Know Your Why!

Why Monday Should be the Best Day of the Week?

Chrome Music Labs - Creativity at its Finest

Have you explored the Chrome Music Lab? It is an incredible interactive site. The site is a combination of fun and learning in an interactive interface. There are a variety of different interactives that users can experiment with to explore music. If you look closely you can even see some of the science connected to sound and music.

Music is for everyone. So this year for Music In Our Schools month, we wanted to make learning music a bit more accessible to everyone by using technology that’s open to everyone: the web. Chrome Music Lab is a collection of experiments that let anyone, at any age, explore how music works. They're collaborations between musicians and coders, all built with the freely available Web Audio API. These experiments are just a start. Check out each experiment to find open-source code you can use to build your own. - From the Site

There are 13 different "experiments" represented by different boxes on the main site page. Each of the experiments has several layers. Here are a few basic tips for using the site:

Scrolling over a box will give you the name of the experiment.
Clicking on the arrow will open up the interactive portion of the experiment.
Each of the experiments is a little different. Click, click and click some more to make sure you don't miss anything.
For example:
The Rhythm Experiment lets you set patterns of percussion by marking spots on the bottom of the screen. If you click on the arrows on the side you will get a different set of musicians with different instruments. Press play after you set it up and you have your own composition. The Bongo's and Cowbells are a favorite. (Last one in the experiment.)
The Spectrogram is a single screen that allows you to visualize the sounds a variety of different objects make. You can even turn on your microphone and visualize your singing voice.
There is a yellow question icon near the top right that will tell you about each individual experiment.

I think the site could be used in any classroom where creativity, critical thinking, and curiosity are part of the curriculum.

Polling Students in Google Classroom - Quick Formative Assessment

Google classroom has become a powerful tool in many EdTech toolboxes. Since the Google for Education release of Classroom, it has quickly become a go-to tool for digital communication and paperless classrooms.

Classroom's communication features include:

Posting Announcements (Links, videos, and attachments)
Posting Assignments (Links, videos, and attachments)
Posting Google Forms (Polls and Assessments)
Posting Discussion Questions (Backchannel and Exit Slips)
Paperless distribution and collection of activities.

Google recently updated the question feature in Google Classroom to include multiple choice questions. This will be a great tool for to collect formative data from students. The Google for Education Blog posted these 4 suggestions for ways to use the new polling options:

Post exit tickets
Help students self-monitor
Guide student discussions
Get feedback on your lesson from students.

Source: Google For Education Blog

Learn more about Google Classroom
Google Classroom Tips, Tricks, and Training Resources

What are the Essential Skills for an #EdTech Coach?

"If you were given the chance to develop and Ed Tech coach certificate - what college courses would it need to have?"

My first thought is to not focus on the tech tools when I explore this question. I know that sometimes the wow factor of a tool can be a great hook, but wow only carries one so far. For example, my Masters in Instructional Technology courses seemed to primarily focus on some "cool" tools and less on the pedagogy connected to good teaching. Today, most of the tools I explored no longer exist but good teaching is still good teaching. (Ever heard of HyperStacks? I am not sure I remember what these do, but I remember the name.)

Today, I try to always start support educators by asking why questions. If we don't know why we are doing something, I always wonder why we are trying to add tech to do it differently? We then explore how you might approach your goals without tech in the equation. Once we have a pedagogical plan, we can add some EdTech to the recipe.

What Are Your Teaching Fundamentals? (Edutopia Article)

Sample Teaching Recipes From an EdTech PD Session

I always try to emphasize that the best EdTech does not have the power to make a bad lesson great. It can even sometimes make a good lesson not so great. Great teaching must always come first or the power of instructional technology is most likely wasted time.

I hate wasting time!

Here are a few of the resources that might help EdTech and Instructional Coaches support teachers and students.

The ISTE Standards for Educators might be a great starting point to help teachers focus on essential skills that can be supported with EdTech.
The ISTE Standards for Coaches is a great place to start building your coaching mindset.
The ISTE Standards for Students can help planning from the student perspective.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers Who Use Technology is another resource to explore EdTech in the classroom.
If you are a Google district I would consider using the Google Training Courses as part of the course plan. These are well put together and focus on skills before the tools.

Here are a few additional resources that might support building a Coaching Mindset.

Skills Connected to the 4 Cs (Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, Creativity.)
Teaching and Learning Book Recommendations (Great educational books organized by topics.)
Student-Centered Learning (Less us, more them!)
Formative Assessment (Quick formative tools are a great way to hook educators)
Coaching Pedagogy (10 Tips for Instructional Coaches)
Leadership (Resources to support teachers as leaders)
10 Great Hashtags Educators Should Be Exploring
Innovative Educational Organizations to Follow on Twitter
25 Innovative Educators to Follow on Twitter

What courses/concepts/skills/resources do you think are essential for an #EdTech Coach's Mindset?

Workflow - Own Those Tabs in Chrome

I've made no secret that Chrome is my go-to web browser. One reason I love Chrome is the fact that that as a school our top collaboration and creation resource is Google Drive. I also love Chrome because of the powerful Extensions and Chrome Apps that can be added to improve the user experience. Many of my favorite extensions help me be more efficient. I particularly love extensions that help me manage the multiple tabs a frequently have open.

Two of my favorites are OneTab and TabCloud. These two extensions are similar and I suggest experimenting with the features of both before decided to choose one over the other.

Whenever you find yourself with too many tabs, click the OneTab icon to convert all of your tabs into a list. When you need to access the tabs again, you can either restore them individually or all at once. You can also share the collection of tabs as a web page. Great way to share multiple sites with someone.

TabCloud allows you to save any window session and restore it at a later date or on another computer. Effectively allowing you to sync open tabs between multiple computers.

Additional Chrome Tab Tools

TabCarousel - Cycle through your Chrome tabs automatically. Great for monitoring information on a TV with a computer attached.
Tab Scissors - This extension splits a window into two at the selected tab.
Tab Glue - This extension glues windows together.
Tab Snooze - Close unnecessary tabs and make them magically reappear when you need them.
Tab Resize - Split Screen made easy. Resize the CURRENT tab and tabs to the RIGHT into layouts on separate windows. w/ Multi Monitor Support.

Learn more about Chrome Extensions and Apps

Recharge Learning - Chrome 101