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professional learning

Connect Learners with Video

by Miguel Guhlin January 13, 2017

written by Miguel Guhlin

Technologies that connect us, engage. One example of this is Flipgrid, a free video discussion board service. With Flipgrid, you can create grids with topics on them and have workshop participants or students respond to the topics with recorded videos. Several workshops ago, I decided to begin using Flipgrid as a regular part of the learning. Some of the applications of the tool included:

Ask participants to introduce themselves and/or each other.
Watch videos about a topic and then share a summary or take-away.
Summarize an article they have read.

Free Online Flipgrid Course

The Microsoft Education Community offers a free course, Amplifying Student Voice, that features FlipGrid uses. In that course, the developers imagine Flipgrid as being more than just a communication tool in your classroom:

For students, Flipgrid provides a safe space to connect with their peers, share their voice on relevant course topics, and add to the collective knowledge of the classroom. For teachers, you can see firsthand as your students develop confidence, reasoning skills, respect of diverse opinions, and understanding through reflection. Moreover, as Flipgrid videos are asynchronous, you can conveniently connect your students with classrooms around the world by sharing your grids with other educators. Their students add their voices to the grid building an active community of shared knowledge.

You can watch videos embedded in the course, as well as view content, without completing the course (but then you wouldn’t earn the badge!):

Introducing FlipGrid for Professional Development

Introducing Flipgrid to others has been easy. I point out how to access the Flipgrid topic I’ve set up for the process, either on a laptop and mobile device (e.g. tablet or smartphone). I start with a quick demonstration, often recording the video prompt in front of the class. Then I invite participants to work in groups of two to three to record their responses. Some even go out into the hall. After they have completed their video responses, we share a few to the whole group. Who would not be engaged by their own face and voice as they connect with others?

FlipGrid in the Classroom

“Seeing and hearing students’ video responses can make discourse fun; the site allows personalities and ideas to shine in 90-second clips,” says Polly Conway, Commonsense Media reviewer. “Design is colorful, clean, and intuitive.” Curious about how participants in my workshops would describe Flipgrid in their classroom, I asked them to share some reflections. “How would Flipgrid be helpful?”

In computer programming, students could use it to demonstrate how the code works and the output.
Formative assessment tool.
Quick check for understanding.
Have students work on a collaborative group project and then share their collective or individual video reflection on each task.
It is a great resource to use with the teachers we coach so they can reflect on their practices.
English Language Learners (ELL) students can experience opportunities to develop their language and practice language mastery.
Flipgrid in elementary would be a strong resource for reading responses.

Listen to this Voxercast (audio recorded using the free Voxer app). It features two TCEA Microsoft Innovative Educators (MIE), Jocelyn Crew (Lyford CISD) and Jodi-Beth Moreno (Education Service Center, Region 1) sharing about Flipgrid.

Flipgrid Resources

Others have been exploring Flipgrid for classroom use. Consider these examples:

If you’re interested in exploring FlipGrid or other video annotation solutions? Check out this blog entry on Video-based Active Learning.

January 13, 2017 0 comment

Leadership

An “Atta-Boy” Just Doesn’t Cut It Anymore

by Lori Gracey October 18, 2016

written by Lori Gracey

Regardless of your position in education today, you have to provide feedback to someone. Whether you’re a campus or district leader trying to help a staff member grow professionally or a classroom teacher working to move students along, the name of the game is definitely feedback.

But exactly what constitutes good feedback? What is needed to help an individual understand a weakness or opportunity for growth and develop both the desire and the skills to become stronger in that area? Or, if the individual is already doing extremely well, what words beyond “Good work!” should be shared? To be honest, we are asked to give feedback, but we probably don’t really know how.

As the executive director for TCEA, I’ve struggled with this. I meet regularly with all my staff members and always try to provide data and information for them to grow. But I’m not sure that I’m being successful. So I’ve spent some time recently researching this area.

The Feedback Cycle

According to my research, feedback is made up of the following parts, all of which work in a continuous circle:

Identifying an area for growth and sharing that with the individual
Providing actionable feedback
Monitoring the results and continuing to provide actionable feedback.

Obviously, the easiest part of the cycle is identification. It’s usually easy to pick out what’s wrong. It may be somewhat harder to share that with the other person. And it may also be a little difficult to convince them of the need for growth. But once past that, I think it’s the next part that is the hardest and that we tend to skip.

Putting It Into Practice

Instead of just telling someone, “Well, your classroom management strategies aren’t as strong as they should be” and walking away, the good leader has to help the employee develop new strategies to use and practice. That means helping him work through to a very specific plan of action that is short, measurable (as in easy to see if it’s working, not just a lot of percentages and numbers), and involves reflection on the progress.

For the example about classroom management, the leader, after discussion with the staff member, might suggest better monitoring of student behavior by walking around the room instead of always teaching from the front of the class. They should discuss what that would look like, what problems might occur with that action, and what results might be expected. After the teacher has time to digest the idea and fully understand what is involved, then he or she should respond with any questions and might even ask for the recommended behavior change to be modeled. The leader could do so himself or set up a time for the teacher to observe another educator who does that action well. The goal is to make sure that both parties are very clear on what exactly needs to be worked on.

Keep in mind that the feedback should be focused on what the person does. If it’s for an educator, then it should be on the content or pedagogy. If it’s for a technician, then it should be on specific job skills that need improvement. If it’s for a student, then it should be focused on content or behavior issues. And keep it simple. There’s no need to use our standard education-eese language filled with acronyms and big words.

Once the teacher implements the action, he or she should reflect on its success or lack thereof in written format over a period of time. This works best if the leader has provided some thought questions to help guide the reflection, such as “How do you feel about what you are doing? How are your students responding to this new behavior? What problems, if any, are occurring and why? How might you address those problems? What are your next steps?” Reflection is how we cement new ideas and behaviors in our brains; leaving this part out makes the change almost guaranteed to fail over time.

The final part of the cycle involves the leader seeing the new behavior in action and continuing to provide specific, actionable feedback. If things are going well, then don’t just say “Good job!” Instead, something like “I saw how you noticed that Mark was off task during the activity today and you were able to get him back on track just by walking over to him. I like that you didn’t feel the need to call him out in front of his peers, but still kept control of the classroom and ensure that learning could continue.” Then follow that up with a question about what prompted the teacher to take that action and how he felt about it.

For Those Doing Well

Although it doesn’t seem logical, the process is even more important for those staff members who are doing things well. In the past, they have probably just received positive comments about their work when what they really needed was the opportunity to pinpoint what exactly worked so well and why. They need the same opportunity for reflection that educators who are struggling do. “You were amazing!” is great to hear, but doesn’t really help anyone know exactly why they were successful or how to ensure they are successful in the future.

Conclusions

The bottom line in providing effective feedback that promotes change is that it should be a lot of work for not only the receiver of the feedback, but also for the giver. As a leader, you must take time to help your staff member or student come to the realization of what needs improvement and how best to make that improvement.

Don’t forget that you as the leader can also grow and improve. Provide opportunities for your staff to give you actionable feedback on what you can do better. This will not only help you; it will help them to see the process modeled.

I ask that you reflect on the feedback that you regularly provide by answering the following questions:

How are you enabling those you work with to identify areas in which they need to grow?
How do you provide specific, actionable feedback?
How do you offer time for reflection on the new behavior?
How do you encourage your best performers to grow?

If you follow the cycle, you will see positive changes and growth and learning will occur. And, after all, isn’t that what we’re all after?

October 18, 2016 0 comment

Professional Learning

Professional Development with You in Mind

by Diana Benner September 6, 2016

written by Diana Benner

It’s important that we as educators model what we want our students and staff to do. If we want them to use technology well, we have to demonstrate what that looks like on a regular basis. We also have to model the principle of continuous improvement through professional development. With new research and best practices emerging at a staggering pace, there’s no better way to stay current and effective.

TCEA offers certification programs and online courses that are designed to meet your needs. They are standards-based, aligned to best practices, and are available in formats that will work with your busy schedule.

Device-Based Certification Programs

Our device-based certification programs are designed for the busy educator. These certifications are completely online and self-paced. In addition to completing online modules, participants will submit a lesson that demonstrates effective integration into a particular content area to support student learning. Participants can jump into these programs at any time of the year. They each take approximately 18 hours to complete.

Chromebook Certification (Level 1)– This certification is designed for classroom teachers who have a Chromebook, as well as those who work with students using Chromebooks. It builds a solid foundation for getting the most from the device to impact and enhance instruction. Participants in this program will also dig deeper in their utilization of Google Apps for Education tools.

iPad Certification (Level 1)– Build a solid foundation for integrating the iPad in your classroom by participating in this certification. You’ll learn how to support diverse groups of students with various iOS features, as well as receive specific tutorials on apps that you can use in your classroom to empower student learning in your content area.

Role-Based Certification Programs for Professional Development

Our role-based certifications include live webinars and online coursework. As you go through these courses, you’ll build a portfolio to document your professional learning and implementation of the information shared and skills mastered. In addition, as a capstone, you’ll develop a final project that aligns with your coursework. Though these three certifications officially begin in September each year, many participants begin at other times during the cycle and start the certification process with ease.

Campus Technology Specialist Certification– Designed for those who work with other educators to help them integrate technology effectively, this program focuses on helping you understand the tools and processes to better engage students and increase relevant technology utilization in the classroom.

IT/Technology Director Certification– Participants in this program will cover topics to help them become an effective district leader and support administrators, teachers, and students in the use of technology. Master complex decision-making skills and best practices that will help you in your day-to-day work. Learn about funding, hiring, purchasing, and more.

21st Century Administrator Certification – This program is designed for those individuals who are already in a campus leadership role or want to move in that direction. You’ll focus on building leadership skills and learning how to model technology to other staff members, as well as understanding educational technology trends and their impact on student achievement.

Online Courses

In addition to the certification and self-paced programs, TCEA also offers instructor-led online courses. These facilitated courses last from three to four weeks. The asynchronous learning design and 24/7 access to course content allows you to manage course requirements at a time that is most convenient for you within the week’s schedule. In addition, these courses offer frequent opportunities for peer-to-peer collaboration.

Effective, Engaging Professional Development – How do you take workshop offerings to the next level to make them more meaningful for your attendees? In this course, you will learn about the latest research and best practices on adult learning to ensure that your participants are still growing long after the training is over. You’ll also discuss innovative tips and tricks for guaranteeing that your message is not only heard, but also acted upon in the classroom. This online course runs from September 13 – October 3, 2016.

Personnel Management – Learn about the critical personnel issues related to hiring, documentation, firing, and team building in order to best organize your staff and help them grow as a team. This online course runs from October 11 – 31, 2016.

Hardware, Software, and Network Management – In this information-rich course, you will explore best practices, relevant documents, and current information related to the following topics that impact the role and duties of the technology leader: asset management, cloud computing, cyber safety and security, disaster recovery, network infrastructure, one-to-one implementations, open source software, records retention, TASA Visioning, and virtualization. This online course runs from November 8 – 30, 2016.

Effective Coaching for Technology Integration – Coaching educators in the area of instructional technology is challenging and important. This online course allows you to better understand this role and help you to further develop your coaching strategies for even the most reluctant of educators. This online course runs from January 10 – 30, 2017.

Budget and Finance– Knowing about good budgeting practices, types of budgets, E-Rate requirements, grants, and resources to help you with your IT finances is critical as a technology leader. You’ll learn about these, as well as receive resources that you’ll want to refer to throughout the budgeting year in your district. This online course runs from January 10 – 30, 2017.

Technology Leader Book Study – In this course, you will reflect on key questions to make application of your self-selected book to your current (and future) role as an IT/Technology Director. Prior to the beginning of this course, you will select and read a title from the approved list. This online course runs from February 21 – March 13, 2017.

If you are like me and are a lifelong learner who wants to improve your practice, then these certification programs and online courses are for you. Discounts are available for our certification programs for bulk enrollment from the same district. For more information, contact Bruce Ellis at bellis@tcea.org.

September 6, 2016 0 comment

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