Going Digital . . . Setting Goals and Starting Small

Going Digital . . . Setting Goals and
Starting Small

Last March I was lucky enough to attend the Spring CUE Conference
in Palm Springs with a few fellow educators from my school site.  I was
really looking forward to learning new and innovative ways to incorporate
technology into my classroom. Wow, what a dizzying couple of days! I
definitely came back from the conference with my mind filled with
wonderful new ideas about using digital tools with my students.  Despite
all the excitement from the conference, just a few days later, I found
myself back in the same routines that I had been in before heading to
the desert. While some of the things I learned were easy to start right
away in my classroom, there were a lot of good ideas that got put on
the back burner.  I simply categorized them as “these would be great to
use next year,” and “I have all summer to work on that.”

So here we are, well over a month into the new school year and all that
summer prepping never quite happened. Who was I kidding anyway?
Over the summer I got married, went on a fabulous 3-week honeymoon,
and moved into a new home with my husband.  Disappointed in myself, I
decided to look back on my notes from that conference and pick a few
strategies that I could easily start using in my classroom within the next
month. There were a lot of great ideas in my head, but two really stuck
out to me; #BookSnaps and Interactive Digital Notebooks.

Stay focused, go after your dreams and
keep moving toward your goals.
- LL Cool J

#BookSnaps

For me, #BookSnaps was the easiest of the two digital tools to start
using with my students.  The idea of #BookSnaps is to create a digital
and visual way for students to express what they have learned from the
text.  They can be used with any text and really help students to make
meaningful connections with what they are reading.  While the idea comes
from using the Snapchat app, the process can also be done using Pic
Collage, Seesaw, Google Drawings, and Google Slides.  Depending on
what types of devices your students have access to, and the grade you
teach you might find one platform will work better for you than others.  I
used Pic Collage to create the #BookSnap pictured above. My
students are using Google Slides on their iPads. #BookSnaps were first
started by Tara M. Martin and you can check out what she has to
say about them here.

www.tarammartin.com/resources/booksnaps-how-to-videos/  

Her website gives student examples as well as how-to videos for many
of the platforms listed above.  

Every #BookSnap should include:

• A picture of the book cover
• The Author's name
• A picture of text you want to annotate
• Annotation

They can also include:

• emojis
• Bitmojis
• hashtags

Digital Interactive Notebooks

Interactive Notebooks have always been a part of my teaching.  
Students really enjoy them and they are a great way to showcase
student learning.   The downfall of Interactive Notebooks for me is the
time spent on cutting and gluing everything in them, not to mention the
inevitable mess they can create.  Why not make them digital?
Creating a Digital Interactive Notebook can require a significant
amount of prep time, but saves me time on the other end. Less
instructional time is lost. So where do you begin? Here are a few
suggestions to get started.

• Set up your notebook in Google Slide
• Create a cover slide and table of content.
• Choose your format. For example the left side of your slide is

teacher input and the right side is for student output.

• Be creative, there are so many different digital tools you can include in your Interactive Notebooks
• Share with students using Google Classroom.
• Be sure to make a copy for each student in Google Classroom so that students can edit.

Learning about new digital tools for the classroom is always fun for me. The hard part is actually trying some of these ideas out with my students. Start small, try one tool at a time. Don't be too hard on yourself if it does work out at first. There is always a learning curve.

Learning and Teaching with Grace,

Alina