Why Not Become A @Graphite Certified Educator

Y'all know I love Graphite and the work that the folks over at Common Sense Media are doing for educators and students.

Their site is full of helpful tips for digital citizenship, the best apps and sites for a plethora of content areas and so much more. There are lesson plans, boards to share your favorite groups of content, and a community to connect with other educators.

Well now you can do even more with Graphite and become a Graphite Certified Educator.

The aim is to give teachers who are using technology through the course of their teaching a place where they can contribute their ideas, share their failures and successes and learn from a broader community of other educators.

According to the site:

Our Graphite Certified Educators say the best things about being certified include:

• Being connected to an amazing group of expert educators from across the world.
• Helping other teachers by sharing their experiences with using tech tools in the classroom.
• Earning incentives for their efforts and contributions on Graphite.
• Publicly receiving the credit they deserve for their efforts.

So what do you have to do? 

In order to apply, educators must have registered on Graphite, completed a full profile, and have already created and published on Graphite a minimum of Three high-quality Teacher Reviews and One high-qualityLesson Flow. The site has an explanation of what "high-quality" means as well so you can ensure you're on the right track. There are also some other more basic qualifications like being a good writer, working with kids, etc. You can learn more in the FAQs. 

What do you have to do?

Once approved, over the course of 2016, Graphite Certified Educators will write at least one Lesson Flow (in addition to the Lesson Flow submitted as part of the application). Certified Educators also will engage in four of the below activities in any combination:

• Writing a Teacher Review
• Creating a Lesson Flow
• Writing a blog post
• Participating in or leading a Graphite Twitter chat
• Posting in the Graphite community discussion forums

More over you're contributing to a community of educators that is sharing technology best practices with other educators globally. That's pretty awesome!

There's more to learn to head over to the Graphite Certified Educators page to see all that you can do, how you can participate and their pretty sweet list of incentives. 

Making The Best App Choices With @Graphite

When I was beginning to roll out a Bring Your Own Device initiative in my previous district we spent a great deal of time sitting and talking with teachers. There are many misconceptions and questions that arise when we allow students to use their own technology in the classroom, so I wanted to make sure we addressed those right away so we could focus on the learning and not the classroom management.

10 times out of 10 the question came up, how could they find new and exciting tools, apps and sites to use with their students but still ensure they were effective and meeting their curriculum goals?

At the time the answer was an elusive one. Our Instructional Technology program had done a lot of front loading and cataloged many of our favorite apps and sites and tried to align them. But we knew that is a loosing battle as new tools are added and created everyday. 

Now teachers don't have to look across the Internet for the answer. 

Our friends at Common Sense Media have created Graphite. 

Graphite is an amazing site with loads of app and website resources for any classroom. 

It really breaks down into 4 different areas:

Ratings And Reviews-This is the heart of the Graphite site. Looking for information on a specific app or website? Maybe you don't know either and you are looking for suggestions. This is the place to go. You can filter all the site has to offer by type of resource (app or website or even console game like Playstation), grade level, subject area or cost. Once you find a resource you want to investigate you get a page full of helpful information. Screenshots, Graphite and Teacher reviews (which are super helpful), pros and cons of using the resource it's all there to help you make an informed decision on the best resources to use in your classroom. 

The best feature I think is the Learning Score. Broken down into Engagement, Pedagogy and Support, this is where the Graphite rating comes from. Reviewers look at the resource and score it against a rubric in those three areas. As a teacher you get a good idea of how the resource will work in your classroom and support learning. 

Top Picks-This section is just that, the top tools, apps and sites. But it's not just a listing. They are broken down into areas like Top Tools For Remixing or Tools For Teaching And Learning About Diversity. There are loads of these topic areas and they change all the time so you will definitely want to come back and see whats new and exciting. 

Common Core Explorer-For many teachers following the Common Core Standards is a reality. Finding technology resources to support the Common Core can be a challenge. In this section you can drill into your specific set of Common Core Standards for Language Arts or Math. There you can find educator reviewed technology tools to help you teach those standards.

Teacher Center-This section is full of helpful resources for using apps and websites in the classroom. Start with the Getting Started section to see the videos for using the different parts of the Teacher Center. 

Then spend some time with App Flows. Starting with a standard lesson plan template, App Flows help you look at the different parts of your lesson to see if technology fits there and what type of technology works there. For teachers who need help understanding the role technology has in learning, App Flows can really help. There is a large community as well so you can see the other App Flows that have been created. 

Lastly you can check out the Appy Hour videos and sign up for the next one. Done through Google Hangouts, you can join live or see the recording of how various, popular apps are being used in the classroom. 

I am a big fan of what Common Sense Media has created with Graphite. Its a fabulous resource for helping teachers in 1:1, BYOD or any classroom better use technology for teaching and learning. 

Head over to Graphite and see all it has to offer!