Reflecting with the Middle School

Many of us like our students to reflect on the way they learn. It would be even more powerful if the reflections they do in different classes were all collected together in one place. We can do this now! It's often referred to as an e-portfolio.

Building on a great initiative from our Music, Theatre and Visual Arts colleagues, now all MS students have a blog in which they can write; make links; post images; embed audio or video. They then label the blogpost with the name of the subject and the blog will create a tab which collects all of their posts from just that subject.

For the students, it can be a very helpful tool for improving their learning skills. As we work to find a better LMS (which would hopefully include this sort of portfolio), we are keen that the skills the students are learning while blogging will be transferred to the new system (and the blogposts too).

If you would like to learn how to use this tool with your MS classes, please let Steve or Becky know and we will be happy to show you and visit your class to help you implement it.

Here is a short video showing how it works.

Sharing is caring

Dear all,

I enjoyed meeting my colleagues during the meetings on Wednesday. We were talking about a great way to share resources with classes: organising them in Google Drive, but accessible through the LMS. Here are the slides explaining how to use a Google Drive folder to share documents with students via the LMS.

Also, I mentioned in one session that it is possible to edit one's MS Word and Powerpoint files within Google Drive so that there is no more upload and replace file misery. I have now tried this out and it works though the edits are only simple; you can't edit images for example. If you want to investigate this, watch this video:

I am happy to walk you through this if you want; at first it seemed not to work, but it does and it's fine.

Steve

How will ICT at ISL look next year?

Dear colleagues,

The landscape of educational technology at ISL continues, as ever, to develop. Most systems will be the same at the start of the next year, but here is a short summary of some changes:

1 to World is a Thing

We are used to the term '1 to 1' which describes each student in a classroom having her own computer. Next year, you will increasingly hear the term '1 to World' which reflects the ability of a student using a computer to connect with resources and people beyond their classroom.

1 to World in Upper School
Upper School students from Grades 6 to 11 will be bringing a laptop to school every day. Grade 12 students will be encouraged to do so, but it is optional for them. Here is a copy of the letter which went to families summarising the situation with 1 to 1.

Increasing ICT integration in Upper School
ICT integration at ISL will continue to work closely with individual colleagues on their projects, but there will be a greater emphasis on integrating ICT into the schemes of teaching teams so that the student experience is more uniform. We are developing an 'Educational Technology Skillset' which will identify abilities we would like all students to have acquired when they leave Grade 8 and that teachers of older year groups can assume their students have. This is a work in progress. To achieve this goal, the ICT facilitators have met with a number of teaching teams (both Middle School and subject groups) to discuss projects we can co-develop from the planning stages to co-teaching in the classroom and we will continue to work on this from the start of next school year.

ICT in Action
As a consequence of the increased focus on integration of ICT into curriculum planning, the course of ICT in Action, which has been a feature in the Middle School Cascade programme, will be phased out. The skills which students learned in these standalone classes will be taught instead through the medium of regular classrooms in a closer alliance between teachers and the facilitators. The students joining Grade 6 will get up to speed with the basic skillset in a six lesson programme during the first 2 weeks of school called Get Set.

New ICT Facilitator
... and finally, we will have a new facilitator in Upper School from the start of next school year. Becky Burnett is joining us and I know you will make her very welcome. This means, sadly, that we are saying 'Sayonara' to Matt. I know many of you will miss his cheerful expertise and I am very sorry to see a great colleague leave us.

Your data in the Final Site LMS at the end of the school year

Dear all,

With the end of the academic year approaching, we’d like to make sure you are aware of what will happen with your information in the Final Site LMS during the vacation.

You do not need to do anything now. Nothing will be lost. All importing into new classes will take place at the beginning of the 2016 -17 academic year. Your Technology Facilitators will be here to support you in this process.

All of your current classes will be archived (this means they are saved in a place where you can find them easily) during the vacation. All resources, all media,, all bulletins currently in the LMS will be saved. In August, the LMS will be ready for development for your new classes. You will be able to import the archived data into your new classes. Data which cannot be imported is anything which has a specific date such as calendar events and Dropbox deadlines (although they will have been saved for reference).

Below is the menu bar of a typical class page. See below for details about the data behind each button.

Home: With just a few clicks, this page can be copied from an archived class to a new class.

Calendar: Events in your calendar must be created again for the next academic year.

Gradebook & Attendance: Not used at ISL … no worries.

Resources: With just a few clicks, resource folders and files can be copied from an archived class to a new class.

DropBox: Tasks in your DropBox must be created again for the next academic year.

Media: Is anyone using this?

Bulletins: Bulletins must be created again for the new academic year.

Blog: Blog posts must be created again for the new academic year, but you can copy and paste information from an archived class.

Discussions: Discussion boards can be imported from an archived class.

Members: This information is imported directly from INSIS.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Regards,

Steve and Matt

YouTube Accounts

As you may have noticed, we have opened YouTube for all ISL Google users. Now you can login to YouTube using your ISL email account. While you have always had the ability to access YouTube to view videos, now you and your students can upload videos without using a separate Google account.

YouTube, with all of its online content, is a tremendous tool for teaching and learning. The simple act of providing a video to a student that can be accessed anytime and anywhere allows the student to review course material as often as necessary and at their own pace

• Teachers can create playlists which collect together videos on a particular topic.
• Teachers can upload their own videos or screencasts in an area separate from their own private use of YouTube.
• Students can upload their own video-based schoolwork to their islux account.
• Teachers can collect student videos on a topic in a single playlist
• Teachers or students can comment on student work
• Teachers can share videos (such as screencasts of comments on essays) privately with individual students.

To help our students stay safe and use YouTube appropriately, we have developed a few expectations. These expectations, along with a getting started guide, will be sent to all Upper School students soon.

• When using your ISL account, YouTube should be used for school related videos, not personal videos.
• Videos should be uploaded as unlisted or private.
• Comments (if enabled) on videos should be positive and mature.
• Copyright should be respected - do not upload videos with copyrighted material, unless you have permission.

If you have any questions or would like help integrating YouTube in your lessons, please reach out to us.

Steve and Matt

Earn your Google Educator Certification!

Tanya, Steve and Matt are looking for some volunteers who are interested in earning a Google Educator Certification. You don’t need to be an expert, just interested in learning more about how you can implement Google Apps for Education into your teaching practice.

Information sessions to learn more

Monday, 11 April 2016 - 11:50am - Hillside Conference Room
Monday, 11 April 2016 - 12:50pm - Hillside Conference Room
Please come, even if you will be late or can't stay the entire time

Cost

Free (the school has agreed to pay for staff to become certified)

Certificates offered:

Google Certified Educator (Level 1)

Designed for educators and classroom teachers who wish to demonstrate proficiency in using Google for Education tools. The Level 1 status indicates that an educator is able to successfully implement Google Apps for Education into their teaching practice in order to enhance teaching and learning.

Google Certified Educator (Level 2)

The Level 2 status indicates that an educator is able to successfully integrate a wider range of Google for Education tools and other technologies in order to transform their teaching practice.

If you want to know more, stop by and have a chat with one of us!

The Power and the Point of Google Slides

My session during TTT on Friday was about online slides. I did 2 sessions: the first one used the slides below and demonstrated the power of the medium. Furthermore, I was keen to explain why online slides enhance what we do as educators. I have six main reasons which are explained from slide #5. At the second session, colleagues practised using Google slides on their own projects. There were many productive discussions about how we can integrate this powerful tool into our classrooms. I also printed out the 12 summary slides which function as a sort of manual, so if you would like a copy, please drop by 226.

I never tire of showing off these tools, so if any individuals or groups can spare an hour or two, I would be very happy to be invited to help you.

Our New Room and other news

Dear all,

WE ARE MOVING ROOMS

Halos optional

As from the beginning of February 2016, Matt and Steve can be found in a new room. It is 226, formerly known as the Modern Language Teacher Prep Room. The main reason for the move is to bring us closer to more teachers. We hope to benefit from the passing traffic and look forward to our colleagues popping in with ideas for bringing more educational technology into your classes. Another way to get in touch with us is to call us on 4224.

And... you are invited to a room-warming party on the afternoon of the PD day Friday 5 February.

IS THAT MY LAPTOP?


Teachers' laptops, like water bottles, can look very similar to each other. I have already, embarrassingly, walked off with someone else's Yoga laptop.

Wouldn't it be better if we could personalise them? Well, you can. Having bought a bottle of solvent, ISL is happy for teachers to put colourful stickers on their school-issued computers.


NEWS FROM THE FRONT

What the author saw...

As ever, there is a lot of great teaching going on every day at ISL. Many colleagues are also trying out new ideas with technology and we have been highlighting these on this blog.


If you missed them, here are some excellent ideas from our colleagues:

• Hannah Flandrin-Jones (Skype with an author)
• Elena Aldridge (Minecraft in French class)
• Guillaume Gravé-Rousseau (Interviews by students with subtitles in French)

WHICH COMPUTER ARE OUR STUDENTS USING?

Recently, all Grade 6 and 7 students were asked some questions about the computers they are using for 1 to 1. This data will be very helpful as we plan for next year's advent of computers in Grades 9 to 11. We will follow up later with a survey about attitudes to 1 to 1 amongst the students.

Below are three interesting findings:

• More than 6 in 10 laptops which the students bring to school are made by Apple.
• Fewer than half of the students bring a charger to school.
• Half of the students use no other computer than the laptop they bring to school.

Students make great videos - with French subtitles

As teachers, we like to give our students real-world tasks to make their learning more memorable. Every year, Guillaume Gravé's Grade 9 French foreign language class produces some great films of interviews with people about their work - complete with subtitles. In the video below, you will see several clips from this year's interviews (though nothing so spectacular as last year's interview with our Prime Minister).


The activity is firmly anchored in language learning and uses technology in the form of camera, tablet or smartphone and the constantly evolving functions of YouTube. It is all very easy and the tech enhances rather than hinders the language acquisition. If you would like to try this with one of your classes (whether language or otherwise), read on below this short video of clips from the students' interviews ...

There are several ways to add subtitles to a video, but the best I have ever seen is within YouTube. YouTube allows you to listen to a speaker and then to type what is said while the video pauses until you are ready for the next sentence. In my experience, it takes 3 minutes to type a minute of speaking. The students learn to use it very quickly. For the learners, there is intense exposure to the target language.

In terms of SAMR, this is an activity that allows students to engage with a real-world task. The videos are on YouTube whose flexible privacy settings mean that the teacher can control exactly who can see the video. The teacher can easily manage the viewing so that the students receive constructive feedback from an authentic audience, whether peers, parents or another class.

If you would like to try an activity like this with one of your classes, please get in touch with Matt or Steve.

How to become the most popular teachers in Middle School

At the beginning of this semester we dove head first into the world of Minecraft. Elena was a Minecraft novice who had never played before (but has a growth mindset), while Matt has a bit of experience implementing Minecraft in the class (but far from an expert). The goal was to find an engaging way to integrate technology into French class. The result was a huge French Minecraft world with examples of French speaking, writing and vocabulary.

What is Minecraft?

Minecraft is a computer game that allows players to build constructions out of textured cubes, whilst using creative skills to label them and to create conversations, depending on the setting.  We used MinecraftEdu, a school-ready version of Minecraft, designed specifically for classroom use.

If Minecraft is new to you, check out this short one-minute Minecraft trailer:

Why bring Minecraft into the educational setting?

This project facilitated the development of non­cognitive skills that many other educational games teach, whilst reinforcing the units of the existing school curriculum. Furthermore, it provided pupils with an enjoyable, age-appropriate and popular learning activity.

Pupils...

• worked on the project from home, for no more than one hour a week;
• created a 4-5 minute presentation on a topic directly related to Units 1 and 2;
• presented their final project in class, one week before the end of term;
• connected to a moderated server from their laptops;
• worked in pairs, small groups or individually, as preferred;
• were informally assessed on the project, and therefore received individual feedback;
• were not set other homework for French for the duration of the project;
• were provided with ongoing assistance in school, for both French language or ICT skills, as required.

Summative Task

The summative assessment was for the students to create a screencast of themselves walking through their Minecraft world - introducing everything in French.

Take a look at this example by Sophia and Paula:


You can find many more videos and blog posts by students on the ISL Minecraft blog. If you are interested in integrating Minecraft in your classroom, stop by and have a chat with Matt and Steve.

Matt and Elena