PPS Instructional Technology

Collaboration - an education buzz word that gets thrown around as much as a baseball at spring training.  But what happens when we ignore the buzz and truly reflect on what it means to collaborate as educators and to promote true collaboration with our students?  Our next guest blogger, Malena Schrauben - Central Middle School, Science and Computer Science - reflects on those very questions after her MACUL 2016 experience. #Collaboration   “How many of you can tell me the first four presidents of the United States? Not many right? But, if I gave you 30 seconds to collaborate all of you could do it.” -Jaime Casap, Google   These words, from the opening keynote of MACUL ‘16, really hit home for me. I promote a blended learning classroom, and I am constantly looking for ways to make the most of my learning environment.  Learning in isolation is a thing of the past and does not promote an environment where our children will exist in the future. With our transi...

Whenever you go to a conference you have not attended before, you never know what you are going to get.  Will it be beneficial, or a waste of your time?  Will you walk away wondering if anything you learned will be implemented in your district, or will you rush back energized to try new things?  The MACUL conference is a big investment in a teachers time and energy.  It is a two-day conference that will require the teachers to be away from their students and families for that time.  It means preparing two days of sub-plans, crossing your fingers that they find a sub for your class for both days,   organizing transportation, and figuring out what exactly you want to focus on at a conference with more choices of sessions to attend than you could ever imagine.  It is an investment in time and energy, so I am always curious to hear what our "first-timers" think when they return.  Our next guest blogger is Michal Vandenberg.  She is a third grade ...

When we talk about blended learning, many elementary teachers believe we are referring to something that can only be done at the middle and high schools.  This, however, is not the case.  Whether you are hosting a discussion in Google classroom or administering formative assessments on the fly , blending is for everyone, K-12!  Our next guest blogger, Todd Heerlyn - Third grade teacher at Moorsbridge, shares some of the wonderful elementary resources he discovered at MACUL. MACUL was a really good experience! I was completely amazed at what was out there in the world of technology. There are so many opportunities to use technology in any subject in the classroom. I'm really excited and completely overwhelmed to go back to the classroom and start using some of the things that I picked up there.   I started to learn more about the online formative assessment tools ( kahoot , quizizz.com , socrative.com , Google Forms , etc.).  I'm hoping to utilize more ...

We have been focusing a lot on Blended Learning here at Portage Public Schools, and each day we continue to introduce new teachers to the concept of Blended Learning.  It is always great when teachers are able to go to a conference and explore the topic you have been investigating from another district's or teacherss perspective.  Today's guest blogger, Ally Leverett - fourth grade teacher at Lake Center Elementary, was able to learn how to incorporate aspects of coding and blended learning into her classroom thanks to the MACUL conference. "Well...there are so many things that intrigued me at MACUL that it was hard to choose just one "big idea" I walked away with. However, since the conference I have showed my students the Scratch website, as well as the 21Things4Students website. They were so excited to be able to code and I actually have some coding experts in my room that I didn't even know about! Those students are now the "go to" references...

When I first started in my role as a Technology Integration Specialist four years ago, I was introduced to the concept of the Flipped Classroom and shortly after, Blended Learning. What I heard and read about each of these ideas piqued my interest and I had to know more. Subsequently, as more teachers and administrators within our district heard about the possibilities with Blended Learning, we began exploring what this model might look like in our classrooms. This six-part series will discuss what we have found Blended Learning to be and lays the foundation for Blended Learning that we use to train our teachers. In my last article, we explored the Keys for Success . In this series of sub-articles, we will look into what it takes to Prepare for Blended Learning. Today, we will focus on Student Preparation. Disclaimer : Yeah, so about that whole “Part X of 6” thing… Well, um, I could have stuck to that formula, but these articles need to be digestible and, well, as I was writing...

I have been attending MACUL now for five years and each year I notice that the conference morphs more and more from a solely technology-focused event to a conference that focused on teaching and learning with technology.   I see this as a valuable transformation.  Our next guest blogger, Kevin Luteyn - Fourth Grade teacher at Moorsbridge Elementary in Portage, models this blended focus on instruction and technology with his takeaways from his second MACUL experience. "This year was another great year at MACUL.  There was yet again so many different ideas on ways to incorporate technology into the classroom.  What I thought was most intriguing was the fact that most of the sessions were not total technology-based.  They shared ideas that they used for learning and showed how you could use technology to enhance the learning, which is exactly what needs to be done.  It really felt like the main idea is still that technology doesn't replace teaching, it is us...

March is a hard time to try something new in your classroom.  You already have your routines set, your expenctations are crystal clear, and your curriculum is rolling along at a steady pace.  Breaking that flow and trying something new can not only be challenging, but also intimidating.  Our next guest blogger, Kitty Broderick - Third Grade teacher at Woodland Elementary in Portage Public Schools, shows us all why it's okay to make the leap in March and try something new... your students will thank you! "This year at MACUL I was ready to take something back and implement it right away!  That was my goal.  No longer would I say, "Oh that's a great website.  I'll plan on starting it next school year.  I don't think I have time for it in my schedule at this point in the school year." Starting something new in March is hard (for teachers).  We already have a set routine, students know the expectations for each part of the day, and teachers are bu...

There are certain learning opportunities that, as an ed-tech educator, I look forward to each year.  The MACUL Conference is one of those.  I love learning new instructional techniques, tools, and tips that I can use with my students and pass on to my fellow teachers here at PPS .  I love the energy of the conference and the way I come back rejuvinated and ready to race to the end of the school year.  This year the MACUL (Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning) Conference took place March 9-11th in Grand Rapids.  Portage was able to bring around 50 excited educators and administrators to the conference this year.  We also had numerous staff members who presented at the conference on topics that ranged from Modern Media Centers to Blended Learning.  I had so many "proud parent" moments watching our teachers and students present, share, collaborate, network, and learn together.  I feel very blessed to work with such an amazing group o...

When I first started in my role as a Technology Integration Specialist four years ago, I was introduced to the concept of the Flipped Classroom and shortly after, Blended Learning. What I heard and read about each of these ideas piqued my interest and I had to know more. Subsequently, as more teachers and administrators within our district heard about the possibilities with Blended Learning, we began exploring what this model might look like in our classrooms. This six-part series will discuss what we have found Blended Learning to be and lays the foundation for Blended Learning that we use to train our teachers.  In my last article, we explored What Blended Learning is Not . In this article, we will look into the Keys for Success with Blended Learning. [Photo credit: Got Credit ] Let’s be real. The shift to Blended Learning in your classroom is going to require an investment of time and resources in order to be successful. Any shift in instructional style ...