What's the hype about eLearning days?

 

Maybe I am behind the times, but I had not heard of “eDays” until I viewed the epanel interviews. Within a week of watching the interview, our high school announced they were hosting an eLearning day.  So, I began to research this idea.  What does an eLearning day consist of and how are schools using this to not lose days due to weather issues.

According to the Mountain Brook School web page eLearning day can be defined as “a day in which students receive their classroom instruction electronically.”  Mountain Brook started their eLearning Days in 2015 with scheduled days throughout the school year when teachers had professional development sessions.  Students participated in grade level standard lessons that were linked to their classroom instruction while at home.  Teachers provided these lessons on their classroom/grade level website or through a LMS program.  In Mountain Brook, students are able to use their personal devices at home or visit the local library to complete these assignments.  The teachers develop lessons that flow from their classroom instruction and further develop the content taught.  Many teachers, especially secondary, are using the flipped lesson design when creating these eLearning day lessons.  They want their lessons to be more than just an electronic form of a handout.  

What must the teacher do to prepare for eLearning day ?  Lesson plans are still the same as if the instruction will take place in the classroom.  The teacher needs to take into account access to devices and internet.  If a family is unable to complete the assignments at home, alternative option needs to be available.  The purpose of an eLearning day is not to further separate the “haves” from the “have nots” (Schwartzbeck, 2014).  

Another consideration is for the district to define what “present” looks like.  When assignments are posted, the teacher needs to provide a clear expectations of what present means.  The state department will need to be included in the planning process to make sure the eLearning day is counted as a regular school day.  This will allow schools to give credit for attendance. (Schwartzbeck, 2014)  The district also needs to clearly define what it expects teachers and administration to do during eLearning day.  Do they need to hold “virtual office hours” or participate in a form of chat session?  Do they need to be available for conference calls?  Making clear expectations for everyone involved can cause some challenges in the planning stages.  

“While these obstacles are not insurmountable, it is important that school and district leaders plan e-learning days with precision to ensure that all children can take advantage of the learning opportunities they are given. Similar to a traditional school day, the content must be rigorous, the lessons designed with proper learning objectives in mind, and high-quality learning experiences created. E-learning days shouldn’t simply become forced busy work from home. With proper meaning, a high quality learning experience can occur. “ (Schwartzbeck, 2014)  I love this explanation of planning for eLearning day.  If eLearning day are in our future, planning needs to take top priority to ensure they are used for the benefit of learning for our students.  

When our high school hosted the first eLearning day, parents found out about it the night before.  Students were given the option of coming to school to complete the lessons or staying home.  As you can imagine, this caused numerous issues.  Many parents did not believe the students were being truthful about the news.  Many of the students who may not have had a device chose to not go to school because their friends were not there.  The assignments were not completed.  Needless to say, this eLearning day experience was not as planned and well thought out as needed.  I can see this being a great way for our system to make-up missed time out of the class for the next school year.  Hopefully the planning will come with it.  

What are the benefits of eLearning day’s for students?  The first is students will not lose instruction time.  If the lessons are planned well, students will be able to continue their lessons just while at home.  Second, the students are gaining independent learning skills necessary for college.  Many college classes use a form of LMS.  This would be giving students a taste of what college is like with a little extra guidance from their teachers.  To be honest, this maybe the future of many schools.  So why not start small and see how it goes.  

References:

eDays / Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.mtnbrook.k12.al.us/Page/384

Schwartzbeck, T. (2014). Replacing snow days with E-learning days. Alliance for

Excellence Education. Retrieved from

http://all4ed.org/replacing-snow-days-with-e-learning-days/

Policy in Place

Check out my latest podcast about Acceptable Use Policies and why they are important.  Every school system must have one if they have technology in the school.  What school doesn't have technology, right?

Where do I go for more money?

Who doesn’t like to spend money, especially when it is someone else's money?  When it comes to spending school money, the process can be daunting.  If you’re like me, you tend to balance your school budget a lot closer than your personal account.  When I have a chance to purchase new items, technology or books, I feel like a kid on Christmas morning.  But, what if there is not enough money to purchase what you need?  What are some steps you can take?

Securing funds can be an amazing learning opportunity and major headache at the same time.

I have experience with fundraising and writing small grants.  The grants I have written have been for my school district’s local school foundation.  The grant only required details about what was needed, cost and how it would benefit the students of my school.  Needless to say, these did not take a lot of time in completing.  However, when you begin writing grants for an entire school system, most of the grants are multi-step.  The more experience you have in writing these grants the better the outcome.  

Ron Flan, an expert in grant writing, offers several tips in his article “Tips for Writing a Winning Grant”. He first suggest you make sure the funder is a good source for your needs, make sure you are able to meet the requirements.  Clearly state your outcomes for the grant.  He recommends using the acronym SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-specific).  This reminder makes writing grants a little easier.   The next reminder is to be specific.  When a grant is written too broad, the funder can oftentimes not know what their money will be used for and a little hesitant to give you money.  Another suggestion is to see a variety of sources.  If you have a lot of technology needs, you may need more than one funder to finish the project.  Of course, you need to be realistic in knowing the entire amount needed may not be given.  What do you do when you need more money?

In the text Planning for Technology (2013), some other options for funds can be fundraising, seeking funds from local businesses, reserve textbook money for one school year, working with a local college, parent organizations, or online textbooks (Whitehead, p. 195).  In my school district we have used several of these options for obtaining needed and up-to-date technology. Our school has hosted three different walk-a-thons and raised several thousands of dollars each time.  This school year, the decision was made to not purchase textbooks, but use that money for chromebooks for the entire 4th grade student body.  Our local PTO group has given large amounts of money to our administrators which helped to purchase projectors, bulbs and update many teacher laptops.  

Once you have the funds to purchase needed technology, you need to make sure there is a budget in place.  Even with grant money, a budget is crucial.  Our text provides a Purchasing Pyramid (Whitehead, p. 192).  The only thing I suggest is the pyramid needs to be flipped. Instead of the cost of the item being the main priority a school system needs to take into thought if the technology meets the school’s philosophy of teaching first.  The chart is a great starting point to creating a budget for technology needs.  

While conducting research for this blog, I found a YouTube channel by Grant Writers Association sponsored by the U. S. Department of Education.  Rodney Walker, an expert with Grant Development Systems, provides us with several videos on how to find grants we are eligible for and how to go about completing the grant writing process.  This is an amazing resource for those of us new to the grant writing process.  

Happy Grant Writing!

References:

Education Grants for Schools And School Districts. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/playlistlist=PLj6klb9QetA7ccXFcypA_Dd7gfXDHFuqt

Flavin, R. (2014). Tips for Writing a Winning Grant Proposal. (cover story). Tech Directions,74(1), 18.

Whitehead, B. M., Jensen, D., & Boschee, F. (2013). Planning for technology: A guide for school administrators, technology coordinators,
and curriculum leaders. Thousand oaks: Corwin sage.

Where do I start?

Educators have more demands thrown at them on a daily basis now than educators in the past.  At times, the job can seem overwhelming.  If you are a school leader who has limited knowledge of technology tools, adding something like a blog, website or wiki can often seem like just one more demand.  However, as the 21st century learners continue to fill up every classroom across America, the need for school leaders to use and understand web 2.0 tools is pertinent.  These tools are numerous and many of them are simple in use. The challenge comes in deciding which one is best to meet the creator's needs.

Before choosing the best web tool, one must decide what they want to gain from using such a tool.  Do they simply want to share ideas or have others to contribute to their post?  Developing your Personal Learning Network (PLN) will help as you start your journey using web 2.0 tools.  Many leaders use PLN's to collaborate with lessons, gain knowledge about topics they teach, conduct research, or help to solve problems.  (Schrum, 2015).  

Once the PLN has been created, the source for the web tool needs to be chosen.  Some options that are popular among school leaders include websites, wikis, podcasts, social media, and blogs.  Deciding on the best tool is often a hard decision.  In my journey, I have created a website, expanded my social media outlet to include twitter and created a blog (which you are reading now:).  I will soon be creating a podcast and hope to look more into wikis in the near future.  All have their own pros and cons.  I feel it is important to try out all options to see which you feel meets your needs and style best.

Most school administrators expect school leaders to include the 21st century tools in their classroom.  If a school administrator is not comfortable with these tools, they may not see them as an important component of our instruction and student learning.  In the article Becoming a 21st Century Administrator (2017), the author states that the "21st century administrators should expect teachers to demonstrate how tools like blogs, wikis, Google apps, Twitter, and other social networking and Web 2.0 technologies can be used to support students in meeting the expectations that have been set forth for a 21st century classroom."  I argue, they should use them as well.

For the first time in the history of education, new teachers have grown-up as web 2.0 users.  Stephanie Pinkin writes that she has grown up as a teacher in this era.  Her career has developed to include online learning programs, update emails for parents, online monitoring programs/apps for parents, etc.  She states, " As an educator, one of my favorite ways the web has impacted my professional development is by always encouraging me to innovate my practice."  That is a beautiful thought for a 21st century learner, to have a continuous professional development at your fingertip.

I mentioned several tools earlier and here is a brief description of them.  Websites allow the user to provide a wide variety of information and organize it in a manner they see necessary.  A website is easy to access and manage.  Blogs are a great way to express thoughts and ideas while passing along valuable information.  For busy parents, the blogs may be a little more effort that just reading a summary of facts. Most adults in their 20's or older have a social media account of some sort.  I have found this to be a great way to showcase or provide information about my classroom/school for stakeholders. Podcasts provide a way for school leaders to record and share thoughts through audio.  This is a great resource for audio learners.  Wikis allow groups of people the opportunity to work together and share the findings with others.  This would be a great outlet when trying to create different plans for a school year. As stated earlier, choosing the best web tool is going to be the most difficult challenge.  Once the decision has been made, the school leader needs to use the tool on a regular basis to determine its fullest potential.

References:
"Becoming a 21st Century Administrator" (2017). Retrieved from http://creativeeducator.tech4learning.com/v08/articles/Becoming_a_21st_Century_Administrator

Pinkin, S. (2016). Growing Up as a Teacher in the 'Web 2.0' Era. Education Week Teacher. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2016/09/09/growing-up-as-a-teacher-in-the.html

Schrum, L., & Levin, B.B. (2015). Leading 21st century schools (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Meeting the technology needs of our students

Technology is here to stay.  We as teachers and leaders need to embrace this change and start to include it in our lessons.  The newest episode of my podcast discusses how we can incorporate technology in our classrooms. Enjoy!

Let's Be Safe

Being responsible for what one says can be tough   Being responsible for what one posts or types online can be even more difficult.  Many educators are taking the challenge of teaching students how to be safe while online.  The term digital citizenship can be know as "the norms of responsible and appropriate interaction with technology." (Preddy, 2016). Technology can be anything from conducting research to sending emails.  As technology continues to change, digital citizenship lessons will also continue to be developed.

In our school system, the library media specialists have been given the task of implementing lessons and assisting teachers with the instruction of digital citizenship lessons.  When I first started planning these lessons, I thought, there won't be much to these lessons.  I can teach them about how to research, how to send emails, cyberbullying and what it looks/sounds like, etc.  But once I started planning and digging into the curriculum, I realized there was so much more to staying safe online.  According to the text (Whitehead, p. 129) there are nine themes of digital citizenship.  They include digital access, commerce, communication, literacy, etiquette, law, rights/responsibilities, health/wellness and security.  In an elementary setting, we may not need to go into great detail for all areas but the students do need to be familiar with all areas of how to be a safe digital citizen.  However, all students need to be aware of the dangers of cyberbullying.  The text mentions a great resource to help stress the dangers of cyberbullying to include the two websites www.stopbullying.com and the National School Boards Association website. (Whitehead, p.136) The dangers of cyberbullying are very real in all schools.  

The middle school media specialist and I decided we would use the same curriculum program to supply lessons for these topics of digital citizenship.  Thankfully, the program has an elementary and middle school age group which allows for different lessons but relaying the same message.  This helps us ensure all topics are covered but in an age appropriate manner.  

Why do we need to teach these lessons?  Shouldn't parents be the ones teaching their kids to be safe online?  These are some questions I have thought of myself as I prepare lessons.  However, just as in other areas of education, it takes everyone to ensure students are gaining the knowledge for all areas of life.  My own child is a perfect example of this.  I can sit and discuss with my daughter why or how she needs to complete her research and she will look at me like I have lost my mind.  Her teacher at school can say the same message and she believes her.  My goal as the media specialist is to give the students just one more reminder of how to conduct themselves online. If they won't listen to a parent, maybe they will hear it from me.  

There are so many curriculums available to educators now the task can be overwhelming when it comes to finding the "right" one.  We chose to use Common Sense Media. This video is an introduction to what is available through the program for parents and educators.  

 

Common Sense Media provides lessons for grades K-12, games and interactive activities, videos, posters for classroom display, ideas for families to reinforce, certification programs (who doesn't like a certificate of completion), and online professional development for teachers.  The lessons are designed to meet the interest level and needs of all age levels of students.  The videos are short but get the message across in an entertaining way.  So far, we have been pleased with the content and display of lessons.  I have already started planning to incorporate the Digital Citizenship Unit Assessment Badges and the Digital Passport components into my lessons for next year.  The Badges allow students the opportunity to achieve a badge once they successfully complete a unit of the program.  The Digital Passport provides self-led games to reinforce the unit being taught.  These will hopefully help the student fully understand why and how they need to be safe online.  

"We can't wait for problems to arise, but rather we need to be proactive and on the forefront of helping our students avoid those pitfalls and navigate the online world successfully."  (Preddy, 2016) Our goal is to keep our students as safe as possible while online.  

This is a daily task and ever changing but we are up for the challenge!


References:

Digital Citizenship I Common Sense Education. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-      citizenship.

Preddy, L. (2016). The Critical Role of the School Librarian in Digital Citizenship Education. Knowledge Quest, 44(4), 4-
     5.

Whitehead, B. M., Jensen, D., & Boschee, F. (2013). Planning for technology: A guide for school administrators, 
     technology coordinators, and curriculum leaders.

Gone are the rows

When I was in high school, not THAT many years ago, we always picked the same seat to sit in daily in our nice and neat rows. The teacher stayed at the front of the classroom unless they went to their desk.  Our group discussions were done with the people sitting nearest us.  The only time we used technology was when we went to our Business Ed class, also in rows.  My senior year the school just opened a "computer lab" that teachers could sign up to go to.  Of course, no one ever went.

This is my 13th year of teaching school.  In my current school, we have two computer labs, one laptop and the other is desktop computers.  In the Media Center, I have two laptop computer carts where teachers can check them out for classroom use.  Most of the classrooms have students sitting in groups of 3-4 students. The teacher floats around the room and pulls students to a table in the back of the room for extra practice. This class setting is very different from when I was in school.

Which is setting is better?  According to the article, Do Seating Arrangements have an Impact on Student Learning?  "Studies have reported that seating arrangements impact the learning process.  Students occupying the front rows are more attentive than those in the back."  When I was in school, I saw this happen often.  I wanted to sit in the middle, not the front because I didn't have all the answers and not the back because I wasn't bad.  As a teacher, I like the option of groups to mix the students who are more likely to answer all the questions.  Is one way better than the other, I am not sure.  I do know that when I am working with students in a group setting, I seem to get more students to respond if they are in groups than if they are just in rows.  Maybe the students are more relaxed and comfortable to discuss the topic in a group rather than the rows.  Maybe distractions are not as prevalent when in rows. Maybe students feel like they can learn more from peers than from the teacher.  Whatever the reason is, when students work in groups, knowledge content is retained better.

Now that technology and 1:1 devices are becoming more common, students are able to collaborate on an assignment a lot easier.  The collaboration develops community and fosters social skills.  In order for these projects to work, students sitting in groups and participating in productive discussion is vital.  When this happens, sometimes the teacher loses full control of the class.  I don't mean behavior problems happen, I mean students are discussing and moving around and not just sitting and listening.  This can be nerve racking for a classroom teacher who thrives on control.  As technology becomes more prominent in classrooms, I see this being a normal routine for everyday instruction.  Students learn better when they can collaborate.  As educators, we might have to rethink our seating arrangements. 

According to the text incorporating technology into the classroom might have an impact on schools in 10 areas.  They include increased student writing, higher quality student writing, enhanced cooperative learning, integration of curriculum, learning applications, cross-age tutoring, increased teacher communication, greater parent communication, enhanced community relations, and global learner (p. 13 - 14).  Cooperative learning does not usually happen when students are positioned in rows.  Most of the time, students learn best by working in groups.  Whitehead states, "collaborative learning is linked with technology it is known to have a strong positive influence on student achievement." (p. 13).  Technology has the potential to open the world for our students.  All we need to do is figure out the best way to incorporate in in our classroom.  This will change as we feel more comfortable and the students become more fluent in using.  

The video linked below is a short video to explain different types of classroom arrangements and why they are important.  Not every classroom can benefit from these setups but maybe one will be beneficial to you.  

Classroom Setup | Teachers TryScience 

Reference

Classroom setup Teachers TryScience. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.teacherstryscience.org/ts/classroom-          setup

Does the Seating Arrangements have an Impact on Student Learning? (n.d.). Retrieved from
     https://k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com/tib/do-seating-arrangements-have-an-impact-
     on-student-learning/


Whitehead, B. M., Jensen, D., & Boschee, F. (2013). Planning for technology: A guide for school administrators,      technology coordinators, and curriculum leaders.  Thousand oaks: Corwin sage.