#AlwaysInBeta: Hashtagging the Pacific Theater

Twitterizing your classroom has been a pet project of mine. An action research project I did in my Master's program got me thinking about increasing student engagement using technology. One the ideas I came up with was using the concept of Twitter and hashtags to help students make real-life to content connections. Being back in the classroom part time this school year, I have been able to put this idea to work and, as #AlwaysInBeta suggests, the idea continues to iterate.

Hashtagging Your Teaching, as I call it, follows the same basic structure each time. One could call it my own #EduProtocol. It begins with an appsmash of Google Classroom, Google Slides, YouTube and Snagit screencasting software. I create bullet-free Google Slides full of images, symbols and teacher generated hashtags. From there, I use Snagit to screencast my lesson. Lessons range from 15-25 minutes depending on the standard. In the screencast, I'm explaining and teaching the standard as I would delivering the lesson live to students. The style I employ is patterned after Keith Hughes of Hip Hughes YouTube channel fame. Once the video is complete, I upload to YouTube and distribute to students via Google Classroom. 

The lesson takes place when students watch the lesson video, with headphones, and take notes (digital or paper) at their own pace. The advantage this gives students, EL's especially, is that they can pause and rewind when they don't understand. Instead of facing the embarrassment of having to ask a question in front of class, I can circulate and come to them as needed one on one. In addition, the image and symbol heavy slides force students to "make notes" not take notes. When I say take notes, I mean copy bullets. This is huge for ELs who may struggle with the written language, but they can better engage with symbols and images as well as my verbal explanations, metaphors and hashtags in the video.

 

As students navigate the video, they are instructed to pause at the end of each slide, reflect and write a hashtag (with rationale) showing a real-life to content connection. This is huge for all learners because it validates their prior knowledge, life experience and interests as well as helping them see themes and patterns between content and life. Students write the hashtags and rationales in their notes as well as on my whiteboard walls. This allows me to see their thinking and give feedback if I notice the connection between hashtag and content is weak. In addition, students are instructed to "steal" a classmate's hashtag from the walls and write it in their notes. At the end of each slide, students now have three perspectives, the teacher, their own and that of a peer.

Take a look at the some of my favorite hashtags and connections made by my students during our recent lesson on World War II: The Pacific Theater. (10th Grade World History)

(Disclaimer: I took the liberty of clarifying some of their rationales after speaking with students.)

Pearl Harbor - #CharlotteFlair - Ric Flair and his daughter Charlotte Flair acted sneaky, like Japan attacking Pearl Harbor, when they sneak attacked Charlotte's opponent Paige on Monday Night Raw on May 9, 2016. (This student is a huge fan of WWE and frequently connects it to content.)

Japan vs. USA - #DanceMoms - The girls in Dance Moms are similar to Japan. They start taking other opportunities even though, Dance Moms character Abby tells them not to. Japan was brutally building an empire in Asia even though their actions were denounced by the USA. (This student is a fan of reality TV shows and frequently makes connections to content.)

                                     

America Strikes Back - #PredatorVision - When the US cracked Japanese code, it was like they could see the enemy with the same advantage the Predator has when it hunts humans. (This student is fan of sci-fi movies and usually makes similar connections to content.)

America's Strategy - #MaxPayne - In the Max Payne video game, Max has some choices that are very difficult and he has to choose which one is the lesser of two evils. This is similar to the options the US had when deciding to invade Japan or drop the bomb. (This student frequently connects content to his favorite video games.)

Japanese Brutality - #TerminusAndNegan - Seeing the brutality shown to Japanese prisoners of war, after learning about the Bataan Death March, in the Walking Dead, both the Terminus cannibals and Negan's Saviors showed similar brutality towards prisoners or conquered people. (This student is a huge fan of The Walking Dead and usually makes connections from the show to content.)

The question remains. What do you do with all the hashtags. Other than getting students to begin to think critically to look for themes, similarities and patterns among their interests and content, the hashtags can be used to jumpstart engaging activities such as Booksnaps, Sketchnotes, Student-Generated Lesson Videos, simulations, blogging and more! 

I have been hashtagging my teaching all school year and the current iteration was built upon previous iterations. It will continue to evolve like any strategy I employ because my teaching is #AlwaysInBeta. 

#AlwaysInBeta: Booksnaps, Google Slides and Bitmoji

 

If you happened to be at CUE last week, you would have been able to see the queen and inventor of Booksnaps, Tara Martin, demonstrate how to do Booksnaps in Google Slides. Booksnaps, originally was done exclusively with Snapchat. But many innovative educators, who are #AlwaysInBeta,  "hacked" Booksnaps by devising ways to booksnap with Google Drawings & Slides, Seesaw and more. 

For those of you unfamiliar with Booksnaps, they are not just some flashy gimmick. Booksnaps allow students to mark the text with Snapchat or Snapchat "features". There is brain research behind it. Booksnaps help students with retention, comprehension and engagement while marking the text. In a nutshell, Booksnaps combines something students often dislike, reading, with something they love, Snapchat. On a personal note, I now take much longer to read because I find so many points I want to booksnap.

One of the coolest features of Snapchat is the integration of Bitmoji. Bitmoji is a fun little app that allows you to "cartoonify" yourself. Within Snapchat, you can insert your Bitmoji "cartoonified" self into your images. The question remains, how does this work with Booksnaps?

If you have students using Snapchat to do Booksnaps, they are already experts. They simply take pictures of text, mark it Snapchat's annotation tool and add stickers and Bitmojis. But what if cellphones are banned at your site and or students do not have Snapchat. Never fear, Google Slides (Drawings too) is here!

Many Snapchat features can be emulated with Google Slides (Drawings too). For images of text, you can use the webcam to take the picture or you can insert a screenshot of digital text. Once you have the image of text, use Slides' line tool and scribble function to "annotate" and circle the part of the text that resounded with you. From there, draw a text box across the width of the image to write your claim or opinion. The final step is to find png stickers and emojis from the internet to paste onto the slide to support the text you circled and statement or opinion. 

 

Now where does Bitmoji fit in with the Google Slides version of Booksnaps? It lies in the Bitmoji Chrome extension. It is free on the Chrome Web Store. You may need to talk to your Google Domain Super Admin to push the extension to student accounts. Once pushed to their accounts and browsers, students click on the extension, a drop down menu of Bitmoji appears and they simply copy and paste the appropriate Bitmoji to their slides. 

One hiccup you may encounter is your network's filter. The easiest way for students to login to Bitmoji is via Snapchat. If Snapchat is blocked, ask IT to briefly allow so kids can get signed in to use Bitmoji. Where I work, IT allows teachers to use a special login and password to temporarily bypass the network filter for situations like this.

Here is what it looks like when kids use Google Slides and Bitmoji (Chrome Extension ) to do Booksnaps.

Above you see this student choosing a Bitmoji from the dropdown on the Chrome extension. From there, this student copied and pasted to her Booksnaps on Google Slides.

I am sure there will be new ways to improve the Booksnaps process. Keep your eyes and ears open to the next innovation. Doing this helps us to stay #AlwaysInBeta.

 

Cardinal Innovation Center Today: Trimming the Fat

When I walked into Google Headquarters in Sydney for the Google Certified Innovator Academy, I entered with a project that was practically up and running. So I thought. The digital part of my project had been up for about six months and continues to evolve. The physical part was established, but has evolved dramatically since. 

As I reflect back on the experience, the Design Thinking process as well as the feedback from my cohort mates have been the best thing for my project. Multiple people told me they loved my project, but they felt it was too much. Their concerns were about management. One person likened it to juggling a dozen flaming chainsaws. At first, my ego was bruised. My project has many layers. I often refer to it as an onion on steroids. Their feedback wasn't meant to bruise my ego, but it made me realize the sheer vastness of the project would not be feasible. 

The competitor in me believed I could pull it off. I mean, it should be no problem supporting two schools, curating galleries of Memes, Sketchnotes & Booksnaps as well as facilitating a student tech/social media squad. There should be plenty of hours in the day, right? Let's not mention the fact I have three young daughters at home. 

The Design Thinking process taught me to break my project down into small bits. This was hugely eye opening. I made me realize the feedback was on point. It was time to check my ego at the door and begin to trim the fat. 

After the rush of the Cohort wore off, reality set in. As I got back to work, it became abundantly clear I needed to trim the fat quickly. I reflected deeply and determined parts of the project such as the Fundraising page, the dangerous movable stage, the various genre pages in the YouTuber Crew & Blogger Cafe were all surplus to requirements. They were all cool ideas, but more style than substance. 

As the semester wore on, I dismantled half of the Teacher Portal. An entire page dedicated simply to advertising my services was deleted. The Teacher Portal now is one page with a schedule, lesson design templates and a booking system.

The Booksnaps Gallery was definitely the most problematic. This required an ungodly amount of management. If I was creating it just for the students in my classroom, it would be no problem, but since I support two school sites, it was a nightmare. Originally, I used a Google Form for students to submit their Booksnaps, but as time wore on, I realized I was getting hundreds of submissions a day. My initial idea was to train the student tech squad to handle it, but that was another headache. Upon reflection, the teachers with whom I trained to implement the use of Booksnaps would curate for me and send me 5-7 exemplars to be displayed in the gallery. I applied the same wisdom to the Sketchnotes gallery and will do the same when the Memes gallery gets underway. 

Long story short, checking my ego and the door was the best diet plan for the Cardinal Innovation Center. The digital version is streamlined and more user friendly. Some innovative, industrial shelving created a safer physical environment. Students and teachers alike are taking more advantage of the Center and services provided. Business is picking up and it is my hope to have this Innovation Project officially up and running by June. Until then, follow the progress at cardinalinnovationcenter.org.

Cardinal Innovation Center Today: Forrest Gump, Math Blogs and a Green Screen

Last week, the Cardinal Innovation Center continued to buzz with activity. For the 'ol Tech Coach, this is a dream come true. To my surprise, I was able to make some inroads with a teacher who has been known to be tech resistant. But as Katherine Goyette and I say in our coaching session on tech resistant teachers, you have to find an "in." For this teacher, the "in" was Math Blogs.

This teacher was looking for a new way to get her students motivated to study for their Advanced Math final. With our district putting an huge emphasis on writing across all disciplines, Math Blogs are able to kill two birds with one stone. 

A Math Blog is simple. Students start a blog with Blogger. From there, they work out groups of math problems one at a time. They use the webcam to take a picture of their work and insert it into the blogpost. Below the picture, they must write a rationale and or explain how they solved the problem in as much detail and in as many ways as possible. The teacher creates a hyperdoc with each student's name linked to their blog URL. This makes it easy for the teacher to evaluate student work and see student thinking.

With my world history classes, students, as part of their World War I unit, were given the option to write a Forrest Gump blog. What is a Forrest Gump blog? It is simply creating a fictional character and inserting them into historical events a la Forrest Gump. 

It is a chance for students to be creative and engage in writing some historical fiction. Wonder Woman's actions during World War I and Captain America in World War II other examples. Students were given a list of 8 events during World War I and tasked with writing blogposts for each event showing how their character was involved. 

Students who didn't choose the Forrest Gump blog option could have chosen to do the Green Screen Live News Report. They were given a list of 6 events from World War I and used the green screen to conduct "live" news reports on scene. Some pretended to interview "eye witnesses" while others used costumes and props to enhance their reporting skills. 

The Cardinal Innovation Center Buzzing with Activity

As the Cardinal Innovation Center continues to evolve, the biggest hurdle to date is consistently getting students involved virtually and physically. Being able to teach a few history classes is keeping the project afloat, but merely being afloat is not the end game. I envision this project being a resource to empower learning and teaching school-wide.

Yesterday was the busiest day to date. From the time I opened the doors at 7:30 am until closing them at 5:00 pm, the action was non-stop. At night, teachers were sending me student booksnaps to be curated in the Cardinal Booksnaps gallery on cardinalinnovationcenter.org.

Yadira is hashtagging her notes in my
World History Class

These gentlemen are screencasting their presentation
for their Tech Rodeo app

I have been dreaming of a day like this since the beginning. After teaching two periods of World History, the remainder of the day, the room was filled with freshman Digital Literacy students who were working on the Google Certified Student program I designed. Our 11-12th grade Computer Science students came in and out throughout the day to screencast a presentation for the apps they're building for Tech Rodeo.

Melissa is screencasting her performance tasks
in the Google Certified Student Program

At lunch, more freshman came in to continue with the Google Certified Student program. The Cardinal Innovation Center Tech Squad met during lunch to continue building the website for the Assistance Service Dog Educational Center in Woodlake, CA. After school, a parent showed up to inquire about how her son could get involved with the Dog Educational Center and Tech Squad.

Long story short, yesterday was a banner day. The Cardinal Innovation Center was full of life, innovation and energy. Too often, though, hours go by with nothing going on. If yesterday is an omen for things to come, my vision for the Cardinal Innovation Center will become a reality sooner rather than later. Get ready Crystal Miller, I am going to need a lot of support and guidance!

Cardinal Innovation Center Today: Cowboys, Service Dogs, Tech Squad and Social Media Posse

My Google Certified Innovator Project, the Cardinal Innovation Center, has been called an "onion on steroids" due to its many layers. Two of those layers is the Cardinal Tech Squad and Social Media Posse. Like many schools across the world, student tech teams are being formed to provide IT and tech integration services. In forming the Cardinal Tech Squad, I envisioned a team that had reached beyond the school site into the community and beyond

At this point, the Cardinal Tech Squad has done the bulk of its work with parents getting them signed up with Gmail and access to the Illuminate Parent Portal to check their kids' grades. An amazing opportunity to work with the Assistance Service Dog Education Center (ASDEC) from nearby Woodlake, CA fell into our lap. My mother, volunteers for ASDEC weekly to help train golden retrievers to be service dogs for a plethora of needs ranging from picking up objects to PTSD to low blood sugar detection for diabetics. 

One day, after volunteering, my mom brought it to my attention that ASDEC is struggling financially and needs to build a larger digital footprint in order to attract more business, volunteers and donors. Immediately, the Cardinal Tech Squad and Social Media Posse jumped to mind. I saw this as an opportunity to empower students to help ASDEC stay afloat, grow and continue to change the lives of people with special needs. If successful, my students, with their burgeoning tech skills, would be making a huge difference in the lives of many. 

It was brought to our attention that many celebrities have been known to donate to such causes. Our challenge is to get their attention via social media, blogging and a new website. The old ASDEC website had not been maintained in years. The Cardinal Tech Squad, all two of them, began building a new website to showcase the Center's mission, vision and services provided. The Social Media Posse created a Twitter account for ASDEC.

Today, to accelerate our efforts, ASDEC founder Gerald Whittaker brought his protege and a handful of volunteers to do a live demonstration for some Orosi High School students. Members of the Tech Squad attended and took notes to continue developing the website. 

The Social Media Posse posted images and video clips on Instagram and Snapchat. Take a look below to see some of the sights and sounds from this great learning experience. In addition, the entire demo was live streamed on YouTube. Click here to view.

            

If interested in volunteering, donating or learning more about ASDEC, please contact Gerald Whittaker at (559) 564-7297.

The Google Certified Innovator Experience Part 3: The Sydney Cohort and Tattoos

Now that I could breathe after nearly losing my phone and wallet in a foreign land, the Google Innovator Academy experience took me by storm. The vibe of the cohort was infectious. The energy was amazing. It was so cool to finally put faces to the names I had seen popping up in the cohort Google Hangout for a month. 

One of our first activities was to build a chair. The first person, other than Stuart Kelly, I really met was Gareth Haddon. We met in the first round of the design a chair with aluminum foil activity. After our conversation, his chair won. It was clearly better than mine, but in round two we had to go with the other team. In the end, it was Geoff Derry's "Volcano Chair" that won the day. 

The build a chair with aluminum foil activity is something I have taken to heart. My district has placed huge emphasis on Academic Conversations. With that in mind, I took this activity and morphed it into an Academic Conversation activity incorporating hashtags for kids to make content to real life connections. 

Being part of an international cohort, from my perspective at least, was such an eye-opening experience. Seeing the ideas, needs, struggles and questions from educators across Australia, New Zealand and parts of Asia gave me a whole new perspective on the learning needs of teachers and students beyond the US. 

The Design Thinking process was a powerful new learning experience. I had heard so much about it from my Innovator friends, but seeing it live from Les McBeth was a different story. I loved the slogan "Fall in love with the problem, not the solution." Learning to tear my project apart into small bits was enlightening. It allowed me to find flaws in parts of my project that I didn't realize existed. 

Design Thinking is something I have been trying to implement in the classroom since Sydney. One of the Design Thinking strategies I have employed is Crazy 8s. We did Crazy 8s as a method of ideation. I found my students absolutely love this activity. I use it as a method of introducing new concepts to students. 

My team, Judoknow, started slowly, but eventually demonstrated a lot of spirit. If you're wondering what that name means, it is a play on words from Mexican-American culture. The amazing Kiwi Justine Driver was our coach. Since the Academy, she has maintained contact and continued to keep our vibe alive because "ju" don't know what we gonna say, "ju" don't know what we gonna do, "ju" just don't know!

Each morning, I had the privilege of hanging out at the amazing Banquerie located in Sydney's Pyrmont. The meat pies were too die for. The coffee wasn't bad either. What made the Banquerie memorable was the ambiance and the company. This establishment was an old bank. The vault was where the oven was located. Did I say the pies where amazing? They were. Each morning cohort mates Adam Brooks, Monica Limmer, Becky Shorey and Judy Blakeney would meet me there for breakfast. The food at Google was great, but the Banquerie became our thing.

Dinner on the second night was a blast. After a long day of learning, collaboration and feedback, we were treated to some amazing Dim Sum, massages, a magic show and karaoke. I have to toot my horn a bit. I did get the karaoke party started. Wendy Gorton and I did duet for "Baby Got Back". Afterwards, I grabbed the mic and dominated LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out." From there, karaoke was in full swing including a large group of us belting out "Bohemian Rhapsody."

 

As the Academy wound down, we we're given resources to begin with the Google mentor choosing process. Luckily for me, I was blessed to have been paired with good friend Crystal Lane Miller. Crystal and I have been regularly communicated via Gmail, Hangouts and Twitter. Her advice has been tremendous and she's been advocating for me. 

Graduation day was a blast. My tour guide Suan gave a wonderful tour of Google HQ. I was totally digging the couch in the wall. The graduation ceremony was live streamed on YouTube. A professional sketchnoter was brought in to sketchnote the ceremony as well. They saved our team for last. They did get our walk up music mixed up, but it did give us one last chance to do our infamous "Judoknow" chant. When it was all over, the champagne was flowing and I made sure I took a selfie with everyone from the cohort. Each selfie is posted on a MyMap currently on my website homepage. 

After saying goodbye to the coaches and cohort mates, my soulmate Katherine, from #TOR16, and I had an adventure exiting the building. When we finally found a door to the outside world and exited, an alarm went off. We just ran! When we caught our collective breath, we Ubered across town to Venomous INK Tattoo. Now that I had joined Katherine among the ranks of Google Certified Innovators, we decided to get the ultimate souvenir. We got matching Google Innovator lightbulb logos tattooed on our right forearms. For Katherine, it was her first, but my fifth tattoo. The artist took pictures of her work, but we reminded her, these tattoos don't go for just anyone. We jokingly told her if someone wants this tattoo, they have to show their Innovator credentials first. 

We posted some pictures in the #SYD17 Hangout and many couldn't believe it. Mark Wagner said he had to see it himself. When we finished we met up with Mark and the coaches to show off our tattoos. The looks of shock were priceless. 

The opportunity to work with, learn from and connect with so many innovative educators has given me a new perspective on my profession. Design Thinking and the feedback received on my project was eye opening. My project, the onion on steroids it is, is definitely a moonshot. Going forward, after Sydney, I learned to focus on one small part at a time. If I am going succeed, I can't try and do it all at once.  Looking back, the Google Innovator Academy experience in Sydney is something I will never forget and I will continue to grow as a result.