Two tools that I explored for this lesson were flipsnack and Smore. I eventually chose Smore over flipsnack because I found it easier to use and I enjoyed the newsletter format. One of the drawbacks of flipsnack is that it was challenging to navigate using my tablet. Although I could hop on a computer to use it, as I have with technologies in the past, I like to explore other tools to see if one is more tablet friendly. I do most of my work on my tablet and want to find tools that will work for me in the long-term. I actually enjoyed Smore more than I initially believed that I would and hope to use it more in the future. I found it easy to add boxes and pictures, I am excited to explore more features that Smore’s offers. One drawback of Smore is that it has a free and a paid version. I will have to explore it more this school year to see if I enjoy it enough to get the premium version. 

In my district I am a bit of an island. There are other music and STEAM teachers, but they are in another building and there is currently no system in my district where we have regular meetings. My plan is to engage in more online communities. Engaging in online communities for me means commenting on different posts and engaging in online discussions, and trying to connect virtually with teachers. At the beginning of last year I was meeting once a month online with another STEAM teacher, and on a different day with a music teacher. As the year got busy our meetings fell off. I hope this year to commit to meeting every month to share my Epiphany and hopefully learn some of their own. I also want to expand the group so that we can be our own learning community since many of the teachers in the specials world feels like an island. 

Here is my Smore, enjoy!

When choosing tools I tried to choose tools that would enable my students to show their learning or explore their learning in different ways. For example in first column when students are just getting an overview of coding they have a choice of a video, google slides, or a graphic to explore. For their assessment they had the choice of either demonstrating how to code, talking about it, or writing about it. Another factor that I had to consider was making it age appropriate. There was plenty of content I saw online that would be great for older students, but not my students. I did not want to present them with anything that would further confuse them and deter them from being excited about coding. I did have to use some tools that were not new to me, but overall the majority of them were new. The tools that were new to me were trello, iRobot Education, Ozobot, Tynker, screencastify, and socrative. 

This choice board is occurring at a moment of need because I will be using it at the beginning of the year when students are either first learning about coding or reviewing depending on their grade level. My students have to build a strong foundation at the beginning of the year so they can continue to build on that as the school year progresses. My choice board answers the second question of having a caring human behind it by ensuring the activities can support their various needs. I tried to curate resources that would meet those needs and have choices for difficulty that will allow them to take control of their learning. I will also be in the classroom ready to offer one-on-one assistance as needed. By asking students to respond to activities with a question or comment it will also give me an opportunity to check in and monitor their learning. Ensuring that everyone is on track, or if they are not I can offer them support. The third question is answered by the quality content my students are engaging with, especially with the websites they can practice coding with. The websites offer a variety of challenges and will give students a tangible experience with coding. I have tried unplugged coding before, and although it did help my students learn, it can’t beat the experience of coding with a computer. 

My goal was to have students get an introductory course into coding and have a variety of ways to engage and demonstrate their knowledge of the concept. The board supports students by giving them an introduction to it, then immediately moving to opportunities. The final step of students demonstrating knowledge also supports the goal because students can demonstrate their knowledge in how they feel best, allowing them to take autonomy over their learning as well. I hope to gain data on how comfortable my students are with coding and how confident they feel moving forward. I will gather this date both by the comments and/or questions left behind at each stage, and the assessment at the end. From this lesson I will be able to determine if students are able to advance to more challenging coding or if they will need to take more time to review. 

Here is my choice board. Enjoy!

Teacher As Leader

I organized my resources into the 5+C’s, diversity and equity in the music room, and equitable technology. I color-coded the tiles to best organize them, diversity and equity in the music room is purple, collaboration is orange, connect is blue, create is pink, communicate is red, curate is yellow, and equitable technology is green. When considering the 5+Cs I found that there was often crossover between them, especially collaboration and communication. I tried to organize them by their primary use and ensure that there were at least two different options in each category. When creating my symbaloo I aimed to create resources for teachers. 

One problem I see in my school is making an effort to have diverse resources and representation in all classrooms. I work in a primarily white school district and I feel because of that sometimes true diverse teaching gets swept under the rug. Several of my resources for diversity in the classroom were facebook groups. I think that advice and ideas from fellow educators is invaluable and having a group working towards a common cause can help you feel like less of an island in a school. One of the groups as well, International Sunday Sharing, is a group in which music educators from around the world meet twice a month and a presenter (who has been vetted by the group admin) shares. This group especially gives tangible ideas from around the world for lessons. Another resource I shared is a podcast about culturally responsive teaching (CRT) on MusicEd Amplified that I found especially helpful when I was first diving into CRT. I also shared a podcast about teaching social emotional learning through music, which is not directly about diverse and equitable teaching but I feel they go hand in hand often. Lastly I shared an article titled “You Might Be Left With Silence” which does an excellent job explaining the need to critically evaluate the music we choose in our classroom. 

When curating resources about equitable access and culturally pro-active teaching I struggled at first. I was trying to discern if articles and resources were of the quality I needed. However, once I found a quality resource it was easier to find others because they often lead to the next one. I am hoping my symbaloo can do that for others! Sometimes the first few steps on the path are the hardest, but once you find it it gets easier. 

When curating my baseline test was if I found the resource novel and helpful. I did not want anything on there that I couldn’t personally vouch for. I also wanted it to be novel because I did not want to fill my curation with “fluff” items that were the same as those around them. I cut resources that I felt were too similar to others. For example I belong to multiple elementary music teacher facebook groups, but I only included the one that provides the most resources. Once someone has found one group, it is easier to find the others. Additionally, I wanted my resources to have something that made them different from those around them. For example in my curate section each podcast has a different category that it is discussing, and in my connect section each Facebook group has a different focus to it. 

I believe that this curation will help me become a leader in my school by establishing my focus on diverse and equitable teaching. Then I can become a resource to other teachers to help them learn more. Then the hope would be that we could begin sharing resources to help one another out, in turn helping our school and district. Additionally, as a music educator I am often looking outside my district for someone to exchange ideas with. I hope that this curation could help me be a leader in creating a community of music educators in my area. 

The primary new tool I used for this challenge was symbaloo. Overall, I found it very easy to use! I am excited to use it when gathering resources for my students. I liked how I could color code the tiles, use and image, and choose the titles. Having these features made it easy to use and organize. Another feature that I liked, even though I did not utilize it in my assignment, is the ability to play the audio tiles in the website rather than directing the user to a new page. I liked having control over if my students leave or stay on the page. I chose symbaloo after seeing a classmate use it on one of their challenges and I loved the layout and wanted to try it for myself. The next new tool I used was buplup. Buplup is a collaborative resource for teachers to share ideas. I loved how easy it was to use, I could download the app for my phone, and how much content there already was! I am excited to both use and contribute ideas to it this coming school year. I remember hearing about buplup my first year of teaching, but I was overwhelmed with just figuring out my first year (in 2019-2020 no less!) and did not have time to explore it. I was excited to finally have time to try it out and share it with others! 

Here is my symbaloo! Enjoy!

For this project, I chose to use Mentimeter to create my presentation. I chose this tool because it had multiple types of slides I could choose from and I wanted to explore its different uses. Overall Mentimeter was a good presentation tool. I enjoyed the different types of slides that I could choose from. I also liked how students could put a thumbs up, down, or a question mark on the slide. Allowing me to do checks for understanding or for students to notify me if they have a question. However, I was not able to add audio of myself reading the slides, making it challenging for a student-led lesson in my elementary setting. I also could not hyperlink my websites in the text, making some of my slides have a lot of extra text (this could just be a me problem, if you found out how to do this please let me know!). I would use Mentimeter again, but not for a true flipped classroom setting, I would still want to be guiding the students through the slides. The other tool that I used was Online Drum Machine. I’ve used similar websites before, but was looking to explore some more so that my students could have several options in this lesson. Overall I found it easy to use and think my students will as well.

On the technology matrix, my lesson would be an authentic adaptation. It would be an authentic adaptation because my students are connecting beatboxing and drumset playing to break down patterns and put them together, which is part of computational thinking. It is also a connection to music that they may be listening to already. The other reason my lesson would be an authentic adaptation is that my students would be able to choose between three different options to create their beat. On the SAMR model, I would call this lesson a redefinition due to the doors technology opened. I cannot provide my students each with a drumset or teach them all to beatbox, having this technology enables them to create beats and patterns without needing technical expertise. 

This model is helping students to engage in the ISTE standard 1.5.c “Students break problems into component parts, extract key information, and develop descriptive models to understand complex systems or facilitate problem-solving.” Students are learning how to decompose and recognize patterns at an age-appropriate level. They are then applying that thinking to their own composition and beat creation. My lesson connects to the Launch Cycle by following the stages. In the first stage students will look, listen, and learn through videos in the presentation. Next, students will ask questions on the Q&A slide about both beatboxing and drumset playing. For the third stage students will navigate the websites to explore them and learn how to use them. Fourth, students will create a prototype by creating their own beat. In the fifth stage students will share their compositions with me and we will discuss what worked well and what was challenging. The students will share it with me one-on-one, which is why the third days is needed for this unit. I wanted this lesson to be an opportunity to talk with the student one-on-one and check in. Finally, students will share their compositions with their peers and hopefully with families at home.

This lesson would be over three class periods, by including all of the slides in this presentation students can work through the lesson and watch and explore at their own pace, but I can still help control the pace to a certain extent. One the first day I would give each student a Canva Checklist helping them to track their progress and know if they are on track to accomplish their goal. By having the students take the lead I am free to move around the classroom and offer one on one support as needed. This lesson connects to the readings by introducing computational thinking and goal setting for my students. With my students being younger I wanted to start goal setting as a fill-in-the-blank statement, then throughout the year I would expand on this until they are able to do it on their own. 

Here are my artifacts! 

• Online Drum Machine 
• Drumbit 
• Incredibox

Here is my Mentimeter, enjoy! If you have a hard time viewing my mentimeter, here are the screenshots of the slides.

For my Teacher As Designer challenge, I used Nearpod. When I researched the Nearpod Accessibility Statement, I learned that nearpod works with several organizations, including the Information Technology Industry Council and the General Services Administration, to ensure compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Some of the features that make nearpods accessible are its pairing with immersive reader, it offers captions on embedded videos, multiple ways for student engagement, and other in-lesson supports. I was also able to embed audio easily into my presentation. I chose to use nearpod for it’s multiple modalities. I wanted to create a presentation that my students could engage in multiple ways. I also liked how nearpod projected the screen onto student devices as well as the screen in the front of my room.  

The two new tools I used in this project were Nearpod and PollEverywhere. I was very pleased with using nearpod. It took me a few minutes to get used to the format, but once I did I found it very easy to use. I loved the various types of slides I could use in the presentation, and that nearpod allowed students to either type their responses or record their voices. I have several students that struggle with typing and am always looking for presentation software that gives them another option. PollEverywhere was very easy to use as well. I liked that they had an option that students could click a picture rather than type. Again, giving my struggling typers another option to engage in the presentation. I am excited to try out these tools during the school year. 

 Some strategies that I used to incorporate the POUR guidelines was to embed audio into my nearpod slides. That way students could both read and listen to the directions. I also tried to offer students multiple ways to engage in the discussion including typing, recording audio, clicking on a picture, and a word wall. In this lesson, I would also be with the students guiding them and offering any one-on-one support that was needed. Students would primarily be using a Chromebook, which does not follow the robust area of POUR as well. However, within my presentation, there is a variety of tools being used. 

This lesson would be the opening lesson of my Engineering Design Cycle unit. At this point, students have already learned what an engineer is, but are now applying the engineering mindset to their learning. After this lesson, students would begin to use the Engineering Design Cycle every lesson and build various solutions to the problems I present. For example, I have had students design solutions to nursery rhymes, and build boats, bridges, and other creations. One goal of mine this year is to have more flipped classroom lessons, that way the students can guide their learning and I can walk around the classroom and offer more one-on-one support to students as needed. 

On the technology matrix, I list my lesson as a constructive adoption. Students are building real-world knowledge about the engineering design cycle, but I am still limiting technology options because it is a first-quarter lesson and students are still adjusting to school technology procedures and Chromebook use. On the SAMR model, I would rank this lesson as a modification. I love how it is able to flip my classroom and allow students to collaborate and learn at their own pace, but it is not quite at the redefinition stage yet. 

Here is my nearpod about the Engineer Design Cycle! Enjoy!

In my unit, I chose to create a pear deck that I would guide my 3rd-grade students through for a three-lesson arch. In this lesson, students would be focusing on a real-world problem of farming in the Midwest. I was inspired by Christina Riesen’s TedTalk about students tackling real-life challenges, and when I thought about my students living in Central Illinois, I chose farming as a real-life problem. Living in Central Illinois my students see farmland everywhere they go, it is important that they connect to this and can learn how complex it is and how important it is to our daily life. 

To connect the real-world issue of farming and engineering in my STEAM class, I will be collaborating with the company Precision Planting. Precision Planting is a company based in Tremont, IL which is just 25 minutes from my school. My husband works there as well, making it an easy company connection to make! If you open my pear deck the guest engineer is my husband, Nick! That is how I have that picture of him, I did not just find a picture of a random employee 🙂 Nick has come to talk with my students in the past about his job as an engineer. However, I am hoping to dive deeper into collaboration with this project by having us focus on the agricultural engineering side of his job and by having my students create something of their own to help innovate farming. 

The ISTE substandard I am meeting through this unit is 2.4c “Use collaborative tools to expand students’ authentic, real-world learning experiences by engaging virtually with experts, teams and students, locally and globally.” To meet this standard I am working with a local expert that will be meeting with my classes in person and collaborating online using Flipgrid. The other ISTE substandard I am meeting through this unit is 2.5b “Design authentic learning activities that align with content area standards and use digital tools and resources to maximize active, deep learning.” In this unit, we are connecting to a local trade of farming and agriculture. I am using the tools of Video Ant, Flipgrid, and TedEd to deepen students’ learning. 

The new collaboration tools I used for this project are Video Ant and Flipgrid. I am somewhat familiar with Flipgrid because I saw many teachers using it during the pandemic, but am excited to use it in my classroom. I always have students share their creations with the class, but I am to expand on that sharing with Flipgrid. Then students who may not like speaking in front of the entire class can feel more comfortable speaking into the camera, and students can look at creations from the other classes! It also gives students a space to say what they would do with their project if they had more time, which I am constantly running out of time to address in my day-to-day lessons. I can then share the videos with our guest engineer and he can further comment and collaborate with the class using Flipgrid. The other tool I used, video ant, is more unfamiliar to me, but I am excited to try it this school year! I loved that students could watch and comment on the video in real-time and not have to worry about remembering their comments or questions until the end of the video. 

In the technology matrix, I would place this lesson as active adoption. I am using conventional tools and am guiding students through them, they do not have a choice in what tools they are using. I am hoping to move past the adoption stage as my students become more familiar with the tools and are able to explore and use them with minimal support from myself. On the SAMR model, I would label my lesson as a modification. I believe that the tools I am using are deepening student learning in ways that would be possible without the tools. Especially being able to communicate with classmates outside of their regular class using Flipgrid.

My digital citizenship element was “Digital Rights and Responsibilities”. Digital rights and responsibilities is knowing your rights on the internet. For example knowing if apps are tracking your location, data, or using your private information. This element of digital citizenship also involves knowing how to be responsible online. For example knowing how to keep your information private, using strong passwords, and reporting any suspicious activity seen online. 

Teachers need to be aware of websites they use that may be collecting student data. In Illinois there is the Student Online Personal Protection Act (SOPPA) that works to protect student data by regulating educational technology. Schools in Illinois have to be SOPPA compliant with all educational technology they use. Teachers should still be cognizant of the technology they use and make sure that their school is following SOPPA to ensure student data privacy. 

The substandard my element connected to is 2d “Students manage their personal data to maintain digital privacy and security and are aware of data-collection technology used to track their navigation online”. I focused this lesson on 2nd/3rd grade and simplified these elements to understand what private information is and to not share it, and to create a strong password to protect your information. 

The two new tools I used were padlet and formative. I know that padlet has been around for a long time, but it is new to me. I was impressed by how easy it was to set up and how quickly I could gather student responses on it. I have avoided it in the past because I only have 30 minutes with students and am always looking for how to pack the most into a lesson, and using Chromebooks can sometimes take longer than I have time for. However, padlet looked like it would be very quick for students to use and I could collect student responses to look at in the moment or later. I am excited to use it in the future! The other technology I used was formative to replace what I would usually use google forms for. I chose formative to try and experience new technology because my default is usually google forms or other Google products. I liked how easy it was to use and the different choices available for questions. 

Here is my HyperDoc about Digital Rights and Responsibilities. Enjoy!

Here is my PLN! I tried to list various resources in case anybody else wanted to check them out. If you have any that you think I would be interested in please share!

Emily Clark’s PLN

Update 1 – Instagram Connection

One of the ways I chose to expand my PLN was to engage with teachers I follow on Instagram and begin my collection of saved posts. You can find the screenshots of my engagement and saved posts on my slide deck. Instagram is a great resource to connect teachers, educators, and education advocates across the world! I love to scroll through and get new ideas from various teachers and see what other people are doing. Teaching music and STEAM can feel like an island because I’m the only person in my building teaching these subjects, so it is great to expand my resources using social media!

I’ve been adding and following more teacher Instagram’s for a few years now, but have never organized the posts before. I used to screen shot posts that I liked and wanted to look back on later, but they get lost in my phone. I loved creating a collection on Instagram that would be easy to look back on! I currently have two separate collections, one for music and one for steam. However, I could easily see breaking that down into more sub-categories if I needed to.

Engaging with accounts on Instagram is new to me. I will often think the comments, but never put them in writing. Adding the comments is great because not only does it engage me in the post and help to create a stronger memory about it, but it also helps the person who posted it. Social media can feel like a void if no one is commenting or engaging back with you. I can’t wait to engage more with the accounts I follow!

Update 2 – Microsoft Education

The next way I chose to expand my PLN was through Microsoft Education. I completed the “Computational Thinking and it’s importance in Education” course and put a screenshot of my earned badge in my PLN. I had learned about this resource at the beginning of this last school year and wanted to explore, but just struggled to find the time. I was very excited when I saw it was listed as a way for us to expand our PLN!

In the course I read several articles, watched videos, and wrote small journal entries into a Microsoft OneNote journal. I was able to pause the course and continue it the next day. I was glad for this feature because although my course was only 45 minutes, some of the other courses are listed as a few hours. Overall I really enjoyed using Microsoft Education as free and easily accessible ways to learn. I can’t wait to try some of their other modules!

I chose “Computational Thinking and it’s importance in Education” because I’m hoping to incorporate this way of thinking into not only my STEAM classes, but also my music classes. I thought that this lesson did a great job of breaking down computational thinking into a way I can then explain it to my elementary students. One of module’s made you analyze a lesson and notice the parts that used computational thinking. Luckily for me it was a music lesson, so it was a very direct way for me to notice how my students are already using computational thinking in my classroom! One of the biggest take-aways I had from the lesson is that we use computational thinking every day, we just don’t name it that. One of my goals next year in my classroom is to name it and have my students notice when we are using computational thinking in our day to day life.

Update 3 – Youtube

The next resource that I chose to explore was youtube. Youtube is a resource that I have used quite a bit in my classroom, but utilizing playlists helped me to organize all of the different content that I use. Especially after the pandemic, the amount of resources on youtube is huge! I was excited to dive deeper into the resources and organize them in a way that works for me.

For music there are some many play along and rhythm and melody games. I started to categorize these into playlist so that I can easily incorporate them into lessons, or if someone pops into my classroom and needs to chat with me really quick I can just put on a video from the playlist! I also started to subscribe to different channels such as Code.org and Crash Course Kids. That way when they post new content I can be updated and keep up with everything! I found many resources for both my students, and myself!

This resource will benefit me by organizing all of the content accessible through youtube. That way I can easily pull up what I need and not have to worry about saving URL links or searching for a video again. Another way it can help me is by following resources for myself and the students such as code.org. That way I can stay up to date on the newest ideas and incorporate them into my lessons.

Update 4 – Blogs

The final resource that I chose to explore was blog posts. Blogs are generally on teachers or organizations websites along with their products, other socials, or any other resources that they may want to share. Some blogs are focused on specific parts of education, for example I researched general music and steam blogs, and some may be more general or might bounce around topics.

I have read blog posts when research specific questions or trying to learn more about something, but I have rarely gone straight to a blog and explored all of the content available. I started by seeing if some of the instagram accounts I follow had a blog, and many of them did! I really enjoyed reading more throughly through the content rather than just getting the headline in an instagram or facebook post. Another part of blog posts that I liked was that I didn’t have to go onto social media to find it. Sometimes I find myself getting pulled away into the social media loophole when I just wanted to log on and find a lesson inspiration or resource. When researching blogs I started to bookmark the ones that I found helpful to find them quicker in the future.

I will benefit from this resource by gaining a more robust understanding of diffferent educators ideas and inspirations, rather than just their instagram caption. I also believe that I could benefit in community. Some blog posts had several comments, and for others I was the only one. Similar to my findings with instagram, commenting on the blogs not only helps me by engaging in the content, but it could benefit the blogger by gaining feedback. I really enjoyed looking through the blog posts and am excited to use them again in the future!

Reflection

Overall I have enjoyed expanding my PLN resources. One of the biggest takeaways I had from the assignment was to engage in the communities I already follow. For example when using Instagram and blog posts to expand my PLN I found it helpful to comment on the posts. Not only did I feel more connected to the posts, but I felt more connected to ther author. Knowing I was going to comment also helped me to think more critically about the post because I wanted to leave an authentic comment and not just a fluff one.

Recording my PLN was also hugely helpful because now during the school year when I feel stuck or in a rut I can look back on my mindmesiter and refresh myself on all of the different tools that I have. I am exicted to expand it more this school year!