Educators Innovating at SCSD!

"To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance"
— Albert Einstein

This morning I woke up and thought about the great conversations and interactions I had with educators in our district this week.  As I reflected I realized that many of my colleagues are taking the ball and running with it.  They are finding new and innovative ways to use the tools they have been trained on and in addition they are searching out new technologies on their own.  They are then using their knowledge to create learning environments that will support student success in a digital age.  Here are some things that are going on:

Maura Williams (middle school math) emailed me that she found several great Edmodo apps that she has started using with her students (you can see how to access the app store here).

Steve Miller (middle school math)  invited me to a class in which he is experimenting with this Floor Planner (found in the Google Chrome store) to allow students to apply Geometry concepts to real world problems.

Eric Makelky (middle school social studies), at the middle school technology collaboration meeting, described a class project he did with Google Trends (using the Correlations feature) to analyze Google searches about candidates, by state.  This allowed his class to draw conclusions about the flow of information and its impact on election outcomes.

Ward Wise (high school economics) emailed me this example of student work that resulted from a class project in which students used a Google Drawing to demonstrate their understanding of economic principals.

Jeremy Qualls (high school language arts) had a conversation with me about a class activity he did that links vocabulary words to the real world with YouTube videos.  Here is a screen shot from his class Edmodo group.

Marianne Mrak and Laura Conwell (4th and 5th grade elementary teachers) invited me in to work with them and their students on using building screencasts and sharing them on Edmodo to allow students to orally explain their understanding of a topic and then share that knowledge with their peers.  Here is an example from Ms. Conwell's class and here is an example from Mrs. Mrak's class.

Laura Conwell and  Ruth Steele (5th and 3rd grade teachers) collaborated to have 5th grade students help the 3rd graders with online research.  Here is a picture from their class today.

The great thing is these are only the things I heard about that happened this week and only those I could recall (sorry if I left anyone out). In addition, I had at least a dozen other conversations with teachers that are using Google Apps and Edmodo in ways that support their class. What an inspiration it is to have the opportunity to work with people that are willing go the extra mile to find and experiment with new ways to make learning meaningful for students!

In his manifesto, Seth Godin talks about teaching attitudes. He states "We can teach people to desire lifelong learning, to express themselves, and to innovate."  One way this happens is through teacher modeling.  Many of our teachers are truly modeling these attitudes every day!