Converting Microsoft To Google - Tech Coaching

I spent some time with Jessica Moseng, physical education and health teacher, discussing the workflow to convert Microsoft to Google.  I get it, not every Word Document or Powerpoint will convert perfectly.  However, Mrs. Moseng discovered that it was an easy process.

5:13 AM Tech Integrator - Why I Arrive At School Early

Last night, I learned a valuable lesson from Mark Cuban on "Beyond the Tank". First and foremost, Mark is very smart.  If I EVER had the chance to pitch a product on "Shark Tank" and Mark Cuban offered me a deal, it would take a Google Search (less than 0.23431 seconds) for me to accept his offer.

I would love to work with him.

Mark was helping the creator of "Simple Sugars" and talked about listicles.

Please watch the direct conversation. (Not viewable on iPad)

I immediately thought about how I could help people to understand the life of a Technology Integrator.  I also thought about how many parents ONLY know educators through grades their  son/daughter earns in respectable classes and what their students verbally bring home after a long day at school.  As a parent of teenagers, I know that many important pieces of information can get "lost in translation".

Listicles can give an insight into the items that make people real.  Real people are viewed as people. Real people make relationships and relationships are the key to everything.  Building a relationship with people can break down barriers that can cause differences. Putting all people respectfully on the same page. 

With that, my first listicle.

My reason for coming to school early!

Mission First, People Always!

In 2012, I started this journey of being a support teacher for middle and high school teachers.  I guess my official title is "Technology Integration Specialist" which no one really wants to say or hear.  While preparing for my first year in this role, I developed a "commitment statement".  A phrase to guide my interactions with teachers.

Over three and a half years, my commitment statement hasn't changed, but my focus has intensified on one thing: Mission First, People Always!

What's behind Mission First, People Always!

• My faith brings me to the story of Jesus.  He had a mission to die and free us from the bondage of sin.  In the midst of his death-his mission, hanging on an "old rugged cross", Jesus said, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34)  People Always!  He continued to look after people in the midst of the mission.  When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved at the foot of the cross during his crucifixion, he stated, "Dear woman, here is your son." In the midst of His horrible death, he was taking care of people, always!  (John 19:25-27)  Of course, His whole mission was to take care of people always.
• Our mission is to bring the best quality education to our students.
• Our problem is that we DON'T put People Always.  We expect teachers to continually make more with less.  
• We must take care of people, adults who take care of our students, and students who are going to impact the world.
• The background: It's either a sunrise or a sunset.  
• Sunrise: The beginning of something grand.
• Sunset: The sense of accomplishment: calming and complete!

As I complete my fourth year, I am focusing on people!  Something I feel I always have been doing, but now with even more vigor.  It doesn't matter how important the mission (coaching, curriculum, PBIS, Flex Mod, scheduling, discipline), I will take the time to talk with people and care about them.

"Mission First, People Always!"

Technology Integration Specialist - Career Fair

Last Friday, I had the privilege of speaking to 100 eighth grade students during a career fair.  I was fairly certain that students knew what "technology" careers existed: computer programmer, IT, security, computer systems analysis, etc. I was also fairly certain that students didn't know what a Technology Integration Specialist was.  Starting with upbeat music, Brighter Than The Sun & Best Day Of My Life, as the students entered, followed with my enthusiasm, and my connection with many of the students through my teaching of a technology tool in their classes during the year provided an eye opening experience for them.  Students realized that a teacher in a school district doesn't just need to be in the classroom.

I didn't get into education with the intent to be a Technology Integration Specialist, however, "playing" with so many tech tools,  teaching adults and students, and redesigning educational learning environments has truly been a calling that I love.

Maybe my presentation will bring the next generation of great people into the educational world as a Technology Integration Specialist.

View Link To Presenation



Presentation Highlights:
Slide 12: My Job: Investigating New Tech Tools
Slide 13: Rapid Fire - students opened the iPads and said the name of an app, I told the students exactly what the app was used for in education - Reason? Tech Integrators need to know many tech tools to provide teachers with ideas
Slide 14: Team teaching is one of the greatest aspects of my job
Slide 15: Providing tech support
Slide 24: Responsible Online: I showed them my iPaddiction blog and asked them to guess how many views it has had since 2010...they were amazed by the amount of people who are interested in what our school is doing with technology

Effective Approach To Integrating

A different idea!  Instead of spending the day trying to visit with as many teachers as possible during my day at the middle school, I decided to spend the entire day in one content, one grade level.

Thankfully, four teachers, Mrs. Mills, Mrs. Yarbro, Mrs. Foote, and Mrs. Albers allowed me to observe their classroom when they taught the lessons.

As I was observing, I would listen for key words and concepts that they were discussing or presenting to their students.  As soon as I heard the concepts, I would scour my Evernote resources that I have accumulated over the years or search Google using key words and categories.  I found a number of resources and accumulated those resources on collaborative documents.

After the class period, I discussed some of the resources that I found and why I placed them on the document.  Spending the class period in their room allowed me to have a deeper understanding of the content and educational aspects of their class for the upcoming weeks.  In addition to the resources and thoughts already included on the document, I will add any further resources found in the next couple of weeks.

I truly believe this was a successful utilization of a technology integrator's time.  Instead of short conversations, I had an opportunity to immerse myself into their classroom and provide resources that they may use in the future.

The lists of resources created:

Mrs. Mills (Writing)    |    Mrs. Yarbro (Reading)   

Mrs. Foote (Writing)   |    Mrs. Albers (Reading)

I am truly thankful to these teachers for their willingness to allow a support teacher to visit their classroom with the sole purpose of collaborating!  They are ROCK STARS!

Library Media and Technology Integration Specialists Raider Camp

Yesterday, was an incredible day in which educators from our district were able to meet and brainstorm!  As library media specialists and technology integrators, we discussed a number of items.

• Summer Updates:  As a group, we need to be ready to answer all of the questions that staff members will have as it pertains to technology updates.  Our IT staff has put together some resources to aide in the transition.  Because we are allowing teachers to add information they would like we provided...
• A Back To School page
• Summer Information page

• Project & Process
• The graph above is a great graph that explains the process of projects
• Will share with teachers to keep them informed of the progress
• Most Important - After imaging Information
• When teachers return, their computer desktops will look different
• We need to facilitate their transition
• Learning: We spent a great deal of time teaching each other and learning from one another

• iBooks Creator - create on Mac, read on iOS mobile device
• iTunesU - Create in Safari, read on iOS mobile device
• Google Plus - open to our staff - instant help desk with shared screen
• Chrome Webstore - our leader created this which ROCKS
• Freedom Flix & True Flix - video resource options (paid)
• NETS and ITLS 
• Discussed what we were doing well and what we needed to work on
• We needed to read 
• Transitions to Digital Media
• ISTE.NETS-S

I am so thankful to be a member of this dedicated group of individuals who have one purpose:

Serve Educators!  

We are willing and eager to help with technology integration in the all classroom settings & to find a great book for students and staff!

Day 2 begins today with another great opportunity to learn and grow!

Today's Meet As A Collaborative Learning Environment in AP Geography

The AP Human Geography teacher wanted a different method for students to learn the content.  We chose Todaysmeet.com to create a quick and easy way to collaborate between class periods.  The teacher focused on the content, while I focused on the logistics of the technology tool.

Students were paired up with another student in a different class.  The learning environment created in todaysmeet.com was simply made by using initials from the students in the class.

We took a hint from Twitter chats by using Q1 and A1 for questions and answers between the two students in each class.

See the process and the reflection by the classroom teacher.

Implementing Tech Checklist

Using a great app, Comic Life, that I learned about from @langwitches , I created a checklist for teachers to remember the process for implementing tech while getting help.  I realize that it may be simplistic, but it was the first idea that came to me while using this great tool.

I will be sending this in an email, placing it on our best practice site, and printing SOME paper copies to hand out to teachers.

I really like how the Comic Life app worked.  It was easy to use and allowed for some great font, colors, and effects.  While the cost of the app is pretty significant, $4.99, I think it could be a great checklist creation app.

Teachers could create some digital, visually appealing checklists for students on problem-based learning.  The sky's the limit for the type of lists that could be made.

Approach To Integrating Technology

Watch Before Reading.

Some view this as funny (I did), but I immediately thought,

"This represents different perspectives of teachers and integrating technology into the classroom."

The father represents teachers who may not feel comfortable integrating technology tools into their classroom.  They know it may be the right thing to do (Dad knew it was the right thing to accompany his daughter on this ride), but their not at all comfortable.  Honestly, I wasn't that comfortable in 2008 when I started, but attended the TIES conference in Minneapolis and realized 3,000 other educators moved me to start and thrive using these tools.

The daughter represents the teachers who know that technology can be the tool that thrills the learner to become self-motivated, creative, and collaborative.  They smile from ear to ear when a new tech tool is introduced to them, they find a useful and appropriate way to integrate it into their content, and successfully do so with students.

Ironically, the dad got a taste of the thrill of the ride.  He had a choice of getting off for the second ride and chose not to.  Awesome!  It is the responsibility of all educators, not just library media specialists or technology integration specialists to introduce the first initial ride.  The ride of the tech tool that enhances a lesson because the process was well planned out and all things went smoothly.

The teachers who are like the little girl who loved the ride or loved incorporating technology can be the biggest motivator for continuing the process.  Get those teachers to share via blogging, Twitter, or YouTube the wonderful successes that can happen.

If these two types of people can work together, then everyone becomes like the ride.  Constantly, enabling teachers on both ends of the spectrum to feel safe and secure while experiencing the thrill of integrating technology into any lesson.

Technology Integration Specialists Unite On Twitter

Let's unite our thoughts, ideas, and inspirations so that we can become of better service to the teachers in our districts!

Please complete the form below or VIEW THE RESULTS

ZITE to Evernote

As a Technology Integration Specialist, part of my job is to provide resources for teachers.  To help me manage these resources, the ZITE app provides numerous daily resources.  In the past, I would email my self, then go to my email, click on the link, and place it into my Google Bookmarks.  A three-four step process.  Since becoming addicted to Evernote for categorizing all notes, I have found that the ZITE app provides a "Share Article" option that allows direct access to Evernote.

Eliminating a step.  Providing more time to find more resources!



Produced with Explain Everything App

Technology Integration Help Form

Being a Technology Integration Specialist, will require me to manage many different projects at one time.  Teachers will have ideas and concepts of integrating technology, and it will be my job to provide resources and teaching of how to implement that tech tool.

To do this, I will use a "Technology Integration Help Form" in two ways.  

1. As I am walking through the halls of our schools or at a specific meeting, I will complete this form so that I can recall the specifics of the idea that the teacher has.  I will do this with my iPad.
2. I will provide this form for teachers through emails and on my professional blog and website for them to access at any time.  

When an idea hits, I want the teachers to have a "go to" place to record the idea.  

Blog vs. Site For Digital Teacher Presence

Teachers are starting to inquire about which tech tool may be better for their classroom presence.  After a thirty minute session with two outstanding teachers, I decided that a blog post detailing blogs and sites would be appropriate!

Two happy clients on their way to having a classroom digital presence.

• If you don't have time to read the entire post, take this:  blogs are updated always, and sites are static.  You may also need to create a new blog each year!

Google Blog Positives

• Updated information always at the top of the website.
• Labeling as a use of categorizing
• Embed YouTube videos
• Embed Google calendars
• Embed Gadgets
• Embed Pictures
• Links to anywhere on the web
• Create pages
• Multiple layouts, designs, templates 
• Shorter URLs (web addresses-your address(.)blogspot.com
• Searchable by Google 
• Can leave comments to blog posts
• Archiving of blog entries
• Can create pages, but cannot have blog posts on these pages
• Multiple authors (great for collaborating with other teachers)

Google Site Positives

• Static
• Insert a wide variety of tools (see below)

• Create pages
• Updated announcements (similar to blog posts) can be placed on a page, but cannot be organized or labeled
• Pages can have an area for comments to be placed, usually on the bottom
• Can upload files in numerous formats (could be useful for previously created documents in Word)
• Protect certain pages for viewing by a select group
• Templates available, but not as many as blogger
• Multiple authors (great for collaborating with other teachers)

Articles from other sources that may help you decide.

• Google Sites - in depth professional development site I created in 2011 for our school district. View It
• Fantastic article outlining the differences: Blog vs. Site
• Blogs vs. Sites What's the difference?
• Should I start a blog or a site? Good Question
• Blog vs. Site Where should I start?

Bottom Line:
Both are great!  You decide!  Either way, your students and parents will be provided with great resources from your classroom!

Are They Clients?

My role in our district will be changing as of the 2012-2013 school year.  I will be a technology integration specialist.  I will be a resource for teachers and their ideas of using technology tools in the classroom.  I have been pondering whether I can call the teachers in our district that I will be working with "clients".

Clients?

Client(s): a person or group of people receiving the service or professional advice from a source DEFINE

Am I that?  I professional advice person, a service?  I think so.  My vision is for teachers in our district to provide their content and their idea for implementing technology as a tool to accomplish a task relating to the content.  I am the professional advice.   The person who can take their "big idea" and provide specifics.  Specific technology tools to accomplish their goal.  My whole focus will be to make the teacher's job of implementing technology as easy and painless as possible.

As @followmolly would say:  "I am not trying to change the content being taught.  I am trying to change the way the content is being taught."

Classroom teachers want to use technology but don't always know the best tool to use.  Since it is my passion to continue to "fill the tech toolbox" as @kmtitler likes to say, I will provide teachers details of technology tools that can be used.  I will co teach a lesson with them.  They deliver the content, I help instruct the details of the tech device.  Maybe I create a tutorial of the tech device for the teacher to view and they teach it.  Whatever the teacher (client) wants,  I will help in whatever way I can.

In order to do this, I have begun the process of developing a Google form that will allow any district staff to complete in order to receive help.  

See the questions to be used on the form!

Client?  Yes, client.  Me: professional person, helping teachers integrate and implement technology tools.