Hybrid learning is out and virtual learning is back, at least in my district. With one week left before school, there isn't a lot of time to recreate the wheel for distance learning. So now I'm looking at all of those worksheet resources that I use and trying to figure out which ones I can convert to Google Classroom resources.  Although this sounds difficult, I have found a very simple way to prevent myself from reinventing the wheel. So I am spending this week turning assignments into things I can use in Google Classroom.

Choosing the Correct Format for Google Classroom 
​When I am creating assignments for my class using Google Drive, there is always a debate about whether to use Google Docs or Google Slides or Google Forms. Each format has it's own benefits and drawbacks.

Google Docs provide students with the option to type as long as they would like without "running out of space". They are also very easy for teachers to copy and paste pre-created prompts or assignments into. This is great for essays. However, Google Docs allows students to have complete control over formatting, which can be challenging, especially with younger users. Additionally, if students need to create a picture, they have to create that picture using the "insert picture" function that is slightly challenging for kids to use. I use Google Docs predominantly for writing assignments and long response reflection responses. 

Google Slides allows you to put a picture as a "background" and use text boxes to complete a worksheet. Additionally, students can create pictures right on the slides, which is super helpful with math activities. However, due to the limited space of each slide, assignments need to be broken down into appropriate steps before handing them off to students. Also, because assignments are often broken down into one piece on each slide, students need to be trained on how to navigate the slides to find what they are looking for. I use Google Slides predominantly for math problem solving or for worksheets where the formatting helps guide students through the activity, like my math projects.

Google Forms grades quizzes for you, providing students with immediate feedback on their work. Additionally, Forms is an easy way for students to look at a large group of student work very quickly. It even gives you graphs of student responses! However, Forms will not grade written responses for you, unless it is a number answer or a single word, given in a specific format. This means that Forms are most effectively used for multiple choice activities. While you may add a picture to a form when you are creating it, respondents can't add pictures to a form. Additionally, if a student starts a form today, they cannot save their work and come back to it tomorrow. I use Google Forms predominantly for multiple choice quizzes and quick check exit tickets.

Turning Worksheets into Google Slides
As you can see, I use all formats: docs, slides and forms, when creating activities for my kiddos. However, recently my focus has been on Google Slides. To turn a worksheet into a Google Slide, I take a screenshot of the worksheet. Then I set that screenshot as the background of a slide in Google slides. Finally, I insert text boxes into all of the places where I want kiddos to write. Personally, I leave my text boxes "invisible" without borders or shading. Then, when students open the Google Slide, they see just the worksheet, but as they click where they would like to type, the text box will be there waiting for them. 

It does take a little bit of training for students to remember to click on those text boxes, but they get the idea quickly. I also train my students on how to add their own text boxes, in case they accidentally erase the ones I have provided. This skill is just one of many Google Slides navigation skills I teach my kiddos, including how to draw, how to add shapes, how to highlight, etc. By the end of the year, the kiddos are often better at Google Slides than I am!

Save More Time, Use My Pre-made Google Slide Worksheets
Don't have time to create Google Slide Worksheets? I am working hard on updating my more popular items into Google Classroom assignable activities. Here are a few that are ready and waiting for you to download from my Teachers Pay Teachers store and assign right away:
Ice Cream Shop Project
Be an Architect Project
Holiday Shopping Project
Party Planner Project
Balanced Checkbook Project
Holiday Recipe Project
Field Trip Planning Project
Student Created Video Project
Graphic Organizer Sheets

We have already talked about setting up your digital classroom and exploring technology tools. Today we will discuss something else all teachers should do to prepare for next school year:

You can take time to find resources that will work with in class learning AND digital learning.

The summer is when I find and create those teaching resources for the upcoming year. This is the time where I find the projects and activities that I can use throughout the year to supplement my provided curriculum. I'm still doing this this summer, but this year I am making sure that each resource can be used in a paper format and a digital format. This way I am prepared for whatever type of learning we're doing next year. 

Digital formatting of paper resources can be very diverse. Since I use Google Classroom, I tend to use Google Drive formats like Google Docs, Google Slides and Google Forms to create digital resources. Other people choose to use websites like Quizlet, Kahoot, Smart Learning Suite and Gimkit to create digital resources. Additionally, some websites provide digital versions of print resources. Zearn, for example, gives you a perfect digital resource to go with the math curriculum from Engage New York (also known as Eureka Math).

One of my favorite resource is my math tiling puzzles. I use them in class to model problem solving skills, as well as the inverse nature of operations (ie. using addition to solve subtraction). Then students use tiling puzzles as a center activity, as an early finisher challenge and as a homework extension. Since I know I want these available next year - whatever next year holds - I created a digital version of each of these puzzles. I used Google Slides to make puzzles where the kiddos can pull the tiles into the different equations, and I tried them out with my kiddos this year. They worked perfectly! Now I have the paper copies for in the classroom and the digital copies that will work for distance learning or in class at a computer center.

You can download one puzzle from each of my sets for free on Teachers Pay Teachers. Here are the links to these free tiling puzzles:
Addition Facts - digital version and print version
Subtraction Facts - digital version and print version
Addition with Regrouping  - digital version and print version
Subtraction with Regrouping  - digital version and print version
Addition and Subtraction with Regrouping - digital version and print version
Multiplication Facts - digital version and print version
Division Facts - digital version and print version
2 Digit Multiplication - digital version and print version
3 or 4 Digit Multiplication - digital version and print version
Long Division - digital version and print version

Throughout the summer I will be taking more and more of my paper resources and creating digital versions. If you sign up to follow my Teachers Pay Teachers store, you will receive an e-mail each time I add a new digital version.

Yesterday we talked about setting up your digital classroom. Today we will discuss something else all teachers should do to prepare for next school year:
​
You can explore a new technology tool.

So if you have read my blog for any length of time, you know that I am a super techie. I LOVE trying out new technology tools and playing with new ways to incorporate technology into my classroom. However, I fought trying new things during my 6 weeks of distance learning instruction. Our time with distance learning was so short that by the time the student and I adjusted and were ready to try new tech tools, our time was about up.

However, I did try one new tool during the last week of instruction. I started using Whiteboard.fi with my class while I was doing "live lesson" Google Meets.  As soon as I started using it, I wished I had been using it the whole time. It was such a beneficial tool during our Google Meet classes because I could see what each kiddo was doing and knew who was stuck and who was ready to move on. I could create a template and send it to all of my students. I could actually feel like I was teaching instead of just talking at my kiddos.

Of course, as soon as I started playing with this new technology tool, I thought of ways to use this in a brick and mortar school. Students could have an assignment pushed to them that they could work on as they rotate through a computer center. Then we could look at everyone's work all together. It could be used in small groups to save paper and practice computer skills. In a one to one device situation students could work out math problems, circle parts of words or even draw visualization pictures of a read aloud. Then we can review whole group and be able to see each and every students' thinking.​

Learning Technology Tools Takes Time

So why did I start using this technology tool so late into the process? Because I was overwhelmed with trying to learn how to use these other technology tools. Each new tool that we use has to be learned, played with and tried out. What better time to explore and find new technology tools than when we are staying at home trying to prepare for next year. If we end up back in our classrooms next year, then we will have great new tools for presentation, extension and technology integration. If we end up doing distance learning, we will have some new important ways to teach from far away. Either way, it's a win/win!
Looking for some technology tools to check out? I suggest checking out these blog posts:
Top Tech Tools for Teachers
Technology Infused Math Lessons
Creating Collaborative Slide Shows
Using Voice Recording Software

You also might want to check out these specific tech tools:  
Whiteboard.fi
Prezi
Powtoon
Classroom Screen
PearDeck
Near Pod
Smart Learning Suite.

FREE Resources for Your Classroom

As you take some time to explore new tech tools this summer, here are some free resources which may help you out:

Earth Day Video Creation Project -  This video creation project guides you and your students through the creation of a video about the 3Rs - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Online Book Report - This resource helps students create a digital book report about any book that they have read.

June Digital Learning Resource Bundle Giveaway

Now time for our giveaway!!! With today's giveaway entry form, you will be entering to win my 5th Grade Internet Scavenger Hunt Bundle. This bundle includes: 8 different internet scavenger hunts. Each scavenger hunt comes with 4 different formats: .doc format that allows students to type on them, a .pdf that allows students to click the links, a QR code version that allows students to scan QR codes and a Google Classroom version that includes a Google Doc and a Google Form. Enter to win this Internet Scavenger Hunt Bundle, by completing the June Giveaway Entry Form #2.  

All winners will be chosen on July 1st.  Winners will receive the bundle directly to the provided email. All those who enter will also receive my monthly Raki's Rad Resources News Releases.
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Interested in more tips on how to prepare for the unpreparable 2020/2021 school year? Come back tomorrow for tip #3!

Missed a day? This blog post contains the entire list of 10 Things You Can Do to Prepare for Next School Year.

If you're a teacher reading this, I'm going to tell you something you already know. Teachers are planners. Does anyone else remember filling out "Reflective Teaching Logs" when you were in college? These logs felt like such a waste of time while I was filling them out, but now I realize that they were preparing us for what teachers do each and every day. As we teach a lesson, we're mentally preparing for how to make this lesson better the next time we teach it. We do this each and every day with little things, but even more with big things, like setting routines and procedures. Halfway through a school year I have already made decisions that "Next year I'm going to do this differently next year." Before we finish one school year, we've already begun planning the next school year, and we spend a good part of our summer preparing (mentally and with new resources) for these tweaks, updates and changes. 

This year, thanks to Covid 19, is different because we don't know what to expect out of next year. Will we be back to distance learning? Will we be in our classrooms? Will we be working on a hybrid system? Will we be in and out of our classrooms and digital environments throughout the school year? I've read all the blog posts speculating what it can, should and will look like. However, the end result is that we don't know and all the speculation in the world isn't going to change that. All of the not knowing can be very stressful, and it can make it hard to make good use of this time when we normally prepare ourselves for next year. However, there are some things that we can do to prepare. 

So, here are 10 things that you CAN do this summer to be prepared for the 2020/2021 school year, no matter what it looks like:

1.) You can prepare a digital classroom. 

2.) You can explore new technology tools. 

3.) You can search out new resources that will work with in class learning AND digital learning. 

4.) You can make a plan for improving parent communication. 

5.) You can dig deep into your standards and your curriculum. 

6.) You can create teaching videos. 

7.) You can create reward systems that will work with in class learning AND digital learning. 

8.) You can consider differentiation options. 

9.) You can explore ways to find a balance between parental and teaching responsibilities. 

​10.) You can take time for self care. 

Be sure you come back each day to find the linked blog posts, and the giveaway entry forms! What are you doing to prepare for next year?

At each school I have taught at there has been a need to use interventions with certain students, and to track the effectiveness of these interventions using data. This intervention process often has a different name depending on where you teach. The two most common that I have come across are: Response to Intervention (RTI) and Student Assistance Team (SAT). However, I've also seen it called (SST) Student Support Team, and even (Triple I) Immediate Intensive Intervention. Whatever it's called at your school, it means finding interventions that will close gaps for students to give them the best chance at success. And whatever you call it, in order to do it successfully, you must have a way of knowing if what you're doing is helping our students. This means you have to collect data.

Unfortunately, this often means more class time needed to collect that data, which we don't always have. So this year I have worked hard on using technology to help me collect some of that data. Saves class time, and teacher sanity! Here are the tech tools I've used:

1.) Google Forms - Using Google Forms is a great way to create a simple, pinpointed quiz for any topic that your students are struggling with. For reading, this could be a comprehension quiz. For phonics, you could insert a picture and ask students to choose the correctly written word. For math, it could be a few questions on a specific topic. 

Any multiple choice questions assigned through Google Forms will be graded for you, with only open ended questions left for you to grade. You also have the choice of students taking the quiz once, or multiple times. You can release the "correct answers" to your students, or choose not to.  You can assign the test to one student or to your whole class. The options are so limitless!

For intervention students, I use Google Forms in 2 ways. First, I pull data from the weekly quizzes I give to all of my students in order to see if my kiddos are applying what they're learning in small group with me to their "mainstream" activities. Secondly, I have a few quizzes for common skills that I give only to my students working on those skills. I make a copy just for them and have them take the same quiz multiple times (every 2 weeks for so) so that I can track how they are achieving on that specific skill. 

2.) XtraMath - Basic math fact fluency is often one of my student's intervention goals. Increasing understanding of how numbers go together and increasing speed of retrieving facts are also both vital for students working on more complex math standards - like problem solving. Working on math fact fluency in small group is easy, right? You work on patterns, songs, flash cards, games, etc. However, collecting the data can be more complex. 
For a long time, I used my Math Fact Quizzes because I could easily have students date them and use them to keep track of fact fluency data. However, we are now restricted on the number of copies we can make because administration wants us using our Chromebooks to their full capacity. So now I use the website XtraMath. Students work on it for 10 - 15 minutes a day and I get a full report of what problems they attempted, what problems they mastered and what problems they maintained. 

3.) Flipgrid - We all know that the best way to assess knowledge of a subject is to sit one on one with each child. However, time rarely allows for that in the classroom. Instead, I use the website Flipgrid for students to create videos on themselves discussing their thinking.

Math problem solving is a common skill I work on during intervention time. Obviously math word problems is your go-to assessment for if they are able to solve the problem correctly. However, to truly understand how my kiddos are getting to their answers, I need them to explain their thinking. So, I have my students record their thinking into Flipgrid and use those videos to assess their understanding and determine where I need to intervene.

Additionally, reading fluency is super easy to assess using Flipgrid because you can set the timer to create a 1 minute video. Students read their set passage for 1 minute, close the computer and move on. You can then go back and watch the videos, count the words and really get a picture of their fluency. In addition, you can play those videos for parents during their SAT meeting. How much more powerful is a video of their kiddo reading than you telling them "She currently reads 35 words per minute."

Collecting data on students is not my favorite part of the job, but these tech tools have made it so much more manageable. This type of data collection has also made the focus truly on getting better interventions, instead of just on having data to put on forms for meetings. Since our focus should be on kids instead of data, I'd say that is a win, win!

It's happened! A Chromebook cart with a device for each and every student is now housed in my classroom! I'm so excited. I imagine all of the possibilities now that I have chromebooks for my students. It's better than a whole box of classroom supplies, because these little devices can connect us to so many options!
Then I think about how I'm going to manage 22 devices and 22 students. What if they break it? What if they go looking where they're not supposed to? What if, what if, what if...... Instead of thinking about what ifs, I used these chromebook classroom management strategies to keep us on track, and it's made for a great school year so far!

Chromebook Classroom Management

1.) Set up expectations and be prepared to repeat

At the beginning of the school year, I teach students how I expect them to use a notebook, how I want them to sharpen their pencil and how I want them to line up. It's obvious that I would also need to teach them how to use their Chromebooks.

The students rolled their eyes at me as I taught them where the power button was and how to plug in their headphones. But a few of them needed those instructions, and they weren't about to speak up and tell me that they didn't know. I also taught them how to hold the Chromebooks (screen closed, two hands, hugged to body) and how to plug their Chromebook only into the plug next to their number in our cart.

Each classroom's expectations will be different. This is what the expectations look like in my 3rd grade classroom:

2.) Develop procedures for dealing with food and water
Before Chromebooks I encouraged my students to have water bottles at their desks and to eat their snack while working. However, I have no desire to be the person who has to go to my edtech and explain that a Chromebook isn't working because a student spilled water all over it. So as soon as the Chromebooks arrived all water bottles were delegated to the students' supply caddies. Snack is now something that is eaten only when we are NOT at our desks, generally during silent reading or other non-technology reading centers.. And of course we talked about both of these changes and why they were happening. Now my students are the first to remind me if we have food or water near the Chromebooks.

3.) Set up your furniture where you can see MOST screens
I hate rows! Let me say that again, I hate having my desks in rows. They move constantly so that they're not a row and the kids have limited access to the students around them, which hampers those good educational discussions. (Yes, I'm a teacher who likes when my kids talk - mostly!) However, we started the year with rows simply so the kiddos know that I can sit at my table in the back teaching small group and see exactly what everyone is doing on their Chromebooks.
As time has passed, we've fiddled with the arrangement and now we have U shaped desks with the desks facing away from me belonging to my most trusted students. I still get up and move around as much as I can, but if I can't teach small group while students are on the Chromebook, then they are kind of pointless.

4.) Train your tech support helpers
One of my favorite classroom jobs is that of "tech support". These are the students whose job it is to go and help others who get stuck using their technology. In past years I had 2 students for the entire class. This year, each group has their own tech support. The students choose their own roles, and I approve them. So the kids with the most actual technology knowledge end up in this role. 
One of the reason that I love having tech support is that they solve 90% of the questions that come up. Another reason is that when we are changing something small in our routine, I train only these 4 students. Then they are able to help their group. Now if we are starting a whole new website or program, I train the whole class. But if I moved the location of a link in Google Classroom, then I just show my tech supports and they pass on the news.

5.) Set up bookmark bars
The first technology skill I taught my students, after logging in, was how to bookmark websites. Then we bookmarked all of the sites we use regularly - Khan Academy, Pearson, Math Magician, Google Classroom, Flipgrid, Storybird, etc. This way they can easily get to their websites WITHOUT retyping it incorrectly nine times. Saves time, saves frustration, and saves a teacher's sanity!

6.) Practice accessing challenging sites
Even with bookmarks, there are certain sites that take a thousand clicks in order to access what you're looking for. The website where we access our curriculum in e-book is like this. It takes, no lie, 9 clicks for my kiddos to get to their books. This takes a lot of practice for students to remember those clicks.
On the first day that we had our Chromebooks, I had took them through all 9 clicks. Then I had them close it all out and do it from scratch. And then I had them repeat the steps 4 more times. The kiddos were not happy with me by that fifth time, but they could all get through the steps on their own. We talked about the importance of practice. Then, we did it again. Now they know that every time we start a new, challenging website, we're going to practice a bunch of times.

7.) Have students log in as soon as they arrive
One of the biggest complaints I hear from my fellow teachers is how much of their lesson time they lose by waiting for kiddos to log into the system. I bypassed this by making logging in one of the steps of their morning routine. They come in, unpack, move their name on the attendance board, grab their Chromebook, log in, and place it in the corner of their desk. Then they go about their morning work routine. 
At first it felt odd for them to have their Chromebooks out if they weren't working on them, but now they know we'll get to them later. And it's much easier to say "jump on this site real quick" if they already have their Chromebooks ready to just be opened and accessed.

8.) Practice a "safe store" situation
Even though we have Chromebooks, the students are not working on them every minute of the day. However, I do not like wasted time in my instructional day, which means that I don't want kids to get their Chromebooks, put them away, and then get them out again. So, once my students get their Chromebooks in the morning, they keep them on their desk for the rest of the day.
In order to have our Chromebooks out all day, we must talk about storing them safely. For my classroom, this means that the Chromebook goes in the upper right corner of your desk, turned to the right. They are closed, and nothing is allowed to be on top of them - not even your arm. This helps students practice protecting the screens of their Chromebooks, by not pressing on the tops. It also gives them plenty of room for other work.

9.) Don't use them just to use them
Just like every other tool we have in our arsenal, chromebooks should be used with a purpose. They should be used to make our lives or our students' lives better, easier and more rewarding. They should not be used just  because we have a new toy.

The ways that I have found to use my chromebooks that help enhance my curriculum are:
 - having paperless assignments using Google forms and websites like Khan Academy and Math Magician that reduce the amount of grading I have to do. This also gives the students more instant feedback on many assignments.

 - using the Chrome extension Snap and Read to allow my struggling readers to have assignments read to them. We've also used audio books on our reading program and voice recognition typing, so that our assignments are more accessible for struggling students. This means they can keep up better and avoid trigger behaviors like frustration.

 - giving my students access to Genius projects, Storybird and Code.org during our intervention block. This engages my students actively, allowing me to pull small groups more successfully.

 - posting video clips directly into Google Classroom instead of showing the video whole group. This allows students who might be out of the room for speech or gifted to not miss out on the video. Also, students listening on their own individual device with their own headphones tend to pay attention better than when they are watching on the big screen, sitting next to their friends.
 
 - using direct links to activities that I want students to participate in, rather than general links to a website. This has been great for specific math games, but it has also been great for guided research, like in my Internet Scavenger Hunts.

10.) Be prepared for things to go wrong
I have a lovely new teacher on my team who told me she doesn't want anything to go wrong. I don't think I helped her when I said "Don't worry, they will." But, I spoke the truth. Things are going to go wrong. Computers will break. Logins won't work. Internet goes down. You mess up the way you assign an activity in Google Classroom (or forget to assign it at all). Just like everything else we do in the classroom things will go wrong. That's okay.
We need to be prepared to do our lesson in a completely different way, or to say "You know what guys, we'll try this again tomorrow." I often talk to my kiddos about what our plan was, how the plan is now going to change because of a technology failure, and what my thinking was behind the change. This helps our students to know that we need to have flexibility when dealing with technology. It also builds real life problem solving skills, which is something our kiddos need the most!