 I thought that all I could learn from kindergarten teachers I'd learned back in 1970 in Mrs. Ducote's class, but Kory Graham has proven me wrong.
Being in daily contact with Kory for the past year as part of our connected educator teaching PLC has taught me a number of things. Her insightful questions have improved my teaching, her modeling has expanded my tech horizons, and her friendship has enriched my personal life. Mrs. Graham taught me that smart boards work best in the hands of students and mounted at student height (yes, even kindergarteners can use them -I've seen them used in her classroom, along with educational iPad activities she designed.) She showed me I can use Google Hangout for long-distance reading enrichment and she offered to help me when I admitted I found it daunting. Her calm nature makes her a great tech tutor. She is approachable and positive and meets those who do not have her same expertise right where we are. She knows how to reassure those with tech anxiety. Nothing seems too hard with Kory on your team. She is a master of making a way. She's one of the most ethical, conscientious, and truly helpful people I know. I've seen her work hand-in-hand with parents both in her classroom and across the country to make learning better for students. She enjoys discovering new tools and information and asks amazing questions that probe thinking and open up possibilities. She single-handedly instituted and organized a reading night for her students and community families that continues each year solely because of the force of her commitment to doing what is best for students. She moderates educational chats of teachers as deftly as she navigates an obstacle course on field day. If something needs to be done, hand it to Kory and you can be sure it will get done and done well. Before I met Kory I had the mistaken notion that early elementary teachers could not benefit from tech that those of us who teach older grades can. She's opened my eyes to many new ways to use social media, tech tools, apps and websites across all grades. I've also learned from her to speak distinctly, ask clarifying questions, and remain relentlessly curious. Rather than being shy about something, wonder aloud and see what you can learn. She's taught me these things, but she is the master. Listening to her get to the bottom of an issue and find a solution is like watching a master artist: she makes it look easy. Kory is not just a tech-infused teacher; Kory lives a tech-infused life. She blends the best of old-school and new-school; of skills-based and experiential inquiry and brings it as a gift to all of those who have the pleasure to work and think with her each day.
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Learn Schoolnet Would you like training on Schoolnet? If so, let me know this week and CMS can come during your planning. Schoolnet training includes how to give autograded tests via schoolnet- scores instantly go into Powerschool. (to see how to do this with Google Drive check here) Google Classroom Updates
Tech Integrated tools and lesson ideas
Rubric Rethink Here are 2 articles that were tweeted recently with interesting thoughts on rubrics: Maker Movement Ms. Newburger and I presented about the media center's makerspace and Piedmont's maker culture at the CMS tech meeting. If you don't know what I mean by our maker culture, think the 6th grade's egg drop designs, the 8th grade civil rights museum installments and this week's 7th grade industrial revolution inventions extravaganza.  Hello overworked tired teachers! (and also those few of you who are happy energetic and completely caught up): Kindergarten teacher Kory Graham (@tritonkory) taught me that October is when the groove begins and the craziness of the begining of the year finally slows down to a dull roar. If you are overwhelmed it will get better soon! Some of these links might even help that along: Last week I threw a lot of links out there at you so this week I have just rounded up a few highlights. Feel free to catch up on last week's links by scrolling through these 3 blog pages below: This week's Piedmont PD posts include a community PD offering this coming Tuesday to add to the last week's link to the new Discovery Place resource center for teachers! I also just heard Discovery Place is free on Saturdays for teachers so look into this! This week's lesson ideas page include a video playlist to help students develop growth mindset. One video of Austin's butterfly is a good way to make learning visible and in doing so reinforce growth mindset grit and effort in your students. (I can't believe I just said grit!) This week's Celebrating Piedmont blog includes Ms. Barone's trip to jail, inspiration to use your best teaching gifts from the encore team's example, and more. I am a big fan of using one's strengths as the way to minimize weaknesses and I believe it is the reason for Piedmont's success- we use people where they work best. If you aren't sure what your best teaching strengths are, here is a great link via Keely Shannon @keelybshannon on Twitter) that includes a quiz so you can find out. http://www.weareteachers.com/hot-topics/special-reports/teach-to-your-strengths Have a great weekend and remember you are amazing just as you are right now! You are changing the world every day with the smallest act of kindness you can show to anyone you meet. For example, you can smile at a child who's having a bad day and turn their entire day around, their entire attitude about school, and that will ripple out to everyone else that child encounters. Our jobs are amazingly important like that. (Thanks to Josh Gauthier @mrgfactoftheday for that reminder)  Thank you, Piedmont staff, because YOU are This to me! Click the image to see why. Latest Piedmont PD News includes info on National Board Certification, Discovery Place's professional development offerings for teachers, new quick PD's on handy efficient tech tricks to save you time and storage space: like the quickest way to upload to Google Docs, how to convert and embed a powerpoint, How to make a QR CODE ,chromebook and computer troubleshooting info, etc Other Ed News from Around the Web:  https://www.edsurge.com/guide/how-teachers-are-learning-professional-development-remix
 Big Philosophical idea of the week:
My last post was all about GAFE ---I introduced how to log into google classroom and announced the Google Slides app here http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/news-and-thoughts/google-classroom-omg _ This post is a bit more about Google Apps - I just did a great training. First with Jake Standish and today with Heather Nussbaum of CMS I took lots of photos of what I found most useful for teachers or students using Google Docs for Research and Translation and Google Classroom for Sharing files and assignments:  This photo shows how easily students who use Google Drive (GAFE) can search for images and articles related to their papers. They can do it all within Google (docs or slides) and the citations are placed in MLA or other format automatically! I wish so badly that this existed when I was in school !!!!! Such a time saver!  Jake Standish made our students a Google Classroom Icon right there on the dock so when our students log into Chromebooks, it's just a touch of a button to go to their online Classroom portal! (curser at the bottom)  This shows all the ways you can download a doc if you don't want to keep it in the cloud. Notice you can also "publish to the web" for embedding in your website . Super easy!  Translate a doc by going to "tools-Translate" then select your language! It will save it as a separate document so you don't "lose" the original language. Translation will be awkward, but may be better than nothing! I chose Norwegian as my example language in honor of @tritonkory  Here is Ms. Nussbaum showing us how to make a copy of a document for each student- when they submit it it is automatically turned into the appropriate folder on YOUR Google Drive named with their name and with their edits. |
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AuthorLisa Gurthie is the PD facilitator at Piedmont IB Middle School. She specializes in tech and arts integration, interdisciplinary holistic education, and unschooling school to reconnect academia to real life. One day she will modernize her "about" page. She curates this blog for the professional development convenience of the teachers at Piedmont, but the editorial comments are her own. Categories
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