Teacher Feature – Kat McAndrews and her Digital Portfolios

Kat McAndrews, a sixth-grade science teacher at Berry Intermediate, has decided to throw caution to the wind and jump headfirst into new ways for her students to show themselves as learners and scientists. We had a quick discussion one day about this, and next thing I knew, she had turned her ideas into reality and is using Google Slides and Team Drive with her students as they create digital portfolios to showcase all their learning and growth this year!

I decided that I wanted to see all of this in action and scheduled some time to visit with her and her awesome students. When I first entered her classroom, I could feel the thrum of energy from the kids.

 They were getting ready to head outside with their soil kits, and even though it was close to 92 degrees, the students were excited to be out in the field. This was day two of their soil quadrant work, and the students were using their interactive science notebooks to record data on the experiments they were conducting. As they were working, Kat walked amongst them, snapping photos and discussing their procedures and results. As the class drew to an end, she began uploading the images to Team Drive so that the students would be able to access them tomorrow in class when they continued working with their digital portfolios.

I made a second visit later in the day to see a class that was a little further along with this project. These students had finished their lab work and were now ready to show what they knew by creating short skits or presentations about the topic. I watched a newscast, a rap, a scientific demonstration of techniques used, and some very awkward kids hiding behind posters! Kat recorded all of these presentations with her trusty iPhone, and just like she did with the images, uploaded them to the corresponding Team Drives for her students to access.

The next time I was in the room, it was an inside work day (Thank goodness, as the heat was slowly killing me). I circulated around to get a good look at what the students were creating. Since their photos were already in Team Drive, students were able to quickly get to work grabbing images to add to their Slides presentation. Kat gave them free reign to showcase themselves as learners and to share their data. She simply asked them to not select a bold background image because that might interfere with their data and their images.

The students now have a digital portfolio that showcases who they are as learners and scientists. Not only can they show their teacher this, they can also share this with family members or other students. Using Slides makes this uniquely portable, and this sixth-grade portfolio can now follow them through their entire school career and even beyond if they decide to make a copy of their school Drive when they go out into the big, exciting world! I am so pleased that Kat has taken this sort of risk and figured out all the pieces necessary to make this a success. She has done a great job troubleshooting any issues that have come up, and even though this was her first time using some of this tech, she has created a vibrant learning community with her students.

Their portfolios are a work in progress that they will continue to add to all year. Here are a few examples (I have removed some Slides to protect privacy)

 

Here are the nuts and bolts of how Kat accomplishes these student created and designed portfolios.

1. Using the new Team Drive feature in Google Drive, Kat created a Team Drive for each of her science classes. She then added her students to the corresponding Team Drive
2. Each student created their own Slides presentation that will be used as a working portfolio for the school year and shared it with Kat.
3. While students are working as scientists, she takes pictures of them in the field. She also records them giving their group presentations. These presentations are designed by the students to show what they have learned in a new and creative way.
4. Using the Drive app on her phone, she then uploads the pictures and videos to the Team Drive so that students can then add them to their own portfolios.

Using technology in her classroom has opened the door for Kat’s students to create and show their learning all while putting their personal stamp on their work. She could have done something similar with just paper and pencil, but being able to quickly add images, videos, and creative elements to a digital portfolio that can be shared on a global platform brought this activity to a higher level. It isn’t about replacing a paper portfolio with a digital one, it is about the ability of the students to create and share with other people inside and outside of the four walls of their classroom. Good edtech doesn’t replace an activity, it allows you to do something that would be impossible without the tech. This is a perfect example of doing something Kat couldn’t have done before!

I know many of you are doing equally awesome things in your classroom. I would love to hear about what you are doing and spread the good word. Please contact me if you want to share your awesomeness with the world!