahoot for fun whole class voting, and many more. Prepping for this tech so that students can have a smooth transition into the year is important for me, and now I can feel equipped to make my long term plans that will then give birth to my day to day lessons. Happy planning!