#100DayChallenge

Two weeks ago, I was reading through my Twitter feed when I came across a post from @Inc regarding a 100 Day Challenge. The tagline “Imagine How You’ll Feel on January 18” immediately drew me in. I mean, why wait until January 1, 2018 to start a goal and try to improve my life. Like my dad always said, “Carpe Diem.”

The inspiring article by Bill Murphy Jr. (@BillMurphyJr), claims that an easy to follow 5 step process could make any goal achievable (full article here). Whether participants wanted to lose weight, write a book, or launch a business, getting started over the next 100 days with a plan and scheduled milestones would help you achieve it! I mean, achieve any goal, how could I pass up this opportunity?

The first part of the plan requires a “worthy, quantifiable, and arguably achievable goal.” I must admit, I struggled with making my goal quantifiable. I felt my goal of increasing my social media presence was/is a multi-pronged approach and placing a number on it was hard. After bouncing some ideas of my thought partner (if you don’t have one, I highly suggest getting one), I was able to come up with 3 major goals surrounding increasing my social media presence. I feel that all three are quantifiable, doable, and a small step that will hopefully build good habits that I can keep up with after the 100 Day Challenge.

1. Write a blog post every 2 weeks (7 total blog posts)
2. Participate in 1 Twitter Chat per week
3. Increase my Twitter followers by 150 people

Next, the process requires mapping out milestones and scheduling quantifiable markers that you will accomplish by each date. I decided to divide my goals into the three milestone dates with 2 blog posts, 50 followers, and a 4 twitter chats. Again, I tried to make the goal manageable but worth putting the time in.

Finally, you need to track your outputs and be consistent with recording your progress and results. Since my goal was to increase my social media presence, you can count on seeing updates over the next few weeks!

My favorite part about setting goals is joining forces with like-minded individuals. I always enjoy the accountability that friends/co-workers/fellow goal-setters bring to a challenge like this. I love the ability to discuss the struggles, the successes, and share in the joy when the goal is finally met. So what do you say, will you join me on this 100 day challenge? Feel free to comment below and let me know your goal!

 

360 View of You – Global Project Launch

In 2013, Buzzfeed conducted an awesome, eye-opening experiment where they asked several citizens of England to label all 50 states. The outcomes were both hilarious and scary (see image below and full Buzzfeed article here. Caution: Lots of laughter ahead and some vulgar handwriting).

On one side of the coin, this was hysterical. The participants lack of knowledge was filled with creative genius. Several Utah’s, “old people” for Florida, and “Further South Dakota”. I couldn’t stop reading through the maps to find the next “best” answer. On the other side, this was scary. I’m sure the pool of participants worked in various fields with an array of educational backgrounds and  different levels of interest in geography. However, in a world where we rely so heavily on the global economy to fuel our everyday needs and ventures, our lack of geographical and cultural understanding is mind blowing. This isn’t meant to be judgemental; believe me, I’m in the same boat. I’m sure a global map would be butchered with random country names if I was tasked with a similar objective (see USA results labeling Europe). But shouldn’t we know more about each other, where we live, and how our geography impacts our lives? How do we create this experience for our students? How do we educate our students to better prepare them to interact in a global world and build empathy and understanding for others?

Introducing 360 View of You! – A 2017 Google Innovator Project

360 View of You is a global collaboration project designed for students and teachers to share a snapshot of what life is like for them at their school. By utilizing Google Street View (a free smartphone app), participants will create 360 degree photospheres of their classrooms, cafeterias, playgrounds, and unique learning spaces to be placed on a shared project map. Globally, students will explore other cultures, learn about the different design elements of classrooms, and build relationships with students and teachers around the world. By leveraging technology and the shared network of participants, we hope to inspire global collaboration on projects where students incorporate cultural, economic, and political factors of other countries to find solutions to issues around the world.

Sample 360 Photosphere:

Current Participating Classes:

I’m interested, how do I participate?

In its first year, we are looking for teachers and students who wish to create a 360 degree photosphere of their classroom, cafeteria, and playground to share with the world. This 15 minute exercise can be completed using the FREE Google Street View app on any cell phone. All photospheres are placed on a global community map where teachers and students can view other user-submitted entries from around the world. This project is designed to create a global community that not only shares a 360 degree photosphere, but builds instant access to connections around the world for teachers and students to collaborate and learn from one another.

 

Want all the details?

Visit  www.360viewedu.com or contact Ed on Twitter (@EdfromEdTech) with any questions or comments.

#ICE18 Takeaways

Although my journey to #ICE18 started with a pilot calling in sick and a plane being sidelined for maintenance (6+ hours of delay), I’m really excited to be in Chicago. I chose #ICE18 due to the amazing lineup of spotlight speakers and the ability to lead a workshop on Virtual Field Trips in a new city. After day 1, I’m excited about all the new ideas that were shared by presenters and discussed in hallways with fellow attendees.  Here are my 3 major takeaways from day 1:

Just Do It!

Started on stage by Adam Welcome (@awelcome), of Kids Deserve It, and echoed by Jennie Magiera (@MsMagiera), of EdTechTeam, and Joe SanFelippo (@Joe_SanFelippo), rockstar principal, the motto of the day was “Just Do It.” You don’t know how long you will be alive in this great world or how long you will have to make a positive impact so stop the excuses and make your dream a reality. Try new things and take risks because you and your students deserve it.

Learning Spaces Have a Major Impact on Your Students

Bob Dillon (@ideaguy42), pushed attendees to ask students “What in this room supports your learning?” and “What in this room distracts your learning?” In my five years in the classroom, I can’t recall ever asking the students for the input on designing a learning space that they really owned. I remember being the “setup” and “decorate” teacher who arrived 3 days before I was due to report to setup my classroom, make sure every kid had a name tag, and that my classroom theme was ready to go. Looking back, I realized I designed my room for what I thought students wanted and never asked them what they really needed. Where was this easy to use book back in 2010? Man, times have changed!

Most Educators LOVE Learning (Especially When They Choose Their Sessions)

As a educator who checks “professional development/technology integration specialist” for “What’s Your Job Title?” I must say this idea is simple but often overlooked. There are movements to teacher-led PD, pineapple charts, and personalized professional learning but still these are the minority. We, as administrators and instructional support staff, need to ignite the fire of learning that lives deep within our teachers and ensure they have voice and choice of their learning that provides examples of how to implement this work with students. Just like our students need to have input on the classroom design that they have to live and work in, our teachers need the ability to design and/or lead PD.

PS: Celebrate each other! Joe SanFelippo called out his staff 2 to 3 times in a moderated session at #ICE18. The man loves his staff and I’m sure his staff loves him. We can accomplish a ton of great things when we celebrate each other and collaborate vs constantly compete and bring down.

100 Day Challenge Recap

100 days flies by…..

If you’re an educator, you know all about this. Although our class periods, especially our challenging ones, feel like they go on for days, each school year flies by. If you are a parent and an educator, well 10x that (#GoogleThinking). The last two years following the birth of my son, I started each school year, had lunch, and was celebrating the end of school before I knew it. I’m sure there were lots of accomplishments, binged TV shows, and laughter and joy with my family, but wow, it sure seemed to fly by.

So, back in October, I came across an article by @Inc about a 100 Day Challenge. I fell in love with a quote from the article that said “The point isn’t the goal itself; instead it’s the idea of achieving consistent progress, which in turn helps you achieve the goal.” I loved the idea of incorporating daily, weekly, and monthly steps towards self-improvement and creating a quantifiable goal that I could “chase” for the next 100 days.

That day, I decided to create a plan to increase my web presence through weekly Twitter Chats and bi-weekly blog posts on educational topics. I always wanted to love Twitter and find time to create resources and share ideas with the world. Every 4 weeks, I had a “self check-in” where I could evaluate my progress, make adjustments, and plan for the next 4 weeks. It was a great way to keep me on track, especially during the holidays where, you know, work priorities tend to slip.

After 99 days, I was 2 Twitter Followers away from my goal of 700. I looked at my Google Calendar and realized my day was packed with meetings but I knew I had to find a way to make this happen (side note: ask anyone, I’m super competitive, so failing wasn’t an option). In between each meeting, I responded to posts, chatted with others, and contributed as much as I could to my professional learning network. With just a few hours left in the day, the hard work paid off. 700 followers!

This was a fantastic experience! I really enjoyed the structure of the challenge (4 week checkpoints) and ensuring my goal was quantifiable and specific so I could measure my success. Why wait until the start of the new year, a new week, a new semester? If you have a goal, put it in writing and count out 100 days on your calendar. Set your 4 week check points and find a partner to cheer you on. Feel free to use this template.

So what’s next for me? Here it is (Full plan here).

1. Create 1 educational PD resource per check-in to contribute to my PLN and District
2. Lose 6 lbs over the 100 days
3. Read 2 educational, 2 leisure, and 2 interests books

I’d love to hear what you plan on accomplishing. Let me know by commenting below or reaching out on Twitter @EdfromEdTech.

Top 10 Chrome Extensions for Teachers

“I wish I had more time!”

Sound familiar?

Whether I’m talking to a friend about playing golf more often or working with a teacher on a new strategy or tool, time is always a factor. Although we only have 24 hours in a day, there are plenty of strategies we can implement to maximize the 24 hours we are given. One of my favorite strategies in education, and in my personal life, is the use of Chrome Extensions. These simple additions from the Chrome Web Store allow me to create QR codes, screencast my computer, and even add my favorite Bitmoji in Gmail. The possibilities are endless!

What Are Google Chrome Extensions?

Google Chrome Extensions are “applications that run inside the Chrome browser and provide additional functionality, integration with third party websites or services, and customized browsing experiences.” Through trial and error, you can find some great extensions that meet your needs and make life easier.

Can I have too many Extensions?

In my opinion, YES! I try to keep my list to about 10-15 extensions that I use every week. There are times in my life, especially after a conference, where I’m so excited to install and test all of the new extensions I learned in a session and I end up with more than 15. In reality, many of the cool, new extensions are awesome, but don’t cater to my needs so I end up deleting them. The process for installing and removing extensions is simple, which makes testing any extension a worthwhile process.

Do you have any Favorites?

Although this list could go on forever, here are my top 10. Your top 10 may be completely different. If it is, please share in the comments so I can check out your awesome ideas!

G Suite Training

The perfect extension for any G Suite user! This tool offers simple and interactive training lessons to get you up and running fast with G Suite. The lessons provide both audio and visual cues and train the user while they are in the actual app.

CraftyText

CraftyText is a simple app that allows users to enter text which then shows up large in the center of the screen. It works on top of your favorite website. It is a great tool for sharing websites or short text to the students in your class or teachers during a training.

Goo.gl Shortener

By far, my most used extension of all time. It not only allows you to create a goo.gl shortener link in less than a few seconds, but it also includes a QR code that you can copy and paste onto any document or screen. Prayers answered!

CheckMark

The newest addition to my top 10, this extension makes the process of providing feedback on student writing in Google Docs faster and more efficient. Using the overlay, teachers can select from frequently-used comments on essay writing in Google Docs. This extension certainly will save any teacher who grades essays a boatload of time.

Screencastify

Probably my all time favorite extension for both teacher and student use, Screencastify simplifies screen, tab, or webcam recording for any user. Whether you want to record a tutorial, add voice overlay to a presentation, or record a short skit with the webcam, this extension has it all.

EquatIO

EquatIO makes math digital, helping teachers and students at all levels create math and science expressions quickly and easily. It is great because users can create formulas through typing, hand writing, or voice recognition. STEM teachers rejoice!

Google Keep

The Google Keep Chrome Extension allows you to easily save items from the web and sync them across all your devices. It’s great because you can take additional notes, add labels, and categorize your information in the Google Keep app.

Tab Scissors/Tab Glue

Tab scissors simply allows the user to take one browser window and divide it into two. When you are ready, simply click the Tab Glue and your windows will combine back to one.

Eye Dropper

It allows you to pick a color from any webpage or from an advanced color picker. This is a great tool for any educator who creates publications and needs an exact color match from a website or logo.

Giphy for GMail

“A picture is worth a thousand words.” Well a Giphy is certainly worth more than that. Easily add any Gif from Giphy into an email you are writing in Gmail. It’s amazing!

 

Bonus: Bitmoji

Add your Bitmoji into an email in your Gmail account and access all of your Bitmojis in any tab to quickly add to a Google Doc or Slide!

 

Google Hangouts: More than Geography

In a world full of social media and instant gratification, keeping students engaged during a lesson is tough. In their spare time, they are “Googling” questions, learning from YouTube, and commenting/conversing with other people all over the world. The need for understanding and collaboration through cultural globalization is more important than ever. Google Hangouts is the perfect tool to expose your students to other students and experts around the world. Here are my top FIVE ways to utilize Google Hangouts in your classroom.

1: Mystery Hangouts

The most famous instructional way to utilize Google Hangouts. This tool focuses on improving the geography skills of our students. Mystery Hangouts is a challenge between two classrooms in which students try to identify where in the world the other class is located. Typically using “yes” or “no” questions, the classes engage in critical thinking and focus questions to narrow down the location in as little questions as possible. Whichever class is able to correctly identify the other classroom first, wins! You can start small with challenging another classroom in your building and picking different states in which to be located. Once you feel comfortable, check out Connected Classrooms or reach out on social media (Twitter, Facebook) to find other classrooms around the world to challenge! You can schedule your hangout with ease using Google Calendar (Thanks Christen Bouffard).

2: Reviewing Content Around the World

Raise your hand if you have ever created a Jeopardy board for review (I have both hands up). That’s right, I can remember using the SMART Board template to create engaging questions and categories. When my students piled into the room, they were divided into teams and competed for the most points. Don’t get me wrong, this is a fun way to review content in your classroom, but what about kicking it up a notch? What if you could compete or review content with another classroom anywhere else in the world? Here are some of my favorites:

• Guess Who – Have each class choose 2 or 3 people/items from the category and have the class try to guess them based on attributes or key facts. Examples can be a periodic table of elements, presidents, math formulas, or artists.
• Family Feud – Challenge another classroom to the most popular answers to various topics (battles of the revolutionary war, optics and waves, community helpers). After naming an item from the category, the class can gain bonus points for describing the person or event in more details.
• Heads up – Each class is given a category (biomes, reading vocabulary, math vocabulary). In each round, the class gets 2 minutes to describe as many words as they can using everything but the word. You can complete 3 rounds and then tally up the total words guessed by each class. The class with the most words solved, wins!

3: Access to Content Experts

As teachers, we do our best to become experts in every aspect of our core content. With tons of standards and other obligations, it is difficult to provide the deeper learning opportunities for students around each and every standard.

Enter the experts!

Through Google Hangouts, it has never been easier to provide an opportunity for your students to talk to graphic novel authors, doctors, lawyers, scientists, and any other related expert about your content. These experts can provide different perspectives and connections from the content to the real-world that are sometimes difficult to replicate in the classroom. By connecting your students to experts, you can provide your students access to job fields they never knew existed, fine tune their interviewing skills, and allow them to ask the questions they’ve always wanted to know.

4: Global Project Collaboration

I remember teaching in South Carolina and studying the various biomes with my students. If you have ever visited South Carolina, we basically have one temperature (hot) and there isn’t much change for most of the year. I did my best to build background knowledge, show videos, and filled every lesson with images. I’m sure my students got the gist of the lesson, but I bet they weren’t highly engaged. Imagine if my classroom could reach out to other classrooms that live in the various biomes. Imagine what our days would be like if every day my students could collaborate and communicate with students around the world to collect and synthesize data to create visual reports of their learning. This content would now take on a new meaning and the students would be able to talk to “expert” students who interacted with that biome each and every day.

5: Peer Tutoring/Classwork

During my tenure as a fourth grade teacher, I had a student named “Josh.” Josh was my go-to guy when I either needed an answer to a question that I know others struggled with or I needed assistance with a student who was struggling with a concept. When I look back, I may have failed Josh in supporting his thirst for new knowledge and sharing what he knows. See in the real world, being an expert on something is what we get paid to do. Whether it’s being a plumber, computer programmer, or landscaper, all of these jobs encourage being an expert and sharing one’s expertise with others.

To encourage my students to obtain knowledge and share, I set up a peer tutoring and class work group with a fellow friend of mine in New York. Each and every Friday, our students hopped on Google Hangouts with their peer and could share their expert knowledge on a topic or collaborative project we created for the classes. It was awesome to see students valuing the new knowledge they learned and seeing the thought process of how they worked to teach other students. Some were natural teachers and others had to feel the frustration of lack of communication and background knowledge. Whether they were natural teachers or not, the connections they made with the other students was huge for them. It’s like Pen Pals but with instant connections. Our traditional Fridays of “extra recess” turned into educational experiences that students clamoured over. With some scheduling, you can create this same opportunity for your students.

Have other unique ways to utilize Google Hangouts? Let me know if the comments below or tweet me at @EdfromEdTech!