Beyond Integration

We all know about Google Docs and Slides but Google Drawing might be the most powerful yet underused app in the Gsuite.  The power in Google Drawing is that it can be used for so much beyond drawing or manipulating images.  Below are some quick examples that may inspire you to assign work to students using this tool! Use Google Drawing to create digital manipulatives. Teachers can create a Google drawing with draggable manipulatives by copying a single image multiple times and then highlighting them and selecting “align horizontally” and “align vertically” to group them together as a stack.  Then students can drag the images to the appropriate place on the diagram.  Teachers can share individually copies of the drawing template in Google Classroom with the setting “every student gets a copy” so that each student can show their work!  Check it out below.  Click the image to view a video example .      2) Use Google Drawing as ...

Get your cameras ready or grab your phone and start recording that video. The Richland Two Film Festival gives students and faculty an opportunity to tell their story through video creation. The deadline is fast approaching and we need you to sign up today! Here's what you need to do in order to become a part of this awesome experience. Fill out the interest form by Friday,   December 21, 2018. *Look for the Google Classroom code to sign up in our collaborative class. Print the Parent Permission form and send it to Nichole Allmann - DO-R2I2. Join the Google Classroom using the code that was provided to you after submitting the interest form. Review the timeline and guidelines to familiarize yourself for a successful video.  All videos must be submitted by January 22, 2019 . For more information, please visit the website, r2filmfestival.blogspot.com

When I taught biology, I frequently assigned articles for my students to read. .  Using a variety of texts beyond the adopted textbook helped make the subject more accessible for my students because I was able to choose topics that were far more engaging than the typical informational text found in the heavy and dense biology book.  I would circulate the room as they read, hoping to ascertain a smidge of what they were thinking as they read - such a futile strategy.  Eventually, we developed some reading codes they were to use as they read so that I could peak into the margins of the article and catch a glimpse of their annotations.  Figuring out how to quickly extract the common themes in their annotations was hard, though, when working with 30 or more students reading at varying paces. This is an opportunity where the right technology can really benefit the students and the teacher.  Using a tool like Prism , the teacher is able to assign highlighter colors ...

Mrs. Corbett is new to Richland Two this year and of the 21 years she has been in education, this is her first year in a 1:1 classroom. In a little over 3 months, she has successfully embraced 1:1 and Blended Learning. She integrates traditional face to face instruction with online learning in her 5th-grade classroom. She originally heard about " playlists " while attending the New to Two training in July and it intrigued her. Now if you are not familiar with playlists, it is a "checklist" or "Hyperdoc" of work/activities that allow students to have some control over their learning, whether it is over the pace or path of their learning. She does what every good teacher does and tweaks these playlists as she goes, going as far as to get feedback from her students to make those minor improvements. She started blending units for Social Studies and because she had such great success she quickly transitioned her science instruction to blended in jus...

Every year there is a greater emphasis on engaging our students in learning and experiencing coding. You may be thinking what exactly is coding? Coding is a language written to tell the computer what to do. As one becomes more comfortable with the coding process they develop the skills and dynamics of creating video games, computer apps, and software. The students who sit in your classroom today will need to know and understand the language and process in order to be successful for their future success. So now what?     You can start by participating in a week that is devoted to  Hour of Code , December 3-9 . It is normally more comfortable for teachers to work with content they are familiar with so they can assist students as they are learning. It's like the idea of always trying to be 1 step ahead of the game. However, with coding, it does not need to be that way. You could learn the material prior to teaching if that works best for you. OR, use th...

Are you interested in presenting a one-hour session? Now is the time to submit your proposal!   The SC Midlands Summit is a two-day conference focusing on the integration of technology into our schools with a focus on using Google Apps for Education, learning environments, innovation, transformation, 21st century skills and mobile devices for student learning. Over 150 unique sessions will be offered! BECOME A SPEAKER at the 2019 SC Midlands Summit, June 12-13, 2019, at the Richland Two Institute Of Innovation (R2i2), Columbia, SC! INFORMATION: http://www.scmidlandssummit.com APPLICATION:   https://tinyurl.com/scsummit2019 =============================== ****DON’T DELAY! Deadline for submissions are FEBRUARY 28, 2019**** ===============================

It is time for another technology integration teacher spotlight!  If you missed our last spotlight, please head over to the post and read about Ridge View High School’s math teacher, Alesha Love.  Today, however, we’ll be moving down a few grade levels and share a spotlight use of technology from Hayley Elliott, 5th grade teacher at Lonnie B. Nelson Elementary. Teacher: Hayley Elliott School: Lonnie B. Nelson Elementary School Showcase of technology integration use: Students in the ACE (Academy for Civic Engagement) Magnet Program complete a “Where in the World” activity each Wednesday.  In this activity students read articles about current events and answer 3 questions plus ask a question of their own regarding the article to stretch their thinking.  In the past, Ms. Elliott had been using email as a method to distribute the articles to her students.  Students would read the articles to her and then email her back with their responses.  This proc...

Do you need a new approach to getting your students to analyze graphs, draw conclusions and even evaluate the reliability of the information? Well, I just saw this on another blog I follow, Teacher Tech with Alice Keeler , and was intrigued by the instructional activity that encourages students to participate in an online moderated conversation about the data and their observations. Graphs display information about politics, policies, pop culture, and daily life topics, bringing in a variety of content related to most classrooms. Students 13 and older can participate in the online moderated conversation, but don't let this discourage you if you teach younger students. Have a whole group discussion and use the teacher account to add the comments, allowing students to have that online learning space opportunity. The 3-day process of analyzing graphs and contributing to the online discussion with the New York Times is the same each week. 1. On  Tuesdays,  the...

Here at BeyondIntegration we’ve been spending over a year sharing ideas for technology integration in Richland Two classrooms.  We also, however, want to honor and share the significant uses of technology we see teachers implement regularly.  We will begin sharing a series called Teacher Spotlights.  You can find all posts in the Teacher Spotlight series by clicking the tag on the right side of the blog. Teacher: Alesha Love, high school math School: Ridge View High School (where she graduated from as well!) Showcase of technology integration use: On the day before an assessment in Ms. Love’s foundations in Algebra class, Ms. Love worked to engage students in reflecting on their understanding of various learning objectives to be assessed and provide support for students who had gaps in their knowledge. The app Ms. Love chose for this task was quizzizz.com.  This isn’t your average quiz site but rather a gamified version of questions to engage an...

Quick formative assessments provide educators with valuable insights that can be used to modify or improve lesson plans, adjust teaching methods, and, ultimately improve student learning. Ultimately, the goal of formative assessments is to:  provide day-to-day feedback that can be applied immediately provide useful information about what students have learned with minimal time or effort allow educators to address student lack of understanding or misconceptions quicker help to fosters the notion that teaching and learning are on-going processes.  Technology makes the process of creating assessments and collecting the information much more simple and a much faster turn around. Here are a couple of suggestions to get you started.  DyKnow: This is a cloud-based management system the district has purchased for our teachers this year.  A favorite feature of mine is the ability to push out a quick question to all my students in that class and have immediat...

Previously we shared some ideas for using Google Sheets and Orange Slice Docs rubric to make the process of giving feedback faster for teachers.  Today we are sharing some ways to provide feedback easily using two tools you may already have incorporated into your regular classroom practice. Many teachers use Google Classroom to collect assignments from students.  It certainly helps teachers reduce the amount of papers they carry around and the commenting features within the Google apps makes giving students guidance in their working document very easy.   Still, when you’re working with 30 students per class, the time it takes to open each student’s document and waiting for it to load can add up!  As a result, Google Classroom has released a grading panel that makes navigating through each kid’s document quicker for teachers and the included comment bank makes providing feedback to frequent mistakes a breeze.  Watch this tutorial for more infor...

Starting your class off in a productive way can jump-start a student’s thinking process toward a learning objective/target. “Bell Ringer” activities are usually a short question, problem or task for students to engage in that can either review the previous day’s topic or begin thinking about today’s topic. In a 1:1 digital environment, these bell ringer activities can add more creativity and Google Suite has everything you need to make it relevant and meaningful for the students. I have 4 simple strategies that you can use in any subject that will take between 5-10 minutes to complete. Create a Comic Strip using Google Drawing ELA: Comic Strips are a great way to encourage reading and writing and reinforce key story elements  Have students recreate a scene from a story the layout of comic strips is a useful tool to help students plan a beginning, middle, and end to their story or their interpretation of an event that occurred in the book. Science/Social Studies: Ask a ch...

We know that providing feedback to students during their learning process is one of the most effective ways to help kids reach their learning goals ( John Hattie, 2011 ).  Figuring out how to provide each student with specific, actionable feedback within the constraints of a single class period is quite a challenge for teachers.  Technology tools can be used by the teacher to shorten the feedback loop so that students know more quickly where they are on the learning continuum and how to reach their goal.   This blog post will provide you with a few technology-based suggestions to help teachers give feedback more quickly.  The tech tools included are conditional formatting in Google Sheets and Orange Slice rubric add-on for docs. Google Sheets conditional formatting is great for giving students feedback regarding whether or not the answer is correct.  A teacher sets up a spreadsheet so that it contains questions in one column A and students place...

We recently wrote a blog discussing the importance of creating digital learning spaces with our students. These relevant and meaningful ways of communicating online assist our students in learning to be responsible and effective communicators no matter the tech tool used. We want students to understand that the internet provides opportunities for connecting with like-minded people and collaboratively learning with others. We always hope that our students and children use good judgment when they are online, however, there are times when comments are posted that are hurtful and meant to humiliate another person. What is cyberbullying?  As defined by Common Sense Media , the use of digital media tools to deliberately humiliate and harass others often and deliberately. Cyberbullying is similar to face to face bullying. It can be harassing someone, pretending to be someone, or spreading rumors. The use of online tools enhances the embarrassment because it becomes more pub...