1. LITERACY-BASED DISTRICT-WIDE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
LEADERS IN LITERACY CONFERENCE
LITERACY-BASED DISTRICT-WIDE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Aiken County Public School District
January 15, 2016

2. LEADERS IN LITERACY CONFERENCE
Gale Kulmala
Wagener-Salley Adult Education

3. AGENDA Hilsman What is Blendspace? Blendspace Features
Using Blendspace
Canvas Examples
Getting Started
BYOC
Sharing Out
Door Prizes

4. Hilsman Middle School
IB Candidate School, UGA PDS, Distinguished Title 1 School District
Faculty collaboration through weekly data team and planning meetings
Moved to Google platform in Spring 2012 in preparation for “paperless” workflow and 2 to 1 netbook initiative
Attended UGA technology seminar and examined & implemented “best practices” in pushing out computer based instruction, collaboration, and assessment to our students

5. What is Blendspace?
An application to organize and share instructional education materials, activities, and projects in an attractive, visually pleasing format
Monitor, communicate, and assess student efforts and learning
Formerly known as Edcanvas……with the “tile” based projects called “canvases”

6. Blendspace Features
Can drop and drag videos, images, documents, drawings, and links and add text in one of 5 adjustable tile-grid arrangements
Independent, self-guiding to keeps students on task
Incorporate quizzes, surveys, and worksheets to build student accountability
Canvases can be linked, ed, or shared for class/flipped assignments
Track student viewing, work, questions, and comments
Easily adapt other teachers’ canvases for your use
Students can create their own for projects/presentations

7. Using Blendspace
Create lessons and projects for class or home preview/review
Set up workstations to review lessons individually or with peers
Challenge students with optional content or extended learning
Use lessons/student work as a “virtual” corkboard portfolio to share with others, including parents
Enable students to collaborate on projects such as digital storytelling or webquests
Make presentations for PD sessions, PLCs, or conferences
Store and share resources in a more engaging format

8. Blendspace Examples
Hilsman PD (Spring 2013)
Hilsman 6th Grade ELA (Winter 2013)
WSAE GED Science Preview/Review (Winter 2016)

9. Getting Started Teacher and student accounts are available
Create an account “from scratch” or login with Google/FB
Set up classes and include students via or class codes
Yes….there is a Google App for this
Create a canvas or use/adapt a shared, public canvas

10. Build Your Own Canvas Determine a content area topic
Create a canvas with 3-6 tiles
Experiment with templates and themes
Search for instructional content…..websites, media files, Google Drive, Office…..and drag/drop onto your canvas
Edit the title of each tile
Add a description or set of instructions for each tile
Share your “masterpiece”

11. So….what are the next steps?
Review the Blendspace steps and resources on the Blendspace Leaders in Literacy presentation literacy-conference-acps
Develop a small “canvas” related to your content
Pick out a class or group of students to “test drive” the canvas
Make observations and collect feedback about implementation
Remember that you don’t eat an elephant in one bite!