Above the Line in Elementary

I teach fourth grade in California which means I teach all about California history and geography. Traditionally my students have completed a research report on the four regions of California as a way to practice research, notetaking, and expository writing skills while covering the Social Studies standards. We would finish our unit by sculpting and painting salt-flour dough maps. traditional research report - not too exciting messy and disconnected from the content I wanted my students to understand about each region I realized this project needed a redesign. Enter Google Classroom and Google MyMaps! To begin the research portion of the project, I provided a note-taking guide and a HyperDoc that outlined the whole project. We used a combination of online sources and our textbook.  Rough drafts were typed in a Google Doc that was assigned in Google Classroom. We worked on writing and editing our expository paragraphs in the Google Doc and this beca...

I'm back for another conference of connecting, learning, and being inspired! Fall CUE is held every year at American Canyon High School in Napa County. Recently, areas surrounding American Canyon have experienced much devastation due to wildfires. Thie high school was even used as an emergency shelter for evacuees a matter of weeks ago. It feels good to be here supporting the Napa community and being with other teachers that are passionate about moving into the future and bringing our best to our students. Opening Keynote - Brad Montague, creator of Kid President @thebradmontague I did not arrive early enough to get a ticket to sit in the theater, so I was in the cafeteria with the other overflow participants. I'm glad that those in the theater were sharing on Twitter! How might we be more child-like in order to become better grownups? Live like possibilitarians. Find joy in the ordinary. #fallcue #cue pic.twitter.com/MLNj1Whhsh — Jody Green (@peerless...

I got this great idea when I attended the the Google Geo Educator Institute last July. I scratched the surface of the suite of Google Geo tools by using My Maps last year, but I have learned about so many more features and how to enhance student learning using these amazing tools. When my students return from spring break, I plan for my class to maintain a shared map of all the places they visit. This can be accomplished by creating a  Google Form  and then importing the data collected on the form to a "MyMap". Students will complete the form indicating where they went and why they went to a particular location. Once students add entries to the form, the data can be collected in a Google sheet and that sheet can be imported into a Google Map where pins will automatically be dropped on each location. Check out this video to see how to import data from a Google sheet into a Google Map. My mind was blown! All the data that the stu...

Thanks to the new devices we have at my school, students have more access to technology, and I have been able to transform many of my lessons and enhance the student's learning experience. I am particularly pleased with the outcome of this lesson transformation! In fourth grade, we read   By the Great Horn Spoon !  by Sid Fleischman as one of our core literature selections. This adventure story ties into our CA History / Social Studies unit on westward movement and the Gold Rush. The book tells the tale of a young boy, Jack, and his butler, Praiseworthy, traveling aboard the Lady Wilma around Cape Horn on their way to California with the hope of striking it rich in the gold mines! Because geography plays such a big part in understanding the history of the time, and the events of the story, I had the students complete a paper map on which they marked the route of the ship and the noteworthy places in the story. This is last year's project: I knew I had to...

KEYNOTE - George Couros  -  http://georgecouros.ca/blog/          George Couros is the author of "The Innovator's Mindset"   His passion for student learning is infectious. He talks a lot about the opportunities that technology allows as opposed to the risks.  Some of my favorite quotes shared during the presentation: "The world only cares about - and pays off on - what you can do with what you know (and it doesn't matter where you learned it.)" Thomas Friedman "Transformational leaders don't start by denying the world around them. Instead, they describe a feature they'd like to create." Seth Godin The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it. - Chinese Proverb Social Media is like water. You can either let us drown, or teach us to swim." He shared the three things he thinks every high school student should graduate with: 1. A professional social network 2. A dig...

I made it to Palm Springs! I have attended Fall CUE up in Napa, CA the past 2 years, but this is my first trip to the CUE National Conference. I am excited to be traveling with a team from my district to learn more about innovation and technology integration in the classroom. The more I learn, and the more I attend conferences like this, I realize that it is not about the tools, it's about the learning. Every session I attended focused on how the tool can be used to transform education, and the pedagogy behind it - not just the logistics of using the particular tool. KEYNOTE The morning started with the keynote address by Jo Boaler , Stanford Professor, and author of Mathematical Mindsets: Unleashing Students' Potential Through Creative Math, Inspiring Messages, and Innovative Teaching . The line to get into the conference room was long but well worth the wait. (Video credit:  @phillips4kids )         Jo Boaler was inspiring. I wish...

At the Geo Teachers Institute last July, there was a lot of talk about virtual reality, Google Expeditions, and 360⁰ images (previously referred to as photospheres). These resources are a great way to bring the world i nto the cl assroom. Students can go on virtual field trips to places all over the world.  Google Street View is an app that can be downloaded on smartphones and tablets. Students search for locations, view images that have been uploaded by other Google users, and feel like they are actually there! How cool is that? Students can visit historic sites, monuments, famous landmarks, landforms, and other cities.  To view these 360⁰ images, download Google Street View and search for a location. If an image is available it will pop up on the bottom of the screen. Theses images can be viewed with a 360⁰ viewer such as Google Cardboard or View-Master by Mattel . If you don't have a viewer, simply click on the "compass" ic...

I learned about this tool at the Google Geo Teachers Institute in Mountain View, CA My instructor was Kim Randal,  @ scubagirl812 I just led a PD session on how to use Tour Builder - presentation resources are HERE Tour Builder is a fantastic digital storytelling tool that is easy for students to use. They can add locations to a map. Along with each location, they can add photos, captions, and change the icon. I can imagine so many ways to use this tool with my students.  Tours can be private or shared, and multiple tours can be linked together in one master tour. Great for collaborative work! I explored the tool by creating a quick tour of a  summer weekend getaway trip . Within Tour Builder, you can pin an unlimited number of locations to your map and add a total of 25 images or video per project. When you are done creating your tour, the tour can be shared and the viewer can view the tour by clicking through the locations which ...