ShowMe PD - EdTech Showcase

Presenting: ShowMe

Myself and my teacher twin presented a professional development workshop in the EdTech Showcase on the iPad app called ShowMe. We began this presentation by reviewing the function of the features the app has available while inviting our participants to explore as we went along to become more familiar. Once we covered the basics of the program we went in to explain the benefits of this program for teachers and their students. We also went over the different uses for this program in the classroom including assessment, differentiated instruction, assistance for student’s learning, reviewing student work, and to provide students and parents help with homework instruction. We gave examples of personal experiences of how we have used this app in our classrooms and how it helped boost the level of learning and engagement of students. Then we introduced our participants to the ShowMe community where they can access pre-made videos or they could create and share their own.

For the second part of our workshop we asked our participants to work in pairs to complete a task which they were asked to pretend to be a grade 3s and use the ShowMe app to peer assess the student work in front of them. At this point our participants broke up into pairs and began to use the features of the program to complete the task. We addressed questions as they arose and brainstormed ways with some individuals to meet the specific needs in their current classes. After a few minutes we gathered everyone back to demonstrate how to share their assessments to the group and answered any last-standing questions.  

Presenting at this workshop was both an honour and a learning experience. I learned to step away from my notes and present on what I know without having to refer to the paper in front of me. This added to my level of confidence which allowed my expertise show through. I think it also made the presentation more personable which made it easier for the participants to ask questions. Once I saw the participants able to use the app to complete the task I knew the presentation was successful and that they would now feel more comfortable to try this out with their classes. I think that it was beneficial to have small groups and work on a rotation system as it gave us the chance to work one on one with the participants who needed the assistance. One challenge that I came across was when a set of teachers asked how to adapt the use of this program to meet the needs of their high school students. Since I am a P/J teacher I had a hard time coming up with examples of how they could use the app in their classes. I asked them if they could come up with any ways it would be useful but it was clear that their personal biases of this app was already clouding their judgement. I continued to show them community section where tons of high school teachers have posted videos but I could see it on their faces that they had already made up their mind that this was of no use to them. From this experience I learned that teachers who want to learn will make find a way to make the program work and teachers who don’t want to learn will always find a way for why the program wouldn’t work. I believe that the only way i could have addressed this better is with time and experience in the field in order to learn how to convince those who are skeptical the ongoing benefits of using EdTech resources and specifically the app ShowMe. Overall, I believe this experience has taught me who I am as a presenter, highlighting the skills I excel at those that need some fine tuning.   

Using Ed Tech In the Classroom

Sesame Snap

Throughout this final practicum experience I have been able to incorporate technology into my daily lessons to help support student learning. I decided to be ambitious this term and teach myself something new that I have never used before. I attempted to use Sesame to help lesson and unit plan but found that to be more of a time waster than anything. However, I did find a good use for this program that makes me envision bagels every time I read the name. I found this handy app on the iPads called Sesame Snap, which now makes me think of those sesame crackers that are coated in honey. This app proved to be a straightforward, easy to use app that really eased the panic of anecdotal observation assessments. At one point while I was running around the room snapping every piece of evidence of learning that I could, I was even able to capture a fantastic video of one of my students who is on an IEP describing her learning on a higher level then I would ever get from her on paper. This to me showed me the value and importance to continue using Sesame Snap as an assessment tool especially for differentiation purposes.

Another ambition that I tackled this term was to create a culminating task that used an app or program to help present the student’s learning. This idea continuously changed over the last 3 weeks from an iMovie, to a Prezi, to online Trading Cards, and then to Google Slides, and finally coming to the ultimate conclusion of using Glogster; only find out it wasn’t free. Darn. But now my mind was set and this had to be it! With the help of my associate teacher giving up her lunch to help solve the Glogster mystery, by the end of the day we had a 2 month free trial. That was good enough for me! I made sure to teach the students how to use the program first and connected it to the curriculum by focusing on non-fiction text features. The room was buzzing with excitement when I announced that we would be using this program to create digital posters as our final project for our early societies unit. Needless to say they turned out to be amazing! Better than I could have ever imagined. As the students worked on the their Glogs using iPads, computers, laptops, Chromebooks, they learned more about the program and its features and were teaching me by the end of it. The use of this program really brought their learning to life and was a great D/I tool for my ESL and IEP students. I would definitely use it again as all students excelled during their presentation.

Google Tour Builder

Lastly I finished the unit off with Google Tour Builder. I was using the lesson as more of a test for myself to see if this is a program I would use in the future. I created a quick tour the night before thinking it would be cool to take my students on a tour of the early societies we studied and see how they live today. My plan was to take them to see the Egyptian Pyramids, the Nile river, the ruins in Greece and the old Sparta city, and old castles in France. What I hadn’t planned for was the spontaneous connection to angles as my students pointed out first thing that they could see angles similar to those that we were looking at in math. As we continued the tour the students’ eyes were bulging, the questions were endless and very advance, and whispers filled the air when students saw something they had read about when researching. What really blew me away was when one child, the kind that you can never really tell if they are paying attention or not, blurts out that he saw something on the map as we zoomed across and wanted us to go back to check it out. It turns out he saw the city Alexandria. He said he remembered one day we talked about Alexandria on the Nile (which we did for maybe all of 2 minutes) and wanted to see if we could see it on the tour. This instigated the class to recall all the information they knew about Alexandria on the Nile as I tried to navigate through the map to try and locate it. Once we were zoomed in far enough we could tell that it may not have been the same place as what we studied as we came to the conclusion that Alexandria on the Nile was a monument not a city. But we did notice an interesting looking building that we thought would be cool to look at from the street view. Once we were in we all gasped with excitement. We were right in the middle of an Egyptian marketplace! Well you could imagine where the conversation took off from there. What was meant to be an all of 10 minute tour turned out to take up the entire period. Lets just say at the end of the tour I received an applause, easy to say now that I can chalk this lesson up as a success!

Our Tour

Tech Coach in Training

During this term I had the opportunity to give a one-to-one technology coaching session to an instructional coach. She came to me asking for help because she had an idea for a math PD on proportional reasoning that she was running next week and wanted to incorporate the apps ShowMe and Explain Everything. Her idea was that these apps will help teachers hear and see their students responses and explanations in order to reflect to see what the next steps are in order to prepare them for EQAO.

I sat down with her and taught her the functions of the two apps, highlighting the similarities and differences between the two. She picked it up extremely fast and proceeded to use both programs with ease. Together we worked through challenges that both apps revealed with regards to student interaction and limitations within the apps. We found reasonable solutions for how to address these challenges with the teachers and their students. From here she asked me if I would attend the PD and help her teach these apps to the teachers.

Explain Everything

At the PD I used a series of scaffolding techniques that we as teachers use with students. Where I began by modelling, then had the teachers follow specific steps, and then having them complete a task on their own as if they were the students. I helped answer questions that came up while teachers were working on their task. We collaborated and came up with a way to go into a classroom for 20 minutes and record students strategies when solving a proportional reasoning question. After going into the classroom and retrieving the results we came back to “our” table to review and discuss the learning that just took place. Teachers noticed how well the app captures the added depth to a math explanation compared to what they normally get out of pencil and paper. Teachers were amazed at some students explanation as we watched the videos and discussed the strategies that were being presented. Overall the teachers response was that they were excited to continue to use these apps in their classrooms to support their students’ learning.

To Use Technology or Not to Use ... That is The Question!

In my experience I have noticed there are three categories that teachers can fall into: either they are tech embracers, tech avoiders, or tech procrastinators. That is because they have all witnessed the benefits and challenges of educational technology at one time or another. What makes teachers who embrace the constant change and innovation of the EdTech field stand out, is that they seem to willingly accept the challenges that are thrown their way when another new program or tool is introduced.

There are many arguable challenges and benefits of using EdTech tools to support teaching and learning. I personally think the number one major challenge is time. I have received a lot of feedback from teachers expressing their desire to learn a new app or program but just simply do not have the time to do so, especially with EQAO coming up in less than a month.

 

Another major challenge is accessibility to the school’s tech resources. Some classes seem to have a lot more EdTech tools than others, which can give teachers the excuse they are looking for to avoid using technology in their classrooms. This may be a result of the different levels of teacher comfort with using tech in the classroom. Every teacher will learn tech at their own pace and with that creates a large divide of skill levels amongst teachers even within a single school. This is  where you will find teachers who jump at the second someone says new app to the teachers who are afraid to even be in the same room with technology.

Lastly, I have seen a number of teachers rely on technology as a substitute for teaching or as a time-filler. Insisting they want a pre-made lesson that puts little emphasis on the teacher. This is one of my newest pet peeves. I believe that the effectiveness of educational technology on teaching and learning is only as good as the teacher implementing it. If the teacher is not already invested in their class to improve student engagement and interaction, then adding technology as a teacher substitute will certainly not accomplish this either.

With all these challenges (even excluding all the added costs, errors, and potential additional student distraction) I can see why teachers are so easily inclined to dismiss the use of technology in their classrooms. However, with that being said the benefits by far outweigh the challenges. Using EdTech tools and programs in the classroom have been proven to increase student engagement and success. With teacher involvement and willingness to try new things adds to the 21st century classroom and provides more opportunities for teaching and learning as a whole. Another benefit of using EdTech tools and resources as a teacher helps you address the different learning styles and needs of your students with ease. There are many programs and apps on the rise to assist with assessments, particularly focusing on the students who require accommodations or modifications.  Lastly, EdTech devices can enhance the inquiry based learning that takes place in the classroom. Even if your school only has a few iPads or tech devices, students essentially learn more when they work in small groups or pairs as they are forced to collaborate and share ideas around the singular device.

Essential Elements of the 21st Century Classroom

Our world has changed drastically over the past decade, with emphasis on new skills and processes that have evolved in today’s leading industries. Today’s students are in need of a new approach to education and those who are not on this train to success will be left in the dust of others. This calls for all teachers to at least be informed and up to date with the needs of our 21st century learners and finding ways to transform the classroom to meet their needs.

We cannot assume that students will become 21st century learners on their own. They need ongoing learning opportunities that challenge them to utilize 21st century fluencies and integrate the six dimensions of 21st century learning. These dimensions include:

• ·      Collaboration
• ·      Knowledge - construction
• ·      The use of ICT for learning
• ·      Self-regulation
• ·      Real-world problem-solving and innovation
• ·      Skilled communication

Of these six dimensions I believe that collaboration, self-regulation, and real-world problem-solving and innovation to be the essential elements of the 21st classroom.

In the real world we are rarely if not ever asked to work independently to come up with an answer to a problem, or to create or develop a new design to help reduce the amount of time spent on a single task. Instead we are asked to work with the people in our team or department to come up with a solution. Why is this? Because overtime we have learned that if we brainstorm as a group more often than not will result in a more creative and effective result. That is because we can build off of each other’s thoughts and ideas to be able to reach our goal. Makes sense right? Therefore, these skills are needed to be introduced and developed from an early age in order for them to be perfected by the time these students reach the workforce. Our 21st century students will need to learn the basics of collaboration when addressing real world problems in order to understand that their peers are just as valuable resource as an iPad is. Teaching students the essence of collaboration also entails that everyone in the group will have a specific role that can repeatedly change over time. So these students will need to have the opportunity to develop their skills at every role. Essentially these roles help develop self regulation skills within students as they begin to monitor, track, and reflect on their progress. These roles can be, but are not limited to; leader, note taker, time keeper, task manager, resource organizer, summarizer etc. These roles are easy to see that they transfer to real life jobs in today’s world. This makes learning more meaningful and worthwhile as students can see the relation to the real-world context and the reasoning behind their education. This is so that our students can become responsible, cultural, global citizens who are accountable for their own learning. Evidently, creating lifelong learners ready for the 21st century workforce.