The only time I have used Google Forms in the past was for collecting qualitative data during my action research study. Therefore, I created very simple surveys without using any add-ons that could have assisted me when analyzing the data. After seeing a little bit of the power that these forms have when used and created appropriately in the classroom, I will try my best to take advantage of it.
After looking at the provided resources in our Content section from the ICARE and talking about Google forms in our June 21 session I am really interested in being able to create peer evaluations using Google Forms. When I have done projects in both my Math and AVID class I have students fill out their peer evaluations on paper. Then I find myself scrambling to look through the papers and add up numbers manually. I hope that using Google Forms I can easily create these where not only it can help me but it can help my students be better evaluators. Maybe after getting better at this I can have students evaluate themselves when doing student presentations. In regards to my research/capstone project I still plan to use Google Forms when collecting data. Now that I have more experience I hope that I can create better and useful forms that will generate the best feedback and data I can possibly receive that will help me with my final work for this program. Here are the 3 Google Forms I created this week: Adding/Subtracting Integers 1st Week of NHS Summer Academy Combining Like Terms Assessment
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As I navigated through the #ISTE2018 hashtag it seemed a bit overhelming with all of the resources and diverse resources people were sharing. At the same time though it was really neat to see that people are willing to share what they are experiencing at the conference so others who couldn't attend can find out about it. Now it makes me want to go check it out in the future if I can. One of the many tweets that I explored a bit more was done by @tamorten and tweeted about the new Google Classroom updates that were revealed at #ISTE2018. And @tamorten also shared a link to a website by Richard Byrne where it gave small details about these new updates.
One thing that caught my eye was a post done by @jfalkenthal on noticing that there were international student presenters from Mexico at the ISTE conference. I thought it was really amazing to see not just students but international students at a booth promoting their workshops on educating about Mexican traditions through 2D and 3D animation. I began by looking for math chats on twitter, but then I came across #ellchat. I decided to follow the conversation since the subgroup of ELL’s were my focus during my study I thought this was appropriate to do. At first I noticed that there was announcement made for people to join the conversation at a specific hour and once that hour came I joined. It was interesting to see the interaction among educators. It was really cool to see how people were responding to each other but most importantly exchanging resources! That was really cool! I also noticed how the way the moderator was asking questions, the structure of them was similar to the twitter chat we had last week in class. Was it completely helpful for my capstone? I am not sure if it was. I think the engagement was great but the focus was on supporting ELL’s with summer reading. I think that this might another lesson learned for me to spend more time looking for twitter chats that will benefit me and my students.
Looking at the different resources that was provided this week in the ICARE, there is many benefits of using social media in the classroom in order to develop/collaborate/communicate as a professional. To me if the structure of how social media is used appropriately this can be successful. What does that look like? I think that if schools follow the “How to Create Social Media Guidelines for Your School” structure it can build and carry on a positive culture throughout the campus. There were 7 categories schools/districts should look at: 1) Examine your school culture, 2) organize a team, 3) research phase, 4) draft your document and incorporate feedback, 5) make sure the school attorney and school board see the draft, 6) introduction to the school community and 7) review periodically. As professionals it’s key to collaborate not just within the school but with other schools in the same district and the district itself in order to understand the norms that we are trying to build as we use social media to grow as professionals and support student learning. Something that caught my eye was the idea of changing the school policies periodically. Since technology and online tools are constantly evolving, the school “policy or guidelines should be a living document and should be revisited often.” Social media has so much power, positive and negative. We have to be aware of the two outcomes. What we want to get out of it depends on ow we structure the use of it on our classrooms. Because as Ariana Figueroa quoted in her article ,”the possibilities are endless.”
I haven’t seen inappropriate comments done by students since I don’t follow or add students to my personal social media accounts. I have though had students comment to me about inappropriate comments done by other students. What I did in that situation was to get in contact with one of the vice principals and let them know what I heard and saw. They eventually took care of the situation after that. I think that I did the right thing taking into consideration the level of “inappropriateness” in the tweet. If I see a comment like the one mentioned edtechteacher article and it happened to be my student, I would confront the student about it and then refer him/her to the office. But I think that it all depends on the level of offense. A tool that I use in my classroom is Desmos.com. This website has a couple of features that I tend to use a lot. The first feature that I use is the calculator that students can use. I begin by having students download the app (IOS or android) on their phones (it’s free) and then logging in using their school account. This allows them to graph linear equations, plot points, and create tables of values and save all their work as if it were a document. The other really cool feature I use from Desmos.com is the Activities Bundles.
When it comes to get students to work on these activities I choose an activity that has students review the current content that we are studying in our class. On the students ECHO agenda I provide them with a link that takes them directly to the page where all they have to do is click sign in and they are in the game. Depending on the activity they work alone through math problems or get to play against other students in the classroom in real time. Think of the childhood game Guess Who, well my students get to play a guessing game like that but with linear equations. Here is a link if you are interested in checking it out: Polygraph Lines. One of my colleagues is the one who introduced me to this website as this year we moved to 2-hour clock periods and I wanted to do something fun and interactive in the classroom. The setup is easy since it’s just a click away to get a class code that I then provide for the students with a link on ECHO like I mentioned above. I also get to see student responses in real time and assess what they know or don’t know. Some of the difficulties that I have come across is not having enough devices in the classroom and then have to send students to neighboring classes to borrow classroom Chromebooks. Also, in the beginning and still a bit today I struggle with properly grading these activities and providing feedback. Also I am not able to provide every student feedback since everyone is playing or going through the activities at the same time and every student thinks ad expresses their thinking in their own unique way. I don’t have a lesson plan to share, but the times I used a Desmos activity bundle it was usually on our 2 hour block periods. On those days I hold three 30-minute stations. One station is the Desmos activity, another station is my Collaborative Study groups (similar to an AVID tutorial session) and the third station is more of review/intervention. Students begin working in their station, 30 minutes hits and I announce for them to rotate to the next station. And they rotate until they have gone through all 3 stations. It’s a fact that we are all busy in our classes when it comes to teaching our content. But Digital Literacy is something that is essential to talk or teach in the classroom. Students are constantly on their phones and using applications to communicate with the world. But how safe are students? This is something that I have thought about before but never in the sense of teaching specific standards, ISTE, to my Math or AVID students. After discussing some of the standards in our class and exploring websites like KQED Mindshift, Common Sense Media and other sites, there’s a sense of relief of all the resources they provide on how to teach this content in our classroom. To me, this seems like a great way to begin a school year, hoping that this positive culture of media use can also expand to the positive and safe environment I want to build in my classroom among my students and myself.
This past school year, we began classes on a Wednesday and for those 3 first days of class I didn’t do any Math. I had a bunch of team bonding activities along with discussions that revolved around making mistakes in my math class. I wanted to begin with this since Math has the reputation that in order to be successful you have to get the correct answer to a Math problem. But in my opinion that is not the case, it’s more about the journey of getting an answer in Math, to be a Mathematician. This is where I think that lessons on digital literacy can play an important role. For example I can provide students with the web page on Cyber bullying on from Common Sense Media. Students can also work among friends, if they know people, and watch a video and then create some sort of poster on their findings and then share their ideas with another group. This is an example on how I can begin teaching digital literacy with other subjects like what students should or should not share on social media and many other topics. |