Testing the New iPhone App

Well it's the end of the world and at 12:34 I thought I would send this test. Here we go.

Weekly Evaluation Form for Field Students

11/26 - 11/30 - Weekly Observation Form

I am using this form and feedback to support practicum student teachers in the field. Using Google Drive and its form function, I can easily create and embed forms. I use the data from this form to direct support in areas the students need specific work and focus. I also email this form directly to the Co-Operating teachers. Thank you for your feedback.

Why Recess is Important

Here is a Prezi created by SEDU 183 students who were tasked to research a 21st Century issue surrounding technology, teaching, or learning. This group jumped outside the box to discuss how we shouldn't loose sight of play and recess in the quest to digitize education. Enjoy.

Why Is Recess Critical To a 21st Century Classroom on Prezi

Spread the News: The Teaching Channel is Amazing!

I am very excited to feature a great web resource to you. My wife found out about this when she was looking for resources for a faculty meeting. The Teaching Channel is a compendium of comprehensive and growing videos that are easily organized, saved, shared, and soon to be downloadable. Moreover, the videos are focused on Common Core and Best Practices. 


Here are the categories delineated by subject, grades, and topic. Notice the 140 videos all relating to the Common Core integrations. 



Not to mention they have some really teacher friendly tools like the Workspace. Here teacher, administrators, and coaches can schedule videos, save links, and connect to other educators. 

Overall the site is very easy to manipulate and maneuver. Check it out: The Teaching Channel

Communication and Collaboration with Google Forms

I do not know why this took me so long to make this connection, but in time all things seem to come together. As a university supervisor with 19 field and student teachers spread across a wide variety of rural, suburban, and metropolitan placements, I am always looking for ways to facilitate communication and collaboration between all stakeholders. 

View My Supervising Travels in a larger map

But to my point of this post. The forms feature in Google Drive is an excellent way to collect authentic data on my students in the field. I try to visit each student every week and with additional support when needed, but with 19 students currently in the field, it is quite a task. So any opportunity I can gather direct feedback from the cooperating teacher and the student, I am all for it.


Once the form is created on Google Drive, you can embed the form or email it to the intended audience. Once it is completed by  the recipient, the data is driven directly into an editable, malleable, spreadsheet that I can use to support my students. 

I really like the options Google provides in the question format.  Scales, short and long answer responses, checkboxes, multiple choice, and more, the options are duly sufficient to collect the data that you want. 


The ubiquity of the templates are a nice touch too. No longer a boring white and and black form, Google gives you 97 options for jazz up your collection of data. Simply select and apply. 

Now, I created the form first and then Google generated the spreadsheet. You can choose the reverse by creating a spreadsheet with your questions as the fields and then you can generate the form and then edit the style of questions. I found it easier to deal with the form first; however, if I do this, Google recommends to the creator to not change the spreadsheet in any manner because it may, and it did for me, render the form useless

 

Here are a few of the questions I asked. You can see the spreadsheet is very clear. I can track data overtime on a particular student. Notice in column J I ask "Where do you think they need the most immediate work?". This question is really telling and allows me to direct literature, videos, and other target resources immediately to the student. I do this by using an online file sharing program The Box where I share a folder with a community and a folder directly with the student. 

I hope this has been helpful. If you would like to discuss this further please feel free to contact me.