2020: We Did It!

2020 has been quite the year! Ups and downs, ins and outs, twists and turns. It's a relief to be able to say "I've done it! I've made it!" ... and I'll bet you feel the same. 😀I truly hope we do not experience another year like this anytime soon.

When I look back at who I was and where I was one year ago, and I think about how I was looking forward to the challenges 2020 was going to bring, I could not have ever predicted what we have all gone through. I had plans for 2020 - and then they went sideways.

I'm not going to spend today mourning what could have been. Instead, I'm going to celebrate my 10 most read blogs from the year as a recap. The pandemic played a major role in what I wrote for the majority of the year - and that's what I want to celebrate. We might all be in different spots, but there are so many similarities that bring us together.

Not surprising, many of the top read are about Google Classroom. It has become a passion of mine to share tips and resources about Classroom. And during the spring closure, I had quite the revelation: we teachers need to stop looking at Classroom (or whatever you LMS is) as teachers. We must look at it as a student and then design our Classrooms with THEM as our driving principle. That shines as a guiding principle for many of my blogs this year.

Here are the "10 Most Read Blogs of 2020" ⤸ 

#10: Google Photos e-portfolio You Can Do - Are you looking for an easy way for students to share their paper work? How about using Google Photos? This is perfect for students of ALL ages! As the teacher, create the album for each student & share it to their account. Using the comment feature, you can also provide feedback on work they upload. Best part ... it all stays connected to the students' Google accounts!

#9: Grading Forms in Classroom You Can Do - I worked closely with a 4th grade teacher to create this workflow. Grading and returning a Google Form in Classroom so students can see both their grade and any feedback you provide is not the easiest ... but it IS possible! The key is in the settings you do - and don't worry, if you don't get it right before having students complete it, you can always come back and fix it!

#8: Google Classroom Item Types You Can Do - One of the easiest things a teacher can do to better organize and use Google Classroom is to strictly stick to using the best item type for the material being posted. During the spring closure, I found a lack of understanding of what the items types are "best" for. I share an entire presentation with specifics for each item type. (Be sure to check out the final 2 slides - they are handy, ready-to-print reference sheets!) And when you post your material strategically using the best item type, your students (& their parents!) will have less confusion as to what must be done.

#7: Insert Audio (... for kids!) You Can Do - And amazing update to Google Slides is the ability to add audio! Not only can you add audio, so can your students! When I shared this out in early 2020, my focus was not just on the teacher adding audio, but I shared this geared towards showing your students how to add audio. Step-by-step directions AND a quick-print PDF makes it even easier for you to add audio. Game changer for sure! 

#6: Research Template You Can Do - Many of my blogs are inspired by my day job, but quite a few are inspired because I am also a mom. I teach in a different district than where my girls go school, so I get to see how even more teachers teach. This one was inspired by how my middle daughter was doing research for a report. In all honesty, she wasn't taught HOW to research. I realized that for the most part, we AREN'T teaching our students HOW, so I created this template that ANY teacher can take, insert their specifics, and share it to students to provide a structured approach to teaching students how to research.  

#5: New Quarter = New Classroom You Can Do - With our "new normal", our need to keep our digital classrooms organized is even more important. Many teachers aren't teaching students in face-to-face situations, some are in hybrid situations, and some, even though they are face-to-face, rely heavily on digital classrooms to lessen the use of paper. I STRONGLY recommend starting with a NEW classroom at the quarter/grading breaks. Use these 7 steps to help you, your students, and their parents focus on the now.

#4: A Deeper Dive into Google Classroom Posting Options You Can Do - Did you know there are many posting options in Google Classroom? And just like item types, use them strategically to "better" organize your materials and you'll reap the benefits. Topics, scheduling, and draft mode will allow you to plan ahead, organize, and have material "magically" show up just when you want or need it to. Design your Classroom through lens of your students. It will pay off. I promise.

#3: Classroom Header Template You Can Do - This is purely for fun! Google Classroom provides a somewhat random image for your header. Based on the name you give your Classroom, you might get lucky that it matches the content. However, you CAN choose your own header, or even better, create your own and then upload it for a custom look. But, this allows you to go one step further ... include your students on the design of your Classroom and give them some ownership and pride in the look of the Classroom they use just as much as you. This can be a class project!

#2: Starting Google Classroom You Can Do - How much thought have you put into setting up your Google Classroom - or other digital classroom? My second most read blog in 2020 is one where I share an 8 ideas to really put some thought into as you set up your new Classrooms. If you are an administrator, I also recommend you go through this process as it will give you insight as to your recommendations for the teachers you serve and support. Doing this process as a teaching team, or even whole building, and ultimately aligning the general structure of ALL digital Classrooms will benefit your teachers, your students, and your parents. Not having to "learn" a new structure for each teacher will lessen the frustration at home, and right now, that is super important. 

P.S. this process can work for ANY digital classroom, not just Google Classrooms.

#1: Google Classroom "To Do/To Review" You Can Do - Late summer always brings updates to Classroom and this year is no exception. This year's BIG update was a "To Do" (for students) and a "To Review" (for students). THIS. WAS. MAJOR. With a click on the "To Do", students can now see all of their assigned work for all classes, or just one class. This simple look is game changer! I also tucked in a view of the teacher's "To Review" where you will see ALL assignments, or assignments for a specific class. This blog also shares some overall guidance for Google Classrooms.

I hope you enjoy this final week of 2020 and that you are able to rest, relax, and enjoy. Thank you for reading and sharing my blog out. I absolutely love creating, designing, and sharing out what I do. I truly hope that it is helpful. I will continue to share in 2021. And thanks to a conversation with a colleague and friend, I have a pretty awesome one to start the year off with! As a district we will start the new year off remotely and she was struggling with setting boundaries with students in this digital world.

Please feel free to comment below ⤵ - Tweet at me @kiefersj - on Facebook Sarah Kiefer - or even email me sarah@techyoucando.com. I'd love to hear from you!

Wakelet You Can Do

I write today to share today a tool that has helped me out ... a LOT! Our lives are all busy for many reasons - personal life, work life, extracurriculars, and more ... I have spent countless hours trying to figure out a system of curation that makes me happy, and one that works across platforms because I don't always have my computer with me. About a year I wrote about curation in "Digital Curation Tools You Can Do", and I mentioned I wasn't super "taken" with Wakelet. One year later, after becoming frustrated with everything else I was trying, I tried Wakelet again, rode the "Wakelet wave" and fell in love! 

Wakelet is an app, an extension, and a website - I use all 3! It is super visual, easy to use & modify, and you can curate more than digital links. In fact, you can add 10 different "things".

I highly suggest you check out Wakelet ... the ability to quickly add links, videos, PDFs, etc to ONE spot and come back over and over has been incredibly helpful. I have begun using Wakelet in some non-traditional ways, too, that I've found crazy helpful.

For example: 

Webinars & Resources

I have tuned into countless webinars these past several months & am constantly opening tabs to see the resources shared, taking screenshots of important things, along with jotting notes down on paper. Now, how do I keep ALL of that together - for myself to reflect on or to potential share with others? A Wakelet collection! That's right -- I create a collection (& most of the time an image I've taken works as a great cover). The title starts with "Professional Learning: "Title" ... and the description gives some kind of description of the topic. After that, it becomes a quick process of opening a new tab (I allow Wakelet to "control" my new tab), and drag & drop the sites I opened; upload the images I took; and finally, take photos of my notes & upload, too. 

ALL. IN. ONE. SPOT. 

I can even add text to include a reflection or additional notes I want to highlight. If possible, I'll include a link to the recording so it truly means EVERYTHING is in ONE spot! As a bonus - I have the ability to share this collection with others! [Note: I don't typically make these public as I don't want to upset any of the presenters by sharing without their permission.]

Here is an example - be sure to click on the < > to scroll through!

Topic Specific

This is probably the easiest and basic way to use Wakelet. Create a collection & start popping in items that relate. Refer to it, share it, add collaborators - enjoy! I have so many of these! One for each Google app, one for each content area, one for areas of high interest to myself! (I have 91 collections right now!)

The collection below is one where I collect digital activities in one spot. I can come back and look for something specific, or if someone asks about activities I know of, it's a quick share of this collection and they have 80+ ones to scroll through. Don't you LOVE the visual appeal!?!? Major bonus points for me!

Don't forget - click on the < > to scroll through!

Collections of Collections

This one is newer for me but packs an AMAZING punch! Wouldn't it be awesome if you could gather up multiple topics into one BIG one, but still keep them "separate"? Well, you CAN and this is perfect!

I updated my "Professional Learning" tab yesterday this way ... I had been using Pearltrees, but hadn't been updating them, or frankly, even looking at them. I'd already duplicated most of them in a Wakelet, but based on the views of this page, others ARE looking at this specific page, so I didn't want to get rid of it. Sooooooo, I created a "Professional Learning" Wakelet collection & embedded it! No preview below ... just head on over to my "Professional Learning" page to check it out. I even embedded the Pearltrees of the peeps I follow on Twitter (b/c I actually like how it looks better!).

Collaborative Professional Collections

This idea came about during our closure and as a result of a discussion with my Tech Director. We needed to pivot on a project of sharing resource guides with our staff and he suggested Wakelet and as soon as he said it, YES!!!!!!! 

These are meant specifically for our staff, so I kept them "unlisted" so only our people can see them. I shared them with the other tech staff so they can also contribute to them and each building has a collection of documents specific to them. I then took each buildings' collection and made a district collection & this is what was shared. Voilá!

Sorry for no preview ... but that's another benefit of Wakelet's ... you don't HAVE to share with everyone 😃.

Bottom line ....

If you've not given Wakelet a try, I highly suggest you do! It's worth your time! Also ... did I mention you can follow people on Wakelet? Yep! You can follow me & receive notifications of when I create new collections. 

You can check out my profile on the social links to the right under my picture.

And on a final note ... you can share collections with students!!!! Yep! Check out more info at Wakelet for Students.

Have questions? Want to contact me? Connect via the "socials" ... all links are to the right. 

Do you have a comment? Comment below ⤵️

Google Slides & Forms You Can Do

My journey continues this week with Google Slides & Google Forms.

Google Slides is a presentation tool & Google Forms is a survey tool. But as with Sheets & Docs, don't limit them to their "face value" ... if you do, you will miss out on SOOOO much! 

Slides is probably my "go to" Google app for, well, pretty much ANYthing & EVERYthing I do. Slides allows for SUCH a wide variety of uses - presentations, for sure; but also, interactive activities, eBooks, photo albums, entire lesson plans, writing activities, research, and so much more! Be sure to check out the resources I share. If you are a teacher, you really need to check out and use Slides ... it won't disappoint!

Forms was honestly where I really fell in love with Google. It didn't look like much, but I never looked back once I created my 1st Form - and all I did was use it as a glorified scantron! Forms may not look like much but IT. IS. POWERFUL! Surveys, assessments, interactive activities, choose your own adventures, data collection, curation tool, and so much more! I literally had to walk away from my computer & give myself a pep talk, "You 'could' continue giving examples of ways to use Forms, but you have 10 already!"

And the best part ........... we aren't done. That's right! We are only half-way through this summer webinar series & you can still join in! 

I've got several things coming up this week:

• Monday, July 6 (1-3 pm EST): Google Drive You Can Do

• Tuesday, July 7 (9 pm): I will be participating in a Twitter chat about the book "Innovate Inside the Box" by George Couros & Katie Novak.

• Thursday, July 9 (1 pm EST): I will also be presenting for GEG Louisiana, "Working Together to Support Our Students"

• Friday, July 10 (6 pm): EdChange Global Conference: I'll present "Build an App for Your Classroom"

• Saturday, July 11 (8 am): EdChange Global Conference: I'll present "Start Google Classroom on the Right Foot"

And during the rest of July ... Classroom, Chrome, and as many other Google Apps as I can cram into the 2 hours! I have links to the registration for all of these on "My Presentations" calendar page linked above. Everything is FREE & I'd love to see you at any or all of them!

Now, on to my shares for this week ... below you will find the YouTube videos & the resources I use in each presentation.

Google Slides

Resource → https://tinyurl.com/SlidesYCD

Video →

Google Forms

Resource → https://tinyurl.com/FormsYCD

Video →

I hope you enjoy these! Please reach out if you have questions or if you'd like some additional help. I've been loving connecting with some of the viewers on Twitter and through email. Together, we are better.

You can comment below ... or Tweet at me @kiefersj ... or even email me at sarah@techyoucando.com .

Also, be sure to check out Desiree's many other helpful videos & tips on he YouTube Channel → Educator Alexander. 

Google Photos for Space & Savings You Can Do

I'd hoped to have this out last week, but I've been busy trying to get a few home projects done and spending time outside with my husband and girls. I'm hoping you enjoy this - it's an easy one ... and one that will pay off long term!

Today's share is directed to you as a person, more than you as a teacher. During the school year, I focus far more on academic shares, so today is meant to help you in your life outside of school.

Have you ever received the message on your phone you are out of storage and you need to:

• purchase more?
• delete things?

It's quite the bummer! An alternative is purchase a new phone with additional memory ... but really?

No need! It's easier than any of these. All you need is a Google account & one specific app - Google Photos. It's free and has massive storage.

I learned this several years ago when I needed to create space on my phone, but still wanted to be able to see my photos. I learned about Google Photos ... and then I found out I could set it up to AUTOMATICALLY back up all my photos! Mind-blown! Now, I never worry about losing my photos and I can go all the way back to 2006 when I took my first digital photos and enjoy the walk down memory lane.

I've posted some Slides below to help you navigate through setting it up -it's super easy, I promise. I have an iPhone, so Android users, I apologize ... your screen might look slightly different, but I do not think it will be too far off.

As always, feel free to share & reach out if you have any questions!

*** And a side note before you jump in ... I will be doing a series of 8 FREE webinars soon where each one focuses on an introduction to a single Google app. 

I've also been asked to make a second appearance with the GEG Louisiana in July (yay!). 

To help share these, I've added the page "My Presentations" to the header row in my blog and I've embedded a calendar for quick access to these presentations & their registration links.

I'd love to "see" you there! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions! ***

 

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have questions, or you'd like help with this - or any of the items I share. You can comment below, reach out on Twitter (@kiefersj), or email me (Sarah@techyoucando.com).

Curation You (and I) Can Do

I took a small break last week from my curation theme and I'm operating more on "summer time" right now, hence the delay in posting. I've covered WHY we should curate & shared a few digital tools you can use in "Digital Curation Tools You Can Do". I followed that with 3 activities you can do WITH your students and why this can be time well spent in"Curation Activities You Can Do".

This week, I'd like to share some of the ways I, personally, have curated resources, ideas, tools, tricks, and much more. Honestly, I am a kind of person who likes variety - not too much - but some. This could be a bad thing for some people, but I enjoy it. Each time I find something new, I find things I like, and don't like, about it. It always makes me rethink WHAT I'm curating and forces me to really think through WHY I'm curating, not just for the items, but also the tool I am using to curate with.

I want to share these photos without an explanation. Don't worry, I'll get to it later. I just ask you to take a look at the 3 photos of shells.

For the past few years, I have been reading, absorbing, collecting, seeking, learning, and being amazed at everything that is out there. Not a day goes by that I haven't learned something and I love it! I had a teacher say to me, after showing some ways to manipulate images and text in Drawings, "HOW do you know all this?" He was amazed each little thing I showed him. I smiled and laughed, and being a tad embarrassed, said, "I spend an extreme amount of time learning and playing with this stuff. I love it that much!" 

There's no way I can keep all of this in my brain, and I've been on a journey to find the perfect system to curate all the good stuff I find.

Curation Activities You Can Do

Last week, I shared "Digital Curation Tools You Can Do" with 3 digital tools you can use to curate the various articles, ideas, activities, books, etc that you come across. If one of these works well for you, awesome! 

This week I want to share a different idea about curation. YOU don't have to do it all. 

"Why not have STUDENTS help with the curation of sources?"

Today, I'm sharing 3 different ways you could have students curate WITH you below, but let's talk about WHY you should have students curate sources.

We all want our students to be using good and credible sources, right? So quite often, we provide the sources FOR our students. But we are missing out on a big opportunity when we do this. At some point, students will be researching on their own. They will be sifting through vast amount of information that is at their fingertips. Have you ever seen students research? They go for the first few links - not the best ones - and call it a day.

That's why I think this is such a good activity. The skill of finding good, credible sources is a tough one. It's tough for many adults! I've heard many teachers comment on how their students don't find good sources and ask how we help them get better.

Think about this the next time you ask your students to do research. What if you collaborated with them on this task? What if this was step one in the research/project/activity? Hear me out ...

This can be beneficial on a couple of levels for you and your students. First, even if you ask each student in your class to find a single source, you could end up with 20+ sources of information on your topic. How great is that? Students finding the sources and then having a bank to refer to? Hot dog! Can you imagine what your bank of sources would look like if you have each student find 2 ... or more? And how about then having students use that bank of sources to DO the project or activity? How awesome!

Digital Curation Tools You Can Do

Do you ever feel like you have information overload? 

I do. A lot. I see so much I want to read or try or create or soak in or share out. I feel like I am constantly reading and looking. My husband often asks, "How do you have so much going on in your brain?" 😊 But I don't feel like this is a bad thing ... not at all.

What I struggle with is keeping all the good things I see organized in a way that will make sense to me now AND later. Call me crazy, but I've not found "the perfect" system. I hear people swear by this tool or that tool, and I feel a little jealous! I wish I had "the perfect" system. I've tried out others' systems, but it doesn't work for me - not in the "perfect" sense. I like a lot of things about a lot of tools, so until I find "IT", I will continue to use a variety of tools to curate what I come across & want to keep.

Why curate? I couldn't possibly do everything right now ... I need to prioritize, and I support a variety of teachers with a variety of needs. I curate a wide variety of tools, activities, people, books, blogs, resources, conferences, and more. I do this all year long and summer is a great time to take a good look at what you've got and sift through. In fact, it's on my to do list ... to better organize - for both personal and professional items. 

If you are interested in digital curation tools, I've got a few to share, but there are dozens out there. These are ones I've spent some time working with and feel like I can comment on.

Pinterest

Pinterest ↭ hands down, my oldest curation tool. I got hooked on Pinterest when I was pregnant with my middle daughter. I could sit and snuggle her and scroll through Pinterest in small chunks or long periods when I could just rock with her. I love being able to create boards for groups of ideas. And the secret boards are perfect for projects you don't want everyone else to know about! Many dinner recipes were found this way. I don't use it a great deal anymore - I'm not a fan of the many links where you are linked out to a place you also have to have an account or you have to pay to use. I do curate my blog posts there under a board I call "Tech You Can Do" (LINK HERE). Pinterest has both an app for mobile devices as well as a Chrome extension that I use.

Pearltrees

Pearltrees ↭ another social bookmarking tool. While I've used it some, I've not dug in deep. I love the visual aspect of Pearltrees. I love that I can add more than websites to it. I've used Pearltrees only for a year or so and I think it provides a nice view of curated "things". Right now, I have 3 groups of "pearls" where I've curated Twitters I follow, various learning opportunities I want to share out, and professional learning with podcasts and people that I admire. I have embedded them on my website and from the stats, this page gets a fair amount of views. (LINK HERE) Pearltrees has a Chrome extension that I'd highly recommend if want to use it. It also has a mobile app that is easy to use.

Wakelet

Wakelet ↭ is similar to both Pinterest and Pearltrees. It is also a digital bookmarking tool. This is a newer tool with a familiar feel. I have tried to get into using it, but being honest, I've not. I do know several people who really like Wakelet, and it's a top tool in the edtech world. You can make collections and these collections can be shared. Wakelet is intended for those 13 years and older. But collections can be shared with younger students.

If you are interested in learning more, check these links out:

• 🌟Wakelet ebook - bit.ly/wakeletebook 

Authors - Sean, Karly, Dr. Randall Sampson, Jen Saarinen, Scott Titmas, Claudio Zavala Jr., Paul West, John Bimmerle

• Kathleen Morris, "Using Wakelet In The Classroom For Curation And Research"
• Matt Miller, "10 ways to use Wakelet’s new collaboration feature"

*** UPDATE!!! *** Thanks to Andy, my Tech Director, for sharing this tip ... teachers can share Wakelet collections with students in their Google Classrooms. How awesome!!! Kim Mattina shared this "how to" VIDEO. (Thanks, Kim!)

email

Email ↭ I know this is probably on everyone's "Do Not Do" list, but I've found it to be a great tool for curation. I often email myself a link with a short note attached so I know who I was wanting to share with or a note to remind myself later what I was thinking. If it's school related, I email it to my school account; if it's for me personally, I will email it to my personal email account. This has worked REALLY well! Part of the reason it works, is the little badge reminds me I have something waiting for me. And I check my email several times a day. It is definitely going to be a tool I continue to use. (Hey, sometimes you just have to be a rebel, right?)


This is a very small collection, so if I don't list one here & you have an awesome one, please reach out! Maybe you will have the one I've been searching for.  Next week, I'll be back with a different take on curating and curation tools.

Have a question or comment? Feel free to comment below, reach out to me on Twitter @kiefersj, or email me at sarah@techyoucando.com.