A New Take on Resources You Can Do

Happy summer! It has been a wonderful change of pace.  I love teaching - I love the kids, the connections, colleagues, challenging my brain in many different ways, the routine, etc. - but I also love the breaks. Kind of.

A day off here and there is like sneaking a little extra dessert. Summer for me can feel like I'm stuffing my face with chocolate. I need to keep a close eye on what I do so I don't overindulge. I always plan out projects and learning and activities. 

I need that routine. I thrive on it.

One of my favorite things to do is listening to podcasts or music while I fold laundry. It's a productive task (laundry) while I squeeze in entertainment (podcast/music). Recently, the podcast was Jennifer Gonzalez's "Cult of Pedagogy" episode 251: Holding Students Accountable in the Age of AI.  Her conversation with Tony Frontier was great and really got my thinking about one specific area. Asking kids how-who-what helped them with their work. Not in an effort to catch them cheating, but rather it's like a peek in their brains about how they are getting things done so we know where better to help them. If we encourage this honest & open sharing, I think we can get a better gauge on our students learning. 

Tony's point was to ask for sources, not just on big assignments, but on ALL assignments. Not to "catch" AI use, rather getting students comfortable with citing their sources - all of them. Whether it was a family member at home, a Google search, an AI chatbot, an encyclopedia, a textbook, etc, asking students to identify what is helping them can go a long way with teaching academic honesty and integrity. (Thank you Tony & Jennifer!) 

I thought of how I could apply in my classroom of the last 2 years. Could an idea like Tony's give me an insight to their learning? Probably. Most of our work was done inside the classroom but we used resources often. They could share if they Googled something or asked a classmate for help. And if they worked on it outside of class, they could do the same by sharing whatever resources they used, whether human or digital or print. I see the goal to have students see, document, and share more insight to how they are doing their work.  

The more I think about this idea, the more I really like it! You could even set goals of using a variety of resources for different assignments/projects. Example, "In your paper, you need to use 3 different types of resources" and then have a list of resources to choose from. 

I hope I inspired you to contemplate this idea! Give Tony & Jennifer a listen and think about what this could look like in your class. If you try it out, will you let me know?

*** Every Monday, I share a newsletter with a collection of Tech You Can Do resources. It is delivered right to your inbox. Interested? Sign up here!  ***

#PodPeeks: Teachonomy Talks

Today I'm highlighting another awesome podcast I've added to my playlist, Teachonomy Talks with Chuck Poole. Most of the podcasts I listen to I do a great deal of learning. Teachonomy Talks is a bit different ... and I love it! It's DEFINITELY a thinker, but it's more of an "inspirational thinker". Each episode is short and packed with inspiring and reflective thoughts. I love how Chuck shares short and thought-provoking ideas.

I have shared many Teachonomy Talks episodes with others. Often, I feel like Chuck knows what is going on in my brain and he is speaking directly to me and they provide reaffirmation, a different perspective, or just some inspiration to give me a boost.

You can find all the episodes (currently there are 131!) on your favorite podcast player or on the Teachonomy Talks website. Here are a few episodes I'd like to highlight:

💙 Episode 131: "Where Do You Shine Your Spotlight?"
💙 Episode 126: "Thoughts for Teachers: Do You Look Through Your Backup Camera"
💙 Episode 115: "Two Minute Timeout for Teachers... You Were Built to Sail"
💙 Episode 107: "Two Minute Timeout for Teachers... YOU are a Masterpiece"
💙 Episode 101: "Thoughts for Teachers: Do Your Flaws Forms a Foundation?"

I could go on ... but if you tune in for one or two of these, I'm sure you'll be hooked, and you'll find many more wonderful episodes.

#PodPeeks: Educational Duct Tape

I've not featured a podcast in awhile and do I have a good one for you today!!! I love listening to podcasts especially learning while I'm driving. Now that spring soccer season has begun, I have hour and half long practices twice a week. Perfect opportunity to listen to even more!

A new-er addition to my podcast rotation is Educational Duct Tape by Jake Miller (@JakeMillerTech). You may know him for his #EduGIF's (I'm in the hard-G club). I've been following him for quite awhile. I also find it super cool that he is also from Ohio! He's relatively new to podcasting, with just 16 podcasts published to date, but once he joins your rotation, you won't want to miss future ones. The combination of his soapbox moments, his humor, his all-start line up of guests, and just his way of sharing is incredibly relatable and fun. 

Obviously, I'd recommend all of the episodes, but I know how precious time is, so, if you are only going to go check out ONE, I recommend Episode 10 with Matt Miller. I'll be honest - I was super impressed to hear who his guest was, but what really took me by storm was Jake's "soapbox" moment on this episode. Jake takes a few minutes at the beginning of each episode to highlight/share something that has been impactful to him in some way. This episode, he shared about "adjacent possible theory" by Stuart Kauffman, and I was BLOWN away! Yes, yes, yes a million times! I immediately shared it with my curriculum director and she was just as taken with it. I love when I share something that speaks to me and know it makes a difference to others.

The adjacent possible theory Jake shared completely altered our small group meeting later in the week ... to the point, I found out later, that the meeting was completely altered and  the adjacent possible theory became the focus. Becky - our curriculum director - "blamed" me. (I'll own that!) She played Jake's soapbox moment during our meeting and I kid you not, it seemed to impact everyone. I snapped this picture of our meeting and Tweeted it out so Jake would also know how much of an impact he made on us.

#PodPeeks: GTT Episode 68

💥 Happy New Year! 💥

I hope your year is off to a great start! It's hard for me to believe I've been posting for a little more than a year! I had a goal last year to post once a week. I wasn't exactly 100%, but in total, I posted 64 times ... so I'll count it as successful. 

This year, my goal is to continue once a week here, as well as a couple of short resource shares on my companion blog ↬ "TYCD: Resources" (you can also find a link as a tab along the top). I started this companion blog because I love the way I can attach labels to each resource making them easy to filter for the reader. These aren't full blown explanations, rather short summaries that can help guide you to resources that are helpful.

Here is today's post ... I'm adding to the #PodPeeks series I shared last summer. For all posts under this label, click on the matching label on the far right side.

Podcasts are a simple way to learn "on-the-go". The Google Teacher Tribe is one of my favorites to listen to. Matt Miller & Kasey Bell's podcast is published on Monday's, so it's my typical Monday companion to and from school. They share such wonderful tips & tricks! If you don't already subscribe, you need to. You won't regret it!!!

Their Dec. 19 podcast was a little out of the norm for them but it was GOOD! I assumed Episode 68: Ctrl+Shift+T and Other Class Management Tips would be full of keyboard short cuts. I was sure I'd know some, but I was equally sure there would be many that I've yet to discover. To my surprise ... it wasn't! This episode was devoted to classroom management tips for the digital classroom, thanks to a question from John Baglio. WHOA!

Classroom management in today's world is different from when I grew up ... but not so different that it's impossible. I know many teachers feel this way because of the computers, but it really is more about teachers employing strategies that work in a digital classroom. These strategies might look different than a traditional classroom. But I'd argue it goes back to good, solid pedagogy. Cheating was happening long before computers ... being off task was happening long before computers ... students working hard to avoid doing work was happening long before computers ... and so on.

I love that Matt & Kasey took the time to use their voice to share about this topic. I could sit here and give you all the details, but I really feel you need to listen to it. Hint ... it's not all about using a software monitoring program -- YES! You CAN manage a class full of devices without a monitoring program.

Link to Google Teacher Tribe website: https://googleteachertribe.com/ 

Link to GTT Episode 68: Ctrl+Shift+T and Other Class Management Tips

#PodPeeks: Well PlayED podcasts

I've been hooked on the podcast "Well PlayED" by Michael Matera. His focus is gaming in the classroom, but really it's SOOO much more! I see his focus as just good, solid teaching. He and his interviewees spend plenty of time reflecting on their time as a student as well as a teacher. 

I encourage you to not only tune in (I'll highlight some episodes below) but subscribe so you can continue your own journey. Here are highlights from 4 of his episodes. If you have even the slightest interest in gaming in your class, this is a MUST LISTEN!

Episode 3: Diving Deep Into Content

Michael talks with Adam Bold (@MrBold05).

The big takeaway I get from this is how Adam changed his learning targets into "mission targets" for his students. His classroom is designed around the theme of being spies who are trying to recover lost history and work for an agency. They use various sources to do their research.

Michael shares a quote at the end which I love ... 

"Play is the highest form of research." ~ Albert Einstein.

Episode 7: Quests for knowledge

Michael talks with Tisha Richmond (@tishrich) about game mechanics. Their focus is "quests". They talk about them as mini adventures for students to go above and beyond. I love it. We all want our students to do this, but most won't without some kind of incentive, some kind of reason. Here are a few things they shared about quests in their classes:

• based on content's essential questions
• don't share the quests all at the same time - spread them out
• should be optional 
• do not attach to student grades
• only allow them for a defined amount of time
• keep them open-ended, fairly unstructured

Episode 53: Homage to the greatest game ever!

#PodPeeks: Talking Social Studies

I just HAVE to share this podcast with you!!! I had featured it on my final 8 #PodPeeks in July but I hadn't had the time to really dig deep into this one. That was until my daughter started conditioning for soccer and I had an hour to walk & listen & learn. Wow!!!! This is a GOOD one!

There are 2 episodes that I'm excited to share today - but don't limit yourself to these. Subscribe and listen to them all!

Talking Social Studies website  / Twitter (@TalkinSS)

Episode 17: Got Rhythm (show notes)

I love history. I love the story it tells - I know it's not always a happy story, but it's a never-ending story. I also love music. There is so much music out there and it, too, tells a story. And to bring the two together??? WOW! Listening to this episode, I kept thinking about how cool it would be to be a student in any of these 4 teachers classes! The focus isn't just on having music to play with your units, but having conversations around & with the lyrics & feelings of the music. Highlighting music from a historical time period can really add to a students understanding of the time period and culture.

Here are a few highlights to tempt you to tune in - all the links are in the show notes:

• Billboard's List of 20 Best Protest Songs of 2017
• IDEA ↬ take a list of ANY year, don't tell your students, & see if they can figure out what year/what the big ideas were from that year

• National Jukebox: Historical Recordings from the Library of Congress (I had NO idea this existed!!!)
• contains over 10,000 historical recordings made by the Victor Talking Machine Company between 1901 and 1925!

• Google Arts & Culture ↬ an amazing find for SOOOO many reasons, but when you search for "music", you will find links to museums, stories, and more directly related to music!

• Sounds Around the World ↬ a website built as a "collaborative learning game"

• Teachrock.org ↬ a FREE web-based curriculum, aligned to standards, and built FOR teachers. (Thank you, Steven Van Zandt!) 

#PodPeeks: 8 Others to Highlight

There isn't enough time in a day (or week) to listen to all the good podcasts out there! You definitely have to give them a listen and see if it works for you. Here are 8 others that I think you should give a listen to - each for their own reasons. All are EXCELLENT!

10 Minute Teacher by Vicki Davis [website]: to the point & very teacher friendly information; each day of workweek has a theme! Check out the website for detail. 

Hack Learning w/Mark Barnes [website]: I've really come to enjoy the thoughts Mark shares. He pushes me to really think about what I do what I do.

The House of #EdTech by Chris Nesi [website]: This was one of the 1st podcasts I started listening to. If you are interested in technology in education, this is a good one to tune in to!

  

Kids Deserve It! by Todd Nesloney & Adam Welcome [website]: Honestly, I had NO idea this was even a podcast, but the book is SO good, how can you not listen to their podcast?

Talking Social Studies by Ryan O'Donnell, Chris Hitchcock, Scott Padway, & Amy Presley [website]: Being a former social studies teacher, this podcast really feeds the history nerd in me! LOVE!!!

TOSAs Talking Tech by Tom Covington and Michael Jephcott [website]: Again, this is new to me, but I've heard from a LOT of others who really promote this website as a good one.

Truth for Teachers w/Angela Watson [website]: Have you heard about the 40 Hour Workweek Club? This is your spot!

Well PlayED by Michael Matera [website]: Gaming in the classroom has been around for a bit, but Michael & his guests really know how to make it work. Tune in for tips and ideas. I love hearing their thoughts so I can further support this idea in the classrooms I work with.

I hope you enjoyed this week of #PodPeeks - be sure to check out the other 6 in this series. Just click on the label #PodPeeks to the right (it's near the top) if you happened to miss one.

Next week I will focus in on math resources.

#PodPeeks: the Creative Classroom with John Spencer

This week, I have been binging on John Spencer's podcast - The Creative Classroom. My walk this morning ended up going a little bit longer so I could finish an episode! This is a newer podcast for me and extremely good! He is such a source of inspiration. His episode "Difference Between Being Busy and Being Productive" really hit home ... this week. We are fully into July and summer is in full swing. I was out for a walk while listening, and I really had to stop and think, "Am I 'busy' or am I 'productive'?"

The other one that really spoke to me big time was the June 2 one - The Seven Types of Creative Teachers. While I relate to several of them, I think I'd ideally like to be #7. What about you? John's podcasts compliment his blog posts. AND he has a YouTube channel that goes along with many of his podcasts/blogs. I highly recommend you check out - and subscribe to - his YouTube channel, his blogs, AND his podcasts.

About the author: John Spencer (@spencerideas)

Podcast Website → http://www.spencerauthor.com/podcast/
Author's Other Websites →http://www.spencerauthor.com/
http://spencervideos.com  
http://videoprompts.com

#PodPeeks: the Ditch That Textbook podcast

Ha! I bet you thought I had forgotten! Nope ... it IS summer and my girls kept me busy all day 😄.

Today's #TechYouCanDo podcast I want to highlight is by Matt Miller (he gets a 2-fer this week!) also of the Google Teacher Tribe podcast. His stand alone podcast is truly an inspiring one for me because he shares his thoughts all in roughly 5 minutes! The little "nuggets" are quick and easy. There are 74 podcasts available as of today so you have plenty to listen and learn from. 

I've highlighted a handful that I was REALLY drawn to here:

About the author: Matt Miller (@jmattmiller) (#ditchpod)

Podcast Website → https://anchor.fm/ditch ; ditchthattextbook.com

#PodPeeks: Cult of Pedagogy

Today's #PodPeeks podcast is The Cult of Pedagogy with Jennifer Gonzalez. Her podcast always blows me away. Her episodes are thought-provoking and many times, I have to pause the podcast, sit back, and "take in" what she is talking about. Jennifer really gets to the heart of it.

And not only is her podcast FANTASTIC, I highly recommend you visit her website so you can subscribe to her blog. Often, her blogs match her podcasts. One of her blogs that I highly suggest - even if you aren't an ELA teacher - is her idea behind a "single-point rubric". Here is a link to 2 articles about them:

* Know Your Terms: Holistic, Analytic, and Single-Point Rubrics
* Meet the #SinglePointRubric

Be sure to check out these episodes:

About the author: Jennifer Gonzalez (@cultofpedagogy)

Podcast Website → https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/pod/

#PodPeeks: Check This Out!

Today's featured #TechYouCanDo podcast is "Check This Out!" with Ryan O'Donnell and Brian Briggs. Their podcast does a great job of sharing out a TON of edtech in each episode. Make sure you either bookmark their show notes or have a notepad and writing utensil handy when you listen so you can jot notes and check it out! They cover a LOT and a wide variety, so you are sure to find at least one little nugget in each episode.

The episodes are a bit longer ... but very much worth the listen! I haven't been a long-time listener - they've got 80+ episodes recorded, so you will have a no problem filling your summer days with Ryan & Brian.

About the authors: Ryan O’Donnell (@creativeedtech) Brian Briggs (@bribriggs)

Website → http://checkthisoutpodcast.com/

#PodPeeks: Shukes and Giff

Today's #TechYouCanDo is the podcast "Shukes and Giff". It is hosted by two awesome educators, Kim Pollishuke and Jen Giffen. They are a trip to listen to, making learning fun! I also appreciate the fact that their shows are of a shorter nature ... longest one so far is 31 minutes. 

Their podcast is also created on a new-er platform - Anchor - which I've heard good things about! Here are 4 of their podcasts you need to be sure to check out ... links below!

About the podcast authors:

Kim Pollishuke (@KimPollishuke)
Jen Giffen (@VirtualGiff)
#ShukesAndGiff

Podcast Websites:

https://anchor.fm/shukesandgiff & bit.ly/shukesandgiff

#PodPeeks: Google Teacher Tribe

This week I will be focusing my #TechYouCanDo on podcasts. This is an avenue of learning I hadn't given much thought to until about two years ago. My commute to and from work is roughly 20 minutes each way, so it's the perfect opportunity to learn from others. (The only problem is that sometimes the ideas are so exciting I have to jot down ideas as soon as I park!)

Today, I want to share the Google Teacher Tribe podcast by Matt Miller & Kasey Bell. They just wrapped their 2nd season and it is my #1 go-to podcast. They share such wonderful tips and tricks and interview amazing educators. They have 56 episodes completed and ready for you to listen to. Below, I've highlighted 6 of my top recommended episodes.

About the podcast authors:

Matt Miller (@jmattmiller) ↠ ditchthattextbook.com

Kasey Bell (@ShakeUpLearning) ↠ shakeuplearning.com

Podcast Website:

Google Teacher Tribe Website