The Schoenblog: April 2015

#EdTechCalNYNJ Updates: Workflow and What I've Learned

Thursday, April 30, 20157:30 PM

Dani and I discussed some ideas to make the #EdTechCalNYNJ a little more user friendly and functional. I got the app-smashing bug in my head today at work and spent most of my free time throughout the week and after school integrating add-ons, learning new sheets formulas, and making it all come to life.

One of the new additions is the logo above. It's obviously modeled after Google Calendar, but I was able to easily adapt it after a Google Image Search. I made sure to find a starting image that was large and licensed for re-use with modification. Google Image Search is a powerhouse of a tool if you play with the search options.

Today I'm going to discuss the improvements we've made and the workflow, sharing the add-ons, scripts, and sites that make it happen. I did a similar entry when I started the blog so start here if you're interested.

Updates & Social Media: We wanted to build the calendar up as a meaningful tool, so we added a Remind class and a way to subscribe for e-mail update. If you want to be notified of new events added the calendar, fill out this form. Join our Remind class for monthly updates about upcoming events.

Using the CONCATENATE function in cells, I simply combined the e-mails from the form results with commas, to send updates to. While the old Form Mule script is great for the calendar merge, I also added the newer Form Mule Add-on to handle the e-mail merges. Now, when a form is submitted to add a new event, three things happen:

Dani and I receive e-mails to notify us as admins.
All subscribers receive an e-mail with the event information.
Using If This Then That, an e-mail is sent to trigger a Tweet from my account publicizing the event and thanking the contributor.

I was excited to learn If This Then That and play with recipes. I love the idea using tech to make this work more efficient.

Events List: The other major update was to provide a list of all of the events featured on the calendar. You can peruse each month, but what if you want to search for EdCamps?

Thanks to Awesome Table, this was easy! I made a new worksheet and transposed the information I needed. I'm so excited about this sites gadget. You can now index all of the events and search by name, date, type, or location. Want a conference in NY in May? That's easy. Check it out! I also learned to play with the SORT function on sheets to alphabetize the list. This simple function will save me so much time sorting student data from forms; I feel silly for not finding it earlier.

There are over 40 upcoming events on #EdTechCalNYNJ already and I'm excited for more. Please add, share, and spread the learning if you can.

I learned a lot in making this site, and some of the sheets functions and Awesome Table will certainly have an impact in my classroom practice. This has definitely been a productive week.

Comment and share your most anticipated upcoming education event or day!

Evolution of the English Teacher

Tuesday, April 28, 20158:14 PM

I was talking to someone today who was interested in my job as an English Teacher. She immediately asked me what literature I make my students read. Two things quickly stood out:

Do I make them read books?
We read literature--but not as much as we used to...

Now this person meant no malice and none was taken, but here's my take away: the job of the English teacher in the common core and 21st century classroom has changed so much just in my six years on the job.

When I decided to become an English teacher, it was all about the literature. I liked the kids, the learning, the writing, but it was about the stories. Today, that's shifted for me. Common core might push us away from too much long-form literature, but that's not at all my concern or the cause for my shift. There's just so much out there to read and write about.

I want my students today to have and make experiences based on texts, and for those texts to come in all different genres and mediums. Sure, I make my students read some things and I teach literature--which I absolutely love, but that job is changing.

Instead of reading the 4-6 whole class novels we used to to, I teach 2-3. Those novels are supplemented by short works, essays, non-fiction, film, and multimedia. More importantly than any of that is what the students make or do. English is about reading and writing, but it's really about developing skills. Technology has assisted education in building the tools to enhance this development tremendously. Students are active learners, researchers, and scholars, creating meaning and content. In the few weeks my tenth graders have pursued 20Time Projects, it's become one of the most meaningful parts of the year for me--and hopefully will be for them, too.

I love English. I love books, writing, reading, essays--I can even hold my own with making grammar fun sometimes. It's kind of ironic that what was once such a firm cannon of texts has changed in execution so much.

I had no idea what I was going to write about when I started this post but I like the reflection. It's interesting to look back on my short career so far and see how things have evolved. Where to next?

Thanks, #Ednado, or How I Loved Connecting Face to Face with my #PLN

Sunday, April 26, 20158:32 PM

I typically enjoy any conference with good company, good learning, and good food, but I had really high expectations for Ednado. Ednado, a free conference that took education by storm yesterday, was a great day of learning and fun for many different reasons:

I presented with my best friend Dani for the first time. How could I have not realized how much more fun it is to present when you love your topic, audience, and co-presenter? This was legitimately the most fun I've ever had in one of my own presentations. I think I'm a good presenter and usually feel like participants have learned and haven't had their time wasted. This was probably the first time I felt like we all had fun, too. Thanks to EasyBib for the hype as one of the 5 sessions to watch out for! If you are interested in backchanneling in the secondary classroom, our presentation is here.

5 Must-See Sessions at New Jersey’s @Ednado Conference http://t.co/ha0ZhQXqhI #njed #edtechchat #SuptChat pic.twitter.com/yz8bCdByyn
— EasyBib (@EasyBib) April 24, 2015

I didn't set myself up to be overwhelmed. Too often at conferences, I feel like I try to do everything. I attend every session, no matter how much I think I'll learn. Ednado was casual, relaxed, and fun. I learned a lot but also spent my day hanging out, meeting people, and having great conversations. Instead of attended every session, I followed the learning on Twitter and opted to dominate the scavenger hunt, learn from the amazing Student Tech Team, and connect with my #PLN.

Student Tech Team is awesome! Learning about @HaikuDeck at @ednadoedu #ednado pic.twitter.com/G0I7a2LT1g
— Adam Schoenbart (@MrSchoenbart) April 25, 2015

At Ednado, my #PLN became F2F friends. I love connecting online and participating in Twitter chats. I love meeting new people at conferences. But this was the first time where I was able to meet people who I had established Twitter-connections with in real life. And it was awesome.

Educators Unite! #EDJusticeLeague is coming to @edcampphilly @iruntech @missraskin @AJBianco @MrSchoenbart pic.twitter.com/ysHZQy5V8H
— Christopher J. Nesi (@mrnesi) April 26, 2015

My Take Away: Learn, grow, and push yourself, but make sure to enjoy it. I had such a great day of learning and fun at Ednado, and a lot of that was because I was able to hang out and make friends with a lot of great educators and Twitter buddies. Instead of mastering every tech tool under the sun, we had meaningful conversations; instead of presenters and audience or recognizing acquaintances, we became friends and spent the day learning from each other. Throughout the day I must have connected with a dozen Twitter friends, and it was great putting names to faces and watching my personal learning network grow.

I always tell my students that we collaborate and share because all of us are smarter than one of us. I'm so glad I became a connected educator and met all of these great people.

Thanks to the Ednado organizers for putting on a great day. From the sessions to the food to the casual atmosphere, all day coffee, a cafeteria to hang out in, the scavenger hunt, Twitter leaderboard and more, I had a great day. Plus, I won a GetKahoot! shirt!

#AprilBlogaDay: Blogs I Like

Thursday, April 23, 20159:02 PM

I started this blog motivated by #AprilBlogaDay. Educators were encouraged to blog every day in April. It gave me the push I needed, and if I end the month with 10 or so entries and a few readers, I'm thrilled with the results. Today, instead of all the talk about me, me, and me, I thought it would be a nice idea to shout out some of the blogs I've enjoyed from other participants.

A screenshot from a hashtag search on Twitter. Find some good reading here.

Full disclosure: I only read a handful of entries from a few blogs that popped up tonight when I searched the hashtag. I haven't read it all but these are some blogs, posts, and writers I've enjoyed so far. I'm also adding in some blog/Twitter reccs from my #PLN.

Laughing, Learning, and Leading

by Chantell Manahan

Yesterday, I caught Chantell's mention of the Draftback extension. She writes:

“It's like going back in time to look over your own shoulder as you write.” Another teacher explained that her district first started using Draftback as a tool to “catch” students plagiarizing papers. Draftback will easily illustrate big blocks of text pasted into a student’s writing,

Dani and I were working on our presentation on Backchanneling in Secondary Edu for Ednado yesterday. We wanted to show how her students used a collaborative Google Doc to take class notes during a lesson. Draftback was the perfect too for this--it is fantastic.

When finishing this post up, I clicked her blog again for the title and saw a wonderful post about making her ELA classroom fun. She poses important questions about creating experiences and having fun in the classroom. These ideas jumped out at me more than anything. This year, I've really tried to focus on students as creators and producers. In my lessons, I always ask what we can do or make. The essay still matters, but I never want my students' learning to end up crumpled in the bottom of their backpacks, or maybe worse, the garbage.

To create more meaningful learning experiences, my students have acted out plays, performed for each other, mastered technology, and created so much--presentations, videos, newspapers, interviews. Everything we do is shared and receives feedback. Our classroom is a public place for learning and publication. Now I want to share beyond my four walls and push them to share with the world.

Thanks, Chantell.

As usual, I didn't expect to write so much, but I'm definitely finding blogging to be cathartic after a long work day and week. Thanks, #AprilBlogaDay for helping me realize it. I'm going to be a bit briefer on the next few, but the quality is just as high.

I'm enjoying posts from Lisa Berghoff, my friend AJ Bianco, and new favorite #PLN member, Mike Andriulli. All three are posting about taking risks, growing as educators, leaders, and people, and making change. I like it.

Lisa's post 5 Ways to Become a Technology Risk-Taker in Your Classroom is worth a read. I appreciate her all-in attitude and love her suggestions.

In From the Mind of AJ Bianco, he explores the necessity of getting outside your comfort zone as a teacher. It seems so obvious in our teaching--zone of proximal development and all that--but it's hard to make it a priority in the busy world of plan, teach, grade, meeting, reflect, meeting, repeat. I like how he reflects on his own growth and makes this purposeful change a priority.

Finally, a few posts back Mike wrote about the transition toward becoming an administrator, titling the post, "My Journey Through the Dark Side." I love his honesty and passion that comes through. It's awesome to be able to know it's time to make a change and then do something about it.

Lisa, AJ, and Mike all write about the need to change and grow. I'm thinking about some shifts in my own practice and growth, too. It's nice to find a #PLN and a community that I know understands and can relate.

With luck and some focus, I'll do one more of these posts before the month is up. Next time, I'll really stick to #AprilBlogADay participants, but found these blogs and writers to be meaningful to me right now.

As always, thanks for reading. If you liked it, comment or reach out on Twitter. If not, I'll try harder next time.

Students Must Create: Rethinking My Book Review Projects

Tuesday, April 21, 20159:08 AM

Thanks to 20 Literary Memes for this!

As an English teacher and avid reader, I love pushing my students to be better readers. One of my big picture goals as a teacher has always been to nurture life-long readers and learners. I believe students today suffer from a serious case of aliteracy--they have the ability to read but lack the willingness to do so. I studied aliteracy in my Master's thesis and it's fascinated me--how can we motivate students to read more? I love the idea of book matching; if I can figure out students' interests, favorite movies, TV shows, experiences, etc. can I help match them to literature that they will like, too?

For years, I've had students pursue independent book projects and create written review. I've databased them on a web site so that each year, I can have students search by genre and difficulty, and read the work of their peers' to inspire future choices. The database form can be found here, and I used a site called Zoho Creator to index the full OHS Book Review Database. At the time, I didn't know the full power of GAFE but thought this site did a good job.

Years later, I've tried to step up my game. Instead of using GAFE and online tools for students to learn, research, write, and curate, I've realized the value of students creating content, too. This year, I asked students to create an online review for the reading projects. Create a written, audio, or video review for a work of fiction of their choice. The full assignment sheet can be found here if you are interested. And the results were fantastic.

I did not restrict or even recommend any sites, apps, or programs for creation. We've built the foundation with GAFE and other web 2.0 tools so I let my students now have free reign to show their knowledge, digital citizenship, and make effective choices.

Today, I want to share some of the results. This work impressed me and inspired me. It showed me mastery of skills and new technologies that helped make their reviews purposeful and effective. Most importantly, it looks like my students had fun and learned. With this project, I also expressed a desire to share with both our class and the outside world. Students were required to submit a public link to their work on a Google Form, which I will soon convert into an Awesome Table to build a new Book Review Creations Database (once I learn how to use the seemingly fantastic Awesome Table).

The full index of student work, which is simply a published sheet edited from the form results, can be found here. Feel free to explore. I hope you enjoy and maybe get some ideas or web 2.0 tools for your own classroom--or reading.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Yoo Shin created a fantastic infographic on Piktochart. Be sure to check it out in Presentation Mode.
Elliot had a thorough and well produced emaze review for To Kill a Mockingbird.
Azad filmed an edited a fun video, and he gave credit to his music and images, which I haven't taught yet so it impressed me (but I now think I need to!)
Gabby's trailer for Divergent was great. I thoroughly enjoyed this and it made me laugh.

Missing LHRIC Tech Expo #LHRICtli

Monday, April 20, 20159:51 AM

#EdTechCalNYNJ Workflow & Creation: How to automatically merge form data to a calendar!

Thursday, April 16, 20155:51 PM

I wrote about the creation of #EdTechCalNYNJ yesterday (selfish plug: http://tinyurl.com/edtechcalnynj), and today I want to write about the workflow to create the site. I like the idea of documenting workflows. Hopefully it will be interesting to anyone who wants to use or adapt the functionality, and at like most everything on this blog, it helps me process my own work for reflection.

The starting ideas was fairly simple: a collaborative, crowdsourced and completely public calendar of #edtech events in the area. Here's what I knew:

I wanted to use a Google Calendar so people could add events to their own calendars
I wanted to use a Google form and add-ons to manage the automation
I wanted to leave everything public and collaborative, but still needed the ability to administer and edit
I wanted to be able to give contributers credit for their ideas and events

Overall, I'm very happy with the results and hope the site grows. If not, I still learned something new and created a valuable resource for my own PD and PLN. If you're reading this, though, I suspect you like the idea of this calendar. You've probably spent the too much time and energy researching events and trainings, just like Dani and I have.

The Workflow:

For the most part, I don't know code. I have a growing desire to learn, and used to do web design with HTML and basic java, so I'm by no means a beginner. However, I haven't practiced the skills in years and didn't want to talk that on. So without New Visions Lab and their many wonderful add-ons, nothing would have worked. I use nearly all of their products, and plan to write about the many ways I do so to improve my teaching life.

Here is what I did to make the calendar live:

Create a new calendar. This was easy. I created a new calendar in Google Calendar, made it public, and found the address in settings.
Install Old Form Mule. Form Mule is a wonderful mail merge add-on that automates e-mails based on form results. The old version, in scripts, also allows for a Calendar merge. With this script, I automated e-mails to the site admins notifying us of new additions, and automated calendar merges. We thought about added an approval/moderation feature, but it seemed to be more trouble that it's worth. Keep it open and public but we still have admin rights to change the calendar.
Copy Down. Form Mule wants the date for the calendar event to be in the Date Time format, so I used Copy Down to combine this data into the add-on-friendly format. Every time a form result is submitted, any code copied to cells gets pushed down, adding a new line of data. Copy Down is great because it lets you copy formulas to organize and manipulate new data.
Form Router. We wanted to be able to credit contributors by listing their contact info. The obvious was to do this was to pull data from the form results, but it's hard to manipulate in the sheet. Form Router helped by appending form results to second Google Sheet in real time. We could manipulate data, add links to contact info, and publish it without messing up the form results.
Google Site. Lastly, we built the Google Site for #EdTechCalNYNJ. This was easy! The calendar, contributor page and form were all seamless to embed. Piece of cake!

With this project, I've learned a lot about these add-ons and how to automate even more of my work. I'm a huge believer in the power of technology to make our lives easier and more effective, and this fits the bill.

If you like the calendar, can use this workflow in your life, ate anything delicious today, or have anything to share, please comment!

Good Ideas: #EdTechCalNYNJ

Tuesday, April 14, 20158:56 PM

Inspiration

Friday, April 10, 20151:51 PM

A short post today. I'll be away most of the weekend and wanted to keep up my streak.

I'm a bit of a contradiction with planning and organization. I can be super organized and well planned with somethings and am a total mess otherwise. You don't want to try to find something on my desk, for example, but there is one right place for every file in my Drive and every piece of work a student submits. I like procedures and expectations, and I like backwards design. It's tough to teach my students unless I know what I want them to know, do, and learn. You have to know where you're going before you figure out how to get there.

However, sometimes you just need to adapt, adjust, and revise. Sometimes to meet student needs. Sometimes because it feels right. Sometimes because it's just fun.

My next few posts are going to be about times that my students have inspired me to change my lessons and teaching for the better, when their excitement or interest has made me find a better way. This just happened this week.

This week, I introduced argument in my tenth grade class to prepare for the Common Core NYS Regents task 2, which is an argument essay. I had planned a fairly clinical overview of argument: what makes an effective argument?; models and examples; mock debates. Still, the lesson was more about me than the students.

That changed when students started their mock debates. I introduced three SAT-essay prompts, and in groups students prepared arguments and debated. We used polleverywhere.com for students to choose the winner. I planned it as a basic intro but it was fun. The students were creative, innovative, and prepared. When one student took his self-proclaimed "power-stance" in front of the class, started his speech, and opened a slide show of artwork to support his point, I was having fun. And so were they. Even better, they showed an effective start to developing claims and counter claims and supporting them with creative and fun evidence.

After this student finished, I had a realization--I WANT TO FILM THESE! I thought about pulling out my iPhone but thought it would throw off the work in the moment. I wanted more preparation, thought, and even some production. And so was born the Argument Video Assignment...and I got excited and re-inspired by my students and teaching. Next week, I'll share the results.

I started by saying this would be a short post. Oh, well. Next time.

What's Next?

Thursday, April 9, 20154:01 PM

Thanks to anyone who read and especially anyone who followed, commented, or retweeted. Also thanks to my #PLN, who helped me learn new tricks for Blogger to make the site more appealing and effective. You are all awesome. I was truly surprised and humbled by how great it was to feel like I already had an audience. Thank you.

And now, today's take away...

I've been trying to push myself outside of my comfort zone with tech, trainings, and learning lately. There is SOO much out there, and while I can't master it all, I think it's important to keep current, fresh, and relevant. With that in mind, I've tried new things. At #Edcamps and #GAFESummits, I've attended presentations on math and science, things I have no direct interest in or need for, but that will make me a more well rounded trainer/tech enthusiast/learner.

Following this trend, yesterday I attended a local training for a platform-specific set of programs and apps. The brand/type/name doesn't matter. The training was solid--well organized, interesting, and offered opportunities for learning, reflection, and application. All on that device and platform.

And that's when my big take away hit me. I Tweeted:

A tech training today truly reaffirmed for me how important device-agnostic, living, breathing online work and learning is.
— Adam Schoenbart (@MrSchoenbart) April 8, 2015

I'm a #GAFE guy. I live, breathe, and dream Google Apps for Education in my classroom, professional work, and personal life. For most everything I do, it's simply the most effective and accessible platform. Still, I'm not opposed to branching out. I'm happy to try something new or engage with a new device, program, product, etc., provided that there is a meaningful purpose. Yet I always come back to this: Anything you can do, GAFE can do better...(anyone else have the song stuck in their head now? Someone should make a Googly version!)

Now, let me get off of my soapbox and back to my point. There are some great #edtech products out there but I truly believe the future of education, learning, and any document management, will be--and must be--accessible anywhere and anywhere. We all need to be connected learners and educators. We need to be able to create content anytime, anyplace, on anything, and share it anywhere. Because...why not? Why limit ourselves and our students' potential? Anything else just seems silly to me.

I want my students to leave my class not with the essays crumpled in the bottom of their backpacks, or worse--my garbage can, but products and creations that they are proud of and can take with them beyond my classroom. Google or not Google isn't the question for me; it's what's next? And what makes the learning right now the most effective for tomorrow?

That's the questions I'll leave us with today. If you have ideas, feedback, answers, or are having something great for dinner, please comment below or reach out on Twitter.

Take Aways

Wednesday, April 8, 20158:57 PM

Welcome to the SchoenBLOG!

Tuesday, April 7, 20159:17 PM

The Schoenblog

#EdTechCalNYNJ Updates: Workflow and What I've Learned

Evolution of the English Teacher

Thanks, #Ednado, or How I Loved Connecting Face to Face with my #PLN

#AprilBlogaDay: Blogs I Like

Students Must Create: Rethinking My Book Review Projects

Missing LHRIC Tech Expo #LHRICtli

#EdTechCalNYNJ Workflow & Creation: How to automatically merge form data to a calendar!

Good Ideas: #EdTechCalNYNJ

http://tinyurl.com/edtechcalnynj

#EdTechCalNYNJ

Inspiration

What's Next?

Take Aways

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