How do we Learn?

How do we Learn?

by | Jul 4, 2022

This was a tough first assignment; I truly do not know the answer. So here is my best shot at it as of today.

Learning is a complex, multi-sensory, brain activity that involves the writing of data into the synapses of our brains. Learning involves relationships and connections; both between the learner and the content, as well as between the learner and the instructor. We learn when something becomes meaningful to us; when something is situated in our lives and when the relevance is obvious, we are predisposed to learn. In the absence of the situation, learning can occur, but it is generally shallow, facile and largely temporary. When we engage with contextually relevant material, we are hard-wired to learn. The moment we take our first breath after birth, learning begins. Infants know nothing beyond communicating, (with one tool only, a cry), their most basic of needs. But the processes of learning commence immediately at birth. Our senses engage with the world around us, and each time we encounter something new, we observe, we categorize, we connect, we label, and we write the data, both the correct and incorrect data, to our memories.

Learning is not solely a rational process. Emotion influences motivation, which influences learning. Maslow before Bloom. If the bottommost needs from Maslow’s pyramid are not being met, educators observe that the child (or adult) is not available to learn. So we try with breakfast programs and other supports to maximize the odds of all children being equally ready to learn.  It’s infinite combinations, working in infinite patterns, while we try to discern how they tie together.

Password Protect Quizzes in Google Forms

by | Jan 20, 2022

If you are giving a Google Forms assessment to multiple classes, security is a consideration. Different teachers approach this security differently, but it is worthwhile noting that Google Forms can be password protected to limit students’ ability to access the form before you want them to have access.

This video is an example of not being able to go through the door when it comes to tech, but rather finding a window by which to accomplish the desired task.  There is no button to toggle to password protect your forms assessments, but if you follow the easy and innovative process shown in the below video, you will have a new level of security to apply to your assessments!!

Let’s go in Through the Window

Unique Google Classroom Banners

by | Jul 4, 2021

This page contains affiliate links. You can read my disclosure here.

I am pumped to let you know that I have built an assortment of Google Classroom Banners for you to use to customize your Google Classrooms with some different images than the default images that Google offers.

It is important to understand that when you change the banner in Classroom, it is going to appear a fair bit darker than the way it appears in Google Drive. This is an assistive technology in action, as the darker tone makes classroom much easier to see, read, and engage with for students with vision challenges.  This cannot be changed, and likely (hopefully) is not something Google would entertain changing.

The new banners can be found in the Freebies area of this site.  There are other useful resources there as well that you may find you have a good use for. So, please, anything you find in that site that catches your attention – feel free to take a copy!!

Below is a small sampling of the Google Classroom banner resources I’ve created.

Distance Learning Tips for Parents

by | Apr 14, 2021

One would think that after 22 years in the classroom, 25 years in education and with a Masters degree in Educational Technology that I’d have the whole parenting a digital student thing figured out. I’m here to tell you that this is not the case!! I have spent the past 12 months navigating online learning for my middle-schooler, and I have certainly found myself up against all the challenges of playing this role!

Late assignments, missed assignments, half-hearted effort, oversleeping, procrastination – I’ve seen them all in the past twelve months!!

I am fortunate to be married to an educational psychologist (also my child’s father, we are not a blended family) and so we parent together with significant knowledge, training, experience, and understanding of the brain development of children.  Brain development is our biggest philosophy in terms of parenting choices. 

In late February 2021, I hosted an evening session for parents of online students in my school jurisdiction. It was an excellent exercise to put myself through the process of thinking about my own experience as a parent of a virtual student, and to put my experience and knowledge into a cohesive presentation.

I also created a companion booklet with a couple of printable workbook pages at the back for parents to use to cover the topics I spoke about in my evening presentation. 

So, parents, here is a recording of the presentation, and you are most welcome to print the above-linked booklet should you wish to have a copy.

 

How to Record Audio for Students with Learning Disabilities on a Chromebook

How to Record Audio for Students with Learning Disabilities on a Chromebook

by | Mar 19, 2021

I was wrong!

The first time I took a look at Mic Note for recording audio clips to assist our students who struggle with reading or have written language or other disabilities, I thought that it was clunky and awkward.

After much searching for a perceived better option, and coming up blank, I returned to Mic Note, only to realize that I was wholesale wrong about it.  It offers more than just audio recording, which is amazing!

Among my first misconceptions was my assertion that it was difficult to record in .mp3 format, and awkward to direct to Google Drive. Wrong.  If you are wanting to learn how to record your voice on a Chromebook, this app is what you’ve been seeking!

The key advantages it offers over other audio utilities are important details for educators.

Firstly, it allows for up to four hours of recording time. None of us require that much for school uses, but we definitely need more than 5 or 10 minutes as the outer limit, which is where most other applications cut the recording off.  Some sources for exams take longer than 10 minutes to read aloud.

Secondly, it can be set to store the recordings directly into your Google Drive, making them yours forever. This is another advantage over the “competition”. There are some decent applications out there – Talk & Comment and Vocaroo come to mind right away – but they store your audio on their server and delete it after an amount of time has passed. This means that for all the time it takes to record the audio, a year down the road when you wish to reuse the resource with your students, you no longer have access to your recordings from last year, or even last semester. That’s no good!

Thirdly, Mic Note allows you to edit your audio as you are in the process of recording. So, if you get your tongue in a knot reading aloud, and you need to try again, Mic Note facilitates this easily.

So, I hereby retract my earlier position about Mic Note, and I highly recommend it.

Here’s a video outlining how I recorded an English 30 exam for students requiring the accommodation, and the templates for the two exam booklets can be copied to your Google Drive through the freebies section of this website!

Google Classroom Changes Coming for Fall

Google Classroom Changes Coming for Fall

by | Mar 16, 2021

Google is rolling out some fantastic changes to Google Classroom with the expectation that they will be up and running for fall 2021.  Keep providing your suggestions to Google via the question mark icon in the bottom left corner of Google Classrom; we have more proof that the Engineers at Google are listening to us!

Student Data

Perhaps the most exciting of the new features is the improvement to the student metrics. In the updated Google Classroom, teachers will be able to see when a student was last active in Google Classroom, what and when their last submitted assignment was, as well as the most recent comment (which are often questions from students) from students.

This feature is a class-by-class feature that will provide teachers with some excellent data for both in-person learning as well as online!

Improved Photo Tools in the Google Classroom app

Thanks, in large part, to feedback from teachers around the world using Google Classroom, they are adding camera access inside the Google Classroom app. So, students who operate their Google Classroom through their phone will be better equipped to photograph (it will be built more as a scanning type app that utilizes the phone’s camera) completed work and easily submit it to the teacher for grading.  At first, this will only be on Android devices, but will come to Apple devices once the Android app is running smoothly with this new feature.

Offline Mode

Many of our rural students who live in areas with limited wifi access already use offline mode with their Google Drive. Now this feature is going to include Google Classroom. Students will be able to access classroom while at school, and then when they get home, their device will have retained the data to allow them to have access to this important data while at home, or away from wifi.

Originality Reports

Teachers and students will both have access to enhanced originality reports. Students can run a report prior to submitting a written assignment so as to have clarity as to the success of their personal writing.

Rubrics

The creation of rubrics in Google Classroom has also improved – teachers can now export their rubric to sheets, or import a rubric from sheets.

Full Webinar

Below is the full 30-minute webinar that Google offered this morning to bring us all up-to-date with respect to the changes to Google Classroom!

Google Classroom Information for parents

Google Classroom Information for parents

by | Mar 11, 2021

As we have weathered the past year of quarantine, the primary learning management system to communicate school work to students at home has rapidly become Google Classroom. Here are a few things you should know about being a parent of a “Google Classroom Kid”…

Parents do not have a login for Google Classroom. Only students can be added to Google Classroom.

This does not mean that you are to remain uninformed. Classroom keeps parents informed via email. To receive the emails, parents can provide an email address to their child’s teacher, and the teacher will add the parent into the student roster through the child’s identity in Classroom. At this point, Google will deploy an email to the address provided to the teacher, and parents must accept the invitation.

Once parents have accepted this invitation, Google Classroom will send regular email summaries to the email address provided. Parents then have the choice to have Classroom send daily summaries, weekly summaries, or no summaries. You will get ONE email per child, regardless of how many teachers each child has. 

What you can expect to see in your summary email is

  1. Missing work—Work not turned in when the summary was sent.
  2. Upcoming work—Work that’s due today and tomorrow (for daily emails) or that’s due in the upcoming week (for weekly emails).
  3. Class activities—Announcements, assignments, and questions recently posted by teachers.

What you cannot expect to see are your child’s grades. To see your child’s grades, parents will log in to Powerschool or the SIS database your jurisdiction offers..

Additionally, we have also recorded a video suited to teachers and parents regarding how to add parents to Google Classroom without violating privacy laws. The video shows the entire process, including what both parties will see on their individual screens.

Need more Details?

We recommend that parents wanting to access the details of their child’s Google Classroom should sit with the child and ask for a “tour” of Google Classroom. This accomplishes a few things.

  1. It lets you, the parent, know how comfortable and confident your child is in the Google Classroom environment.
  2. It lets you, the parent, view the formative assessment comments that your child’s teacher may have made with respect to the child’s work.
  3. It facilitates a conversation with your child about their schoolwork and their online experience.

As educators, we would say that the third point above is the most important point, and often, this is a topic that parents struggle to get their child to open up about. (“How was school today?” “Fine.”) Sitting beside your child and talking about the content, work, assignments and grades in each course will facilitate this discussion without forcing you, the parent, to feel like you are prying and getting no actual information.

If you have questions about what you read in the email summaries, or what your child shows you in Google Classroom, please reach out to your child’s teacher/teachers for clarification.

Are You Ready to Create your Virtual Classroom with Bitmoji?

Are You Ready to Create your Virtual Classroom with Bitmoji?

by | Feb 23, 2021

You’ve seen other teachers using them. They’re super cute. Students love them. They bring a sense of excitement and reality to the virtual classroom. But how…. how do they make these Bitmoji classrooms?

Math Bitmoji Classroom

First things first. That little white-haired teacher is my Bitmoji. If you don’t yet have a Bitmoji, you’ll need to download the app to your tablet or smartphone. Once you’ve done that, you can begin the fun process of creating a miniature cartoon-version of yourself. After you’ve created your little mini-me, Bitmoji provides you with a wide array of choices and positions using your creation. 

I created this Math Bitmoji Classroom using the background and items from the Deluxe Bitmoji Classroom Template Set that I sell on Teachers Pay Teachers. Each of the 16 items on the shelf link directly to an online math manipulative allowing for quick access to these tools in a virtual classroom setting, or in a traditional classroom. Additionally, the clock links to a website where time-telling is the focus. These links can be easily changed or adjusted at any time.

So, how do we create a Bitmoji Classroom? I build mine in Google Slides, but Powerpoint or Keynote are also viable options. 

The first thing I do is set the background. In Google Slides, I right click on the background of the slide, and choose an image. For my virtual classrooms that I sell on Teachers Pay Teachers, I have set the sizes for the background to fit widescreen Google Slides (1600 by 900 pixels). I have built my Bitmoji Classroom backgrounds in Adobe Illustrator to prevent the images stretching, skewing or pixelating once they are set as the background.

Adobe Illustrator is part of the Adobe Creative Cloud Collection

Once you have the virtual classroom background set, you’ll need to decorate it and furnish it! If you are going to create this yourself “from scratch”, you will want to make sure that the images you use are free from copyright restrictions. 

In a Google image search, you’ll need to go into the “More” menu and under “Usage Rights” you’ll need to make sure “Creative Commons license” is checked off. You can see from the image below that it does NOT default to show Creative Commons License images.

If you choose to build your Bitmoji classroom using Google Slides, you can search for images inside of slides, and the filtration for Creative Commons licensed images will occur automatically. Google understands that if you are inserting an image into a slide that you are creating (or a doc for that matter), that you are REUSING the image, and therefore Creative Commons licensing is warranted.

From there, it’s really the same as creating a slide for a presentation. You can drag the images around, and create fun classroom scenes!

If an image ends up being “behind” and image that you want it in front of, you need only right click on the image, choose “order” and then send it backward or bring it forward to change this scenario! In the image below, my Bitmoji appears behind the chair. (A bit tough to see with that drop menu in the way, but you see what I mean.) I will choose “bring to front” for her, as the teacher image on this slide can be in front of everything. If I wanted her to be behind a desk, I’d need to play with it a bit.

Of course, you can always pick up a pre-made Bitmoji classroom template and just do the fun part…
copy-paste your classroom decorations into one of the pre-made virtual classroom templates!

And just in case you prefer to learn visually with video, I’ve prepared this video that shows you exactly how to create your virtual Bitmoji Classroom!

29 Ideas to Engage Students in Online Learning

29 Ideas to Engage Students in Online Learning

by | Jan 25, 2021

Online fatigue is real. Distracted students are real. Teacher frustration is real. So what do we do?!?!

Thankfully there are a few things we can bring to bear to try to spice it up and keep both ourselves and our students engaged.

The infographic presented here was built from a variety of resources, including the book Engaging Learners Through Zoom.

This page contains affiliate links. You can read my disclosure here.

Students Keep Getting “Booted” From my Online Classes!

Students Keep Getting “Booted” From my Online Classes!

by | Jan 3, 2021

This page contains affiliate links. You can read my disclosure here.

As we move toward a week of at-home learning for all students in Alberta at the start of January 2021, I offer this tutorial to try to help families maximize the capacity of their home internet connection without incurring additional costs to the internet service providers. There are many things that can be done for free to try to improve the Google Meet or Zoom experience.

This video will give an analogy for the internet and bandwidth and then take you through some ideas to improve your home connection.  I’ve used this analogy for fifteen years to explain bandwidth to eleven year olds. It will help make sense of the issues at hand, and can be given to families “as-is” if they’re having problems.

Summary

  • Move closer to your router. Try to attain 3 bars.
  • Do a speed test of your download & upload speeds.
  • When possible, download content the night before it is needed (especially video content).
  • Enable offline mode for GSuite (Google Docs, Slides, Sheets).
  • Powercycle your router.
  • Set Google Meet’s layout to “spotlight” (and don’t use blur/change background).
  • Remove household cell phones from the wifi, or turn them off.

 

Glitches in Google Meet

Glitches in Google Meet

by | Jan 3, 2021

It’s so stressful!! Teaching online is difficult enough, but every time I try to teach with Google Meet, I DON’T HAVE THE CONTROLS! I can’t record it, I can’t start breakout rooms, I can’t mute students or remove anyone for bad behaviour. It’s embarrassing, not to mention anxiety-provoking. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.

YOU ARE NOT DOING ANYTHING WRONG.

 

DO NOT USE THE GOOGLE MEET LINK FROM GOOGLE CLASSROOM.

1. The link that Google Classroom generates is glitchy. We have learned from our remote learning troubleshooting this fall that using the Meet link that Classroom publishes on the banner does not always ensure that the teacher is the owner of the session. IN MY SCHOOL DISTRICT, We realized these links were glitchy when we had one of our remote teachers log in to her own Meet first (ahead of all students) – 8:50 am according to the Google server log. At 8:58 her first student logged in, and that student was in control of the meet.

2. A Meet address that you have created seems to have expired. This seems to occur when the meet is given a nickname.

  

To Solve These Issues

1. Go to meet.google.com and click on “Join or start a meeting”.

2. Do NOT give the Meet a nickname.

3. Copy the URL (web address) that Meet generates.

4. Paste the URL into Google Classroom as a material and apply a topic to it (I’d call the Topic “Google Meet Link”) and then drag that topic to the very top of your classwork tab in Google Classroom.

If at any time your Meet link begins to glitch (Michelle has used the same link since the first Covid quarantine in March of this year), repeat the above steps, but you’ll only need to edit the material in step 4.

Other Challenges

When things have glitches, it is often “the network” we first blame for the problems. If you are physically in a CESD school, it is highly unlikely to be the network. However, what students have open on their device can present challenges.

If students have a large number of tabs open, this can place a burden on their device, causing Meet to not have access to the local resources it needs to run. This can cause a student to be “booted” out of the meet, or can cause their video to be glitchy.

If students are at home on a PC or Mac computer, other programs they have open can steal valuable processing from that computer. Things like Fortnite running in the background, or YouTube open to play music while they listen can be quite problematic in Google Meet.

Students accessing the meet on a mobile device (smartphone or tablet) not using the actual app for Google Meet may experience challenges.

Lastly, the network in the personal space (homes) of the participants can have an impact on the meeting. The CESD network is unlikely to be at fault, but home networks may be.

 

Crash Course in Kami

Crash Course in Kami

by | Jan 2, 2021

This page contains affiliate links. You can read my disclosure here.

Originally Kami was built as a .pdf reader for Google Drive. Over time they have added new tools and features to it making it a very powerful classroom application.

This blog post offers a short video “Crash Course in Kami” that will introduce you to the annotation tools and will offer some differentiation ideas for it as well.

If you are teaching remote learners, Kami offers a lot of assistance in accomplishing that task.

Kami typically offers a 90-day trial of all the tools in this awesome extension!

Google Meet – Teach online like a PRO!

Google Meet – Teach online like a PRO!

by | Jan 1, 2021

When Google rushed Meet to market in March, there were many features in the works that weren’t ready yet. The quarantine likely caught them as off-guard as it caught us.  But, now, nine months later, there are many new features in Google Meet. This 18-minute video will take you through each of the new features and demonstrate how to use each.

At 16:20 I show how I created a link on March 16 and am still using the same link almost 9 months later.

Screencastify Tutorial

Screencastify Tutorial

by | Dec 11, 2020

Have you ever wished you could clone yourself in your classroom?

Me too. Many times it felt like there were more questions and pressing needs than places I could be at one time. 

The global quarantine of Covid has forced educators worldwide to learn some new tech skills, but what if we could cash these skills out for years to come?

That’s right, I said years!

Picture this: One year from now, you press “PLAY” on the lesson you record today, and the students in your classroom watch it. That’s right. They are in your classroom, watching a video of you teaching. And you’re there. I bet you’re wondering “Why the heck would I do that?!”  Well, doing that might let you do those one-on-one conferences with students that you always plan to do, but struggle to fit in. Reading check-ins with the younger students could happen. Discussions with students about recent assessments. Formative assessment. You know – all those things we want to do, but struggle to fit in around instruction. What if…..

If you are new to Screencastify and are looking for some help getting started, this tutorial covers the content that I went through in a live Google Meet with teachers in my school jurisdiction..  The link for Canadian Copyright law with respect to reading books aloud and recording the reading is important to check if you are considering reading to your students in a recording.

So, press play on the video, and if you have another idea of things you could accomplish while playing a lesson in your class (just don’t do it every day), leave your idea in a comment on my YouTube Channel!!

 

Google Jamboard – Your Digital Whiteboard

Google Jamboard – Your Digital Whiteboard

by | Nov 16, 2020

A newcomer to your Google Suite of Educator Tools is Google Jamboard which provides you with a blank screen and annotation tools. With a touch-screen Chromebook, you can now open a new “jam”, and begin drawing, instructing and demonstrating. Best of all – it saves into your Google Drive when you’re done. 

With Jamboard, you can easily bring in images, draw shapes, write, erase and illustrate. Even better – it is now built right into Google Meet. So, if you are instructing at a distance, you can open a new jam from inside Google Meet to seamlessly draw and illustrate to your students the lesson at hand.

Want to see it in action?

This instructional video might be helpful.

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