One of the roles that I play is to help teachers understand the difference between classroom technology integration and blended Learning. It can be hard to decipher between the two sometimes. Once a teacher has a clear understanding of the difference, then we want to look at your current level of technology integration and begin to implement instructional shifts that fit into the blended learning environment. This is a great video that shows way that you could currently be using technology in the class and how to make the shift towards blended learning. 
One of the biggest barriers of blended learning that I face is the lack of technology. I am always on the look out for ways to make data driven instruction easy and quick for teachers. When I can find something that does all that and requires little technology then I get very excited!! I think you will be as excited as I am to learn about the Post-it Plus app for the classroom.
What is Post-it Plus? Physical Post-it notes are great (sometimes I lose my desk under all of my sticky notes) but they do have a tendency to lose their sticky-ness, fall off or get forgotten. With Post-It Plus you have a great way of organizing all your little notes and thoughts. You just capture an image of your notes with your iPad or iPhone camera, then are able to edit, group and organize them, before sharing your organised board. Sorry android users, at this time the app only works with Apple. How does it work? It's as easy as 1. 2. 3! How can you use it in the classroom? I think one of the best ways to use the app to facilitate data driven instruction is with exit or entrance slips. Lets say at the end of the day or lesson you give an exit slip on the topic you just taught. Students all write their answers/explanations on a post it note and slap it on the board. Once you snap a picture of the exit slips in the app, they become animated and you can organizing them into groups (got it, needs help, misconception, simple errors etc.). Using that information to drive the next day's instruction is where you maximize the best use of the instant feedback. If your students have devices to use the app on, then the classifying and sorting options are limitless! Features and Tips
Check out how easy it can be to collect data and have instant feedback!
Whether you are an experienced blended learning teacher or you are brand new and ready to get started, this presentation can help you along the way. If you missed my session(s) please contact me with any questions as the PowerPoint doesn't always tell the whole story. Enjoy!
Attachments in the PowerPoint are active but are not working properly on mobile devices.  Venturing into the world of blended learning can be a very intimidating yet amazing thing to do for classroom teachers. As a teacher, anything new is daunting, however; as you watch students learn through the use of technology you begin to see the students collaborating on problem solving, building independence, engaged and in control of their own learning. This world opens doors for both you and your students that neither of you thought possible. Technology in the classroom, whether it’s a Chrome book, laptop, iPad, iPhone, or any other device you can think of, is changing the face of education. Station-rotation has become one of the most effective blended learning models with multiple learning stations and different learning activities. I know it can seem a bit overwhelming to take the initial leap of setting this model up in your classroom. This year I have opportunity to help teachers in doing so and I wanted to share a few practical tips I have learned to help you, should you choose this endeavor, and I hope you do! Preparation is key!
 A Twitter Challenge A Twitter Challenge
 Life as I Knew it... August 2012- the opening date for my Twitter account, @techmom76 I was in Chicago for my first PARCC ELC meeting. @EducatorLeader Twitter was all the buzz. We even had a Twitter 101 session. I tweeted my entire my trip but lost momentum as I returned to my everyday life. The more conferences I went to, the more people I followed to be able to keep in touch with organizations that I belonged to and get information long after the conference ended. @achievethecore @4flstandards @AFTteach But one thing I failed to see value in, was what was happening on Twitter right here in my own county. It all happened one day when I got the alert that said “Jim Tager is following you” Really?? Of course I followed him back and it was at that time that I started to see what was happening here in on Twitter right here in Volusia. Instantly I started connecting with other VCS teachers to collaborate and haven’t stopped since then. Twitter is often referred to as the "Best PD Out There" and I'm here to tell you it's true! The secret is finding the right Twitter Chat and you'll be off to the races! Think of a Twitter Chat as like an online gathering where educators can "meet" at a designated place/time to discuss a predetermined topic. Groups like #4thchat (there's a chat for every grade level!) are fourth grade teachers from around the world that jump on Twitter every Monday night at 8pm. Teachers from other schools like Spirit’s Mr. Vaughan (@tommyv26) is guest moderating #TMchat (Thinking Maps chat) last night (2/8) at 10pm! Just this weekend I participated in a chat for teachers new to Twitter #NT2t The more chats you participate in, the more Tweeps you find! (combination of Twitter and Peeps usually referring to the followers of the person using the word. In a very short time, I've made connections with people all over the world on educational topics. Twitter has inspired me to impact education and create change beyond the walls of the school. I have shared my thoughts, opinions, ideas, learning, and the awesome things happening at Citrus Grove and in Volusia with my Twitter PLN (Personal Learning Network). Twitter's potential has no end, and if you couldn't tell, I'm excited to share it with you! A HUGE thank you to @srhulsman for sharing her challenge to get us started!  How do I get started? * Setup your account * Profile-Good profiles tell about you & your interest * Picture-Yes, you need some kind of picture. NO EGGHEADS Basic Tweet--general outbound message to all of my followers. May include a picture or a link to click on for more information. Reply or @mention tweet--starts with the other person's twitter handle. This tweet only appears in the other person's twitter feed and people who follow both of us. RT = Retweet: rebroadcast of another person's tweet MT = Modified Tweet: when you want to RT something but need to delete/modify a portion to add your thoughts DM = Direct Messages: a 140-character email. Can be read only by that person. You can only DM someone who follows you. This avoids you getting spam Hashtags = # (nope, it's not a pound sign!) Hashtags make twitter searchable. They're added to chats and topics so all the tweets can be filed together for later usage. (Sometimes they're added to be funny or sarcastic or as side note to the tweet. #Ididitallforthecookie)   Who should I follow? Begin by following Citrus Grove accounts @CitrusGrovevcs @Ms_Gerlach @techmom76 @mrsLalashuis1st @SLalashuis @KZavacky @CarrieKorkus @KimKJones05 @JenP_Williams If you are creating a Twitter account for school or professional use you can use @CitrusXXXXX Follow each other!!! We'll talk more next week on how to increase your PLN and choose who else to follow. What Now? Challenge #1- Take the Leap! Use the link below and sign up for a Twitter account. www.twitter.com If you already have an account, help someone else sign up or you can create a school specific account! Once you create an account make sure you follow @CitrusGrovevcs so I can add you to our PLN list. Citrus Grove Teachers use #cgeeagles in your tweets! VCS teachers use #VCSPLN in your tweets to grow our Volusia Personal Learning Network Challenge #2 Send a TWEET! It may be your very first one! Add the hashtag #cgeeagles to make it searchable for us. Designate 10 minutes each day to look at your timeline and post at least 1 more tweet (either personal or educational) A few topic ideas for Tweeting: (Don't forget to add #cgeeagles to your tweet!) * Tweet a link to your favorite website * Tweet about your all-time favorite teacher * Tweet one goal you have for yourself, students, classroom, or school * Tweet a shout-out to a deserving Citrus Grove teacher for their hard work... even if they're on Twitter, it may encourage them to do so. Lurking on Twitter: Voyeurism at Its Finest
http://sweattoinspire.com/2012/11/05/lurking-on-twitter-voyeurism-at-its-finest/ Get Ready for the Rest of the Challenge! Join @srhulsman on February 17th from 7:30-8:30pm for Twitter 101: Take the Twitter Challenge! (#VCSchatTC) to be a part of the rest of the challenge! Stay tuned for updates!  It can be so difficult to get students to enjoy reading non-fiction and then to find a high interest article on the students level makes the task that much more challenging. Newsela has simplified that difficult task with Newsela. Newsela.com is a personalized reading service designed to help students in grades 3 to 12 master non-fiction literacy by providing daily news articles at five reading levels. It's easy and amazing. Every article you find on Newsela can be adjusted for 5 different levels, which makes it easy for an entire class to read the same content, but at a level that’s just right for each student. While the Newsela website has a pro edition for a fee, it also has a free edition which has many useful features that every teacher would love including: * Access to multiple articles every day, each at five different levels. * Students can take quizzes and view their progress. * Teachers can archive more than 1000 articles which are organized by category and reading standard. * Sign up for the daily article of the day email * There are never any advertisements on any page. * And most importantly it only takes one click to assign articles to the entire class. This brief video will help you get started with creating a free account.  Last week at FETC 2015 I was lucky to be part of making history with the world's largest Kahoot with over 1,000 participants. Kahoot is a free game-based response system similar to Infuse Learning and Socrative (previously my favorite response system) The teachers displays the questions of a quiz or survey on the screen and students can answer then using ALL kinds of devices. It benefits instruction because it provides teachers with quick formative feedback as they can check for understanding in real time. It is also highly engaging. You can use Kahoot! in many ways, and it all depends on what you want to achieve. Kahoot! is great to initialize a discussion where students can vote on e.g. ethical issues anonymously. It is also a great tool to summarize a topic in a fun and engaging way. Another way of using Kahoot! is to probe the students before you go through a topic to learn how much they actually know about a topic. In addition, you can run the same quiz after you have taught the topic to assess how much the students learned. The highest learning outcome is to make the students create their own Kahoots. Kahoot can change the dynamic of your class because kids are fans of game-like environments. All I had to do was put the comprehension questions in Kahoot. First, you will need to register for a free account (entering a few details: username, password, email address). After you register, you can log in to your account. Students don’t need any accounts (huge benefit), everyone in the room can join using ANY devices. You can begin by creating your own Kahoot or use one that is already in the system. You can customize your Kahoot, by setting a time limit for the students to answer that particular question, you can allow them to earn points for answering the questions correctly (the time needed to answer the question is also taken into account when the winners are announced at the end of the game), and you can also add pictures and videos to each question. This last feature is awesome because the students can answer questions based on images or videos, which gives any content teacher a lot of room to create rigorous questions. Once the quiz is created, the teacher needs to display the quiz on a big screen so that it will be visible to all the students. After you hit play and then Launch, you’ll be given a numeric code. All the participants need to go to Kahoot.it and enter that code in order to participate using ANY device. On the big screen you’ll see the numeric code and also the name of the participants who successfully joined the session. Once the quiz is over, the final score board lists the winner and the top 5 scores. From here you can proceed to download the results (MS Excel document). Next time you are creating an assessment consider using Kahoot instead. I guarantee your kids will love it! www.kahoot.it Checkout the video to see how to get started. In the digital age we live in communicating with parents and keeping them abreast is of utmost importance. The test is on Wednesday, the kids know the test is on Wednesday and the parents know the test is on Wednesday, but how are they going to prepare for the test at home? The answer is Quizlet! Quizlet is a free website and app that provides tools for students to study, including flashcards, study and game modes. You start by creating your own study sets with terms and definitions. Next, you can add images, copy and paste from another source, or use Quizlet's built-in auto-define feature to speed up the creating process. You can use over 40 million user-generated flashcard sets. Study sets can be shared with your colleagues so you can all share the work. Some of the great "teacher friendly" features of Quizlet are: * Students can track their progress with 6 study and game modes. Flashcards—Review your material, shuffle/randomize, or listen with audio. Learn—Track your correct/incorrect answers and retest the ones you've missed. Speller—Type what you hear in this audio-powered study mode. Test—Randomly generate tests based on your flashcard set. Scatter—Race against the clock to drag and match terms/definitions. Space Race- Type in the answer as terms/definitions scroll across the screen. * Another great feature of Quizlet is that it is available in 18 languages from English and Spanish. Perfect for language study, practicing pronunciation, and learning vocabulary for ESOL students. * The students can study anywhere, from a computer or study your material with mobile apps for iPhone and Android. I really like Quizlet as a teacher but as a parent I LOVE that it helps me do a thorough job of studying with my child. Check it out at www.quizlet.com There is never a shortage of new apps out there. Every time I turn around, I hear of the latest and greatest app out there for education. But is it a good app? If you are constantly looking for new educational apps or wondering which app can work best for the skills you are teaching, look no more!! Common Sense Education welcomes you to Graphite, a platform created to make it easier for educators to find the best apps, games, and websites for the classroom. Educational experts have examined each product deeply to determine which standards are supported. Just use our intuitive filters to select products by standard. Check it out! It's the Pinterest for Technology lovers! @ WWW.GRAPHITE.ORG |
AuthorGreetings Everyone! Thank you for visiting my blog! Allow me to introduce myself. My Name is Melanie Kestory. I am currently a Blended Learning Specialist in Volusia County I graduated from the University of Central Florida with a Bachelor's of Science in Elementary Education. I also earned my Masters in Instructional Technology from Nova University in 2010. On a personal note, I was born in Montréal, Canada, however, I was raised here in Florida. I have been married for 16 years. My husband is also a teacher at University High School. I have two beautiful daughters: Kaci and Kori ages 16 and 12. My mission is to share my love and enthusiasm of educational technology with anyone willing to listen. Please feel free to contact me at any time with questions or comments, my door is always open and my computer is always on. Archives
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