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Inspiring, Creating, and Tackling Change: Collaborative Teaching Using iBooks and Google Classroom
Andrea Brown & Tessa Potgeter
Wayland Union High School
Andrea Brown
Tessa Potgeter
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Presenter Bios:Andrea Brown - 10th Year Teaching at WaylandJunior English, Debate, Forensics, Communications, Sociology and PALs
Tessa Potgeter - 9th Year Teaching at Wayland Junior English & Advance Junior English
Our District
Rural
Servicing:
3,500 District Wide
1,000 High School
30-40% free and reduced lunches per building
1:1 iPads Airs
Small to mid size rural community 30 minutes south of Grand Rapids
1:1 Information:Our district is in the 5th year of 1:1for 7-12th Grades 2nd year of 1:1 for 5-6th Grades 2nd year of classroom sets of iPads for K-4 Grades For information contact: Director of Technology, Scott Getter [email protected]
Resources For Your Use:
Free iBooks:Let It Grow: Developing the 1:1 Digital Ecosystem https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/let-it-grow-developing-the-1-1-digital-ecosystem/id844578060?mt=11
Our Journey
From Singleton Teachers
Struggling with our Professional Learning Community (PLC)
Moved to Common Courses
Success with our PLC
-Both of us were teaching different classes throughout the year ; struggling to make the PLC process work correctly
-In our experience it is a MUST to teach the same course; it can work but not that efficiently and effectively if the goal is collaboration through the PLC process.
Our Students
Demonstrated Need For Change
Our Academic Goals
Same domain; teacher & student- gmail
Need for change:In prior years we struggled with effective use of our technology. We have 1:1 iPads, but they basically were great ways for students to play games and an expensive paper weight. During collaborative discussion we agreed that students struggled to use the technology academically and were having a hard time adjusting to teachers using different apps for different classes.
Our goals for our students: Both of us strived for meeting 21st Century Learning Targets along with fostering students’ ability to be flexible and adaptable, which the need to be in today’s world. With those board goals in mind we collectively created these specific goals:1. Appropriate use of online discussion forums and email 2. Properly use online course management system for classroom use 3. Be college ready
Apple iBooks
The Reasoning: Outdated textbooks, no curriculum money to buy up to date text for all classes. Teachers are resourceful, meaning many resources that came for various places, all jumbled together and thrown at the students- it felt all over the place. iBooks are the answer to collecting all your resources and formatting it into one cohesive location for student access.
The Process: Through a TRIG Apple Grant, our Social Studies Dept. began training with our Apple Guru (Ken Holving), tailored to our needs. Biggest need- outdated text. Training in iBooks Author to create new course materials to meet 21st century learning and have up to date resources/text.
My Story: I cross applied the training from SS (single Sociology teacher) to my ELA role and moved towards collaboration with my common courses with Tessa. I was trained, then trained her. Later we will discuss how we managed/split the work load.
Creating an iBookIt’s simpler than you think!
Creating an iBook is easier than you think. Once you become familiar with the Mac features (if you are normally a PC user) then it becomes even easier. Our district was lucky enough to have and Apple training, however, his training style was learn as you go- not sit and listen. Truly, we followed the process outlined in the next few slides and created our first iBook within minutes (we used ‘fake’ materials during the first part of the training).
Before You Begin
Review Tutorials
Collect Text
Collect Additional Resources
Before you begin creating an iBook I would review the tutorials on iBookAuthor (only available on Mac’s). The steps are simple for your basic textbook, then when you’ve become familiar with the widgets and extras you can make your book shine!
One of the longest parts of the process was gathering text. For my use, in Sociology I used an online version of our text and copied and pasted with licensing from Creative Commons. For our British Literature course we spent time retyping the text of Beowulf (from our current textbooks), then found an online version of A Modest Proposal. Additional resources that we added into the book were simply gathered from previous use or from online sources.
Resources For Your Use:Youtube video: https://youtu.be/mlYSnNn55f8
Free iBooks:iBooks Author Starter Kit:https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/ibooks-author-starter-kit/id987003719?mt=11
Create your first interactive book using iBooks Author:https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/create-your-first-interactive-book-using-ibooks-author/id530135111?mt=11
Getting Started With iBooks Author
Select a Template
Copy & Paste Text
Add Resources
Selecting a template for your book is simple and done on the opening screen. From there you simply add the pages that you need to accommodate your text and resources.
iBook Author is compatible with Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. Personally, I found it easier to import Microsoft Word Documents (only because we have desktop PC’s and all my documents were already formatted in Word, I dragged and dropped the files into each section of the book). I suggest playing around a little with a test book before you begin the creation of a project.
To begin, I started by importing (copy and pasting) my text. Once my text was in place then I went back through and added resources in specific locations that made sense for my text. For example- in our A Modest Proposal iBook, their is a video version of each section.
Helpful ideas as you move forward:1. Chunk your text into smaller sections to make it easier to manage (don’t expect to make an entire textbook one iBook, mine is set up as units with two chapters). 2. iBooks Author is user friendly. The navigation buttons at the top of your screen assist you with everything you truly need (helpful tip- the Inspector, does a lot of the
formatting). 3. Convert/compress large video files into smaller versions (I used an online clip converter). 4. Start small and add as you go.5. Save often.
Finishing Your iBook
Formatting
Editing
Add Interactive Elements
Save & Export
Once you have all of your text and resources imported in the book then it is time to play and make your book standout. You can move items, add extras, make a glossary, play with fonts and sizes, create interactive widgets.
Saving and exporting your work is a simple process if you are just using it for the students in your classroom. Save your final draft, export your book as iBook, then upload your iBook to your selected platform for sharing. We’ve found that creating and iTunesU course is the easiest method for distribution to students. The two parts of the process that take the longest is collecting the materials and then the finish work. I won’t lie, it takes some time; but it is manageable. Here are three helpful lessons: 1. Don’t expect perfection on your first try. 2. Don’t get stuck on the little details, you can tweak them over time. 3. Do create a working document to keep track of changes, tech errors, and celebrations.
Road Blocks
Technology Requirements: iBook Author only available on MacBooks
Our first time through we were struggling with how to share the book. We had our district push it to the students, then we tried loading a link into Google Classroom, our solution has now been to create an iTunesU course allowing students to go and grab the book directly from there.
Widgets: We experimented with interactive widgets (questions while you read, online quiz) and found it easier, for our use, to have students create notes in their book for assignments/application of rhetorical devices and then use Google Forms for quizzes.
Google Classroom Why choose Classroom?
Since Wayland went to 1:1 we’ve been google apps for education. This prompted me to start working with google drive and docs because I wanted a management system where my students had digital access to my plans, lessons, and documents. To be honest this worked alright, there were times when documents were lost and students would delete my work (which was completely annoying) so when google came out with classroom I wanted to try it to see if it alleviated any of the downsides to using drive and docs.
Why Google?
Google Docs and Drive
organization
collaboration between students
Like I said I wanted an organized and efficient way for my students to receive and manage work for my class. I had tried Moodle and it didn't suit my needs; and I wanted to try something different to get my students aware of different types of classroom management tools (because most teachers in my district were using Moodle at the time).
Since my desire was to have a place where my students could collaborate; edit; and share work with each other that is what led me to google drive. My first time through I tried to use google classroom it did not work. I had a google account BUT my students were .org and I was a .net , so I just continued to work with drive and docs for the remainder of the 2015/2016 school year. Once classroom was revamped and our school domain became the same it was seamless. I cannot say enough good things about classroom. I love it!Now we are here using Classroom and Ibooks cohesively .
Classroom: What you need to knowFormatting
Google FormsFlubaroo
Why I Love it! You can choose to have students receive a document for editing purposes or just as an instructional piece. There are three options: Students can view the file, students can edit the file, or make a copy for each student. Depending on what I am doing it is awesome to have those options. I usually make a copy for each student because that way they cannot edit or delete my main copy. Also, if they do happen to delete their own, it is very east to retrieve it.
Their is the ability to collaborate and work with other teachers on a document; their is also the ability to comment and dialogue with a student about their piece. You do this through docs, however once a students submits the assignment you have instance access to that document. No searching or typing in names into the google search bar in docs. Just a click on their name and you are in their document! It is a very quick and efficient way to grade.
Google forms for quizzes, quick writes and assessments is easy to create and links right to classroom through a post
Add onsOne add on we found and love is Flubaroo- you can add this on to a google forms quiz through the use of spreadsheet. This will categorize classes, students, and grade quizzes for you. Great way to use data to assess your students needs.
Set Up
Google Apps for Education
Sign in as teacher
Create a class
Share code with students
It's that easy!
Resource: http://www.dummies.com/education/internet-basics/how-to-create-a-class-in-google-classroom/
Collaboration is Key!
The merging of two worlds: Andrea was trained on creation of iBooks taught Tessa while creating the iBooks for our British Literature Course. Tessa was self trained in Google, and explored Google Classroom which she taught to Andrea.
Creation of Content: We were working off of one MacBook Pro (Andrea received from writing the MACUL Grant). With only one Mac, I took over iBook creation and Tessa focused on gathering content on the PC. Then we merged by sharing flash drives and emailing back and forth. We created our first draft of our two iBooks in a matter of days, not weeks. Andrea and Tessa wrote Wayland Education Foundation Grants and were awarded additional technology to assist in the collaboration efforts.
By both being administrators on the Google Classroom allows for easy collaboration. It especially nice if you have to be out of the classroom- you can post from home, and you or your co-teacher can post, all the students see the same information.
Student collaboration is at an all time high as well because we can combine classrooms for the day, allow for students to work with different teachers- double accountability, students can communicate through Google Classroom.
Collaboration is on going. We review, rework, edit, adjust and lesson plan together to create engaging lessons for our students that are effective in teaching standards.
Grading is easier because we can bounce ideas off of one another and create meaningful and standard based assessments and then compare them.
Plans for the Future!
Plan moving forward:-experience with a new class this new trimester; moving from one class to multiple classes and adding in another team member -goals moving forward are to create more ibooks- Tessa for poetry and Andrea will continue working on the completion of the Sociology text book -professionally share our knowledge with our colleagues and our district -continue to challenge ourselves and our students to explore new knowledge
Contact Us For Information
Andrea Brown
Tessa Potgeter
Please fill out MACUL Evaluation