Do You Know More Than the Average Bear?

For the past 10 years, I’ve been providing professional development to teachers and administrators.  Currently, I’m the Director of Instructional Technology for Township High School District 113 in the North suburbs of Chicago, IL.   My primary role is to support teachers and students of Deerfield High School with anything related to technology integration.  For the past two years, our primary focus has been on Google Apps for Education and our Chromebook pilot.  Additionally, I’ve led sessions on expanding your professional learning network, integrating iPads, web 2.0,  professional development planning  and open educational resources (OER).    

Prior to becoming an administrator, I was a science teacher.  I was always considered one of the “techie” teachers because I knew how to use Microsoft Word to make a website and I used PowerPoint and HyperStudio as a presentation tool for both my students and me. I’m dating myself, right?  My greatest strength was that I wasn’t afraid to try new things.  More likely, if I was afraid, I didn’t let it stop me.

Throughout this time, I've been learning more and more about technology, curriculum, differentiation… just good teaching.  I'd say I easily learn something new on a weekly basis, if not daily.  That doesn't mean I use something new on a weekly basis, but I often file things away in my mental toolbox, or curate digitally, for later use.  This learning has been exponential.

These days, one of my favorite things to learn about is Google Scripts.  The power and potential of these little programs is only limited by your creativity and imagination.  I am always beaming with joy and pride when I am able to get a new trick to work for me or a colleague.

As a school leader, I like to focus on distributed leadership and building capacity.  So, I’ll often call on teachers or other administrators to step into the lead role for professional development.  Sadly, most of my requests are met with a standard response of "What do I know?” “I don’t know enough,” or  "What could I possibly share?”  I believe that teachers and administrators who are using technology don't always realize how far ahead of others they may be.  They assume that everyone else knows more than they do.  That's just not the case.  

I can tell you that over the past several years, I have inserted myself in situations where I definitely was not the top dog and felt VERY uncomfortable.  Putting myself in these situations, forces me to learn and grow more.  One of these situations was a Google scripting hackathon.  I had NO business there, I didn’t know the first thing about scripts.  As I mentioned previously, they are now one of my favorite tools.

So, I'm asking those of you on the front lines, take that first step into the presenter spotlight.  Put yourself out there.  Feel uncomfortable. Have the confidence to lead others down your path.  You do know more than the average bear.  Time to strut your stuff.  You won't regret it. You won’t look back.  

Northern Illinois Computing Educators- October 22nd Meeting

"Google Everything!" Sessions for Oct. 22

Google Everything!

When: Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Where: Maine South High School, 1111 S Dee Rd, Park Ridge, IL 60068.

There is no cost to attend! Earn CPDUs!
Registration and light dinner at 4:30 pm, meeting at 5:00 p.m.
Please R.S.V.P. at http://tinyurl.com/nicemeeting 

You may attend one topic in each session (A & B):

Session	Lab	Title	Description
A	1	Doctopus and Goobric in Action!	Have you ever wondered how to assign and assess student work using Google Apps? The answer lies within an incredible script called Doctopus! In this session, participants will learn how to install the Doctopus script into a Google spreadsheet so that assignments can be organized and shared with students. Teachers will especially benefit from the rubric extension called Goobric, which makes it possible to assess student work and automatically store student data right into the Google spreadsheet.
A	2	Power Search Tips & Tricks	Search changes the discussion! Did you know that Google estimates that just using Ctrl+F or Command+F when searching can speed up your searches by 12%? Join us to learn Power Search Tip & Tricks to make your searches more efficient and to share with your staff and students.
A	3	Getting Started with Google Forms	For beginners. Learn the basics of creating a Google forms and explore a variety of ways educators are using Google forms.
A	4	Google+ Communities in the Classroom	Google+ Communities in the classroom. Learn how Google+ Community compares to Wordpress or Blogger.
B	1	Classroom use of Forms, Scripts & Google Sites	Inform your teaching and interact with students in a whole new way using Google forms. Using the Autocrat and Doctopus scripts, streamline distribution of documents and feedback and easily collect and manage data. Also, experience one teacher's integrated Google site used as a portal to classroom activities and teacher-to-student communication.
B	2	Getting started with Flubaroo for grading	Using a google form for quiz input, the Flubaroo script will automatically grade your quiz. Flubaroo can also email the results to your students. Learn how to setup Flubaroo, and the new features with Flubaroo 3.0
B	3	Managing Google Form Data	You've collected data on a Google form, now what? Learn ways to sort and filter data as well as explore a variety of scripts available for summarizing data or providing feedback to your responders.
B	4	Making an Online PD Course Using Google Apps	ETHS delivered an online course this summer on Video and YouTube using multiple Google Apps. Come check out our course, live through a few modules and learn how to potentially design one for your own staff.

Notice Something Different with Your Chrome Browser?

Chrome App Launcher

Chrome launched a launcher.  Is that possible?  Yes.  While it's a cool feature, the timing was unfortunate.  Our entire school had just gone through a session on Customizing Google Chrome, the very next day... NEW Apps Launcher!

The Chrome App Launcher  makes your desktop look a little more like a Chromebook.  The launcher provides quick access to all of your apps from your desktop. Don't see it yet?  Well, when you install an app from the Chrome Web Store, you'll get an option to get the App Launcher. The App Launcher requires you to sign in to Chrome to enable apps that need access to your Google account.

Another update is a browser based apps launcher instead of the "New Tab" look.  You'll notice this under your profile picture, on the far left side of your "bookmarks bar"

Sorry to say, if you liked the "New Tab" look, I haven't figured out a way to roll it back to the previous style.  For more on managing apps and the apps launcher, check out this resource from Google Chrome.