Always Learning, Always Discovering through the MIE Expert Community

The MIE (Microsoft Innovative Educator) Expert program has enhanced my professional life.  Through it, I have grown professionally and made life-long friends.  I have been reflecting on this since my recent trip to the CUE conference in Palm Springs, California and would like to share 3 ways the MIE Expert program has made an impact on me.

Collaboration
Holley Fontenot, an english teacher at my school, started gamifying units a couple of years ago with great success.  She motivated me to try gamification with professional development.  I did, and through the MIE Expert (MIEE) program, I met other educators who are gamifying learning. I recently collaborated with 3 other MIE Experts on a poster session at CUE on this topic.  Not only was I able to share what I am doing with gamification but I learned so much from what Summer Winrotte from Indiana and Rachelle Wooten from Texas are doing.  I will be utilizing some of their ideas in my PD gamification for next year.  Mary Villaume (the 3rd MIEE who is also my co-worker) added to the collaboration by sharing what she does with gamification in the classroom, and I learned from her as well.  This kind of collaboration happens every day in the MIEE program not only formally with sessions at conferences but also informally with GroupMe, Facebook, Twitter, and monthly MIEE Skype calls.

Support
The MIEE community is extremely supportive.  This support is shown through small acts of kindness like when a fellow MIE Expert snapped a picture of us sharing our poster session.  We also received support from the Microsoft Booth at the conference.  Again, this doesn't just happen at conferences.  This is a daily occurrence through the avenues mentioned above.  Help, support, encouragement are just a text or tweet away.

Learning
The learning is phenomenal.  Educators in this community are incredibly innovative.  I learn something daily from MIEEs through online communities and social media, and I definitely look for their sessions at conferences.  The learning happens formally and informally.  After CUE was over, I was fortunate enough to experience informal learning by visiting the Joshua Tree National Park with 3 of my MIEE friends.  This visit and the MIEE program remind me of one of my favorite quotes by artist, Isamu Noguchi, "I am always learning, always discovering."  If you would like to learn and discover, consider applying to the MIEE program.  You can find out more at 
https://education.microsoft.com/microsoft-innovative-educator-programs/mie-expert. 

Reaching the Summit

What's so special about being a Microsoft Innovative Educator(MIE) Expert or a Showcase School? Microsoft EDU helps you reach the summit of learning, literally. I recently attended the MIE Expert and Showcase School Summit the day before the TCEA Conference in Austin, Texas. Summit is such a fitting name for the event since this day felt like I was reaching the mountaintop of professional learning and collaboration. How?

1. Through Social Tips from Robyn Hrivnatz
Throughout the day Robyn shared social media tips including the ingredients to have in your profile and how to build connections and engage followers. I definitely get into ruts so the reminders took me outside of my everyday routine and helped me improve.  For example, I learned that when I retweet something, a better way to engage people is to quote the tweet instead of just retweeting.

2. Through hands-on learning with MakeCode, AdaFruit, and a Makerspace
Jacqueline Russell was our keynote speaker, and her presentation on MakeCode was informative and engaging. We received an Adafruit Circuit Playground Express and made magic wands with MakeCode and makerspace materials. In March, I plan to set up an Adafruit station and entice my high school students to come into the library to experiment with it and MakeCode. For more information, go to MakeCode and Adafruit. I'm also hoping to teach a computer science coding course next year, so this introduction was a good stepping stone for me.

3. Windows 10 Photos App Demo
The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update brought the ability to make videos with the Windows 10 Photos App. At the Summit, we created videos of our day. Earlier, in January, I had a class for the teachers at my school, and those who attended are hopeful that the video mixing in the Photos App will be a viable replacement for our beloved MovieMaker.

• To learn more about the app click Windows 10 Photos App.
• To see a sample video from our day at the Summit click Summit Video.

4. Learning about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through a OneNote Breakout
Collaborating in a team, we had to use clues in a OneNote Notebook to disable a virus and break out of the notebook all while learning about the SDGs.  If you would like more information on teaching SDGs, also called Global Goals, CLICK HERE to take the course on the Microsoft Educator Community website.

5. Meeting many of the amazing educators I follow on Twitter face to face
I had such great conversations with the educators there and at TCEA.  I am the tech coach at my school but was asked to also be the librarian this year after our former librarian retired.  I haven't been in the library for about 5 or 6 years, so I am trying to catch up in this field.  I was able to talk to someone who is also in a catholic high school, and he was telling me about some of the flexible seating and space changes in the library at his school.  This conversation encouraged me that I am on the right track and also reminded me that I am not alone.  It takes help to get to the summit, and I am so thankful to get that help from the MIE Expert community.  Thank you, Robyn Hrivnatz and Jennifer Mitchell, for a wonderful day of learning!

September Library Happenings

Gamifying PD

Why? After observing the success that another teacher had with gamification, attending several conference sessions, and reading the book, Personalized PD: Flipping Your Professional Development by Jason Bretzmann, I decided to gamify PD this year for our staff.  Holley Fontenot, an English teacher at my school, inspired me to gamify because of the success and motivation her students experienced in class.  After gamifying, she had students who wanted to edit their papers and beat a grammar quiz even though they could have moved on to another activity in order to level up.  


How?
For the first draft, I used Holley's template. She adapted it from a presentation by Jared Colley and Seth Burgess at the Lausanne Learning Institute in Memphis, TN.  I used the template to organize the activities I wanted to make available to teachers. Each activity has a corresponding number of XP (experience) to earn.  Our teachers are required to earn at least 15 hours of Tech PD each year and record it on a tech journal. This year, with gamification, they will earn XP but still use the tech journal to keep track of what they earn. Before proceeding with faculty-wide implementation, I asked two teachers to review the gamification template and make comments.  Since I use a OneNote Class Notebook with teachers, I was able to easily share my first draft and get feedback (see image below). 

For the second draft, I incorporated the suggestions but still was not satisfied with the template. It did not look fun and seemed complicated.  I came across something called PD Bingo from a blog post (http://technicallyteamann.com/no-teacher-summer-slide-fun-summer-pd-teachers/) and loved the simple form.  I decided this was the route I needed to pursue, so I started making a similar template with the activities from the second draft.  I called it PD Bingo, but it wasn't really making sense to me.  I thought about renaming it PD Building Blocks or PD Puzzle.  I wanted it to have a positive title where one is motivated to complete the "game" after reading it.  I began thinking about the word "Tech" and games and finally put together TECH-TAC-TOE. Teachers can play TECH-TAC-TOE to complete levels!  Because we are a 1:1 school, new teachers to our school will be going on The Amazing Journey.  They will still play TECH-TAC-TOE but will reach levels by meeting with me to learn about a part of The Amazing Journey.  All materials needed will be in the OneNote Class Notebook for easy access.  

Click the links below to access the templates.

• TECH-TAC-TOE (Levels 1-3)
• Tech Journal 

My hope is that PD Gamification will make technology integration more meaningful for both teachers and students. Gamification allows participants to choose their own path, and it will be no different with Tech PD Gamification.  Each teacher's journey will be personalized with student needs at the forefront.  I look forward to teacher feedback to make it better, and I'm excited about rolling it out this week and letting the games begin.  

Hacking PD at ISTE

This year I was fortunate to co-present a session at ISTE on "Hack Your PD to Engage Teachers and Save Time." Ever since I hosted a viewing party at our school for Microsoft's Hack the Classroom event in the Fall of 2016, I have used the "hack" model to help promote tech integration at my school.  I started using this model in faculty meetings by asking teachers to show hacks that were working for them.  This was so successful that teachers began asking me if they could present hacks!  Not only that, but they were talking to each other after and asking questions such as "Is this really something that will benefit my students and me?"

According to a Microsoft presentation on teacher hacking personas, a hack is defined by the Urban Dictionary as a "clever solution to an everyday problem." In the same presentation, a classroom hack is defined as an "innovative, possible solution to a common classroom problem that can be universally implemented."  For our ISTE presentation, we focused on Professional Development (PD) hacks. 

We provided 1-2 minute hacks that support each component of a successful PD program, which my co-presenter, Sandra LaGrange, identified as the following:

1. Time - Make time for PD
2. Inclusion - Include all stakeholders (Teachers, Students, Parents, Support Staff)
3. Choices - Personalize PD
4. Support - Give encouragement
5. Accountability - System of planning, tracking to see where one is going or what one has accomplished
6. Sustainability - Keep the learning going

The following Microsoft tools were featured in our hacks during our ISTE session.

1. OneNote Class Notebook - PD class notebook that I used to curate hacks at faculty meetings as well as other information so teachers can easily review; also use with OneNote Student Avengers (student tech mentors) to plan, record help given, share instructions
2. Office Mix - flip PD
3. Microsoft Educator Community - resources, lessons, etc. for teachers; used this summer to share specific courses with teachers & a place for them to turn in badge for credit for our PD program
4. Sway - create training guides, newsletters, etc.
5. Snip - share information in 3 easy ways (includes ability to ink)

We all left the session with a padlet full of hacks to possibly add to our toolbox for the new school year. To see how the "hack" model generates ideas, click HERE.

While at ISTE, I also attended a TeachMeet and Microsoft's Hack the Classroom Live.  It recently occurred to me that TeachMeets have elements of the "hack" style because topics are presented in 2, 7, or 20 minutes.  I believe TeachMeets, Hack the Classroom, and similar events work because they provide people with the big picture of tech integration in a style that is not overwhelming.  If you can show something in a couple of minutes then it helps people realize that the implementation may not be difficult.  If something catches their attention, they can get the how-to details later or become inspired to make it their own and integrate the technology in a meaningful way.  Let's all continue to share hacks in order to inspire, discover, and learn.

OneNote Student Avengers

What are OneNote Student Avengers? Basically, they are students who have demonstrated how to do certain tasks in OneNote in order to become trainers and mentors for teachers and students.  OneNote is the most heavily used program at our school. You can learn more about the Student Avenger program and how we started it here.  

As of today, we have 12 student avengers and they are doing great work! They each have a training journal in a OneNote class notebook that I shared with them to record the mentoring and training they are doing. The training journals will help us determine the issues students encounter most often as well as help us prepare training for the next school year.  

One Avenger's Training Journal

I know our training program for the students is going to get even better with the Avengers' help. They have such great ideas. One student had the idea to put a section in the collaboration space of the class notebook so all of us can put tips & tricks or instructions for certain fixes. I will also meet with the students periodically to update them on new features or fixes and get their feedback. 

Our administration is very supportive and tomorrow the Avengers will be able to wear their OneNote capes all day! (group picture coming soon) This was our IT Director's idea. A list of the students with email addresses will be available for teachers and students so they know who to contact for help. We are also in the process of setting up a skype with a member of the OneNote team so the Avengers and other students in the Computer Architecture class can ask questions. The @Microsoft_EDU team and @OneNoteEDU team have been amazing, and their encouragement made this all a reality. The Avenger badges they created for the students are fantastic! There's only one way to go from here. As Superman would say, "Up, up, and away!"

OneNote Class Notebook Journey

Our Journey with OneNote Class Notebook... 

     Our journey began last year when ten teachers piloted Class Notebook at our high school.  Many of our teachers, especially in the math department, had a love of OneNote already.  Class Notebook made that love stronger.  OneNote Class Notebook allows the teacher to create a OneNote Notebook and add students to it so they can have a personal workspace.  The teacher can distribute material to the students, review work, and everyone can ink.  Over the summer, I facilitated an online "Summer Tech Challenge" in which teachers were invited to strengthen their Class Notebook skills or begin the journey with class notebook.  Twenty teachers accepted the challenge.  At this point in the school year, we have twenty teachers using Class Notebook plus our principal. Another teacher is interested in joining the journey during the second quarter. These teachers are in the science, math, foreign language, english, social studies, and theology departments.  OneNote Class Notebook is for ALL.

Along the way, we have learned the following:

• Creating a Teacher Notebook for each course you teach is extremely beneficial.  This helps the teacher get organized and makes distributing material to the class notebook super easy.
• The Class Notebook Add-in is essential.  This extra tab in OneNote makes makes distributing and reviewing work quick and easy.
• A teacher can distribute a section group to students and then distribute chapters to that section group.  

 

(section group)

 

(tabs within section Chapter 1 section group)

• When training students on the class notebook, we are making it a priority to train them to NOT rename pages teachers distribute nor put "extra" material in a section distributed by the teacher. This helps when reviewing work.  We tell them "if it's not in the right place, it won't be seen by the teacher" because the teacher is not likely to hunt for the work.
• Sending feedback is so worth it.  The OneNote people are incredible and so fast in their replies. I skyped with someone today who is helping us figure out something.  Thank you, OneNote! May your purple cape always fly!