Dear Educators, You Can!

Dear Educators,

I've been trying to write this for 3 weeks. As with most everything in 2020, plans changed. I should already have had 2 weeks of school under my belt by now, but my first day is this coming Thursday. My oldest daughter still has a week of summer vacation before starting high school. I should have spent the majority of this weekend at a soccer tournament. I don't think I have the right words, but I need to get this out. I know I can.

This reality has a new feeling ... I hesitate to call this "normal" ... I don't want this to BE normal. This reality has new and different challenges. I've shed tears and I know more will come. I've been angry and felt defeated. COVID-19 has rocked me. What started out as a 3 week pause, turned into a full remote learning for the entire fourth quarter. Then summer was extended as guidelines changed and precautions were outlined and new safety measures were developed.

With everything, I know I have a choice. I have a choice with my words and my actions. I may not like my choices, but they are there for me to make the best of. I'm not perfect and I won't always make the right choice. 

We say the same thing to our daughters here at home. My youngest two girls started school this past week. Face-to-face, five days a week. They have to have their temperatures taken before entering school. They wear masks. They mostly sit in their desks. Specials teachers come to their rooms. They sit on dots spaced out in the cafeteria. And when we explained the "rules" for school, they smiled and accepted them. They don't like wearing masks, but they wanted to go back to school. I cried when we dropped them off ... HAPPY tears! After 5 months, they were back in school.

I don't want this to be "normal" ... but I have accepted this is what we have to do right now. And I want to face this head on and do the best I can. 

I listened to one of my favorite podcasts this morning on my post-run cool down. The Innovator's Mindset by George Couros. It was 10 minutes long and he talked about giving grace to others and yourself. He said it well when he said it's easy to give others grace but often, it's tough to give it to ourselves. That is so very true! Give your students grace; give their parents grace; give your colleagues grace; give your administrators grace; and give YOURSELF grace. You can.

As this school year starts, I don't know truly what to expect. I hope I meet the challenges head on. I hope I ask for and seek help when I need it. I hope that my daughters have a good year. I hope that we all stay healthy. I hope we use this forced change to improve everything we do. I hope that we will look back on this school year and say, with confidence, we did it!

Stay connected ... I'd love to hear your comments below. Tweet at me ... @kiefersj. Need some help? Feel free to email me ... sarah@techyoucando.com .

Sarah

Making the Most of August You Can Do

August always brings mixed emotions for me. August signals the beginning of the end of summer ... school supply shopping ... heavy prep work for the coming school year ... rush to finish projects around the house ... squeeze in family time ... ramping up of fall sports ... soaking up every bit of sunshine possible ... all good, yet a little sad - I love summer!

August 2020 is in many ways the same, yet COMPLETELY different! If I'm being honest, the past 4 1/2 months have been both wonderful (extra family time, enforced slow down of running around, extra learning time) and stressful (the unknowns, the fears, the crazy, the emotional roller coaster). It's also been physically taxing on me (I fell on a run & required shoulder surgery - I'm 6.5 weeks post-surgery, healing nicely, but this is going to take time). But I'm not here to complain!

Thanks to the wonderful people around me, I've been able to accomplish a great many things this summer and I still have some items to check off my "to do" list. I'm excited!

Back in April, I kicked it off with presenting at the April meeting for GEG Ohio. I shared how you can create an "app" using Google Slides. There is a lot of goodness in this meeting - I appear around the 1 hour mark.

From there, a huge thanks goes out to Dr. Desiree Alexander, my #NYC19 Innovator Coach. She allowed me to share 11 - yes ELEVEN - webinars with a great many educators. And ... we have a few more planned! Yay! Not only does she do these live, but she records them and shares them out on her YouTube channel (Educator Alexander) so you can watch them afterwards. All the resources are tucked in the show notes, so be sure to click the "show more" so you can learn right along with the recording.

Pre-injury, I installed new floors throughout our 1st and 2nd floors. We also did a fair amount of painting. Unfortunately, our new stair treads were backordered and didn't come in until after my surgery. My dad is super handy and came over a couple of times and helped complete most of the projects! My mom got to enjoy some fun with my girls, too.

I also was able to participate in a handful of conferences that moved their entire conference online and offered it freely to everyone! There was EdChange Global, WeVideo Creator Community, and Beyond the Bootcamp with Jeff Bradbury. You can find them all on my YouTube Channel on the "My Presentations" playlist.

And I have a few more things still coming up! This week will kick off Monday with the G-Tech Summit hosted by the Genoa Area Local Schools in Ohio. I'll be presenting on both Monday & Tuesday. I encourage you to join in the learning fun - there will be tons!

I'm also excited to keep learning about Data Studio, Blended Learning, Google's new Certified Coach curriculum, and I've always got a stack of books to read. 

Guess I better get moving and tackle some of the items on my "Today's To Do" list. How about you? What's on your list?

Have a question or comment? Please leave it below. Or Tweet at me - @kiefersj - I'd love to connect. Would you like some help with something - feel free to email me sarah@techyoucando.com .

How MANY Google Classrooms Can You Do?

Nearly a month ago, I shared a reflective activity I had designed to better help teachers think through the process of setting up their Google Classrooms. I called it "Starting Google Classroom You Can Do." It is a great step-by-step process you can do individually, as a teaching team, or even as a leadership team to better guide your teachers. Feel free to make a copy of the slides so you can get right to work! I included 8 topics to consider, gave some specific thoughts on each one, and then asked a reflective question.

Since I've published it, I have presented on this at the EdChange Global virtual conference and incorporated it into my webinar "Tech You Can Do: Intro to Google Classroom". Both times, it has been well received. You see, as teachers, now more than ever, we need to Stop. Think. Reflect. Question. Discuss. Think. Reflect. Discuss. We have taken the blinders off and, hopefully by now, we've all accepted the fact that education is changing. And while change IS scary, change CAN be good! We can grab this change by the horns and MAKE it great!

I have had numerous conversations with teachers the past several weeks regarding the number of Google Classrooms to have -- wouldn't it be nice to just have someone tell us the "right" answer here? 

That's the tough part ... there ISN'T a right answer.

Each class is unique. Each teacher is unique. Be ok with this.

Embrace this!

Now, since you DO have to set up Classroom(s), let's dive in deeper on this. Since there is no magical formula, you need to consider a few things. I've created a Slide deck to walk you through this thinking. I don't have all the answers ... I don't know the best situation for you ... but I can help you doing some solid thinking. I can give you some pointers to jumpstart your planning, so you can make the best decision for you! Good luck!

If you have questions, you'd like additional help, or if you'd like to have a discussion with me to best decide your path, please reach out! Comment below, email me, Tweet at me, or Facebook me! All my contact info is to the right.

Would you like a link to share with others? Here you go! (I've also use a new URL trick I've learned to remove the navigation menu!)

I have been staying busy this past month or so with quite a few presentations & I still have a handful more coming up! Please check out My Presentations tab if you are interested in hearing more from me. 

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.