TUIT: Maddie Meyer, SSE

Today's #ShelbyTUITshoutout is a throwback to my previous embedded school, Southside Elementary.   After last Thursday night's open house, kudos must be given to fifth grade teacher Maddie Meyer.

Before we get to what Maddie did at open house, a little background. When it comes to technology, she is not afraid to jump in with both feet.  For example, she learned about Kahoot from PD I presented before school began, and set up a quiz with students within the first few weeks of class.  (They were excited and definitely engaged!) At another PD of mine, she heard of Educanon, and when I observed her classroom, she tried it out. She hit a bit of a technical snag getting the video to stream, and here is where she won my admiration; without missing a beat, she switched to an "analog" version of the lesson (she read a book aloud and stopped periodically to question students).  By the end of the literacy timeframe, Educanon was up and running and she continued with the planned edtech.  It's a marvelous example of dealing with the reality of our 21st century classrooms.  We will occasionally hit a tech snag (a computer glitch, a network hiccup), but we don't have to let that rattle us -- give us four walls and a voice, and we can teach! -- and we cannot ignore the power of edtech by giving up either.  We just have to develop our "tech grit," push through, and try, try again.

Back to Maddie's open house. I discussed Flipgrid in a previous PD (and a post), and she wanted to use it in a unique way with her students.  Ms. Meyer created a Flipgrid for her students to record video responses: "Our 'class technology supervisor' [used an iPad and] handled the taping of all of our video responses, and the students got to see their responses live the next day." (Another student taking a leadership tech role!)  In the videos, students spoke about what they had learned in social studies so far this year. For open house, parents were given access to the Flipgrid so they could watch their child (and others) speak about their learning with their own voices.  According to Ms. Meyer, parents were impressed. "Parents were excited to see Southside’s new technology go to good use - student use!"

I briefly interviewed Maddie about Flipgrid and her plans for edtech.

Using Flipgrid for open house was pretty inventive!  How do you see using Flipgrid in the future?

I will be using FlipGrid in the future as a study tool -- my students can record responses as to what they’ve learned in class, and have access to the grids so they can watch and re-watch their videos!

What other edtech tools would you like to try with your students?

I can't wait to try BuildWithChrome.  I can already tell you that my students will be building Jamestown with this software as soon as we begin our unit on colonization.  I’m really counting on my Minecraft junkies to step up and teach everyone the ropes! We'll also be using Aurasma  during our first science unit.

Maddie Meyer, a well-deserved #ShelbyTUITshoutout for you!

TUIT: James Wampler, SCHS

And our first ever  #ShelbyTUITshoutout goes to James Wampler, an eighth grade science teacher at Shelby County High School, for suggesting the web tool Educanon.

First, a quick history.  I met James in mid-July in Shelby's New Teacher Induction. We quickly began chatting about edtech, and he asked, "Have you ever heard of Educanon?"  And I had to admit, nope.  Mr. Wampler told me he used it often in class and he was enthusiastic in its abilities and usefulness.

Short tangent: It was a great lesson about humility, as I had been on the job all of a few weeks and the first tool someone asked about was news to me.  But that's what I've said from the beginning: there are experts EVERYWHERE in our district. Now back to our originally scheduled programming.

Educanon is an interesting hybrid tool.  First, you choose existing video content from YouTube or other sources like Vimeo. Next, you add content in the form of multiple choice questions and other interactive choices at certain timed moments of the video; your finished product is called a "Bulb."  During the video, the Bulb stops at the points when an interactive moment was embedded. and students must read the text, answer questions, etc. before they okay it to proceed.  In an environment that is somewhat LMS-like (Learning Management System; Edmodo is a basic one), you can put these Bulbs in various classes for students to find and interact with online.  The results of their "quizzes" are saved for later data analysis.

You can imagine the power of Educanon in a flipped or blended experience; it builds in accountability to make sure each student not only watches the video outside of class or independently, but also comprehends the video and does critical thinking.  (You can see why I was eager to include it as a good starter tool for a flipped/blended classroom Prezi.)  However, a teacher could even use it a different way to present media.  At each stopping point, the teacher can answer questions by having students raise hands to vote for each choice, so you get a quick pulse of the room.  Or the teacher can have the students reflect and process on the portion of video they just watched.

You can have pretty good functionality with the free version of Educanon.  For $80 a year, you can get more interactive options, such as free response and automatic grading of short answer questions.  A bit pricey, but if you end up using it often, it may be worth it.

So, thank you to Mr. Wampler for putting another tool in my toolbox!  If you try or currently use Educanon, be sure to comment below with your thoughts. And if you have questions, find Mr. Wampler in the hallways of SCHS or give him an email.