Google Keep is an extremely handy tool for quickly jotting down notes, collecting lists of things, collaborating on to do lists, and so much more. Teachers and adults often use Google Keep to organize information or mark off to checklists.

Shana Ramin from HelloTeacherLady.com, created a great blog post about how to access, use, customize, and organize Google Keep. Check out her post, “How To Organize Your Life with Google Keep: Pinned Checklists, Custom Image Headers & More.”

Access Google Keep from your Google Drive app menu. The Google Keep app is also free and syncs with the web-based app.

I’ve used Google Keep to collect BookSnap images as a way of collecting my notes when reading professional books. I take notes during PD sessions. I collect book lists to reference or share. I once presented an edtech tips & tricks PD session directly from Google Keep!

Students and Google Keep

Consider using Google Keep as a collaborative tool between teacher and students.

Collaboration Ideas: Teacher & Student

• Extended or short constructed response
• Writing process progression
• Preassessment
• Exit ticket
• Summarizing or synthesizing content

Collaboration Ideas: Student & Student

• Partner or group project to do list
• Collaborative notes
• Jigsaw activity note-taking
• Curate quotes
• Brainstorming
• Brain dump to activate schema

The GREAT Kasey Bell has a blog post called 15 Ways for Students to Use Google Keep that you should definitely check out if you’re interested in more ideas.

I am really excited about a recent event I hosted online for the students and families at my school. Our online book fair is currently open, and I wanted a fun way to engage our students and families and tell them more about the fair. Due to current COVID safety protocols, in-person book fairs and events are not really feasible. So, I thought that a fun way to promote the book fair would be to invite the students and families to a Zoom meeting.

As part of this online event, we played digital Bingo using Google Slides, and I told all participants about the book fair. I also gave many book talks and ended the event with two read alouds of current books from the Scholastic book fair sale.

I used the Google Slides below to welcome and inform the students and families about our event, and as you’ll see, I also used the screenshot images to explain in detail how our online Bingo event would work.

Below you’ll see a picture of the Bingo game in action! As I called numbers, students moved somewhat transparent yellow circle “chips” onto the Bingo cards. I called the numbers, typed the numbers on a slide, and typed them in the chat, just to make sure everyone was able to hear them in at least one way. When a student got a Bingo, they were asked to raise their digital hand using the Zoom reaction. They could also chat with the host only if they had a problem or got a Bingo.

Once someone let me know they had a Bingo, my co-host and friend, third-grade bilingual teacher, Jessica, a.k.a. CB, would create a breakout room for herself and the student(s) with the Bingo. CB would confirm the Bingo and ask the student which book prize package they would like. While they met in a breakout room, I talked about books that I thought the audience would be most interested in shopping for at our online book fair!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We had about 40 participants, which was a nice manageable number of participants for my first attempt at an event like this. The survey results were extremely positive, and the only suggestion was to do more of these game nights, but make them longer. 🥰 I would definitely consider hosting an even like this agin, and I recommend this event to other librarians or teachers to promote books and reading or specifically to promote a book fair.

I enjoy finding and recommending fantastic books that perfectly fit a need, be it text level, content or concept, reader interest, and so on. I believe in the importance of all students relating to characters in the books they read or listen to, and I also believe in the value of students learning about other people, places, cultures, religions, etc. The best way to do all of these things is to provide students access to a diverse collection of books. I have taken action over the past few years to diversify my personal reading list as well as the library collection at my school and in our classroom libraries. It has become a passion of mine.

I think it is important for Black History month to not just focus on the history of slavery or MLK, Jr. It’s important that children don’t think reading books about black people is limited to slavery and civil rights. Although those topics are crucial for all humans to understand, there is so much more that black history and black authors have to offer! For example, the movement of STEM and diversity in scientists has made a positive impact on children’s books. I also think it’s important that book collections include quality literature where the main characters being black isn’t the focus, but rather the norm.

With all of that being said, here are my top book recommendations for Black History Month. This is a living document, so updates will be made as they come up.

Other book recommendations are welcomed and appreciated in the comments!

I am sort of freaking out right now with the excitement of this discovery!  I happen to see a tweet by the great Alice Keeler where she shared a link to the website whiteboard.fi.  GO THERE NOW and watch their video, but come back for more awesomeness!

Here’s a short tutorial demonstrating how to use Whiteboard.fi:

 

One thing not shown in this demonstration video is the student view.  On the students’ device, they can see their own whiteboard and the teachers’ whiteboard.  So, the teacher can display a problem to be solved or a word to be defined, or they can use their whiteboard to demonstrate how they might solve the problem so students can check their own work or learn another strategy, etc.  This is a great formative assessment tool!

This tool could be used for all content areas and all grade levels!  Think about all of the uses:  spelling and word work, math problem solving, shape drawing, calculations, definitions, creating visual representations of vocabulary terms, and so on!

Now, if you aren’t fully satisfied yet with how cool this tool is, then what if I told you that you could use a stylus pen to write on a MacBook trackpad!?!?  YES!!!  I’ve been using a MacBook for… maybe a decade, and I did not think to try that!! 🤷🏻‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️

Check out this blog post by The Techie Teacher, Julie Smith.  Julie demonstrates the difference in drawing with a finger vs. a stylus using Google Drawings scribble tool.

This coming school year all schools in our district are going 1:1 with MacBooks in grades 2 and up.  I think that our students being able to handwrite on the trackpad will be HUGE for functionality!  I also think that the combination of the stylus on the trackpad with Whiteboard.fi is a GAME CHANGER for teaching!  AND… our back to school plan for Fall 2020 includes some students learning from home.  Think about how great it will be to have all students: at home and in class, join one Whiteboard.fi class!  This can be an incredibly useful tool for in-person and distance learning.

I hope this tool and tip discovery is as exciting to you as it was to me. 😁

 

This is not a new concept, but it is something I am passionate about.  In a nutshell, I believe that students benefit when they can find characters and circumstances in books that they can connect to, relate to, and see themselves in.  On the flip side, people also benefit when they have access to books about different people, cultures, religions, traditions, backgrounds, and so on, so that they can be educated about the beautiful diversity in our world.  I believe that education is the key to eradicate racism and prejudice and bias.  The more we can open our kids’ perspectives and teach them about the unique positive attributes of the various groups of this world, the better the future of this global world will be.  It’s also impactful when kids read about a character who by all obvious characteristics and attributes are different from them, but once the reader learns about the person’s struggles, thoughts, fears, preferences, and other personality traits, they begin to relate to these characters and realize that they’re not that different after all.  All humans need to be able to feel empathy for others and to make this connection with people, who they see as different than them so that we all look at humans as fellow human beings with the same rights and value in our world.

I titled this post “Our Kids Need & Deserve Diverse Books,” because kids need the education and appreciation of diversity that comes from learning about people who may be different from them, and all kids deserve access to quality books that reflect the diversity of our world.  It is our responsibility as educators to ensure all readers have access to diverse books.

I’ve worked with our district’s elementary curriculum coordinator to curate resources and book recommendations to further this cause.  I have read every book on this list and personally recommend them as positive additions to a classroom and school or public library.  View the list HERE.

Enjoy!

Hello all!  It has been a long time since I last posted.  It’s been a busy last semester between COVID, normal end of year procedures that were anything but normal, and the emergency shift to online learning.  When schools closed, our district leaders decided that all K-2 teachers would learn and use Seesaw, and all 3-5 teachers would learn and use Canvas.  This was quite a shock to the system for all teachers, but I’m proud to report that my teachers ROCKED the shift!  I was so impressed with how quickly they were efficiently using these news tools among many others, such as Zoom, to still connect and meet individual students’ needs.  I am like a proud parent.

So, we made it through the chaos; we adapted, and considering about a third of our students barely participated, I’d call our dive into online learning an overall success!  Now to move forward and build on what we’ve all learned about using technology to reach and teach our students.

I’m leading 5 different online courses this summer via Canvas:  Crenshaw book study with students and teachers, technology integration specific to my school, Blended Learning & Seesaw, Worksheets Don’t Grow Dendrites, and Great Habits Great Readers.  I also plan to participate in many online PD courses offered by other staff in our district.

Additionally, I am taking detailed notes as I read the professional learning books pictured below in an attempt to share key takeaways with my staff for everyone’s benefit.

Two big thoughts inspired by what I’ve read in each book so far are rattling around in my head as I try to mull them over for my school:

1.  The need for thoughtful integration across content areas.  Too often, we, teachers, get stuck in our routine and we like to categorize and block or chunk our schedules into rigid content areas.  The Knowledge Gap has made me really rethink how we isolate skills and content areas.  I’ve thought about this for years and even as a teacher… what if we throw the schedule out the window, and instead create integrated cross-curricular units that pull together especially RLA (reading language arts) and the science and social studies content.  As Wexler explains, there are huge benefits to students when they’re learning about all reading elements (vocabulary & comprehension skills), while reading in context about an interesting subject, ie. history!  History shouldn’t be borrowing.  History should be shared through storytelling.  How convenient for addressing RLA standards!  Math may need it’s own focus time in the day, of course, but we all know there is an endless list of quality books to read to introduce and enrich math concepts and again, vocabulary.
2. How can I best facilitate professional development for my staff, specifically in regards to blended learning and the further shift we all need to make?  And, how can I allow teachers choice in their PD, just like we want them to offer their students?  I’m proud of what we started for our staff during school closures:  I created shared Google Drive folders, 1 for Seesaw, and 1 for Canvas, and any teacher could record a screencast video to share in this folder.  We also started a “living” Doc for each LMS that allowed all staff to view and edit to add anything they or I learned that others might benefit from.  We offered optional Seesaw and Canvas PD via Zoom, and I nominated teachers to lead these sessions.  I loved seeing our teachers take on leadership opportunities.  This online learning crisis presented opportunities for different teachers to shine in different ways!  Perhaps I should continue to use these methods of providing support to teachers.  Perhaps another Google Form survey is in order. 🤔

Professional development has changed.  No need to sit back and wait for someone else to present step-by-step directions for how to do something.  No one can say, no one taught me how to do that.  All the answers we seek are available on the Internet, but we must actively seek them.  We live in the age of YouTube!  Someone has made a video about just about anything we want to learn how to do.  Free webinars are available from places liked edweb.net.  Got a tech question or problem?  Google it!  I have it on good authority that often times, the Apple Genius Bar employees are in the back Googling tech problems.  No shame in your Googling game, unless, you’re not trying to seek answers for yourself.

I created the infographic previously shared and included below for my teachers to try to nudge them towards self-empowered professional growth.

So, as I begin this exciting journey of summer reading & professional learning, this is where my head is:  content curriculum integration and blended learning.  It should be an enlightening summer!

What are you reading to learn and grow this summer, and what else would you recommend in regard to blended learning, professional development, and/or content area integration?  TIA!