2 Schools Connect in Professional Learning w Google Hangout and Periscope

By Linda Ashida

Imagine collaborating with colleagues across schools, visiting their classrooms, and engaging in professional learning conversations before, during and after the class visits. It sounds great, right? Except when you consider the time and logistics necessary to make it happen.

Enter Google Hangout and Periscope!

The result?  Professional Learning conversations and class visits connecting two--or more--schools virtually.  That is just what we did this week in the Collab Lab!

The idea came about earlier in the year when Bridget Wilmot, the Instructional Technology Coordinator from Riverside Brookfield High School, visited EG.  She and I exchanged examples of the ways we facilitate professional learning in each of our schools. We discussed the culture of peer observation at EG, and that led to the idea to do a virtual peer observation connecting two small groups of teachers at each of our schools.

We decided to have our first virtual peer observation at EG, with two class visits during our second hour, followed by a post-observation conversation 3rd hour.  Prior to the observation, the two host teachers at EG completed a form they shared with the RBHS teachers to indicate the focus of their lessons, and to share a successful strategy and/or request for feedback

In order for all of us to meet each other and have a conversation prior to the classroom visits, we used Google Hangout.

 

From there we connected on Periscope to live stream from the classrooms.  Periscope, which functions much like Facebook Live, would allow our virtual visitors to comment and ask questions real-time. However, we ended up doing our live back-channel conversation via Google Hangout chat, since we were already connected, and that way, Rachel Barry could moderate the chat while I concentrated on the live streaming. Also, for this first visit we decided to create a private group, rather than stream publicly.

First, we went to Kim Miklusak's English class and, in a variation of a socratic seminar, we saw a student-led discussion on the novel Sula. Using guiding questions, students on the inside circle engaged in dialog, while students in the outside circle commented, offered feedback and asked questions via a Schoology discussion, which was projected on the large screen. In the photo below you can see me live streaming, and Rachel nearby monitoring and responding to the questions and comments from the RBHS teachers.

Below you can see an excerpt of the back-channel conversation with varied comments and questions from the RBHS teachers with Rachel's responses.

From Kim's class we went to Mark Heintz' World History class. Mark's students were engaged in a collaborative activity on Mercantilism, analyzing documents and finding evidence to support their claims. While the students discussed, Mark circulated from group to group to monitor the conversations, answer questions and offer feedback.

Check out this short video clip from Mark's class to give you a better of an idea of what the streaming, moderating and class discussion looked like.



Following the two class visits, about 10-15 minutes each, Kim and Mark enjoyed connecting again with the 4 teachers from RBHS, again via Google Hangout. They shared feedback and exchanged ideas that included lesson design and scaffolding, creating and curating digital curriculum materials, focusing on essential skills and giving formative feedback, integrating technology and non-tech methods to facilitate collaboration, and making connections across courses with literacy skills. Such a rich professional learning conversation! Furthermore, some of the participants, who used Periscope or Google Hangout for the first time, left with ideas for integrating th0se technologies in their own classrooms.

This was our first experience doing a virtual peer observation in this way, and for all of us it was a positive an energizing experience. We're looking forward to continued collaboration with RBHS and connecting again via Periscope to visit some of their classes.

We're also very excited about the possibilities to connect in a similar way with our colleagues across District 214.  We've already discussed some possibilities.  For example, imagine you are a teacher who teaches a singleton course and you don't have a PLC to collaborate with. You could connect with and observe the same class of a colleague in another school! Just as students benefit from seeing models and examples of work, so too can we benefit from seeing strategies in action, made even more possible via virtual class visits and conversations across schools.

Are you interested in connecting in this way?  Want to learn more or have an idea to share?  We'd love to hear from you!

Writing in Science

By Mark Heintz

I have been attempting to visit all the core sophomore courses my students take.  I want to see the purpose of writing and how teachers teach it and then use it in all the core classes.  I had yet to see a chemistry class and was fortunate enough to visit Colin Rice's honors chemistry course.  The two of us share a lot of the same students and I heard they wrote a lot in his course, so I asked if I could visit. He graciously accepted.

In chemistry, the teachers use writing as a summation of labs.  But, it serves a far greater purpose. Prior to the class I visited, the students completed a lab on closed systems.  The students collected data and completed a lab packet. Today, the students wrote about their findings in the lab.

Although all of the students had collected data, some of the students did not complete the lab correctly.  There in lies the genius of the writing. While Colin cared about the lab and the data the students acquired, he cared more about the explanation of the data to prove a concept.

A pair of students did not produce data that would prove the hypothesis.  They knew their data to be incorrect.  Colin told the girls not to worry about the inaccuracies of the data.  Instead, he told the girls to explain what went wrong in their lab. Furthermore, he wanted them to to write why the data they acquired could not be a part of a closed system.  If the students could explain the errors in their writing, they would have to understand the concept in a very in-depth way!  The critical thinking involved was amazing! What is great, is that all the students will have slightly different data and be attacking the writing from different view points.

After talking to Colin, we realized that our thesis/main idea/claims were nearly identical.  We both require students to use very specific evidence to support a thesis.  But, the best part was the reasoning.  We both desire the same critical thinking from the students.  We still have work to do on making the students see the parallels, but it was a great first step!

Collaborating to Learn! Our webinar for the Illinois Principals Association and EdLeaders Network

By The CollabLab Team

Today the CollabLab team had the opportunity to present a webinar to the Illinois Principals Association / Ed Leaders Network: The Collab Lab at Elk Grove High School: Responsive and Sustained Teacher-Led Professional Learning.

Our purpose was to share with the participants how they can support sustained and responsive teacher-led professional learning in their buildings.  We did this by sharing how we started in peer observation groups and how we continue to evolve in the CollabLab today, centering our conversation around our motto of "Connect, Learn, Share."

Alongside us, our principal, Paul Kelly, supported us and collaborated with us on this presentation.  His focus was to help participants reflect upon professional learning in their own building and help guide them in creating possible action plans.  You can access a copy of this document here.

Throughout the webinar we connected with participants through the hashtag #elnpln.  Check out our conversations and connect with others.  You can access our PowerPoint here.  It contains links to all of the resources supported by the CollabLab.  Please let us know if you'd like to share your ideas or talk to us about professional learning in your school or ours!

Expanding Collaboration Across Schools: A D214 Learning Exchange!

Written by Linda Ashida

What is a D214 Learning Exchange?

If you are familiar with Elk Grove's "Teaming on Tuesdays," think of this first D214 Learning Exchange as a "Teaming on Tuesdays - on the road" connecting two schools.  In other words, it is a professional learning experience that gives educators the opportunity to expand their learning networks across schools by visiting multiple classrooms and collaborating with their colleagues to make connections and reflect on their own practice to impact student learning.

More specifically it involved: 2 days, 2 schools, 26 teachers, 16 class visits, and multiple conversations to reflect on our learning.

Read on to learn more!

 

Here's how it happened:

After a series of well-received "Teaming on Tuesdays" at Elk Grove High School, our Collab Lab Team began talking about how it would be great to expand this kind of professional collaboration across schools.  We thought, "Why not take 'Teaming on Tuesdays' on the road?"

Soon after that conversation, I happened to be collaborating with my colleague Jeff Vlk, the Innovative Technology Facilitator at Buffalo Grove High School, and I proposed the idea to him, to see if some of his colleagues might host short class visits and conversations with their EG colleagues. After talking with Jeff, I met with Spanish teacher Danielle Ossman who happened to mention that she, too, would love to connect with colleagues in other buildings.  So, the series of conversations at EG and BG led to an expansion of our original idea idea. We thought, "Why not invite BG staff to visit EG one day, and invite EG staff to visit BG the next?"

Jeff and I proposed the the idea by our A-teams and a group of our peers. After a positive response from all, we planned our first District 214 Learning Exchange.  We arranged for 8 teachers at each school to open their classrooms for short 8-10 minute visits during two class periods. Then we invited staff from each school to join us for an afternoon of collaborative professional learning.

Here's what it looked like: 

 

The schedule and participants:

 

As you can see from the schedule, the Learning Exchange involved interdisciplinary representation from 26 staff participants who hosted classrooms visits and/or participated by visiting classrooms and sharing reflections in follow-up discussions.

What we learned:

 

 

 Click on this link to our storify of tweets from the two-days to get a better idea of what the day "looked like" and what we learned.

We'd like to give a big shout out the the administrative teams at both schools for supporting teachers to participate in this experience.  And another shout out goes to all of the participants, especially those who opened their classes for peer visits.

In the future we plan to expand the Learning Exchanges with other schools.  We have also discussed variations for future D214 Learning Exchanges, imagining opportunities for follow-up discussions, either in person, or virtually via Google Hangouts, or arranging for content-alike groups to collaborate in a similar experience.  We would even love to see learning exchanges happen across schools on our teacher-led Institute Days.  There are many possibilities, but one thing is sure, we will continue to explore ways to expand our professional learning networks with our colleagues at Elk Grove High School and beyond, and reflect on our practice to impact student learning!

Teaming on Tuesdays: Next Steps with Schoology

By The CollabLab Team
 
Today during our Teaming on Tuesdays series, we had the opportunity to see multiple teachers using Schoology in a variety of ways. If you missed this Teaming on Tuesday, read on to see what we learned, and check out this previous post, Schoology Resource Bonanza, for helpful resources.

Our Teaming on Tuesday format once again gave teachers the opportunity to visit a classroom for ten minutes to see strategies in action, and then follow up in the Collab Lab to continue to share ideas and examples to apply to our own classes. However, today for the first time, we invited students to join us for our class-visits and follow-up Learning Labs.  Each period,1-2 student tutors from the Mastery Lab joined us. We learned so much from the perspective of the students!

During periods 1 and 5, we watched French students in Kirsten Fletcher's classes upload pictures to a Schoology Media album, then engage in impromptu discussions based on those pictures. This activity allowed for some student choice and creativity while at the same time curating resources for later use.

Sandra Lee and Katie Winstead were gracious enough to pause their independent reading and have students engage in a Schoology discussion about what they like and dislike about Schoology. It was interesting to hear their perspective on how some of their teachers use the technology.  It was a good reminder that technology alone does not foster learning. It depends on how it is used.

In Quinn Loch's AP Environmental Science class, students began with a Schoology agenda, clicked on a link to a video, and completed a formative Schoology quiz. Students also gave us feedback on how their teachers use Schoology.

Carmen Ruiz-Bergman's classes showed us the benefits of a clear course set-up, as well as using the event feature to share the day's agenda.  Students like seeing what is expected of them that day, when upcoming assignments will be due, and being able to go back to look at things they missed if they were absent.



Just a few of the many takeaways from the day:

• Students report that they like having an agenda (calendar event) posted so they can follow along in class, make up work when absent, or check to see what homework is due.  Some students also liked how teachers post the handout for the day on the agenda as well.

• Students like the organization of Schoology. They like being able to find documents easily and not having to carry papers to class.  They suggest teachers take a look at how they name documents to help make things easier to find!

• Students do like when teachers post reminders via Updates.

• Students only really look at comments and feedback if they have notifications turned on. More would look at them if teachers gave a few minutes in class to do this. Also, comments show up in different places in Schoology depending on whether an assignment is graded or not.

•  Students really appreciate getting immediate feedback via Schoology and having the opportunity to do practice quizzes before summative tests. They like when teachers give feedback on free response quizzes and discussions.

• Students would like Schoology to add a private message feature so they could message their teachers directly from the app.

Look for more blogs about these topics again in the future! 

Thanks to the following staff members who took time out of their busy day to join us: Effie Kalkounos, Matt Smolka (intern), Cassie Yoon, Jon Wong, Sue Montemayor, Sharon Horwath, Matt Bohnenkamp, Katie Kalmes, Sandra Lee, Elyse Hoffman (Wheeling High School), Cliff Darnall, Dean Burrier-Sanchis, and Kristina Lopez (student teacher).

Thanks also to our incredible Mastery Lab tutors who gave us the student perspective on Schoology: Irene Tijerin, Katelyn Eul, Sam Ivers, Gabby Vazquez, Hana Crnovrsania, Emily Gable, Justin Ethithira, Tiffany Waldrom, Niki Tingas, Breanna Keenly, Sejal Vora, and Ray Salarzano.

Orchestra Observation

By Mark Heintz

I recently observed Maura Brown and her orchestra class.  It was amazing!

Maura told me that her starting routine is common practice amongst almost all orchestras around the globe, but it was still inspiring.  The first few minutes of class were spent having students readying themselves.  Students fine-tuned their instruments as they changed their state to be ready for the lesson.  Finally, a student leader stood up and directed the entire orchestra.  It was incredible to see such student ownership over the readiness of the class. Ever since witnessing her starting routine, I have been puzzling out how to adapt my instruction to mimic hers. I wish I had the courage to begin my class the way she did.

The lesson focused on two goals.  One pertained to the introduction of learning a new scale. The second was to build background knowledge for an upcoming piece of music.

To accomplish the first goal, Maura gave the students the new scale and they practiced as a whole class. Then, the students split up into elbow partners, people right next them, to watch, listen, and provide feedback.  The feedback each student was supposed to be on the proficiency of their peers ability to perform the scale.  The students gave this feedback orally.  They took turns and after the first listened, the students provided feedback to their partner.   Maura realized they needed specific guidance in the way to provide feedback. She augmented her instruction by redirecting the class to provide a specific piece of feedback from a list of three choices.

It was great to see formative assessment in action AND actually see how changed instruction! It was great!

The second part of the lesson centered around students reading about Faust and then watching the opera music they were about to perform.  After the students read about Faust and the opera, they posted to a Schoology discussion blog.  Maura attempted and was successful in getting students to feel the emotion in the music they were about to play.  It was great to see the power of building background knoweldge in helping students play a piece of music with greater passion and emotion.  

Teaming on Tuesdays #2: Student Presentations Made Easy!

By The Collab Lab Team

Today was our second Teaming on Tuesday of the Second Semester.  Our Teaming on Tuesdays offer staff an opportunity to participate in a short professional learning experiences, as short as ten minutes, that usually involves a brief visit to a classroom to see a strategy in action, followed by collaboration time in the Collab Lab to brainstorm applications in our own classroom and/or "play" with the apps.

The American Literature team invited us to observe their students doing presentations with Adobe Voice. Students projected their creation through Apple TV, but also gave an introduction in person and shared their presentation with their teacher digitally--mainly through a Media Album on Schoology. Much like ShowMe, Adobe Voice allows students to include images and text, then record their voice in the same slide. One advantage of Adobe Voice is that if a student makes a mistake, he or she can re-record one slide without having to record the entire presentation again.

When we returned to the Collab Lab, we brainstormed possible applications of Adobe Voice. In addition to presentations, one idea that emerged was to have students summarize the day's lesson in Adobe Voice as an exit slip. They could add one slide a day so that they have a review activity by the end of the week. We also discussed how students could create their own review videos to share with class--a type of podcasting, for example.  Other teachers liked the idea of having students take their own photographs around where they live and to create their own "About Me" presentations for their foreign language classes.  If you have more ideas and/or examples, please share them with us as the year goes on.

Here are some more examples of some of the American Literature students' projects!
1.  Mahatma Gandhi
2.  Dennis Rodman
3.  Lorde

Teaming on Tuesday: Immediate Feedback using Classkick

Written by the Collab Lab Team

Today we had our first "Teaming on Tuesday," our professional learning days that offer staff an opportunity to see learning in action in short class visits followed by optional Learning Labs in the Collab Lab. Today's "Teaming on Tuesday" focused on providing immediate and targeted feedback and engaging students in their learning.  We visited the classrooms of Tom Walloch, Mark Heintz, and Rachel Barry to see how they use the Classkick app as a formative assessment tool to provide students with feedback.  

The premise of "Teaming on Tuesday" is that we meet for a 10 minute classroom visit and then come back to the Collab Lab to discuss how to use this tool and to play around with ideas for implementation in our own classrooms.

Teachers who came to observe Rachel Barry's 2nd period Advanced Algebra class agreed that Classkick is a great vehicle for engaging students during a class warm-up because students can work at their own pace and obtain frequent feedback from both their teacher and peers. After observing, we returned to the Collab Lab to experiment with the app and discuss other ways of providing students with timely feedback.

Another strategy that was brought up is the idea of grouping students to work together.  If students login with the same name, they are linked to the same interactive whiteboard, which allows them to collaborate on problems, ideas, etc.  This idea was shared and expanded on in a later session - students could be paired up digitally to eliminate the time component of students moving to get into their groups or avoid the "I don't want to work with that person" conversation (you can assign groups anonymously).  

Tom Walloch also shared that he has used this for after-school review sessions by presenting the class with a code at the end of the period and telling students the hours that he would be available that night or weekend.  This is a great way to allow students to collaborate with their peers (an option in ClassKick) as well as obtain feedback from their teacher.

Thank you to all who participated in today's Teaming on Tuesdays professional learning day: Ami Heng, Effie Kalkounos, Dan Saken, Amy Burke, Elissa Ricchetti, Matt Snow, Kristen Guth, Izabella Wnek, Sharon Horwath, Amanda Willner, Eleanor Pattie, Mindy Perkins, Megan Knight, Quinn Loch, Linda Ashida, Kim Miklusak, and Kirsten Fletcher.  We are expanding our collaboration across schools and were happy to include Matt Hamilton, ITF from Prospect, and Rudy Gomez, District 214 Technology Systems Supervisor, join us today. 

        

Peer Observation: Round 2 (Post 4/4)

Period 7
We had two visitors join us this period: Cliff Darnall and Courtney Lavand.  Though unplanned, the theme of our Period 7 observations was activating background knowledge.  In both Lindsey Bucciarelli's Human Geography class and Señora Carmen Ruiz-Bergman's AP Spanish class, we observed numerous methods of brainstorming to initiate discussions.

In Human Geography, we saw students developing lists in Notability of why people migrate.  There are the "Pushes" and "Pulls" of why people leave home or come to a desired land/country.  Students also took a matching quiz on Schoology to ensure student understanding of these various push/pull factors.  Then, students watched a 5 minute video clip summarizing the situation in Syria.  After the video, students were going to work on a Jigsaw in pairs to explore the different elements of migration.

        

In AP Spanish, we observed students exploring the facts of Halloween vs. Día de los muertos.  Students were watching a video describing some of the rituals of both celebrations and then were going to write a persuasive essay where they had to choose one day to celebrate.  

Following the observations, we discussed the different methods both teachers used to activate students' background knowledge on the subject manners.  We also talked about the use of Schoology and Notability to record (both written and verbal) student learning.

Period 8
Matt Bohnenkamp joined our group for observing Sr. Burrier-Sanchis and Lindsey Bucciarelli.  

In Sr. Burrier-Sanchis's AP Spanish Literature class, they were discussing the novel Into the Beautiful North.  Students were discussing various adjectives that they could use to describe the novel.  Following the quick discussion in pairs, Sr. Burrier-Sanchis showed students the website wordreference.com to use as a thesaurus for multiple languages.  

Observations in both classes sparked great brainstorming sessions about scaffolding and other connections on the CollabLab's dry erase wall!  Stop on down to check it out and add more ideas!

Peer Observation: Round 2 (Post 2/4)

Colleen Mullaney's regular junior math class worked on a self-reflection document before the end of the quarter.  On the front side of the reflection, students filled in their grades for each of the assessments of first quarter.  Then on the back, they answered these four questions:
1)  The quarter is ending on Friday.  What are your thoughts about your grade where it is now?
2)  What has gotten you to the grade that you have now?  Is it the homework?  The time spent in class?
3)  Are all your assessments complete? Meaning have you taken them all? Or do you have a redo or missing?
4)  What are you going to do to either maintain the grade you have or improve your grade before the semester ends?

Anna Izzo's AP Italian class was peer editing a two-paragraph DBQ essay. Since this was the first one of the year, Ms. Izzo had students focus on writing an introduction and thesis statement. Then their peers were given a checklist with specific criteria to make sure they included the necessary information and supporting evidence from the article.

 

Peer Observation: Round 2 (Post 1/4)

Period 1
The second Peer Observation Day got off to a great start in Kristen Guth's freshman english class. Students were self-assessing on their speeches about a person who had a positive impact on their lives. Kristen recorded students' speeches on her iPad and was able to share the speeches with each  student through Google Drive. Students were then able to watch themselves and assess their speaking skills - rating themselves on volume, eye contact, posture, clarity, and preparation using a rubric.

 The self-assessment rubric also left room for students to provide examples or evidence for their rankings.

This outside perspective let students see themselves in a more objective manner, which presented a chance for them to see strengths and areas that may need improvement.  It was great seeing students self reflect in other subject areas and I have plenty of ideas for my classroom as a result. Thank you Kristen for letting us observe your classroom!


Period 2

A big Thank You to Tim Phillips and Beata Yormark for inviting us into their classrooms during 2nd period for our second Peer Observation Day. In Human Geography, we saw students engaging with the lesson by participating in a Schoology discussion about voluntary migration. It was a great way to get students to connect the concept to their own lives. It was particularly fun to watch Mr. Phillips' students explaining Schoology discussions to observing staff members. 

In Beata's math class, students were reviewing for a unit test by completing a Schoology checklist. It was empowering to see students all engaged and working at their own pace to review the material. We saw kids collaborating to review the material, asking good questions, and all advancing toward their learning goals. Students explained to observing staff members the importance of showing their work as they completed tasks in Notability. They truly took ownership of their learning.

We loved having Mary Beth Khoury and Marge Wojtas join us for our second Peer Observation Day. We hope others find the time to join us next time, too!

Peer Observation Day at Elk Grove High School!

Written collaboratively by the ITF / DTC Team:  Linda Ashida, Rachel Barry, Mark Heintz, Kirsten Fletcher, Quinn Loch, Kim Miklusak and Katie Winstead

Today the Collab Lab hosted a new variation on the Elk Grove High School tradition of peer observing, that started five years ago. (To learn more about the history of Peer Observation Groups at EG, check out this Google slide presentation.) On this  Peer Observation Day we offered opportunities to visit classes every period of the day. Though the format has changed this year, the goal is the same: To provide ongoing, collaborative, and personalized professional learning opportunities to colleagues from across disciplines.

To inform staff about this professional learning opportunity, we messaged them the week before via Twitter and email using the infographic above. Without the need to RSVP, interested staff were invited to meet in the Collab Lab, during any period they had Conference or time free. Each period we went as a group to visit two different classrooms for about ten minutes.

Following the class visits, the groups returned to the Collab Lab to share applications, ideas, questions, and next steps related to our own work with students.  We wrote notes on the Collab Lab white board wall to hold our thinking. It was great to see how the ideas grew as the day progressed. And even the notes themselves, not just the observations, sparked new ideas, as teachers could see what people had written from the periods before them.  One of the DTCs who came in to the Collab Lab at the end of the day said, "Oh my gosh! There are so many great ideas on the wall since I left 5th period!"

The observations sparked many great conversations about connections across disciplines and applications to our own classes.  The class visits even inspired same-day applications of ideas! For example, Kristen Guth was inspired 2nd hour by observing Mark Heintz' use of Google Docs to have groups of students collaborate to analyze sources related to the learning goals (Each student group worked on a on a single class-shared Google Doc, so after the activity, each group could see the work of the other groups).  By the end of third hour, Kristen dropped by the Collab Lab to share how she had already adapted Mark's idea to use in her English classes 4th hour!

An important point that came up in conversation each period was the need to remember that our focus is always on learning, and implementing technology according the student learning goals and our readiness for next steps. That is, just because we are a 1:1 school doesn't mean our lessons should be driven by technology.  Some lessons we saw today would be considered "low-tech" and yet they were engaging, sometimes "hands-on," offering students time to think aloud, process learning with peers, make their learning visible and get immediate feedback. For example,  in one lesson students collaborated and used string and paper labels to represent the great lakes and sustainability.

At the same time, we need to recognize and be open to learning about the ways that technology can, indeed, transform learning; learning experiences that couldn't be accomplished without technology. For example, today we say lessons that included: targeted and immediate feedback with Schoology Rubrics; collaboration, peer-feedback, and differentiated learning with Google Docs and BaiBoard; and, messaging authors via Social Media, in hopes of getting feedback directly from the source!

Another point that came up in our post-observation conversations was that with all the sparks of ideas we shared today, we should not put pressure on ourselves to do too much.  It is important to strike balance, with an open mind to see and hear new ideas, and be inspired by them, and at then filter out the the next steps that make sense for each of us and our students.  Furthermore, as several teachers mentioned, there is so much value in simply getting to know the work or our peers and our students -- what learning looks like -- in other classes.  Even students throughout the day commented how interesting it was to see teachers learning together in their classes.  Both staff and students were very open to having the peer observers wander around their classes and talk to the students about their work. We have so much to learn from the students too!

In addition to documenting our learning on the Collab Lab white board walls, the ITF / DTC team also created a shared Google Doc to take notes each period. The doc includes a chart with the names of teachers who have Conference each period (so we would could anticipate who might join us, and to follow-up to share our ideas). The chart also contains links to a note doc for each period which will also facilitate our future connections and next steps for learning.

Several teachers identified next steps they planned to take and they made arrangements to meet with DTCs in the Collab Lab. For example, one teacher plans to explore ways to engage students with Notability. He'll meet with a DTC tomorrow, try the ideas out in his classes, and then report back to us in the Collab Lab to let us know how it worked, and to share his example with others.  This is just one example of the many ways that professional learning multiplies through our peer collaboration in the Collab Lab.

Today's observations inspired some good suggestions from teachers related to next steps for Collab Lab support of our professional learning. For example, one suggestion was to have themed Learning Labs, like "Notability Day" or "Baiboard Day," where any period of the day teachers could drop by the Collab Lab to explore ways to engage students, build collaboration, increase peer-feedback and student-ownership of learning, and give immediate and targeted feedback with one specific app.  Staff could share examples with each other and have time to "play."

As one of our DTCs tweeted at the end of the day, it was a very informative --and FUN! -- day of learning together. To get more of an idea of what our day "looked like," check out tweets at #214Learns and #EG1to1.   For some highlights of the days Tweets, check out this Storify.

We would like to give a big shout out to staff who welcomed colleagues to their classes:

1st Period: K. Fletcher - AP French, K. Miklusak - AP English Language
2nd Period: M. Heintz - Human Geography, K. Miklusak - AP English Language
3rd Period: Q. Loch - AP Environmental Science, B. Kale - Written & Oral Communication
4th Period: R. Barry - Honors Geometry, D. Saken - AP Psychology
5th Period: Q. Loch - AP Environmental Science, K. Fletcher - French 4
6th Period: M. Heintz - World History, T. Boczar - Physics
7th Period: M. Heintz - World History, C. Mullaney - Advanced Algebra
8th Period: B. Kale - Written & Oral Communication, C. Cirrincione - Human Geography

Also, a big thank you to all the staff who joined us on these class visits.  We had from one to seven peer observers each period! We are looking forward to ongoing collaboration -- continued ways we will Connect - Learn - Share -- to strengthen our interdisciplinary professional learning networks even more, with our colleagues at Elk Grove High School, and in District 214 and beyond!