Let's Get Googling!

A group of almost thirty Graded teachers ventured to Rio over the weekend of the 9th-10th of November to attend a Google Education Summit at Escola Americana in Rio de Janeiro. The event invited educators from all over South America to come and learn about the latest apps that Google has to offer and how they can be used to enhance the learning in our classrooms. Graded has already adopted the Google Education Suite and our teachers are very knowledgeable about the apps available, but the opportunity to network with other educators and be exposed to all of the latest updates and developments from Mountain View was a really worthwhile experience.

Ms Carpenter and Dr Carpenter were presenters at the summit.
Photo used with permission from Kim Randall

Graded School also sent a dozen teachers to the Pre-Summit event where we learned what it takes to become Google Certified Trainers - hopefully by the end of the school year we will all have certified Google Ninja status! 

Graded Teachers meet and discuss our plans to put
our training to best use.
Photo used with permission from Kim Randall

Most of us had the easier task of being workshop participants throughout the weekend but a few super skilled Graded crew put themselves on centre stage and presented their own Google Education powers. All presenters were great representatives of Graded and demonstrated the wealth of technology and education expertise that we are lucky to have at Graded. Have a look at some of the presentation highlights from HS faculty:

Amaral Cunha and Silvana Meneghini presented their experiences with independent learning through Google Apps

The Carpenters have built a Google Site describing the benefits of Digital Portfolios 
Ask your kids if they have one!

Matt Reynolds delighted his attendees with the wonders of Python.
Check out his presentation here

The event was organised and facilitated by Mark Wagner, Kim Randall, Tim Lee and Mark Allen from the Ed Tech Team and they each brought with them a whole host of tips, tricks and strategies for implementing Google Apps into our classrooms. All Graded teachers left the event with new tools, strategies and ideas to help them lift the student learning in their classes. 

Please ask your kids how they use Google Apps at school!

Pics from the summit:

Google Earth for Learning in History

Google Earth is well known for its amazing satellite views. But it is also a very powerful learning tool, allowing a large variety of multimedia information associated with location. The IB HL History I students experienced Google Earth as a learning tool while preparing for a debate on the Treaty of Versailles. Their task was to redraw the map after WWI based on the perspectives of the different countries negotiating the Treaty: France, Great Britain and USA. While redrawing the map, students had to provide justifications for the new borders using Google Earth placemarks that included text, images, videos and links to resources. Students worked collaboratively at two different levels. At first, that happened within the group representing a negotiating country as they split up the work to create the new borders. Then, as groups shared their maps with each other, the students had to look into the perspectives of the different countries to be prepared for the negotiation.

The use of laptops to create the maps was seamlessly weaved into the group work, as they supported discussion of the issues involved. Also during the debate, as students sat together within specialist topic groups or within country groups, the laptops were secondary to the lively discussion, serving as tools for reference and recording. This can be seen at the video below which shows the creation of maps with justifications, then the maps themselves and finally the debate. The result of the debate is a formal position paper with the resolutions form the mock Treaty of Versailles.

This project explores the ICT Standards of Creativity-Innovation and Communication-Collaboration, being the result of collaboration between the IB History HL I teacher, Mr. Stephenson, and the Academic Technology Coordinator, Ms. Meneghini.

Graded 1 to 1

As most of us have already noticed, technology is the present and the future. And wanting to embrace this tool that has made life so much easier, Graded has adopted the 1 to 1 program, where students are required to bring their laptops to school and where classes are mostly conducted using the aid of technology. And from a student’s point of view, the 1 to 1 can be both immensely helpful and ridiculously frustrating at times. And many of the times, the latter prevails. 

photos by yearbook staff

But let's start with the good parts. I love the fact that I have to carry almost nothing home, it is lightweight and accessible from anywhere with internet (WITH Internet). It gives us access to different teaching methods and I can do my work and immediately send it to the teacher without any “my dog ate my homework” type of problems. My hand doesn’t turn gray with graffiti whenever I write an essay. And of course, the satisfaction of knowing that innumerable trees, habitats, and animals are saved in the process is incomparable. And the list goes on. 

But on the other hand, this 1 to 1 program is becoming somewhat of a bother. It's nothing horrendous, but it can sometimes be very inconvenient. Futile Brazilian outlets that do not correspond with our chargers leaving the students staring at their screens in despair as the battery life drops down to a 0%, uncooperative google docs’ and coursewebs, blackouts, slow Internet and broken projectors are among the long list of things that could (and do) go wrong. There’s more. Certainly, laptops can be used to write notes and take quizzes and more. But annotating passages, making group posters, and math, MATH, online? Are we serious? Oh, and the infamous "keep them at forty-five" term. My ears cringe every time I hear it. And the worse part of it all is the distractions. Oh, distractions. Let's face it. Not only students, but I know parents and teachers can relate to this as well. When things such as Facebook, other classes’ assignments, music, emails, and whatever else are nothing more than just a click away, I can say with confidence that it can be tremendously difficult to stay on task. When the teacher's voice tunes down to a monotonous drone or when my concentration dies out, I sometimes find myself wandering off and reading the strangest articles about the science behind the chills we get while listening to good music or about interpretations of Shakespeare's Othello off random websites. Terribly rude of my part, and I partially blame my laptop for it.

But enough. I am not here to rant about the 1 to 1 program. Well, sort of. But here’s the good news. I personally believe that it is a question of adaptation. Ever since the Mesopotamians developed reading and writing in 3200 BCE, the human race has always been accustomed to writing by hand; and when technological advance and internet and computers are hurled at our faces, it is obvious that our natural inclination is to fight back. But with time, I believe we will learn to adapt properly and use technology much to our advantage. And to save paper of course. Perhaps once we get accustomed to emailing our teachers the homework rather than handing them in and to take our notes online, we will look back and thank the gods for the 1 to 1 program. 

Or maybe not. Maybe we’re just fooling ourselves and paper will forever and always be the most efficient way to do it. What do you think?

MC Otani

Charging Computers at School

http://www.diytrade.com/china/pd/8411935/Brazil_Plug_Adapter_WD_11A_1.html

Teachers and students were quick to let us know that one of the first steps that we needed to take was to make sure that students had access to electricity in the classrooms. Our maintenance staff worked hard during the vacation to install additional plugs in the classrooms and students will be able to plug into power strips. You will, however, need to have a plug that will work in the new Brazilian outlets. These adaptors can be found at your local hardware store.

Enjoy your last two days of vacation.