![i ninja belts i ninja belts](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/09/01/f2/0901f206b73f86cc1f7f3f8e83885338--white-belt-ninja.jpg)
But what about students? Why are students taking their free time to take a test? Really…is the little widget on your blog that cool? Our the little button you get to wear around school? So I asked a couple kids why they were taking the tests. Parents and teachers are motivated to learn because they want the skills…I get that. We started running parent trainings a couple weeks ago and now parents are taking the tests. Then I shared the site at a staff meeting and next thing I know I have teachers taking the tests. We’ve had 125 students attempt the tests at this point which blew my mind. That was 5 weeks ago and needless to say I can’t keep up creating and grading the tests. This is me….doing what I always do…creating stuff and figuring out the details later and ask for permission last.Įvery middle school and high school student goes to our Moodle at some point in the day so why not start there? I put a message on the front page of our Moodle site that simply read “Do you want to become a Google Apps Ninja?” Now….how to get this out to kids? We don’t have tech classes, this isn’t a school initiative, there is no buy-in from teachers or admin. Next those students who earned 80% of better get added to a sheet that is displayed on the front of the site so they know and others know who’s taking the tests and where they are in their Ninja training.
#I ninja belts install
Once students have taken the test I install the Flubaroo script which grades the tests for me and e-mails the students their scores.
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Next I started creating the tests in Google Forms and embedding them into the site. If students don’t get 80% or better they can simply study and retake the test as many times as they would like.Once a student has become a Ninja Master in all 5 areas I’ll give them a shirt hence making them an official student tech team member.Each time a student earns a belt they can come get a button from me to wear around school.Each time a student earns a belt I will send them a widget of that belt they can put on their blog.White Belt, Green Belt, Black Belt, Ninja Master – Total 40 questions.Once they get 80% or better on the first test they progress through the Ninja Belts until they reach Ninja Master.Students take a test of 10 questions needing to get 80% of better to “earn” their Ninja Belt.So I set out to create the ISB Google Apps Ninja Training Center.
![i ninja belts i ninja belts](https://fan.kevineastmanstudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/the-boys-back.jpg)
To find the kids that are geeky/eager enough to go and find the answers they don’t know on their own. I then thought what a great way to build a tech team at our school.
#I ninja belts how to
So a big part of being in this role is knowing how to find information when you need it. People ask me how to do things, I look up the answer. So the ability to search and find the right answer is what they are testing. I, as a technology coach/integrater/coordinator (whatever your special name is for the job), do this same thing everyday. It makes perfect sense! Google Apps change so rapidly that really the right answer today might not be the right answer tomorrow. I’m constantly preaching that filtering and searching are skills that EVERYONE needs to master in today’s information abundant world and here’s Google putting it into practice. It’s about searching and finding informationĪ big smile came across my face when I realized I had been beat at my own game. Basically an open book test.Īs I continued taking the tests I kept asking myself “What is Google after here?” and then it hit me. When I came to a question I didn’t know the answer to I would quickly search for and find it in the training manuals. I started the test in one browser and then opened up the training materials in another browser. So I did what any cheating student would do. Google also gives you all the training materials which are public and anyone can learn from. The tests run on Google’s own system and once you press start you have 90 minutes to finish. When I was going threw the process of becoming a Google Apps Certified Trainer I was taking the required tests on all the Google Apps. It started as a “I wonder what would happen if….” project and has turned into a pretty awe inspiring, self-motivated, get-out-of-their-way, dare I say fun project. It looks like word finally broke on Twitter yesterday about a project I’ve been working on for about 5 or 6 weeks at my school.