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Canvas Parent App.
The Canvas Parent Observer feature is ready for both the web and the mobile app and here is how.
One Small Step for Tech Integration …
Sweetwater has many educators who integrate technology at a very high level. These innovators and early adopters are eagerly embracing the digital age and thoughtfully applying tools and processes to their already strong pedagogy to engage students, enhance learning, and prepare our kids for the times we live in. We in EdTech applaud those efforts and encourage those trailblazers to keep leading and learning in the coming year.
And we also know that we have teachers who fall along all quadrants of Rogers Diffusion of innovation distribution.
2018-19 there is an opportunity for every teacher to take another step toward technology integration no matter where you are on this spectrum. This year we have achieved 1:1 status from grades 7-12. This is a vision that began back in 2010 and is now a reality for our Sweetwater school communities. The tools are now at our fingertips and we have expertise throughout our district to help lead the way. First, let me acknowledge that there are legitimate reasons for many of you to be skeptical and leery of technology.
Yes, there is always a need for more training.
Yes, the infrastructure doesn’t work flawlessly 24/7.
Yes, some students are not completely responsible with their devices.
Yes, some students are off task on their devices.
Yes, there are actually way too many tools to choose from.
However,
The digital transformation is no longer in its infancy.
The Internet is not going away any time soon.
Our students live in a social, political, and economic world that is dominated by digital tools and requires our leadership so they can thrive and not struggle in this complex and ever changing landscape.
And…the opportunities to connect your classroom to experts and information anywhere in the world is breathtaking.
Therefore,
We believe that strong pedagogy, rigorous and relevant content, plus intentional tech integration enhances learning.
So, our challenge to all Sweetwater teachers for 2018-19 is to take a step forward.
1) Commit to using a Learning Management System (LMS) to help you organize your resources, materials, and instruction for students. Sweetwater has access to Canvas, Google Classroom, and OneNote for this purpose.
2) Experiment with technology tools to enhance the Elements of Effective Instruction that are the focus of our work as a school community.
3) Reach out to your colleagues down the hall or across the district who are just ahead of you on the curve and learn from their successes and failures.
And, when you take these steps, be they small or large, know that you have a support team ready to help.
You have a Blended Learning Specialist (BLS) whose primary role is to support your efforts at technology integration.
You have a Site Technician who can remove software, hardware, and network barriers.
You have a Teacher Librarian who can help you find resources that will enhance your curriculum and navigate the digital world along with your students..
You have an administration who is committed to modeling and supporting your efforts.
The EdTech team which consists of Georgina Meza, Program Manager and myself is eager to help you along the way. Our primary task is to support the Site Tech Team (BLS, Teacher Librarian, Site Technician and Assistant Principal) as they support you, however we are eager to hear directly from anyone who has questions or concerns related to technology integration.
So, make a commitment to take your next logical step in technology integration in 2018-19 and count us as your partners in serving the needs of our students.
EdTech is Alive and Well in Sweetwater High Schools
White Board Message we hope to see in every High School class in 2018-19
Georgina Meza, EdTech Program Manager extraordinaire, and I have the pleasure of visiting Sweetwater schools to check in with our Blended Learning Specialists, Librarians, Administration, and other leaders who are overseeing the integration of technology into the learning process.
And, what we are seeing is highly encouraging.
The rollout of devices to Sweetwater high schools has been gradual, beginning with 9th grade three years ago and culminating in the 2018-19 school year with seniors. Because of the gradual nature of that rollout and the high volume of mixed grade level classes, many teachers have been understandably reluctant to fully embrace the use of devices on a daily basis. However, plenty of teachers have jumped in with both feet and are making great strides.
Here are just a few examples we came across this week.
Marc Gonzalez teaches Social Sciences at Hilltop High and we recently saw how he starts a class with a controversial question that students answer in Google Classroom, where they are able to comment on their classmates opinions. It’s a great way to practice healthy debate and argumentation in an open forum. Students were then analyzing an infographic on North and South Korea to gain background knowledge for a Socratic Seminar that was soon to follow. Mr. Gonzalez’s class was a great example of a class in which the learning was at the center of every activity and the technology simply faded into the background, supporting those primary learning goals.
We also jumped over to Otay Ranch High where we saw Ms. Jorgina Hall teach Biology, masterfully expounding on the properties of chromosomes and gene transfer in fruit flies. She did this by embedding her lecture notes and presentation into students’ One Note notebook. Students not only had access to her notes during the lecture, but they were able to annotate those notes while she discussed the topic. This was beyond substitution (see SAMR) as these notes also include links to resources and videos that would not be possible with paper and pencil note taking.
We also spoke to the leadership team at Olympian High School where they have moved their 9th grade student portfolio to Google Sites. Olympian has a well developed plan for each student that begins in 9th grade with the aforementioned student portfolio and culminates in the Common Senior Experience. The digital tools are a natural enhancement of that project as their students can now curate all their best work in one location and reflect on their growth within the same tool. Olympian has plans of continuing their evolution from an analog to digital student portfolio over the next few years.
In each of these cases, technology enhanced the learning environment and these were just a few of the examples of outstanding teaching that we observed this week. So, for all those teachers who are getting ready to dig deeper into their technology toolkit, I can’t give you any better advice than the advice that students at Hilltop High School left on their lunch area asphalt.
SDCUE 2017 comes to South Bay
The SDCUE Conference is an annual event for educators who are integrating technology across San Diego County. Here’s a list of topics from a previous event.
This year’s edition provides some unique opportunities for the South Bay.
- The 2017 edition will be hosted by our very own Hilltop High School, so the travel excuse has been eliminated.
- We have 90 free registrations for Sweetwater employees, so the financial excuse has been eliminated. Sign up for a free registration here. **** Update We have over 130 people who showed interest in attending so the FREE registration season is closed. We will try and accommodate all 130 one way or the other. Love the tech enthusiasm!!!
This will no doubt prove to be a big day for #SUHSD as we collaborate with like minded educators and hone our skills integrating technology to enhance student engagement that leads to mastery through a lens of equity.
You can even sign up to be a presenter here. (Deadline is September 10) Here is a testimonial of a former presenter.
#itsaboutthelearning
#whytechsuhsd
Share your reasons for integrating technology to enhance learning using #whytechsuhsd
Edtech is no panacea. (Bet you didn’t think you’d read that on the EdTech website!) The extent to which integrating technology will reap benefits to learning depends on the extent to which educators intentionally plan for technology usage based on the curricular goals and pedagogical strategies that are being employed, and carefully select the tech tools that have the ability to enhance those learning objectives.
The #whytechsuhsd hashtag is an attempt to crowdsource the best ideas in SUHSD … and the Interwebs …, to encourage widespread implementation of tech in thoughtful and insightful ways.
I’m calling on all #suhsd educators to share their #whytechsuhsd ideas over the next few weeks so that we can encourage and support one another to integrate tech thoughtfully and intentionally, for learning to flourish.
Here’s the plan:
- If you can be pithy, post a tweet and keep it to 140 characters.
- If it takes more than 140 characters, write a blog post and tweet your post.
- If you don’t have a blog, write a post for the SUHSDlearns blog and tweet that post.
The instructional focus of Sweetwater is to implement effective initial instruction that leads to student engagement and mastery, through a lens of equity. Technology can absolutely impact all three aspects of this goal as we put our best ideas together and share widely.
#whytechsuhsd
#bettertogether
Here’s an article by Alan November to get the juices flowing.
Crafting a Vision for Empowered Learning and Teaching: Beyond the $1,000 Pencil
Student Engagement in #SUHSD
Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash
Why do we need to learn this?
This age old question hangs over every classroom, whether it’s articulated with brazen defiance or muttered under the breath with resignation.
And Sweetwater teachers take this challenge seriously, as was evident during their pre-service days of professional development this week. Here are just a few of the ideas that SUHSD teachers shared in their discussions and presentations.
Start with student interests
Tupac lyrics
Make connections from classroom to local to global
Desmos for immediate feedback and transparent student work
Novels and poetry can teach you how to behave on a date
Google Classroom or OneNote for collaborative documents
Analyze historical debates (historians disagreeing)
Escape Room Math
Kendrick Lamar album
Use Inquiry
Don’t start day one with the syllabus
MVP – Create units of study around the mission, values, and purpose of the content
These educators are thinking deeply about how to “hook” their students in order to shepherd them to rigorous content, and this question of student engagement is at the heart of our work at Sweetwater this year, which is to produce student engagement that leads to mastery through a lens of equity.
Where does technology fit in?
Some of these solutions involve technology and others do not, which is exactly as it should be. Technology is a tool and teachers should evaluate every tool against its costs and benefits. Sometimes, a tech solution is the perfect answer that enhances both the content and context of a lesson. Other times, a face to face discussion and some old fashioned chart paper will do the trick.
The classroom is about creating the best learning environment for each lesson and unit of study and technology should always be a part of the discussion, but it may not always be chosen for that particular solution.
As Sweetwater teachers get ready for opening day of the 2017-18 school year, I look forward to hearing about their many successes engaging their students in the skills, content, and dispositions that will prepare them for work and life. Be sure to share your stories – both good and bad with our SUHSD hashtags so we can continue to learn from one another all year long.
#suhsd
#suhsdedtech
Community Conversation about STEM
The San Diego STEM Ecosystem is organizing a Comunity Conveersation about STEM. Read more
2017 SUMMER TECH Tools training
The San Diego Microsoft in Education team is hosting three teacher training sessions in July at the Microsoft Store in Fashion Valley. These sessions are designed to familiarize Sweetwater teachers with the free tools available from Microsoft. The hands-on training will be optimized for teachers who have Windows 10 devices (SUHSD Lenovo Thinkpads), but teachers who have other devices …
Rocky’s Journey
Rocky’s Journey is a Sway work sample made by a 7th-grader from MOM (Sara Chai’s class).
CLICK on the picture to view the presentation.
Google Level 1 Bootcamp
We are working with EdTechTeam (they produce the Google Summits) on doing a Google Certified Educator Bootcamp for our teachers. The Bootcamps are preparatory courses for teachers who want to move forward and become officially Certified in Level 1.
Teachers, coaches, and/or administrators who sign up will be given the royal treatment for the day as they discover new material and prepare for their exams. Support is also given after the Bootcamp as the attendees are studying for the exam. EdTechTeam’s presenters will stay in contact via email and a G+ Community to make sure everyone is taken care of.
We are offering a Level 1 Bootcamp and we are opening registration to anyone who would like to attend. If you are interested in learning more, go to //edtechteam.com/bootcamps and you can get all the information. The cost for each participant is $299.00
EdTechTeam Bootcamps have a registration site for our event at: nvite.com/EdTechTeam/zjvjgy or you can pay by Purchase Order by contacting tara@edtechteam.com.
The Lenovos are coming! The Lenovos are coming!
At the Board Meeting of April 24, the Sweetwater School Board approved the purchase of Lenovo laptops for 11th grade, thus continuing our commitment to deliver 1:1 devices for all of our students. Therefore, in 2017-18 our high schools will utilize personal devices for all students from 9th to 11th grade with the intention of adding seniors in the 2018-19 school year.
I encourage all of our SUHSD teachers and community to review our EdTech 3 year plan (draft) to see where we are heading with technology integration. Feel free to use the comment button on the Google Doc to share your thinking and ideas. Here is a portion of that plan that includes our goals in 3 areas.
This plan will be supported by Professional Development from the EdTech department and site created Professional Development designed by Site Tech Teams consisting of an Assistant Principal, Blended Learning Specialist, Librarian and two other classroom teachers.
SUHSD EdTech Vision
EdTech is about Learning! Technology is ubiquitous AND invisible as air.
Students will gain content mastery and essential life skills through active engagement in pedagogically diverse environments. They will communicate their understanding in authentic and creative ways.
Sweetwater 2030 Update
Sweetwater 2030 Update
Beginning in the Winter of 2016, we visited most schools in the Sweetwater District to talk to students about what was working for them and what changes they would like to see. We also asked these students about the use of technology in schools.
From these students we heard two clear themes.
- No surprise: Teachers are the primary source of student appreciation and angst. We heard many stories of inspirational and adored teachers who have motivated and supported students through their learning journey and we heard some challenging stories where teachers and students did not connect in a positive and helpful way.
- Students want to be active and do meaningful projects both inside and outside the classroom.
With that in mind, the EdTech department is organizing visits to schools who are trying new and innovative programs (specifically project based models) so that we can learn how to adapt our own instructional approaches to keep students engaged and moving toward mastery.
Our first visits are scheduled to the following schools:
April 27 VIDA Magnet School Vista
April 28 High Tech High Chula Vista Here’s a recent Getting Smart podcast about High Tech High.
If you would like to join us on these visits, please consult your site administration for coverage and email me at daniel.winters@sweetwaterschools.org. We have a small number of spaces available to interested Sweetwater educators.
SUHSD Evolving Educators
SUHSD’s school sites have many pockets of innovation. We are creating pathways to move from pockets of innovation to a culture where learning and innovation flourishes. We are looking for teachers with different levels of comfort and expertise that have grown in their teaching and learning practices with learning technologies.
If you know of a teacher that has grown in some way, shape or form using technology to engage, empower or improve student learning in the SUSHD, please submit their name here.