#the kid works well in class but when it came to assessment he couldn’t demonstrate enough to reach the six months of growth to progress him

[dontwanderoff]

oh toilet cry, i have not missed you

[jccamus]

My semester with the snowflakes~

My semester with the snowflakes~ https://ift.tt/2sSRZoH

My semester with the snowflakes~

In May of 2019, at the age of 52, I was accepted to the Eli Whitney student program at Yale University.

I am the oldest freshman in the class of 2023. Before I was accepted, I didn’t really know what to expect. I had seen the infamous YouTube video of students screaming at a faculty member. I had seen the news stories regarding the admissions scandal and that Yale was included in that unfortunate business. I had also heard the students at Yale referred to as “snowflakes” in various social media dumpsters and occasionally I’d seen references to Ivy League students as snowflakes in a few news sources.

I should give a bit of background information. I was an unimpressive and difficult student in public schools. I joined the military at 17 and spent close to 26 years in the US Navy. I was assigned, for 22 of those years to Naval Special Warfare Commands. I went through SEAL training twice, quit the first time and barely made it the second time. I did multiple deployments and was wounded in combat in 2009 on a mission to rescue an American hostage.

Every single day I went to work with much better humans than myself. I was brought to a higher level of existence because the standards were high and one needed to earn their slot, their membership in the unit. This wasn’t a one-time deal. Every time you showed up for work, you needed to prove your worth.

The vetting process is difficult and the percentages of those who try out for special operations units and make it through the screening is very low.

In an odd parallel, I feel, in spite of my short time here, the same about Yale.

After receiving my acceptance email and returning to consciousness, I decided to move to Connecticut and do my best in this new environment. Many people have asked me why I want to attend college at 52, and why at an Ivy League institution like Yale? I could have easily stayed in Virginia and attended a community college close to my home. Well, based on my upbringing in the military, I associated difficult vetting process’ with quality and opportunity. I was correct in that guess. More importantly though, I simply want to be a better human being. I feel like getting a world class education at an amazing institution like Yale will help me reach that goal. Are there other places to get a great education? Of course, but I chose Yale.

My first class of the semester was absolutely terrifying. I don’t know if it was so for the kids in my class, but it damn sure was for me. It was a literature seminar with the amazing Sterling Professor of Comparative Literature, Professor David Quint. He is an amazing human in that he has dedicated his life to literature, and he knows what he is talking about. The discussion was centered around the Iliad. I had read a bit of the Iliad in the middle part of my military career and decidedly didn’t get it. Listening to Professor Quint demonstrated exactly how much I didn’t “get it.” The other students looked like children to me. Hell, they are children, but when they speak, and some of them speak english as their second language, they sound like very well-spoken adults. My Navy issued graduate degree in cussing wasn’t going to help me out here. These young students had a good grasp of the literature and although they lacked much experience to bounce it off of, they were certainly “all in” on trying to figure out its underlying meaning.

At one point, I said; “hey, I’m just an old guy sitting here with a bunch of smart people, but I think….” And they all smiled, some of them nervously because I was essentially an alien. I was an old dude with tattoos all over his arms, and a Dutch Shepherd service Dog brandishing a subdued American flag patch on her harness, sitting next to him. Professor Quint later approached me and said “hey, don’t downplay your intelligence. You are smart as well.”

I thought, I’ve got him fooled! Turns out I didn’t fool him at all when I turned in my first paper, but that is another story for another time.

After a few classes, I started to get to know some of my classmates. Each of them is a compelling human who, in spite of their youth, are quite serious about getting things done.

One young woman made a very big impact on me. She approached me after class one day and said; “I am really glad I can be here at Yale and be in class with you. My grandfather came to Yale and when WWII started, he left for the Navy and flew planes in the Pacific theater. After he came home, he came back to Yale, but he couldn’t finish. He locked himself in his room and drank and eventually had to leave, so I feel like I am helping him finish here at Yale and I’m doing it with a veteran, you.”

I was surprised and quite emotional. Exceptionally emotional. She went on; “I can send you a photo of him!” and I told her I would love one. That evening she sent me this photo of her grandfather.

I used to read stories about men like him and they are heroes to me. Clearly her grandfather is a hero to her as well, and she is going to make him quite proud. This connection with a WWII vet through his amazing granddaughter is a gift. One of many I receive on an almost daily basis in this amazing institution. I think it’s worth taking a moment here and acknowledging that this thing we now call “PTSD” has always been around and some of us veterans escape it while others, like me and likely this gent in the airplane, felt the sting of it.

One day in another lit class, I brought up a book I’d read a long time ago called “Taxi Driver Wisdom” by Risa Mickenberg, Joanne Dugan and Brian Lee Hughes.

After that class a couple of the students approached me and explained that their dads were cabbies when they first came to the United States, and that their fathers had told them that the things they sometimes heard from people in their cabs were amazing.

Think about that for a second. These students are first generation Americans. Their fathers immigrated to this country and started out by being taxi drivers. Now, their children are attending college at Yale University. I’m a patriotic man and those are the stories that help me understand how, in spite of the seemingly endless stream of negativity surrounding it, the American Dream is still alive and kicking. It makes my heart sing every time I see those kids.

Let me address this “snowflake” thing. According to the “Urban Dictionary” a “snowflake” is a “term for someone that thinks they are unique and special, but really are not. It gained popularity after the movie “Fight Club” from the quote “You are not special. You’re not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You’re the same decaying organic matter as everything else.”

I hear the term occasionally from buddies of mine who I love, they say things like; “how are things up there with the liberal snowflakes?”

Let me assure you, I have not met one kid who fits that description. None of the kids I’ve met seem to think that they are “special” any more than any other 18–22-year-old. These kids work their assess off. I have asked a couple of them to help me with my writing. One young woman volunteered to help me by proof-reading my “prose” and, for the record, I believe she will be the President someday. I recently listened while one of my closer pals, a kid from Portland, Oregon, talked to me about the beauty of this insane mathematics problem set he is working on. There is a young man in our group who grew up in Alaska working on fishing boats from a young age and who plays the cello. There is an exceptional young woman from Chicago who wrote a piece for the Yale Daily news expressing the importance of public demonstrations in the light of a recent police shooting. She and I are polar opposites. I am the “patriarchy” at first glance, and she is a young black woman who is keen on public protests. Not the type of soul I generally find myself in a conversation with. We come from different worlds and yet we both read classic works with open hearts and minds.

We recently met with a prominent writer from a think tank who is researching the state of the humanities in the university setting. There were four of us students, two other young men, the young woman from Chicago, and me, the old guy. As the younger students started to express their thoughts, the young woman (truly a unicorn of a human) used the word “safe space” and it hit me forcefully. I come from a place where when I hear that term, I roll my eyes into the back of my vacant skull and laugh from the bottom of my potbelly. This time, I was literally in shock. It hit me that what I thought a “safe space” meant, was not accurate. This young woman, the one who used the phrase, “Safe Space” isn’t scared of anything. She is a life-force of goodness and strength. She doesn’t need anyone to provide a comfortable environment for her. What she meant by “safe space” was that she was happy to be in an environment where difficult subjects can be discussed openly, without the risk of disrespect or harsh judgement. This works both ways. What I mean is, this young woman was comfortable, in this University setting, wrestling with things like the Aristotelian idea of some humans being born as “natural slaves.” She was quite comfortable in that space. The question was, how comfortable was the 52-year-old white guy in that discussion? Did it make me uncomfortable? Yes. I’m grateful for the discomfort. Thinking about things I don’t understand or have, for most of my life, written off, is a good thing.

Being uncomfortable is KEY in this world of ours. Not altogether different from the world of special operations, where the work needs to be done, regardless of weather or personal feelings. The climate in this educational institution is one where most students understand that there HAS to be a place where people can assault ideas openly and discuss them vigorously and respectfully in order to improve the state of humanity. I’ll call that a “safe space” and I’m glad those places exist.

Here in the “Directed Studies” program, instead of “tuning in” to our favorite self-confirming “news” source, we are given a timeless text with heavy ideas and then we throw them out on the floor and discuss them with people who have, as I mentioned earlier, made these works and their meaning, their vocation.

In my opinion, the real snowflakes are the people who are afraid of that situation. The poor souls who never take the opportunity to discuss ideas in a group of people who will very likely respectfully disagree with them. I challenge any of you hyper-opinionated zealots out there to actually sit down with a group of people who disagree with you and be open to having your mind changed. I’m not talking about submitting your deeply held beliefs to your twitter/facebook/instagram feeds for agreement from those who “follow” you. That unreal “safe space” where the accountability for ones words is essentially null. I have sure had my mind changed here at Yale. To me there is no dishonor in being wrong and learning. There is dishonor in willful ignorance and there is dishonor in disrespect.

On veteran’s day, there was a great scene on cross campus. A bunch of American flags had been placed there and I stopped on my morning walk to class and took photos of my dog in front of them and sent them to my friends. Later at some point during the day, a young student placed a glove with red paint on it on one of the flags as she wanted to demonstrate her displeasure with something…I’m not quite sure what.

That same afternoon, some of my fellow students from “Directed Studies,” after a lecture, gave me this:

It is a card thanking me for my service to our nation. I was humbled and amazed.

These hardworking kids are very kind and thoughtful. A far cry from the picture that is often painted of them.

One of my Professors, a Professor of Philosophy, told me once “a good leader is a bridge builder.” Professor David Charles is a man who has been teaching bright young people and some slow and old ones like me, the most difficult subject for me, at Oxford and now Yale. He’s been doing this for over 30 years. He is extremely humble and very kind, in addition to being brilliant. I’m motivated by his words and I want to build bridges and lead, in some small way, a new conversation where we stop pointing out the perceived differences in each other, or this group vs that group, and start pointing out similarities. We don’t need more condescending friction in humanity. We need less. One step in the direction of less societal friction is to seek commonalities. Another step, and one that is sorely needed, is respect.

Now before you think I’m preaching, please know that I come from a place where I was distinctly the opposite of this ideal. I looked for reasons to disregard the opinions of those I didn’t respect. I discounted the ideas of people I felt like hadn’t earned the right to share what was in their mind. Particularly when it came to national security issues, I felt that if you hadn’t taken a gun into combat, I didn’t give a damn what your opinion was.

I’d like to count this as my first brick in attempting to build a bridge between the people here at Yale and those like me before I arrived here. We need everyone who gives a damn about this American experiment to contribute and make it succeed. We humans have much more in common than we have different. Thanks Yale, for helping me to become an aspiring bridge-builder at the age of 52,

In our welcome speech at the beginning of this semester, with all of us Freshman sitting in Woolsey Hall, me sitting next to another veteran, one who’d served in the 82nd Airborne, President Salovey said;

“There is so much we do not know. Let us embrace, together, our humility — our willingness to admit what we have yet to discover. After all, if you knew all the answers, you would not need Yale. And if humanity knew all the answers, the world would not need Yale.”

Now back to that bridge. I need to figure out how to actually build one. Good thing I’ve found a place where I can get help. If this place is peopled by “snowflakes” I’m proudly one of them. I’m a snowflake with a purple heart.

Peace-

https://ift.tt/2QdexIX via Medium December 23, 2019 at 07:10PM

[shleezaemour]

Back at camp 20 years later ( part of the soangelo 20 years of marriage series)

Will and nico are back to their old ways at camp. Only now they can embarrass their kids! Memories of the old days resurface and they get wrapped up in eachother once more afraid to let go. I own nothing. Review at will. Enjoy!! Love the reviews so far guys! If you guys see something happening in the story that you might want to see let me know and I'll do my best to work it in! Nicos POV Getting ready to start training in the arena today was nerve wracking. I haven't trained actual students for going on two decades. My kids of course but the kids were easy to train and let's face it... naturals. With him and Will as parents of course they would be and of course with Reyna as their bio mom they were made for battle. I decided on my usual black in black. It was hot today so I went with a tank top in hopes to possibly catch my husbands eye. After last night I was feeling very sexy and I wanted to ride out that ego boost. Grabbing some gear I put my hair into its usual man bun and made my way toward the grounds. Will had already left for the infirmary to assess it and make plans for teaching the healers. My three glorious children were already at the arena albeit half asleep and looking like they could kill me for what I was wearing. Fucking teenagers I'm 38 not fucking dead!! A gathering of kids started to pile in as I set up practice dummies and targets. I walked up to the crowd as I finished to be met by a few wolf whistles from a few of the girls. Bianca and Naomi cringed at them. I may be 200% gay but wolf whistles were always appreciated. "Ok kids how many do we have?" "There's about 60 of us papa" Bianca answered for me, "Good ok well I'm going to show you guys a few blocks and strikes. Then I want you to pair off and practice. No holding back guys! War isn't practice and it isn't pretty. It's actually pretty serious. I've been through two of them by the time I was 15. Plus countless battles and random monster attacks. Ok Bianca your going to help me out showing striking and blocking " She rushed over happy that I'm using her as an example. I'm not supposed to say hat she's the best fighter out of the three but.. she's the best fighter. Naomi was gifted with more of my talents with shadow travel and hypnokinesis but Bianca was a great fighter and strategist. She had Geokinesis and used the earth as a tool and a weapon. So proud! Paul well... he was great at archery and a glorious singer and guitar player but he wasn't a fighter. Much like his father he would rather be on the sidelines catching those who fall. I could see Bianca trying to slip something past me. I heard it before I saw it. I caught the throwing knife before it hit my shoulder. My little show off. Trying to show the kids how tough she was. Ok that maybe my fault and I blame Reyna too. Not for the biological standpoint but I'm pretty sure she had a talk with her yesterday about asserting dominance over the other fighters. "Ah well nice try BiBi but no cigar" "Father !! Don't call me BiBi infront of the other campers !" She stressed between her teeth. Oh she pulled out the "Father" card. Not papa or dad but father which means she was pissed! Well then maybe she shouldn't be throwing Stygian knives at her "Father". "That was a great throw though! If you all were watching you saw that it was going for my shoulder. I promise this was not an accident or a miscalculation. My daughter was simply not wanting to hurt me to bad if I didn't catch it. Bianca here is an amazing shot and if she wanted to aim for my head or heart she would have nailed it!" She smiled. "Thanks papa" Great I'm papa again. "I think you should give a demonstration of what you can really do!" Someone shouted. Who was that? Mother fucking Jason Grace! My best friend. Godfather to my children was challenging me. "Put your money where your bolts are Sparky!!" Jason headed toward me. Of course son of Jupiter only got better looking with age. In his practice gear it looked like he was planning on helping out anyway. Jason had asked me to help him with Powers control classes he was going to be teaching later this week so I guess he thought that meant he was supposed to return the favor with battle practice. What the hell the more the merrier. "Let's do this Deathboy!" "Hey it's Deathman now!" "Oh someone's cocky!!" "Fine before Bianca and I demonstrate the strikes and blocks how does everyone feel about a full hand to hand demonstration?" The crowd cheered. I could see Will in the back. He must have walked here with Jason. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if he was the one who came up with this little challenge. My husband I swear always looking for a way to get me sweaty. Jason and circled eachother. I looked around the arena for spots with shadows. Luckily it was partly cloudy day even though the temp was up. Plus the trees and beams cast shadows as well. Not that I couldn't travel in pure daylight. I learned somewhere in my early twenties that I could use the shadows made by my own body to travel. I also learned how to grab the shadows and use them almost like they were ropes. Jason was sizing me up to. Checking wind and other factors. I picked up my Stygian sword as we circled eachother. Flipping his coin an imperial gold sword shot into existence. Clash! We shot at eachother so fast most of the kids bumped into eachother trying to follow our movements. A dance ensued of clashing metal. Jason tried to fly up to gain leverage but I used his own shadow to pull him back down. Wildly flipping and striking eachother the adrenaline of a real fight filled my ears. I loved this. Sliding between his legs I knocked him off balance and ripped the leg of his pants. Twirling around he hit the butt of his sword against my jaw catching me off guard. Blood filled my mouth. It was leaking down my chin. I smiled as I circled him again. That's what I'm talking about! Once again a dance of us playing off eachother ducking and twirling. Getting closer he kicked my legs out from under me and had me on the ground. Not going to lie it was a little sexy. Pushing my sword against his I felt he was gaining position. Fuck it I let him think he was winning long enough. I traveled and landed on his back my sword to his throat. Blinking sweat out of his eyes he tapped the ground and conceded. Applause rang out! I helped him to his feet. "Almost had me there old man!" "Who you calling old you little ankle biter?" "Yeah well Will is over there I think he's going to kill you when he sees my jaw" "Nah he can fix that in a millisecond." Taking off my shirt I wiped some of the blood off my chin. More wolf whistles. "Jason why don't you and Bianca show everyone the 3 strikes and blocks?" "Yes of course! Bi Bi my love come join me!" Bianca didn't bat an eyelash when Jason called her that. Figures. I saw my husband and headed toward him. --------------------------- Wills POV Most of the morning I checked out the infirmary. Everything seemed to be in order except that the kids seemed to not know how to properly make unicorn draught. As I taught them the proper measurements I saw that my father had been busy. I had atleast 15 new siblings and these were just this generation. Kayla was teaching a class on reattaching limbs in the back room and Austin was focusing on Apollo hymns. I was happy the siblings from my generation were here helping. Seems like a lot of us came back to help with this war. Drew Tanaka was in the infirmary heavily sedated. On her way here with her family they were attacked by the arai. Drew lost her son and her husband. 3 of her girls made it though. They were in the arena with Nico learning to fight. Piper was next to her half sister holding her hand. None of us liked Drew. She was a pain in the ass and always looking to tear someone down but she didn't deserve to lose part of her family like that. "Where's Jason?" "The arena helping Nico" "Where Percy?" "The beach. I think he's meeting his dad and Tyson. " "That's good. Stay with Drew will you I'm going to check in on Arena training see if they need an on site medic" "Good idea. You know how those two get." "Yeah. Where are your two boys?" "They are still at school for another week. My father is taking care of them and will send them along once they finish. Don't worry about them Will between Jason and Nico training them through the years and Marcus having my charm speak they will be fine. They will make it. Drews husband was mortal. He didn't have a chance. " "Sad. I'm glad the rest made it and you're right Marcus and Tom will make it here on their own. It's just hard to imagine the kids getting older you know?" "Gods do I. The worst part is the only thing I can think of is that the only way we could win this war is Annabeth. How are we going to win without her?" "Well we haven't truly lost her Piper. We have everything she knew in that library. The answer is in that building I'm sure of it." "Yeah your right. " "Ok I'm out. Send someone if you need me I'm ok to probably be patching kids up down there" "Hey Will! Take Raze with you !" Austin called out. Austins son Raze grabbed two medical bags and smiled at me. My nephew was going to be a great healer one day. He had the drive and was less musically inclined than his father. His mother was a child of Hecate so Raze had a special punch to his healing abilities. "Cmon Raze let's patch up some cuts!" "Yes uncle Will!" "Good man!" We headed toward the arena. Jason was coming up beside us. Guess Piper was wrong. "Hey Grace your wife thought you were at the arena!" "I'm heading there now I just had to deal with some stuff." "Stuff?" "Yeah stuff." He eyed Raze and gave me a look of I will tell you later. "So you going to help out my husband or just be a pretty distraction for the girls to swoon over?" "I'm a little to smart for the hot for teacher complex thank you and I wouldn't worry about me getting stared at. I saw Nico this morning heading down and he is going to break a few hearts fighting in that tank top. I don't know what diet plan you have him on but he doesn't seem to age or gain weight like the rest of us." "Yeah fucking bastard. I watch everything that goes into my mouth to the point of obsession. I've gained 10 pounds. Nico eats fonzis and drinks wine and keeps the six pack of a 21 year old Adonis. Makes me sick" "Yeah I'm sure it does. Except you get to touch that Adonis every night." "Do I ever!" Raze coughed and blushed. Guess that's TMI for a 13 year old. I stood in the back and handed Raze the bag and showed him the supplies we may need. Jason was challenging my husband in a "who had a bigger dick" contest. I hate to break it to Grace but I saw him naked once in the locker room at the gym. Nicos was bigger. Lucky me. Poor Piper. They began their contest in a whirl of limbs and metal. I was always amazed watching Nico fight. So fast even after all this time it's like he never left. The smile of his face while he fought was a bit frightening. His battle smile. Where I dreaded a fight Nico lived for it. To the point that I was afraid of him getting bored at home but his father kept him busy and once the kids were old enough to train he had them handling sharp objects. I was not happy about that but it was a battle I had to lose. Plus the kids were naturals. I wouldn't be surprised if they were the best fighters in the camp of their generation. Nico had them at it 5 nights a week for the last 8 years. Jason got Nico in the jaw. Blood stained Nicos teeth and dripped off his chin. Still smiling through it. I was both revolted and turned on at the same time don't ask me why it was always a confusing feeling seeing Nico in full battle mode. Sweat clung to him making his tank top look like it was painted to his skin. Damn I'm a lucky man. Nico finished Jason a lot quicker than I thought. Breaking up he had Jason do the first demos with Bianca and he headed toward me taking his shirt off. The wolf whistles started and I could see the hickey I left on Nicos hip. "Hey doctor could you help a damsel in distress!" "Oh yes you are so distressed!! I can practically smell the endorphins pouring out of you." "What no kiss!" "Not with a mouth full of blood like that babe. Come here let me check you out." I placed my hands on Nicos jaw and and sang. My hand glowed slightly as I felt his jaw healing and the bite mark he had on his inner cheek close up. "Thank you sweetie that feels better" he took a bottle of water and rinsed his mouth out and wiped up the blood. I kissed him after that. Paul came up to us while the others were watching Bianca and Jason. "Dad you should take papa to the infirmary he has some cuts on his back. And uhh the bruise on his hip maybe you could do something about that..." "That's not a bruise Paul that's a hickey I left of your papas hip from last night!" "Lalalalalalalala I don't need to hear this and I'm almost certain it's child abuse!" "What you don't want to hear about how your dad loves me?" "Love is fine! Hand holding and hugs not hickeys and blow jobs" Paul turned beet red. "Do you think he's jealous that we got laid last night and he didn't?" Nico chided "Maybe though he looks a bit red do you think maybe he might have got some too last night maybe one of the Aphrodite girls?" "Both of you!! I swear this is child abuse!!" He stomped off. "Why do you do that to him Will?" "Because it's soooo easy. I'm not condoning teen sex but that kid is wound so tight sometimes I kinda wish he would get a girlfriend and loosen up" "Teen sex? Hell we were only a year older than him when we started having sex and before that we were doing a lot of other stuff" "Exactly it's natural. He's smart and informed he's not going to knock up some girl to soon. I just wish he would let go a little." "You would not feel the same if it were Naomi and Bianca." "That's different they are girls and I don't want anyone to take advantage of them" In that same moment the girls took their opponent to the ground. "Actually maybe we should be scared for the guys they date? " "Oh I'd be terrified to date the Hades girls" "Hey! You dated the Hades boy!" "Yeah and the Hades boy was like 20 times more femme than those girls" "Are you saying I'm girly?" "I'm saying your delicate and do your make up better than Piper does" "Point taken" "But I like that about you" "If you like me so girly why didn't you just date a girl?" "I tried but their dicks weren't big enough " "Oh my gods you have to save that one to say infront of Paul " "He would die " "Yes he would. But I stand my ground I like you just the way you are. You may have a few femme qualities that I like but you never look more manly and sexy than when your fighting " "Careful Doctor Solace im susceptible to flattery." "Oh well maybe we should go back to the infirmary for these little cuts. We could make out in the storage closet like the old days." "Chiron was sooo mad when he caught us" "He wasnt mad about us making out he was mad that we were crushing the supplies" "Yeah he seemed to not care about us to much" "Well I think he was just happy for us. If it took me having my hands all over you to keep you from running away from camp than he was fine with it" I sat down on the bench and Nico sat on my lap giving me access to heal his cuts. "Speaking of having your hands on me" "Why are you so touchy babe I swear we have had more sex in the last week than we have had in months?" "I don't know I guess it's a combination of us having more alone time than usual and us being back at camp where it all started." "Oh I see. Well I'm not complaining I just wanted to know where your head was." "I guess it's been stuck in memory lane since we have been here" "What's on your memory lane now?" "You know just reliving all the firsts we had here. The hearth where we first held hands" "The capture the flag game where I first kissed you against that tree" "The first time you spent the night in my bed" "Oh yeah. Clovis came to get me you were having a nightmare. I came in and held you until you could go back to sleep. Then I fell asleep. " "You held me so tight" "I never wanted to let go" "You never did" "Do you remember the first time I told you I loved you?" "Yeah I broke my wrist falling out of a tree cause I miscalculated my landing spot when I traveled. I was trying not to cry when you were setting it. We were alone in the infirmary and you were whispering sweet nothings trying to keep me calm and distract me from the pain and you said "Nico it's ok baby I have you I'll make it go away. I love you I won't hurt you" and I stopped breathing" "I didn't even realized I said it. It just popped out seeing you upset" "When I started breathing again I told you I loved you too" "Yup and that's when I realized I said the L word" "You cried" "I did not!!" "You so did" "Well I did love you. I loved you then and every minute after that." "I'm so happy Will. You know that right ?" "So you still love me?" "I love you so much that the idea that we are going through another war makes me want to run away with you and the kids. Wrap you all in bubble wrap and keep us in s bomb shelter until it's all over" "We can't do that Will. We have to be here" "Oh baby I know. But the idea of waking up and not having you on the other side of the bed. That the spot next to me would be cold. That the smell of clove and lavender would never fill my nose in the morning as I bury my face in your hair. That I would never get to trace my fingers up your spine as you lay on top of me head against my heart. The idea that it could happen takes my breath away and ties my stomach in knots. The thought of it hurts so much that my throat feels tight whenever you leave my sight. I just want this to be over so that we can go home and sleep in our own bed and hell I would love nothing more than to send the kids to my moms for the whole summer just to make love to you at any given moment. " "Gods I love you William" he leaned into me and I settled my nose into the crook of his neck. "I love you too Niccolo" "Wanna go back to the cabin and wash up before lunch? Looks like Jason has the class?" "Let me check with him first. HEY JAY!! YOU GOT THIS?!" "YEAH BRO GO WASH THE BLOOD OFF!!" Nico gave him and thumbs up and we walked back to the cabin. --------- Nicos POV I started the shower. I really was covered in dirt and blood and sweat and it was disgusting. Will was back in our room laying on the bed with his eyes closed. "Hey baby?" "Yeah what's up neeks" "Come join me?" "Can't reach your back?" "Can't reach my heart actually thought you could help me find it" "Oh well that's not possible cause that's mine and I'm keeping it" "Well if that's the case then why don't you show me why you still have it" I pulled him up into a kiss that was so much more than a kiss. I could feel him pouring every worry he has over us being here into it. Conveying every ounce of love for me for the kids for our life back in Long Island. Shedding his clothes we tumbled under the water still his mouth on mine. I both hated and loved how much taller he was than me. The water bounced off of him and into me. Washing away the stress and heaviness. He grabbed the loofa and began to wash all the things that had marred my body from this morning. All while never having his mouth leave me. If it wasn't on my mouth it was in my shoulder or my neck. Moving his lips over me sometimes not moving them at all. Keeping them still but parted over me. Feeling him breathe over my skin as he lathered and soaped my body. Dropping the loofa he trailed his hands across my abdomen nuzzling the nape of my neck. "I love you " "I love you" Kneeling down he peppered kisses down me. Pulling my foreskin back he engulfed me in his mouth. Watching the water cascade over him as he bobbed his head reminded me of the first time we showered. In this very shower. It was less smooth than this was. *** flashback*** I was in the shower after a very hard day of training til I practically dropped. Will had convinced me to finally call it a day and half carried me home. I was rinsing my hair when I realized I had left my razor on the sink. My legs needed a good shave and I didn't want to get the floor all wet. Will was in my room reading yet another medical journal. Fuck it I'll get him to hand it to me. "WILL!" I heard the door open. "Yeah Neeks what's up?" "Could you hand me my razor it's just on the sink there." "Your shaving your face in the shower? How can you even see what your doing?" "I'm not shaving my face just give me the damn razor!" He opened the glass door peaking his hand through. Jokingly he said "Want company" he laughed. "Um yeah, yeah I think I do" Silence. Oh shit I went to far. We have only made out like twice and had about a few dozen kisses this was to soon. Fuck what was I thinking! Then I heard him taking his clothes off. Oh shit he was coming in here! He's going to see me naked! What if he doesn't like it! What if I don't like it! Opening the door again he came in with his eyes closed. He felt around til he found me. Good lord he was so much better looking without clothes! Freckles all over him and I do mean all over! "Will open your eyes" He opened them slowly. Looking me up and down the smile in his face grew. "Wow uh your.. your naked " "I usually am in the shower" "Yeah uh so umm what are you shaving?" He asked embarrassment coloring his face at the comment. "M-my legs actually. I don't like hair on me. It's just a thing I have." "Well um. Want me to help you w-with that?" "You want to shave my legs for me?" "Uh sure" "Ok" He took the razor and kneeled down (I have a large shower with a seat in it and everything) I put my leg up on the seat and he lathered my legs and with a slightly shaky hand he began dragging the razor over my leg. He was super focused. By the time he finished both legs his breathing had picked up a bit and he began to shake himself instead of just his hands. "Will are you ok?" "Yeah I just.. um.. Nico" he stood infront of me. Leaning down to kiss me he backed me into the stall wall. "Can I- can I touch you?" "Yeah I .. sure but only if I can touch you back" "Yeah yeah of course" Lowering his hand he kissed me and began to touch me. I thought my knees would give way. I had never experienced anything like this. My skin set itself on fire. I reached my hand to him in the same way and oh... I gasped "What?! Are you ok ?" "Yes it's just.. your bigger than I thought you would be I mean I didn't think you were small I just.. I don't know what I'm saying can you shut me up!" Cutting my rambling off with a deep kiss and a firmer stroke. We began a slow but steady rhythm between us. My breath was hitching against his mouth. He was gasping little noises of pleasure into mine. It didn't last long but gods was it good. He came first shooting it all down my freshly shaved leg. Soon after I came into his hand in a long shiver and deep moan that I didn't even know I could make. Breathing hard against eachother he said.. "So that happened" touching our foreheads together. "Yeah it did" "Was it ok?" "Yeah... yeah it was amazing " "Ok" "Ok" Breaking from my recollection I looked down at him there. We had come so far from that moment yet here we are. Same shower. Same feeling. I loved him so much and I wanted to feel his love on me. He got up and sat on the shower seat. Pulling me to him I could feel his erection on my back. Reaching his hand around me he prepped me. Feeling his fingers slide in and out of me easily. I explored his mouth with my tongue in long slow strokes. Grabbing my hips he lifted me into him. My back to his chest sitting in the shower. I set the pace with his hands on my hips. I took my time wrapping my arms around his neck from behind me. Keeping on arm wrapped around me he used his other hand to stroke me in time to my grinding. I love the fucking I do but I live for these moments. Me making love to him. Slow and steady. Being able to hear his breath and his little moans. I could feel him getting close and I was about to come way to early but I couldn't hold it. A string of Italian flowed from my mouth as my orgasam peaked. My words set him off and I could feel him pulsating against my prostate in little spurts. Still kissing him. Kissing my William. Feeling his heart settle from behind me. Holding me to him. Holding me never letting me go.

[mybumpbirthandbeyond]

Operation Abs of Steel

It’s crazy to think I’m at this point already. I genuinely feel like I’ve blinked and I’m back at the start again. Only this time is so different; this time, I am informed; I have the most incredible team in place already so I’ll be seen so much quicker; and I know what’s to come.

I have probably thought about the first two in person consults since falling pregnant. The first two being my first with Lyndsey, and my first with Gráinne. They are the official starting point for rehab this time around, and will tell me exactly what my separation looks like after a second pregnancy. This is the comparison point for any progress up to the date I have surgery. These will be the hardest hitting – the reality check of how far I have to go and how hard I will have to work. This is the start of an even longer road….

Prior to any consults, I wanted to get started. Most people are probably getting the measure of me by now: I don’t like to sit and do nothing and I like to work hard. The fact that I felt so much better more quickly this time, just increased that desire. I had been in touch with Lorna from Ur Mama Strength (I had done her classes until I was about 35 weeks pregnant). She kindly sent me the postpartum guide she sends all her pregnant women which gave a guide for things like connective breath work, walking and mobility for the first 6 weeks postpartum. I did that as well incorporating some of the stuff I had been doing right up until the week before I had Emily from prehab and of course, my pelvic floor exercises.

The checklist of things that physios look for was in the back of my head when I started. First of all, could I properly carry out the connective breathing and was there any sign of rib flare? I never had rib flare last time and I certainly didn’t pick that out this time either. The appearance of my tummy in general was awful when breathing – wrinkly skin just like an elephant, mind of its’ own, loose skin that is paper thin. Aesthetically, this definitely appears worse this time. I knew I would have to do a self-assessment at some stage and I was pretty nervous about that. I knew it was bad and probably as bad as last time, but the thought of finding out how bad, somehow made me apprehensive.

My hand continued to sink and sink telling me there was little to no tension. I had to use two hands to measure the gap between the rectus muscles and even that wasn’t enough. It seemed to be about 11 fw + at the widest point at rest. This is more or less exactly like last time – the only difference was I didn’t self-assess last time. Knowing that, I had a bit of wobble starting exercises again. Staring at the same ceiling I had for the best part of a year before I fell pregnant, but knowing I was back lying on my back really overwhelmed me. Knowing how long it took, and how much hard work I put in to get to where I was, it was pretty difficult to imagine being able to do that again, starting from scratch. But I shook it off. What made me progress last time to the point that I did? Not sitting around feeling sorry for myself that’s for sure (though I allowed myself that once or twice on the really bad days). It was gritty determination, competitiveness, stubbornness, and unwavering resolve that got me to where I needed to be. I couldn’t change that about me if I tried so there’s no way I won’t get back to where I was, if not even further.

Prior to my first in person consult, I had a virtual consult with the team. This was actually scheduled for the week I had Emily, thinking it would be my last one before the baby was born. When she arrived early, we decided to push it a few weeks. We ended up looking at a few things. I’m not entirely sure what they expected to see, but one of the exercises was one Antony said many people would be shocked by at 2.5 weeks postpartum. I struggled to see what was shocking about it – without meaning it in a boastful way, it felt easy. The good news was the initial signs were promising – I was clearly managing to generate tension and control the pressure well considering where I was at. We booked in my next consult for after my appointment with Lyndsey.

In the lead up to my appointment with Lyndsey, I started to test my ability to manage the pressure based on what I had done in the virtual consult. Headlifts felt fine and I also did a few more challenging things like birddog and introducing resistance to some of the exercises. Most of the time I could see the exercises were manageable. Birddog was a funny one – it felt like there was lots of pressure, but it didn’t feel that different to being in standing. It was pretty hard to feel and do the exercise at the same time so I got my husband to check – by this point he’s about as knowledgeable as I am! (though I still have the edge 😉) We agreed that gravity didn’t help and it was likely any additional pressure was not doming, but the weight of my organs falling forward. One of the many things I have learned from my physios is the pressure is visible when I am just standing doing nothing – that’s why my tummy protrudes. If that’s the case, if there is little to no change when doing more challenging core exercises, what’s to stop me from doing those exercises? I can’t prevent or stop the pressure when standing or sitting down, so what’s the difference?

It’s lessons like that that have made the world of difference to how I view this journey. I have learned so much already, and despite not knowing a thing last time, I wouldn’t have risked trying anything until I was seen by someone who was qualified to tell me. This time, I know enough to try things myself without bothering my physios for a simple yes or no.

My appointment with Lyndsey felt like an exam day in some ways. I had this nervous apprehension and kept clock watching until the appointment time. Don’t get me wrong, I am excited to see what happens as time goes on, but as I said, the first appointments will be the hardest. I think my experience of being asked when I was due the previous day hadn’t helped. You feel ashamed, self-conscious and like crap to put it bluntly. It knocks your confidence and just demonstrates how much work there is to do.

I had been really worried about prolapse this time around. There’s something about being blissfully ignorant that can be comforting. The fact that I see posts on prolapse all the time and how your chances increase the more children you have, did not help. That’s probably a positive indication of how much more readily available this information now is on social media. My birth was very lucky in that I only grazed this time instead of needing another episiotomy so it had made a lot of difference, but there was still an initial heavy feeling for the first few weeks. I had stopped bleeding earlier than I had with Cailean, but I’m pretty certain I’ve already had a cycle as I started bleeding again almost as soon as it had stopped. Us females are so lucky….🙄🤦🏽‍♀️

I had been doing my pelvic floor exercises as I said, but I was still a bit worried when it came to the pelvic floor check. It’s so integral to the core and what will be my rehab, that it was important to know exactly what was going on. Thankfully it was good news – good contraction and release, no damage to the muscle and no indication of any prolapse. My endurance could be better, but I’ll build that back up again, just like I did last time.

The tummy assessment was unsurprising. 11fw + was what Lyndsey also found at rest. Tension was awful as her hand also sank down to my bowel. On contraction when I did a crunch, above the belly button was 4 fw, at the belly button was 8 fw and below was 6 fw. Lyndsey had the impression my tummy looked better in standing but we both agreed there was next to no elasticity in the skin, particularly above my waistband and below my belly button. As Lyndsey pointed out, this could get worse as we improve the tummy itself and the only way this will be fixed will be when I have surgery.

I was asked to fill out the outcome measures as a mark of where I’m at mentally. I have been filling in two regularly for Gráinne, but by the time I’m finished, I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t a single pelvic health outcome measure that I haven’t completed!!

We were then able to go into the hospital gym to try out some exercises. Lyndsey had spoken to Gráinne and they had come up with a plan. It once again dawned on me how lucky I am – how many people do you hear of who end up with a team of physios all more than willing to collaborate and work together in your best interests? Unbelievable.

The basic exercises all have their place, but as I’ve said before, they are the ones I hate – they make me feel incapable and like I’m really weak. I expected to do progressions of these – such as introducing resistance to the likes of clams or glute bridges. The fact I was able to do things like birddog with resistance, bear holds and lunges with theraband was a pleasant surprise – I was starting at a further point than last time. To me, that indicates things will hopefully move quicker, and I will progress sooner, which is everything I hoped for this time around. The reigns are firmly on at this point so I’m only to do rehab 3 - 4 times per week, but I expected that. Plus, it’s harder to fit in with two kids so probably not a bad thing!

I came out of the appointment with my confidence back. It’s amazing what seeing someone in person and being able to try things out while being assessed does for your mindset. I had taken being in person consults for granted. I think the toll my second pregnancy had taken on me mentally during lockdown and the fact I had only been seen twice in person throughout the entire duration had also played a part. Don’t get me wrong, I have made great progress through previous virtual appointments, but when you’re dealing with something physical, there is no substitute for someone being able to put their hands on you.

Getting started was one of the most important things to me. The apprehension of not knowing what the diagnosis was and where I would be rehab wise, was only going to be counteracted by the fact I would be back in control once I got started. I am the master of my own fate now – the progress will be dependent on me putting in the work. As I’ve said before, this is what I thrive on – the pressure I put on myself to succeed and the fact I will work harder than ever to ensure that I do. The goals I have set this time around are ambitious and will be challenging, but I have plenty of time and to be honest, I need a challenge to remain focused. Rehab 2.0/Operation Abs of Steel starts now.

[weartutoruniverse-blog]

Top 5 Teachers In The World

Andria Zafirakou has been working on three hours' rest a night for quite a long time, yet looks brilliant. "It's adrenaline, it's fervor, it's beginning and end." Nominated by present and previous associates for the Varkey Foundation's yearly Global Teacher prize, named the Nobel for instructing, a month ago Zafirakou took in she had been shortlisted from a field of in excess of 30,000 passages. She flew out to Dubai a week ago to join nine different finalists from everywhere throughout the world for a ritzy honors service facilitated by Trevor Noah, and arrived home on Wednesday the champ of the $1m prize. The chosen people were made a decision on, in addition to other things, the advancement made by students, accomplishments outside the classroom and in helping kids progress toward becoming "worldwide residents".

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Government officials and dignitaries, the media and 100 of her schoolchildren were holding up to welcome her at Heathrow, from where she was whisked directly to parliament to meet Theresa May. The head administrator and education secretary's acclaim for expressions of the human experience and materials teacher couldn't have been more sumptuous; she is, pronounced Damian Hinds, "genuinely moving".

Zafirakou still hasn't made it home to Brent, north-west London, when we meet soon thereafter. The 39-year-old has the entranced demeanor of a lady who scarcely perceives herself as she gazes at her photograph on the front of London's Evening Standard. "My entire life has been changed," she snickers energetically. In the midst of all the wonderment of her tall tale week, be that as it may, there is one evident incongruity. Had Zafirakou organized the objectives the administration sets for her calling, and concentrated every one of her energies on its official execution measures, she could never have been considered for the honor. She won, rather, by being the sort of teacher our education framework effectively disheartens.

Zafirakou has spent her 12-year profession at Alperton Community auxiliary school in Brent, training the absolute most impeded, ethnically different kids in the nation. She associates most with us proved unable "have an idea" about the profundity of hardship she finds in her classroom consistently. "This is the thing that hardship resembles. Hardship is the point at which you have six or seven separate families living in one house, dozing one family to a room, sharing one restroom and pivoting the utilization of the kitchen. I had a young lady who was truanting in my class, so I explored and discovered it was on the grounds that she needed to go home amid the center of my exercise and cook for her family since that was their opening on the rota." Children routinely touch base at school ravenous and messy – "I've placed garments in the clothes washer for the children, and we give a free breakfast to each kid" – while group viciousness frequents the school doors.

These are the simple conditions that put such huge numbers of individuals off educating, yet when I inquire as to whether she wouldn't rather show precise, roused understudies, she looks delighted. "Bor-ing! No, I adore attempting to make sense of: how might I get in to that tyke? How might I motivate them to confide in me and how might I encourage them? Endeavoring to make sense of, right, OK, that didn't work, what do I have to attempt now? I adore that."

Zafirakou tolerating the honor in Dubai from the city's ruler, Sheik Mohammed canister Rashid al Maktoum.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Zafirakou tolerating the honor in Dubai from the city's ruler, Sheik Mohammed canister Rashid al Maktoum. Photo: Jon Gambrell/AP

Keeping that in mind, Zafirakou encouraged herself expresses in a large number of the 35 dialects talked by her understudies. She set up a female cricket club for young ladies from preservationist confidence foundations, and rescheduled after-school clubs, so kids troubled with local obligations all week could go to at ends of the week. She utilizes craftsmanship to open students' inventiveness and certainty, visits their homes to comprehend their family lives, and actually escorts them off the school premises on to transports by the day's end, to shield them from brutality. Her school shows care, offers yoga classes, runs a boxing club, and is positioned in the best 1 to 5% of all schools in the UK for enhancing youngsters' accomplishment.

This methodology is the inverse of the predominant educational astuteness, broadly spearheaded by Mossbourne Academy in Hackney, east London, that what kids like those in Zafirakou's class require isn't senseless thoughts regarding opportunity and inventiveness, however antiquated structure, order and scholastic meticulousness. When clergymen saw Mossbourne's extreme administration get youngsters from committee bequests into Oxbridge, lawmakers in all gatherings concluded that the genuine issue wasn't neediness, yet "destitution of desires". This consenus permitted Michael Gove to rework the national educational modules in his own youth's world class tuition based school picture, discarding subjects, for example, show for Latin and language structure, all for the sake of libertarianism. On the off chance that the Mossbourne display works, for what reason does Zafirakou adopt such a profoundly extraordinary strategy?

"In what capacity will those youngsters manage the psychological wellness issues that they will get from that framework? It resembles a transport line of pressure," she challenges. "How are those kids going to have the capacity to feed themselves, and discover methods for giving their tensions a chance to out, or simply being cheerful, being imaginative – mingling and building aptitudes of flexibility or diligence?" Brent has schools demonstrated on Mossbourne, she says, "and guardians are pulling back their kids and placing them into our school".

To organize extracurricular clubs and peaceful consideration would strike a few educationalists as a well-implied however misinformed damage to kids consummately fit for scholarly brilliance, if just they were pushed rather than disparaged.

"I have no issue with expecting the equivalent from these children as we do of children from Eton. Don't sweat it. Be that as it may, did these children have a breakfast toward the beginning of the day? Did these children watch their mum and father whipping one another? So for me, a win for a portion of our kids is: 'He came into school, goodness my God, he came into school.' It's incredible to state each tyke ought to have a similar potential, yet you have to know the individual foundation and the lives of your kids, and how unique and complex they are."

Zafirakou takes awesome exemption to the famous view that multiculturalism is, best case scenario a major issue, even from a pessimistic standpoint, a hazardously fizzled examination, and that outsider kids will never coordinate if schools suit their diverse social characters. "When they come into this gigantic, scaring building, in the event that you say to them 'namaste' or 'vanakkam', you see their faces illuminate. It implies that you get them, that you're occupied with them, that you are inviting them, and that you value their character, their experience – and they shine. At that point what occurs there, you have finish and articulate commitment from the guardians. They will come in at whatever point you need them. We have a 95% least turnout for guardians' nights."

She applies a similar standard to her exercises, acquainting worker students with the colossal craft of their introduction to the world nation, instead of to the white European works of art Gove needed each tyke to examine. "Children won't draw in with that," she says essentially. "So most importantly, interface them with their personality, their very own history, their very own way of life. Demonstrate to them what it's about and how you can praise it. At that point you have a feeling of pride. When you have that pride, at that point you can state: 'This is the thing that occurred in the Renaissance'; 'This is impressionism'."

As the administration needs schools to perform best in Stem subjects (science, innovation, designing and maths), and has avoided a few expressions subjects from the class tables, a considerable measure of schools have surrendered showing human expressions inside and out. At the point when spending plans are being cut, to burn through cash showing GCSE dramatization, say, could be viewed as a superfluous excess. Zarifakou's exhausted grin recommends this isn't the first run through this has been put to her.

A sign outside Zafirakou's Alperton people group school praising her designation.

A sign outside Zafirakou's Alperton people group school praising her designation. Photo: Ray Tang/REX/Shutterstock

"Is it accurate to say that it isn't amusing that in the event that you go to a non-public school, the guardians won't endure their kids not doing a craftsmanship, not taking up a melodic instrument, since they see that it is so vital to be a youngster that has numerous aptitudes and these subjects fabricate fundamental abilities? They enable youngsters to convey. They enable them to build up their very own characters. They help to truly move them and remove them from their usual ranges of familiarity, since they must tackle issues with these subjects. So the social abilities you develop with them, having the capacity to discuss your work certainly, having the capacity to assess a bit of work, having the capacity to discuss a pretend and totally separate a pretend – they are fundamental abilities. They are completely fundamental abilities that each tyke needs."

Zarifakou dependably knew she would be a craftsmanship teacher. "It wasn't even a decision. Indeed, even from when I was at grade school my folks used to get objections from my teachers saying: 'She's simply so bossy, she instructs us.' It was a business. I just knew." Born in north-west London to Greek-Cypriot guardians, and state-instructed in Brent and Camden, she was elevated to appointee head of workmanship inside a year at Alperton, and is presently relate agent school head. Hitched to a health specialist, with two girls matured 7 and 9, she is grinding away every morning by 7.30am, leaves at 5.30pm if fortunate, frequently significantly later, and begins work again at home once the children are sleeping. "I don't stare at the TV. I absolutely never even go into my front room. Indeed, even in my lunch, I'm working. The main time I break is the point at which I'm in my bed."

I disclose to her that while she was away in Dubai, a write about teachers' compensation was distributed. The normal teacher acquires £17.70 60 minutes. "It's just plain obvious, that is sickening," she says with feeling. When I ask what she would change on the off chance that she

call: 0300-9775835

[perfectzablog]

10 Ways To Start Shifting Your Classroom Practices Little By Little

When a colleague invited Joy Kirr to a professional development day featuring the Scottish design thinking expert Ewan McIntosh she didn’t think it would be life changing. She was flattered to be asked, and wanted to make the most of the opportunity, but her experience of professional development up to that point didn’t lead her to believe it would be Earth-shattering. But then, McIntosh gave the teachers assembled a simple task: Pick one problem in your school and start working on it today.

Kirr, like most teachers, can think of a lot of structural problems influencing her classroom, but she decided to focus on something she could control: reading. Kirr teaches seventh grade English Language Arts, and was troubled that the curriculum only required students to read one book per quarter. She thought they should be reading a lot more than that, and she thought the rubric her school used was designed to catch kids who didn’t read. She knew there were kids getting A’s on that test who hadn’t read the book. There had to be a better way.

As she explored this problem in the McIntosh seminar, Kirr stumbled across the concept of Genius Hour, a teaching tactic based on a practice at Google, that many teachers are trying. Google found that some of its most successful and innovative products came from projects its employees developed on their own time. So the company instituted a 20-percent time policy, where employees could use 20 percent of their work time on a passion project.

In classrooms, teachers give students a set amount of time to explore a topic about which they are passionate. Usually the inquiry results in a project, solution or analysis shared with the rest of the class. It’s the opposite of a standardized curriculum — which makes some teachers nervous — but in the Genius Hour idea Kirr saw an opportunity to bring joy to reading.

She decided to try giving students time in class to read whatever they wanted. There were no expectations other than that students learn something and share it with the class. There would be no grades because it didn’t make sense to compare projects that are so different. Kirr asked her principal if she could try out Genius Hour and his response opened the door for everything that followed. According to Kirr, he asked, “Do you think it’s right for your kids?” She said yes and has used that question as a guidepost for every other shift that came from this first step.

When Kirr saw how much fun her students were having learning during Genius Hour she started to use some of the lessons she learned from that shift in all her teaching. She stopped giving grades on every assignment and instead gave detailed feedback on student work and time to revise. Her school requires quarter grades, but now she decides those through one-on-one conferences with students where the two of them discuss the students’ work, improvement and grade.

Kirr said taking a risk on Genius Hour has changed her teaching dramatically. During this time, she doesn’t present a lesson and then moderate an activity that all students do at the same time. Instead, students work on individual projects while she circulates the room checking in, troubleshooting issues, and offering guidance. Teaching this way showed her the power of checking in with individual students every day, something she now does no matter what she’s teaching.

“That means my lessons have to change because that means I have to give more time over to them to work,” Kirr said. That one shift, making time to talk to students individually, meant her whole approach to instruction had to change as well.

Talking to her students more often also revealed insights into who they are, what they care about, and what troubles them. Now, if something is on their minds, she knows better than to try to push forward with planning content. Now she takes the time to stop and listen.

“Especially content area teachers, we feel like we have to get in the content before the year is out,” Kirr said. “But you can’t get the content in if they’re not listening to you.”

And when she stopped to listen to students, she also started to hear from them about what they’d like to see changed in the classroom. Rather than being offended by that feedback, she reflected on it, made changes where she could, and let them know what changes she’d made, or why she couldn’t if that was the case.

“That feedback from them is key to help them buy into what you’re saying from your lessons,” Kirr said.

It also impacts her relationships with students. They know she listens to them because there are tangible changes, and that builds trust. For example, Kirr now has a suggestion box so students can regularly give feedback — that was a student idea. Another time, a student wanted to bring her dog in for her Genius Hour project. Kirr asked the principal for permission and got a “No.” But the principal did say it would be fine to have the dog outside the building. So, Kirr let that student present outside.

“I’m more passionate about what I’m doing,” Kirr said. She’s been teaching 24 years in various roles, but she doesn’t think she would have lasted another 15 if she hadn’t started to make some of these changes that reflect what she thinks is “right and good” for students. “Now, the feeling I have in class that there are more yay moments than nay moments,” she said. She’s saying yes to students more, and it feels good.

It’s worth noting that the anecdotal positives Kirr notes in the class culture, in her relationships, and in her students’ willingness to reflect and revise work aren’t showing up on the standardized tests they take. Her class’ scores from three years ago are about the same as they are this year.

Often, when a teacher makes as many substantive changes as Kirr has, other educators assume that she must work at a school where this type of innovation is regular. But that’s not the case for Kirr. She’s got teachers on her team who make fun of what she’s doing, who think it’s silly.

It’s easier sometimes to talk to teachers outside the building about change ideas. That’s why Kirr wrote a book, “Shift This!: How To Implement Gradual Changes For MASSIVE Impact In Your Classroom.” She wanted to share what she has learned.

After she published “Shift This,” teachers around the country wanted to know how they could continue to make shifts in their classrooms. They described the resistance they ran up against and colleagues who shunned their ideas. Kirr understands that kind of environment, and believes there’s all kinds of reasons some teachers won’t embrace her ideas. She thinks every educator is on his or her own journey and forcing them to change doesn’t often result in the kind of real differences administrators want to see.

Instead, she focuses on ten core concepts that underpin everything that has made a difference in how she thinks about teaching. She shared them at the International Society for Technology in Education conference.

Lesson 1: Ask lots of questions.

When Kirr started questioning the way things had always been done there were lots of areas that she could change. She admits her questions started to annoy other teachers on her team, but she thinks questioning her practice has made her a better, more committed teacher.

“If you don’t have a why in place then the how and what will crumble,” Kirr said. Asking questions is the first step, but it’s important to have a good reason why a change is needed before upending the classroom. Once a clear “why” is established, it becomes the guiding star for the inevitable ups and downs of implementing something new.

When exploring how she might get students to read more, Kirr asked questions like: why is it taking us eight weeks to read a 182 page book? Why do we teach it the same way, even if some students are finishing the whole book in one day? How might we authentically test reading comprehension without a 50-point true/false test?

Kirr decided to try assessing by having students ask questions. They each had to bring in four questions about the book every day, which helped Kirr not only see that they had read, but also how well they were understanding what they read. When she started asking questions, her students also asked more questions.

Lesson 2: Make time for what you believe is right and good.

Despite a cramped schedule, Kirr believes that making time for things demonstrates to students their importance. That’s why she makes sure her students have time to read in class.

“Once we started reading in the classroom, they started reading outside the classroom,” Kirr said.

Lesson 3: Provide time for sharing in class

“People want to share,” Kirr said. “We’ve got to allow time in class for sharing.”

Sharing could be a structured experience, like peer-feedback, or sharing writing with one another. But Kirr also does book talks, where students share the books they like with one another, and aren’t graded on the presentation.

“If they’ll do these things without grades attached, you know you’re doing a pretty good job,” Kirr said.

Lesson 4: Provide time for practice

Kirr began to realize she expected students to be able to do a lot of things that she hadn’t given them time to practice. For example, when the fidget spinner craze swept her classroom she was as annoyed as any other teacher. But rather than taking them all away, she had a conversation with her class about the difference between using a fidget spinner to focus and it being a distraction. She had to let them practice making the right choice before she punished them.

She learned a similar lesson with Fishbowl discussions. “This is terrible at the beginning of the year,” Kirr said. “They talk over each other. They act like they never heard what another person said.”

Rather than abandoning an activity that she believes requires her students to use important communication and analytical skills, Kirr sees the terrible first discussions as practice. And over the year students improve. The same goes for group work.

“Unless I have an adult at every table, I know they’re not going to be on task every moment. But we have to provide that time to practice or they won’t get any better.”

Lesson 5: Include time for reflection

Reflection isn’t a new idea to most educators, but it’s easily forgotten or swept aside when things get hectic. Kirr remembers realizing when she went through National Board Certification that she’d never really reflected until then. But it’s a crucial practice for educators and great modeling for students who gain metacognitive skills when they stop to take note of what and how they’re learning.

Lesson 6: After you ask students questions, listen and respond to them.

“It helps you be more in tune with who the people are in your classroom,” Kirr said. Allowing student feedback and ideas to influence what happens in the classroom is one of the biggest and most fundamental shifts Kirr has made. It can also be done regardless of teaching style, a relatively simple way to make students feel like who they are and what they think has value to their teacher.

Lesson 7: Take risks

Often teachers don’t feel like they can take risks, but Kirr has found that even within a fairly traditional school there is room to try new things.

“The first risk I took was not decorating my walls,” Kirr said. She wanted students to decorate the walls with their work over the course of the year so that it would feel like it is their space, not her space. She was excited about the idea, but that didn’t stop her from being worried about what parents would say when they walked into a classroom with blank walls at back to school night, or what other teachers would think. She had to push through those anxieties.

“It’s so great to see their work up there instead of my posters that they’re not going to read,” Kirr said.

Once she saw that taking risks could lead to good things, Kirr pushed herself to try more ideas. She got rid of her teachers desk, for example, turning it into a station where students could find supplies.

“My only mistake was not telling students that other teacher desks were not student stations,” Kirr laughed.

The scariest risk Kirr took was inviting parents into her classroom. Because she had moved to one-on-one conferences about grades, she needed extra adults in the classroom to keep an eye on kids while they worked on their Genius Hour projects.

“Parents scare the heck out of me,” Kirr said. But she opened up her classroom anyway. The superintendent even visited, although Kirr wasn’t aware of it because she was deep in conferences.

“The kids loved it. They got to show them their projects, got feedback, and it showed [parents] how [students] were doing.” Lesson 8: Communicate with parents and the world

This lesson goes hand in hand with reflection; sharing successes and failures publicly is a powerful way to reflect while soliciting feedback from other educators. Kirr discovered this lesson when a parent came to her angry that class time was being used for Genius Hour. In communicating with the parent about her reasons for the approach, Kirr had to think through her “why” again. She collected all her resources and shared them on her website so other curious parents could easily access it as well. Articulating that reasoning clearly and with supporting research made the idea seem less crazy to parents.

Lesson 9: Change your language in front of children, your colleagues and in your thoughts

Kirr has taken to calling her students “readers,” “writers,” “researchers,” and “collaborators” depending on the skill she’s emphasizing in a lesson. She’s become acutely aware that labels create perceptions in the minds of students, but also for other teachers in the building. And even sneaky negative thoughts that are never spoken out loud can infect ones’ attitude. Teaching is hard, Kirr said, and wallowing in it just drags her down.

“Choose your language carefully in front of your students, your peers and in your thoughts,” she said.

Lesson 10: Seek support

The shifts Kirr has made require time, patience, and hard work. Many educators undertake this work on their own because they believe it’s the right thing for students, but it can be a lonely path, full of mistakes and setbacks. That’s why Kirr loves Twitter, where she can find support and like-minded educators.

She also continues to reach out to her colleagues in the building. She has an “Observe Me” sign-up sheet on her door for anyone who wants to visit her classroom during a prep period. Almost no one takes her up on the offer, she admitted, because they don’t have time, a feeling she understands.

“I don’t want to go into someone else’s room during my planning time,” Kirr said. “But every time I do, I learn a lot.”

Principals could support this type of sharing by using Pineapple Charts showing which teachers are doing what in each classroom. That kind of transparency can help make an open-door policy part of the school culture.

“We can all learn so much from each other,” Kirr said. “Sometimes it hurts to ask for help, but that’s a human thing, and people want to help you back.”

When she steps back and looks at her classroom over the past several years, these ten lessons embody the core changes she thinks have stuck. And, while Kirr hopes sharing these ideas will help other teachers feel brave, she also understand that change happens differently for everyone. There are many ways to stop change from happening and she’s a firm believer that the type of shift she’s talking about has to come from an internally motivated educator.

“I know when change is pushed upon you we resist. But when you choose it, it’s so much easier,” she said.

10 Ways To Start Shifting Your Classroom Practices Little By Little published first on https://greatpricecourse.tumblr.com/

[franklarios-blog]

ITL604 Learners and Learning I Field Experience

Special Education is for students with education needs that need special attention due to severe learning disabilities, physical disabilities and/or behavioral problems. The classroom is designed to meet the needs of these students along with the help of the teacher. The reason for such a large increase in the number of students being classified as learning disabled is because there are so many new categories to classify a child. The many new meanings of learning disabled have become broader due to research over the years. An example of this is that there are multiple categories under the Autism Spectrum Disorder. Today, there are no more single categories of Autism being a learning disability but there is specifically identified through various assessments and observations” (Slavin2018). Special Education Students always have an IEP (Individual Learning Plan) which is designed to help them grow at their own pace. I always thought that special education was just one type, the type that has no control over themselves, handicap, physical disabilities and couldn’t talk. That was my idea of Special education. But with the help of this class and the field experience I did in a special education classroom has really opened my eyes to all the different types of students that need help educationally, emotionally and behaviorally. In my Field Experience, you will read how the observation in a special education class went and the Interview with the teacher.

For my Field Experience, I went to Jefferson Middle School in Torrance, CA. where I sat in Mrs. Kim’s class. While Mrs. Kim was receiving her credentials, she was always an Instructional Aide in special education classes, kindergarten to third grade. She wanted to become a special ed teacher, so once she received her masters and her credential, she started teaching. She is currently teaching a special education class for 6th grade students that were mild to moderate. This means that they are able to communicate and do work and follow directions for the most part. During my observation, I sat in the back of the room and watched. There were 11 students in the room, 6 of which were males and 5 were females. There was a mix of ethnicity in the classroom but the highest percentage in the class was Hispanic/Latino. Mrs. Kim began the class with a timed math quiz. This went well and the students seemed to enjoy it. After this, she went over the student’s weekly homework on the board so they could all see. Then she went around to see if they had all written down their work. Then the class began with them working on the chrome books. It was very interesting to be able to sit back and observe the behaviors of each of the students. They are all definitely different in their own way. Some students were very fidgety, some were talkative, and others were just going with the flow. It was interesting to watch Mrs. Kim handle certain students that needed to get back on task. There was one student that was very fidgety and found it difficult to finish his assignment. Mrs. Kim went up to him and told him that if he finishes his assignment then he will be rewarded with two straws that he enjoyed to play with. So, he finished his assignment quick so he could play with his straws. Once he received the straws, he was ecstatic and all he wanted to do was play with them and bother no one. Another student that Mrs. Kim worked with was a student that wouldn’t stop talking and annoying other students. The only way Mrs. Kim was able to get this student to understand was by being stern with him. She told him that if he didn’t behave then she would have to call his parents and inform them of the behavior he was establishing. “If you don’t finish your work then you can’t go home and do what you want because your mom will make sure you do it” (Mrs. Kim). This got me thinking because during Week 3, we were talking as a class about keeping in contact with the parents about how their child is doing in the class. I asked Mrs. Kim if she talks to the parents on a basis. She does talk to parents weekly and even more upon request or if the behavior of the child is bad. She said that she also contacts parents when the student does well. She doesn’t want to just make it a negative contact all the time. She only talks through email and she said that is good enough. Mrs. Kim expressed how important it is for her and the parents to be on the same page, for the sake of the student. Mrs. Kim can’t tell the student that he will have to go home and do extra work if he doesn’t behave and then when he goes home the parents let him play games. The student is not learning that way. Mrs. Kim stressed that she can do all she wants in the classroom but as soon as that child goes home, they are out of her hands and it is up to the parents now.

I asked Mrs. Kim how do you process screening on a student to identify if they have special needs? She said that the whole school is screened and observed first. If they notice that there is any type of issue with a student, then they qualify. Then these use a program called Woodcock Johnson and this assesses where the student is at academically by testing them in mathematics, writing and reading. When these students qualify and they are in special education classes, I asked Mrs. Kim what are some important legal mandates that a teacher should be aware of regarding the services for students with special needs? She said it is very important to know what supports are needed and this can be found on the Accommodations Page. It lets the teacher now if the student is able to use notes on a test. Take a test alone, needs extra time on assignments or needs one on one help. It is important to know these things because if by your own mistake, you forget to let a student use their notes during a test that is allowed to, then that can be a big problem because you are depriving him or her of their rights.

When asked about implementing the UDL in her teaching practices, she said it is very simple. We give support to all the children the same amount. “Over 20 years of research and experience has demonstrated that the education of children with disabilities can be made more effective by… having high expectations for such children and ensuring their access in the general curriculum to the maximum extent possible” (Spring135). What Spring is saying here is that they kept all students on the same curriculum and had high expectations for all the students. No one is better than the other. But if that fails and some students are falling behind dramatically, then there needs to be an individual focus on that student. This is the only way to see if a student needs help. The whole class needs to be treated the same and then act if someone doesn’t understand the material.

For 3 years I worked in a probation facility for youth boys ages 11-17. They were troubled kids that needed a little guidance in their lives and I was there to help them as much as I could. They all attended school during their stay at the facility. There were a few boys that I worked with that had IEP’s. I never really understood what this meant. I thought it was just an easier class schedule for them. But after taking this class and working as a substitute teacher the last few months, I came to realize that having an IEP meant that they were considered for Special Education. This never made sense because I always thought that special ed was physically disabled and needed full time care, and none of my boys looked like that. But then I learned that special education can be for those that have emotional problems or behavioral problems, which all my boys had. They were either emotionally disturbed or had ADHD, they couldn’t concentrate in class and they weren’t getting work done. That is what I saw in Mrs. Kim’s 6th grade special education class. They weren’t physically disabled and not in control of their actions, they just had some mild learning disabilities that they needed help with. Even at 27 years old, that is the immaturity that went through my head when I thought of special education. “People with disabilities are a menace to others, to themselves, to society. This is especially true of people with mental disability. People with disabilities are consumed by an incessant, inevitable rage and anger at their loss and at those who are not disabled. Those with mental disabilities lack the moral sense that would restrain them from hurting others or themselves” (Block2017). This a stereotype that some people think about others with disabilities. I have learned that it is ridicules to think this way. People that are labeled as a person with special needs is seen as someone to feel bad for, or someone as a burden or a problem. That is not true, people with disabilities live very rewarding lives and are academically succeeding.

Thanks to this class and the clearing it all up, I can now be more willing to work with special education students and more importantly, I am aware what special education is. As a substitute teacher, I was always nervous to work with them because I never what to expect. But now I know and instead of being naive I can do my best to help them out. “Special Ed wasn’t all bad, but it seems as though some education professionals still have no idea what to do with kids who have disabilities of any type. Not to mention, the stigma is ever present” (Greco2012). I was disappointed in myself after I was aware what Special education was. I was an individual that believe all the ridiculous stereotypes of the disabled and believed that they were helpless. After taking this course and doing this field work experience, I was able to open my eyes and see the real meaning of an individual with special needs. There are so many categories of special needs and they are students that just need a little more help in the classroom. That doesn’t mean anything is wrong with them as a person. I’m glad I see it that way now.

Special Education is meant to help those that have academic learning disabilities, Physical disabilities and Behavioral Disabilities in the classroom. After doing this field experience I have seen these disabilities first hand and I now see the importance of meeting these students needs to help them succeed.

[succeedly]

Google Masters For Kids of All Ages: Badges, Skills and More

Lee Ann Yonker on episode 168 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Lee Ann Yonker helped start the #MiniGoogleMasters movement in her school in K-3rd grade, demonstrating littles can be tech-savvy too! Now having moved to 5th grade, Mrs. Yonker is continuing her tech encouragement with the #MakingGoogleMasters. We talk about what students of all ages can do. She also shares her micro-credential badging approach that has her fifth graders excited to learn.

Today’s Sponsor: WriQ from Texthelp is a new FREE Add-on for Google Docs that helps teachers easily assess student writing and track progress over time by automatically scoring students’ spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors. It also incorporates rubrics so teachers can provide meaningful, qualitative feedback to encourage the writing journey.

This handy free Google Docs add-on tracks things like: time spent writing, spelling-grammar-and punctuation error rates and pulls it into a clear graphical view in your teacher dashboard. To learn more about Wriq go to http://ift.tt/2y91EpU

Listen Now

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

Below is an enhanced transcript, modified for your reading pleasure. All comments in the shaded green box are my own. For guests and hyperlinks to resources, scroll down.

***

Enhanced Transcript

Google Masters for Kids of All Ages

Shownotes: http://ift.tt/2yExKgb From Audio File: 168 Lee Ann Yonker @leeannyonker

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Vicki: Today we’re talking with Lee Ann Yonker @leeannyonker. Now, she has taught Google from first grade up through fifth grade, and has a really fantastic program that she created. On Twitter it’s #MiniGoogleMasters for the younger kids and #MakingGoogleMasters for the older kids.

And we’re actually going to talk about what is realistic to expect that kids can do in Google, by age.

What can K-2 students be expected to do in Google Tools?

So, Lee Ann, let’s start with your #MiniGoogleMasters. What are the things that kids can master in G-suite, let’s say from kindergarten through second grade?

Using Google Tools to Help Improve Behavior and Increase Engagement

Lee Ann: Well, when we started this last year, it was started out of a place of necessity. I had a special education classroom, and I was the Gen Ed teacher. My co-teacher and I really needed something to help curb some of the behaviors that we were seeing.

We knew that engagement had to increase, and so in came our G-suite tools. We were inspired by Christine Pinto and the work that she had done with the #GAfEforLittles. We just started very slowly introducing our first graders to the G-suite apps. We started with Google Sheets, and it was right around this time of year.

Check out the interview with Christine Pinto on episode 142

Using Pixel Art in Google Sheets

We created a pixel art in Google Sheets and gave them an outline of a pumpkin. We showed them how to use the paint can tool to put color in the cells, and we told them to create a jack-o’-lantern. We just wanted them to get familiar with using those tools because we knew that we wanted to implement those into our math instruction and things like that later. And they took off! The things that they did just with that simple pumpkin was so amazing and impressive.

See Alice Keeler’s tips on Creating Pixel art in Google sheets

So, from there, we had our pixel art. For math we had kind of translated over into our hundreds chart pictures. You know the cool hundreds charts that you can color in and create those mysterious pictures. We transferred those over into Google Sheets as well.

So once we had our feet wet a little bit, and we got a taste of how that was curbing some of the behaviors in our classroom, we just started branching out and giving them more tastes of the G-suite apps.

Voice Typing in Google Docs

Working in Google Docs, the kids thought it was amazing to be able to see how they could type with their voice, using the Voice Typing tool. They could say what they wanted to type, and they would have a model so they could type it themselves. The independence level went through the roof.

Compound Words in Google Slides

We did the same thing in Google Slides. We were working in compound words, and one slide would have two pictures that would create a compound word. But they didn’t know how to spell the compound word. We showed them how to use the Voice Notes in the Speaker Notes to type the word. So, they could create their answer because it provided them that model for them.

The level of independence, and the kids being able to dig around and find tools. We had our little keywords, “Use your ‘mountain’ to insert pictures,” and “Use your ‘T’ if you want to type,” and things like that. Just fostering that independence and letting them go with it.

Telling them, “There’s nothing that you can break. You can’t do anything that we can’t go back and fix for you using our magic Undo button and our versioning histories of course.”

And the kids just blossomed with it, and we noticed that our behavior problems started to decrease because engagement was so much higher with them when they were using the G-Suite tools.

Words to use to teach younger students about G Suite

Vicki: So you’ve given us some words that you use because sometimes the challenge when we’re teaching –especially with younger kids – is the word. I like the magic Undo button.

Lee Ann: (laughs)

Vicki: And the “mountain” picture, and the “T” for typing. Are there any other words that you can give us for the younger kids before we move on?

Lee Ann: Of course all of those were keystones in our classroom. Of course, we talked about our line tool, how you can use that to create shapes and things like that. Just having those icons up there at the top of the toolbar as places for them to reference. They know that they can go there and kind of dig around, even if they weren’t really sure what they were looking for, they could go hunt in those places.

The day that they learned to copy and paste (laughs) was a magical day because they were able to use that Ctrl-C and the Ctrl-V. Even now, even in my fifth-grade class, I have that as an anchor chart in my classroom. It’s such a handy tool that even some adults don’t utilize to its full potential. Just having those shortcuts for them was super helpful.

What can third through sixth graders do with Gsuite?

Vicki: OK, so let’s look at third through sixth grades, #MakingGoogleMasters.

What are the things that this grade level can start doing that maybe the younger kids couldn’t?

Lee Ann: Moving from first grade last year to fifth grade this year, I knew that Google was going to be a cornerstone in my classroom. I was inspired this summer. I was at a conference, actually with my husband, and he is in the hotel business. Something sparked me. There were these bags that we had been given, and I thought, “Wouldn’t it be so cool for the kids to earn pins or badges?” And I thought, you know I could buy pins, and give them little pins if they achieve a certain task or whatever in a G-suite tool. And then I thought, “No! How cool would it be for kids to have digital badges, the same way that we have (some) that are attached to our e-mails and things like that, for when we achieve our Google Certified Educators and things like that.

I went on the hunt, and I created – just using Google Drawings and Canva – these #MakingGoogleMaster badges. They’re very simple. They just have the G-suite icon, and it says “Sheets” and it has our hashtag at the bottom.

I was so inspired! “I have these great digital badges. Now what do I do with them?”

How Lee Ann creates and awards the badges in her Google Classroom

Well, I want my kids to become masters of these G-suite tools because we’re going to be using them in our classroom. The more familiar they are with them, the (more) higher order thinking we’re going to be able to do in class.

So what I decided was that I needed a way to track these. I found that Flippity.net plays beautifully with Sheets. I saw that they have a Badge Tracker, and I thought, “This is great!”

Then I also noticed that in their Badge Tracker they had this disclaimer that you can only use images from the internet. And I was like, “No! I have these great badges.”

So – simple fix? I went into my Google Drive. I filed and published it to the web so it was instantly a picture on the web, and then I was able add those into my Flippity.

So I created one for each of my fifth grade classrooms, and they know that in the About section of our Google Classroom, I have posted for them — in a sheet – links to all these different tasks.

Independent learning about Gsuite

So for early finishers, and I’ve even had kids work on this from home that’s how excited they are about it – they can go into the About section of our Google Classroom. They can access these different assessments (tasks for them to do) in each G-suite, and they can complete that.

They send me a notification (tag me in a comment or whatever within that document or slide or whatever it may be), and I can go approve that they’ve done the task or not. If they have, then I just go back to my Flippity sheet and I check them off that they have earned that badge.

And then, of course, we take a picture, and we Tweet it out, and they’re recognized in their Morning Meeting, and things like that.

So really just being able to develop familiarity with all of the G-suite tools, and then learning different tips and tricks… and the beauty of this is that they have the task, but no directions. They may have to go into a doc and create a table and format it a certain way, but I don’t tell them how to do it.

And so, so many different kids have completed this task, but there’s more than one avenue to get to something. Especially in the G-suite tools, they might know keyboard shortcuts, or they might find it in their toolbars.

Just them learning how to use all these G-suite apps has opened the door for us to do so many more things in our classroom because they have that knowledge of the apps and how they work and shortcuts and things that they can do within them.

Vicki: This is really almost micro-credentials in some ways.

Mistakes Lee Ann says not to make when implementing Google Classroom

So, Lee Ann, is there any mistake that you have made that you would love to warn everybody about so that they don’t make it?

Lee Ann: In our classroom, we talk a lot about growth mindset, and how you’re not there yet.

Tip 1: make sure To have a Buddy System

And even some of my fifth graders now, some of them don’t come from technology-rich environments, so they might become frustrated or overwhelmed, and so I think offering the ability to have a buddy (is a good idea). I know that was huge with our first graders as well.

Tip 2: Don’t Stereotype children

And please do not stereotype your kids as, “You are a high academic performing child. You’re probably going to be very tech-savvy.” The highest technology-savvy kid we had was one of our lowest academic performing students. So don’t have that misconception that just because it’s one of the kids who might be really high in academics, they may struggle with technology. But provide them with the support system, a buddy in class that they can rely on.

Vicki: So much great advice!

So you’ll definitely want to check the Shownotes for this, and we’ll also give you links to Lee Ann’s work so you can learn more about it.

Take a look at #MiniGoogleMasters and #MakingGoogleMasters. Look at all the resources and things they’re doing.

These are some fantastic ideas. I love this idea of micro-credentials and having kids explore and learn on their own, so that you can focus on the content teaching as well, as they explore and learn more about the tools.

So, fantastic ideas, Lee Ann. Very remarkable!

Lee Ann: Thank you!

Transcribed by Kymberli Mulford

Bio as submitted

As an elementary teacher, Lee Ann has a passion for teaching kids not only about content, but life lessons as well. Previously Mrs. Yonker has spent the past 5 years in first grade where she and her co-teacher began the #MiniGoogleMasters movement, demonstrating littles can be tech savvy too! Now having moved to 5th grade, Mrs. Yonker is continuing her tech encouragement with the #MakingGoogleMasters to empower her older students to master G Suite tools, much like the Google Certified Educator Task for Level 1 & 2 certification. Mrs. Yonker teaches in South Central Kentucky, and is a 2016 KY Teacher of the year nominee.

Blog: http://ift.tt/2yEaI9n

Twitter: @leeannyonker

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.) This company has no impact on the editorial content of the show.

The post Google Masters For Kids of All Ages: Badges, Skills and More appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Google Masters For Kids of All Ages: Badges, Skills and More published first on http://ift.tt/2jn9f0m

[growthvue]

Google Masters For Kids of All Ages: Badges, Skills and More

Lee Ann Yonker on episode 168 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Lee Ann Yonker helped start the #MiniGoogleMasters movement in her school in K-3rd grade, demonstrating littles can be tech-savvy too! Now having moved to 5th grade, Mrs. Yonker is continuing her tech encouragement with the #MakingGoogleMasters. We talk about what students of all ages can do. She also shares her micro-credential badging approach that has her fifth graders excited to learn.

Today’s Sponsor: WriQ from Texthelp is a new FREE Add-on for Google Docs that helps teachers easily assess student writing and track progress over time by automatically scoring students’ spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors. It also incorporates rubrics so teachers can provide meaningful, qualitative feedback to encourage the writing journey.

This handy free Google Docs add-on tracks things like: time spent writing, spelling-grammar-and punctuation error rates and pulls it into a clear graphical view in your teacher dashboard. To learn more about Wriq go to http://ift.tt/2y91EpU

Listen Now

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

Below is an enhanced transcript, modified for your reading pleasure. All comments in the shaded green box are my own. For guests and hyperlinks to resources, scroll down.

***

Enhanced Transcript

Google Masters for Kids of All Ages

Shownotes: http://ift.tt/2yExKgb From Audio File: 168 Lee Ann Yonker @leeannyonker

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Vicki: Today we’re talking with Lee Ann Yonker @leeannyonker. Now, she has taught Google from first grade up through fifth grade, and has a really fantastic program that she created. On Twitter it’s #MiniGoogleMasters for the younger kids and #MakingGoogleMasters for the older kids.

And we’re actually going to talk about what is realistic to expect that kids can do in Google, by age.

What can K-2 students be expected to do in Google Tools?

So, Lee Ann, let’s start with your #MiniGoogleMasters. What are the things that kids can master in G-suite, let’s say from kindergarten through second grade?

Using Google Tools to Help Improve Behavior and Increase Engagement

Lee Ann: Well, when we started this last year, it was started out of a place of necessity. I had a special education classroom, and I was the Gen Ed teacher. My co-teacher and I really needed something to help curb some of the behaviors that we were seeing.

We knew that engagement had to increase, and so in came our G-suite tools. We were inspired by Christine Pinto and the work that she had done with the #GAfEforLittles. We just started very slowly introducing our first graders to the G-suite apps. We started with Google Sheets, and it was right around this time of year.

Check out the interview with Christine Pinto on episode 142

Using Pixel Art in Google Sheets

We created a pixel art in Google Sheets and gave them an outline of a pumpkin. We showed them how to use the paint can tool to put color in the cells, and we told them to create a jack-o’-lantern. We just wanted them to get familiar with using those tools because we knew that we wanted to implement those into our math instruction and things like that later. And they took off! The things that they did just with that simple pumpkin was so amazing and impressive.

See Alice Keeler’s tips on Creating Pixel art in Google sheets

So, from there, we had our pixel art. For math we had kind of translated over into our hundreds chart pictures. You know the cool hundreds charts that you can color in and create those mysterious pictures. We transferred those over into Google Sheets as well.

So once we had our feet wet a little bit, and we got a taste of how that was curbing some of the behaviors in our classroom, we just started branching out and giving them more tastes of the G-suite apps.

Voice Typing in Google Docs

Working in Google Docs, the kids thought it was amazing to be able to see how they could type with their voice, using the Voice Typing tool. They could say what they wanted to type, and they would have a model so they could type it themselves. The independence level went through the roof.

Compound Words in Google Slides

We did the same thing in Google Slides. We were working in compound words, and one slide would have two pictures that would create a compound word. But they didn’t know how to spell the compound word. We showed them how to use the Voice Notes in the Speaker Notes to type the word. So, they could create their answer because it provided them that model for them.

The level of independence, and the kids being able to dig around and find tools. We had our little keywords, “Use your ‘mountain’ to insert pictures,” and “Use your ‘T’ if you want to type,” and things like that. Just fostering that independence and letting them go with it.

Telling them, “There’s nothing that you can break. You can’t do anything that we can’t go back and fix for you using our magic Undo button and our versioning histories of course.”

And the kids just blossomed with it, and we noticed that our behavior problems started to decrease because engagement was so much higher with them when they were using the G-Suite tools.

Words to use to teach younger students about G Suite

Vicki: So you’ve given us some words that you use because sometimes the challenge when we’re teaching –especially with younger kids – is the word. I like the magic Undo button.

Lee Ann: (laughs)

Vicki: And the “mountain” picture, and the “T” for typing. Are there any other words that you can give us for the younger kids before we move on?

Lee Ann: Of course all of those were keystones in our classroom. Of course, we talked about our line tool, how you can use that to create shapes and things like that. Just having those icons up there at the top of the toolbar as places for them to reference. They know that they can go there and kind of dig around, even if they weren’t really sure what they were looking for, they could go hunt in those places.

The day that they learned to copy and paste (laughs) was a magical day because they were able to use that Ctrl-C and the Ctrl-V. Even now, even in my fifth-grade class, I have that as an anchor chart in my classroom. It’s such a handy tool that even some adults don’t utilize to its full potential. Just having those shortcuts for them was super helpful.

What can third through sixth graders do with Gsuite?

Vicki: OK, so let’s look at third through sixth grades, #MakingGoogleMasters.

What are the things that this grade level can start doing that maybe the younger kids couldn’t?

Lee Ann: Moving from first grade last year to fifth grade this year, I knew that Google was going to be a cornerstone in my classroom. I was inspired this summer. I was at a conference, actually with my husband, and he is in the hotel business. Something sparked me. There were these bags that we had been given, and I thought, “Wouldn’t it be so cool for the kids to earn pins or badges?” And I thought, you know I could buy pins, and give them little pins if they achieve a certain task or whatever in a G-suite tool. And then I thought, “No! How cool would it be for kids to have digital badges, the same way that we have (some) that are attached to our e-mails and things like that, for when we achieve our Google Certified Educators and things like that.

I went on the hunt, and I created – just using Google Drawings and Canva – these #MakingGoogleMaster badges. They’re very simple. They just have the G-suite icon, and it says “Sheets” and it has our hashtag at the bottom.

I was so inspired! “I have these great digital badges. Now what do I do with them?”

How Lee Ann creates and awards the badges in her Google Classroom

Well, I want my kids to become masters of these G-suite tools because we’re going to be using them in our classroom. The more familiar they are with them, the (more) higher order thinking we’re going to be able to do in class.

So what I decided was that I needed a way to track these. I found that Flippity.net plays beautifully with Sheets. I saw that they have a Badge Tracker, and I thought, “This is great!”

Then I also noticed that in their Badge Tracker they had this disclaimer that you can only use images from the internet. And I was like, “No! I have these great badges.”

So – simple fix? I went into my Google Drive. I filed and published it to the web so it was instantly a picture on the web, and then I was able add those into my Flippity.

So I created one for each of my fifth grade classrooms, and they know that in the About section of our Google Classroom, I have posted for them — in a sheet – links to all these different tasks.

Independent learning about Gsuite

So for early finishers, and I’ve even had kids work on this from home that’s how excited they are about it – they can go into the About section of our Google Classroom. They can access these different assessments (tasks for them to do) in each G-suite, and they can complete that.

They send me a notification (tag me in a comment or whatever within that document or slide or whatever it may be), and I can go approve that they’ve done the task or not. If they have, then I just go back to my Flippity sheet and I check them off that they have earned that badge.

And then, of course, we take a picture, and we Tweet it out, and they’re recognized in their Morning Meeting, and things like that.

So really just being able to develop familiarity with all of the G-suite tools, and then learning different tips and tricks… and the beauty of this is that they have the task, but no directions. They may have to go into a doc and create a table and format it a certain way, but I don’t tell them how to do it.

And so, so many different kids have completed this task, but there’s more than one avenue to get to something. Especially in the G-suite tools, they might know keyboard shortcuts, or they might find it in their toolbars.

Just them learning how to use all these G-suite apps has opened the door for us to do so many more things in our classroom because they have that knowledge of the apps and how they work and shortcuts and things that they can do within them.

Vicki: This is really almost micro-credentials in some ways.

Mistakes Lee Ann says not to make when implementing Google Classroom

So, Lee Ann, is there any mistake that you have made that you would love to warn everybody about so that they don’t make it?

Lee Ann: In our classroom, we talk a lot about growth mindset, and how you’re not there yet.

Tip 1: make sure To have a Buddy System

And even some of my fifth graders now, some of them don’t come from technology-rich environments, so they might become frustrated or overwhelmed, and so I think offering the ability to have a buddy (is a good idea). I know that was huge with our first graders as well.

Tip 2: Don’t Stereotype children

And please do not stereotype your kids as, “You are a high academic performing child. You’re probably going to be very tech-savvy.” The highest technology-savvy kid we had was one of our lowest academic performing students. So don’t have that misconception that just because it’s one of the kids who might be really high in academics, they may struggle with technology. But provide them with the support system, a buddy in class that they can rely on.

Vicki: So much great advice!

So you’ll definitely want to check the Shownotes for this, and we’ll also give you links to Lee Ann’s work so you can learn more about it.

Take a look at #MiniGoogleMasters and #MakingGoogleMasters. Look at all the resources and things they’re doing.

These are some fantastic ideas. I love this idea of micro-credentials and having kids explore and learn on their own, so that you can focus on the content teaching as well, as they explore and learn more about the tools.

So, fantastic ideas, Lee Ann. Very remarkable!

Lee Ann: Thank you!

Transcribed by Kymberli Mulford

Bio as submitted

As an elementary teacher, Lee Ann has a passion for teaching kids not only about content, but life lessons as well. Previously Mrs. Yonker has spent the past 5 years in first grade where she and her co-teacher began the #MiniGoogleMasters movement, demonstrating littles can be tech savvy too! Now having moved to 5th grade, Mrs. Yonker is continuing her tech encouragement with the #MakingGoogleMasters to empower her older students to master G Suite tools, much like the Google Certified Educator Task for Level 1 & 2 certification. Mrs. Yonker teaches in South Central Kentucky, and is a 2016 KY Teacher of the year nominee.

Blog: http://ift.tt/2yEaI9n

Twitter: @leeannyonker

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.) This company has no impact on the editorial content of the show.

The post Google Masters For Kids of All Ages: Badges, Skills and More appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Google Masters For Kids of All Ages: Badges, Skills and More published first on http://ift.tt/2xx6Oyq

[athena29stone]

Google Masters For Kids of All Ages: Badges, Skills and More

Lee Ann Yonker on episode 168 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Lee Ann Yonker helped start the #MiniGoogleMasters movement in her school in K-3rd grade, demonstrating littles can be tech-savvy too! Now having moved to 5th grade, Mrs. Yonker is continuing her tech encouragement with the #MakingGoogleMasters. We talk about what students of all ages can do. She also shares her micro-credential badging approach that has her fifth graders excited to learn.

Today’s Sponsor: WriQ from Texthelp is a new FREE Add-on for Google Docs that helps teachers easily assess student writing and track progress over time by automatically scoring students’ spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors. It also incorporates rubrics so teachers can provide meaningful, qualitative feedback to encourage the writing journey.

This handy free Google Docs add-on tracks things like: time spent writing, spelling-grammar-and punctuation error rates and pulls it into a clear graphical view in your teacher dashboard. To learn more about Wriq go to www.texthelp.com/wriq

Listen Now

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

Below is an enhanced transcript, modified for your reading pleasure. All comments in the shaded green box are my own. For guests and hyperlinks to resources, scroll down.

***

Enhanced Transcript

Google Masters for Kids of All Ages

Shownotes: www.coolcatteacher.com/e168 From Audio File: 168 Lee Ann Yonker @leeannyonker

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Vicki: Today we’re talking with Lee Ann Yonker @leeannyonker. Now, she has taught Google from first grade up through fifth grade, and has a really fantastic program that she created. On Twitter it’s #MiniGoogleMasters for the younger kids and #MakingGoogleMasters for the older kids.

And we’re actually going to talk about what is realistic to expect that kids can do in Google, by age.

What can K-2 students be expected to do in Google Tools?

So, Lee Ann, let’s start with your #MiniGoogleMasters. What are the things that kids can master in G-suite, let’s say from kindergarten through second grade?

Using Google Tools to Help Improve Behavior and Increase Engagement

Lee Ann: Well, when we started this last year, it was started out of a place of necessity. I had a special education classroom, and I was the Gen Ed teacher. My co-teacher and I really needed something to help curb some of the behaviors that we were seeing.

We knew that engagement had to increase, and so in came our G-suite tools. We were inspired by Christine Pinto and the work that she had done with the #GAfEforLittles. We just started very slowly introducing our first graders to the G-suite apps. We started with Google Sheets, and it was right around this time of year.

Check out the interview with Christine Pinto on episode 142

Using Pixel Art in Google Sheets

We created a pixel art in Google Sheets and gave them an outline of a pumpkin. We showed them how to use the paint can tool to put color in the cells, and we told them to create a jack-o’-lantern. We just wanted them to get familiar with using those tools because we knew that we wanted to implement those into our math instruction and things like that later. And they took off! The things that they did just with that simple pumpkin was so amazing and impressive.

See Alice Keeler’s tips on Creating Pixel art in Google sheets

So, from there, we had our pixel art. For math we had kind of translated over into our hundreds chart pictures. You know the cool hundreds charts that you can color in and create those mysterious pictures. We transferred those over into Google Sheets as well.

So once we had our feet wet a little bit, and we got a taste of how that was curbing some of the behaviors in our classroom, we just started branching out and giving them more tastes of the G-suite apps.

Voice Typing in Google Docs

Working in Google Docs, the kids thought it was amazing to be able to see how they could type with their voice, using the Voice Typing tool. They could say what they wanted to type, and they would have a model so they could type it themselves. The independence level went through the roof.

Compound Words in Google Slides

We did the same thing in Google Slides. We were working in compound words, and one slide would have two pictures that would create a compound word. But they didn’t know how to spell the compound word. We showed them how to use the Voice Notes in the Speaker Notes to type the word. So, they could create their answer because it provided them that model for them.

The level of independence, and the kids being able to dig around and find tools. We had our little keywords, “Use your ‘mountain’ to insert pictures,” and “Use your ‘T’ if you want to type,” and things like that. Just fostering that independence and letting them go with it.

Telling them, “There’s nothing that you can break. You can’t do anything that we can’t go back and fix for you using our magic Undo button and our versioning histories of course.”

And the kids just blossomed with it, and we noticed that our behavior problems started to decrease because engagement was so much higher with them when they were using the G-Suite tools.

Words to use to teach younger students about G Suite

Vicki: So you’ve given us some words that you use because sometimes the challenge when we’re teaching –especially with younger kids – is the word. I like the magic Undo button.

Lee Ann: (laughs)

Vicki: And the “mountain” picture, and the “T” for typing. Are there any other words that you can give us for the younger kids before we move on?

Lee Ann: Of course all of those were keystones in our classroom. Of course, we talked about our line tool, how you can use that to create shapes and things like that. Just having those icons up there at the top of the toolbar as places for them to reference. They know that they can go there and kind of dig around, even if they weren’t really sure what they were looking for, they could go hunt in those places.

The day that they learned to copy and paste (laughs) was a magical day because they were able to use that Ctrl-C and the Ctrl-V. Even now, even in my fifth-grade class, I have that as an anchor chart in my classroom. It’s such a handy tool that even some adults don’t utilize to its full potential. Just having those shortcuts for them was super helpful.

What can third through sixth graders do with Gsuite?

Vicki: OK, so let’s look at third through sixth grades, #MakingGoogleMasters.

What are the things that this grade level can start doing that maybe the younger kids couldn’t?

Lee Ann: Moving from first grade last year to fifth grade this year, I knew that Google was going to be a cornerstone in my classroom. I was inspired this summer. I was at a conference, actually with my husband, and he is in the hotel business. Something sparked me. There were these bags that we had been given, and I thought, “Wouldn’t it be so cool for the kids to earn pins or badges?” And I thought, you know I could buy pins, and give them little pins if they achieve a certain task or whatever in a G-suite tool. And then I thought, “No! How cool would it be for kids to have digital badges, the same way that we have (some) that are attached to our e-mails and things like that, for when we achieve our Google Certified Educators and things like that.

I went on the hunt, and I created – just using Google Drawings and Canva – these #MakingGoogleMaster badges. They’re very simple. They just have the G-suite icon, and it says “Sheets” and it has our hashtag at the bottom.

I was so inspired! “I have these great digital badges. Now what do I do with them?”

How Lee Ann creates and awards the badges in her Google Classroom

Well, I want my kids to become masters of these G-suite tools because we’re going to be using them in our classroom. The more familiar they are with them, the (more) higher order thinking we’re going to be able to do in class.

So what I decided was that I needed a way to track these. I found that Flippity.net plays beautifully with Sheets. I saw that they have a Badge Tracker, and I thought, “This is great!”

Then I also noticed that in their Badge Tracker they had this disclaimer that you can only use images from the internet. And I was like, “No! I have these great badges.”

So – simple fix? I went into my Google Drive. I filed and published it to the web so it was instantly a picture on the web, and then I was able add those into my Flippity.

So I created one for each of my fifth grade classrooms, and they know that in the About section of our Google Classroom, I have posted for them — in a sheet – links to all these different tasks.

Independent learning about Gsuite

So for early finishers, and I’ve even had kids work on this from home that’s how excited they are about it – they can go into the About section of our Google Classroom. They can access these different assessments (tasks for them to do) in each G-suite, and they can complete that.

They send me a notification (tag me in a comment or whatever within that document or slide or whatever it may be), and I can go approve that they’ve done the task or not. If they have, then I just go back to my Flippity sheet and I check them off that they have earned that badge.

And then, of course, we take a picture, and we Tweet it out, and they’re recognized in their Morning Meeting, and things like that.

So really just being able to develop familiarity with all of the G-suite tools, and then learning different tips and tricks… and the beauty of this is that they have the task, but no directions. They may have to go into a doc and create a table and format it a certain way, but I don’t tell them how to do it.

And so, so many different kids have completed this task, but there’s more than one avenue to get to something. Especially in the G-suite tools, they might know keyboard shortcuts, or they might find it in their toolbars.

Just them learning how to use all these G-suite apps has opened the door for us to do so many more things in our classroom because they have that knowledge of the apps and how they work and shortcuts and things that they can do within them.

Vicki: This is really almost micro-credentials in some ways.

Mistakes Lee Ann says not to make when implementing Google Classroom

So, Lee Ann, is there any mistake that you have made that you would love to warn everybody about so that they don’t make it?

Lee Ann: In our classroom, we talk a lot about growth mindset, and how you’re not there yet.

Tip 1: make sure To have a Buddy System

And even some of my fifth graders now, some of them don’t come from technology-rich environments, so they might become frustrated or overwhelmed, and so I think offering the ability to have a buddy (is a good idea). I know that was huge with our first graders as well.

Tip 2: Don’t Stereotype children

And please do not stereotype your kids as, “You are a high academic performing child. You’re probably going to be very tech-savvy.” The highest technology-savvy kid we had was one of our lowest academic performing students. So don’t have that misconception that just because it’s one of the kids who might be really high in academics, they may struggle with technology. But provide them with the support system, a buddy in class that they can rely on.

Vicki: So much great advice!

So you’ll definitely want to check the Shownotes for this, and we’ll also give you links to Lee Ann’s work so you can learn more about it.

Take a look at #MiniGoogleMasters and #MakingGoogleMasters. Look at all the resources and things they’re doing.

These are some fantastic ideas. I love this idea of micro-credentials and having kids explore and learn on their own, so that you can focus on the content teaching as well, as they explore and learn more about the tools.

So, fantastic ideas, Lee Ann. Very remarkable!

Lee Ann: Thank you!

Transcribed by Kymberli Mulford

Bio as submitted

As an elementary teacher, Lee Ann has a passion for teaching kids not only about content, but life lessons as well. Previously Mrs. Yonker has spent the past 5 years in first grade where she and her co-teacher began the #MiniGoogleMasters movement, demonstrating littles can be tech savvy too! Now having moved to 5th grade, Mrs. Yonker is continuing her tech encouragement with the #MakingGoogleMasters to empower her older students to master G Suite tools, much like the Google Certified Educator Task for Level 1 & 2 certification. Mrs. Yonker teaches in South Central Kentucky, and is a 2016 KY Teacher of the year nominee.

Blog: https://www.facebook.com/SLYTeaching/?ref=bookmarks

Twitter: @leeannyonker

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.) This company has no impact on the editorial content of the show.

The post Google Masters For Kids of All Ages: Badges, Skills and More appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog http://www.coolcatteacher.com/google-masters-kids-ages-badges-skills/

[ralph31ortiz]

Google Masters For Kids of All Ages: Badges, Skills and More

Lee Ann Yonker on episode 168 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Lee Ann Yonker helped start the #MiniGoogleMasters movement in her school in K-3rd grade, demonstrating littles can be tech-savvy too! Now having moved to 5th grade, Mrs. Yonker is continuing her tech encouragement with the #MakingGoogleMasters. We talk about what students of all ages can do. She also shares her micro-credential badging approach that has her fifth graders excited to learn.

Today’s Sponsor: WriQ from Texthelp is a new FREE Add-on for Google Docs that helps teachers easily assess student writing and track progress over time by automatically scoring students’ spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors. It also incorporates rubrics so teachers can provide meaningful, qualitative feedback to encourage the writing journey.

This handy free Google Docs add-on tracks things like: time spent writing, spelling-grammar-and punctuation error rates and pulls it into a clear graphical view in your teacher dashboard. To learn more about Wriq go to www.texthelp.com/wriq

Listen Now

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

Below is an enhanced transcript, modified for your reading pleasure. All comments in the shaded green box are my own. For guests and hyperlinks to resources, scroll down.

***

Enhanced Transcript

Google Masters for Kids of All Ages

Shownotes: www.coolcatteacher.com/e168 From Audio File: 168 Lee Ann Yonker @leeannyonker

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Vicki: Today we’re talking with Lee Ann Yonker @leeannyonker. Now, she has taught Google from first grade up through fifth grade, and has a really fantastic program that she created. On Twitter it’s #MiniGoogleMasters for the younger kids and #MakingGoogleMasters for the older kids.

And we’re actually going to talk about what is realistic to expect that kids can do in Google, by age.

What can K-2 students be expected to do in Google Tools?

So, Lee Ann, let’s start with your #MiniGoogleMasters. What are the things that kids can master in G-suite, let’s say from kindergarten through second grade?

Using Google Tools to Help Improve Behavior and Increase Engagement

Lee Ann: Well, when we started this last year, it was started out of a place of necessity. I had a special education classroom, and I was the Gen Ed teacher. My co-teacher and I really needed something to help curb some of the behaviors that we were seeing.

We knew that engagement had to increase, and so in came our G-suite tools. We were inspired by Christine Pinto and the work that she had done with the #GAfEforLittles. We just started very slowly introducing our first graders to the G-suite apps. We started with Google Sheets, and it was right around this time of year.

Check out the interview with Christine Pinto on episode 142

Using Pixel Art in Google Sheets

We created a pixel art in Google Sheets and gave them an outline of a pumpkin. We showed them how to use the paint can tool to put color in the cells, and we told them to create a jack-o’-lantern. We just wanted them to get familiar with using those tools because we knew that we wanted to implement those into our math instruction and things like that later. And they took off! The things that they did just with that simple pumpkin was so amazing and impressive.

See Alice Keeler’s tips on Creating Pixel art in Google sheets

So, from there, we had our pixel art. For math we had kind of translated over into our hundreds chart pictures. You know the cool hundreds charts that you can color in and create those mysterious pictures. We transferred those over into Google Sheets as well.

So once we had our feet wet a little bit, and we got a taste of how that was curbing some of the behaviors in our classroom, we just started branching out and giving them more tastes of the G-suite apps.

Voice Typing in Google Docs

Working in Google Docs, the kids thought it was amazing to be able to see how they could type with their voice, using the Voice Typing tool. They could say what they wanted to type, and they would have a model so they could type it themselves. The independence level went through the roof.

Compound Words in Google Slides

We did the same thing in Google Slides. We were working in compound words, and one slide would have two pictures that would create a compound word. But they didn’t know how to spell the compound word. We showed them how to use the Voice Notes in the Speaker Notes to type the word. So, they could create their answer because it provided them that model for them.

The level of independence, and the kids being able to dig around and find tools. We had our little keywords, “Use your ‘mountain’ to insert pictures,” and “Use your ‘T’ if you want to type,” and things like that. Just fostering that independence and letting them go with it.

Telling them, “There’s nothing that you can break. You can’t do anything that we can’t go back and fix for you using our magic Undo button and our versioning histories of course.”

And the kids just blossomed with it, and we noticed that our behavior problems started to decrease because engagement was so much higher with them when they were using the G-Suite tools.

Words to use to teach younger students about G Suite

Vicki: So you’ve given us some words that you use because sometimes the challenge when we’re teaching –especially with younger kids – is the word. I like the magic Undo button.

Lee Ann: (laughs)

Vicki: And the “mountain” picture, and the “T” for typing. Are there any other words that you can give us for the younger kids before we move on?

Lee Ann: Of course all of those were keystones in our classroom. Of course, we talked about our line tool, how you can use that to create shapes and things like that. Just having those icons up there at the top of the toolbar as places for them to reference. They know that they can go there and kind of dig around, even if they weren’t really sure what they were looking for, they could go hunt in those places.

The day that they learned to copy and paste (laughs) was a magical day because they were able to use that Ctrl-C and the Ctrl-V. Even now, even in my fifth-grade class, I have that as an anchor chart in my classroom. It’s such a handy tool that even some adults don’t utilize to its full potential. Just having those shortcuts for them was super helpful.

What can third through sixth graders do with Gsuite?

Vicki: OK, so let’s look at third through sixth grades, #MakingGoogleMasters.

What are the things that this grade level can start doing that maybe the younger kids couldn’t?

Lee Ann: Moving from first grade last year to fifth grade this year, I knew that Google was going to be a cornerstone in my classroom. I was inspired this summer. I was at a conference, actually with my husband, and he is in the hotel business. Something sparked me. There were these bags that we had been given, and I thought, “Wouldn’t it be so cool for the kids to earn pins or badges?” And I thought, you know I could buy pins, and give them little pins if they achieve a certain task or whatever in a G-suite tool. And then I thought, “No! How cool would it be for kids to have digital badges, the same way that we have (some) that are attached to our e-mails and things like that, for when we achieve our Google Certified Educators and things like that.

I went on the hunt, and I created – just using Google Drawings and Canva – these #MakingGoogleMaster badges. They’re very simple. They just have the G-suite icon, and it says “Sheets” and it has our hashtag at the bottom.

I was so inspired! “I have these great digital badges. Now what do I do with them?”

How Lee Ann creates and awards the badges in her Google Classroom

Well, I want my kids to become masters of these G-suite tools because we’re going to be using them in our classroom. The more familiar they are with them, the (more) higher order thinking we’re going to be able to do in class.

So what I decided was that I needed a way to track these. I found that Flippity.net plays beautifully with Sheets. I saw that they have a Badge Tracker, and I thought, “This is great!”

Then I also noticed that in their Badge Tracker they had this disclaimer that you can only use images from the internet. And I was like, “No! I have these great badges.”

So – simple fix? I went into my Google Drive. I filed and published it to the web so it was instantly a picture on the web, and then I was able add those into my Flippity.

So I created one for each of my fifth grade classrooms, and they know that in the About section of our Google Classroom, I have posted for them — in a sheet – links to all these different tasks.

Independent learning about Gsuite

So for early finishers, and I’ve even had kids work on this from home that’s how excited they are about it – they can go into the About section of our Google Classroom. They can access these different assessments (tasks for them to do) in each G-suite, and they can complete that.

They send me a notification (tag me in a comment or whatever within that document or slide or whatever it may be), and I can go approve that they’ve done the task or not. If they have, then I just go back to my Flippity sheet and I check them off that they have earned that badge.

And then, of course, we take a picture, and we Tweet it out, and they’re recognized in their Morning Meeting, and things like that.

So really just being able to develop familiarity with all of the G-suite tools, and then learning different tips and tricks… and the beauty of this is that they have the task, but no directions. They may have to go into a doc and create a table and format it a certain way, but I don’t tell them how to do it.

And so, so many different kids have completed this task, but there’s more than one avenue to get to something. Especially in the G-suite tools, they might know keyboard shortcuts, or they might find it in their toolbars.

Just them learning how to use all these G-suite apps has opened the door for us to do so many more things in our classroom because they have that knowledge of the apps and how they work and shortcuts and things that they can do within them.

Vicki: This is really almost micro-credentials in some ways.

Mistakes Lee Ann says not to make when implementing Google Classroom

So, Lee Ann, is there any mistake that you have made that you would love to warn everybody about so that they don’t make it?

Lee Ann: In our classroom, we talk a lot about growth mindset, and how you’re not there yet.

Tip 1: make sure To have a Buddy System

And even some of my fifth graders now, some of them don’t come from technology-rich environments, so they might become frustrated or overwhelmed, and so I think offering the ability to have a buddy (is a good idea). I know that was huge with our first graders as well.

Tip 2: Don’t Stereotype children

And please do not stereotype your kids as, “You are a high academic performing child. You’re probably going to be very tech-savvy.” The highest technology-savvy kid we had was one of our lowest academic performing students. So don’t have that misconception that just because it’s one of the kids who might be really high in academics, they may struggle with technology. But provide them with the support system, a buddy in class that they can rely on.

Vicki: So much great advice!

So you’ll definitely want to check the Shownotes for this, and we’ll also give you links to Lee Ann’s work so you can learn more about it.

Take a look at #MiniGoogleMasters and #MakingGoogleMasters. Look at all the resources and things they’re doing.

These are some fantastic ideas. I love this idea of micro-credentials and having kids explore and learn on their own, so that you can focus on the content teaching as well, as they explore and learn more about the tools.

So, fantastic ideas, Lee Ann. Very remarkable!

Lee Ann: Thank you!

Transcribed by Kymberli Mulford

Bio as submitted

As an elementary teacher, Lee Ann has a passion for teaching kids not only about content, but life lessons as well. Previously Mrs. Yonker has spent the past 5 years in first grade where she and her co-teacher began the #MiniGoogleMasters movement, demonstrating littles can be tech savvy too! Now having moved to 5th grade, Mrs. Yonker is continuing her tech encouragement with the #MakingGoogleMasters to empower her older students to master G Suite tools, much like the Google Certified Educator Task for Level 1 & 2 certification. Mrs. Yonker teaches in South Central Kentucky, and is a 2016 KY Teacher of the year nominee.

Blog: https://www.facebook.com/SLYTeaching/?ref=bookmarks

Twitter: @leeannyonker

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.) This company has no impact on the editorial content of the show.

The post Google Masters For Kids of All Ages: Badges, Skills and More appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog http://www.coolcatteacher.com/google-masters-kids-ages-badges-skills/

[aira26soonas]

Google Masters For Kids of All Ages: Badges, Skills and More

Lee Ann Yonker on episode 168 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Lee Ann Yonker helped start the #MiniGoogleMasters movement in her school in K-3rd grade, demonstrating littles can be tech-savvy too! Now having moved to 5th grade, Mrs. Yonker is continuing her tech encouragement with the #MakingGoogleMasters. We talk about what students of all ages can do. She also shares her micro-credential badging approach that has her fifth graders excited to learn.

Today’s Sponsor: WriQ from Texthelp is a new FREE Add-on for Google Docs that helps teachers easily assess student writing and track progress over time by automatically scoring students’ spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors. It also incorporates rubrics so teachers can provide meaningful, qualitative feedback to encourage the writing journey.

This handy free Google Docs add-on tracks things like: time spent writing, spelling-grammar-and punctuation error rates and pulls it into a clear graphical view in your teacher dashboard. To learn more about Wriq go to www.texthelp.com/wriq

Listen Now

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

Below is an enhanced transcript, modified for your reading pleasure. All comments in the shaded green box are my own. For guests and hyperlinks to resources, scroll down.

***

Enhanced Transcript

Google Masters for Kids of All Ages

Shownotes: www.coolcatteacher.com/e168 From Audio File: 168 Lee Ann Yonker @leeannyonker

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Vicki: Today we’re talking with Lee Ann Yonker @leeannyonker. Now, she has taught Google from first grade up through fifth grade, and has a really fantastic program that she created. On Twitter it’s #MiniGoogleMasters for the younger kids and #MakingGoogleMasters for the older kids.

And we’re actually going to talk about what is realistic to expect that kids can do in Google, by age.

What can K-2 students be expected to do in Google Tools?

So, Lee Ann, let’s start with your #MiniGoogleMasters. What are the things that kids can master in G-suite, let’s say from kindergarten through second grade?

Using Google Tools to Help Improve Behavior and Increase Engagement

Lee Ann: Well, when we started this last year, it was started out of a place of necessity. I had a special education classroom, and I was the Gen Ed teacher. My co-teacher and I really needed something to help curb some of the behaviors that we were seeing.

We knew that engagement had to increase, and so in came our G-suite tools. We were inspired by Christine Pinto and the work that she had done with the #GAfEforLittles. We just started very slowly introducing our first graders to the G-suite apps. We started with Google Sheets, and it was right around this time of year.

Check out the interview with Christine Pinto on episode 142

Using Pixel Art in Google Sheets

We created a pixel art in Google Sheets and gave them an outline of a pumpkin. We showed them how to use the paint can tool to put color in the cells, and we told them to create a jack-o’-lantern. We just wanted them to get familiar with using those tools because we knew that we wanted to implement those into our math instruction and things like that later. And they took off! The things that they did just with that simple pumpkin was so amazing and impressive.

See Alice Keeler’s tips on Creating Pixel art in Google sheets

So, from there, we had our pixel art. For math we had kind of translated over into our hundreds chart pictures. You know the cool hundreds charts that you can color in and create those mysterious pictures. We transferred those over into Google Sheets as well.

So once we had our feet wet a little bit, and we got a taste of how that was curbing some of the behaviors in our classroom, we just started branching out and giving them more tastes of the G-suite apps.

Voice Typing in Google Docs

Working in Google Docs, the kids thought it was amazing to be able to see how they could type with their voice, using the Voice Typing tool. They could say what they wanted to type, and they would have a model so they could type it themselves. The independence level went through the roof.

Compound Words in Google Slides

We did the same thing in Google Slides. We were working in compound words, and one slide would have two pictures that would create a compound word. But they didn’t know how to spell the compound word. We showed them how to use the Voice Notes in the Speaker Notes to type the word. So, they could create their answer because it provided them that model for them.

The level of independence, and the kids being able to dig around and find tools. We had our little keywords, “Use your ‘mountain’ to insert pictures,” and “Use your ‘T’ if you want to type,” and things like that. Just fostering that independence and letting them go with it.

Telling them, “There’s nothing that you can break. You can’t do anything that we can’t go back and fix for you using our magic Undo button and our versioning histories of course.”

And the kids just blossomed with it, and we noticed that our behavior problems started to decrease because engagement was so much higher with them when they were using the G-Suite tools.

Words to use to teach younger students about G Suite

Vicki: So you’ve given us some words that you use because sometimes the challenge when we’re teaching –especially with younger kids – is the word. I like the magic Undo button.

Lee Ann: (laughs)

Vicki: And the “mountain” picture, and the “T” for typing. Are there any other words that you can give us for the younger kids before we move on?

Lee Ann: Of course all of those were keystones in our classroom. Of course, we talked about our line tool, how you can use that to create shapes and things like that. Just having those icons up there at the top of the toolbar as places for them to reference. They know that they can go there and kind of dig around, even if they weren’t really sure what they were looking for, they could go hunt in those places.

The day that they learned to copy and paste (laughs) was a magical day because they were able to use that Ctrl-C and the Ctrl-V. Even now, even in my fifth-grade class, I have that as an anchor chart in my classroom. It’s such a handy tool that even some adults don’t utilize to its full potential. Just having those shortcuts for them was super helpful.

What can third through sixth graders do with Gsuite?

Vicki: OK, so let’s look at third through sixth grades, #MakingGoogleMasters.

What are the things that this grade level can start doing that maybe the younger kids couldn’t?

Lee Ann: Moving from first grade last year to fifth grade this year, I knew that Google was going to be a cornerstone in my classroom. I was inspired this summer. I was at a conference, actually with my husband, and he is in the hotel business. Something sparked me. There were these bags that we had been given, and I thought, “Wouldn’t it be so cool for the kids to earn pins or badges?” And I thought, you know I could buy pins, and give them little pins if they achieve a certain task or whatever in a G-suite tool. And then I thought, “No! How cool would it be for kids to have digital badges, the same way that we have (some) that are attached to our e-mails and things like that, for when we achieve our Google Certified Educators and things like that.

I went on the hunt, and I created – just using Google Drawings and Canva – these #MakingGoogleMaster badges. They’re very simple. They just have the G-suite icon, and it says “Sheets” and it has our hashtag at the bottom.

I was so inspired! “I have these great digital badges. Now what do I do with them?”

How Lee Ann creates and awards the badges in her Google Classroom

Well, I want my kids to become masters of these G-suite tools because we’re going to be using them in our classroom. The more familiar they are with them, the (more) higher order thinking we’re going to be able to do in class.

So what I decided was that I needed a way to track these. I found that Flippity.net plays beautifully with Sheets. I saw that they have a Badge Tracker, and I thought, “This is great!”

Then I also noticed that in their Badge Tracker they had this disclaimer that you can only use images from the internet. And I was like, “No! I have these great badges.”

So – simple fix? I went into my Google Drive. I filed and published it to the web so it was instantly a picture on the web, and then I was able add those into my Flippity.

So I created one for each of my fifth grade classrooms, and they know that in the About section of our Google Classroom, I have posted for them — in a sheet – links to all these different tasks.

Independent learning about Gsuite

So for early finishers, and I’ve even had kids work on this from home that’s how excited they are about it – they can go into the About section of our Google Classroom. They can access these different assessments (tasks for them to do) in each G-suite, and they can complete that.

They send me a notification (tag me in a comment or whatever within that document or slide or whatever it may be), and I can go approve that they’ve done the task or not. If they have, then I just go back to my Flippity sheet and I check them off that they have earned that badge.

And then, of course, we take a picture, and we Tweet it out, and they’re recognized in their Morning Meeting, and things like that.

So really just being able to develop familiarity with all of the G-suite tools, and then learning different tips and tricks… and the beauty of this is that they have the task, but no directions. They may have to go into a doc and create a table and format it a certain way, but I don’t tell them how to do it.

And so, so many different kids have completed this task, but there’s more than one avenue to get to something. Especially in the G-suite tools, they might know keyboard shortcuts, or they might find it in their toolbars.

Just them learning how to use all these G-suite apps has opened the door for us to do so many more things in our classroom because they have that knowledge of the apps and how they work and shortcuts and things that they can do within them.

Vicki: This is really almost micro-credentials in some ways.

Mistakes Lee Ann says not to make when implementing Google Classroom

So, Lee Ann, is there any mistake that you have made that you would love to warn everybody about so that they don’t make it?

Lee Ann: In our classroom, we talk a lot about growth mindset, and how you’re not there yet.

Tip 1: make sure To have a Buddy System

And even some of my fifth graders now, some of them don’t come from technology-rich environments, so they might become frustrated or overwhelmed, and so I think offering the ability to have a buddy (is a good idea). I know that was huge with our first graders as well.

Tip 2: Don’t Stereotype children

And please do not stereotype your kids as, “You are a high academic performing child. You’re probably going to be very tech-savvy.” The highest technology-savvy kid we had was one of our lowest academic performing students. So don’t have that misconception that just because it’s one of the kids who might be really high in academics, they may struggle with technology. But provide them with the support system, a buddy in class that they can rely on.

Vicki: So much great advice!

So you’ll definitely want to check the Shownotes for this, and we’ll also give you links to Lee Ann’s work so you can learn more about it.

Take a look at #MiniGoogleMasters and #MakingGoogleMasters. Look at all the resources and things they’re doing.

These are some fantastic ideas. I love this idea of micro-credentials and having kids explore and learn on their own, so that you can focus on the content teaching as well, as they explore and learn more about the tools.

So, fantastic ideas, Lee Ann. Very remarkable!

Lee Ann: Thank you!

Transcribed by Kymberli Mulford

Bio as submitted

As an elementary teacher, Lee Ann has a passion for teaching kids not only about content, but life lessons as well. Previously Mrs. Yonker has spent the past 5 years in first grade where she and her co-teacher began the #MiniGoogleMasters movement, demonstrating littles can be tech savvy too! Now having moved to 5th grade, Mrs. Yonker is continuing her tech encouragement with the #MakingGoogleMasters to empower her older students to master G Suite tools, much like the Google Certified Educator Task for Level 1 & 2 certification. Mrs. Yonker teaches in South Central Kentucky, and is a 2016 KY Teacher of the year nominee.

Blog: https://www.facebook.com/SLYTeaching/?ref=bookmarks

Twitter: @leeannyonker

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.) This company has no impact on the editorial content of the show.

The post Google Masters For Kids of All Ages: Badges, Skills and More appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog http://www.coolcatteacher.com/google-masters-kids-ages-badges-skills/

[patriciaanderson357-blog]

Google Masters For Kids of All Ages: Badges, Skills and More

Lee Ann Yonker on episode 168 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Lee Ann Yonker helped start the #MiniGoogleMasters movement in her school in K-3rd grade, demonstrating littles can be tech-savvy too! Now having moved to 5th grade, Mrs. Yonker is continuing her tech encouragement with the #MakingGoogleMasters. We talk about what students of all ages can do. She also shares her micro-credential badging approach that has her fifth graders excited to learn.

Today’s Sponsor: WriQ from Texthelp is a new FREE Add-on for Google Docs that helps teachers easily assess student writing and track progress over time by automatically scoring students’ spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors. It also incorporates rubrics so teachers can provide meaningful, qualitative feedback to encourage the writing journey.

This handy free Google Docs add-on tracks things like: time spent writing, spelling-grammar-and punctuation error rates and pulls it into a clear graphical view in your teacher dashboard. To learn more about Wriq go to www.texthelp.com/wriq

Listen Now

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

Below is an enhanced transcript, modified for your reading pleasure. All comments in the shaded green box are my own. For guests and hyperlinks to resources, scroll down.

***

Enhanced Transcript

Google Masters for Kids of All Ages

Shownotes: www.coolcatteacher.com/e168 From Audio File: 168 Lee Ann Yonker @leeannyonker

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Vicki: Today we’re talking with Lee Ann Yonker @leeannyonker. Now, she has taught Google from first grade up through fifth grade, and has a really fantastic program that she created. On Twitter it’s #MiniGoogleMasters for the younger kids and #MakingGoogleMasters for the older kids.

And we’re actually going to talk about what is realistic to expect that kids can do in Google, by age.

What can K-2 students be expected to do in Google Tools?

So, Lee Ann, let’s start with your #MiniGoogleMasters. What are the things that kids can master in G-suite, let’s say from kindergarten through second grade?

Using Google Tools to Help Improve Behavior and Increase Engagement

Lee Ann: Well, when we started this last year, it was started out of a place of necessity. I had a special education classroom, and I was the Gen Ed teacher. My co-teacher and I really needed something to help curb some of the behaviors that we were seeing.

We knew that engagement had to increase, and so in came our G-suite tools. We were inspired by Christine Pinto and the work that she had done with the #GAfEforLittles. We just started very slowly introducing our first graders to the G-suite apps. We started with Google Sheets, and it was right around this time of year.

Check out the interview with Christine Pinto on episode 142

Using Pixel Art in Google Sheets

We created a pixel art in Google Sheets and gave them an outline of a pumpkin. We showed them how to use the paint can tool to put color in the cells, and we told them to create a jack-o’-lantern. We just wanted them to get familiar with using those tools because we knew that we wanted to implement those into our math instruction and things like that later. And they took off! The things that they did just with that simple pumpkin was so amazing and impressive.

See Alice Keeler’s tips on Creating Pixel art in Google sheets

So, from there, we had our pixel art. For math we had kind of translated over into our hundreds chart pictures. You know the cool hundreds charts that you can color in and create those mysterious pictures. We transferred those over into Google Sheets as well.

So once we had our feet wet a little bit, and we got a taste of how that was curbing some of the behaviors in our classroom, we just started branching out and giving them more tastes of the G-suite apps.

Voice Typing in Google Docs

Working in Google Docs, the kids thought it was amazing to be able to see how they could type with their voice, using the Voice Typing tool. They could say what they wanted to type, and they would have a model so they could type it themselves. The independence level went through the roof.

Compound Words in Google Slides

We did the same thing in Google Slides. We were working in compound words, and one slide would have two pictures that would create a compound word. But they didn’t know how to spell the compound word. We showed them how to use the Voice Notes in the Speaker Notes to type the word. So, they could create their answer because it provided them that model for them.

The level of independence, and the kids being able to dig around and find tools. We had our little keywords, “Use your ‘mountain’ to insert pictures,” and “Use your ‘T’ if you want to type,” and things like that. Just fostering that independence and letting them go with it.

Telling them, “There’s nothing that you can break. You can’t do anything that we can’t go back and fix for you using our magic Undo button and our versioning histories of course.”

And the kids just blossomed with it, and we noticed that our behavior problems started to decrease because engagement was so much higher with them when they were using the G-Suite tools.

Words to use to teach younger students about G Suite

Vicki: So you’ve given us some words that you use because sometimes the challenge when we’re teaching –especially with younger kids – is the word. I like the magic Undo button.

Lee Ann: (laughs)

Vicki: And the “mountain” picture, and the “T” for typing. Are there any other words that you can give us for the younger kids before we move on?

Lee Ann: Of course all of those were keystones in our classroom. Of course, we talked about our line tool, how you can use that to create shapes and things like that. Just having those icons up there at the top of the toolbar as places for them to reference. They know that they can go there and kind of dig around, even if they weren’t really sure what they were looking for, they could go hunt in those places.

The day that they learned to copy and paste (laughs) was a magical day because they were able to use that Ctrl-C and the Ctrl-V. Even now, even in my fifth-grade class, I have that as an anchor chart in my classroom. It’s such a handy tool that even some adults don’t utilize to its full potential. Just having those shortcuts for them was super helpful.

What can third through sixth graders do with Gsuite?

Vicki: OK, so let’s look at third through sixth grades, #MakingGoogleMasters.

What are the things that this grade level can start doing that maybe the younger kids couldn’t?

Lee Ann: Moving from first grade last year to fifth grade this year, I knew that Google was going to be a cornerstone in my classroom. I was inspired this summer. I was at a conference, actually with my husband, and he is in the hotel business. Something sparked me. There were these bags that we had been given, and I thought, “Wouldn’t it be so cool for the kids to earn pins or badges?” And I thought, you know I could buy pins, and give them little pins if they achieve a certain task or whatever in a G-suite tool. And then I thought, “No! How cool would it be for kids to have digital badges, the same way that we have (some) that are attached to our e-mails and things like that, for when we achieve our Google Certified Educators and things like that.

I went on the hunt, and I created – just using Google Drawings and Canva – these #MakingGoogleMaster badges. They’re very simple. They just have the G-suite icon, and it says “Sheets” and it has our hashtag at the bottom.

I was so inspired! “I have these great digital badges. Now what do I do with them?”

How Lee Ann creates and awards the badges in her Google Classroom

Well, I want my kids to become masters of these G-suite tools because we’re going to be using them in our classroom. The more familiar they are with them, the (more) higher order thinking we’re going to be able to do in class.

So what I decided was that I needed a way to track these. I found that Flippity.net plays beautifully with Sheets. I saw that they have a Badge Tracker, and I thought, “This is great!”

Then I also noticed that in their Badge Tracker they had this disclaimer that you can only use images from the internet. And I was like, “No! I have these great badges.”

So – simple fix? I went into my Google Drive. I filed and published it to the web so it was instantly a picture on the web, and then I was able add those into my Flippity.

So I created one for each of my fifth grade classrooms, and they know that in the About section of our Google Classroom, I have posted for them — in a sheet – links to all these different tasks.

Independent learning about Gsuite

So for early finishers, and I’ve even had kids work on this from home that’s how excited they are about it – they can go into the About section of our Google Classroom. They can access these different assessments (tasks for them to do) in each G-suite, and they can complete that.

They send me a notification (tag me in a comment or whatever within that document or slide or whatever it may be), and I can go approve that they’ve done the task or not. If they have, then I just go back to my Flippity sheet and I check them off that they have earned that badge.

And then, of course, we take a picture, and we Tweet it out, and they’re recognized in their Morning Meeting, and things like that.

So really just being able to develop familiarity with all of the G-suite tools, and then learning different tips and tricks… and the beauty of this is that they have the task, but no directions. They may have to go into a doc and create a table and format it a certain way, but I don’t tell them how to do it.

And so, so many different kids have completed this task, but there’s more than one avenue to get to something. Especially in the G-suite tools, they might know keyboard shortcuts, or they might find it in their toolbars.

Just them learning how to use all these G-suite apps has opened the door for us to do so many more things in our classroom because they have that knowledge of the apps and how they work and shortcuts and things that they can do within them.

Vicki: This is really almost micro-credentials in some ways.

Mistakes Lee Ann says not to make when implementing Google Classroom

So, Lee Ann, is there any mistake that you have made that you would love to warn everybody about so that they don’t make it?

Lee Ann: In our classroom, we talk a lot about growth mindset, and how you’re not there yet.

Tip 1: make sure To have a Buddy System

And even some of my fifth graders now, some of them don’t come from technology-rich environments, so they might become frustrated or overwhelmed, and so I think offering the ability to have a buddy (is a good idea). I know that was huge with our first graders as well.

Tip 2: Don’t Stereotype children

And please do not stereotype your kids as, “You are a high academic performing child. You’re probably going to be very tech-savvy.” The highest technology-savvy kid we had was one of our lowest academic performing students. So don’t have that misconception that just because it’s one of the kids who might be really high in academics, they may struggle with technology. But provide them with the support system, a buddy in class that they can rely on.

Vicki: So much great advice!

So you’ll definitely want to check the Shownotes for this, and we’ll also give you links to Lee Ann’s work so you can learn more about it.

Take a look at #MiniGoogleMasters and #MakingGoogleMasters. Look at all the resources and things they’re doing.

These are some fantastic ideas. I love this idea of micro-credentials and having kids explore and learn on their own, so that you can focus on the content teaching as well, as they explore and learn more about the tools.

So, fantastic ideas, Lee Ann. Very remarkable!

Lee Ann: Thank you!

Transcribed by Kymberli Mulford

Bio as submitted

As an elementary teacher, Lee Ann has a passion for teaching kids not only about content, but life lessons as well. Previously Mrs. Yonker has spent the past 5 years in first grade where she and her co-teacher began the #MiniGoogleMasters movement, demonstrating littles can be tech savvy too! Now having moved to 5th grade, Mrs. Yonker is continuing her tech encouragement with the #MakingGoogleMasters to empower her older students to master G Suite tools, much like the Google Certified Educator Task for Level 1 & 2 certification. Mrs. Yonker teaches in South Central Kentucky, and is a 2016 KY Teacher of the year nominee.

Blog: https://www.facebook.com/SLYTeaching/?ref=bookmarks

Twitter: @leeannyonker

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.) This company has no impact on the editorial content of the show.

The post Google Masters For Kids of All Ages: Badges, Skills and More appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!