The ES Ed Tech team has been transforming the LOFT into a creative indoor 'playground' for students where the SAS DSLOs (character, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, creativity, content knowledge, and cultural competence) are finding traction.

The learning activities are organized under 5 themes: Art, Building, Coding, Engineering, and Filmmaking. Then each theme has various stations where students can explore, make, and innovate based on Challenge Cards specific to that station.  Challenge Cards come in levels as well to take into consideration that students from ages 5-11 use this space.


In addition, students are tracking their progress with the use of a Creation Stations Passport.  They must note down which station they completed (under the correct theme) and demonstrate and/or explain to a teacher which level they accomplished.  Success is noted with an 'Explorer', 'Maker', or 'Innovator' stamp in the student's passport.    

YouTube has long been used and valued by teachers as a valuable resource in the classroom. There are videos on every topic... But what other ways are there to use YouTube in support of learning? Welcome to this week's session where we attempt to explore that question. 

Goals:

1. Use Annotations to provide 'in-text' feedback on student work (Assessment)
2. Be highly selective about using specific parts of videos (Resources)
3. Subscribe to Channels and create playlists that organize YouTube content (Curate)

This session is hands on and participants will be engaging in each of the goals using their own YouTube account (or class account). 

3rd grade teacher, Cayla Shaw, attended the Wednesday Autocrat PD session and participated in a conversation centered on the broader applications of this Google Add-On.  Not only was Cayla keen to understand details of how Autocrat works, her mind was already developing a plan on how to implement it in the classroom.  She quickly saw the benefit of a more efficient way to asses and give feedback on student learning with Autocrat.  Kudos to Cayla for then creating a form for students to complete, make a document to merge the data onto, provide teacher feedback on the spreadsheet, and then run Autocrat.  See the finished assessment below, an outstanding example of innovative and creative teaching.

This week's session in The Loft marks the beginning of our partnership with University of Northern Iowa. 

Personal Best Form 

We've all responded to a Google Form at some point. Wouldn't you love to move beyond simply data collection via survey? To something that can empower and enrich the learning of your students? Welcome then to this week's session!

In this week's Loft PD session, you will score some quick wins, and be exposed to how 'Add ons' can be used to move past mere surveys, in fact impact student learning.

YouTube Capture. Edit. Upload.

This week we continue to focus on creativity and collaboration from our school's DSLOs by introducing YouTube Capture to our teachers.

Session Goals: 

1. Give educators hands-on training in how to use YouTube Capture
2. Identify how video can be used to create learning opportunities and demonstrate outcomes.

Rationale: 

1. Video projects are often (read: usually) time consuming
2. Draft quickly away from the curricular substance to becoming a 'video project'. 

We want to give teachers experience and choice in how video is created in the classroom. 

Our recommendation is that video 'projects' should:

1. Contribute towards new understandings
2. Demonstrate something learned (student or teacher perspective)

Too often though, students are drawn into using Apps that promote overbloating. YouTube Capture is a fantastic antidote. Great for making videos quickly and having them up on YouTube within minutes.