Buncee: Learning Anywhere

March 9, 2020March 9, 2020Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Providing Ways to Keep the Learning Going

Over the past week, there has been a lot of conversation about what educators can do if schools need to close for a period of time, especially due to recent events related to the Coronavirus. Finding ways to extend the “space” of learning for our students has been a topic of discussion for many years, so it is not entirely something new. However, with the current situation, educators and schools are seeking to find the right resources that can be put into action right away.

Over the past few years, many schools have started to offer flexible learning days to deal with school closures due to weather conditions, environmental issues or something else entirely. Being able to keep learning going and have ways to collaborate without being in the same physical space is important. Having a specific platform or digital tool in place that all educators can use and making sure that all students will have access is very important. With so many choices out there, it can be tough to figure out exactly where to begin, especially when time is a factor.

As I’ve been talking with some friends this week, a large part of our conversation has focused on what to do if our schools were to close and even in the general sense, how can we also provide more for our students for times when we need to be out of the classroom? For times when I have not been able to be in class, whether due to illness or a pre-planned conference, I rely heavily on technology to be able to connect with my students so that they can ask questions and have the support they need. However, I also rely on it to provide them with rich learning experiences through versatile tools that they can work on independently wherever they are. With Buncee, we can work remotely and provide meaningful learning experiences that engage students in the digital space.

Buncee = Learning Anywhere

As I have been thinking about some of our recent Buncee projects, my 8th grade STEAM course has been working on a few activities. They have created an About Me Buncee, a few for gratitude and most recently, “Tech Over Time.” In the Tech Over Time project, students have been exploring the transformation of some digital tools or electronic devices over the past 10, 20, 30+ years and also making predictions for the future.

As students create, they can work from school, at home, or anywhere, and be able to share their work with me wherever I am. Teachers can assign fun projects for students or choose from the many ideas in the Buncee Ideas Lab.

We have used Buncee for years in all of my classes and through it I have been able to provide opportunities for my students to engage in more authentic and meaningful learning, to be creative and to drive their learning experience. Whether students use it to design a Buncee to share their experiences, engage in project-based learning, summarize a book they have read, explain a concept in math or science, for a few examples, the possibilities are endless for what students can create.

As teachers, we have so many choices for how we can use Buncee in our classrooms. It can be used to have students work through a Hyperdoc, or used as a model template for students to then create their own Buncee, make a timeline, solve word problems, and more. The idea is that we can leverage the tool to provide something that will connect with each student and it can be done from anywhere.

Ideas for your Classroom

1.Make an interactive book

2. Create a timeline

3. Design a digital business card

4. Explain steps in a process

5. Teach a lesson, add audio and video

6. Book summary

7. Design classroom signs

8. Create study aids

9. Create an ebook

10. Recreate a moment from history, personal experience, or make a future prediction

Game-ify Social Studies Learning & Current Event Learning with FANSchool.org

December 1, 2019December 1, 2019Rachelle Dené Poth 1 Comment

Opinions Expressed are those of the Author

Guest Post By: Gerald G. Huesken Jr, Social Studies Teacher – Elizabethtown Area High School, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania

@MrHuesken

As someone who has been teaching high school social studies, particularly government and economics, for the better part of the last decade, a study from the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania was quick to catch my eye. In this study, researchers found that American’s basic civic knowledge, as well as their basic understanding of current events around the world was startlingly lacking – only 26% of respondents could name all three branches of government compared to 37% of respondents naming a freedom protected by the First Amendment. Furthermore, researchers found that with this lacking basis of knowledge, respondents were even less likely to look at, consume, or engage in discussions about national or world events or understand their key significance. Quite shocking, to say the least.

While some of my colleagues would be quick to point out fundamental flaws in how we as teachers engage our students in basic civic education, we as educators do an equally flawed job of encouraging our students to read about and discuss current events and relate it to the broader issues of the day. Long seen as a “filler” in social studies classes, current events, in my opinion, serve a valuable purpose in relating course content to the real world for our students. Finding engaging and unique ways to get students making such connections and engaging with news media of all kinds is the real challenge. That is why I have become a believer in FANSchool.org.

Popularly referred to as “fantasy football for social studies and literacy standards,” FANSchool.org is an easy-to-use new learning site that attempts to “game-ify” current events consumption for students. Developed by Minnesota-based social studies teacher and FANSchool.org co-founder Eric Nelson, who was looking for a new way to engage his students in current events and the study of cultures around the globe.FANSchool.org (and its flagship games of Fantasy Politics & Fantasy Geopolitics) engages students in the study of current events in a new and different way, by turning it into a fantasy football-style experience. Students draft teams of countries or US states, follow those countries or states in the news, and get points for every time their countries or states are mentioned in assigned media outlines like The New York Times. The points are then tableted and posted on the FANSchool.org site. Using this game friendly system, teachers then have the flexibility (along with the network support of other educators using the FANSchool.org platform) to develop engaging activities, challenges, awards, and programs to engage their students more fully in the current events experience. The site also runs “March Madness-style” competitions for Presidential elections and the Olympic Games, pitting students from across the nation and the world in a knock-down current affairs slugfest for bragging rights and prizes.

In my classroom, I have used the Fantasy Geopolitics game as a way to further engage my Honors and on-level students in engaging with world events and international media, while promoting friendly academic competition. This November, FANSchool.org will roll out a new feature of their Fantasy Geopolitics game that includes the “drafting” of members of Congress along with US states, providing a new dimension of engagement for my Honors and on-level Government and Economics classes. Their Election Challenge game (provided every four years with the coming of a new Presidential election) also creates discussions of how the Electoral College will unfold and how Americans will vote for their next President, stimulating questions, discussion, and discovery of America’s political system. FANSchool.org’s devoted network of “Teacher-Commissioners” also provides a great opportunity for networking as well as a shared repository of activities, classroom ideas, and engaging projects. Have students write “Presidential briefs” of hot-current event topics to engage in civic or international action, or have them develop a podcast that discusses how the events of their game relates to the real world (like my students did with the Fantasy Geopolitics Podcast…)

With competition comes the quest for knowledge, and with knowledge comes true competency. That is the goal of FANSchool.org and this is why I would highly recommend fellow social studies educators check out this engaging and fun-filled current events tool for their social studies classroom.

**Interested in writing a guest blog for my site? Would love to share your ideas! Submit your post here.

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Three Strategies to Try Rather than Taking Away the Tech

September 23, 2019September 19, 2019Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Guest Post by Kim Weber, LINC Transformation Agent,@mskimbaweb

Throughout my work in schools as a LINC Coach, there is a concern consistently expressed by teachers; one that results in the biggest deterrent for those who are beginning to transform their teaching practice by leveraging technology: What do I do when students misuse or break the rules for technology?

Just about any teacher who is using technology has encountered this in one form or another. For those of us at the early stages of implementing blended learning, this can be the roadblock that stops us in our tracks. We spend hours (at home) finding and figuring out the perfect digital tool that will enhance students’ learning. We introduce it with so much gusto, it sounds like we’re about to announce the winner of the lottery. We are well-prepared: all devices are charged, apps loaded, logins created, and we even have an offline back-up plan. We get the kids up and running, and are all set to work with a small group on targeted instruction, and you hear it…the giggling. You see it…the repeated covert glances at you. And you immediately know, they’ve broken the trust and digital contract that you and the students thoughtfully created to be the foundation of this type of learning. Most likely they’ve gone to an inappropriate website, broken a cell phone rule, vandalized classmates’ work on a shared document, or any other creative, disruptive shenanigans they’ve concocted. (Student innovation in this department is legendary.)

What comes next varies, but it often goes like this:

Stop the entire class.
Lecture everyone about the rules that were broken.
Close and collect all devices.
Switch to that offline (probably traditional) activity you had planned but didn’t really want to use.
Divvy out appropriate punishment to those who committed the transgression.

It is no surprise that many teachers feel uncertain about how to address these types of issues. According to a recent ISTE article,New OECD Report Shows Major Gap in Preparing Teachers to Use Technology Effectively, “In the U.S., only 45% of teachers stated that they were ‘well prepared’ or ‘very well prepared’ for the use of information and communication technology for teaching, the lowest rating of all dimensions ranked.”

I’ve developed some alternative approaches for addressing these difficult technology-related issues in our classrooms to help teachers feel more prepared:

First – View this as a teachable moment for the student(s) involved and the entire class. These are often the same kids who would find some other way to disrupt the learning in a traditional lesson. I once heard an educator explain it this way:

In the past, when a student would throw a pencil, a teacher would take the child aside and sternly explain that he/she could have poked someone’s eye out. Then, with the rise of a cautionary eyebrow, the teacher hands back the pencil back with a directive to get back to work. Conversely, our common reaction when students make poor choices with technology is to immediately confiscate the device and have the student “do something else.” Chances are that “something else” does not afford this student access to the same rich, personalized, engaging work you had planned.

I suggest you consider alternatives to removing technology as it may not be the most effective response. These transgressions are moments that lend themselves to restorative practices and require patience, flexibility, and thoughtful actions on our part. At the heart of a restorative practice approach, the person who makes the mistake has the opportunity to be held accountable for their actions and repair the harm. By using restorative practices, you create a safe space for students to develop critical life skills and learn from their mistakes. This is often more productive than a response that is punitive in nature and stops the student from having access to learning.

Second – It’s never too late to revisit the contract and shared visioning work you did before you introduced technology into your lessons. If you didn’t start your digital instruction with these student onboarding lessons, then now is the perfect time to hit the stop button and do this essential mindset work with students. The key is to first help them understand “the why” of blended learning and second to co-create rules and expectations that help them view technology as a tool and not a toy. LINCspring, our online professional development platform for educators, provides ideas, resources and lesson plan templates that will help you structure this important work. This might also be a good time to show students the technology features that allow you, the teacher, to monitor behaviors such as revision history in Google Docs or how an LMS identifies user names on posts.

Third – In these moments of frustration, I suggest you remember our commitment to preparing students for the world they are entering. Why did we begin blended learning in the first place? Is it something that we can stop doing and still meet our students’ needs? From my observations and personal experiences as a teacher, I have seen blended learning work in ALL learning environments for ALL students. I’ve seen students who were grade levels behind catch up and students who were completely disengaged, engage. Changing the way we teach is challenging work, and the stakes feel higher with technology. It is easy to revert back to methods we are more comfortable with due to fear and loss of control. For inspiration through the rough spots, look to places like Twitter or follow podcasts such as “Cult of Pedagogy.” Better yet, find someone in your school who can collaborate with you in this work. You can begin by creating PLCs to support one another. Just today, I was observing a blended learning classroom and another teacher walked in and proclaimed, “I want to do this too!”

If you have other strategies for addressing student mistakes with technology, please send me a note at kimweber@linc.education.

Kim Weber is a Transformation Agent for LINC, the Learning Innovation Catalyst. Before joining LINC, Kim worked for 20 years as a public and private school teacher in California and New York City. She is a presenter and coach for schools across the country who are embarking on school transformation projects that focus on creating classrooms that put students at the center of learning and help teachers become pedagogical problem solvers.

***Interested in writing a guest blog for my site? Would love to share your ideas! Submit your post here.

Looking for a new book to read? Many stories from educators, two student chapters, and a student-designed cover for In Other Words.

Find these available at bit.ly/Pothbooks

Books available

Practical ways to promote SEL

April 29, 2019April 21, 2019Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Toward the end of the past school year, I noticed a decrease in student engagement, especially while I responded to the question of a student seated close to me, students around the room became distracted or stopped listening. Trying to get the students to refocus sometimes presented a challenge and the result was a loss of valuable instruction time. Another concern was how students had been treating one another. I often overheard conversations in the hallways, or witnessed unkind interactions in the classroom, or had students who sought help in dealing with different situations.

There were two issues that I needed to resolve: regain the valuable instruction time that was being lost and help students to develop more positive, collaborative peer relationships. How could I connect students more to the content and to one another, so they could work together to foster a more positive classroom? After some brainstorming, and reaching out to my PLN, I decided to first focus on ways to promote collaboration and to step out of my role of “leader” in the classroom by stepping aside.

The first changes:

My first realization was that I needed to shift roles in my classroom. I needed to get out of the way, and students needed to do more than simply sit for the entire class. To get started, look at your own classroom. Where are you and the students spending the class period? Think about how you can open up more space and create a collaborative setting for students. Think about how you can involve the students in more “active learning” that will lead to better student engagement.

One morning, I looked at the physical space of my classroom and decided to break apart the rows of desks. By doing this, it created more flexible spaces for students to interact, to create and lead, and do more than just sit and listen. Students need opportunities to work with their peers through lessons and engage in activities where they can master the content together, and that will provide opportunities to develop their interpersonal skills, self-awareness and social awareness of others.

Making these changes can feel uncomfortable because it means going against what likely has been the traditional classroom structure. However, many teachers have moved toward flexible learning spaces, creating a more student-centered and student-driven classroom. A classroom which moves away from simply lecturing, reviewing homework, passing out materials, assigning new homework, and repeating this same routine the very next day. While this process may promote the acquisition and application of knowledge, it does not effectively promote collaboration, invite student input, nor foster development of vital SEL (social-emotional learning) skills.

CASEL (The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning), formed in 1994, is an organization which actively works toward promoting the importance of developing SEL skills in education. SEL is focused on five competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. The development of these skills can benefit the level of student engagement as well, leading to higher academic achievement and reduce discipline issues in the classroom. To promote the development of SEL, here are some ideas and additional resources to get started.

Practical ways to promote SEL:

Icebreakers: I started this school year with fun icebreakers, to get to know one another and to find out what students had in common. Why? It all starts with relationships, building a connection with peers and the teacher, and using this to connect with the content area. Returning after an extended holiday break, doing even one icebreaker can be a good way to welcome students back to the classroom, to ease into the daily routine and to start the year fresh by working on relationships. Perhaps have students share what they did over break, show a picture, talk about favorite foods for holidays even, and let students make connections on their own.
Games and activities: Providing opportunities for students to interact through the use of games and activities in the classroom promotes the development of social-emotional learning skills. There are many online tools available to help you get started. For elementary and middle school, Centervention provides free online games, activities, and printables for teaching students about SEL. Gaming helps students to learn to problem solve, collaborate, think critically, and develop empathy through scenarios within the game itself, or as a result of being part of a team. It creates a sense of community and belonging, which foster the social-emotional skills students need. Even by using Minecraft, educators have seen a connection between the benefits of gaming for learning and the development of SEL skills.
Learning Stations: Something that has really made a difference in my classroom has been using learning stations. I started the year with rows and decided one morning, that the rows had to go. I quickly set up clusters of desks or “stations” to accommodate three students each, with four extra desks grouped together in the center. At each station, students spend 10-14 minutes doing a hands-on activity like a worksheet, creating flashcards, watching a video, playing a game or simply coming up with their own ways to practice. Deciding upon the activities takes some planning, especially when trying this for the first time, but it is well worth it. Start by explaining the “stations”, involving students in the discussion and asking for feedback. When we explain our goals and share any fears we may have, we are modeling “self-awareness” and “self-management”. By using stations, we also have more time to interact with each student and group, work on relationships and foster a deeper understanding of the content as well as connecting with one another and creating a more positive classroom culture.

Challenges and solutions:

Groups: The first few class periods there were complaints. Students wanted to work with their friends and others wanted to work alone. It can be awkward if you are the only one who doesn’t find somebody to work with, but it can also be a challenge to work with a group when you may end up being the only one doing the work. Assigning random groups can help alleviate some of these uncomfortable feelings, even though in life and for the future, students may face the same challenges and uncomfortable moments, not having a choice in collaborative work. However, for the time being, the importance is to help students to develop interpersonal skills that will enable them to be successful in the future, to develop the social and emotional learning skills, especially in terms of relationships, decision-making and developing a self- awareness.
Timing: It can be a challenge at first to know how much time to provide for each station. I started by spending ten minutes reviewing material, asking questions, or doing an activity with the whole class, before starting stations. I tried giving 15 minutes for each, so students would work through two each day. Some students finished early and wanted to move on. To work through this, I would use the time to speak with each group or individual students, and then make adjustments during the next station rotation. There is always room to improve, but the important thing is remembering to be flexible and open to changes that will positively impact student learning and relationships.

Benefits:

Student engagement: Students have been more engaged in learning, and have come in to tell me how much they look forward to coming to class. Because of the different activities within the stations, students participate more because they are active and moving, and know that each station offers a new way to learn.
Student leaders: Students are offering to help one another, to explain concepts, and to cheer each other on. They keep each other on task and by working in these small groups, there are fewer distractions than working as a whole group. Each small group can ask questions, receive individualized feedback because I can freely move around the classroom and clear up any misunderstandings.
Teacher-student relationships: Students are getting timely, authentic and personal feedback. By using learning stations, more time is student-focused and those individual conversations can happen as needed, to help students to be successful and be more confident.
Student learning: In terms of academic achievement, the participation and results of recent assessments are the highest they have been. Students enjoy coming to class because they know they’re going to be leading and making decisions about their learning, in a way that is comfortable, flexible and fun. The learning experience is more authentic and meaningful for students. Research has shown the positive benefits of incorporating SEL into the curriculum.
Student behaviors: As for the class distractions and the negative interactions that existed before, both have decreased tremendously. It is not something that is going to change overnight but what matters is that we make constant progress. We are learning and becoming better together.

METAVERSE: Collections are here!

March 11, 2019March 10, 2019Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Metaverse: Collections are here!

This post is sponsored by Metaverse. All opinions are my own.

Metaverse has become a favorite of my students for creating fun, interesting, interactive “experiences” for class. The best part about using a tool like Metaverse is that it enables educators to give students more control and an opportunity to create something that is more meaningful to them. With libraries full of thousands of choices, every student can find something that meets their interests and engages them more in the creative fun and process of learning. While sometimes it can take a little bit longer to figure out how to use different tools for creating in Augmented Reality, or problem solve to find out why something isn’t working during the creation process, with Metaverse, all students can find exactly what they need. Sometimes people wonder if there’s any bit of a learning curve or how much time it takes to get started with something, but in this case, it couldn’t be easier.

I have found that students really enjoy creating with Metaverse, especially because they have so many possibilities for what they can create. They can add in characters and 3D objects, portals, 360 videos, YouTube videos, audio, and much more. There has been an update to the way that the website looks and it is now even easier to find what you need in order to create your very own experience. Of course if you need help, you can send a message directly to the Metaverse team using the chat or check out some of their updated video tutorials on YouTube.

Other benefits

I find that another bonus of using Metaverse is that it is very user-friendly to get started with and it doesn’t take long for students to figure out how to design their experience on their own or for students to step in and help their peers. I’ve noticed when using tools like Metaverse in the classroom that there is this other component to what students are able to “experience” while learning. It really does a lot for helping peers work on their collaborative skills and even social-emotional learning skills. There are many ways to use this for students to create a representation of something they have learned, to tell a story, to create a scavenger hunt even. You can learn more about Metaverse and how it works from my prior post or check out a recent post about using Augmented Reality tools for blended learning here.

Eagerly anticipating the new features

I had a chance to preview the Collections with the Metaverse team about a month ago, and I was very excited when I learned about the changes that would be coming to the Metaverse platform. Not only would there be more items and awesome things to choose from, that students and teachers could create with, but there would also be a new dashboard with a better way for students and teachers to access the experiences that have been created.

Having used Metaverse for a few years, I have saved a lot of student-created experiences to use in my STEAM classes. In order to make these experiences available for all students to see and enjoy each year, I chose to create a Padlet and have students post their QR codes onto the Padlet. By doing this, it was easy to simply display the Padlet on the Smartboard and have students walk up and scan the QR code. Another benefit was that it gave students time to explore a variety of experiences created by their peers and make new connections while learning.

It’s very easy to manage the student work from your classroom once you create a collection from your Metaverse dashboard. With this new feature, you can see all of your students’ experiences, you can set them up by class or if it’s the same class, put all of the experiences together, that way students have even more to explore and learn from. As a teacher, you have the option to edit the student experiences and take a look at what they have created, and beyond that, once you have the collection created, you the projects for the entire class can be shared through just one link. So easy to connect student work in one space. Check out Collections here!

How to get Collections

So how do you get the Collections? For right now it is still a free feature, without the Collections add-on. Creating collections will become a paid add on for the Metaverse studio. To submit one of your experiences to a collection, there is no cost involved. Students from prior classes or who create experiences in other courses can still share their experiences to be used with the other students in my STEAM class.

The cost is going to be approximately $7 per month or you can sign up for a year at a discount rate of $64! And speaking of benefits, use the promo code ARforEDU and take advantage of a free month of Collections!

The result?

A much easier way to gather, explore and share student work. More convenient and better access to be able to explore the different experiences. One thing to keep in mind is to always check over the student experiences and keep providing reminders about digital citizenship and responsibilities as part of learning journey in Augmented Reality. Ready to get started with Metaverse in your classroom? Check out all of the great resources for teachers here.

Screenleap for Education: Learn From Anywhere at Anytime

March 1, 2019March 9, 2019Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

This post is sponsored by Screenleap. Opinions expressed are my own.

At the end of January, I attended the Future of Educational Technology Conference (FETC) in Orlando. FETC has become one of my favorite conferences to attend and each year I return to my school with a lot of new ideas and tools that I’m excited to try in my classroom and share with colleagues and educator friends. This year was no exception. After reading about the 31 start-up companies that would be participating in the “Pitch Fest” competition happening in the expo hall, I decided that I wanted to start there. These companies—the “best-of-the-best startups”—would be pitching their products and services to a panel of judges. I find this to be one of the “musts” for me each year to learn about the new ideas and products available to educators. I enjoy getting to talk with the companies to understand their tools and how it benefits educators and students.

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Before arriving, I had received a flyer from Screenleap. I took a quick look, but decided to set it aside and instead make time to meet with Tuyen Truong, the CEO and Founder of Screenleap, at the conference. We had a great conversation and I was immediately impressed with what I learned about Screenleap from Tuyen and from the reactions of other attendees who had stopped by the booth to learn more about Screenleap.

Not long after speaking with Tuyen, I presented my own poster session on designing “Creative, Personalized, and Productive Classrooms.” A common interest of the attendees was that they wanted to know options that would enable them to share lessons, to work with schedule changes that interrupted the normal class periods, and to provide access to learning opportunities for their students when their students needed them. Screenleap immediately popped into my mind and so I gave them a brief overview and pointed them in the direction of Screenleap’s booth in the EdTech Startup area.

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Tools with Purpose: Getting Started Quickly

Common issues for teachers regarding education tools are knowing where to start and whether something will have a big learning curve. These are both important factors, but we should also consider the WHY behind adding the technology. Based on the interests of the educators that I spoke with, thinking through it and trying it out on my own, Screenleap definitely addresses these concerns by making it easy for teachers to set up and start using with students and by saving valuable time for teachers who use it.

So How Does It Work?

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Screenleap for Education allows teachers to share their screen with students and record it for later viewing. Whether the students are in the classroom or absent from class on a given day, they can watch the screen share live from wherever they are or access the lesson afterward when it is convenient for them. You can learn more about Screenleap for Education here. If you would like to try it out, you can start a free trial here!

Why Use Screenleap for Education?

When thinking about adding some new technology into the classroom, we really need to focus on the why behind choosing a specific tool or method. What difference will adding this tool make and how can it enhance the learning process and go beyond the traditional methods that are being used? What sets it apart from other tools you are currently using?

I think the benefits are clear with Screenleap for Education:

Teachers can share from any device (including Chromebooks, iPads, Android, PCs, and Macs).
Students don’t need to install any software to view their teacher’s screen, which makes it easily accessible to all students and saves time on IT administration.
Everything is automatically recorded on the cloud for later playback. Teachers don’t need to manually upload the recording after the screen share.
It saves teachers a lot of time because now they do not need to reteach lessons to students who miss a class since the recorded lessons are available for students to watch on their schedule. In addition, when it comes to re-teaching, you don’t always present the information the same way, so having a solid lesson that can quickly be shared with students to view and learn from is a real benefit for you.

Ideas for Using the Recording Feature

Depending on the content area you teach, or even if you have a different role than a classroom teacher, creating these recordings is easy and of great benefit. Having recordings available that you can share with colleagues, offer as extra instruction for students needing review, or even as a way to get feedback from colleagues about how you delivered a lesson, are just a few of the great ways to use the recording feature of Screenleap for Education. There are a lot of other possibilities for teachers, students, and administrators when the recording feature is used as part of a teacher’s daily instruction.

Getting Started

I found Screenleap for Education very intuitive and easy to get started with:

After creating your account, there is an initial setup step where you can create your classes and add students to them.
Once your classes are set up, it is easy to start sharing your screen with your students: all you need to do is click on the button for the class you want to share when your class starts. If it’s your first time sharing your screen, you will be walked through a one-time app installation before your screen share begins.
Once your screen share has started, your students can watch your screen share by signing into their accounts and clicking on the “View live class” button for your class.
While you are sharing your screen, it is automatically recorded in the cloud.
When you stop your screen share and have recording enabled, your recording will be processed and made available to you from the “Recordings” page. If you have automatic sharing configured, the recording will also be made available for your students to review.

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Additional Features That I Like

If you want to remove something from your class recording, you can do so and then upload the updated version.
You can share the same recording with multiple classes.
You can track student engagement in real-time by clicking on “engagement” or after the recording has been processed. You will see a snapshot of the engagement graph at the bottom of every recording.

Conclusion

Screenleap for Education offers a lot of benefits for teachers, students, and administrators: students can easily follow along in the classroom or from home, teachers do not have to reteach lessons that students miss, students can review lessons before tests, and administrators have resources available that can help to improve test scores for their schools through better learning. In addition, being able to stay connected and keep up with class—even when not in the classroom—and having information available to share with other teachers and administrators really makes Screenleap stand out when it comes to tools that benefit student learning.

Let me know what you think of Screenleap for Education. Again, you can start a free trial here!

Shapes 3D: AR Drawing App

February 22, 2019March 25, 2019Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Shapes 3D: AR Drawing App

An area of focus at FETC, TCEA, and PETE&C: Bringing Augmented Reality to Every Classroom

Rachelle Dene Poth

February 22, 2019

This is post is sponsored by Shapes 3D. All opinions expressed are my own.

Over the past few weeks, I have been fortunate to attend and present at several educational technology conferences. First was FETC (Future of Education Technology Conference) in Orlando, then TCEA (Texas Computer Education Association) in San Antonio, and the most recent, PETE&C (Pennsylvania Educational Technology Expo and Conference) held in Hershey, PA. A large part of my experience at each of these conferences involved presenting on and attending sessions about Augmented and Virtual Reality. There has been more discussion and a lot of excitement recently surrounding the AR/VR tools and exploring how these tools can be used for education. In my own classroom experiences with students, I have seen tremendous benefits for students by implementing some tools for augmented and virtual reality as part of their learning experience. The tools we have used give students an opportunity to engage in a completely different kind of learning which gives them more control in the classroom, and an immersive and authentic experience.

Learning Potential with Shapes 3D Augmented Reality

The terms “augmented and virtual reality,” might seem to be complex concepts that require a big investment of time or come with a steep learning curve. However, with tools like Shapes 3D, this is not the case at all. Shapes 3D provides the perfect opportunity for students and teachers to explore core concepts of geometry and help students to discover 2D and 3D shapes by engaging with these shapes in an augmented reality experience. Using a Merge cube, students can now examine 3D shapes in Augmented Reality. Imagine learning geometry by holding the solids in your hands, manipulating them and being able to more closely understand the core concepts of geometry. In personal experience, having this app available during my ninth grade year would have made a huge difference in how I was learning and the way that I could build on my knowledge! Preview it here!

Getting Started

Whether you have experimented with AR/VR or not, getting started with Shapes 3D is quite easy to do. If you prefer to have a tutorial, Shapes 3D has videos to help you get started. Often the number one answer given when educators are asked why they are not using technology or even a specific tool in the classroom is due to a lack of time. There are so many components to teaching today that can make it a challenge to find extra time to try new tools or implement new methods. Fortunately, Shapes 3D makes it easy to get started with the availability of bundles to use for instruction, access to lesson plans and tutorial videos that can help any educator get started quickly. You can gather a lot of ideas by searching through Twitter looking at tweets related to Shapes 3D, especially when it comes to edtech conferences, which can provide new ideas and new connections. There are also publications and other helpful resources shared and updated on the Shapes 3D site. You will love Shapes 3D applications, get started by grabbing a bundle at the price of $ 5.99, Shapes 3D Bundle!

If you are like me and prefer to just get started without tutorials, start by exploring the tool and the options available, and then dive right in! Use Shapes 3D as a way to introduce a concept or shapes to students, to act as a “hook” for the lesson. Once students begin engaging with Shapes 3D, give them the opportunity to create and explore on their own and run with it. They will likely exceed your own knowledge of the possibilities that exist with Shapes 3D and that is okay. You will notice that students catch on rather quickly and will become immersed in more authentic and meaningful learning, right in their hands. It is a lot of fun to use the Merge cube and really look closely at the shapes!

Merge and Shapes 3D

Students can easily explore the object by using their device or a classroom iPad for example, if accessibility is an issue consider using stations in your classroom, where students can work in small groups. But if you want to take it to another level and really put the learning in the students’ hands, why not get a few Merge cubes to use with shapes 3D. What is so unique about this possibility is that students will be able to interact with the object and even draw lines and manipulate the shapes in their own ways, which will provide a more personalized learning experience for them.

Learning from others

Shapes 3D is great for teachers to use as a way to engage students, but also to provide opportunities for students to become the teachers in the classroom. Like presenting at conferences, getting to share what you are doing in the classroom, to brainstorm ideas with classmates, and maybe more importantly, have the opportunity to learn from one another builds more confidence in learning. The great thing about tools like Shapes 3D is that educators will not have to spend a lot of time trying to figure it out on their own or come up with ways to use it in the classroom. Leave it to our students. We need to push for more opportunities for our students to do more than consume, but instead, to create, to explore and to become curious for learning. Using technology in classes today should be focused more on creation rather than consumption.

So why use Shapes 3D?

As educators, our purpose is to help our students to develop a wide range of skills that will not only engage them in learning which is authentic and meaningful but also provide skills that will We want to put tools that can engage them and more authentic and meaningful learning in their hands. Students learn more by doing and having opportunities to engage in hands-on activities, where they control the direction their learning takes. We need for students to design their own problems, to ask more questions, and even at times to experience some struggles in learning. Preparing them for the future means giving time for them to problem solve, collaborate, communicate and even create on their own as they are preparing for the future and life in general.

Before adding technology into the classroom, be sure to focus on the “why” behind using a specific tool or method. What is it going to do differently for students, that will enhance learning and go beyond the traditional methods t being used in the classroom? What sets it apart from other options? I think the answer is clear. Tools like Shapes 3D will enable teachers to move students to a more active role in the classroom, become the creators and immerse themselves in a new learning environment. Students can do so much with Shapes 3D to really understand geometry concepts that might otherwise be difficult to understand, in a 1D format. Draw lines, rotate solids, check the properties of the solids and more. Hands-on learning takes math to a new level.

Options and getting started

By having a Shapes 3D bundle, students in grades K through 12 have access to a wide variety of ways to interact with different structures and to really understand math concepts at a deeper level. When we can place tools like this in the hands of our students, we amplify their potential for learning, because of the accessibility to explore on their own and build their skills as they manipulate the objects in the 3D space. It pushes student curiosity even more and leads them to ask questions and to develop their understanding at a deeper and more meaningful level.

As teachers, there are so many things that we are responsible for and need to keep up with, that it can be difficult to stay current and relevant with all of the emerging trends when it comes to technology. Fortunately, there are tools like Shapes 3D that make it easier to get started and that provide innovative ways for students to learn. It just takes a few minutes to get started and then encouraging the students to explore on their own and with peers. Join in the Geometry learning fun with Shapes 3D Geometry Drawing on iOs today! Enjoy the app (for free) on Google Play, there is a beta version of Shapes 3D Geometry Drawing, and it works with Merge cube!

Don’t wait, sign up today! Get started with Shapes 3D applications by grabbing a bundle at the promotional price of $ 5.99, bit.ly/Shapes3Dbundle !

Metaverse: Scavenger Hunts, Interactive Stories, Immersive Learning and now Collections

February 19, 2019February 18, 2019Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Sponsored Content, All opinions are my own

February 18, 2019

Learning and sharing through the world of AR

When I started creating with Metaverse, an augmented reality tool, a few years ago, I was immediately impressed with the potential for learning and the many possibilities for engaging students more in authentic learning “experiences.” More ways to move students from consumers to being the creators which is what we should strive to do in our classrooms. The first “experience” that I created took a bit longer than most because I chose to not explore any of the tutorials or the helpful resources available and instead opted to dive right in. Why? I thought it was better to experience possible struggles with figuring out how to create with Metaverse, similar to what students might face when they got started. As a teacher, I wanted to prepare myself to help them if and when they needed. What I noticed is that students were more than ready to create!

Over the past two years, students in my 8th grade STEAM classes have enjoyed creating with Metaverse and definitely figured it out much faster than I did. Being able to see their work, their creativity and then to enjoy testing their “experiences” has been very rewarding for several reasons. I have learned so much from them, it led to conversations about the importance of sharing struggles that we experience and to not be afraid to ask others (especially students) to help you. It even led to the addition of student tech assistants in my classes. There is so much to learn from students, and in addition to building technology skills and providing more immersive and engaging learning experiences for them, we empower students to become the leaders in our classroom. Developing their skills of problem solving, collaboration, critical thinking and pushing their curiosity will benefit them as they move through school and head into the future!

How does Metaverse promote student driven learning and choice?

It is important to offer students choices in learning and to step aside and encourage them to pursue knowledge on their own. With Metaverse, students can create fun experiences to share with their peers and have so many choices available to really make it an engaging way to learn. Regardless of content area or grade level, or even one’s role in education (why not create for teacher PD), there are thousands of new items to choose from and new features being added frequently. Students can spend a long time creating their storyboard or they can design an experience quickly, as Metaverse is user friendly, especially with the recent updates and addition of new features!

So many possibilities!

Students can find exactly what they need, create something meaningful and share their work with students in their class and even connect globally with other peers. Testing their experiences in class by scanning a QR code is quick, but what about if you want to keep all of the student projects in one space? Or even collaborate with other classrooms, either as part of project based learning or to connect globally? Students need to create for a purpose and sharing their work with others is very important. Sharing experiences can be overwhelming if you have the number of experiences being created like I do.(Students were so excited that they created extras on the weekends and sent them to me, to keep me from being bored while away from school! This is when you know that the tool is making a difference).

An important of student work is the ability to share it with others, to learn about one’s peers and enjoy learning together. Access to student work can be an issue, which is where Padlet helped initially, as a way to have students post their projects. But even this took time. I wanted to keep track of their work and have it accessible by students and teachers, as we collaborate by using Metaverse to engage all students in learning. Creating experiences with videos, 360 images and even portals, to immerse students in a world of learning right in their hands.

Explore the new Collections, now in beta release!

Wanting to be able to share and display the experiences created by students was very important and now, it is easier than ever for teachers to do. With the new “Collections,” now released in beta, teachers can manage student experiences, edit student work and easily share all of the experiences created in class! Why? Because it is easier to manage student work and save the experiences to use with other classes and even collaborate beyond your school.

To get started, simply create a “Collection” for your class and you can share the join code with students, or quickly add them from the experiences you have in your account.

Metaverse has so much potential as an instructional tool for teachers.

Why use Augmented Reality?

A popular topic at both FETC and TCEA was Augmented and Virtual Reality. Tools like Metaverse have tremendous potential to immerse students in a more authentic and purposeful learning adventure, by giving them more control in how they show learning and a hands-on experience. It is a fun platform to use in the classroom and benefits students by promoting student agency and increasing engagement in learning.

Collections create more opportunities for Interactive Learning Adventures

As educators, we want our students to have a learning “experience,” more than what the traditional methods of classroom instruction might offer. Finding time to create and explore can be a factor in deciding where to begin, but with Metaverse, it is easy to get started, especially when we let students take more control. We need to help students to embrace an opportunity to drive their learning. In doing this, we guide them toward a learning journey that will attach more meaning to the content, in a personalized and exciting way to learn, and above all, a more authentic experience. Teachers have access to collections where they can see, edit and share student work, track progress and help students as they create. Creating a collection is easy. Check it out here!

Many students learn more by doing, and when they have opportunities to engage in hands-on activities, it leads to more personalized experiences and student-driven learning. A world of learning that they create is right in their hands.

Some ideas to create with Metaverse

A tour and a survey: Have students create an experience to introduce visitors to a town, retell a part of history, ask for input and preferences for travel. With all of the choices in items to add into Metaverse, thousands of unique possibilities exist.
Just for fun: Sometimes the best way to get students involved is by only offering a few guidelines. Provide a number of scenes, type of questions to include, different features including GIFS, Google vision, polls and more. Each student can create something unique and meaningful to them, and then using collections, share it with the class. If access to devices is an issue, set up learning stations in the room.
Book review and tales: Why not have students explain key parts of a book, or make up a story, and include images, videos, portals and more as part of the experience. Share it with other students, maybe even add in a poll, and then use the results to brainstorm new ideas and keep the discussion going. I

Technology tools for education provide enhanced ways to learn, to engage students and to empower them in learning. As teachers, we always want to focus on the “why” when making our decisions, and with Metaverse, the “why” is clear: student driven learning and the power of creating. Start your collections today and share student work!

A better way to track growth and promote reflection

October 26, 2018October 25, 2018Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Published on Kidblog

Assessments used to track student progress are certainly not new to teachers. However, it is important to consider that if you consistently use the same tool for assessment, these materials should be curated and referred to throughout the year. This ensures a conversation can happen between teachers, students, and guardians, reviewing progress and growth.

Kidblog offers extended options for promoting student choice, giving students ownership in learning, and facilitating communication between home and school (family engagement in learning is critical for student success). Over the years, I have tried to encourage students to keep prior assessments or writing assignments as artifacts of their work to share with families. It wasn’t long before these papers were misplaced and the opportunities for review, reflection and growth disappeared. Using Kidblog’s built-in digital portfolios empower students to self-regulate learning and develop their metacognitive skills. It also allows a conversation between student, teacher, and families happen.

Tracking growth in a more accessible way

There are many benefits of using safe student publishing that go beyond simply blogging and improving communication skills. Through Kidblog, students gain the tools necessary to prepare for their future with the skills they need to be successful.

Promotes digital literacy and citizenship: Blogging engages students in building their writing skills whether it be basic English grammar, practicing foreign language skills, or learning to write in a specific format such as a persuasive text or narrative. Students can share their posts with classmates and provide feedback to one another. Peer assessment builds student collaboration skills and promotes digital citizenship and the responsible use of digital tools.
Track their growth: Students build their online presence and create their own space unique to their needs. They develop confidence as they become more creative in their expression and learn to self-assess with each blog post they write. Because Kidblog offers a safe learning space, students can get started by writing posts that are private, visible by the teacher, and then continue to grow their audience, sharing their work with classmates, connections, and beyond. Using Kidblog across multiple courses provides students with an even greater opportunity to track their progress across the course of a semester, school year, or even year-over-year.

Build relationships and become confident learners: Receiving feedback throughout the learning journey is critical to student growth. However, some students may be hesitant in sharing their thoughts with their peers in the classroom. Through blogging, when students create their own online space, they can comfortably begin to develop their voice, express their thoughts in a personal space, and become more confident learners. The relationships that form by sharing their work at first with their teacher and then by publishing it to a larger community have a tremendous impact on student growth. Publishing work to a wider audience benefits the student through the additional feedback that can be provided. Students know their work is having an impact on readers.
Goal setting: When students consistently create through blogging, they can use their history (in digital portfolios) as a guide to push forward with goals. Each student can use Kidblog as a space to set personal learning goals. By publishing their goals in the class, they are held accountable and, in turn, will be motivated to hit those goals. Preparing students for their future requires that we provide opportunities for them to learn responsibility, to work within a schedule with different tasks and timelines.

Personal expression and growth mindset: Kidblog provides a space for students to explore their passions, be creative, and reflective. Students have the opportunity to share these passions with the world, and hopefully, make a connection with another student based off of these passions.

Consider adopting Kidblog as your tool for promoting student growth and formative assessment. Teacher premium memberships are a great way for an individual teacher to pilot Kidblog in all their classes, with benefits like automatic digital portfolio curation for your students, a class page, moderation tools to customize your audience levels per post, and so much more.

The real story of being a teacher

June 4, 2018June 4, 2018Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Photo by Artem Bali on Pexels.com

Being a teacher is easy.

It must be nice to have your summers off.

You’re so lucky, you don’t have to work on the weekends.

You have such long holiday breaks!

If you are a teacher, you likely have heard at least one of these statements before, perhaps from friends and family, or from people you just meet, that respond with similar statements when they find out that you are a teacher. Are these statements accurate? Well, I guess to an extent, but there are some ways to counter these comments.

It can be easy to be a teacher, if you love what you do, it does not feel like” work.” I enjoy working with students, learning with and from them, and having the opportunity to start fresh each day and create experiences to engage students in learning. Having the summer off is nice too, but most teachers I know either work in the summer, attend conferences, or pursue some professional development. The “summer off” is nice for providing a more flexible schedule, and a time to reflect, explore new things and prepare for the new school year.

And as for weekends, I am fairly certain that most teachers look forward to the weekend for many reasons. Of course, time with family and time to relax are important. But it is also a time to catch up on some grading, emails, or exploring new methods to bring into the classroom. So weekends without work, I don’t think they happen too much.

And the extended holiday breaks are nice as well. But again, many teachers use this time to reflect, recharge and prepare for the return to school.

So, What is the reality?

The reality of being a teacher is that teaching today can be quite challenging. Maybe in the past, the life of the teacher was perceived to be a pretty comfortable and easy profession. The typical school day of 7:00 to 3:00 or some variation, with weekends and holidays off and of course, that summer break. With those hours and that schedule who wouldn’t want to be a teacher? From the outside looking in, it might seem like each day is the same, right? Each passing year the same as the year prior. How could it be that difficult? Once you make a worksheet or a test you have them to use forever, right? Lesson plans are the same, projects are the same, and folders full of worksheets and activities pulled from the file cabinet, simply copy it, teach it and then move on to the next day. Same. (hopefully not).

There may be some truth to this, as I’m sure there are some teachers who are teaching the same way that they were taught and/or are using the same materials each day with each class and then doing it all over again the next year. No judgments made.

To an extent, I myself was this type of teacher for a long time. Not because I was trying to take the easy way out or save time. Rather I was using some of the methods that worked for me when I was a student. I thought this was the right way to prepare. And sometimes I used some of the same materials each year because I thought there was value to them for student learning. I know that when I was a student, some of the same issues that exist today existed then (copying homework, cheating on tests), but we didn’t have the technology, which creates tremendous learning opportunities but it also takes away some opportunities as well.

Foreign Language Teacher vs. Online Translators

I thought that being a foreign language teacher meant that I was a member of a group that had a distinct battle not experienced by any other content area. It took some time for me to notice some bothersome trends in student work. The copying of assignments, the use of online language translators, and even copying information directly from websites. So the struggle was to find a way for students to have authentic practice that would not encourage student copying or trying to take a shortcut with learning. But each year it becomes more and more challenging to stay ahead of technology in this sense. I don’t know the answer as to how to get students to stop copying homework other than to not assign homework. And this has been a very strong discussion as to the value of homework, the type of homework, and whether or not homework should even be given at all. #ditchthehomework (follow the hashtag)

I will not make a decision either way, other than to say that for me, I do assign some “practice” tasks for the students to do, but they typically don’t come in the form of a worksheet. And sometimes when we are working in stations in class, if students do not finish something, I do ask that they work on it until complete. But I do add, “at their pace.” Instead, I encourage students to practice the content by playing a game of review using the Quizlet cards, sharing a Quizizz game or provide prompts for writing a blog post. And these are ongoing practice tasks that are due on a weekly basis or that I have students create to use in the class. Why? Because in doing this rather than assigning the same worksheet to each student to complete, I know that it is more authentic, will provide students with personalized practice and it is not something that can readily be copied.

But recently I was rather surprised when I saw some students switching between screens on their computer while working in their practice workbook. (As a side note, I stopped assigning practice from the workbook for homework because of copying).

I thought that by having students work on the pages in class, during stations, that I could interact more and provide more one on one feedback and give time for students to collaborate with their peers. I did not anticipate this “new” form of copying, until one day a few weeks ago, I caught a glimpse of a student switching screens on his laptop and then writing in the workbook. The process repeated and continued for a few minutes. From across the room I had an idea of what they were doing, but I gave it some time before I walked over. Hoping that I was wrong, and that it was not the website that provides answers to so many books and workbooks. (Still cannot believe what is available).

It was exactly as I had thought, one of the students was using that website, to look up and copy the answers for the workbook. While I understand that there can be comfort in having a resource to look at, especially when a student may be struggling with a concept, it is helpful to learn that you were on the right track. But I do have a problem when the answers to all questions in every book are so easily accessible and available to students. I know when I was in school, often our math teachers would assign questions opposite to the answers that were available in the back of the book. It was nice to have an option to look at some answers to do practice problems and see if we were working on them correctly, and there were times when I did wish that all of the answers were available. But it forced us to push through the challenges and solve the problems. There were struggles in the learning but that’s how we improved and kept going forward.

Simple lesson learned. In these experiences, and on a personal basis, you cannot or should not assign students the exact same thing if you can avoid it. Especially when teaching a higher level course or one in which students have the possibility to create, rather than simply consume. We need to give them more authentic opportunities to practice what they are learning. They need to create, not consume, be active, not passive, and have the opportunity to set their learning path and be curious in their pursuit of knowledge. This is how we prepare them for the future.

DEWEY