Google Summit and Student Work

Krause Center for Innovation Los Altos Hills Summit 2015

A couple of weeks ago, RCSD‘s staff development department sent out an email to all district teachers about an upcoming optional professional development day at Krause Center for InnovationRedwood City Education Foundation was going to make it possible for at least 10 teachers to attend the mini Google Summit event; I went to the larger Google Summit event at Gunn High School in Palo Alto two years ago, so I knew I had to make sure to be at the KCI event. The catch? Teachers had to apply for a chance to go.

As soon as I got home from our staff meeting, I typed up my answers, submitted them, and waited. A few days later I got an email and it said, “CONGRATULATIONS! YOU GET TO GO TO GOOGLE SUMMIT!” Woohoo! I enjoy learning about new ways to enhance my teaching, so I was excited to learn about new computer applications, ways to better my workflow (and my students’ workflow), and how to enhance student learning through my current blended learning model.

Yesterday (Saturday) I spent the entire day at Krause Center for Innovation learning about ways to use Google Apps for Education in the classroom. In the next few days I plan to implement a few new strategies, and I’ll write about the new sites I learned about, too.

Thank you, Redwood City Education Foundation!

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Last week I introduced students to answering text-dependent questions using evidence from the text. This seemed to be a difficult task for many students because they wanted to write their answers using their opinions and thoughts.

I had an evidenced based poster I created last year, but when I went to look for it on my computer, I couldn’t find it! I ended up finding this poster on Teachers Pay Teachers, and while it isn’t the best way for students to write with evidence, it helped many students last week.

Show Evidence in Your Writing

This week I am sharing Carlos’s work. Carlos did a great job using evidence to answer text-dependent questions. On Friday students watched CNN Student News and typed answers to three questions answered in the newscast. Carlos did a great job answering question number three.

Carlos, thank you for your effort!

Critical Thinking The Drive-In Movies by Gary Soto

CNN Student News

Come to Open House

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Can you believe the school year is almost over? I can’t; wow! As we quickly wrap up the school year, I would love to have you visit our classroom during Kennedy’s Open House. This is a great time to peek in and see what students have been working on this trimester. You can also stop in and meet 7th grade teachers.

I plan to have our classroom’s green screen set up, and students can show friends and family how to record a video using the DoInk Greenscreen app. Students will also showcase work in GoogleClassroom, StoryBoardThat, Pixton, and Explain Everything. Coding Club participants will also show apps and websites they’ve created using Code.org, Codecademy, Khan Academy, and Scratch.

I hope to see you Thursday!