Apple Watch for the 21st Century Administrator

It has been awhile since I blogged because of my new duties and role. I am busy trying to balance work, home, and me time! Thanks to Santa (and my family : )) I received a new Apple Watch for Christmas this year.

I got the black/grey sports band 42 mm. I must say that I am loving all the features thus far. I am still learning how to use it and what apps would help me with balancing everything. So far this is what I am loving about the watch...





1. Instant calendar notifications on my wrist. No more looking at my phone to see what meetings I have.

2. Speak to text feature...I can reply to messages and emails with the speak to text feature. This will make responding to all my emails I receive at work within seconds. It may look crazy of me talking to my wrist, but they'll get over it.









3. I can use Keynote and Powerpoint on my Watch to control my presentations. How awesome is that.

4.  The Apple Watch works well with Outlook...it allows me to view both my emails and calendar in one location.




5. The most amazing function of the Apple Watch is using IFTTT. This wonderful app is called If Then Then This. It gives your phone and Apple Watch the opportunity to be your personal assistant.

As an administrator, I am using DO Note with my Apple Watch to create Google Docs, add to my Google Calendar, and add to Google Spreadsheets using the speak to text feature. Check out this video from Paul Hamilton. This is where it all began...
This will definitely save me time, when I want to type a document for our staff or just a note for me. I am a fan of Google Drive, so this added feature is a bonus for me.

 I am using IF to give me instant notifications throughout the day for everything from meeting reminders, weather notifications, meditation reminders, and more.  I plan to be a 21st Century educator. It's a simple way to connect between products you use every day. So far I have created a connection when I Tweet, it is posted to FB; when I post a pic to Instagram, it is posted to FB and Twitter; a Google Spreadsheet that curates all Tweets from @God_Loved (you can choose whatever); a SMS to my phone when the weather calls for rain; and when I blog, it will automatically post to my FB and Twitter account.

I will continue to play around with the If-Thens later! I am just learning this, but I used YouTube Tutorials for ifttt to guide me through the process. It was very easy.





If you have an Apple Watch and have some other ways it can help administrators or educators, please
leave your best Apple Watch App in the comments below...

Professional Development Upgrade

I wrote a post earlier about flipping Staff Meetings. Today we are ending our first nine weeks and our admin team decided to put a little spend on our Early Release Days!






This year we implemented Blended Learning. Our teachers are using the station rotation model and a few are using the flip model. We decided for our Early Release Day Professional Development, we will continue with a Blended Learning model...The Flex Model.

The Flex Model - the Clayton Christensen Institute defines the Flex Model as a model which online learning is the backbone of learning. In the Flex Model, students move on an individually customized schedule.

Our staff was given a list of options to create their own Personal Learning Path that correlates to their own professional and personal growth plans. The choices were created based on our school's vision, mission, and SMART goals.

Staff could choose from Ted Talks, Webinars, Readings, Staff Led Sessions, or collaboration with other staff members. Each staff member had to create choices that was at least two hours and complete an action plan.

A Few Results...More to come on Monday! Stay tune!

Our Walkthroughs with Google Form

I created an early posted Going Goo Goo for Google that talked about using Google Forms to create walkthroughs. This week, it was put to the test.

What an efficient way to observe teachers and provide immediate feedback! As we observed classrooms, we completed the form. Once we press submit, a form is automatically generated and sent to our shared folder. We go to the folder, get the link for the teacher's feedback form and email it to them.

Website 

You can use the form on any device...using it as a website or even an app. Very convenient to use.

App

Google also allows us to analyze that data...we can compare teachers, grade levels, content, etc. My principal and I really enjoyed all the benefits the form provided for us this week.

Here is a video that will walk you through the process of creating your own Google Form Walkthrough.

Our administrative team gives this implementation two thumbs up!

Discipline Forms with Google

So there are few people who is interested in using Google Docs for discipline forms.  Google Docs will help our school take discipline...Paperless! From Exit slips to Walkthroughs, we are using Google!

Today I completed our school's digital discipline system. The form will allow the teachers to submit disciplinary forms digitally. I love Google because when the forms are submitted the admin team will get an email notification letting us know a form was submitted.

Google Form

When forms are submitted and we are notified, my principal or I will meet with the student, assign consequences, and a form using Autocrat will be created and sent to the parents and the referring teacher.

Report Letter using Autocrat Add-on

If you are wondering about privacy issues,  only the people you have given access to is allowed access to the data collected in the form. My principal and I are the only staff members with access to the discipline forms.

Our school works on a point system, so a Google Form is also created for the admin team to document the consequences for each student. The same process was taken to create the Consequences Form and the Consequences Letter. Based on the points received the consequences letter will be given to parents to inform them of ASD or ISS. This form is only for the admin team. On the Discipline Report Letter, teachers will receive information on the administrative decision.

All the forms can be used to track discipline data. It is easy to create and FREE!!!!! I also love that if you have a mobile device you can add the link to your home screen or there is an Add-on called AppSheet that allows you to create an App for it.

The Triple Threat to Data Driven Instruction

I have to begin my saying I excited to be a part of an amazing administration team...post coming soon! "I'm way up, I feel bless." - Drake

Today's post is creating formative assessments and digital data walls for math using Google Forms, Flubaroo, and Pivot Tables.

We know that data drives instruction and it is important that our teachers are continuously assessing students to gather data to inform them on student's strengths and weaknesses.

Typically teachers uses quizzes, homework, and test to gather data on student progress. Grading 20 or more papers, can be an overwhelming task. Not to mention, sometimes teachers do not have time in the day to immediately grade these assessments and provide students with immediate feedback before they move on.

21st Century digital tools can help teachers create opportunities to assess students, grade it, and provide immediate feedback. Digital tools like Kahoot, Geddit, and Socrative are a few tools that can assess student's understanding and provide immediate feedback!

Since I am a lover of Google...I created formative assessment tools for our staff to use in math called, Daily Quality Checks (DQCs).

The Daily Quality Check strategy will be a formative assessment exit slip that will allow teachers to adapt and differentiate their planning and instruction and assign students to interventions and enrichments.

Each nine weeks, I will create a template for teachers that includes the required standards for the nine weeks. As a team, teachers will develop 3 questions that will assess student's understanding of the topic. Teachers will create 1 DQC for each lesson. 

Only one DQC will be used for the team. When teachers create their Pivot Table Reports, they are able to pull their student's data.  Pivot Tables will be used as our digital data wall and used to helped each grade level to organize grouse for interventions and enrichments.

Pivot Table

Teachers will use the add-on Flubaroo to quickly grade the assessment. Fluabroo is an add-on that will automatically grade the forms, gives a summary of the responses, and emails students their results!!!!!

Flubaroo Spreadsheet

Email Letter to Student

Administrators will have access to the spreadsheet to monitor and support instruction.

Here is an example of the Form: Sample Daily Quality Checks 

There are many video tutorials to help you trainer staff on creating Google Forms and using Flubaroo and Pivot Tables. My favorite blog is Alice Keeler. Check her out!

To Flip our PDs, I have created video tutorials for our staff.
Creating and Sharing DQCs
Grading DQCs
Emailing Students and Feedback 

Check out tools to Flip your Staff Meetings and PD!

Be sure to leave a comment, follow me on Twitter @FITinEDU,  and subscribe to my blog!

Flipping Staff Meetings

As I am transitioning from teacher role to administrator role, I am much connected to that teacher side. How many of us spent time in a staff meeting? As an administrator how many times have your teachers tell you that need more time for PD?

So when my principal mentioned the opportunity to flip our staff meetings in an email a few weeks, I was ecstatic! As we embark on the Blended Learning journey, we can model for our staff how to use the flip model. Flipping our staff meetings will show our staff we can be innovative too. I began to think of the process, so we can have something in place when we are ready.

Our district purchased Schoology, so it is a great Learning Management System (LMS) even for teachers. My new school has already created several groups for the staff, so utilizing one of the already existing groups worked out well.

Ideas

1. Use Screencast-o-matic, Quicktime or some other screen recording to share. I created a video to teach our staff how to use Google Form for Formative Assessments. I first captured my screen with Quicktime and then used iMovie to narrate! Screencast-o-matic limits your time to 15 minutes which is more than enough time. Both are easy to use. Screenr is also a great screen recording tool.

2. PowerPoints and Keynotes are great when you have a lot of content to put out. Once you have created your PowerPoint or Keynote, you can use  screen recording tool to narrate the presentation.

3. Google Docs can be used to share information such as the agenda and meeting notes. Teachers can be invited to share resources and tips.

4. Who doesn't love Pinterest, create a Pinterest board on resources or a certain topic and have teachers to add to it. This is create for a Professional Development!

5. Twitter chats can also be a great tool to flip a staff meeting. Creating a unique hashtag for your school and setting up a time is all you need begin!

3. Just like students, we must hold all staff accountable. Be sure to create some form of assessment or survey to allow the staff to show they participated in the flipped learning experience. These forms can be Google, Polls Everywhere, Padlet, Today's Meet, Twitter, or even Schoology.

Things To Remember:

• Flipping the Staff Meetings will not prevent them from happening. It allows more time on other topics that must be discussed.
• Flipping makes more time for Professional Development! 

I will repost the experience of Flipping our Staff Meetings once school begins. If you have suggestions, comments, or advice, please leave a comment below! 

Resources:

Principal Principles

Tech Learning

Mastering the Flip Classroom