Back to School

 

For today I have some Back 2 School tips.  First and foremost my thoughts behind today's post was to organize some websites from Pintrest.  Love Pintrest--one, it's a great time waster when you don't feel like doing the things you should be doing.  Two, there are some fabulous ideas for lots of walks of life on there--including classroom ideas!  But...there's only one small problem--my county blocks just about all social networking sites.  So all those great ideas that I pinned at home...I can't access while at school.  So, I created a sqworl bookmark category for my favorite Pintrest topics.  Being an ITRT (Instructional Technology Resource Teacher)  my Sqworl folder is all related to techy items for the classroom, but you could easily create one for any subject you teach.  That way you can more easily access the sites from school if your county blocks Pintrest, as mine does.  Now not everything I pinned is on here, because as mentioned social networking is largely blocked, therefore pretty much any website with the word "blog" in it won't get through our filters (Thankfully kidblog does though--which is a great blog site to use with classroom students).  So, here's the Sqworl link for my Techy Pintrest items.



Going through mu pinned items, there were a couple of  I wanted to share for back to school:

REMIND101

Remind101 is a great way to stay in contact with parents.  I heard a presenter talking about it at the Arlington Technology Symposium this summer, and also had it pinned from Pintrest.  It's a free computer website that allows you to text parents to their phones in a way that keeps your phone number private.  It's super easy to sign up for an account, and even includes printable tutorials to give to the parents to sign up for your notifications (also super easy for them to sign up).  It really is just a notification system though, so parents will not be able to text back or ask questions--that will need to be done through other means.  It is a great tool to remind about paperwork that needs to come back, picture day, field trips, wearing sneakers for gym etc.

QR CODES FOR TEACHER INFO

This next idea came from a pinned item from Pencils and Paper Blogspot.  On open house or back to school night create a QR code of all your information such as your name, e-mail address, school phone number, and address.  You could even include items such as your schedule.  Just post it on your door.  Any parent with a Smart phone can scan it, and that way they have all pertinent information handy.  You can create a QR code using a site such as QRStuff.


TUBECHOP

Sometimes you find a great You tube video  (Yea!! a site that was unblocked by my county last year!) that you want to show to your class or use for a presentation.  The Shift Happens video (there are multiple different variations) is one I like to use at the beginning of the year.  If you decided to watch the whole video above you may have noticed it is eight minutes long.  Some people may pay attention through the whole video, but chances are you will lose many.  If you use  tubechop, you can cut just the most important part of the video, which will shorten the play time.  This can also be very useful in the classroom.  I remember there was a video on pronouns I wanted to use with a fourth grade class last year.  The video was created by preteens and something the students certainly could have related to but...some of the language they used in parts of the video wasn't exactly school appropriate.  With tubechop you could select parts of the video and leave the questionable parts out.  Here is a selection from the above video using tubechop. So instead of an eight minute video, I have 52 seconds of what I deemed most important.

Getting your Internet files organized...

First things first, find a tool that works for you to organize your Internet favorites/bookmarks.  I highly recommend using a cloud bookmarking site such as Delicious or Diigo, as then you can access your bookmarks from anywhere.  I was pretty good with my Diigo account when I set it up last summer, but ran into some connectivity issues at school, and got lazy about updating Diigo when I got home.  I regret that now as my work computer is sick and I can not access my bookmarks.  However, I did export a saved list of my bookmarks about once a month, so all is not lost.    It's quite simple to do, and here is a step-by-step guide for exporting favorites from Internet Explorer (not my favorite browser, but the one that works best at work).  Here's the step-by-step guide for exporting bookmarks from Firefox.  When backing up your computer, always remember to back-up four bookmarks too!  Here is an article on some other suggestions for backing up your information on the cloud.  I hadn't heard of skloog  before, but it reminds me of a site I use with students, so I may try skloog for sharing sites with teachers and parents this year.

Ok, so now that you are set with a method of saving items pertinent to you, what are some tools that are good for sharing items with students?

 

My favorite site was introduced to me at a conference last summer Sqworl.  The reason why I find this so helpful is because it also attaches a thumbnail view of the page and a short description of the site.  Sometimes I use the description area simply to tell a little about the site, other times I use it to give the students directions before using the site.  You can create folders of related bookmarks that can be edited at any time.  They will give you a URL that you can then share out to any interested parties.  This could be a great way to post a link of related websites for your units of focus on your classroom homepage or in a newsletter to parents.  Rather than typing in all of the URLs you found useful, you just need to include one.

Another two sites I find particularly helpful are tinyurl  and fur.ly.  I know there are similar sites to these out there, but these are the first to which I was introduced.  Tinyurl is an excellent tool for shortening long URLs.  For example, I read an article this morning on using Twitter that I would like to share with my staff.  Rather than giving them this site http://adaptivelearnin.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/1-year-later-why-teachers-should-join-twitter-what-i-have-learned-as-a-twitter-newbie/, I can instead just give them http://tinyurl.com/9vmv7kh  or I could re-name the site to something that let's them know where they are going, such as http://tinyurl.com/y-use-twitter.  All three will bring you to the same spot, but require less typing.  This is especially helpful when you are trying to set-up 20-30 laptops.  If you have younger students and you have to type the address, you can make it something short and sweet that you will easily remember and not have to reference for each computer.  If it is something the students are typing, make it short and easy to spell so they are less likely to have a tracking error.  If there is a site you want to name, but all options for giving the url a specific short name have been previously used on tinyurl, here is a list of similar websites that shorten URLs.

 

Fur.ly I found especially helpful when doing research projects.  This website allows you to access many URLs simultaneously.  So rather than telling students go here, then type in this address, then type in this third address, you can give them all three addresses at once.  Fur.ly will open a new tool bar at the top of their screen to navigate back and forth through the pages as needed.  I also found this site extremely helpful with my kindergarten classes.  It allowed us to do many small lessons without a lot of down time where they needed to wait for the new URL to be entered into their computer (or entered into the teachers computer and be sent using a program such as Net Op).  Just as a note of warning, sometimes highly interactive websites caused the fur.ly toolbar to disappear, which means you just need to type the address in (which on most school computers automatically gets saved in recent searches).


I would recommend teaching your students how to save and access items in favorites/bookmarks when you send them a new site (be it on its own or a grouped site), that way they can access it later.  You can also save frequently accessed sites right on the desktop (helpful for the beginning of the year with the youngest computer users).  Do this by simply dragging the icon from the address bar onto your desktop.

It's Almost That Time Again...

So, August has rolled around...not really sure where July went, but it sure flew by awfully fast.  I took a hiatus from the blog-o-sphere after graduation and for the summer to cool my heels a bit...but figured it was time to start up again.  I will start with some back-to-school ideas for technology integration the first week of school.

 Picture from www.edudemic.com

• Have the students create a digital story of something they did over summer vacation.  This can be done in numerous different ways using many different types of software.  I personally prefer Pixie from Tech  4 Learning.  However, here is a list of different software for digital storytelling. 

•  Use a video camera to have students do a brief interview stating their goals for the year.  Refer students back to their videos at the start of second semester, and then again at the end of the year.

• Set up a blog for discussions students can have throughout the year.  Begin the first discussion thread as a get-to-know you activity.

• Have students create an avatar in Voki.  Have them say three to five facts about themselves and have the other students try to guess who it is. 

• Have students create their own name tags using Word or a graphics program, print them out, laminate them, and then stick them on the student's desks.

• Use Kidspiration or Inspiration fro students to brainstorm ideas for classroom rules.  You could then compile student responses into a Wordle so they can see the most common rules thought up.

• When creating a class contract, create it on an interactive board (Promethean, Smart) rather than on chart paper.  Have students sign on the board and then you can print out a copy to send home with each child.

• As students tour the school to get familiar with new places and faces have them take pictures of who and what they see along the way.  Then create a classroom book about important places and people in the school. 

• As a get to know you activity, have students use the Smart Response system (Activotes for promethean).  Set up a quiz ahead of time on favorites (favorite color, favorite food, favorite sport etc...)  Have the students vote and view the graphs of things they have in common.

If you decide to use any of these ideas let me know how they worked out, or feel free to share some other ideas you may have!  Stay tuned for some helpful technology teacher tools for throughout the year...

Math Mania

I am serving on a math teacher's focus group for my county with the idea of helping to incorporate technology into the lessons.  My hope is that Smart and Promethean files will be created and disbursed to teachers for use, but I would also like to generate a list of helpful free websites that teachers can you for demonstration purposes as well as for student individual practices.  I will include some I have used in the past.  Please add sites you have found successful with your students or children!

• Create a Graph--I found this site very useful in data units with students.  Students could even create a survey using Survey monkey and then use this website to create graphs of the data they collect!
• Harvey's Homepage--I have had the pleasure of seeing Harvey at two different conferences.  His Smart resources are amazing and really engage students!
• BBC BiteSize--I LOVE  BBC's resources they have a site for younger students and for older students.  Check out their activities for other content area also.
• Arcademics--I got introduced to this site at ISTE this past summer, and have used it throughout the year.  The games really engage the students in their math facts.
• WolframAlpha--this search engine helps you solve math problems and gives you explanations as to how and why the answer is correct.  This could be an excellent tool for older students. 

And at this point i realize I have been neglecting my Diigo account, as I know I have oodles other sites bookmarked on my work computer.  What are some of your favorite (and free) math sites to help students review or reinforce new skills?

Educational Reform for the Digital Era

     Through a friend of a friend I learned about a group of educators in DC that strive towards making positive improvements in education and educational policy.  Through that group I heard about a discussion being held at the Fordam Institute, "Educational Reform for the Digital Era".  I will share some of the big take-aways I got from the discussion.
     John Chubb stated that "Technology can motivate and engage in ways that classroom instruction can not."  I completely agree with this statement.  Following the believes of Tapscott, in Grown Up Digital, students today are wired very differently that students in the past.  As educators, if we want to effectively reach our students we need to tune in to what they are interested in and what motivates them if we are to reach them.  Chubb continued to to support this explaining a center model where students meet small group with a teacher, perform on-line tasks, and do independent work.  I have used this model in the past very effectively.  Though as a word of caution, computer time needs to be properly prepared and designed.  Computers are not baby sitters, and can be very powerful learning tools if used appropriately.  Chubb supported this by reiterating that ALL learning must be scaffolded, be it on-line or in person.
     Mark Baurlein argued that digital technology will not aid student engagement as students will be using the same tools as they use in a social setting.  I disagree with this statement.  With the new digital tools and social learning, there needs to come new curriculum and rules of engagement.  Students need to be taught the appropriate use of the tools within an intellectual setting versus in a social setting.  For example, this panel used Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook for presentation and background discussion.  These tools are very much labeled as social tools, but can be very informative when used correctly in the intellectual setting.  Students just need to be taught rules of engagement.  One of the other panelists (I forget if it was John Chubb or Bryan Hassel) agreed with this, stating that these tools need to be a part of serious life as well as social life, and it is "a challenge for educators to figure out how to make technology work for schools or school will become irreleveant to students."  That is a very powerful statement, and I would say very true.  If we don't adapt our teaching practices and educational strategies to fit the needs of today's learner we will see a lot less student engagement and a lot more students checking out.
     The discussion continued into thoughts about how teachers can be used more effectively while promoting an opportunity culture within education, increasing technology use, and decreasing work force to balance budgets.  I am not going to comment too much on this prior to doing more background research.  Though I will say that MAJOR changes would need to take place within education and teacher work loads for this to happen. 
    Overall I felt the discussion was spot on regarding current issues and changes that need to be implemented.  However, I believe the road will be long and challenging to implement those changes.  And I would hope that those making the decisions would consult those in the trenches to gain and understanding of what impact and repercussions  their decisions may have on those the decisions effect most.

Ever Considered Flipping?

I was first introduced to the idea of a flipped classroom at the ISTE conference in Philadelphia this past summer.  An article I received from Edutopia this past week is one of the many sources I have seen about flipped classrooms recently.  Basically what a flipped classroom does is reverse responsibility.  Students are responsible for material out of school so that in school they can apply what they have learned through authentic, project based learning.  This could be done through any combination of reading, visuals, or videos sent by the teacher.    It promotes the teacher being a guide on the side rather then the sage on the stage.  Here is an example of how this works in a chemistry classroom.

If I were to go back into the regular education classroom I would very much consider flipping my classroom (considering of course the access to computers students would have at home).  I think this model of learning is much more beneficial to the world of today.  Have you flipped?  Would you flip?

Technology for the 21st Century Learner: Class Dojo

Checked out this site, Class Dojo,  and it is really neat, so am re-posting it.  Use this to quickly and easily keep track of student behaviors in real time, both positive and negative.  It can also be used to keep track of IBPYP learner profiles or any other items, as you add your own categories.  

Technology for the 21st Century Learner: Class Dojo: I was recently introduced to Class Dojo and am excited to start using it in my classroom, especially at this time of the year.  Has anyone e...