Author: KIM BARNDT

The Genius Hour is an entirely new concept just introduced to me whereby students are given 20 percent of the class time to work on something of their choosing. There are great benefits to this teaching approach. Students are given choice. Students love that. They get a say in what they want to do. They have time to focus on topics that they are passionate about. It encourages creativity, collaboration and engagement. If students are encouraged to work on projects where they could connect with experts in a field, they could potentially network and or connect with a mentor. There are so many wonderful things that can develop from the Genius Hour concept in a classroom. I have no doubt that a genius hour block of time would result in some amazing student projects. It is surely something I hope to incorporate into my classroom in the very near future.

This first thing I am about to say might seem odd. But, I have learned in life that things can always be worse. Because of that, when bad things happen, I like to think of what I am thankful for. It makes me feel better. In this current place that we find ourselves, I am thankful that a global pandemic waited to make a resurgence (from 1918) until 2020; and that while as a society we were not really prepared for it, I am thankful that we have technology on our side to make some things more manageable. In March of 2020, Target already had a drive up shopping system going, Peapod was gaining steam, and so was Grubhub. From a teacher’s perspective we would have been lost this past Spring without Skype, Zoom, Google Meet, and other video conferencing platforms. They made online teaching possible! Teachers were able to instruct groups of students virtually. This would have been an absolute nightmare if it is was 1997 and dial up internet was our main passport to logging online during a worldwide pandemic. I mean, could you have imagined that?! I am sure we would have thrown in the towel before the end of March. Being able to connect with students, colleagues and parents on Zoom has been such a wonderful experience during something so very trying. Technology platforms can be daunting because it often takes a significant chunk of time to learn all of the moving parts, yet elements often change due to upgrades or total product replacements. I get frustrated because I never seem to earn confidence in my techno logic abilities because once I seem to master something, it soon becomes obsolete. I have come to just accept that I will never be a master of technology but I still appreciate the fact that without it most of us would be lost.

Twitter is one of those social media sites that I love to hate. There are so many great benefits of Twitter, but to me, the cons outweigh the pros. I have thought long and hard about what I love about Twitter, and here are my biggest reasons why I log on:

1. You get the very latest (second by second) information update on anything.
2. You can have conversations from people from all over the world.
3. You can listen in on other’s thoughts on trending hot button topics.
4. You can ask for advice from many different professionals, and get a response or start a conversation.
5. You can learn about so many resources just by using a hashtag.

As a professional learning network, Twitter has the ability to connect teachers from all different regions of the world. Just this week I was able to read tweets from teachers in several different states regarding their proposed plans for opening schools post COVID. The ideas were daunting but it is nice to know that these conversations are taking place and there are underlying concerns that districts are trying to address.

Also, Twitter as a professional network is a great place to join live chats, or forums about topics that can enrich my teaching practices. Participation in these discussions is free and often very enlightening. It is a great way to discover like minded individuals or those working on similar things and follow each other for continued support and resources.

While these are indeed wonderful benefits to Twitter, it will never become a favored resource for me for these reasons:

1. It is too busy. I just do not feel like I can keep up with the active ongoing threads all of the place. Second by second is too fast for my brain.
2. It too often the place where people go to complain, whine or spread bad vibes.
3. It is way too easy to get sidetracked when you are on a real quest for information.
4. Hashtags have become too mainstream. Everyone uses them in excess so the search feature is often filled with tons of truly unrelated garbage that must be sorted through.
5. It is an unreliable resource. Links are often removed when wrong information gets posted too soon. These removed posts are necessary but a true indicator of the massive amounts of unreliable information being posted daily.

So, while I do have a Twitter account, I have found it is my least used of all social media. My biggest complaint is that it is a real time sponge and just too busy for my brain most days. I do recognize that it is a great platform to build a network of resources and professional relationships, it is just not my preferred technology tool for doing those things.

People love to photograph their food. I teach cooking and want my students to always present their food in the most beautiful ways possible. In the first days of my class I teach my students about the art of food photography. Flickr is a great resource that I can use as part of this lesson. Since Flickr is used by people of all skill levels when it comes to photography, there are excellent comparisons examples that I could easily use to show students what to do as well as what not to do. Visual comparisons make my job much easier. I can tell my students how a white plate will make colors pop or how lighting can make or break a picture….but when they can actually see comparisons side by side of these things being done (or not done), then it becomes more obvious. I love Flickr because you can search for something as simple a cookie, and find tons of amateur random messy pictures, and you can also find beautifully crafted and thought out images (like the one featured above). This is what I want my students to learn about during our Food Photography unit and Flickr is a perfect resource to help them to see how they can make their own food look incredibly delectable and professional.

A collaborative learning environment offers benefits to both teachers and students. Teachers have the opportunity to take a step back from the podium and let students have more ownership in their learning. Students can work together to locate materials or information that pertains to the topic and subject area of study while the teacher guides them along. The classroom evolves from being teacher centered instruction student centered. I like to picture the first model like the teacher Ms. Frizzle on the Scholastic cartoon and book series, “The Magic School Bus.” Ms. Frizzle drives the bus and decides where the students will go. The collaborative environment is more like a Surrey bicycle with both the teacher and students all contributing to pedaling and determining the final destination.

Collaborative learning encourages students to work with their classmates, not just alongside them. Typically students will be assigned a section to work on as part of a whole. The students will become an expert in one area and learn additional information from classmates posts or shared sources.

This allows teachers the opportunity to work more one on one with students during instructional time. Teachers are more available when they are serving as a guide rather than standing at the center of the classroom with all eyes on them to deliver information. Collaborative learning environments allow for more differentiation due to flexibility in assigning student roles and pacing.

So, it is kind of cheating using a template. But, once the template is open it is pretty blank. Here comes the hard part: figuring out what needs to go in the empty spaces. Doug Johnson in his article, “Build an awesome class website with Google Apps,” featured on the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Blog, provides a step by step checklist for important content information to consider for a teacher site. His comprehensive list of 27 topics includes classroom supply list information, field trip details, and even a student sample work folder.

Johnson seems to have thought of it all. By following his checklist, I feel confident that my Google Site will become a priceless resource for not only myself and my students, but for parents as well. Being a parent of school aged children myself, I have come to appreciate one reliable and centralized place to go for information on all things school related. This classroom site will be just that for me, my students and their families. Once I get it created, it can continue to be a powerful, organized resource for future student as well. This is why I realize that doing a great job up front and incorporating all of the elements that are important to my classes now, will be a big payoff in years to come.

Country singer, Maren Morris has a song with the line, “the house don’t fall if the bones are good.” This is an excellent metaphor for building a class website. If I take the time now and do a great job with the foundation elements, the site will last a long time and fulfill a great need as a communication hub that is currently missing in my own teacher toolbox. This is something I have been aware of for some time and just never sat down to “create the change that I want to see” in my own teaching world. Watch out! I am about to make it happen.

Source:

Build an awesome class website with Google Apps | ISTE. (n.d.). Retrieved June 16, 2020, from https://www.iste.org/explore/In-the-classroom/Build-an-awesome-class-website-with-Google-Apps

Ok, Evan Stoudt did a great job of convincing me what I need to do AND convinced me that Google sites will get me to the finish line. Now I just have to sit down and start the process of creating it. I found a great article by Peggy Reimers on the Tech Notes blog on TCEA.org titled, “Templates for Google Sites.” This is the ticket for liftoff: a template! Templates are always helpful. Someone else did the hard part and made decisions related to spacing and content options and created layouts already. Now, I just have to pick one that will fulfill my content needs and I am off to the races!

Reimers does a great job of explaining all of the different types of Google Site layouts and outlines their unique features from a teacher’s perspective. I know I want to create a teacher Site and the basic education template for a class will fit my needs. But, Reimers goes on to explain about group and team templates that would work well for my cooking club. Once I get my class Site done, I am sure building more Sites will come easily once I am familiar with the features. I would love to have a club Site created to help organize our special event calendar and as Reimers suggested, a newsletter. There are some unique features in the club template that help it serve a different purpose than the class or team versions.

Lastly, Reimers outlined other templates (portfolio and restaurant) that could be great for student use in my classroom. My students already create a portfolio using Google Slides, but Sites will offer even more professional features. Once I create my own Site I will explore the features of these other templates and see how I can incorporate them into my lesson plans to take the student portfolio project to the next level.

Source:

Reimers, P. (2020, May 14). Templates for Google Sites • TechNotes Blog. Retrieved June 16, 2020, from https://blog.tcea.org/templates-for-google-sites/

For years I have been wanting to create my own teacher website. I have not done it because I had no idea where to begin. For that reason, I forced myself to make it happen by committing to creating a Google Site for my course research project.

In looking for research, advice and guidance on the topic I discovered a great article by Evan Stoudt on EdSurge.com titled, “How to Expertly Organize Your Classroom With Google Sites.” He had me at “organize.” I love to organize my actual classroom, but my digital content is a hot mess. I never know where to find things. I have made too many changes with content storage in such a short amount of time, because regarding all things with technology, we have been trained to follow the next big thing like kids running after the ice cream truck. I have zip drives with folders, hard drive folders, Google drive folders, Schoology folders, archived Google Classrooms and desktop bookmarks with resources that I use all the time. If someone should ask me for the answer key to a crossword puzzle on nutrition vocabulary, I might need a half an hour but I will eventually find it. I know I have it somewhere….on that computer of mine. If Stoudt can help me to organize the mess, sign me up!

Stoudt also provides just the argument that I need to hear about why to use Google Sites over other options. He says, “there are likely better tools out there, but I chose Google because I’m a time-strapped teacher, and Google Sites are simple, easy to integrate, and full-featured.” I really relate with that sentiment. I do not want to learn web coding or spend hours teaching myself how to build a teacher website out of nothing. In order for me to feel like I can make this happen, it needs to be pretty basic and easy to figure out on my own.

In addition, Stoudt provides great tips for how to import Google calendar, use analytics and select a template. His article provides encouragement and guidance that make me confident that I can do this!

Source:

How to Expertly Organize Your Classroom With Google Sites – EdSurge News. (2015, July 8). Retrieved June 15, 2020, from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2015-07-08-how-to-expertly-organize-your-classroom-with-google-sites

The lesson plan that I chose to revise to include a social bookmarking element is a lesson I teach within my cake decorating unit. Specifically this lesson is about using fondant in cake decorating. I previously had students completing a fondant picture scavenger hunt as part of the original lesson. Students were all given a list of different themes of cakes to locate photos online that used only fondant in the decorating. Some examples of things in the scavenger hunt were: a dolphin cake, tie dye theme, occupation theme, Halloween, and Disney princess.

For this revision, I required students to stick with only Pinterest and create a board called Fondant for the scavenger hunt portion. I think this revision will work well because students will have a saved file within Pinterest that they can access in the future should they have an interest in working with fondant on their own. The original lesson is created in a Google doc that is submitted to me and it is similar to a bingo chart. I do not think that students would ever save a Google doc like and reference it later. Pinterest is a frequently used app that many students use to search for creative ideas so they would be more likely to save that board and reference it again later.

The one downfall to using just Pinterest is that there will likely be lots of repetition. Most students will use the first hits that they find on a search and therefore there may not be much diversity in the final results when they share them out in groups.

Link to my lesson plan on fondant HERE.

Well, today my eyes were opened to RSS feeds and how they can help mainstream the way that I obtain information from various sources. I have always been a big Facebook user as a means to get information. But, it has become obvious that there is a better way. Facebook has become too busy, too animated, and too much of nosey nuisance in my life. I mean, how does it know that I need a new curling iron and suggest options to me? Because Facebook is always following all of my searches, my conversations and my online activity like a hovering mother over a toddler.

The Old Reader is going to be my savior from Facebook clutter. I can now access reputable materials that I personally have chosen to get my information from without all of the other nonsense!

Five of the feeds that I am most excited about include:

Ask a Tech Teacher– This site will give me the ability to get top tech advice from a technology teacher. Her posts look super helpful and easy to follow and understand.

Edible Garden– I want to create an indoor garden for student use in cooking. This has tons of articles and posts for things to grow that can be eaten in all different recipes.

Food Revolution– I am teaching a new class called Food Trends. This site has great info on what is trendy in food, cooking and eating out.

Vegan Yum Yum– I teach a 3 week unit about vegan and vegetarians. I am always looking for updated recipes and new information to share about this growing trend in eating.

Food Intolerance Network-I have many students that have their own food intolerances and teach about many of them in my classes. This will help to keep me aware of news and changes regarding this topic.

I cannot wait to add to my subscriptions over time! What a great new tool to have in my back pocket and a real time saver!