Brainstorm 2020: #AppsDays

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Presented by Phil Strunk, History Teacher, Clarke County Public Schools; Patrick Hausammann, Supervisor of Instructional Technology, Clarke County/UnisonEDU/VSTE

There are many ways for a teacher to spend the summer and, as many of us know, it often involves a good amount of work. In the summer of 2018, two educators finalized an idea to start classes off in a very different way. #AppDays would start the school year off with relationship building through using #Hyperdocs to learn and use numerous apps such as Canva, Flipgrid, Powtoon, Screencastify, and a second #Hyperdoc focusing on GSuite aka “GSweet.” Come check it out!

Session note sheet

Certificate of attendance form

Transcript

so I don't know if you have tried this yet we got a mail a Miller and since we live close by and assuming you might got the door dash coupons have you got any other we didn't need yeah I've never used it before this quarantine but I think one of our lands on still going to I love it it's awesome it is very convenient but it also is very enabling them I don't want to give into the urge that I really want a frothy but yeah I don't want to get off the couch yeah and with look like a zero dollar delivery fee right now we have screen last night I got a crab and shrimp oh boy it was awesome this is dangerous I can't keep doing this
yeah but I will say during our current times and having school clothes in a lot of businesses close I think we're both doing good thing by supporting our local businesses but exactly we got to try and stay active you and maybe healthy in there once in awhile as well to stimulate the economy and that's how I got
all right are you start
okay I hello everybody I'm glad you can join us for this virtual conference today we are going to be talking to you about a concept that what is this is gonna be your three that we've had on was that's crazy so you're three it's called axes and as you can see here at the bottom the video description are the well yeah in the video description right here too there is the bit for it is case sensitive just to get a copy of the presentation that we're going to go through and certainly cover some more slides and we're going to during this time as well where go ahead and start with some basic introductions my name is still strong I am a sixth and seventh grade U. S. history teacher in Clark County Virginia and the outside of those things are a host you to show titled edge stations I have a Twitter chat on Thursdays at nine PM eastern Caldwell chat where we reflect on wins and losses in education and I absolutely love it you know I'm originally from Pennsylvania but I heard Virginia is for lovers and that's where my wife was teaching already so after we got married I moved on down and love it here how do you wanna go head issues yourself actually think fair I am Patrick has man I can be found online at the house ET you dot com same for Twitter handle at P. ET you and P. S. ET at G. mail dot com and you'll notice on the screen that there is a range of different badges and things I'm one of the big reasons that point to put it up there in you know that as we talk you and I talk to you we're coming from a place of experience but also if you see any of the badges on the screen if you look down through and it's something you want to go for and the phone line and near line and I'm more than happy to kind of walk you through what did I do to do Google innovator what can I do your vehicle a commonsense ambassador or any of the great investor I'm all about kind of helping and getting people to the point they want to get you and that is another connection it means they'll have I am the founder of unison need you which is a nonprofit to help schools that don't have the resources or people they need for high quality professional learning Phil is also a team member in that and this conference is a joint venture between units needy you are unified in protecting merit Shenandoah Valley technology consortium and you so a lot of groups to come together to put this on for free one hundred percent across the board and I'm really excited for this installment of after a
you too Pat
before you go on to the next slide in I feel like this is a this is a common theme between us up how does my kitchens on horn here but I want to look at his first bad sure there too you know like you said he has a Google innovator yeah but you know it's a it's it's not like you know anybody can go be a Google innovator Pat how many innovators are there worldwide we're somewhere close to two thousand I think at this point yes Sir two thousand the world of what seven billion people so Pat is in a very elite group and she is the kind of guy where if you really do have a question reach out to him and he will help you I've gotten some crazy our time responses from him I'm thinking why is he still working right now you know if I can
that's a good student and again I'm also really excited to be here as a party unison Edie you as a member of this D. and just getting to present about a topic that is really help out not a lot specially helping us out right now during the scoring G. the rain hit absolutely all right so let's let's talk about what this is
well was a threat so yeah but in about three years ago I got an email and well we all got an email from our superintendent in Clark County and I was very giddy because in that email I found out I would no longer have to fight with the math and English departments to get access to the computer labs we're going one soul one I was thrilled about this news every student was going to get a Chromebook and so one of my initial thoughts was how do I want to use this technology not to get typewriter to be put to really be transformative in a way that we teach in two thousand well then was what two thousand eighteen
and so what as we were as we're going through these things and and considering in reflecting on it I thought I want my students to be able to understand the routines of technology in my class you know I'm I'm not sure how many of you have read Harry of school but it talks again and again about this emphasis on routines and so I just want a hyper over the summer to teach my students how to use the central apps in my classroom that way I won't have to waste time and and other teachers out there you know you can leave a comment on the video or you raise your hand say yes yes yes war whenever you introduce a project and you have to spend thirty or forty minutes teaching them how to use the tools I thought number of front load all of this and get it done with so we can focus on the learning and less on how to use the technology
what do you want to add to that I would say the big thing for me and and we'll touch on this later on to is that a lot of people may initially think oh well you just jump in with technology right away and heck shouldn't be the focus and one of the big things I want to stress and again we'll touch on that throughout this act was not really the focus of it our actual learning target or goal which athletes was cultivating relationships everything the student ID within the different technologies which could build relationships and help really jump start that at the beginning of the year so it's a two fold kind of dividends pay off at the end of that stays and that is you jumpstart those relationships straight away are you also build that technology right away so that as you go through the year you can say Hey higher up this higher up any kids already have that they're not learning to think at the same time and you with the teacher are trying to each to think at the same time so keep that in mind as we go through and know that at least the beginning that your relationship that he chose yeah and so again as I as I look this over the summer I very quickly realized that I would need some other people look over this and so I sent it to Pabna my check this out for me and he looked over it and again like I'm telling you if you need help he's got to reach out I don't know how I like I'm I'm too much work to your plate now but he said that he would willingly co teach with me and that has been a huge help to me over the past two years coming up on third year this upcoming school year as well as soon as we kind of roll forward one of the big obvious component of this is the hyperdunk and if anybody's not familiar with high production the flights to the thing on your screen right now and you'll notice there is a bit ly underneath so if you need to go ahead and all the video it is on the screen in the middle it is on the screen at the bottom and will also link it in the notes are surrounding this session all but that's why she was going to walk you through everything from a definition of what a hybrid docu gives you what's different between a hiker dock with links in one of the biggest thing in my mind of that we can see through this basic template of a hyper and it's the fact that even just the lay out it's not just links on the page it has good judgment section that are research really help drive learning you start with engagement maybe that the quote or a video of some sort you really okay you get the students inspired then you move on to the floor you Kurt curate and resources for them to look through the really learn about the different concepts and you have them explain in some way that helps them out or maybe you explain that you bring them in to help a little bit then how do they apply that what assignment what thing are they actually gonna do that really shows that learning and then you bring it all around with these last two which to me are are the most powerful pieces of it and that is allowing them to share it out and for me that is both within the classroom and outside of that if you can give them as big of audience as you can that is on two sides comfort level as far as your comfort level as far as how why they should care but also their comfort level and maybe you kind of differentiate that some students may be more comfortable sharing outside the classroom than others let them kind of drive there if you can and then last but not least huge component for me and I know Phil believes in this deeply care their reflection he I can reflect not only on the path they took to get where they did what worked what didn't attend on the final project he was far as it come out they want the way they wanted to if not what did they learn from and on the way there and how are they going to get asked that I think quite mastered it yet but I'm gonna keep going from there you can see you have your general kind of lay out here in this document but whenever you might need here you can always come back to that slide deck and has you scroll down three you see we have the basic template here everyone of the pictures that you'll find in that fight that kind of walks you through another template and how you can tweak it and then Constand examples different things that you can use this last five I'm gonna touch on this side seventeen in the deck it gives you one fighter I'm gonna say somewhere over a thousand different hybrid apps that you can go straight into the file make a copy and make your own because the people that are not hyperdunks and it is link on one of our sites here towards the beginning part these ladies really coined it in the realm of we want this to be a free and open kind of thing we want your work to be recognized wanna make sure that attribution stays on the sides well we don't want to be something that people have to pay for it you get the health resources we want to pay it forward and make sure hyper docks is not just a group of length and it's not just something locked down the people that created it if you created in the true sense of the hyper doc you're putting it out there to share and let people benefit from it and that is really the mindset that we are entering into the apps state side of things with that we kind of created this concept we've now been sharing it as Phil said going into our third year of getting it out there in front of people and with that I'm gonna let still take the lead here I'm kind of giving us the just on what exactly apps they harbor is and what it's made up of so was originally called out stay and then we quickly realized that this is going to be a multi day sort of thing what should dive into it I look for for central apps I'm not trying to overwhelm students with absent on me we just gonna use once ever and so I had several here or I've had several to choose from I chose these four I just look great which is an awesome tool for enhancing student voice it's been fantastic since Microsoft bought it and made it free hello the second one is powered tune and pontoon once you get into it if you haven't before you'll start to notice some commercials on TV that use this program the software it's a really great way to make fun of professional videos hot will let's use this word and I saw it since then it is freemium which means there are some free some free pieces somebody got to pay for I always tell students listen Mr trump's we only do the free stuff screencast hi I have on here it's been helpful for students troubleshooting like if they have an issue with their Chromebook and especially right now during remote learning where they can record things and I can see what's happening on their screen and I can give the specific feedback I also like on here because street Castlebar has made my sub plans a really easy job and just to be able to show them Hey you know know how it works so whenever you watch my videos you you see what I'm doing you understand that more and then the fourth and final another freemium tool and it is a freemium tool that I use extensively camber camber has this uncanny ability to make anybody into a really great graphic designer a lot of really cool things are produced from this some Twitter post classroom posters remember my sister and her fiance got engaged I was able to use it in some editing to make a really quick card to send them it's a really cool thing use in and out of education so again these are the four main apps that I chose if this is something that you end up being interested in you don't have to choose these four that's the cool thing about it to find what works for your classroom find what routines you need to build them and consider how can I use these to build relationships early on as well
couple samples here that's going to go ahead and talk you through a few we're gonna start with some from tune
will ahead open some of these in the background but I'll show you briefly on this other slide view it's a couple different that are gonna show up for Palestinian will again relating that one load up in the background because sometimes it takes a few seconds the higher up you notice on your screen now there's a couple examples of different things that students creating camper and how you can correct me if I'm wrong but one of the problems here was kind of what do you really like to do maybe something he did over the summer you'll see things like gaming and I know star were Star Wars there in the top right is going to be a connection to fill as well then go and you can see we have things like sports teams in different things there that again students are using the pool but it's really building those relationships and help
but some of these kids are really interested in
and it really has been helpful especially as some of my students to yeah I imagine that that we are in similar boats where at the start of the school year whenever you get your roster sometimes teacher comes up you know like
you have that kid well yeah I do and I'm really excited to teach their kids so what the benefit is here is I can look at those students as they're designing these things and I can find things I can build immediate connections with so one of their students this year he had a huge interest in basketball and so I just talked to him a little bit about basketball here in there and that helped me out big time so that then whenever we were in meetings I was talking to the teachers now like Hey you know how is this kid for you I could very simply say he's great because I built that connection I built that relationship for pal tune you was simply no time something you're excited about something something you're nervous about for the school year and so watching these things has been really helpful in a way to build a deeper connection with the students and we will come back you the power to decide if it wants to work for us it may well be my internet on my side as we try and navigate this remotely but how do you have a really simple interface that you can see uses kind of cartoon like graphics using and then input text boxes and things like that and then how can help kind of seamlessly weave that together so the you get a little animated movie clip that the students again Hey walk each that they can set transitions and things within that cool but it makes it so it's something very simple that they can get through but then as they use it more as the year goes on it becomes even more powerful if they start to dive into some of those different pieces of the pool and that's another side to this at the beginning of the year this is the point in time we're we really encourages students to explore the tools when you're teaching live in the moment you're trying to get through content and stay with that kind of overhanging hazing a lot of our teachers this is a time where you can give them a little more time to dive into this rabbit holes how many different fonts and I tried how many different color backgrounds can I have how many images this too many images in camera let them play with them other things now so that when they get there later down the line I like I remember I discovered this thing let the students talk with each other when they find something awesome let him share it with the table next to them and be like oh did you see this all that sounds crazy I love it and of course in the spirit of sharing me and Phil are also gonna give your own very own copy of apps day want to take the lead on walking us through what this looks like yeah I absolutely so as you see them in there I'm a lover of all things meme you can click on that or click on where it says get your own copy of axes but up whenever you click on that what you're going to find is a VAX out you're gonna get this template and very simply at the top there's or watch this video I wanted my students to start without engagement piece and so there is an old I don't know how old it is now but there is an apple commercial out there about homework I hate homework so I have them watch them because the have the point there is not a hate how markets that they hit the traditional way home works always been given to them but whenever it's a to more innovative more robust it really engages those students and so you he open with some I hope that this is something that's really going to engage them now once they watch the video then you have the directions here and you can see I have my hyperdunks set up very differently than others have been set up that's another beauty of a hiker docks and all the apps they make it what works for you and your students
so my last column I have learning activities and on the right I have how they're gonna show me mastery how are they going to prove that they know how the apps work you start with footprint it's a really simple video they introduce themselves and the coming up last thing they did that summer so then whenever I go home I can open up the grid and watch the videos if I'm like I need a I mean check something about the student just to maybe find out something they did to really make a good connection another thing that's nice about the stuff too is that as the recording I'm not able to walk around the room you're from students and so a lot of some of the recording in there we've already heard them say and so it's a great just reference check back point for them as well
obviously this is an assignment that is not graded because not everything needs to be created and I don't think this would be appropriate to use to be greeted by any stretch the mean so once they move on from third grade we drive we drop down the camera and on there that's where they're going to create a graphic that's explaining you basically themselves it's introducing themselves and their interest in Sir yeah you saw the football players on the Star Wars stuff you saw a lot of stuff on the previous graphics
but then I want to teach them how and this is like a soft skill thing how to submit a shareable link because there are several times and you know I'll be honest with you this is something that I still need to go back and re teach students pretty consistently throughout the year but this at least gets a good chunk of the students are aware that I don't have to remind them how to do this again in the future to teach them as soft skill how to insert their because this is going to be the hub for all these science and it really critical piece as well thank you design this what are those kind of housekeeping thing that's kind of housekeeping skills that are going to help you as a teacher down the road if you know you're gonna use shareable links and things like that make sure you incorporate some of those things in there if there's some routines that you want to make sure students maybe work some of those routines and to what they do and have day and on the flip side if you're gonna use something like classroom that drive a lot of things we'll use Google classroom to hand out this template and they'll be handing in some of the things in your classroom so it is for a few days we're establishing some of those routines were building relationships we're learning some of the different pieces of the pack and they're also learning the correct way it's a good way to handing then and that helps them and it also paid a lot of evidence for the teacher on the flip side yes in such an easy transition to the start of the school year too because you know people are surprised to hear the full conversation whenever students come in from summer the first thing they want to learn about is surprisingly not reconstruction plans and the reconstruction amendments no they wanna be able to talk about what they do that summer and so this helps them still learn and it still helps them
be able to express themselves a little bit more so once you're done with candidates jumping the pouch unit and how soon they're going to create a video that like I said explain something they're excited about and something that the nervous about for year and this lets them kind of expressed that to me so then I can watch it and say okay so like ten he's really worried about not doing well in school how can I you know make sure that I hope to me you know feel firm in the classroom or you know John is worried about making friends who are some people that as the school year continues I can I can think about these two would be like would be good working ethics especially in if they come to me in seventh grade I taught some of them in sixth grade two and so again it helps to build that relationship the fourth and final lap is screen and this is my big reflection piece I have them figure out how do you stream past and then the need to make a video where they tell me something they really liked but absent and something they would change about it I tell them you know you're not gonna hurt my feelings I'm not gonna cry at least not in front of you and so you know just tell me what are some things that you would like to see changed or modified maybe one of these apps is like what we need and especially if I have them in sixth grade and then they come back in seventh grade I really value that feedback because they've had a year with me and so they get a bit of a sense about how I structure my class on a daily basis
so that's the template please make a copy of it if you're interested in it use use use it
one of my big things this summer is that one of the pesky things at tech companies do is they change in the improve and so I've got to go back and make some good huge video tutoriales anything like that is going to be put into the slide deck as well
Mr innovator something we will touch on just briefly because we want to make sure we get you all the resources and things in the time that we have is a secondary hyper doc that follows the beginning after days one and we believe this was filled hi G. suite which is a little bit of a play on words for Google predication and G. suite of course being a little bit different in the selling side but what G. three does is give them a great path that is kind of built in almost as an enrichment really it we're focusing on apps they have the most a G. suite allows him to walk through a lot of the basics of all really almost all of the G. suite apps especially things like Cochran and the main one that they might use it walks through a lot of the things and again allows them time you play with all the fun the background colors transitions all of those different things before it becomes more of a crunch time when projects are you when things are happening like that and it's still notes on the flight that also gives them a lot of that time to get questions answered before things happen so that later on down the line there's not a lot of questions that how do I change that on I need to decide how do I do that it walks him through a lot of those things with videos with how to different things golden and you can see again yes hi her is laid out very much like the apps they want most which is very different than the sample that I showed you and that's something that felt stressed and something I will piggyback on as well your hyper doctors not have to look anything like ours you can go to town on different fonts and colors it could be more of a choice or type of thing use what works for you use the tools that work for you agency we have two coils down the side what do we need you to do how do you handed in down through the form sheets in a little bit of drawings goodness on the tail inside you can see it really builds on the apps side hate them into the realm of G. suite to the master some of those things and then something that we also did new this year in our second running of it was building in some actual badges that students could earn for both apps there is a separate badge for completing that in a separate bonus one for completing G. suite as well so it gave students actually on the G. three one a little bit more incentive to keep working on that maybe even if class had kind of moved on they wanted to get that second badge flapping on the Chromebook and walked proudly through the whole this apps these champions yes I'm sure that is exactly what they were
I will I will admit them you know I I'm pretty sure I got everybody that the job state one within like a week or so I'm pretty sure I got them all their stickers but it takes a lot of things yeah I don't think I got too many G. sweet ones out this year but I I want to be better this upcoming school year that's my goal it's everybody their G. suite and their apps one but you have a micro credential was that was a huge success yeah student new to our school this year and after she complete abstained I gave her the sticker she looked at me puzzled what's up do you always get stickers for finishing your homework at the school
three adults love stickers exactly who doesn't love a good sticker
you yeah I collect a couple badges yeah you know check out check out teachers emails
so as we reflect on this you know we have a lot of a lot of really good things from out of state to talk about it but you know we also have some growth points too we're not immune from it what we are by no means perfect but it's been really nice to not have to re teach every single piece of technology every time that I use it in class are there are some students you still need that support and so I help him out there or a student needs like once you troubleshooting questions like maybe we haven't used how tuned in the quarter and you know they forget how to do something that's okay let me explain it to you one of the big things though is how much it has helped other teachers across the building and so you know I have students who if they have that sticker on their Chromebooks the teachers know they know how to use these apps that can help explain it to another student or there's other teachers know that they can find anything from those four apps and all my students should know how to use that we're a small school and so I teach by and large all of seventh grade minus a couple sections so the majority of the kids know how to use the stuff how do you want to talk about how it's starting to evolve to becoming a more division wind sort of thing yeah and that's something we just this year actually branched out into the elementary school because they actually caught the Facebook live we did when we were presented at the teach better conference this past year and got really excited about the concept of app state so we actually branched out into third grade and brought some of these skills and things and we could use some different acts again and not as a threat exactly what works for you the grade level all that determines how in depth and how many things they do but I will say the unintended consequence at least they're not consequence but and it had a great thing that happened with apps they initially was how it started to filter out into the school and now has gone beyond and we're starting to think about how can we connect the more teachers and build either a larger library of apps or maybe do two or three here and then two or three year S. read that wealth around but it's also building Michael said kind of that student tech squad that knows a lot of the thinking can help not only student killed her son but help the teachers sometimes when they struggle with the thing and I know the last bullet point on here is something that I still struggle with I like to say I'm a recovering perfectionist but the first time we ran abscess took a lot longer than we anticipated because a lot of the students wanted all the little things to be perfect it wanted for to create the perfect they wanted their house even their campus things to be perfect think the line on each side so we have done it I think a really good job in the second running to make sure they know if it's your time to play we definitely want it so that we can read all the words trying make sure something's not running off the side and graphics aren't cut all of them have to be perfect we want to learn about you we want you to play with it and know that right now this is not it I am that it needs to be perfect it just needs to be showing that you're learning you're growing with it yeah we want to build that student capacity we want to give them that baseline so they know that you know how do I open up a flip great how do I open up an assignment how do I insert text into that I insert innovations the pouch and how do I create a screen cast recording that way whenever I give them the contents that they can focus much more because they already know how to open it and how to get started with it they can focus much more on on the minute very intentional content oriented pieces of these assignments and so as we consider it some things for the future and you know as we just encourage you to consider things as well
a few things so for whatever you plan consider the naming of the files some simple things the future how to name a file because if they look like my students have in the past it says untitled document untitled document untitled document on how to turn things in I still have students that need that reminder of struggle trends in Google classroom yeah but did you click the blue turn inside after you touched it who
the shareable links for what is freemium mean and teaching about the procedures and rules of the aspect as well one here yeah and we won't read all these because again you can pause this video and go down through a couple that I'll touch on make sure you write customized every part of this to your room it doesn't have to use the same maps the lay out customize it to fit your student can really what would help you and them starting at the beginning of the year encourage them to push all the buttons very few times your teachers have the time to encourage this use that that time to let them play with it and that is the component to building those relationships to that you trust them to do good things with the tools and explore it in a responsible way and that kind of sets a nice tone as well and think about maybe you could include parents or guardians and that's at some point too because we're thinking about how we might evolve apps if you were thinking about maybe a some sort of a break in verses the break out to learn about Mister strong before they started to think about different wrinkles you can add in because word will spread this was a very positive thing for the students and something they really like to know that kids are gonna learn about it they're going to like it they're gonna expect the new and different things that that comes around yeah and I'll usually where we present this we have more time and so we like the building workshop time that way while we're here we can kind of help out with any sort of questions one of the big benefits though of this being a virtual conference is that now you have the opportunity to take however much time you need you know rush to the exception and you can work through stuff and so and our next slide we have a list of tons of different apps the really cool thing that packet is all the logos throughout the presentations from the presentation if you click on it it will link its all rate is going to to whatever app that is so you have a big chunk of apps right there
the end more takes you to a tech tool database that Clark County has been putting together with her do we have a hundred fifty how many have have and I believe it's a hundred twenty five but getting ready to add some around fifty or so more in the near future so you know we have a lot of resources in there for you to be able to look at apps and consider what's going to work for you what's going to work for your classroom a Chromebook and chrome did some new stuff for Google some new stuff that the past to go into depth you're about it really is great how many options you have here to use one of only found there the two that lead to more stuff is obvious and more and then the Chromebook tab apple which is a huge repository that will build out with the help of certified trainers innovators and some different have
owners developers companies
it is distinctly things that are all going to work without a doubt on a Chromebook and it's not going to be just here's the cool it's going to be here's a cool here's a specific use that actually work in my room you're the contact person I can help you with it and here's all the different bits and pieces you need from guides you how do you think of differentiation with a bunch of different things it is searchable it is an awesome resource if you are using Chromebooks and a lot of the stuff is going to work off of Chromebooks as well so if you're in give has Max or PC's or windows check it out too because a lot of those things if it works on a Chromebook it's going work in those rounds as well right
so you know thank you so much for watching a presentation please please please feel free to contact us at any time you know we you're not kidding all we really like helping out with the sort of things you seem upon we have our websites there are Twitter handles there
I think your website does your website have a contact me page it doesn't mean yeah so N. N. M. this too so you can contact is there some us a message on Twitter and yeah I mean has there anything you wanna add not much the only thing I'll say is keep in mind and feels touched on this it doesn't have to be tomorrow it doesn't have to be next week or even next year if you're going into this concept or even some of the tools contact us anytime we will help out and we would love to collaborate if you get time I haven't clicked that evaluation link that'll be on your side and give us some feedback on this session and maybe even just apps days in general there's an open ended up in that evaluation to let us know how we can keep learning and getting better I stressed it during the preseason cation and Phil's chat chat on Thursday night nine PM it's all about that our reflection through we really do take those valuation heart reflect that we can keep getting better and offering you guys better and better things
thank you all so much for watching stay safe stay healthy and now we'll catch you next time thank you guys it was a pleasure to be with you even if it was virtually thank you