The Schoenblog

All of this work together, led for me to receive two honors that I’m incredibly proud of: ASCD Emerging Leader and NSBA 20 to Watch for 2016. There’s a lot to be proud of in 2016 and I’m excited to look forward to more learning, growth, and impact in my classroom and school.

Below, I’m resharing the top 10 most popular posts for this year. It’s been an interesting exercise to learn more about what’s popular and connects with you, the reader. Please share your own reflections and thoughts, along with any feedback on the articles below, so I can learn more about what worked for you on The Schoenblog in 2016.

The Top Ten Schoenblog Posts of 2106

1.  Student Reflections & Self-Assessment

2.  Thanks, Harper Lee: How Atticus Taught Dumbledore the Facts of Life

3.  5 Tips for Teachers New to Twitter

4.  Google Classroom: Make Everything an Assignment!

5.  Redesigning Learning Spaces: Sharing #GeniusHour Projects

6.  Beyond Reminders: Scheduling Communication to Build Culture

7.  4 Ways We Improved #EdcampMville

8.  Why I Want My Students Using #SocialMedia: Reason #3 - Sharing Our Awesome

9.  My Top 3 Tools for Flipped Activities



10.  Ending the School Year with #BreakoutEDU

For the most part, Google has eliminated the save button. It’s made real time editing the standard. And it’s made out online navigation quick and easy. Except for Sites.

As any Google Sites user can tell you, it just doesn’t always make a lot of sense. There are too many menus, confusing navigation tools, and you need to click save at every step. It’s a powerful tool, but convoluted and inconsistent with the rest of the G Suite (formerly Google Apps for Education) product line.

That’s why it was great news for everyone when Google announced the brand new Google Sites. More a new product than update, there’s a lot to like in the New Sites. But like any new product, it’s not perfect--there’s a lot I like and a lot of room for improvement.

I avoided the New Sites for a while, and only started playing this week. I wanted to hear some feedback first, and hoped to explore with a more robust and developed version. There’s so much potential--particularly for students--and it’s important to remember that these are just my first impressions. I look forward to coming back with more thoughts after I’ve gotten to build some New Sites of my own.

Looking for a more in depth at the New Sites? Check out The Totally New Google Sites with a video walkthrough from Eric Curts.

First Impressions

I played for an hour or two: created, edited, uploaded, and more. In that time, I started to design and create a new version of theeducationcalendar.com to see how it would hold up on the New Sites. Overall, I was happy, and here’s what I noticed:

Simplicity. Where the old Sites had confusing menus and options, the New Sites is so simple, logical, and obvious. The menus and options are easy to find, and the whole navigation now allows for real-time collaboration and drag-and-drop editing, two huge improvements. It’s simple, sleek, and effective. But maybe too much so. Besides adding a new page, uploading images, changing stock themes, and inserting Google Drive files, there’s not much to it. There’s almost nothing else you can do with the new sites, making it really good at being simple, but limited in doing much more.

Themes Aren’t Enough. The basic themes are nice, with some limited font and color options, but I want so much more. Why can’t I add Google fonts? New colors? Move images side-by-side? Make things wider without being taller? Add columns? The New Sites is new, sure, but it’s not just limited in function, but in form. I want to do more.

The themes currently offered in the New Sites.

What’s Next? The needs for the future are clear for me: the New Sites needs to not only support more customization in look to make it a more robust platform, but in tools. Making it easy to embed a website is great, but I would love to see some integration of add-ons or an evolution of widgets. We need to API, documentation, and tools to open up the New Sites to both the average user and the script builders community. Like with many other Google Apps, together we can do so much more.

Great GAFE! For a GAFE user or school, adding resources from Google--in virtually any file type--is super easy. My class’s site, on the old Google Sites, is basically a static web page filled with embedded Google Docs that live update. Creating pages like this is definitely easier, and seems to be a priority for the platform.

The editing mode for the New Google Sites.

Potential for Portfolios

My final thought regarding the New Sites isn’t about me, but about my students. For a power user, it’s simply not robust enough for what I want it to be, and that’s okay. Not every product, tool, or tech can or should work for everyone.

But for my students? This is perfect. I still want (and want them) to be able to customize the look, but the ease of GAFE integration and creation, along with the simplicity of design, makes the New Sites a winner for any age. I can imagine elementary students creating their portfolios without a problem, and would guess that my high schoolers will need little-to-no direction. Without a real learning curve, the New Google Sites is a powerful tool for student publishing, portfolios, and more.

I hope that Google will continue to develop the brand new platform to help it live up to it’s potential and meet the needs of students and educators. Until then, I’ll continue to explore both the new and old, choosing the tool that’s best for to meet by purpose and objectives. Neither is perfect, but they make a power combination for app-smashing and creation.

Have you explored the New Sites? What are your first impressions? Share your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.

This year, I’ve made more efforts to promote meaningful student-driven discussion, and I explored some of those idea through blended learning in articles like Blending Discussion: Using Technology to Enhance Student Voice & Audience.

This week, I continued that exploration through a three-day Socratic process to help students develop discussion and questioning skills. It was rewarding and enlightening, and revealed some major areas of growth to work on throughout this year.

Overview

To conclude our study of Elie Wiesel’s Night, I sought to expand our analysis beyond the book to the world today, as well as to promote student voice and empowerment. Throughout the three days, students spoke more and I spoke less, and students drove the discussion--to both great success and awkward silence. Each day, the students were asked to return to the texts and to continue to provide evidence to support their ideas. Find the slides and questions for the week here.

Day 1: Class Discussion

On the first day, we circled up and discussed questions that the students had. What haven’t we discussed enough in the text? What questions still remain? How does Wiesel’s character, purpose, or style change throughout?

This day focused mainly on analysis and closure for the text before we expanded to bring in more texts. Then, students helped me find current events articles related to the ideas of persecution, oppression, injustice, and silence.

Day 2: Socratic Seminar

Next, students read and annotated their selected articles to prepare for another layer of instruction. I chose three articles from the students’ findings, and assigned each one to five students, and provided the questions to drive today’s discussion.

In class, students used the first five minutes to review their annotations, articles, and the questions to prepare for discussion. We discussed the following questions:

1. What would Elie Wiesel say about the world today?
2. Has the world changed?

These open ended questions led to discussion of the texts, the memoir, and our world in new and interesting ways.

#SchoenTell English 10 is discussing Wiesel's Night through current events with a backchanneling and fishbowl combo #OssiningPride pic.twitter.com/poweOZlJYc

— Adam Schoenbart (@MrSchoenbart) December 14, 2016

Day 3: Fishbowl & Backchannel

Now came the real challenge: to get students to ask the questions. We again circled up, this time with an inner and outer circle. The Tweet above shows some pictures of our setup. In the inner circle, students discussed their articles from the previous days, and all students in the circle read the same article. I had provided some tips for generating good Socratic-style questions and stem starters previously, but didn’t guide the discussion in any way. I didn’t even talk.

In the outer circle, students used Today’s Meet as a backchannel. I participated here with the students, as we discussed the articles, interesting quotes, and responded to the inner conversation. After 7-10 minutes, the groups rotated positions. And it was a glorious mess.

Some of it was sophisticated, high level discussion. Some was awkward silence and blank stares. But for now, that’s okay.

Next Time

At the end of the first awkwardly quiet group, we discussed the awkwardness, in my only interjection of the period. We talked about how weird it is to sit in the middle of the room and how hard it is to ask questions. I assured students that it would get easier and that we would keep working on these skills, so I hope that diffused some tensions.

When I asked students for good reflection questions for tomorrow, one student wrote: How awkward your conversation was and how well you made an effort to try and bring it out of the awkward stage.

Next time, I want to add a layer of small group discussion to lower the stakes. I want to set clearer expectations for developing questions and what good preparation and participation looks like. And most of all, I want to find more ways to engage the quiet, reluctant, and resistant students.

The learning, discussion, and analysis this week showed progress. In a few months, I’m sure I’ll write about these ideas again, and hopefully we will all do better.

How do you promote meaningful questioning and discussion in your classroom? What strategies do you use to engage all learners? Share your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.

Read more about my favorite extensions and how to get more out of Chrome in The Power of Chrome: Log in to the Chrome Browser and one of my most popular posts ever, Seven Essential Chrome Extensions for Teachers and Students.

Here are three extensions that are new to me that have had a big impact on my practice, along with some practical ideas of how I use them in my classroom and coaching. The images are courtesy of the Chrome Web Store, and each link will take you directly to the extension for more information.

Web Paint

I wanted to be able to draw everywhere and Web Paint solved the problem. The screenshot below is the Google homepage with drawing and annotations from Web Paint. This extension will simply let you click and annotate all over the Chrome browser with drawing, lines, text, and more. Then, you can save the annotations as an image by clicking the camera icon on the toolbar or by using your favorite screenshot apps.

I’m using this tool to annotate and interact with my presentations and websites during class. Now, I don’t need SMART pens or anything but a projector to share these features. My big hope is for a similar tool that will work during presentation mode in Google Slides; I want to really replicate the SMART experience without the cost or hardware.

Nimbus Screenshot

Once I annotate with Web Paint, I typically use Nimbus Screenshot to save my notes and images. Nimbus is a fantastic screenshot tool that allows you to take screenshots of any part of a web page: a section, the whole thing, or even sections that you can scroll through. There’s even a record option for video, although it can’t replicate the beauty of the former ease to the Snagit animated GIF.

While your device probably has a keyboard shortcut for screenshots, there’s no consistency between my Chromebook, Mac, or PC--but a Chrome extension is always there. I use Nimbus to screenshot EVERYTHING: annotations from Web Paint, excerpts from a text for a presentation, and so much more. I long for the return of an easy animated GIF feature, but until then, Nimbus gets my vote.

Zoom

The more I explore new presentation tools, the more I realize the power of a quick zoom. Whether it’s small text on a website, sharing my screen in a Google Hangout, or enlarging Google Slides in the editor while annotating with Web Paint, Zoom is your friend.

I’m quick with keyboard shortcuts and use the CTRL+ and - for zoom every single day. But I also find that many teachers have trouble with zooming in and out, and especially with retuning to 100%. If that sounds like you, the simplicity of the Zoom slider matters; now there’s a quick way to zoom in and out with a visual to help you manage it. For zoom-happy teachers like me, it’s a quick way to make your screen visible.




Web Paint, Nimbus, and Zoom are only three of the dozen extensions that I’ve played with over the past few weeks. I’ll add to the Essential Extensions series every once in a while to continue to share this exploration. I’d love for you to add your recommendations, too.

What are your favorite Chrome Extensions? How can they be used in education? And can you help me write on my Google Slides while presenting? Please share your thoughts and recommendations in the comments or on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.

And this weekend, I attended my third #EdcampNJ. This event has grown a lot, and so have I. I’ve attended too many edcamps to count in the past three years and presented at so many of them. I’ve had opportunities to connect with and learn from passionate educators in the tri-state area of NY, NJ, and CT, and all around the world.

And Saturday’s fifth annual #EdcampNJ was one of the best of them all.

A completely full parking lot at 8 AM, over 800 educators registered for the event, and having around 60 sessions to fill on the board should have overwhelmed anyone. But I’m thankful to the awesome organizing team for all of their hard work and planning. Most of all, I’m thankful for how #EdcampNJ refocused its mission on the edcamp model with a back to basics approach. Here are some of the reasons why this was one of my favorite edcamp and learning experiences yet:

There are soooo many people ready to learn at #edcampnj!! pic.twitter.com/ZZVNPnXBGJ

— Adam Schoenbart (@MrSchoenbart) November 19, 2016

3 Ways Back to Basics Made #EdcampNJ Great

1. Embraced its Size

It’s 8:30 AM on Saturday and there are 400 excited educators who won’t shut up. We’re all passionate about our work and enjoying the opportunity to connect and have some breakfast. Instead of wasting the time and energy on long speeches, drawn out prizes, and quieting crowds, I loved how the team let the learning and the participants drive the day. They embraced their huge numbers by never asking people to quiet down and proving so much space and so many learning opportunities so we never had to stop.

For example, besides a five minute introduction to the day, there were no major announcements, speeches, or moments of focus on one individual. It was about all of us. Prizes were given out to start the day and at half time instead of in a long raffle procession. And while I love the smackdown or demo slam atmosphere, it would have been tough (and maybe unnecessary) to refocus on it at the end of the day. Instead, we got to finish our learning and leave on a high note. Surrounded by hundreds of like-minded educators, there was never a lull in the learning of conversation.

2. The Schedule

#EdcampNJ made some valuable changes to the traditional schedule board process. Instead of filling up all of the sessions at the start of the day, we only filled the first two time slots. Two blocks of 40-minutes were dedicated to learning and conversation, to be followed by a half-time. In the half-time, prizes were awarded using a random name generator of attendees and we enjoyed more conversation, bagels, and coffee. Most importantly, we created the schedule for the second half of the day.

The genius of this move reflects what good professional learning needs: authenticity and ownership. Through the conversations and sessions in morning, we were able to better plan the afternoon sessions. This allowed for reflection and conversation to drive the schedule instead of pre-planned canned presentations. I’m not sure who came up with this idea--I’ve never seen it done this way before--but it had a huge impact on my enjoyment of the day.

Session board first thing this morning. This is what other looked like at the end of the day. #njed #edcampnj pic.twitter.com/SFxoLaZZNu

— Sandra Paul (@spaul6414) November 19, 2016

3. The Conversations

From the moment I walked in the building, I was surrounded by intense, passionate, and curious educators who wanted to learn and connect. With the Back to Basics theme, the organizers emphasized conversation over presentation, which was exactly what I needed. There’s a time and place for traditional presentations--as a frequent presenter and consultant, I’m not knocking them at all--but the spirit of edcamp empowers its participants to drive the session and conversation, too.

From leading a discussion on instructional coaching to participating in one about understanding professional development, I was able to choose the conversations I wanted to be a part of and decide how I wanted to participate. For the first session, I visited three different rooms where the conversations weren’t for me. Instead, I talked in the hall with some new friends and made great connections. The combination of the learning and discussing before, during, and after sessions left me feeling accomplished but relaxed--it wasn’t the traditional feeling of a “full brain” I often suffer at the end of a conference day.

@mrschoenbart and @Kennisdani are rocking their teacher leadership session. #edcampnj https://t.co/q95KykvTk7 pic.twitter.com/3h1ViG69KC

— AJ Bianco (@AJBianco) November 19, 2016

There was so much more I enjoyed about the day, and it wouldn’t have been the same without the fantastic work of the organizers. It was great to connect and reconnect with so many friends and educators. For those of you #EdcampNJ attendees who are readers, it would be great to hear your perspective of the day, too. Let’s keep the learning and conversation going.

Share your thoughts on #EdcampNJ or your favorite #edcamp experiences in the comments or on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.

• Evaluate your participation in our online discussions as a whole, including the Google Community, Today's Meet, and Twitter. How effectively did you share ideas and participate in online discussion?
• In this unit, we blended (mixed) live and online instruction and discussion. How did these online discussions help or hinder your understanding and analysis of the text and our work this week? 

Find more about our blended discussions in 3 Tools for Blended Discussion and Using Technology to Enhance Student Voice and Audience.

Below, find some student responses for their reflections to the experience of blended and online discussions.

• It wasn't any different than live conversation to be quite honest. It helped me like any regular discussion would and did not hinder my analysis. At least I don't think so.
• The online discussions were helpful in that everyone had a voice and everyone could see the many different opinions of classmates. I sometimes felt that they hindered the discussion by moving too quickly or not delving deeper into important questions, as the case sometimes was on Today's Meet.
• I didn't necessarily mind using online discussions and tools to work on this project I think they were useful to some people who don't like to talk in front of the class but have something to contribute to the discussions. 
• It helped me think about specific relationships between characters (i.e. Art and Vladek, Vladek and Anja). Whenever I heard someone saying something interesting I wanted to support their analysis or go against it and give constructive feedback. I learned a lot more about Art's purpose behind the story too. 
• I feel the online discussion gave those who would normally choose not a speak an opportunity to show their understanding of the reading. (This does not apply to me however.)
• I felt like the online discussions helped me because I participated more in those and I could read the answers again in case I didn't understand them the first time.
• The online discussions were different than just simply in person discussions. Socratic Seminars are a bit easier for me because I am not a big fan of technology. So online discussions weren't my favorite.
• The online discussion helped me understand a lot more. It helped me understand a lot more because i got to see another persons point of view that i haven't thought of, and it made me think.

Read more about our journey in reflection and self-assessment in Student Reflections and Self-Assessment and When Students Self-Assess: Sharing Reflections and Feedback.

As I read through their reflections, I’ve noticed interesting trends in the data. Almost every student’s self-assessment was within 7% of mine. Some scored higher and others lower, but we were close enough for my comfort. Their range of responses were interesting, with a variety of ideas. We intentionally practiced different tools that had difference paces, levels of depth and inquiry, and difficulty. I wanted to push students to engage and participate in new and different ways.

While some students enjoyed the speed of a Today’s Meet chat, others found it overwhelming. Some liked the depth of a Google Community post, but for some it was repetitive. Many ended up writing about similar ideas. Still, most recognized the opportunity that blended discussions give for voice and audience, noting that more students participated more often and more deeply than before. We can always do butter, but right now that’s a win in my book.

How do you promote reflection and metacognition in your classroom? How do students feel about blended and online discussion? Please share your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.

This week, my students will explore all types of discussion techniques, from today’s full class discussion, to a face to face/blended hybrid, online discussion, and a full live Socratic seminar. They each have their strengths and weaknesses, but I hope we can evaluate them and our progress throughout.

With technology and blended discussion, though, every student has a specific and personal way to contribute at their level. Students don’t need to wait for their turn, to be called on, to have the best idea, or to gain control of a conversation to make their point; they can use backchannels and online tools to share and collaborate all at once. Online, each student can share in the discussion 5-10 times; in class we could never hear each voice nearly as much. Student voice is enhanced for a real audience creating copies of notes and accountability for all involved.

And the handful of students who didn’t participate today? I know they will tomorrow. We will break through the silence together in all types of learning, but in our online discussions students can participate in different ways--ask questions, respond to ideas, share quotes, and more. Somehow responding to everyone seems to reduce the pressure and stakes of responding to anyone person or idea in particular.

I don’t want to discount the value of face-to-face discussion, presenting, and meaningful conversation. It’s a dying art for many of today’s students. But I also don’t want to ignore how technology can change the way we’re having those conversations to make them more engaging and powerful.

Next time, I’ll come back with my favorite tools for blended discussion and reflect on our work from this week. We will explore the successes and challenges of our week of discussion.

What are your favorite strategies and tools for promoting meaningful discussion in your classroom? Share in the comments or on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.

Log into a Chromebook and your whole Google world is at your fingertips. Mail, Drive, bookmarks, and extensions are suddenly a click away, and you never need to enter another password again.

This is part of the magic of Chromebooks, and what makes them so powerful in our schools. Anything that can save clicks can save time and give us more time for teaching and learning. And by helping teachers and students organize their resources with bookmarks and utilize extensions to improve Chrome’s functionality, we improving the efficiency of our technology use.

But many of us aren’t using Chromebooks at home--or even in class--and it’s important to have consistent access to these features. More and more, I’m realized that many don’t know that this feature isn’t just on Chromebooks but on any device with Google Chrome.

On your home PC, Mac or any other computer, you can log in to the Google Chrome browser to sync your Google account to the browser. This will connect your bookmarks, extensions, passwords, and more. With a few clicks, your empty toolbar can look like this:



Now whether you’re at home, at school, or anywhere else, your preferences are consistently accessible. Logging into the Chrome browser is the first thing I do when I turn on a computer. Then, anything and everything I do is saved and synced across all of my devices.

How to Log into the Chrome Browser

First, make sure you have the Chrome desktop browser installed. Find it here if you need it.

Then, before logging into any website, click the Chrome menu--those three vertical dots in the top right corner. From there, follow the steps in the GIF below: settings, sign in, and link accounts.




Once you’re logged into a primary account with the Chrome browser (i.e. the one you want to sync your settings to), you can also add additional accounts through Google Drive or other apps and toggle between them. Find more info from Google here if you’re interested.

When technology can make our lives easier or more efficient, we need to let it. It’s important to model these practices for students, too, and to have them do the same. Logging into the Google Chrome browser is just one powerful way to save clicks, develop consistent routines, and maximize the power of Google in your classroom, schools, and world.

What are your favorite Chrome tips and tricks? Share them in the comments or on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.

Marquez explains: ''Once writing has become the principal vice and the greatest pleasure, only death can put an end to it.'' According to a New York Times article, he says that "each day's work should only be interrupted when one knows where to begin again the next day. I don't think that any more useful advice has ever been given about writing. It is, no more and no less, the absolute remedy for the most terrible specter of writers: the morning agony of facing the blank page."

That’s why I try never to start with a blank page. I’m writing this very post in a Google Doc where page one lists a dozen or so upcoming blog ideas. I take notes of these ideas constantly, listing titles, concepts, and sometimes more developed pitches as they come to mind. I have these notes on this doc and on my phone, and am adding to them constantly.