Nathan Klatt's 20% Project

My focus for the 20% started and ended with focus on Google Apps for Education. In between I explored various tools.  I started out by downloading the Google "ABC" presentation having teams in my first hour class (my guinea pig group) collaborate on a few slides dealing with India. I followed that up with a personal collaborative effort experience with a colleage building a employee climate survey that was eventually sent out to the staff of Buffalo Middle School. In the weeks that followed I spent some time leaning how to use tools like Animoto, Prezi and setting up a You Tube Channel. I followed that up with working on a site for a unit I plan to teach with my new 8th grade Quest class next year. I want to eventually incorporate several online articles and videos, and set up a page that will allow for students to blog about their questions related to the primary geographical issue of the region, population studies. After exploring the flipped classroom model my primary focus on the 20% project has been around building a google site that will allow me to flip a social studies unit on local geography.  Flipping this unit may be a great way to further engage my students and teach the unit in less time.

Addressing the NET*S Standards. Before I began these courses through Hamline my awareness of the digital tools available to use with my classes was very limited. Incorporating technology in my classes consisted primarily of SMART board activities and a few online exploratory website assignments. Students were not interacting with the technology in a consistent and meaningful way. I won't pretend that it increased dramatically this spring with the challenges surround getting computer access during testing season. But I awas able to incorporate several things and just as important, I have a plan for next year. The experimentation with Google Apps (ABC presentation and a couple forms) with a few classes was successful and motivating for both me and my students. I was also able to produce several how-to instructional videos on JING and utilized them with students who needed an activity or concept reviewed or were absent for instructions.

NET*S #5 The initial excitement associated with learning these new tools was consistedly reinforced in working with other social studies teachers this spring on developing ways to implement digital tools.  A few of us have signed up for weekly blasts from education technology blogs.including EmergingEdTech. This along with continuing to utilize twitter (the social studies chats on Monday nights are great for ideas) will keep my PLN going. I also plan to continue my training in technology integration by I having registered for a summer institute on incorporating technology into social studies classroom over the summer. Additionally, I will be one of the teacher trainers assisting with our district transition to gMail this fall.