How do we know the ocean is friendly?
It waves 👋.
1️⃣ Defining Screen Time
with Mike and Carlo
Carlo and Mike revisited their past conversations about "screen time". Like many teachers, Mike was focused on the screens themselves (Phones, Tablets, Laptops, etc) and the passive consumption they encourage. Carlo was focused on the student’s intention of why they use their devices, highlighting the creative and productive usages of technology, as well as the daily conveniences (weather, news, maps, etc.).
An example brought up was watching TV Shows or Movies. This is often exempt from the “screen time” conversation because it’s thought of as more social with friends and family. In the end, they both agreed that intention was important — as was being self-aware enough to know one’s limits and taking a break when needed.
Their conversation lead to thoughts about parent resources. Mike would love to see some sort of communication to parents about breaking screen time myths, and ultimately taking an interest in what their kids are accessing and consuming on their devices.
Even though Mike is pretty confident talking to parents, he believes they (and students too) would listen more closely to a third party. Carlo directed his attention to Common Sense Media and Common Sense Education. Parent communications might be a topic that will likely come up again.
Carlo also shared that he’s banning the question "Can I use screens?" from his house. His kids ask this all the time, but he wants them to be more thoughtful (intentional) with their request. For example, naming what they want from their screens. "Can I use my Chromebook to create a character? To use Canva for...?" even "Can I watch Youtube" is ok, as long as they can tell Carlo what they're watching, why they like it, how it makes them feel, and what they've learned.
2️⃣ Ungraded assignments in Google Classroom
with Amy and Dylan
Amy and Dylan had a conversation regarding Google Classroom. Specifically, the fact that Ungraded Assignments don't have a "Return for review" option.
The workflow with a graded assignment:
- Student turns in work
- Teacher notices that it's incomplete
- Teacher leaves a comment and returns with no grade
- Student sees the assignment as "Assigned" and is notified that this needs to be turned in again
This cycle continues until a grade is entered by the teacher.
The workflow with an ungraded assignment:
- Student turns in work
- Teacher notices that it's incomplete
- Teacher leaves a comment and returns the work
- Student sees the assignment as Turned In and is not notified that it needs to be turned in again
This process ends after one "Return" from the teacher as Google Classroom does not anticipate the need for revisions if the assignment is UNGRADED.
The best workaround we found was to make ungraded assignments grade-worthy, with a grade out of 1. In this case, the cycle will only end when a grade of 1 is awarded by Amy — giving her the ability to notify her students that something needs to be rectified before the assignment is complete.
Not ideal, but it works.
3️⃣ Introducing iPads to Primary Students
with Maria and Carlo
Carlo helped Maria plan an iPad introduction workshop for her Grade 2 students. While some might think handing out the iPads is the best place to start, they decided otherwise.
Their session was split into 2 parts:
- Class discussion identifying items that are important to them (favorite toy, keys, etc), and how they feel if they lent it out to a friend. How would they want their friends to treat their item? After saying things like "I want them to take care of it" and "I want them to return it" we talked about how the iPads are tools for school, and we want to treat them with the same respect.
- Part two was coming up with class rules for the iPad and about 30 minutes of drawing posters based on their rules.
4️⃣ Coding on Chromebooks
with Dwayne and Dylan
Dwayne introduced Dylan to a couple of students looking to create their own video games as their passion projects. The project itself is less about the games themselves and more about how each student shares their experience of learning to code with the class (after a month). Inspired by family members and YouTubers, both students wanted to use Unity (something pro’s use), prompting Dwayne to reach out to us.
A bit of research led Dylan to a platform called Construct, which lets people create games in the browser (Thanks to Derek for unblocking it from the web filter). It's quite featureful and has hundreds of tutorials for every style of 2d game (even some pseudo 3d!).
One student wants to make an "OG Mario" side scroller about a chef being chased by.. food? rats? He doesn't know yet. Another wants to make a Tower Defence game with upgrades and multiple enemies.
Dwayne is going to reach out to the students' parents to get the okay so they can create accounts and spend the next month or so documenting their progress with their games.
5️⃣ Collaborating on Social Stories with Canva
With Jen and friends
Jen spoke with a couple of EAs who have been spending a lot of time creating different Social Stories for all the different students on the spectrum using Notability. Jen suggested Canva (surprise surprise) to make these instead. Canva will let them search for and insert images, and then add text to it. Not to mention that moving images and text around is much easier.
Jen showed them how to use Canva, and showed them how to collaborate on a project together. They were both floored at how much easier this makes things, and were excited to get started.