Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/912628
technology in school settings, and their potential impact on other educators. L earning sh e w oul d b e par t of th e #LON17 cohort was "one of th e most exciting moments of my career — actu- ally, one of the most exciting moments of my life," says the Hesperia Teachers Asso- ciation member. The London gathering in April lasted just three days, but it launched a yearlong program where participants are assigned a Google coach/mentor to assist them with their vision to change education. Kelly 's project, called BoostEDU, will launch later this year and is designed to guide teachers step by step in transform- ing their lessons through technology that engages students. Before becoming a Google Innovator, she was a Google Certified Educator/ Trainer. Through numerous conversa- tions with teachers, live and on Twitter, she became aware that educators need more support integrating technolog y in their classrooms. Some are confused about how to use technology creatively, she observes, while tech-savvy teachers are eager to take tech to the next level. "Because of this, I wanted to develop a program to personalize professional d e v e l o p m e n t f o r t e a c h e r s , t h e w a y we personalize learning for students," explains Kelly. "I wanted educators to see that incorporating purposeful technology for students is not difficult. It's not impos- sible. If anything, it's fun and exciting to transform and redesign classrooms." BoostEDU has four basic steps: • Find an original lesson, activity or project you've done. • Complete a self-assess- m e n t o f t h e p r o j e c t based on a 21st cen- tur y learning model , such as SAMR (Substi- tution, Augmentation, Modification and Redef- inition), w hich helps teachers convert con- tent from outdated to modern delivery methods. • Create a new lesson through a self- guided, inquiry-based process. • Receive feedback on your new lesson from an online community. Kelly has already created a BoostEDU website to help educators accomplish this. It has assessment tools, lesson design formats and crowd-sharing options to guide teachers in transforming lessons into 21st century learning experiences. Strategies include incorporating Goo- gle Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides into the classroom, which are respectively word processing, spreadsheet and pre- sentation apps, all part of Google's free Web-based office suite. Another favor- ite is the Kami markup tool f or stu d ent s , w hi ch sh e calls "a great resource for viewing, annotating, shar- ing and collaborating on PDFs and documents within the Chrome browser." Last year, she "flipped" her classroom using EDpuzzle, a program that allows users to select a video and customize it by editing, cropping, recording audio, and adding questions to make an engaging presentation or lesson; and Screencastify, an extension for Google Chrome that allows educators to record their screen activity for creating tutorials, etc. Her students now view lessons at home on their devices, and spend class time col- laborating on creative projects. " I lo v e my f lipp ed cl a ssro om , an d stud ents love it," say s Kel ly. " B efore, homework was always an assignment with a set of problems. Students would often struggle on the assignment and come into class confused and frustrated. W hy not leave more time in class for practice, project-based learning, and fun activities that will excite and engage stu- dents?" She begins some classes with Break- out EDU Digital activities where student groups collaborate to solve math prob- lems in a game Kelly created , such as unlocking virtual "locked" boxes by pro- viding correct answers to math questions, based on clues she provides. "It's fun," says student Abigail Sicairos. "It encourages us to work together and work harder." R e c e n t l y, K e l l y b u i l t c u r r i c u l u m t o su p p o r t T h e S t o c k Ma rke t G a m e (stockmarketgame .org), where stu- dents invest virtual money and track it throughout the school year. e program teaches valuable math and life lessons. "I love coming up with new ideas to support both students and teachers," says Kelly, who shares tips at numerous conferences as well as on Twitter, her YouTube channel and her blog. "I firmly believe your comfort zone is your dan- ger zone. Teachers must keep learning, growing and modeling this behavior, if we expect students to do the same." Yo u c a n v i si t Ke l ly 's b l o g , i E DU (i - h e a r t - e d u.c o m), or her YouTu b e channel (bit.ly/2gkknX9). "YOUR COMFORT ZONE IS YOUR DANGER ZONE. TEACHERS MUST KEEP LEARNING, GROWING AND MODELING THIS BEHAVIOR IF WE EXPECT STUDENTS TO DO THE SAME." Meagan Kelly with the tools of her trade. 24 cta.org