April is National Poetry Month

When I plan for Digital Playground sessions, it is helpful to reach out to the iTeachers at my schools to find out what the teachers might be interested in learning and to get some information about the content they will be teaching in the days or weeks ahead. Making the stations relevant and timed to fit instructional goals has been very beneficial for the teachers at my schools. During these sessions, I often hear them comment, "I can use this with my kids this week!" For this month, the iTeachers requested ideas to use with students as they celebrate National Poetry Month.

I planned to use the stations shared above with the entire faculty during an after school session, but our meeting was cancelled due to severe weather. Instead, I set up shop in the Reading Coach's office for teachers to visit during their planning period. As always, my goal was to create a fun and engaging atmosphere for the teachers to experience a student perspective!

App Speed Dating

For our after school Digital Playground at Concrete Primary, I wanted to try something a little bit different this month. Since our session was scheduled for the day after Valentines Day, the iTeachers and I thought it would be fun to try out App Speed Dating! To get everyone ready for our session, I sent out the invitation on the right along with a brief description via email. In the email, I asked that everyone bring along their favorite new app or techie instructional idea to share with their colleagues.

Before the start of the session, I arranged the tables and chairs in a large U-shape, with everyone matched up with the person sitting across the table. I also put out some Conversation Starters and chocolates in the middle of each table. As I was getting everything ready, I knew that this was either going to be a great session or a total flop...

I love the way our Padlet Wall warm-up turned out...

The teachers brought excellent ideas to share, and it was awesome to see teachers teaching other teachers about the tools and apps that they love! Miss Joan made some amazing snack mix for us to enjoy while sharing, and based on the feedback form I'm happy to report that the afternoon was a success!

Ts @CPSCrickets were teaching one another during today's App & Idea Speed Dating Session #asd1 #supercrickets #lifelonglearners pic.twitter.com/PVunoUiXvX

— Jessica D. Preisig (@PreisigJessica) February 16, 2017

Enjoyed today's App & Idea Speed Dating Session with Ts @CPSCrickets #asd1 #supercrickets #roomfullofawesomeideas pic.twitter.com/juV42zZCVP

— Jessica D. Preisig (@PreisigJessica) February 16, 2017

December Digital Playground ~ "Appy Holidays"

Throughout the school year, I have scheduled a few Digital Playground sessions to go along with faculty meetings at Concrete Primary. Since my regular, ongoing professional development is provided in small groups, the goal of these playground sessions is to bring teachers together for fun, sharing, and learning! I believe that it is in these informal sharing sessions where the real magic happens... where teachers have an opportunity to talk and share with one another across grade levels and content areas.



For this "Appy Holidays" session, we used Today's Meet as a backchannel for a lively group share session. Click HERE for the list of discussion questions. These sparked some great conversations within each group, and the format was a great way to help teachers feel comfortable with the language used in a Twitter chat.

Lots of fun using @TodaysMeet and sharing ideas! @CPSCrickets #appyholidays #supercrickets #asd1 pic.twitter.com/f2N2Yj6sIT

— Jessica D. Preisig (@PreisigJessica) December 7, 2016

To end the session, teachers were asked to use a Christmas Photo Booth app or Chatterpix to decorate a selfie. These funny Christmas selfies were posted to the "All I want for Christmas" Padlet posted below.

CPS Guided Math Playground

As a follow-up to the Guided Math Workshop last month, the iTeachers at Concrete Primary School and I worked together to design several stations for a Digital Playground Session held for the entire faculty after school. I was also able to pull several stations designed by teachers during a follow-up session at Powdersville Elementary.

My favorite thing about hosting Technology Playground sessions is that teachers are given the opportunity to learn through playing as they experience the stations from the perspective of a student. In planning with the school iTeachers, I am also able to provide stations that are based on the skills and standards that they are teaching or will be teaching within the coming weeks!


Here is a LINK if you'd like your own editable copy of the slides above!

Teacher feedback from this session was very positive! One teacher commented, "LOVE this! This helped me come up with an idea that I can use in my classroom TOMORROW."

Ts @CPSCrickets explore creation stations for #guidedmath #asd1 #supercrickets @poppletny @PicCollage @Seesaw pic.twitter.com/umu2peTMSo

— Jessica D. Preisig (@PreisigJessica) September 14, 2016

Ts @CPSCrickets were actively engaged during our #guidedmath playground session! @PlayOsmo @PicCollage pic.twitter.com/Tehhj0TYZr

— Jessica D. Preisig (@PreisigJessica) September 14, 2016

It has also been encouraging to see my teachers at Concrete Primary and Powdersville Elementary using these stations as a part of their Guided Math instruction!!

We ❤️Guided Math Stations! #guidedmath @pvespride We also ❤️ @Seesaw and @poppletny pic.twitter.com/kwznWh4Vak

— Mrs. Payne (@MrsPayne3rd) September 22, 2016

Ss used @PicCollage to demonstrate multiplication as comparisons during #Guidedmath today! @pvespride #loveSCschools pic.twitter.com/VU2DBcZd9p

— Hannah Lockaby (@misslockabyPVES) September 22, 2016

It was our first day using @PlayOsmo We LOVED it! Osmo Numbers correlated w/ our math lesson today! @CPSCrickets pic.twitter.com/T2zwdrAdXr

— Miss Johnson's Class (@MissJohnson05) September 17, 2016

Having fun with PicCollage learning different ways to represent numbers 1 to 10!!!! #CPScrickets pic.twitter.com/3eCSKBHKcC

— Vicki Sparkman (@VickiSparkman) September 23, 2015

Pot O' Gold Playground

Based on the positive feedback from the last Digital Playground at Powdersville Elementary, the iTeachers and I decided to use the same format this month. Teachers were invited to join us for some Grasshopper Pie and Golden Oreos as they explored a variety of learning stations. In planning stations for the teachers, I tried to create tasks that focused on the standards that they will be teaching in each content area within the next few weeks.

As the teachers completed the task at each station, work was posted to SeeSaw. This has been a great way to showcase what the students can do within the app and how the app works. Click HERE to see our SeeSaw Class Blog!

It was a great afternoon at Pot O' Gold Playground #pvespride #a1digitalinnovation pic.twitter.com/ash77n0qnO

— Jessica D. Preisig (@PreisigJessica) March 17, 2016

#PVES teachers enjoy dessert and learning about technology in our Digital Playground professional development. #pvespride #edtech #ipadmini #digitalplayground #

A photo posted by Powdersville Elementary School (@pvespride) on Mar 17, 2016 at 2:40am PDT

Digital Playground ~ Exploring Stations & SeeSaw

Planning for our Digital Playground Sessions at Powdersville Elementary is always both challenging and exciting because it pushes me to find top quality creation tools that can be shared with teachers in an engaging way! With many teachers expressing a desire to learn more about the SeeSaw App and the new blog feature, I thought it would be beneficial for teachers to experience the app from a student perspective.

For this session, I set up a "class" in SeeSaw for my teachers and turned on the blog feature. Then, I worked with iTeachers to create a variety of stations designed to allow teachers to explore, create, and post to the SeeSaw App. We closed the afternoon, with time to set up teacher accounts and investigate how the SeeSaw blog feature can be used in the classroom.



Each of the slides above were printed and placed throughout the library along with an instruction poster from SeeSaw. Teachers were able to choose stations freely and rotate to new stations as they were ready. Check out our SeeSaw Blog page full of work created during this session! We also used the Typorama App to create images that express why we #LoveTeaching.



I really enjoyed being able to view teacher creations in the app while also interacting with teachers and answering questions. Teacher feedback was excellent, and many reported that they will be using the tools and ideas shared within the next week or two. Based on the positive feedback from teachers, this format may work really well for future Digital Playground Sessions.

Such an awesome turn out for our February Digital Playground! Thankful for these amazing teachers who #LoveTeaching pic.twitter.com/I2xGUNPYaV

— Powdersville Elem. (@pvespride) February 16, 2016

#LoveTeaching & learning alongside these amazing Ts #pvespride #digitalplayground pic.twitter.com/knHkkQvRZl

— Jessica D. Preisig (@PreisigJessica) February 16, 2016

#loveteaching #pvespride pic.twitter.com/SiS6qq8qUC

— Samantha Barnhill (@MrsBarnhill4) February 16, 2016

Digital Playground ~ Make Inquiry Pop

The goal of our Digital Playground at Powdersville Elementary is to bring teachers from all grade levels together to share and explore the tech tools being used in classroom. The PVES iTeachers and I work together to plan fun and festive activities that engage teachers in collaboration and hands-on exploration. 

Because many of the teachers are beginning to
implement inquiry stations during guided reading and explore project based learning, sharing tools and ideas to make these instructional strategies more effective and efficient was a priority this month. I also used an idea from one of the vendors at #FETC and served freshly popped popcorn and soda to go along with the "Make Inquiry Pop" title. 

As you can see in the slides, the session began with teachers posting their own "wonders" to a Wonder Wall in the room. Next, I asked the teachers to choose another person's "wonder" to answer or research. Resources, ideas and answers were posted to a Padlet Wall to be shared. This is a strategy used in Brenna Wilkie's classroom.

Created with Padlet

Following this activity, teachers from other grade levels, including 3rd grade teacher Anna Ashmore, shared their ideas and strategies for using Wonder Walls in the classroom. Then, Ms. Hannah Lockaby shared the ways that she is using Wonderopolis as a resource in her third grade classroom. To end our session, I shared some information about using SeeSaw for student reflection and sharing the awesome work that students create during PBL with parents and the world.

Digital Playground ~ Today's Meet

At Powdersville Elementary, the iTeachers and I host an optional after school tech session in the media center each month. The goal is to bring teachers together for fun, sharing, and learning! I believe that it is in these informal sharing sessions where the real magic happens... where teachers have an opportunity to talk and share with one another.

For our December session, we transformed the media center into a coffee shop with cocoa, cappuccino, coffee, creamer, and toppings. Thanks to Melissa Wilcox and Rachel Wayne for making some delicious goodies and to our local Starbucks for donating some cups and coupons! Also, thanks to Brenna Wilkie for putting together a slideshow for teachers to enjoy as they came together today.



To get started, each table of teachers chose a team leader and a group name. The team leader was responsible for signing in and recording responses in Today's Meet. I opened a room for our "chat," and posted questions throughout the session using Twitter chat "language." Click here for the list of questions! These questions sparked some great conversation. This was a great way to help those that have not yet participated in a Twitter chat to feel more comfortable. It was also a great way to show how this website can be used in the classroom.

Enjoyed using @TodaysMeet at Digital Playground. Looking forward to #giveaways #pvespride https://t.co/Gaqmn8rGxJ pic.twitter.com/8cV1nmItQu

— Jessica D. Preisig (@PreisigJessica) December 15, 2015

To end our session, teachers were asked to use a Christmas Photo Booth app to decorate a selfie. Selfies were posted to Twitter using #pvestweets, and I used these Tweets to put teachers into a random name generator for giveaways.

Created with Padlet

Apptoberfest

Last October, each high school in Anderson One hosted a community event to showcase and celebrate the amazing ways our students and teachers were using technology in the classroom. At Powdersville High, each grade level decorated a table in the Commons and invited students to come and share recent projects or favorite apps with parents and other community members. There was also a "Digital Playground" where parents and students could play with and explore some of the apps, as well as participate in a Kahoot!

This event helped to get parents and community members on board and excited about our 1:1 initiative, but one of the most amazing unexpected outcomes was the awesome learning that occurred from student to teacher, across grade levels and between schools. Teachers were excited to visit other tables to see what younger and older students were doing with technology in their classrooms.

 

 

Though we were not able to get this large community event on the calendar again for this year, we used this idea for a PD session at Powdersville Elementary School! The faculty was invited to enjoy fall themed snacks in the Media Center, and each iTeacher invited a student or pair of students to share their favorite apps with the faculty. Each of the students had a table, and faculty members were able to move from table to table in order to learn from the students. It is always amazing to see what the students are able to do when you give them an opportunity to lead!

So proud of our Ss & iTeachers @pvespride #apptoberfest #a1digitalinnovation pic.twitter.com/8OKHJhmYWo

— Jessica D. Preisig (@PreisigJessica) October 20, 2015

Digital Playground ~ Creation Apps

The iTeachers at Powdersville Elementary and I have decided to host a Digital Playground session with a different theme for each month. Our goal for these sessions is to provide teachers with a fun way to explore new apps for the classroom and to encourage collaboration & sharing between grade levels.

For this month, each of us selected a creation app and created a station activity for the teachers. I chose to share Tellagami and My Talking Avatar, which can both be used by students to create a talking avatar to describe an image of something they've created or learned about. Book Creator, Puppet Edu, Popplet, and Thinglink were the other app selections for this month.

Teacher feedback from this session was excellent. They liked that the session was "self-paced," allowing them to move from station to station at any time. One of the teachers commented, "I enjoyed the opportunity to talk with other teachers about these apps as we were exploring." Several others made comments about the session being "informative" and "fun."

Thank you so much to Melissa Wilcox, Brenna Wilkie, Rachel Wayne, and Melissa Tollison for working together to make this a great learning opportunity for our teachers! Thanks also to Principal Brad Moore for supporting this event and providing drinks & snacks.

Thanks, #iTeachers! Always fun @pvespride #digitalplayground #a1digitalinnovation pic.twitter.com/1n5pYhrQQO

— Jessica D. Preisig (@PreisigJessica) September 15, 2015

Ts are playing with a variety of creation apps @pvespride #digitalplayground #a1digitalinnovation #blessedinpville pic.twitter.com/4YxNGulXFX

— Jessica D. Preisig (@PreisigJessica) September 15, 2015