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A Virtual Conference You Don’t Want to Miss

by Lori Gracey May 11, 2020

written by Lori Gracey

If you’ve been busy doing remote teaching for the past two months, then the last thing you want to think about right now is attending a virtual conference or, quite frankly, anything virtual ever again. Staring at your computer screen one more time may make you forget why you went into education.

But before you give up on the idea of learning anything more while working from home or in isolation, I ask that you consider the following: If we have discovered nothing else from this horrendous time, it is that most of us are not fully prepared to teach remotely or even in a blended learning situation. And that means that professional development is more critical than ever before. Even if you have mastered the art of teaching 22 busy elementary students from a distance, you must admit that you could use a new high-yield instructional strategy or two or a few new tech websites and tools to help differentiate learning.

With that in mind, I want to invite you to take part in TCEA’s Elementary Technology Conference, virtually. The Elementary Technology Conference (ETC) is an event unlike any other. Each summer, it brings together hundreds of elementary educators to discover the latest tools, resources, and strategies for engaging PreK-5 learners. Get to know the educators blazing trails in your field. Get advice and tools to fit the needs of your grade level, your specialty, and your classroom. Get energized, get excited, and get exploring. (All done virtually, of course!)

Designed Around Elementary Needs

This is a one-of-a-kind learning experience solely designed for elementary educators who face a unique set of challenges, have specific needs, and required different tools. You won’t see sessions that focus on concepts that are too hard for your students to handle or that don’t understand how important the basics are in the primary grades. You will see handcrafted learning opportunities presented by other elementary educators, people who have walked a mile in your shoes and fully understand that that means your students are following right behind you.

And we don’t forget the other critical folks who support elementary education in the classroom: elementary campus administrators, library media specialists, and instructional and technology coaches. There will be specific sessions for each of these groups as well, all designed to help you better lead and grow.

Highlighting Important Trends

Learning opportunities at the Elementary Technology Conference will feature all of the hottest topics and trends that you need to be aware of for your students’ achievement. Here are just a few of the more than 100 sessions that will be presented:

Digital Tools for the Mathematics Classroom
Tablets for Tiny Learners
Doodle Away: Supporting Visual Thinking and Sketchnoting
Creating Engaging Activities with Google Drawing
Meaningful Differentiation with Technology
Forms to the Rescue! Digital Documentation Made Easy
Science Journaling
Getting STEAMed Up About Writing
Rescue Me with Coaching CPR (Content Specific, Pedagogically Sound, Results Based)
Moving from Consumption to Creation
Adventures in Blended Learning
Writing with Podcasts

In addition to all of the amazing sessions that you will have access to, the conference will also provide your choice of three two-hour workshops included free with your registration. These sessions will take a deeper look at content and strategies for elementary students.

Blended Learning in the Elementary Classroom
The Power of STEAM-Themed Literature
Using the Jigsaw Method in Your Classroom or Professional Development

Having Fun and Sharing with Other Educators Like Yourself

Because ETC is a conference for one of the most fun-loving groups of educators in the world, I can guarantee that you’ll have a good time. We’ll have a game night, a coffee chat, several networking breaks, a social hour, and door prizes, all done virtually so you can stay safe (and in your pajamas). We’ll provide lots of opportunities for you to connect with other educators who are doing what you do and share ideas and resources with each other. And the TCEA board members and staff will be there to party along with you.

Elementary Technology Conference Details

I hope that I’ve convinced you that this event is the one more virtual experience that you must attend. Live sessions and activities will be held Sunday, June 14 through Tuesday, June 16. (You can see the schedule here.) Attend all of these live learning opportunities and you’ll have earned 14 CPE credits and a million new ideas. But there’s more. There will be another 106 recorded webinars that are included with your registration, which means you can watch these any time you want and continue the learning through July 13, 2020.

Registration is only $169 (down from $239 for the face-to-face event) and includes a year of membership in TCEA. That will enable you to take advantage of another 100 live and recorded hours of learning, along with amazing resources and idea sharing in our Community, for another 365 days.

We are limiting attendance at this virtual conference. So I encourage you to register today. If you’re still not convinced, just check out this blog I wrote after attending last year’s Elementary Technology Conference. And be sure to say “hi” when you arrive this year at the virtual conference; I promise to change out of my pajamas just for you!

May 11, 2020 0 comment

Good Teaching

Make It Relevant: The Collaborator ISTE Standard

by Miguel Guhlin May 7, 2020

written by Miguel Guhlin

In classrooms today, the goal remains learning how to solve problems together. Authentic learning often involves learners in joint problem solving. We work together towards a goal, each of us knowing what part we play to resolve the issue(s). How do you do set educators up for success in this endeavor? In this blog entry, we’ll explore several approaches. Before we do that, let’s step back and ask ourselves, What is authentic learning?

ISTE Standards for Educators: Collaborator

To better understand what authentic learning is, let’s take a look at it through the lens of the ISTE Standards, a way to do three things:

Improve practice
Discover and share resources and ideas
Solve problems

When you look at the four indicators, you realize that the last action is quite important to the standard. Here are the four indicators:

4a: Dedicate planning time to collaborate with colleagues to create authentic learning experiences that leverage technology.

4b: Collaborate and co-learn with students to discover and use new digital resources and diagnose and troubleshoot technology issues.

4c: Use collaborative tools to expand students’ authentic, real-world learning experiences by engaging virtually with experts, teams and students, locally and globally.

4d: Demonstrate cultural competency when communicating with students, parents and colleagues and interact with them as co-collaborators in student learning.

As you can see, two of the indicators refer to “authentic learning experiences.” Each enjoys the benefit of real-world problem-solving. When you unpack the vocabulary, you see that each indicator expands on the other:

Authentic learning (4a): Activities based on student’s real world experiences or current issues. These use real data and seek to solve real-life problems.
Authentic, real-world learning experiences (4c). This involves solving local and global real world problems. It could involve design thinking as well.

This presents tremendous opportunities for situating student learning in real-world problem-solving scenarios. How do you do that? Let’s review the steps that lead to authentic learning experiences with technology.

Step #1: Engage with a Real-World Problem

“Fall in love with the problem, not the solution,” says Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots, X. Many of us know that real-world problems, a la 5E Model’s Engage stage, help to focus learners. The problem engages students when it is relevant to them. Let’s review what a real-world problem should look like:

The PBL challenge is one that captures students’ attention. It stimulates their thinking, and assists them in accessing prior knowledge. (Source: 5E Model + Technology)

Note the importance of prior knowledge. (We’ll explore prior knowledge in Step #2 due to its importance.) In crafting a real-world problem, I would be quick to rely on relevant life issues and challenges.

A real-world problem must engage students in the inquiry process. You can present news or troubling information from a primary source. Students can derive a problem from that information. Or you as the teacher can craft a problem narrative/engagement scenario. You can show a video, or resource, that engages students. The next step is critical because it engages students in identifying what they don’t know. One way to do this is to rely on a concept map about the following areas:

What do I know?
What do I need to know?
What questions do I have about what I know or don’t know?

This assists students in seeing the bigger picture. It’s not enough to depend on this. You, as the teacher, as well as experts on the problem, must step in.

Step #2: Build Background Knowledge

A fascinating tidbit about problem-based learning (PBL): When you allow students to do all the work of knowledge gathering, it’s not very effective. In fact, Dr. John Hattie reports it has an effect size of 0.35. This is less than the 0.40 hinge point for a normal year’s growth in a classroom. This makes all the work for PBL, “Meh, not worth it.” But wait; before you give up, keep reading.

Note how Quadrant D learning is focused on real-world, unpredictable situations. That is where problem-solving teaching must take students. But they can only go AFTER they have learned content and skills needed to solve it.

You can use several strategies to speed up student growth in a particular area. That is, to build prior knowledge, you can use strategies proven to work. When you do this, and then introduce students, PBL’s effect size increases. I like to think of PBL introduced at surface learning stage as a beginning Pokemon. Use it too soon, students fail. Use it after evolving, you get powerful results.

Image Source: YA Web Design

If you spend some time building knowledge capacity in your students, PBL evolves. It evolves from PBL to a more effective, transfer learning strategy. The evolved PBL strategy is problem-solving teaching. This strategy enjoys a respectable 0.68 effect size.

This evolved PBL appears after you have introduced content (a.k.a. surface learning). It appears after deep learning, when students have gone beyond knowledge conceptualization. It’s only when students are ready to engage in transfer learning that PBL works.

The Visible Learning Meta X database defines it in this way:

Problem-solving involves learning to solve a problem that one does not already know how to solve. It can also involve teaching specific, subject-area focused strategies for attempting to solve such problems.

As you can see, this is like ISTE’s expectation in the Collaboration standard. The focus is on real-world problems, authentic learning, and skill-building.

Mapping Learning Growth via Reflection

You must give students the opportunity to build up background knowledge. How do you do that? Support your students in making their own concept map. They can begin with questions, then track their growing understanding. This means that their concept map will change over time. It’s not a “make one and then forget it” situation.

Image Source

You might ask students, “What would you add to or how would you change your map?” Ask them to revise their concept map as part of their reflection time. To build background knowledge, rely on one of the surface learning strategies. Need some ideas of how to get started? Check this list.

See the complete chart of surface, deep, and transfer strategies online.

Step #3: Present the Problem

The key concept behind the problem-solving teaching strategy is that of novelty, presenting students with a problem they have not encountered before. It is novel, requiring them to apply their newfound knowledge and skills. In a skill-building scenario, it could be to use design thinking process. Or encouraging students to apply their knowledge of an engineering design process. Students can begin to explore the problem from various stakeholder roles. One way to focus them on solution development is to ask, “What will success look like?” Have them put the criteria they use for success into a rubric.

Image Source

As you embark on a PBL unit, align it to the ISTE Standards for Educators’ Collaborator aspect. It will focus your work on authentic learning and real-world problem-solving. What’s more, make sure that you use surface learning strategies first. These will build students’ background knowledge. Then, they can apply their knowledge to a new problem. In this way, you can accelerate student growth.

May 7, 2020 1 comment

Leadership

Enhance Instructional Leadership with Digital Tools

by Miguel Guhlin April 27, 2020

written by Miguel Guhlin

What digital tools are available to help the school principal or administrator be more effective? After decades of research, we know what the principal’s primary role is to practice instructional leadership. That has the greatest effect on student learning. In this blog entry, we’ll explore digital tools that make that job easier.

Before we do that, let’s review some of the research.

What the Research Says: Instructional vs Transformational Leaders

The climate and culture of school mediate the principal’s impact on learning (Source). We know that different kinds of leadership are more effective than others. For example, Hattie’s research points out that transformational leadership differs from instructional leadership.

Reminder: John Hattie says that any instructional strategy has an impact on learning. The average impact on learning of any strategy is 0.40. Anything greater than a 0.40 effect size accelerates student growth in a calendar year.

What are the effect sizes for these two types of leadership? Transformational leadership has an effect size of 0.11. Instructional leadership has an effect size of 0.42.

Activities associated with instructional leadership had a greater impact than those associated with transformational leadership” (Source).

What activities do researchers associate with instructional leadership?

Engaging in classroom observations
Interpreting test scores with teachers
Focusing on instructional issues
Ensuring a coordinated instructional program
Being highly visible
Communicating high academic standards
Ensuring class atmospheres are conducive to learning

Paul Bambrick-Santoyo has some specific suggestions as well in his book, Leverage Leadership. He offers seven levers that allow for consistent growth. We’ll explore some of his points in the next section below.

If a principal can adopt these behaviors that speed student growth, shouldn’t he? Researchers and reformers say, “Yes.” Many principals ask another question:

Are there digital tools that enhance these activities?

The answer to that question is also an affirmative.

Digital Tools Enhance Instructional Leadership

Let’s examine each of the activities. There have been a variety of digital tools shared that make these activities easier. I’m going to adjust Hattie’s wording a little to make it clearer, then share a potential digital tool. If you know of others, please drop them in the comments. That invitation is open to solution providers, as well.

Did You Know?

Sign up for one of our Google Certified Educator certifications. You’ll learn about more than Google Meet, as well as earn 12 CPE hours per course. Use these courses to get Google Educator certified. Find out more online.

While some educators are using Google or Microsoft Forms, there are others. Some of the problems with “home-made” solutions may include:

Tough to aggregate data across the school with a data dashboard solution (e.g. Domo, Google Data Studio)
Hard to get data in and out of the spreadsheet Forms saves data in for feedback purposes
Permissions and account management can be a problem when trying to keep data private

To that end, finding a dedicated solution is necessary. Let’s examine three activities of an instructional leader.

Activity #1: Engaging in Classroom Observations

Engaging in classroom observations can be stressful and tough. When done in the wrong way, it can engender resentment among teachers. This is often due to a lack of transparency in communications. There may be a gap between expectation of what the teacher should do and what they actually do. That can result in stress for both the teacher and principal. While coaching for results can address this, the principal plays a critical role.

The principal can reduce resentment and confusion by conducting regular walkthroughs and adding more communication. (Note that classroom observations are not the same thing as appraisal walkthroughs.)

A few digital tools appear below. These can ease confidential communications while gathering critical data for campus-wide analysis. Two tools include:

Bullseye for Schools. This tool works to capture observations aligned to rubrics. It also allows you to capture videos and take notes on what is observed.
iWalkthrough Classroom Observation tool. This is a tool that works on your device of choice via a web browser. It allows you to collect three to five minutes of observation data, then analyze it. You can analyze a teacher’s work or aggregate across the campus, district, or nation.

Activity #2: Interpreting Test Scores with Teachers

“Do you have a data wall in your school?” This question is often asked among principals. Data walls in teacher planning areas focus staff on potential growth areas. These days, data walls are often electronic and appear in data dashboards. These dashboards have the potential to identify areas of growth. But, data walls may reflect interim assessments and may have a negative effect on students and staff. In fact, a Harvard study found that teachers often do not understand the underlying problems that block student growth. For example, in response to math problems, teachers “often proposed non-mathematical reasons for students’ failure” (Source). Then, teachers moved on. This suggests that the teachers studied lacked the depth in mathematics to understand collected data.

Focus on patterns in the data that suggest long-term strategy changes. Some tips:

Work through data together with a content expert (especially in dense content areas like math, science, reading)
Explore what implications it has for instruction
Ask what systematic checks for understanding could you put in place to ensure long-term student support
What’s the next student outcome you can support students in reaching? The next after that? Plan lessons to support that.

A big part of analysis is crafting a shared system of norms and strategies. You can use coaching and microteaching to encourage reflection needed. In Leverage Leadership, the author suggests the following:

Share video clips of master teachers.
Have teachers discuss what they have seen in small groups before sharing with whole group.
Develop a specific set of norms or system that every teacher in every classroom will commit to implementing.
Teachers rehearse the system in pairs.
Teachers engage in a dress rehearsal, offering critiques for that work, with teachers acting as students.
By the time students arrive, every teacher knows exactly where s/he is supposed to be and exactly what he or she is supposed to be doing at all times.

Displaying a data dashboard may be more effective for big picture results. Learn more about data dashboards and warehouses in this blog entry.

Activity #3: Focusing on Instructional Issues

Image Source

Focusing on instructional issues may best done with coaching tools. One way to focus on instruction in the classroom could involve micro-teaching. Micro-teaching enjoys an effect size of 0.88, making it quite effective. The Visible Learning Meta X database defines it in this way (edited):

A technique in which a teacher delivers a short, video-recorded lesson. The teacher and/or others analyze the lesson for improvement purposes.

There are many digital tools available to record teachers in action. Associating the video with a teacher’s record could involve a specific tool (e.g. Bullseye). To get the full effect Hattie references, you will have to do more than record a classroom. Fisher and Frey (2019) suggest the following:

Each video clip must be fuel discussion between a teacher and a colleague (observer).
The video must encourage the teacher, not the observer, to notice what they do and how what the teacher does impacts students’ learning.
The observer asks reflective question without stating what s/he thinks of the lesson. The observer’s job is to think with the teacher about what is in the video clip.

You can see an example via this link. What I notice is how reflective the teacher is about her teaching and student learning.

The best part of microteaching (see toolkit) involves giving and receiving constructive feedback. Participants do so with an open mind and align their comments to academic goals. Done right, it improves the teacher’s self-confidence in a safe space of mutual respect.

This confidence can inspire students to rely on the teacher more. This student-teacher relationship leads to greater teacher credibility. And, as you may know, teacher credibility has an effect size of 1.09. When all teachers become credible, you achieve collective teacher efficacy (1.39).

Collective Teacher Efficacy (1.39): The shared belief by a group of teachers that they have the skills necessary. And the belief that they can use these skills to have a positive impact on student outcomes.

In this blog entry, we took a look at three activities instructional leaders engage in. I hope each examination of an activity assisted your thinking about what it takes to be a leader who impacts student learning.

April 27, 2020 0 comment

Leadership Professional Learning

Take Time for Innovation

by Lori Gracey February 27, 2020

written by Lori Gracey

As an educator who’s been “doing this” for a very long time now (my, how the years how flown!), I have learned the importance of stopping once and a while to simply think. We get so busy in our day-to-day lives, hurrying to get things done and to help our students and colleagues and parents and community members. It’s easy to get so caught up in that whirlwind of activity that we forget that we have to recharge, too.

So I’ll ask you this simple question: What have you done recently for your own growth and sanity? And while many of you will probably answer that you attended the TCEA 2020 Convention & Exposition recently, and that is certainly a growth event, you may not have taken the time to really sit and think about all that you learned there after you returned home.

Setting Aside Time

I attended a powerful workshop on leadership last week. While there, I took tons of notes and constantly found myself saying “Oh, that would be great to implement” or “What a fantastic idea! I know that can help our members.” But once I got back to my office, those notes were put aside as I dealt with a myriad of small fires and the needs of my board and staff. What was missing was scheduled time for me to sit, with my office door closed and my technology turned off, and think. I needed time to internalize all that I had learned, to see how the pieces fit together, and to process my next steps. I needed dedicated time to consider how those new ideas could best be used in my particular situation. I needed time to take that new learning and apply it to innovative approaches for the future. I needed time.

Putting Innovation on Your Calendar

Now I know that as overwhelmed, incredibly overworked educators, time is one commodity that we simply don’t have enough of. And I also know that there really are only 24 hours in a day with no way to get more added. But I still believe that setting aside some of that precious time to sit and think is an absolute requirement, regardless of our role or of how busy we are. So I’ve begun scheduling thinking time on my calendar. I’ve let my assistant know that, unless the building is on fire, I am not to be interrupted during those few moments. I shut my door, close out my email and turn off my phone. I pull out the notes from something that I learned recently and some blank paper and a pen and I think about its meaning, its relevance, and how it might fit in with everything else that I do. I doodle and scribble and, as I sit there, ideas begin flowing. My mind seems a little clearer and, by the end of the time I’ve set aside, I am calmer and recharged and ready to move ahead.

It doesn’t seem to matter how short this time is. While I obviously process more given more time, even just 15 minutes seems to make a difference. So I would encourage you, actually beg you, to try setting aside just a little time on your calendar to sit and think. I believe you will see a profound difference in your mental state, in how you approach new problems, and how you grow intellectually. Then drop me a line at lgracey@tcea.org and let me know how this innovation time (or whatever name you give it) is working for you.

Happy thinking!

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that one of the best ways to schedule a good block of thinking time is to attend the Elementary Technology Conference. Held June 14-16 in beautiful Galveston, TX, this event provides not just innovative learning experiences, but a fabulous on-the-beach location that is perfect for thinking. Register now and join me as we sit and learn and think together.

February 27, 2020 0 comment

STEM/STEAM

Let Patent Illustrations Upgrade Your STEM Classroom to STEAM

by Dr. Bruce Ellis January 10, 2020

written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

You may not think of patent illustrations as a way to connect students to content they are learning. But they might actually help some of your students who otherwise might not be interested in STEM. Accurate and detailed illustrations of inventions are critical in the application of a quality patent. As STEM educators, we already promote students thinking of themselves as inventors, creators, and designers, but you may have students who are reluctant to claim one of these three labels for a variety of reasons. These students may include those that consider themselves more artistic and drawn to doodling (pun intended) than those students who seem to excel in science or mathematics. Using patent illustrations is a great hook to include those students. It can also help you expand your STEM offerings to become STEAM (science, technology, engineering, ART, and mathematics) focused. Before we jump in to locating patent illustrations/art online and ways for students to create their own patent art, let’s have a quick history lesson.

History Lesson on Patents

patent illustrations The first patent in the United States was issued on July 31, 1790 to Samuel Hopkins for his improvement on the process of making potash as used in fertilizers. Since then, over ten million patents have been issued. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issues patents to inventors and businesses for their inventions and exists in order to maintain the objective outlined in the United States Constitution in Article 1, Section 8: “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” Inventors apply for a utility patent which protects the unauthorized use and sale of their invention for typically 20 years after the application date. Many utility patents include schematics or drawings to help illustrate the unique design of the invention.

Finding Patent Illustrations Online

Finding patent illustrations online can be easy and complicated at the same time. For example, if I want to find patent diagrams for an iPhone, the logical idea would be to search for iPhone in the patent title. If I use USPTO’s search engine, I only end up with five results (projector housing for IPhone, IPhone separate clip mobile power supply, IPhone slide rail with a mobile power supply, and Computer display with an iPhone window). When I look at the images associated with each, I find that they are rather boring. If I use Google’s patent search engine, then I end up with 43,600 hits – um, that’s a few more than I want to investigate to find a cool graphic for my classroom. So how do I get better search results that are more relevant and meaningful? Here are three strategies:

Strategy 1: USPTO’s Full-Text and Image Database

Begin by going to http://patft.uspto.gov and clicking on the Quick Search link. Here we can use two terms to search. A term can be a single word, a date, an inventor’s name, or a phrase. For each term, we can restrict the field to search. Instead of using “iPhone,” which was too limiting, let’s see what we find when we search for “smart phone” in the title field. Here we find 241 patents…some of which are clearly not what we are interested in (example: smart phone screen cleaning pad, security and surveillance system based on smart phone devices, etc.). Let’s take a look at number 226 – “Smart phone with lens.”

From here we can see that it is United States Patent number 8,190,021 which was issued on May 29, 2012. Scrolling down this page, we find out more information about the invention. We find that several figures are referenced in the summary section, so scroll to the top or bottom of the page and click on the “Images” link to view the illustrations (and other information) on this specific patent from the image database. Here you can download the document (right-click -> Save as…). To navigate to different sections, use the gold navigational arrows on the left-hand side or click on the “Drawings” section link to jump to the first drawing. We can now scroll through and see the three illustrations that are provided.

If we want to combine this into one page, we can create a Google Doc or Microsoft Word file and take several screenshots of the different pages and paste them on the destination page. With just a little tweaking, we can come up with a final product to display that looks like this.

Strategy 2: Using Google’s Patent Search Engine

Begin by going to https://patents.google.com. Initially, we’ll use it as we would when we search Google. Because there has been a lot of talk this past year about foldable displays on smart phones, let’s see what we can find. Begin by searching for these three words – flexible, “foldable device”, phone. Be sure to put quotes around foldable and device since you want foldable device to be a single search term. When you have that typed in, hit the Enter key. Let’s narrow our results down by doing the following:

Enter 2017-01-01 as the beginning date (meaning we want any patents that have been filed AFTER January 1, 2017).
Click on Patent Office and choose US.
Click on Language and select English.

When done, you should get the following search results.

On the side of the search results page, a graph has been provided showing percentage of search results for Assignees, Inventors, and CPCs. You can use that list to also narrow your results. Click on Samsung Display Co., Ltd. and notice that our results have dropped to two. Click on Foldable device and method for controlling the same to review the information of that patent filed by Samsung. If you scroll left-right on the image thumbnails, you can see that this document has several good images that will work well for illustrations in our classroom. Yeah! To get the full size images though, you will need to click on the Download PDF link in the blue table. Tada! We now have the document with the images. You may (and probably will) find that these pages don’t look as interesting or as artful as you may want, so we’ll do as we did above and screenshot the images we want and piece them together to make the single page patent art that we want. When done, we should end up with something like this.

Strategy 3: Let Others Do the Work for You

What?! You might be asking yourself if you read that correctly. Yep, you did. Let others do the work for you by finding the patent numbers of items that are interesting to you. The downside here is that you are limited to what others have found and shared. Plus, you can’t just take their work. You may find several folks who have done as I did above and took various images from different pages and then compiled them onto a single page…thus making patent art from patent illustrations. You can, however, make note of the information they have (patent number, inventor name, published date, etc.) so that you can more easily look up the patents for yourself. If you do an image search for patents, you will find many locations willing to sell you a fine print of patent illustrations. Some have been made to look more blueprint-ish by printing them in blue and white while others want to express a vintage look so they are offered on a tan or burnished paper. Regardless of the image, see if you can locate some identifying information that will help you search in one of the two (or both) of the databases previously covered.

How to Use Patent Illustrations/Art in Your STEAM Classroom

Your students may have not encountered patent illustrations or even realized that for something to be patented, it may need multiple, detailed drawings/illustrations. After looking at various patent illustrations, you quickly get the idea that there are lots of different f looks: simple, mechanical, or even almost-childish scribbles. Here are some suggestions for using patent illustrations or artwork in your class:

Identify things that your students enjoy and look for patent drawings that you can display as visual interest.
Consider adding a “Patent illustration” option to your choice boards or choice menus for students to demonstrate their understanding of a piece of equipment.
Make quasi-patent illustrations. These are real patent illustrations, but may be more like patent-like illustrations. They might be used, for example, when illustrating the parts of a cell, a cross-sectional view of a volcano, important objects of a story (and their value to the writing, mood, plot, etc.).
Have students sketch out patent drawings to go along with their inventions.
Work with the art teacher at your school to incorporate patent illustrations (or at least the concept) in their class and tie it to your content area.

What About Patent Copyright Issues?

Quoting from USPTO’s website, “Patents are published as part of the terms of granting the patent to the inventor. Subject to limited exceptions reflected in 37 CFR 1.71(d) & (e) and 1.84(s), the text and drawings of a patent are typically not subject to copyright restrictions. The inventors’ rights to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States for a limited time is not compromised by the publication of the description of the invention. In other words, the fact that a patent’s description may have been published without copyright restrictions does not give you permission to manufacture or use the invention without permission from the inventor during the active life of the patent. ”

Freebie Patent Art for You

Here are a few patent art pieces that I put together to share with you. Feel free to print them out for your classroom or even possibly your home.

1948 Baseball Glove	1961 Lego Brick
2003 Apple iMac	2018 Google Device

1948 Baseball Glove

1961 Lego Brick

2003 Apple iMac

2018 Google Device

January 10, 2020 3 comments

Professional Learning Special Needs Technology Applications

Earn Your GT Hours at TCEA 2020

by Kristy Breaux November 19, 2019

written by Kristy Breaux

Educators know that each student learns differently. And today, many teachers specialize in a number of important areas, like providing enriched learning experiences to gifted students (GT).

The 2020 TCEA Convention & Exposition is an event for all educators. That’s why TCEA is helping meet the needs of dedicated educators like you. Not only can attendance at TCEA provide critical professional development in your specialty, but you can also experience a world of informative sessions on all things education. Here’s why TCEA 2020 is right for you.

How TCEA Helps GT Educators

Teachers who have received the initial 30 hours of training in gifted education are required to receive six (6) hours of training yearly to maintain their eligibility to teach GT. Technology is a major component of the education of gifted and talented learners, and TCEA has identified sessions at our annual convention that are targeted for GT teachers and meet the six-hour requirement.

Below are a sampling of the sessions that have been identified for GT teachers. You can view the full session list, and search by topic and audience, here.

Student Choice and Voice for the GT Student
Gifted and Talented Showcase with Makerspace Creations
Poster Sessions: Special Populations (SPED, ESL/ELL, GT)
A More Perfect Union: American History, Silent Sustained Reading, and Blended Learning
Growing the Workforce of Tomorrow: Business Plans, Shark Tank Survival, and Entrepreneurial Thinking
The GT Student Today
Fostering Student Agency with Flipgrid, ScreenCastify, and Twisted Wave
Whisper Courses: Micro-Learning Opportunities for Differentiation, Extension, and Management
Digital Choice Boards for the Win!
The Board Game Design Project, The Ultimate Interdisciplinary Project
Blended Learning/Personalized Learning/Student Voice, Now What?
Solution Circles: The GT Student Today

Intrigued? Find the professional learning you need — and much, much more — at TCEA 2020.

Photo: jose aljovin

November 19, 2019 0 comment

Good Teaching

Wakelet-Empowered Classroom Discussions

by Miguel Guhlin October 22, 2019

written by Miguel Guhlin

Ready to electrify your classroom with Wakelet-empowered classroom discussions? Wakelet has many features that make it ideal for use in the classroom. And, since it’s free, teachers can embrace it to do more than use it as a backchannel, twitter chat archive tool, or choice board. Wouldn’t it be incredible to use Wakelet to deepen classroom discussion? You can in a simple way.

Before we do that, though, let’s discuss why it’s important to hone our classroom discussion strategies.

The Value of Focused Talk

Mike Schmoker (2019) points out that focused talk should “punctuate” student readings of text. He says:

Virtually all text-based learning should be punctuated with—and then culminate in—focused talk, sometimes in pairs and at other times in extended full-class discussions or debates. All teachers should be able to instruct students in how to speak clearly, audibly, logically, and with civility.

When I do demonstration lessons, it is often apparent to me that students aren’t learning these essential communication skills, which rank at the top of what employers want (Gewertz, 2018 as cited by Mike Schmoker (2019))

If you’ve been following the TCEA blog, you know that we’ve been sharing insights into how technology can enhance effective instructional strategies. While a lot of research isn’t available for these innovations, which Grant Lichtman describes as “changes that add value,” we can judge the results ourselves. Classroom discussion (d=.82) enjoys a powerful effect, more than two years’ growth.

Classroom discussions are not only about students connecting with content. Rather, classroom discussions provide the teacher with insight. The insight flows from understanding how much students are thinking and processing information. Like peering through the glass at Jungle Jim’s Playground to see that your child is safe in the ball pit, you are making a judgement about student learning. We often call this process a way of “making thinking visible” so we can assess learning.

Checking for Understanding

Teachers may not assess or check for understanding in the middle of classroom discussions. At least, that’s the point that Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey make in their book, “Checking for Understanding” (see two chapters of their book). While researchers acknowledge that checking for understanding is critical to student success, there are many more ways to do so than using Think-Pair-Share.

In their book, they revisit several approaches we use in the classroom:

Think-Pair-Share is a cooperative discussion strategy that allows students to discuss their responses with a peer before sharing with the whole class.
Misconception analysis provides students an opportunity to discuss, often in small groups, misunderstandings that they have.
Whip Around provides teachers with a check for understanding to assist them in determining whether they need to reteach content.

“For the majority of lessons, no evidence exists by which a teacher could gauge or report on how well students are learning essential standards,” says Mike Schmoker. Collecting this data that provides insights into classroom discussions your students have is essential. How else are you going to change how you’re teaching to better match student needs?

Many leaders in the field of literacy, as well as those in educational research, contend that in order for students to achieve at the highest levels, they must actively participate in learning through conversation, reading, and writing (Wilkinson and Silliman, 2000; Tovani, 2004; Daniels and Zemelman, 2004; Gallagher, 2004; Zwiers, 2008). Students develop deep conceptual knowledge in a discipline only by using the habits of reading, writing, and thinking (McConachie et al., 2006; Schleppegrell, 2004). (Source: Language magazine)

Let’s examine two ways that are effective and can work as stand-alones, but you can also empower them using Wakelet.

Strategy #1: Talk, Read, Talk, Write (TRTW)

Looking for a powerful, bare bones (strategy without technology) you can use to check for understanding? At a conference earlier this fall, an elementary teacher introduced me to Nancy Moseley’s TRTW. It is an approach that closely matches Schmoker, Fisher, Frey, and Hattie’s research.

[TRTW] was initially designed for the core classes, and its specific purpose is to help develop students’ abilities to read academic texts as the primary source of their learning. This, of course, implies the need to train them how to read that type of text successfully. Nancy’s book lays out the strategy and even discusses the need for building reading stamina specifically regarding academic texts as well as releasing more and more responsibility over to students for their learning in the classroom. Source: Amy Lenord

To adapt it for use with Wakelet, you’ll need to take a few steps. We’ll discuss what you need to do in Wakelet to make this work after exploring the TRTW approach below.

TRTW Example: Classroom Discussion

Here’s what those steps look like in the context of a professional learning session with adult learners.

Talk 1 (before reading)
1. Engage students with a question relevant to content area.
  1. Example: How do YOU get students excited about discussing texts in your classroom conversations?
2. Set Purpose for Reading:
  1. Example: Discover some of the reasons why it’s important to focus on heightening classroom discussions.
Read (during reading)
1. Read Illuminate Learning’s blog entry. Read this individually or with your elbow partner.
2. Make a list of key points in the blog to share with your team
3. When done, let your partner know and move on to Step 3 together
Talk 2 (after reading)
1. Go to the Wakelet shown, and respond to the question(s) below. It is okay if different groups respond to the same question, but it would be nice to have some variety
  1. Question #1 – Why does John Hattie see value in classroom discussions?
  2. Question #2 – What are some technology tools that you have learned about today or already know about that you could use?
  3. Question #3 – What would happen if you were to adopt this strategy and/or technologies in your classroom?
Write
1. In this step, you are going to engage in some writing. Here’s the situation your assistance is needed with:
  Your school leader has approached your team and asked you to write a short email sharing the value of classroom discussion. This email will be shared with the entire campus team of professionals.
2. Add your short, brief piece of writing to the Wakelet you’ve been working on in the appropriate step.

As you can see, TRTW offers some discussion opportunities. You can adapt other instructional strategies in the same way, such as Think-Puzzle-Explore.

Strategy #2: Think-Puzzle-Explore

In her blog on Sparking Student Curiosity, Michelle Lucas outlines several approaches she uses as a science educator. One of the approaches that she mentioned intrigued me. That strategy is Think-Puzzle-Explore. A quick search online yielded the elements of the approach:

- What do you think you know about this topic?
- What questions or puzzles do you have?
- How can you explore this topic? (Source: Visible Thinking)

This serves as a tangible way to capture data needed to successfully use classroom discussion. Now, due to Wakelet’s two-by-two grid limits, you are unable to create a Think-Puzzle-Explore that flows landscape on a page. Instead, students can group their ideas one under the other.

View example

Using Wakelet with TRTW to Empower Classroom Discussion

Using Wakelet can assist in capturing the information in a few easy steps:

Wakelet: Create a Wakelet that has your Check-In Conversation strategy. This strategy enables “students to share their thoughts, questions, annotations about the text.” Wakelet’s ability to handle a wide variety of media makes this a a nice canvas where students can do that in response to your list of pre-made questions. See my example link.
Contributor link: You will need to go to the Contributors area to get the link. See this video tutorial for getting Contributors’ link . See my example link.

Blending technology into effective instructional strategies (e.g. Think-Puzzle-Explore and TRTW) empowers learning in several key ways. It reinforces the core components of the strategies that make them powerful for student learning. What’s more, free tools like Wakelet extend collaboration at a distance to leverage more minds.

October 22, 2019 0 comment

Digital Literacy

Celebrating Digital Citizenship Week with Powerful Resources

by Andrew Roush October 15, 2019

written by Andrew Roush

Digital citizens are critical thinkers. They carefully weigh evidence and sources and come to informed conclusions about what they encounter online. They are digitally literate, that is, they use information technology effectively and in ways that empower them to be lifelong learners. Creating an informed citizenry, one that can skillfully use ubiquitous and evolving tech tools, is a central goal of education, and the primary goal of digital citizenship.

What’s more, a good digital citizen is safe online. As we increasingly live our lives through connected devices, understanding the smartest and safest ways to use them, and the networks they run on, is vital to ensuring that students are well-prepared for life outside of school.

A Week of Celebration

Spreading awareness of these benefits is the purpose of Digital Citizenship Week, October 14–18, 2019.

Education nonprofit Common Sense describes the week as an opportunity to “amplify your students’ voices and give them ownership of their digital lives.” It’s a skill that today’s students will need not just in the future, but today. Want to bring digital citizenship into your classroom? Below are some resources that might help.

Digital Resources for a Digital World

Common Sense, mentioned above, offers a number of videos paired with lesson plans for elementary, middle, and secondary grades on a variety of digital citizenship and literacy topics. Best of all? You have access once you create a free account. Need resources in Spanish? They’ve got you covered.
Nearpod offers starter-pack lesson plans for K-12. Once you teach them, you can receive a limited edition Nearpod badge to use in your classroom or email signature. And they have day-by-day activities recommended, too.
For a day-by-day outline of digital citizenship, check out this post from curriculum developer AES Education. Written for last year’s commemoration, this piece lays out a progressive understanding of the topic, one day at a time.
If you’re willing to go the route of resources available for purchase, ISTE’s Digital Citizenship in Action, Empowering Students to Engage in Online Communities, written by high school librarian Kristen Mattson, is all about flipping old practices on their head. Instead of teaching what not to do, she explores what action students can take to be good digital citizens.
Those looking to dig into more detailed topics might want to explore the educator tools at DigitalLiteracy.gov, a joint project of ten federal agencies. Notably, the site’s powerful search and filtering function lets you find the right tool based on your interest.
Digizen, as the name implies, is a website all about digital citizenship, with pages specifically designed for teachers, parents, and students.
Be sure to scroll through Cyberwise’s massive trove of digital resources on the subject.
Find out what the fandom around the incredibly popular Korean pop band BTS can tell us about digital citizenship.

Photo: Tim Gouw

October 15, 2019 0 comment

Good Teaching Google Tips and Tricks

High-Impact Classroom Discussions with Google

by Diana Benner September 16, 2019

written by Diana Benner

John Hattie’s research identifies classroom discussions as having an effect size on student achievement of 0.82, which means approximately two years’ of growth in one year. Do you have classroom discussions in your class? Do you use Google tools to promote classroom discussion? If not, let’s take a look at how you can use them to increase student learning in your classroom.

The Power of Classroom Discussions

Classroom discussions are an instructional strategy where students are invited to speak about the topic at hand. But it involves much more than just a teacher asking a class a question and then another, etc., It involves all students having robust discussion with each other in order to think more critically about a topic.

Using Classroom Discussions to Adapt Instruction

Classroom discussions allow students to improve communication skills by voicing their opinions and thoughts. Teachers also benefit from classroom discussion as it allows them to see if students have learned the concepts that are being taught. Moreover, a classroom discussion creates an environment where everyone learns from each other, which is the best kind of learning.

The key to successful classroom discussions is the feedback given by and the instructional adjustments made by the teacher. According to Hattie, “when implemented correctly, classroom discussions can be a source of rich, qualitative data – data that allows teachers to understand the thinking of their students more closely and determine if there are information processing errors that need instructional intervention immediately.”

Planning for Classroom Discussions

When planning for classroom discussions, teachers should consider the following:

Classroom Discussions

Share expectations. When planning for Classroom Discussions, it is important to share your expectations for participation, including the ground rules for the discussion. Sharing a rubric with students will help to clarify your expectations.
Create questions. Create a series of questions for the students to think about. Make sure these are open-ended and thought-provoking questions. Your questions could spark controversy or draw on common experiences. This way, you will spark a meaningful discussion.
Allocate enough time. Discussions take time to get started.
Ensure that it’s the students talking and not you. You already know the content being discussed!
Facilitate the discussion and adjust instruction, as needed. Monitor what is being said and ask students for clarification. This is where you get an understanding if the student understands the topic being discussed and adjust instruction as needed.
Deal with conflict. It is important not to ignore conflicts. If a misunderstanding occurs, make sure you step in and clarify. Do not let certain students dominate the discussion. In addition, make sure that students can freely express their opinion without being laughed at.
Summarize the discussion. Provide a summary or some conclusions of the discussion.
After the discussion, reflect on what worked well and what you might do differently next time. Think about the students that didn’t participate much or didn’t understand the topic.

Google Tools for Classroom Discussions

Classroom Discussions

Google tools can complement the effectiveness of classroom discussions. With online discussions, teachers can view and select individual student responses to deepen further discussion for the whole class. This way, the teacher is using the thinking of students to drive instruction for the entire class. Teachers can also use whole-class views to push students’ thinking beyond the material being studied. In addition, online discussions will give a voice to those students are aren’t comfortable speaking up in class. The main thing to remember is that the teacher must model how to post in the online forum. Below are a few tools to get started with.

Google Classroom – The Google Classroom question feature allows teachers to have their own version of an online discussion board. Simply ask a question and students can begin having a discussion online.

Google Slides – Teachers can have a classroom discussion using Google Slides. As Alice Keeler points out in her blog, you can post a question in Google Slides and then have the students insert a slide to respond to the question. Students can insert comments on the slides of other students to respond. Get the discussion template here.

Google Sheets – Google Sheets can also be used to facilitate classroom discussions. On her blog, Alice Keeler mentions how you can create a list of discussion topics on the first sheet and then run a script to create a tab for each question. Students can then respond to the questions collaboratively. Get the discussion template here.

Pear Deck Google Add-On – Pear Deck is an add-on for Google Slides that will allow teachers to ask students questions. Students will be prompted to answer your questions as you advance your slides.

Additional Digital Tools for Classroom Discussions

Some additional digital tools for classroom discussions include:

Back Channel Chat – Backchannel Chat is a class discussion tool that was designed to look like an online chat room. Teachers can control of all aspects of the discussions. They can remove messages and prevent students from posting, if the pace of the discussion is overwhelming and key messages are lost.

Flipgrid – Flipgrid is a video discussion platform that helps teachers see and hear from every student in class. Teachers can post a topic for discussion and students then respond by recording their thoughts via a short video clip. Students can then watch the videos of their classmates and respond back to them to generate further discussion.

Nearpod – Nearpod provides another way to hold classroom discussions. Students can answer a prompt by reporting their thoughts and feelings through open-ended text. When answers are submitted, the teacher can see everyone’s response on their dashboard. They can even push out the responses to each student’s device. The teacher can keep it anonymous or mention the student’s name.

Padlet – Padlet is an online bulletin board in which students can post responses to discussion questions. Teachers should instruct students to put their name in the Title of their Padlet post. After students have posted their response, teachers can reply to their post. Students can even attach files or links to their responses.

Try a Classroom Discussion

Classroom discussions can be a powerful data source for teachers to adapt instruction. Therefore, you should try a classroom discussion or adjust a discussion you already have. As a result, it will lead to increased student learning in your classroom.

September 16, 2019 2 comments

3D design of a tennis shoe on a computer screen

Coding/Computer Science

3D Tools, Libraries, and Resources

by Miguel Guhlin June 24, 2019

written by Miguel Guhlin

If your campus or classroom is just beginning to dabble in 3D design, you may think you are limited in the resources available to you. But there are tons of amazing tools and even libraries available for you and your students. Imagine an online library where anyone can browse, share, and remix a 3D object. For example, you might design a tour in Google Tour Builder. Now you can put that into Google’s Poly, an online library, and you have something you can share. In this blog entry, we’ll explore a few tools for creating 3D assets (i.e. models, scenes, tours) and examples.

Why Learn to Create 3D Assets?

When students work in virtual words, they are learning to manipulate 3D objects and navigate virtual 3D environments. Minecraft: Education Edition and Sketch Up Pro are two fantastic tools for this. TinkerCAD enables students of all ages to design in 3D. Put those designs in a 3D printer and you have a physical artifact. Don’t forget that 3D printing is about more than small curios. 3D printing houses, bridges, clothes, and even glass objects and more is a reality now.

As the 3D printing industry grows, so do opportunities. It is critical for students to “become fluent with programs and machines for 3D printing.” The Try Engineering Institute points out several important job skills in this area, such as the following:

3D Design: Take a product idea, then make it into something that can come to life. Consider the importance of rapid prototyping for design thinking and engineering design processes.
3D Computer-Aided Design (CAD) Modeling: This involves converting product designs into digital blueprints. These digital blueprints are then used in 3D printers.
Biological and Scientific Modeling: Engineers, designers, and modelers design and create 3D-printed organs and more.

Poly Toolkit offers a wealth of resources needed to build augmented reality (AR) applications. This short, 35-minute video will provide some background on the toolkit:

Making the ISTE Student Standards Connections

Wondering how learning 3D design is important from an ISTE Standards perspective? Consider the following relevant standard and indicators:

1. Empowered Learner

1.d. Students understand the fundamental concepts of technology operations, demonstrate the ability to choose, use and troubleshoot current technologies and are able to transfer their knowledge to explore emerging technologies.

4. Innovative Designer

4.a. Students know and use a deliberate design process for generating ideas, testing theories, creating innovative artifacts or solving authentic problems.

4.b. Students select and use digital tools to plan and manage a design process that considers design constraints and calculated risks.

4.c. Students develop, test and refine prototypes as part of a cyclical design process.

4.d. Students exhibit a tolerance for ambiguity, perseverance and the capacity to work with open-ended problems.

5. Computational Thinker

5.a. Students formulate problem definitions suited for technology-assisted methods such as data analysis, abstract models and algorithmic thinking in exploring and finding solutions.

5.b. Students break problems into component parts, extract key information, and develop descriptive models to understand complex systems or facilitate problem-solving.

6. Creative Communicator

6.a. Students choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication.

6.b. Students create original works or responsibly re-purpose or remix digital resources into new creations.

Now that you can see the connections, let’s take a look at the evolving tool set and some examples.

What Tools Are Available to Create 3D Assets?

Although I’ve mentioned a few tools for creating 3D assets, others exist. There are some you may be unfamiliar with. Please find a short list below:

Poly Toolkit : This cross-platform tool works on Android, iOS, Web, as well as Unity and Unreal. If you’re using Blender, Cinema4D, Maya, or 3dsMax, you can get a plug-in for the Toolkit. Using the web version, you may need some background on Javascript or Python. Don’t know coding? That’s OK. There are simpler tools.
Tilt Brush: Do you have access to Google VR on VIVE, Oculus, or Windows Mixed Reality? Then you may want to explore the Tilt Brush Tutorials.
Blocks: This tools enables you to create 3D models as well (see image below). The goal is to enable developers to create 3D objects in 3D environment. Then you can publish those.

To be honest, most of the activities and skills needed for this require special equipment. But there is one tool you may already be familiar with. The tool? Google Tour Builder.

Tour Builder

Tour Builder enables students to create a virtual tour of their research data. They can add photos, text, and video as needed. Students use a map-based approach to organize research as location and impact are the two organizing principles. Check out this Getting Started with Google Tour-Builder guide for more information.

Tour Creator

Did you know that you can use Tour Creator to design virtual-reality tours and then publish them on Poly? This means you, as a teacher, can add tours you create to Expeditions. This allows you to guide your students in your class on an Expedition because tours that you add to Expeditions on Poly are auto-added to your Expeditions app.

Publishing Google Tours into the Poly Library

Once you create a Google Tour, you can share it and make it public. That’s important because it will make it available in Poly for students to access. Jen Cauthers suggests these steps:

Log into your account (the same one you would use on your phone).
Go to Poly and click the share button for that tour.
Choose “Expeditions” for the way you want to share the tour.
You should now see the tour you want to share under your tour list in the Expeditions app.

Make the tour public in Poly, then you can share the link with anyone. This means they need not sign in as a Poly Tour designer to view it. One neat feature is the ability to save items in the Poly library as animated GIFs. Give it a try!

Some Examples

Ready to see some examples? Here are a few to get you started:

Lewis and Clark Expedition – In this tour, you see six different landmarks that Lewis and Clark stopped at.
Gettysburg Battlefield – Includes seven scenes depicting a tour of the Gettysburg Battlefield.
Isabel’s Journey – A story of Isabel, who lived in Cuba under Fidel Castro, and left. Some interesting text items illustrate the tour. Great example of how to capture student’s family history. Of course, the source is Alan Gratz’ book, Refugee.

See many more examples are available online in the Poly library. Organized in collections, you’ll find a variety under many headers, including Animal & Pets, Architecture, Art, Culture & Humanity, Food & Drink, Current Events, and more.

June 24, 2019 1 comment

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