Upper School Tech Byte #7- Haiku and Google Drive

In this morning's Upper School faculty meeting, English teacher Sharon demonstrated two blended learning strategies she uses in her classroom to enhance her students' learning experience: peer to peer feedback and asynchronous discussion.  Teachers in the traditional brick-and-mortar classroom are typically bound by the constraints of time and space, but Sharon is using technology to break down her classroom walls, leading to more efficient and deeper classroom discussions.


Sharon showed colleagues how she has students share their written work through a google drive folder linked to from her Haiku website.  After reading one another's writing, they post initial thoughts in an online discussion.  Having this pre-work done before entering the classroom the next day leads to a more effective use of the face-to-face time in the classroom and therefore deeper conversation.

Video Tutorials in the Upper School Spanish Classroom

To follow-up on Katrina's articles regarding sceencasting in the classroom on Nov 13th and 23rd, below is an update with a little more information from Rosario.

I use tutorial videos in my classes in order to maximize Spanish language use by my students during class time so they don’t have to be quiet listening to me in class but rather busy talking, collaborating, asking questions. This way class time is centered on the students and I can give instructions on the expectations for a Project, on what to do if I am going to be absent in class, on a grammar review or on how to prepare for the Final exam through a video tutorial that is more engaging. Students are still going to hear me say it in Spanish but they will listen to me at their own pace, as many times as they need to and will have to take responsibility figuring out what is expected of them. Having a class website makes it really easy to post everything for everyone.

Here are samples of all different technologies I’m using to make them: 
Camtasia (Tareas del Proyecto)
Powtoon (Gramática y Vocabulario básico)
Screencast-o-matic (Como preparar para el examen final)
Videoscribe (Práctica de audio)
and Explain Everything (Tarea para el bloque C). 

-Rosario 

What is Blended Learning?

Q: What is Bended Learning?

A: Blended Learning refers to a mixing of different learning environments. The phrase has many specific meanings based upon the context in which it is used. Blended learning gives learners and teachers a potential environment to learn and teach more effectively.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Blended Learning Global Education Conference 2010

Posted by Mike Gwaltney on November 9, 2010

Watch these 2 videos from Carpe Diem and Millis High to start to imagine the possibilities of what blended-learning schools do in helping their students achieve stellar results with models that increase productivity and personalize learning

Online School for Girls offers "Blended Learning" course for any teachers

The Online School for Girls is an effort by independent girls schools to move into the digital delivery of courses. In addition to offering courses to high school students this organization also offers 6 week online seminars to teachers [for any middle or upper school teachers]. The seminars teach you how to use a "blended learning" approach to enable you to add an online component to your face-to-face courses. They use the same online learning platform as the school, which is a system named "Haiku." I have heard great things about this professional development offering!. A course website can support student learning by offering organized access to course content/resources, calendars, & grades, as well as instructional activities like discussion boards, online quizzes, small group activities, and the use of "web 2.0" tools. You can read more about the OSG professional development opportunity on this announcement (from last year) by their director or this blog post by a participant, or you can go to their site to register (click on "Register for Professional Development" on the right side of page. Please register soon. There are only 25 spots in their course. It may already be full, but if you register now you can get on the waiting list for the next round. If anyone has any questions, please let me know. This is one of the best opportunities for teachers interested in teaching online that I am aware of.
~ Demetri