Tech It Out
Updates from your iTeach Coach-September
Check it out!
In this Newsletter:
- Tech Tool Badge Program Starting
- Teacher Shoutouts
- Valuable Resources
Tech Tool Badge Program
What Is It?
Birmingham Falls teachers will be participating in a badge program where teachers earn badges based on the different tech tools they utilize in the classroom. Badges will be displayed on the Tech Tools Display Case outside their doors! These will be hung up soon outside your door!
Purpose of our Badge Program
This program is designed to motivate you to try something new while getting recognized for the tools you already use in the classroom.
What Badges Can I Earn?
Teachers can earn a badge several different ways!
- Bronze: Teacher earns this badge for attending a training or co-planning lesson on a tool. (Training can be iTeach Coach led, district led, or online.)
- Silver: Teacher earns this badge for using the tool in the classroom to help personalize learning for students.
- Gold: Teacher earns this badge for 3 or more uses of the same tool over the course of the year showing mastery of learning and implementing the tool.
Special Badges:
- · Peer Coaching Badge: Teacher earns this badge when they have worked or helped another teacher learn a new tool to use in the classroom.
- · MVP: Teacher earns this badge when they lead a training or model a tool to a group of teachers. (Training/modeling could be for grade-level, whole school, etc.)
How Do I Earn A Badge?
Teachers will create and post using Twitter! To earn the badge, the teacher can post an image, video, etc. to twitter explaining how they utilized the tool in the classroom. You must tag the post using #BFESTools
What is in it for me?
While we love the idea of trying new things and showcasing the great tools you are using in the classroom, there are incentives to help drive your motivation!
October Incentive
Our first round of incentives comes for the month of October! The first grade level team to complete the Twitter Challenge and earn their Twitter badge will get a special treat from the iTeach Coach~Michelle Hague! You won't be let down!
Simply get "BINGO" by completing a horizontal, diagonal, or vertical row on the Bingo card below. Once everyone on your grade level team completes their individual "BINGO", they tweet out a picture of their BINGO card showing they have completed their "row"! Don't forget to use the #BFESTools in every post! You can print your Bingo Card HERE!
Teacher Shoutouts
#BookSnaps with Seesaw
Students in Mrs. Creller's 2nd grade class did a lesson called #BookSnaps to help them learn the different tools in Seesaw. #BookSnaps is a way for students to reflect on what they are reading about by taking a picture of a sentence or passage in their book. They then "mark it up" using Seesaw by underlining the sentence they want to reflect on and use pictures, shapes, and emojis to help bring to life their reflections. You can search #BookSnaps on Twitter for more examples!
Seesaw Activity-NEW!
Students in Mrs. King, Ms. Manning, and Ms. Regan's 2nd grade classes completed a fun activity in Seesaw where they got to tell others about themselves using one word answers followed by an emoji. Students had to try finding an emoji that would show or relate to the one word answers they put for various questions. This helped students learn how to use the tools in Seesaw and complete an activity made in Seesaw as well!
Seesaw on Laptops
I recently met with Ms. Nation to talk about how 3rd grade could us Seesaw on the laptops. It works in the same way! If you are a 3rd-5th grade teacher and are interested in learning how your students can use Seesaw on the laptops, let me know!
Microsoft Office 365
All 4th grade classes and Ms. Jett's class have gone through a training learning how to access, login, and use Microsoft Office 365 tools. Students and teachers got a crash course on tools like Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, OneDrive, and Sway. Later this year, teachers and students will learn how to use Microsoft Teams too!
Breakout EDU
Kindergarten and 5th Grade students participated in a BreakoutEDU challenge at the beginning of the year. This activity uses clues that students must figure out in order to "break" into the box. The box has several different locks on it that align with the clues students work on. This helps promote teamwork skills and collaboration! Kindergarten classes did one based on the book "If You Take A Mouse To School" and the 5th Graders did one called "Creepy Camp" where they had to work out clues to hear the ending to a local myth! All classes did a great job!
Valuable Resources
Using Twitter to Grow Your PLN
When tweeting be sure to always tag the person, school, tool, etc. using their twitter handle.
Device Rules Posters
Below are links to posters you can print and hang in your classrooms to help manage and take care of your devices.
Epson Board Help
Here are links to important documents that may help you with your Epson Board and Projector!
Michelle Hague-iTeach Coach
Contact your iTeach Coach Today!
Email: haguem@fultonschools.org
Website: https://fultonk12.sharepoint.com/sites/bfes-iteachcoach
Twitter: @KSUHague