Towards the end of Term 4 2016, after two unsuccessful attempts to sign up to Google Classroom, I was almost ready to give up. But after chatting to an old uni friend Jo Crowther I learnt some important information about how to get started. Information EVERYONE should know about.
But so far, it’s been 100% worth it! Background Our Grade 5s are fully 1:1 with iPads with only about 8 students out of 100 not having their own device from home. Nevertheless, all are able to access an iPad. This makes it really easy to run lessons using any space within the school. Each Class can be accessed by me (ICT teacher) & students Classroom Teacher. And although we are still really only in the trial phase of introducing Google Apps across the Grade 4s-6s, there’s been a lot of success already. We have 3 teachers teaching specialist ICT, which in a way has worked out well as one of us is teaching one of the year levels of 4,5 &6. It’s been great to try it together, and now our enthusiasm is catching as some of the classroom teachers are beginning to use it also. Here’s 5 reasons why you should consider doing it.
Here's an example.
2. Student Engagement Enabling students to have a direct line of communication to a teacher presented heaps of possibilities. I could also hear some of my colleagues voicing their concerns about being able to be contacted. But when my iPad goes off with a notification on classroom of a student asking a question, I think it is the best thing ever. Imagine a student, keen to continue learning at home but hits a roadblock and can’t find the answer. Before, that student would need to wait all night and hope to catch me during the day to find the answer. Their interest levels might even disappear in that time. Now, all they need to do is ask a question on the task & I will be notified. If I see it, I can answer it right away. 3. Students not missing out! Yesterday, team teaching with a Grade 5 teacher, he showed me his laptop and said ‘check this out.’ A student from his grade who was away had sent him evidence of completing the Maths task set during the day. She even emailed it to him! It was such a powerful moment for me & some reassurance that the point of setting up Google Apps (enabling flipped learning) is slowly starting to work! 4. More time Furthermore, I have set a goal to be able to create every lesson for Term 3 ahead of time. The ability to schedule assignments in Google Classroom will mean that I can push out each new lessons the night before the lesson. Although it will take time to create the lessons, in the long run I’m investing in my work life balance for Term 3. I will have no planning as such as the lessons will already be ready to go out ahead of time. For the Grade 5 & 6 team, one teacher could also push out learning materials for everyone else in the team, thus saving time for others. 5. Collaboration We have a Grade 6 Tech Team at school, who are helping develop some initiatives at school. One of which is to create a QR Code “Hunt” for our Special Friends Day. Watching them create the Slide Deck together is really cool. How they’re problem solving, discussing and questioning each other on a task they are all engaged in is really interesting. Having students work on a shared slide deck, where they can comment on each others work is encouraging positive Digital Citizenship and reinforcing positive online interactions. 6. Powering up Gamification Coinciding with all my Classes, I’ve trialed running a Fictional Game behind the learning via the idea of Gamification. Long story short, if students choose to play they enter the Academy of Creativity & Imagination. Here, they are striving to become Agents who will fight against a group of Creatures hell bent on hijacking students creativity skills. Students can move through the ranks of the Academy to become Agents by finishing class work. When they do, they earn XP. The more XP they earn, the higher they move in rank. To try and encourage more students to participate, this term I decided to post a series of Puzzles online. If students can crack the code, they earn extra XP but also unlock a part of my Gamified Website called a Side Mission. Students can then carry out a Creative task that gives them more XP. For the first Puzzle, I asked students to Crack a Secret Code. The first 13 students who did are now Secret Agents. They’ve been told to keep their identities hidden from the other students, which has created this really cool interest in the other students to try and find out who they are. At the moment, students are trying to figure out who they are to unlock the next Side Mission. Classroom has really enhanced this because students can ask me questions online or submit the answer they think is right. I’ve been able to give them instant feedback and clues that continues to hook them into the Game, and therefore the learning that takes place in lessons.
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I believe a teachers most precious resource is their time. For so long, it's just been the norm to not even question our colleagues statements of, "get use to long hours." or "it's just apart of the job." People are content to think this way, but how often are we doing something about it? Being okay with spending long hours at work because you're passionate is important. But being so passionate about your job and knowing your going to experience stress so severe you'll almost have a nervous breakdown is not okay. Being passionate is what teaching is all about. But long hours, agonising over assessments, planning and meetings at the expense of your mental health is not going to sustain that passion for long. My inspiration to post this has been drawn from books written by people in other professions to maximise and be highly effective with their time and still achieve the same results. There's a lot we can take from their advice we can apply to teaching. I am not claiming to be an expert, but here are 10 things I believe made me a better teacher and improved my own mental health and number of hours spent away from work.
3. Refrain from keeping kids in at recess & lunchtime. Yes, I'll admit sometimes you can't let a student get away with not finishing work. But you need to be careful. If you're not getting into the staffroom at recess or lunch more often then not you're at risk of burnout. There are alternatives. Send unfinished work home. Send a reminder to parents on ClassDojo on your phone as your walk to the staffroom that it needs to be completed. Then get into the staffroom for a coffee! Take a freakin break! I'd like to hear other teachers thoughts on this. Are there other reasons why your student hasn't finished? Is it just as simple as they haven't worked hard enough? It really bugs me seeing colleagues not taking a break. It's the perfect time to take to debrief (without taking precious time away from your colleagues). Furthermore, you're limiting time students should be spending in physical activity!
7. Write a do to list & cross it out quickly. The worst thing about to do lists is that they never end. Whatever is on there, prioritise and get it done. Don't let it sit there. I'm amazed at how often things you're supposed to do don't ever get done because of a whole range of factors. Meaning, often there are little things we think are important and need to be done that actually do not. What's important? What's not important? What will happen to me if I don't get this done? If its nothing serious, don't waste your time doing it! How will it improve or make a difference? If it's not meaningful, don't do it and get rid of it. 8. Increase your exposure to Professional Development through Twitter. OMG again! Twitter was a game changer for me. How many times have you sat in a PD that you've been thoroughly disengaged and disconnected with? How many times have you sat there thinking "Man, I hope the lunch spread is better than what I'm listening to?" Furthermore, have you ever thought "I really should go to a PD on this?" But can't because of a whole range of factors (PD budget, location, time, etc.) Through Twitter, you will never experience boring PD again or be constrained by budgets. Connect with experts in a field of interest, filter out the people you don't want to view anything from, be directed to links to articles, resources, further PD, group chats etc. There is someone out there that knows more than you on a particular subject, and most are posting free stuff about it on Twitter. This link below is great for further info. http://www.slideshare.net/mikepaul4/10-reasons-why-twitter 9. Use I-Doceo on your Ipad This is great if you have an Ipad and want to go paperless in your classroom. If not, read on! I-Doceo is an assessment app that allows you to keep everything in one digital spot. I really found it frustrating how much paper I wasted or began piling up over the years. You can just about cut paper out of your office with I-Doceo. Take photos, record kids reading or video presentations, create checkboxes that link to AusVels curriculum content descriptors and do your report comments as you go. It's really easy once you set everything up. I utterly loathe writing reports & this helped cutting report writing time in half. This is a great link on the app below and a website full of awesome websites from some fantastic innovators in the profession. http://www.asquaredphysed.com/idoceo.html 10. Ask for Help One of my biggest frustrations is how much we as teachers always seem to try and reinvent the wheel with everything. Why? Why don't we ask for help more from the experts we work with. I guarantee, there is someone at your school that knows more than you about spelling. Maybe someone is a gun writer, or brilliant at warm up maths games. And I'd also bet they're already using some resource, program or tool that's much more effective than yours. Otherwise you wouldn't need any help. And if they're not at your school they will be out there somewhere in the online community. Ask for help and save yourself the trouble of looking yourself! DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS ON HOW TO SAVE TIME? I'D BE INTERESTED TO HEAR! |
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