This week's newsletter focuses on a bit more on spotlighting the work of your fellow teachers, specifically a team of Keigwin teachers who have been working together to provide professional development on various tech tools for their building colleagues. Nicole Golia, Renee Burgess, Kaitlyn Annino, and Meliha Korkutovic all created and delivered engaging sessions during our Wednesday PD days and we asked them to share a little about what they have been working on. Meliha Korkutovic This is my second year at Keigwin as a science teacher, but I am also working on my 092 Internship this year. As a result, one of my central focuses has been on technology and helping to support teachers through the adaptive challenge hybrid teaching during a pandemic has brought upon all of us. After surveying Keigwin staff in both the fall and winter, there was a clear request for our technology-related learning to include both asynchronous / quick tech tip style videos, and also opportunities for small group learning and application of various tech tools we now had access to. I created a "Tech Tidbits" Google Folder for staff to access, where I recorded Screencastify videos of quick tech tips and helpful things I discovered this past year. For the specific PD we held last week, we really wanted to give staff an opportunity to choose the sessions we would run, as well as to choose the particular session they would like to attend. One of our surveys focused explicitly on allowing staff to choose their top sessions, which is how we ended up with the four sessions we ran: Pear Deck (Advanced), Pear Deck (Basic), Google Slides (Advanced), and Hapara & Surface Pro tips. A special thank you to Dr. Mayo Molina and Sarah Esposito for their support and assistance in bringing all of this to fruition. We hope to continue responding to our staff's needs and collaborating to best support one another! Renee Burgess and Katelyn Annino After using Pear Deck almost every day this year, Katelyn & I decided to take our learning & share the basics and the more advanced features of Pear Deck. In the Basics of Pear Deck PD, Katelyn shared the basics of how to create a Pear Deck lesson, the benefits of using the platform, and how the students can view the activity. In the Advanced Pear Deck PD, we explored the pre-made templates for SEL and content areas, practiced adding audio to slides, and focused on how to organize Pear Deck Sessions. Pear Deck is an incredible tool to help increase the engagement of our students - and a way to assess how they are performing (without audio or video on zoom). Most importantly in our PD we wanted to ensure the time for staff to explore the resources on their own, and apply their new learning to their own lessons - while providing them a resource that they can continually look back on. Nicole Golia Teaching in the virtual world has many challenges. It’s difficult to judge student engagement and participation when we are looking at black screens. I found that using aesthetically pleasing slides and creating interactive (drag and drop, open ended questions) was helpful to keep students engaged. Also, providing each student a copy allows them the opportunity to go back and revisit slides that may have relevant info for the particular lesson/topic.
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This week's spotlight focuses on Macdonough STEM Coach Lauren Mikulak! We asked Lauren to share her successes in this hybrid learning environment. As the STEM Coach, I continually research new and innovative ways to integrate forms of technology into the classroom and professional development. During this hybrid environment, my Macdonough colleagues and I have implemented new platforms in order to adapt to the hybrid learning environment. I’ve learned participating in conversations that encourage colleagues to reflect on their experience with technology integration provides much insight on new resources, ideas, and successful ways to engage students in their learning. I reflect on the personal experiences of my Middletown colleagues. I collect feedback from our Macdonough staff and families through surveys and our monthly STEM newsletter. I connect with colleagues in my virtual ISTE Certified Educator Community to discuss challenges with technology to receive feedback and suggestions. I access different forms of social media, such as Twitter, to gather input from representatives from PBL Works, EiE-Museum of Science, FOSS Science, and more. These supportive interactions have allowed me to experiment with new forms of technology in classrooms and professional development to meet the needs of all learners. This week's spotlight focuses on Snow 5th grade teacher Alea Braga! We asked Alea to share her successes in this hybrid learning environment. As we all try to navigate this new way of teaching and learning in this hybrid environment, one of the most paramount things that I have learned is to be a team player. When implementing new technology, I have learned the importance of trusting my students and listening to their feedback in order to gain insight which helps drive my instruction. Integrating technology through a variety of platforms allows the students to collaborate together whether they are at home or in school. We have created a strong network of support here at Snow School which has allowed us to merge, share and develop new discoveries and ideas. Working with my colleagues has been such a positive give and take! Everyone shares new learning strategies that we can bring to our students on various websites, platforms and other interactive activities to help keep our students engaged. If I can give any advice it would be to take risks, be vulnerable, open and giving. We are all in the same ocean we might as well raft up together! We become more stable when we team up, and that is good for the students, which is the ultimate goal! This week's Spotlight on Success is brought to us by Macdonough School's MSELI Leadership Team! We spoke with Macdonough Principal Damian Reardon, who expressed that he is very proud of the work the his staff and MSELI Leadership Team is doing to meet the needs of the students and community. Do you have any words of wisdom or tips for your colleagues on how to be successful in this hybrid environment and/or integrating technology with your students? At Macdonough, we have found that supporting the SE Health of families during hybrid learning is challenging. Often we are making decisions on what we feel families need and want. Rather than do that, our MSELI team in coordination with the school governance council worked to engage our families and find out what our families need. Through a survey disseminated by the Governance Council, we learned that parents had questions about technology and supporting their student's social emotional health at home. From this information, Macdonough organized a virtual "Choose Your Own Adventure" night. On December 15, Macdonough held this event and offered 5 different workshops that parents could choose to attend: Support with Google Classroom, Support with SeeSaw, Creating and Supporting Digital Citizens, Creating Routines at Home and Managing Screen Time, and Supporting the Social Emotional Health of Students. Each session was led by a staff person and supported by volunteer parents. Further, we realized that surveys that are sent out are not as widely completed as we would like. Thus, we embarked on a campaign to personally contact every family at Macdonough. The goal was: to listen, to hear how things are going, to hear concerns, to hear successes, to allow families a voice. A mix of staff and community volunteers were assigned families, given a list of probing questions, and a Google Form to use to compile the answers. From the data collected in the google form, key word searches were done for (food, clothing, rent, utilities, childcare, etc...). This allowed us to sort families by need and follow up with further calls or direct support (food boxes and bags of clothing). This week's Spotlight on Success is brought to us by Woodrow Wilson Middle School ELA teacher Nicole DeConti! We asked Nicole for some words of wisdom for teacher to be successful in the hybrid learning environment."As we're working in the hybrid environment, I have learned that it's okay to let go of control and to take risks. I have found it incredibly helpful to ask the students how they like to learn in the hybrid environment, and I have tried many tech tools to support their learning. At this point, I have found that different technology works better for certain assignments, and that it's not always the same for each group of students. My students have taught me a lot about themselves as learners and thinkers, and they have reminded me that technology isn't that scary once you give it a try. I've been able to better meet the needs of all students by letting them make choices when it comes to technology, and by letting them take the lead, too." This week's Spotlight on Success is brought to us by Middletown High School Math and Computer Science teacher, Steve Lecky! We asked Steve to share some of his engagement strategies for hybrid and fully remote instruction: As this year of the hybrid and sometimes fully-online model has progressed, it has become clear that our success is largely dependent on engagement. I have appreciated our district leaders’ efforts in providing support and encouraging the sharing of ideas in this area. I will share two engagement strategies that have been effective for me. After carefully planning an activity for my initial Zoom Breakout task of 2020, the experience was a disaster. On entering each room, it quickly became clear there was almost zero student-to-student discourse! Confident in my lesson design, I recognized the need to “jump-start” the student discussions. Now, prior to assigning breakout rooms, I pose a “fun” question for the students to answer once they arrive in their rooms. And, I alert the students that when I first enter each room, I will randomly call on one of the members of the group to report out each student's answer. For example, the question might be “What is your favorite snack?”, or “What is your favorite game to play, whether sports or video or a board game?” In the creation of the fun question, I do view it through an equity lens, trying to be sure it is accessible and non-intimidating to all. On each Zoom breakout experience since the first, when I enter a room, the selected student eagerly communicates each student’s answer to the question! Furthermore, the overwhelming majority of the breakout groups continue in dialog on the content-area task. I do have one class for which student-to-student discourse presents a large challenge for a variety of reasons. To encourage engagement with me throughout the entire hybrid or fully-remote lesson, I am requiring frequent student feedback through the chat (and in-person). It can be quick as in “Give me a 5, 4, 3, 2 or 1 on your level of comfort with that last problem/discussion.” Or, I will pose a content-related question with an A, B or C response. Each time, I communicate that the response may be sent through either public or private chat for the online group. The expectation is for students to answer all questions, and I tie a participation score to this expectation. I do hope one or both of these tips are helpful. I am heartened by our collective persistence to address this area of need! This week's Spotlight on Success shines the light brightly on two MPS School Psychologists, Marybeth Abbatello and Ashley Zagorski. Marybeth and Ashley were highly recommended for how they are using technology for counseling and working with groups to practice social skills. We asked Marybeth and Ashley to tell us about their success, and their thoughtful answers are below. Thank you Marybeth and Ashley for sharing your success and your dedication to your students! Do you have any words of wisdom or tips for your colleagues on how to be successful in this hybrid environment and/or integrating technology with your students? Develop a growth mindset- we’ll admit that initially, we were unsure about how to incorporate technology into our work as a School Psychologist at the elementary level. Our students are used to hands-on activities in counseling and working together in groups to practice social skills. We don’t consider ourselves very “techy” and we were overwhelmed by learning so many new platforms. We decided that we need to practice what we preach and develop a growth mindset about working within our hybrid model. Once we dove in and started playing around with Bitmojis, Peardeck, and Screencastify we found ways to be interactive with our students that have been pretty exciting! Don’t reinvent the wheel- We truly are all in this together! There are so many resources out there that our colleagues around the country are sharing and discussing. When developing our Bitmoji School Psychology Offices, we each relied heavily on the Facebook group, “Bitmoji Craze for Educators”. The group is focused on sharing Bitmoji classrooms and offices that others have created. All of the content is free for anyone to copy and personalize for their own use. Have fun with it- Don’t overstress about fumbling in a video, taking a few tries to become comfortable with a new platform, or reaching out to a colleague for help. I think I recorded a screencastify explaining my Bitmoji Calming Room to students at least 5 times! It can be easy to compare ourselves to what other people are doing, but we are all doing an amazing job- remember we are still in the midst of a global pandemic and are learning a completely new way of educating our students- be gentle with yourselves and keep up the great work everyone! This week's Spotlight on Success highlights Woodrow Wilson's Mary Grace Cianci, a Mathematics Intervention teacher. A quite a few of her colleagues and administrators informed us that she is 'making learning work'.
We contacted Mary Grace, and after her initial surprise, she provided a very detailed response to our question below of how she is finding success using a Surface Pro laptop. Do you have any words of wisdom or tips for your colleagues on how to be successful in this hybrid environment and/or integrating technology with your students? The integration of technology has been a critical component of remote learning in the math intervention classroom this year. Students in HMH’s Math 180 intervention courses at Woodrow Wilson Middle have utilized technology tools the past couple of years through a powerful and engaging personalized software program. However, the direct teaching component of the program posed a challenge in our new blended learning environment. How could I create learning opportunities with all cohorts of students in a workbook-based teaching portion of my lessons? The Surface Pro tablet has been utilized extensively in my daily live lessons. This tablet has empowered my teaching to transform my shared screens to include color-coding, highlighting, isolating texts, magnification, and other features. The use of color-based tools such as color-coding and highlighting text has been a widely used effective strategy, particularly with students with learning disabilities. The ability to quickly highlight information and isolate work areas on the screen has dramatically assisted my students with learning disabilities and language impairments to fully access the lesson tasks. Below is an example (figure 1) of part of a lesson that would be shared with students remotely. Using my Surface Pro tablet and pen, I am able to snip and zoom in on step by step components of the lesson. The below images are final screenshots (which can be saved and easily sent to students) on how information is highlighted and isolated. No longer do I need to reinforce my directions into the chat feature but simply write on the whiteboard on the tablet directly on the slide or page (figure 2) Additionally, I can circulate around the classroom with tablet and pen in hand to check student work and levels of engagement. The pen feature allows me to write on the screen and transcribes my writing into text (Figure 3). I am still exploring more ways to use this tablet into an assistive technology device but already my students are seeing the benefits. Students have shared how much they are enjoying the Math 180 class and emphasize how useful my tablet and features are to their learning. A 7th grader in cohort C recently commented, “I can understand everything! This class shows me how to be better in math step by step.” Now Mary Grace, being the empathetic colleague that she is, was reluctant to share her successes using the Surface Pro & stylus to help support her remote learners knowing her colleagues do not have access to the same technology. However, we shared some exciting news with her that we are now sharing with all of you: The MPS IT Department is presently working tirelessly to provide all educators with their own Surface Pro so that you can soon try the suggestions that Mary Grace has provided. More information will be provided soon! Thank you Mary Grace Cianci for shining so brightly! For this week's Spotlight on Success we travel to Middletown High School to shine the light on second year teacher, Taylor Garboski. Taylor was recommended to spotlight by both administrators and teachers for her success and positively contagious attitude. We contacted the Algebra teacher and asked that she answer the following question: Do you have any words of wisdom or tips for your colleagues on how to be successful in this hybrid environment and/or integrating technology with your students? Taylor's response: My best words of wisdom would be: I know technology can be frustrating at times, but keep pushing yourself to learn new things! I have been taking risks in the ways I use technology in class, sometime it is great...other times it flops! But I always have a good time with my students! Rich Cordaway, the Secondary Math Curriculum Supervisor had this to say about Taylor: Ms. Garboski's enthusiasm and ability to connect with her student helps make Math an interesting experience. She helps them understand and believes that all of them can learn Math at a high level. Thank you Taylor for your words of wisdom, and dedication to your students! |
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