I trust everyone had a nice week off for spring break and returned to school/work refreshed and ready to face the last few weeks of the school year. This is always an exciting time for students and staff - demonstrating what we know on tests and preparing for the Class of 2012 to graduate and all other students to be promoted to the next grade level. Spring is definitely a time of renewal and as trees and flowers continue to bud and bloom, we all should feel a sense of a new beginning and a chance to make positive changes in our lives. Here's to another great week!
I have been sharing information from sessions I attended at the KySTE Spring Conference several weeks ago and today I want to return to Jim McKinney and sessions he gave on Tracking E-Mail to the Source. With this week's entry and next week's, I will finish the discussion on the KySTE sessions.
Most everyone uses some form of electronic mail, or e-mail, today. In fact, in many jobs it is a required element because that is the main method of communication. Did you know e-mail got its start in the 1970's? It's been around for a lot longer than most of us realize. Since it has been around for many years, it is fairly easy to understand how users have tried to "hide" when using e-mail. All of us have experienced the spam-type e-mails or solicitation e-mails or suspicious e-mails which contain links and attachments and most of us are smart enough to just delete those. That is a very good practice to follow! If you don't recognize the sender and it's not a trusted source, simply delete it!
McKinney noted e-mails have two types of headers. The first is the memo header which most of us are familiar with - it contains the to, from, subject line, etc. The second is the expanded header which includes more information, such as the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the sender (well . . . kind of, more on that later). Right now we are on IP version 4, but they're running out of addresses so IP v 6 is coming soon. IP addresses are written in dotted quad notation, as a series of four (4) 8-bit numbers; for example, 111.222.333.444. Each number falls between 0 and 255. IP addresses can either be dynamic or static. Dynamic addresses change when you logoff and logon, but static addresses remain the same. IP addresses are mainly divided into five classifications - a, b, c, d and e. Classes a, b and c can be searched. Classes d and e are reserved for various experimental reasons. Class a = 0-126; Class b = 128-191; and Class c = 192-223. You'll notice that the number 127 is missing - this is used for loopback purposes and cannot be traced. IP v 6 will be expressed in hexidecimal, or base 16. This version will contain 8 segments divided by colons; for example, 2001:0db8:85a3:08d3:1319:8a2e:0370:7344. Can you imagine having to remember such an IP address? McKinney also taught about Domain Name Service (DNS), which is the way Internet names are located and translated into IP addresses. The top level are generic and country codes, like .us, .de, .fr, etc.
Now I realize most of the previous paragraph flew over most reader's heads. However, the basic information about how Internet addresses and everything is set up and used is crucial to understanding how to read an expanded e-mail header if you are wanting to trace where an e-mail has originated. According to McKinney, an abbreviated record of an e-mail's journey through the Internet is recorded in the expanded header. At the basic level, e-mail identifies a person (sender) and the location of that person on the Internet or network. As you "read" an e-mail expanded header, you read from the bottom up. If a field has an x prefix, it is not an official field. The X-mailer gives the service information. MIME = multi-purpose Internet extensions. Date and time stamps will show also. Be careful, though - the date and time stamp is from the computer that sends it (the computer's system time), but that can be easily manipulated. Very simply, you can just change the system date and time of your computer to change this date and time stamp.
The expanded header of an e-mail shows the hops the e-mail took from server to server. IP addresses in both parenthesis and brackets is verified. Be aware, though, that there are e-mail anonymizers which strip header information. Also, these anonymizers can delay the sending of e-mail for up to twelve (12) hours. This can easily throw off someone who is not aware. For example, someone could show the date and time stamp of an e-mail and then claim an alibi to proclaim their innocence. Law enforcement and lawyers have to be aware of the work anonymizers do when preparing cases. Also, McKinney reminded everyone not to just forward an e-mail to a technician or someone investigating a case because once you do that, the e-mail header changes to your information! Copy and paste the original e-mail, including the header, into a text document for preservation.
Next week I will cover McKinney's session on Hiding in the Web. I learned one important fact about pictures I didn't know in that session. Hopefully you are learning right along with me!
11 April 2012
This week I am continuing to share information and knowledge gained
from the KySTE Spring Conference and want to focus on the sessions by
Jim McKinney. I attended the pre-conference workshop day and the third
session of the TIS/TRT strand was on Social Networking: The Dangers of
Too Much Information. I got so much from Mr. McKinney I decided to take
two other sessions from him the next day.
McKinney has excellent credentials. His background is in law enforcement and he now teaches courses for the academy. In fact, he is the one who trains School Resource Officers for the state of Kentucky. He stated everyone is exposing too much information online and putting themselves, and others, at risk. He gave an example of a soldier in his barracks in Afghanistan, posting a picture online of he and his buddies with his living quarters in the background. McKinney said it is fairly easy to get the coordinates of where the picture was taken and terrorists could then easily send an artillery unit there to bomb and wipe out the barracks. That is certainly a scary thought! Technology is also being used to "flash rob", much like a "flash mob". In case you don't know, a flash mob is where a group coordination is done through devices like smartphones or tablets, instructing everyone to go to a certain spot and perform a certain task at a certain time. If you've ever seen the commercial on television where the one man is in a station full of people and he starts a dance by himself and then realizes the time has been changed and his phone is too old and slow to get the information, that's a good example of a flash mob. Apparently this same method is being used to coordinate robberies. McKinney is concerned schools do not have enough adults to combat an organized activity like these and that SRO's could be overwhelmed. It really doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out, in my opinion.
One example given by McKinney was a case which happened in a school district in Kentucky. Some students copied the district logo from the district Website and set up a Facebook page. They called school off on a Friday. This probably would have worked, but someone alerted the district before the damage was done. Also mentioned was the world of sexting. Students must be taught the possible future impact of doing such things as posting inappropriate pictures. Not only can it hurt them today, but in the future, potential employers may find these pictures and a person could lose a job offer because of it. More and more employers are searching potential employees online to see what is posted on their Facebook page or what comes up in a Google search. Students need to know that what they are doing today can impact their future.
McKinney gave many facts and statistics about social networking and how criminals are using it for data mining, or pulling particular information from the Web. It is truly unbelievable how people are using the Internet for criminal purposes, but even more unbelievable how they are using it simply to hurt others. McKinney specifically mentioned Topix which is a problem because it is anonymous for the most part. It is difficult to find out information or prosecute cases due to the fact this company is in California, not Kentucky, so they often try to claim they do not fall under Kentucky law. Also mentioned was My Yearbook which enables video chat and is one of the fastest growing social networking sites. Facebook, of course, is the largest used social media. (It was pointed out in a discussion at the recent Region One TIS/TRT Meeting/Training that adults have "taken over" Facebook and that more and more students are moving to Twitter and other social networking sites.)
Another scary thought is the fact meta data is embedded into files we all use, especially pictures. EXIF data is attached to all pictures. This information includes coordinates of where the picture was taken. (Remember the first example given about the soldier?) You can Google EXIF and download a free reader. McKinney suggested turning off the location services on your phone to keep this information from going with any photos taken. Another interesting piece of information is a geolocation. Geolocation is identifying the real-world geographic location of an object, like a mobile phone or an Internet connected computer. You can also download software which enables you to change the default geolocation of your device. This means you can literally "hide" while online. This makes it more difficult for law enforcement to trace and identify online criminals. I found some facts about the information which is attached to pictures (jpeg images) and I was not aware of this. For example, the EXIF information for a simple jpeg image contains the file name, the file size (both of which you might expect), but also the make and model of the camera, the lens aperture, the sensing method, the lens size, and the firmware version. Other information attached to picture may include the ISO speed rating, the flash information, the type of image it is, the location of where the picture was taken, etc. It was absolutely eye-opening to me to see all the information attached to pictures. These readers are for both Mac and WIndows-based computers. (BTW, EXIF stands for Exchangeable Image File Format, in case you were wondering.)
McKinney ended by calling Google the "evil empire" due to the fact they are archiving all of our data. However, I would like to point out Google isn't the only online entity to be storing data about our activities online. Basically the overall point is this . . . if you don't want it out there for the general public, then don't put it online. If you don't want others to know what you are doing online, then don't get online. Basically our lives are open books if we are connected to the Internet, whether it be by smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop, whatever. It's like anything else in life - you never can be completely safe and secure and technology just opens one more avenue for criminals and others to take advantage of us. Always be aware of your surroundings, whether in person or online and act accordingly.
Have an awesome week for spring break and watch what you are doing online!
McKinney has excellent credentials. His background is in law enforcement and he now teaches courses for the academy. In fact, he is the one who trains School Resource Officers for the state of Kentucky. He stated everyone is exposing too much information online and putting themselves, and others, at risk. He gave an example of a soldier in his barracks in Afghanistan, posting a picture online of he and his buddies with his living quarters in the background. McKinney said it is fairly easy to get the coordinates of where the picture was taken and terrorists could then easily send an artillery unit there to bomb and wipe out the barracks. That is certainly a scary thought! Technology is also being used to "flash rob", much like a "flash mob". In case you don't know, a flash mob is where a group coordination is done through devices like smartphones or tablets, instructing everyone to go to a certain spot and perform a certain task at a certain time. If you've ever seen the commercial on television where the one man is in a station full of people and he starts a dance by himself and then realizes the time has been changed and his phone is too old and slow to get the information, that's a good example of a flash mob. Apparently this same method is being used to coordinate robberies. McKinney is concerned schools do not have enough adults to combat an organized activity like these and that SRO's could be overwhelmed. It really doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out, in my opinion.
One example given by McKinney was a case which happened in a school district in Kentucky. Some students copied the district logo from the district Website and set up a Facebook page. They called school off on a Friday. This probably would have worked, but someone alerted the district before the damage was done. Also mentioned was the world of sexting. Students must be taught the possible future impact of doing such things as posting inappropriate pictures. Not only can it hurt them today, but in the future, potential employers may find these pictures and a person could lose a job offer because of it. More and more employers are searching potential employees online to see what is posted on their Facebook page or what comes up in a Google search. Students need to know that what they are doing today can impact their future.
McKinney gave many facts and statistics about social networking and how criminals are using it for data mining, or pulling particular information from the Web. It is truly unbelievable how people are using the Internet for criminal purposes, but even more unbelievable how they are using it simply to hurt others. McKinney specifically mentioned Topix which is a problem because it is anonymous for the most part. It is difficult to find out information or prosecute cases due to the fact this company is in California, not Kentucky, so they often try to claim they do not fall under Kentucky law. Also mentioned was My Yearbook which enables video chat and is one of the fastest growing social networking sites. Facebook, of course, is the largest used social media. (It was pointed out in a discussion at the recent Region One TIS/TRT Meeting/Training that adults have "taken over" Facebook and that more and more students are moving to Twitter and other social networking sites.)
Another scary thought is the fact meta data is embedded into files we all use, especially pictures. EXIF data is attached to all pictures. This information includes coordinates of where the picture was taken. (Remember the first example given about the soldier?) You can Google EXIF and download a free reader. McKinney suggested turning off the location services on your phone to keep this information from going with any photos taken. Another interesting piece of information is a geolocation. Geolocation is identifying the real-world geographic location of an object, like a mobile phone or an Internet connected computer. You can also download software which enables you to change the default geolocation of your device. This means you can literally "hide" while online. This makes it more difficult for law enforcement to trace and identify online criminals. I found some facts about the information which is attached to pictures (jpeg images) and I was not aware of this. For example, the EXIF information for a simple jpeg image contains the file name, the file size (both of which you might expect), but also the make and model of the camera, the lens aperture, the sensing method, the lens size, and the firmware version. Other information attached to picture may include the ISO speed rating, the flash information, the type of image it is, the location of where the picture was taken, etc. It was absolutely eye-opening to me to see all the information attached to pictures. These readers are for both Mac and WIndows-based computers. (BTW, EXIF stands for Exchangeable Image File Format, in case you were wondering.)
McKinney ended by calling Google the "evil empire" due to the fact they are archiving all of our data. However, I would like to point out Google isn't the only online entity to be storing data about our activities online. Basically the overall point is this . . . if you don't want it out there for the general public, then don't put it online. If you don't want others to know what you are doing online, then don't get online. Basically our lives are open books if we are connected to the Internet, whether it be by smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop, whatever. It's like anything else in life - you never can be completely safe and secure and technology just opens one more avenue for criminals and others to take advantage of us. Always be aware of your surroundings, whether in person or online and act accordingly.
Have an awesome week for spring break and watch what you are doing online!
02 April 2012
Continuing to share information gained from various sessions at the recent KySTE Spring Conference, this week I want to highlight sessions on Paper Prototyping, OneNote, Photostory, Machinima, and Broadcasting. I'll start off with a quote from Keith Barnes of Bullitt County who said, "You give away the durable and you charge an arm and a leg for the consumable." Examples he gave were: give away the razor, but charge a lot for the razor blades and give away the cell phone, but charge a lot for the data plan. This made a lot of sense to me.
Barnes led a session on Machinima, the dominant video entertainment network for gamers around the world. Machinima uses real-time 3D computer graphics rendering engines to create cinematic productions. The basic steps to creating a film are writing (the script), preparing, rehearsing, capturing, editing, and publishing. There is a Machinima Toolkit 4 Teachers which can give you a lot of ideas, what you will need, general information, examples, and much more. For every expensive piece, Barnes had a free or very low cost solution. He suggested the book, Machinima for Dummies. There is so much to Machinima and the making of characters and such I cannot possibly cover it here, nor do I have enough knowledge or expertise in it to be very helpful since this session was my first exposure to it. However, it looks fun and would be very engaging for students, especially those interested in animation, graphics and film types of careers. Machine + Cinema = Machinima!
Amy Johns led a session called Paper Prototyping 101. Thinking about the game design process, Johns explained four ways to engage students in the creation of their own game - explore, discover, create and share. In the explore phase, students should talk about the different types of games that exist. (Board, video, card, etc.). Discuss what they like or dislike about the different games. Next, have the students discover different types by bringing in samples of appropriate games or pictures of people playing the games. Allow them to think about a topic for a game of their own. Third is the creation part. Students should make a paper prototype to put in front of others to "play test". This will help them identify holes in their design. Last is to share - each student or group should be given a few minutes to present their idea and design. This would mimic the actual sales pitch to an investor group or design company. It was very interesting to work in a small group of four attendees and come up with a game concept and paper prototype in just a few minutes. We developed a game for young children to help them identify words that rhyme. Our idea was to have it published as an app for the iPad or Android device. What a neat idea! This incorporates all sorts of skills - critical thinking, creativity, presenting to an audience, etc.
Sharon Sheets gave a short demonstration of OneNote. This program is fairly standard with Windows-based computers and is part of the Microsoft Office suite in most cases. (Note: It may not come pre-loaded on the computer and may have to be downloaded from the original install CD.) Also, OneNote is available for Web access and for mobile devices. OneNote is basically taking the idea of a binder with sections and putting it into digital format. OneNote is searchable so you can easily find something you have documented. It has a drag and drop feature, can record video and audio, works with Outlook, can be shared using SkyDrive, etc. OneNote is great for teachers who can't make a meeting - simply record the meeting and the notes and then share the notebook with them at a later time. This is a very visual program - you can create a cell anywhere on a page to type and it has flexible formatting. You have the basic tools that come with most Microsoft Office products, so it is familiar and you don't have to teach new skills. Sheets suggested you start with something small, but to start right away. The more you use OneNote, the more comfortable you will be.
Microsoft Photostory is another product used by several schools. In this session, two teachers/media specialists gave some great ideas on how this could be used, even with young students. The one project which caught my attention was to write your own fairy tale. After discussing fairy tales, students create pictures in PowerPoint to use in Photostory later. Individual slides in PowerPoint can be saved as .jpg files. (You can also use pictures from the Web, but make sure you cover copyright and documenting resources with the students.) If it is easier, you can always get some pictures or drawings and have them in a centralized location for students to quickly grab and download. Once Photostory is opened, it's basically as simple as importing the pictures, putting captions on the pictures (if desired) and adding audio. (Note - the presenters suggested you use a headset with a microphone because the computer mic may pick up too much background noise, especially if you are in a computer lab setting working as individuals.) You can add music if you want, using the pre-loaded music of Photostory or by importing your own. (Again, watch copyright laws and documenting.) The end product results in a .wmv file which can then be shared and shown. An idea for cross-curricular collaboration is to have students get ideas and facts from their social studies class, write the script (story) in their language arts class, and then create their Photostory in their technology or media class.
Getting a broadcast going at a school is not easy, but the rewards are great! John Paul II Academy has been in existence for six years and as the school came together from three other schools, they had lots of equipment to piece together for a studio. The presenters gave various ideas on low or no cost equipment as well as information on making the broadcast work successfully. For example, there should be cue cards made for slowing down, speaking up, smiling, etc.; having the principal speak every Monday or Friday; have special guests come on Tuesdays or Thursdays (including both school staff and students and outside guests); using props for certain occasions or seasons (i.e. Mickey Mouse's birthday? Use a stuffed Mickey Mouse on the anchor desk). For their school, the broadcast is mainly an 8th grade effort and all 8th graders participate in some way throughout the year so everyone is on camera at least once. Another idea to get excitement for the next year is to take the 7th graders on a field trip to a nearby television station. If that won't work, see if someone from the television studio will visit your school to talk to the students. Also try to involve students who aren't normally involved in some other organization like band, sports teams, etc. Find students who might need this outlet of expression. One suggestion was to have a training day over the summer to prepare the next group for the next year. One of the attendees mentioned the Student Television Network which is a nationwide organization. They offer week-long camps in Springfield, Missouri, every summer. It takes more than one adult to run the broadcast. Make sure you cover everything in case someone is out due to illness, professional development, etc. Planning ahead saves a lot of time and effort.
Next week I'll return to Jim McKinney and continue my "series" on the KySTE Spring Conference sessions. Have a great week!
Barnes led a session on Machinima, the dominant video entertainment network for gamers around the world. Machinima uses real-time 3D computer graphics rendering engines to create cinematic productions. The basic steps to creating a film are writing (the script), preparing, rehearsing, capturing, editing, and publishing. There is a Machinima Toolkit 4 Teachers which can give you a lot of ideas, what you will need, general information, examples, and much more. For every expensive piece, Barnes had a free or very low cost solution. He suggested the book, Machinima for Dummies. There is so much to Machinima and the making of characters and such I cannot possibly cover it here, nor do I have enough knowledge or expertise in it to be very helpful since this session was my first exposure to it. However, it looks fun and would be very engaging for students, especially those interested in animation, graphics and film types of careers. Machine + Cinema = Machinima!
Amy Johns led a session called Paper Prototyping 101. Thinking about the game design process, Johns explained four ways to engage students in the creation of their own game - explore, discover, create and share. In the explore phase, students should talk about the different types of games that exist. (Board, video, card, etc.). Discuss what they like or dislike about the different games. Next, have the students discover different types by bringing in samples of appropriate games or pictures of people playing the games. Allow them to think about a topic for a game of their own. Third is the creation part. Students should make a paper prototype to put in front of others to "play test". This will help them identify holes in their design. Last is to share - each student or group should be given a few minutes to present their idea and design. This would mimic the actual sales pitch to an investor group or design company. It was very interesting to work in a small group of four attendees and come up with a game concept and paper prototype in just a few minutes. We developed a game for young children to help them identify words that rhyme. Our idea was to have it published as an app for the iPad or Android device. What a neat idea! This incorporates all sorts of skills - critical thinking, creativity, presenting to an audience, etc.
Sharon Sheets gave a short demonstration of OneNote. This program is fairly standard with Windows-based computers and is part of the Microsoft Office suite in most cases. (Note: It may not come pre-loaded on the computer and may have to be downloaded from the original install CD.) Also, OneNote is available for Web access and for mobile devices. OneNote is basically taking the idea of a binder with sections and putting it into digital format. OneNote is searchable so you can easily find something you have documented. It has a drag and drop feature, can record video and audio, works with Outlook, can be shared using SkyDrive, etc. OneNote is great for teachers who can't make a meeting - simply record the meeting and the notes and then share the notebook with them at a later time. This is a very visual program - you can create a cell anywhere on a page to type and it has flexible formatting. You have the basic tools that come with most Microsoft Office products, so it is familiar and you don't have to teach new skills. Sheets suggested you start with something small, but to start right away. The more you use OneNote, the more comfortable you will be.
Microsoft Photostory is another product used by several schools. In this session, two teachers/media specialists gave some great ideas on how this could be used, even with young students. The one project which caught my attention was to write your own fairy tale. After discussing fairy tales, students create pictures in PowerPoint to use in Photostory later. Individual slides in PowerPoint can be saved as .jpg files. (You can also use pictures from the Web, but make sure you cover copyright and documenting resources with the students.) If it is easier, you can always get some pictures or drawings and have them in a centralized location for students to quickly grab and download. Once Photostory is opened, it's basically as simple as importing the pictures, putting captions on the pictures (if desired) and adding audio. (Note - the presenters suggested you use a headset with a microphone because the computer mic may pick up too much background noise, especially if you are in a computer lab setting working as individuals.) You can add music if you want, using the pre-loaded music of Photostory or by importing your own. (Again, watch copyright laws and documenting.) The end product results in a .wmv file which can then be shared and shown. An idea for cross-curricular collaboration is to have students get ideas and facts from their social studies class, write the script (story) in their language arts class, and then create their Photostory in their technology or media class.
Getting a broadcast going at a school is not easy, but the rewards are great! John Paul II Academy has been in existence for six years and as the school came together from three other schools, they had lots of equipment to piece together for a studio. The presenters gave various ideas on low or no cost equipment as well as information on making the broadcast work successfully. For example, there should be cue cards made for slowing down, speaking up, smiling, etc.; having the principal speak every Monday or Friday; have special guests come on Tuesdays or Thursdays (including both school staff and students and outside guests); using props for certain occasions or seasons (i.e. Mickey Mouse's birthday? Use a stuffed Mickey Mouse on the anchor desk). For their school, the broadcast is mainly an 8th grade effort and all 8th graders participate in some way throughout the year so everyone is on camera at least once. Another idea to get excitement for the next year is to take the 7th graders on a field trip to a nearby television station. If that won't work, see if someone from the television studio will visit your school to talk to the students. Also try to involve students who aren't normally involved in some other organization like band, sports teams, etc. Find students who might need this outlet of expression. One suggestion was to have a training day over the summer to prepare the next group for the next year. One of the attendees mentioned the Student Television Network which is a nationwide organization. They offer week-long camps in Springfield, Missouri, every summer. It takes more than one adult to run the broadcast. Make sure you cover everything in case someone is out due to illness, professional development, etc. Planning ahead saves a lot of time and effort.
Next week I'll return to Jim McKinney and continue my "series" on the KySTE Spring Conference sessions. Have a great week!
26 March 2012
Today's entry might be a little longer than usual because I want to start giving some information about what I learned at the KySTE Spring Conference. I attended so many wonderful sessions and hope some of what I learned will be of value to you.
I attended the pre-conference workshop day and took the TIS/TRT strand. The first session was a panel discussion on "Surviving the TIS/TRT Experience". Most of the schools, big or small, are finding the same difficulties and the same successes, so that was good to hear. We're all in the same big boat apparently! One of the issues mentioned was keeping students focused and one of the panelists said we should never forget we're in the business of educating students, not promoting technology. Also, it is important teachers and technicians work together - technicians must understand the classroom, not just the technology side. One other important point was we should train teachers first so they feel very comfortable with using the technology before they try to use it with students. One idea was to allow the technician to co-teach a lesson integrating technology, not just allow the TIS or TRT to co-teach. Another idea was to consider having short PDs twice a month - offering a single-focus training each time. For example, have an after-school session on document cameras or have a before-school session on a spreadsheet program with the focus of making charts. Another panelist mentioned administrators should also be using and modeling technology. Otherwise, how can they do walkthroughs and evaluations appropriately? An emphasis was to not just give staff a Website or tech tool and leave them on their own, but rather to show them how and where they can use it. My thought after this session was "sit and get" which is an old adage which implies the person actually "gets" what we are teaching. Instead, what we usually do in technology is "show and go" - we tend to show them a cool tool and them leave them on their own. One last thought for this session was to let the instruction and curriculum drive the selection of the tech tool you use, not the reverse. Too many of us are getting on the bandwagon and purchasing the latest and greatest tech tool and then don't have a way to utilize them fully and they end up in a closet or corner somewhere. So, be careful what you purchase and make sure you have a solid purpose for the purchase. Don't just buy the tool because it's cool!
The second session was on comparison shopping and many hand-held and personal devices were discussed. There are so many to choose from and pros and cons of each were given. Again, though, the emphasis was on considering the apps and features you want before you buy. The suggestion was to talk with teachers about what they want to do and then purchase the most appropriate device.
The third session was on social networking and the dangers of having too much information available online. Jim McKinney was the presenter and he was so interesting, I decided to take two more sessions from him. I will reserve that information for next week's blog entry.
The last session of the day was a tech resource smackdown. Various people showed quick Websites and apps. I will end this week's entry with some of those tools:
Isle of Tune - This is a universal app for the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and can also be played online. The descripion says "Create musical journeys from street layouts. Roadside elements are your instruments and cars are the players." You can browse shared tunes others have created or create an island all your own. I would suggest you take a look at some of the shared tunes to start to give you some ideas of what can be done. This would be a great app/site to use in a music classroom!
TourWrist - Have you ever wished you could take a panoramic shot of something but didn't have the special camera or lens to do so? Now you can! You can shoot panoramas with your phone or camera. They have a video which shows you how it works. It really is fascinating. I haven't had time to really explore this in depth, but from what I understand the general idea is that you take lots of photos and they are then seamlessly put together to make a panoramic view - all around, up and down. Neat!
OnLive Desktop - Unleash your Tablet. This is what the Website says as it offers both an iPad app and an Android app. Supposedly you can create and revise Microsoft Office (r) elements like PowerPoint(r) and Word(r). Again, I haven't had time to get this app and see what it's all about, but if it does what it says, it could prove to be an invaluable tool. (Hint: You must go the actual Website and create an account there before you can access the app.)
ClassDojo - This claims to be real-time behavior management. According to the site, you can improve student behavior and engagement by awarding and recording real-time feedback. You can print or e-mail behavior reports to easily engage parents and staff. Save time by recording behaviors and accomplishments right in class with just one click. Once you register (it's free), you can take a tour of how it works, using a demo class. Remember the old method of putting a name on the board and putting hash marks as the day progressed? This is an online version. You can set up your class and then award either positive or negative marks. For example, under positive you can award a point for Participation, Helping others, Creativity, Great insight, Hard work or Presentation. Under negative you can subtract a point for Disruption, Late, No homework, Disrespect, Interrupting or Out of chair. If you have a smartphone, tablet or iPod Touch, you can use the device as a remote control which allows you to award points from anywhere. The most interesting aspect of this to me is the Report Cards feature. When you finish the day (or the class), you can go to this section and see a visual of positive/negative performance overall for the entire class (no names). This could really be a incentive if you were going to reward an entire class in some way - for example, if we have 90% positive awards, we'll not have math homework on Friday this week. You can also e-mail the report cards to the parents of individual students by entering their e-mail addresses.
HowJSay - A free online talking dictionary of English pronunciation. Simply type in a word and hear the pronunciation. I tried to stump it by entering "supercalifragilistic" and it worked! Pretty neat tool, especially for English language learners.
These are just a few of the apps and sites mentioned and hopefully you will find something you can use in your classroom. Have a great week and I look forward to sharing information from the sessions by Jim McKinney next week. I will leave you with a couple of quotes from Scott McLeod who was the guest speaker for the conference . . .
I attended the pre-conference workshop day and took the TIS/TRT strand. The first session was a panel discussion on "Surviving the TIS/TRT Experience". Most of the schools, big or small, are finding the same difficulties and the same successes, so that was good to hear. We're all in the same big boat apparently! One of the issues mentioned was keeping students focused and one of the panelists said we should never forget we're in the business of educating students, not promoting technology. Also, it is important teachers and technicians work together - technicians must understand the classroom, not just the technology side. One other important point was we should train teachers first so they feel very comfortable with using the technology before they try to use it with students. One idea was to allow the technician to co-teach a lesson integrating technology, not just allow the TIS or TRT to co-teach. Another idea was to consider having short PDs twice a month - offering a single-focus training each time. For example, have an after-school session on document cameras or have a before-school session on a spreadsheet program with the focus of making charts. Another panelist mentioned administrators should also be using and modeling technology. Otherwise, how can they do walkthroughs and evaluations appropriately? An emphasis was to not just give staff a Website or tech tool and leave them on their own, but rather to show them how and where they can use it. My thought after this session was "sit and get" which is an old adage which implies the person actually "gets" what we are teaching. Instead, what we usually do in technology is "show and go" - we tend to show them a cool tool and them leave them on their own. One last thought for this session was to let the instruction and curriculum drive the selection of the tech tool you use, not the reverse. Too many of us are getting on the bandwagon and purchasing the latest and greatest tech tool and then don't have a way to utilize them fully and they end up in a closet or corner somewhere. So, be careful what you purchase and make sure you have a solid purpose for the purchase. Don't just buy the tool because it's cool!
The second session was on comparison shopping and many hand-held and personal devices were discussed. There are so many to choose from and pros and cons of each were given. Again, though, the emphasis was on considering the apps and features you want before you buy. The suggestion was to talk with teachers about what they want to do and then purchase the most appropriate device.
The third session was on social networking and the dangers of having too much information available online. Jim McKinney was the presenter and he was so interesting, I decided to take two more sessions from him. I will reserve that information for next week's blog entry.
The last session of the day was a tech resource smackdown. Various people showed quick Websites and apps. I will end this week's entry with some of those tools:
Isle of Tune - This is a universal app for the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and can also be played online. The descripion says "Create musical journeys from street layouts. Roadside elements are your instruments and cars are the players." You can browse shared tunes others have created or create an island all your own. I would suggest you take a look at some of the shared tunes to start to give you some ideas of what can be done. This would be a great app/site to use in a music classroom!
TourWrist - Have you ever wished you could take a panoramic shot of something but didn't have the special camera or lens to do so? Now you can! You can shoot panoramas with your phone or camera. They have a video which shows you how it works. It really is fascinating. I haven't had time to really explore this in depth, but from what I understand the general idea is that you take lots of photos and they are then seamlessly put together to make a panoramic view - all around, up and down. Neat!
OnLive Desktop - Unleash your Tablet. This is what the Website says as it offers both an iPad app and an Android app. Supposedly you can create and revise Microsoft Office (r) elements like PowerPoint(r) and Word(r). Again, I haven't had time to get this app and see what it's all about, but if it does what it says, it could prove to be an invaluable tool. (Hint: You must go the actual Website and create an account there before you can access the app.)
ClassDojo - This claims to be real-time behavior management. According to the site, you can improve student behavior and engagement by awarding and recording real-time feedback. You can print or e-mail behavior reports to easily engage parents and staff. Save time by recording behaviors and accomplishments right in class with just one click. Once you register (it's free), you can take a tour of how it works, using a demo class. Remember the old method of putting a name on the board and putting hash marks as the day progressed? This is an online version. You can set up your class and then award either positive or negative marks. For example, under positive you can award a point for Participation, Helping others, Creativity, Great insight, Hard work or Presentation. Under negative you can subtract a point for Disruption, Late, No homework, Disrespect, Interrupting or Out of chair. If you have a smartphone, tablet or iPod Touch, you can use the device as a remote control which allows you to award points from anywhere. The most interesting aspect of this to me is the Report Cards feature. When you finish the day (or the class), you can go to this section and see a visual of positive/negative performance overall for the entire class (no names). This could really be a incentive if you were going to reward an entire class in some way - for example, if we have 90% positive awards, we'll not have math homework on Friday this week. You can also e-mail the report cards to the parents of individual students by entering their e-mail addresses.
HowJSay - A free online talking dictionary of English pronunciation. Simply type in a word and hear the pronunciation. I tried to stump it by entering "supercalifragilistic" and it worked! Pretty neat tool, especially for English language learners.
These are just a few of the apps and sites mentioned and hopefully you will find something you can use in your classroom. Have a great week and I look forward to sharing information from the sessions by Jim McKinney next week. I will leave you with a couple of quotes from Scott McLeod who was the guest speaker for the conference . . .
We used to be passive receivers, now we're active producers.
What once was local is now global.
What once was local is now global.
19 March 2012
Just FYI - Infinite Campus has announced some new hands-on virtual labs which are now available. To access them, you'll need to login to the Campus Community. (You can also find the link on the Staff Resources page of the Caldwell County Schools site.) If you already have an account, simply login. If not, you can click the link labeled "No CampusID?" and follow the instructions to register. When you login, look for the Knowledge Base link on the top menu bar and then click on Hands-On Virtual Labs on the left menu. You will then see information about the labs and should notice the following are available: Attendance Clerk, Nurse/Health Clerk, Principal, Register (District Edition), Register (State Edition Linked), and Teacher. Check them out soon!
12 March 2012
I have returned home from another good conference. The KySTE (Kentucky Society for Technology in Education) spring conference was held in Louisville March 7-9. As usual, the conference was full of interesting sessions and terrific people from all across the state. KySTE is a membership-based organization but their membership fee is very low compared to other professional organizations - if you are interested in learning more about them, go to the KySTE Website. Their membership year runs from July 1 through June 30 and is only $25. You receive complete access to the site, as well as conference discounts (they have a one-day event in the fall and a two- or three-day even in the spring). Also if you want to look over some of the resources posted from this year's spring conference, you can click here. Even if you didn't get to attend the conference, you might find some session titles which interest you and the resources may be enough to get you started.
Because I was gone for three days last week, I am playing catch-up this week, so this blog entry will be short and sweet. I hope to get all my notes organized sometime in the near future and will be sharing information I learned at the KySTE conference through this blog. So, check back next week!
I will leave you with something one of the STLP students told me in a hallway while waiting for a session to begin . . . "The past, the present, and the future walked into a bar. It was tense."
Because I was gone for three days last week, I am playing catch-up this week, so this blog entry will be short and sweet. I hope to get all my notes organized sometime in the near future and will be sharing information I learned at the KySTE conference through this blog. So, check back next week!
I will leave you with something one of the STLP students told me in a hallway while waiting for a session to begin . . . "The past, the present, and the future walked into a bar. It was tense."
05 March 2012
Did you miss me last week? I can't seem to get over this "Kentucky Krud" as some would call it. Doctors and nurses will tell you not to be around others until you are fever-free for at least 24 hours. That's hard to do in some cases, because you might feel okay, but still have a fever. With all the changes in the atmosphere lately, it's no wonder my head and body have had difficulty adjusting. I may be getting to the point where I am allergic to the atmosphere here in West Kentucky just as I was diagnosed in Oklahoma. (That's another story for another time.) Anyway, I am dealing with the dizziness and the low-grade temps from day to day. I hope this week finds you in good spirits and good health!
This week will be an interesting and fun week for me. I will be attending the KySTE Conference for three days and even have the opportunity to present one of the sessions and facilitate another. I am excited about my session on the Thinkfinity Community. As I work on my Ed.D. online, I find it essential to have contact with others through an online format. The Thinkfinity Community provides this for Kentucky teachers FREE of charge! You can't beat that deal! The attendees of the session will go away with their Community account established and information on how to connect with colleagues. The session I am facilitating is on the Digital Divide. What I hope to find through the session is how districts across the state are dealing with the "haves" and "have nots". With all the emphasis on integrating technology, my concern is with those districts who cannot afford one-to-one projects and what we are doing to ensure all students have access to the technology they need to complete assignments and learn. In this day and age, we'd like to think we are far removed from the one-computer classroom, but that is not always the case. I'm looking forward to seeing what other districts are doing in this area of integrating technology.
I have been seeing lots of "smackdown" sessions about technology, both online and on site. What "smackdown" generally means is to give you as much information as possible in the shortest amount of time possible. For example, I've attended a Webinar about 20 tech tools in 20 minutes and just last week saw a Webinar given by Kathy Schrock which included 60 tech tools in an hour. So, to me, a "smackdown" is giving information at the rate of one tech tool per minute. Since I don't know how long it takes you to read through my blog entries, I'm going to assume you will go through these suggestions at your leisure and not feel like you have to get through each one in one minute! :-)
Here are some links for you to try this week and in the spirit of the "smackdown", I'm just going to include a quick link to many Web sites and a quick statement about what they are:
3 Shots to Caffeinate your Presentations - three concrete tips for improving presentations
All My Faves - a quick and visual way to organize your favorite Web links
The American Journey - a video series which corresponds to Glencoe publishing, but free and available to all
Appitic - a directory of apps for education by Apple Distinguished Educators
Apples 4 the Teacher - educational resources for teachers and kids, pre-K - Grade 6
Biddle's Bytes - a blog which provides awesome tools and resources to support integrating technology
Bloomin' Apps - apps which support Bloom's Revised Taxonomy
BrainPop GameUp - a great place for educational games with lesson ideas
CK-12 Flexbooks - a selection of textbooks on many subjects, to view online
Conduit Mobile - a method of creating free mobile apps for all the major devices, no coding required
CuePrompter - an online teleprompter
Education Collection - lots of tools for teachers, including templates for Microsoft products
EduCreations - create and share great video lesson on an iPad or in a Web browser
Edutopia - K-5 iPad Apps - a blog which contains apps appropriate for K-5
Exploratree - ready-made thinking guides/graphic organizers (United Kingdom)
Gimme 5 Games - educational games, including physics puzzles
History Pin - an interesting way to "pin" historical and current pictures to places on a map
iLearn Technology - another blog on integrating technology into the classroom
JellyCam - make stop-motion films with a Webcam or photos
Kideos - videos for kids
Learn It In 5 - how-to videos for the technology classroom
Microsoft Office Web Apps - using SkyDrive, access, edit and share your documents and presentations online
Mission US - an interactive way to learn history; 2 missions now available (Revolution and slavery/Civil War)
My Name My Story - stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things
NBC Learn - time-saving tools and standards-aligned content for teachers and students
K-6 Learning Center - a learning portal by Ottawa Hills Schools
PaperRater - offers free grammar and spelling check, proofreading, plagiarism detection and more
ParentLink - a notification/communication system
Pencil - an animation/drawing program for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
Planbook - an online storehouse for lesson plans, simple to create and accessible anywhere
Schoology - a way to manage lessons, engage students, share content and much more
Science360 - videos about various topics in science
SlideRocket - a different kind of presentation offered for students and educators
Smore - design beautiful online flyers and publish instantly
SoundCloud - capture a voice, moment or music in seconds and upload audio you've already created
Studyladder - a mathematics and literacy program developed by educators (elementary/middle school)
Stykz - a multi-platform stick figure animation program
TagMyDoc -a new way to share documents; allows you to apply a QR code tag to your document
Teachers Pet - many resources for younger students and links to teaching ideas and resources (United Kingdom)
ThinkB4U - information about Internet safety and privacy
I hope you will find something among these links which will help you and your students in some way. Enjoy your week!
This week will be an interesting and fun week for me. I will be attending the KySTE Conference for three days and even have the opportunity to present one of the sessions and facilitate another. I am excited about my session on the Thinkfinity Community. As I work on my Ed.D. online, I find it essential to have contact with others through an online format. The Thinkfinity Community provides this for Kentucky teachers FREE of charge! You can't beat that deal! The attendees of the session will go away with their Community account established and information on how to connect with colleagues. The session I am facilitating is on the Digital Divide. What I hope to find through the session is how districts across the state are dealing with the "haves" and "have nots". With all the emphasis on integrating technology, my concern is with those districts who cannot afford one-to-one projects and what we are doing to ensure all students have access to the technology they need to complete assignments and learn. In this day and age, we'd like to think we are far removed from the one-computer classroom, but that is not always the case. I'm looking forward to seeing what other districts are doing in this area of integrating technology.
I have been seeing lots of "smackdown" sessions about technology, both online and on site. What "smackdown" generally means is to give you as much information as possible in the shortest amount of time possible. For example, I've attended a Webinar about 20 tech tools in 20 minutes and just last week saw a Webinar given by Kathy Schrock which included 60 tech tools in an hour. So, to me, a "smackdown" is giving information at the rate of one tech tool per minute. Since I don't know how long it takes you to read through my blog entries, I'm going to assume you will go through these suggestions at your leisure and not feel like you have to get through each one in one minute! :-)
Here are some links for you to try this week and in the spirit of the "smackdown", I'm just going to include a quick link to many Web sites and a quick statement about what they are:
3 Shots to Caffeinate your Presentations - three concrete tips for improving presentations
All My Faves - a quick and visual way to organize your favorite Web links
The American Journey - a video series which corresponds to Glencoe publishing, but free and available to all
Appitic - a directory of apps for education by Apple Distinguished Educators
Apples 4 the Teacher - educational resources for teachers and kids, pre-K - Grade 6
Biddle's Bytes - a blog which provides awesome tools and resources to support integrating technology
Bloomin' Apps - apps which support Bloom's Revised Taxonomy
BrainPop GameUp - a great place for educational games with lesson ideas
CK-12 Flexbooks - a selection of textbooks on many subjects, to view online
Conduit Mobile - a method of creating free mobile apps for all the major devices, no coding required
CuePrompter - an online teleprompter
Education Collection - lots of tools for teachers, including templates for Microsoft products
EduCreations - create and share great video lesson on an iPad or in a Web browser
Edutopia - K-5 iPad Apps - a blog which contains apps appropriate for K-5
Exploratree - ready-made thinking guides/graphic organizers (United Kingdom)
Gimme 5 Games - educational games, including physics puzzles
History Pin - an interesting way to "pin" historical and current pictures to places on a map
iLearn Technology - another blog on integrating technology into the classroom
JellyCam - make stop-motion films with a Webcam or photos
Kideos - videos for kids
Learn It In 5 - how-to videos for the technology classroom
Microsoft Office Web Apps - using SkyDrive, access, edit and share your documents and presentations online
Mission US - an interactive way to learn history; 2 missions now available (Revolution and slavery/Civil War)
My Name My Story - stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things
NBC Learn - time-saving tools and standards-aligned content for teachers and students
K-6 Learning Center - a learning portal by Ottawa Hills Schools
PaperRater - offers free grammar and spelling check, proofreading, plagiarism detection and more
ParentLink - a notification/communication system
Pencil - an animation/drawing program for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
Planbook - an online storehouse for lesson plans, simple to create and accessible anywhere
Schoology - a way to manage lessons, engage students, share content and much more
Science360 - videos about various topics in science
SlideRocket - a different kind of presentation offered for students and educators
Smore - design beautiful online flyers and publish instantly
SoundCloud - capture a voice, moment or music in seconds and upload audio you've already created
Studyladder - a mathematics and literacy program developed by educators (elementary/middle school)
Stykz - a multi-platform stick figure animation program
TagMyDoc -a new way to share documents; allows you to apply a QR code tag to your document
Teachers Pet - many resources for younger students and links to teaching ideas and resources (United Kingdom)
ThinkB4U - information about Internet safety and privacy
I hope you will find something among these links which will help you and your students in some way. Enjoy your week!
21 February 2012
Finances
I know the issue of finances is not an easy one to tackle, but with the economy the way it is today, we need to be even more diligent about teaching our young people how to handle money. It truly bothers me whenever I go to a store or restaurant and realize the person taking my order does not have the skills to count out the change without trying to rely on what a computerized register is telling them. Have you ever been in such a place and have the electricity go out? I actually was in a gift shop once after a thunderstorm and they said they could not sell anything because they didn't have their registers working. I was surprised - all you had to do was calculate the cost of the item(s), multiply by .06 to get the Kentucky state sales tax, and add it all together for the total bill. Taking the money and counting back any change should not have been an issue. Because they couldn't handle doing it all "by hand" (or "by mind", as I like to think of it), they totally shut down and missed out on quite a few sales. I've been concerned about the state of our economy and the lack of financial skills (and just basic math skills) of our citizens ever since.
Here is a Website dedicated to financial literacy for everyone. Practical Money Skills for Life has all sorts of free materials to help anyone understand finance. But the best part is the section developed just for educators. Teachers can find free lesson plans and educational games for classroom use for students all the way through college age. Another advantage to the site is being able to take their lessons and match them with state standards.
Using games to help teach financial skills is well-researched. According to the site, in the early 20th century scholars like Swiss philosopher Jean Piaget began challenging the notion play was considered a diversion rather than a means for education. Piaget found the way kids play evolves as they grow older and his work helped transform education to a more child-centered approach. Other researchers have found children have always learned through play "and today, digital media has resulted in increasingly ore sophisticated games that can engage youth while at the same time encouraging learning." (Donnini, L., Miller, K., and Walker, K.) Several games are available for free on the site - Financial Soccer, Financial Football, Money Metropolis, and Peter Pig's Money Counter. Some of the games are available for SmartPhones, too. Some are downloadable and others are played right on the site.
If you are concerned about teaching financial skills, then the Practical Money Skills for LIfe Webite is for you! Check it out soon!
Here is a Website dedicated to financial literacy for everyone. Practical Money Skills for Life has all sorts of free materials to help anyone understand finance. But the best part is the section developed just for educators. Teachers can find free lesson plans and educational games for classroom use for students all the way through college age. Another advantage to the site is being able to take their lessons and match them with state standards.
Using games to help teach financial skills is well-researched. According to the site, in the early 20th century scholars like Swiss philosopher Jean Piaget began challenging the notion play was considered a diversion rather than a means for education. Piaget found the way kids play evolves as they grow older and his work helped transform education to a more child-centered approach. Other researchers have found children have always learned through play "and today, digital media has resulted in increasingly ore sophisticated games that can engage youth while at the same time encouraging learning." (Donnini, L., Miller, K., and Walker, K.) Several games are available for free on the site - Financial Soccer, Financial Football, Money Metropolis, and Peter Pig's Money Counter. Some of the games are available for SmartPhones, too. Some are downloadable and others are played right on the site.
If you are concerned about teaching financial skills, then the Practical Money Skills for LIfe Webite is for you! Check it out soon!
13 February 2012
Every school today is in the business of educating students to become college and career ready. In order to do that, we must teach them 21st Century Skills. Here are some links to help:
1. 21 Things for Students - Created by a grant from the REMC Association of Michigan, this site was developed by teachers and instructional technology specialists. There are many links on the menu which might be of interest: Troubleshooting, Digital Footprint, Digital Citizenship, Be Legal & Fair, Search Strategies, Digital Images, Buyer Beware, Powerful Presentations, and much, much more! Many of the links include videos and activities to be completed.
2. 21 Things for Administrators - This site is based on the National Educational Technology Standards for Administrators. It contains basic tutorials, virtual sessions, hands-on activities, and links to resources. The "21 Things" include areas like differentiated instruction, digital images, content area tools, digital citizenship, online learning, staying organized and portable mobile administration.
3. 21 Things for the 21st Century Educator - This site follow the same format as the two mentioned above, only the focus is on teachers.
4. Compelling eLearning for K-12 Educators - This site offers free professional development you can take anytime, anywhere. Titles include "Thinking Critically with Data", "Educational Leadership in the 21st Century", and "Collaboration in the Digital Classroom". Also, check this site for additional tools and information.
5. Cool Tools for Schools - This Wikispace is maintained by Lenva Shearing and includes all sorts of Web 2.0 tools in areas like slideshows, audio, drawing, writing, music, mapping, graphing and file storage. There's also a page filled with resource links for teachers. A new section of the site under construction is the Cool Apps for Schools - take a look at the different apps Shearing is posting and see how they can be used with your students.
6. Dan King - This is a little different from most, but you can start by clicking on the iPad picture to see a site with all sorts of app resource links. Or, click on the Google icon to see links to all sorts of information and instructions on the use of Google products. Or, click on the Web 2.0 icon to see a table of different Web 2.0 tools you might want to explore.
7. Naomi Harm - Another great resource is this blog which includes entries about all sorts of technology. One entry which caught my attention was the one on January 31st about 20 innovative ways high schools are using Twitter. Another was the entry on January 28th about Infographics (see example graphic above).
8. UDL Tech Toolkit - Universal Design for Learning, or UDL, is a set a principles for curriculum development that give all individuals equal opportunities to learn. This toolkit was developed to provide links to resources, the majority of them free, to help all students. On the left menu are items like Text to Speech, Graphic Organizers, Study Skills, etc.
Maybe some of these links will provide you with resources to help your students (and yourself) become a true 21st Century learner!
1. 21 Things for Students - Created by a grant from the REMC Association of Michigan, this site was developed by teachers and instructional technology specialists. There are many links on the menu which might be of interest: Troubleshooting, Digital Footprint, Digital Citizenship, Be Legal & Fair, Search Strategies, Digital Images, Buyer Beware, Powerful Presentations, and much, much more! Many of the links include videos and activities to be completed.
2. 21 Things for Administrators - This site is based on the National Educational Technology Standards for Administrators. It contains basic tutorials, virtual sessions, hands-on activities, and links to resources. The "21 Things" include areas like differentiated instruction, digital images, content area tools, digital citizenship, online learning, staying organized and portable mobile administration.
3. 21 Things for the 21st Century Educator - This site follow the same format as the two mentioned above, only the focus is on teachers.
4. Compelling eLearning for K-12 Educators - This site offers free professional development you can take anytime, anywhere. Titles include "Thinking Critically with Data", "Educational Leadership in the 21st Century", and "Collaboration in the Digital Classroom". Also, check this site for additional tools and information.
5. Cool Tools for Schools - This Wikispace is maintained by Lenva Shearing and includes all sorts of Web 2.0 tools in areas like slideshows, audio, drawing, writing, music, mapping, graphing and file storage. There's also a page filled with resource links for teachers. A new section of the site under construction is the Cool Apps for Schools - take a look at the different apps Shearing is posting and see how they can be used with your students.
6. Dan King - This is a little different from most, but you can start by clicking on the iPad picture to see a site with all sorts of app resource links. Or, click on the Google icon to see links to all sorts of information and instructions on the use of Google products. Or, click on the Web 2.0 icon to see a table of different Web 2.0 tools you might want to explore.
7. Naomi Harm - Another great resource is this blog which includes entries about all sorts of technology. One entry which caught my attention was the one on January 31st about 20 innovative ways high schools are using Twitter. Another was the entry on January 28th about Infographics (see example graphic above).
8. UDL Tech Toolkit - Universal Design for Learning, or UDL, is a set a principles for curriculum development that give all individuals equal opportunities to learn. This toolkit was developed to provide links to resources, the majority of them free, to help all students. On the left menu are items like Text to Speech, Graphic Organizers, Study Skills, etc.
Maybe some of these links will provide you with resources to help your students (and yourself) become a true 21st Century learner!
06 February 2012
Last week I shared some information from Shannon Holden, the founder of New Teacher Help. Continuing on the ideas he provided for new teachers, this week's blog entry is about documentation. Of course, many of us veteran teachers can also gain a lot of insight from Holden's suggestions, too!
"The most important thing that you can do as a new teacher to cover yourself is to document as much as possible."
1. Keep basic student information in a spreadsheet or database format. Include the student's full name, address, phone number, parent information (names, phones), e-mail addresses and any other vital information (such as food allergies).
2. Keep a behavior spreadsheet or database. Include the student's name, the date the behavior occurred (Note - this can be good or bad behavior), what happened, and the actions you took to modify the behavior if necessary.
3. Keep copies of discipline referrals to the office. If possible, scan them so you can keep them digitally. Attach these referrals to the behavior spreadsheet or database you are keeping.
4. Keep samples of student work. Again, if it is possible, scan the work so you can keep it digitally. (Be sure to get permission from the student and/or guardian if you want to publicize the work in any way, especially online.)
5. Keep a contact log. Include the person you contacted and the method (home, cell, work phones; e-mail) and the basic information about why you contacted them. Don't forget to include information if you don't reach anyone, too. For example, list if you left a message on an answering machine or voice mail, if you left a message with another family member (older brother or sister, grandparent, etc.), if you got a busy signal, if you did not get a return receipt on an e-mail, etc.
6. Keep a spreadsheet of dates and times you spent at extracurricular activities. For example, "Football game ticket taker - August 3rd - 5 to 8 p.m." or "School dance - February 14th - 6 to 10 p.m."
7. Keep a log of tutoring. If you help students before school or after school or at other times, document the student(s), the date, the time and the subject matter or specific lesson. You might also want to include times you offered your services but had no "takers". This might come in handy when a parent says their student needed extra help but didn't receive it. You can let them know all the dates and times you made yourself available.
8. Keep a professional development log. List all sessions, dates, times, trainers/instructors, etc. If you have certificates of completion, scan those and keep a digital copy or at the very least, place them in an easily accessible notebook.
9. If you have a Website, periodically take a screenshot of the information you have posted and save it digitally. Also keep a digital copy of any materials you post.
10. People are forgetful - consider keeping notes of faculty meetings, professional development, professional learning community meetings, parent/guardian conferences, etc. Simply type a quick paragraph or two in a word processing program and save digitally.
11. Consider keeping a digital copy of student progress reports throughout the year.
12. Consider keeping a digital textbook/book issue sheet. Include the name of the student, the name of the book, the number of the book if applicable, and the date the book was issued to the student. Include a separate area for the date the book was returned.
According to Holden, the moral of this story is "There is NO substitute for documentation!" Even though it looks like a long list, if it is all kept digitally, it doesn't take too long to enter or scan the information. And, remember, documentation has saved many a career, so it's invaluable.
Have a great week!
"The most important thing that you can do as a new teacher to cover yourself is to document as much as possible."
1. Keep basic student information in a spreadsheet or database format. Include the student's full name, address, phone number, parent information (names, phones), e-mail addresses and any other vital information (such as food allergies).
2. Keep a behavior spreadsheet or database. Include the student's name, the date the behavior occurred (Note - this can be good or bad behavior), what happened, and the actions you took to modify the behavior if necessary.
3. Keep copies of discipline referrals to the office. If possible, scan them so you can keep them digitally. Attach these referrals to the behavior spreadsheet or database you are keeping.
4. Keep samples of student work. Again, if it is possible, scan the work so you can keep it digitally. (Be sure to get permission from the student and/or guardian if you want to publicize the work in any way, especially online.)
5. Keep a contact log. Include the person you contacted and the method (home, cell, work phones; e-mail) and the basic information about why you contacted them. Don't forget to include information if you don't reach anyone, too. For example, list if you left a message on an answering machine or voice mail, if you left a message with another family member (older brother or sister, grandparent, etc.), if you got a busy signal, if you did not get a return receipt on an e-mail, etc.
6. Keep a spreadsheet of dates and times you spent at extracurricular activities. For example, "Football game ticket taker - August 3rd - 5 to 8 p.m." or "School dance - February 14th - 6 to 10 p.m."
7. Keep a log of tutoring. If you help students before school or after school or at other times, document the student(s), the date, the time and the subject matter or specific lesson. You might also want to include times you offered your services but had no "takers". This might come in handy when a parent says their student needed extra help but didn't receive it. You can let them know all the dates and times you made yourself available.
8. Keep a professional development log. List all sessions, dates, times, trainers/instructors, etc. If you have certificates of completion, scan those and keep a digital copy or at the very least, place them in an easily accessible notebook.
9. If you have a Website, periodically take a screenshot of the information you have posted and save it digitally. Also keep a digital copy of any materials you post.
10. People are forgetful - consider keeping notes of faculty meetings, professional development, professional learning community meetings, parent/guardian conferences, etc. Simply type a quick paragraph or two in a word processing program and save digitally.
11. Consider keeping a digital copy of student progress reports throughout the year.
12. Consider keeping a digital textbook/book issue sheet. Include the name of the student, the name of the book, the number of the book if applicable, and the date the book was issued to the student. Include a separate area for the date the book was returned.
According to Holden, the moral of this story is "There is NO substitute for documentation!" Even though it looks like a long list, if it is all kept digitally, it doesn't take too long to enter or scan the information. And, remember, documentation has saved many a career, so it's invaluable.
Have a great week!
30 January 2012
Shannon J. Holden is the founder of New Teacher Help, which provides information for new teachers to help them be successful, especially in those first few crucial years. However, it never hurts for "old" teachers to review some of the tips and tricks of the trade! On the Website, Holden gives free access to many helpful tools and one I found particularly interesting was the information on "Lines of Communication".
Holden states unsuccessful students thrive on the lack of communication between the adults in their lives. With that in mind, he gives the new teacher several methods of communication and explanations for how each either works well or not.
*Letter sent home – The least effective form of communication, especially if you send the note home with the student. Mailing the letter home costs you money for a stamp, and will be thrown away if the student is the one who checks the mailbox every day.
*Phone call (home phone) – Effective if you reach the parent…but effectiveness goes way down if you leave a message on the answering machine. Kids check the messages before their parents get home, and your message is “accidentally” erased.
*Phone call (parent’s cell phone) – Effective if you reach the parent, and leaving messages are just as effective because parents rarely let their kids check the messages on their cell.
*Parent conference – Effective when you can get parents to come to the school. Some parents will make appointments to see you, then have “something come up” to cancel the meeting.
*Email – My favorite mode of communication. You can say everything you want to say without being interrupted…and you can print out the email to put in your files. Perfect! Well…almost perfect, as parents can use the old “I didn’t get your email” excuse.
*Text message – Many teachers are using text messaging to keep in touch with parents. You don’t have to use your phone…set up a free email account with Yahoo! and use their “texting” feature on your home or school computer! Simply type the parent’s cell phone number in the address line, then type your message in the box and hit “send”.
*District ListServ – My district has an apparatus to text message parents in the event of an emergency, school closing due to weather, or other important event. Students and parents sign up for the service, which opens up an opportunity for you to access those important cell phone numbers for your professional use.
*Teacher Website – There is no substitute for the teacher Website. You can post educational video clips that you download, you can post educational podcasts that you can download from any of 20 different sites…and all of this material is FREE! You can also post a calendar with information such as assignment due dates, lesson notes, and other valuable information. Most teachers will say that they do not have the time to build and update a Website. The reality is that having an UPDATED teacher Website saves you tons of time answering student and parent questions over and over.
*Computerized grade program with parent access – This may be hard to believe, but there are parents that do not fill out the proper forms to gain access to their student’s grades via the school’s computerized grade program. Find a way to give an incentive to students whose parents sign up for access. Remind them to write down their user name and password or you’ll be getting phone calls from parents who forget!
*Progress reports/report cards – Many of these are accidentally lost on the way home from school. The only way that progress reports/report cards are effective is if the students are required to bring SIGNED reports back to school the next day, or be subject to a parent phone call.
*Student planner – The person who thought of this idea was well-intentioned, but the planner is a microcosm of how the lines of communication can break down. Here’s how the planner works: The teacher provides material (lesson objective & assignment) for the students to copy in their planner, the student is to faithfully put the objective and assignment for each class in the planner and take it home to be seen by their parents. The parents must check the planner every night, and sign the planner once a week. The student is to bring the planner back to class, where it is checked by the teacher to make sure that the message is making it home. That’s a lot of moving parts! If just one of the people involved (student, teacher, or parent) fail to live up to their responsibility, the system breaks down. What makes the failure even harder to swallow is that the school bought the planners (at a cost of approximately $3 per student)…what a waste of money!
You probably noticed I highlighted one sentence of Holden's statements. For parents and students who have Internet access, building a useable teacher Website is a wonderful way to keep everyone up-to-date and informed. Many teachers have also considered using social media as a way to communicate. However, Holden says:
Facebook/MySpace/Twitter - These social networking sites can be a valuable tool for educators...or a recipe for disaster! Be careful about using these sites, "friending" your students, or posting unprofessional material on a page. (For a list of about 100 teachers who have been suspended or fired because of their stupidity, just Google the phrase 'teacher Facebook trouble' and start reading!) If you want to harness the power of the Internet, I recommend building your own Website...it's a lot safer!
Well said! Holden has a lot more to say and I hope to highlight some of his other ideas and suggestions for making all of us better in the classroom and in our respective offices and positions in the coming weeks. Thanks for reading!
24 January 2012
I recently was introduced to some information by Dr. Lynell Burmark of California, who has released a book about presentations and what NOT to do. Dr. Burmark's background spans kindergarten through graduate school and the book, They Snooze, You Lose, won a book of the year award. The first chapter of the book was available as a free download, so I took advantage of it. She basically says we've been using presentation software since 1989 but wants to know how anything has changed since then. Dr. Burmark is not against slideshows but she wants to warn us against constraints for us as presenters, or teachers.
First she suggests we get away from the usual default templates. We also need to be aware of background colors and images as they may detract from the important content we are trying to get across. Dr. Burmark reminds us as English language users, we read from left to right and so, our presentations should follow the same patterns. Another important point is the use of color. Did you know color visuals increase willingness to read by up to 80%? Or that color enhances learning and improves retention by more than 75%?
The eye has an order in which it sees colors. Yellow or other colors where yellowish hues dominate (like lime green), are seen before other colors. In general, warm colors like yellow or red are seen before cool colors like blue or green. The best color combination for a presentation is a blue background with yellow text. Who knew? Another point about color - for men, about 8% have some type of color deficiency, with the most common problem being an inability to distinguish red from green. If you have red words on a green background, some of your audience may perceive that as a blank slide!
Type, or font, is also important. It is easier and faster to read lower case letters, so don't put everything in capital, or uppercase, letters. If you are presenting to a large group or in a large room, consider whether your font and font size is big enough and clear enough to read from the back of the room. A good idea Dr. Burmark shared from another author is to prepare your presentation then approximate what your audience will see by looking at the slides in the slide sorter view at 66%. One rule of thumb is not to have more than two typefaces on one slide and to be especially careful with the number of words on each slide. Can you limit yourself to only one or two words per slide to guide your audience instead of the average 40 words per slide?
Most of us feel comfortable with presentations in today's society, especially in education. It probably is a good idea to visit the basics every now and then and go back and tweak our previous presentations so they are the best they can possibly be for our audience.
First she suggests we get away from the usual default templates. We also need to be aware of background colors and images as they may detract from the important content we are trying to get across. Dr. Burmark reminds us as English language users, we read from left to right and so, our presentations should follow the same patterns. Another important point is the use of color. Did you know color visuals increase willingness to read by up to 80%? Or that color enhances learning and improves retention by more than 75%?
The eye has an order in which it sees colors. Yellow or other colors where yellowish hues dominate (like lime green), are seen before other colors. In general, warm colors like yellow or red are seen before cool colors like blue or green. The best color combination for a presentation is a blue background with yellow text. Who knew? Another point about color - for men, about 8% have some type of color deficiency, with the most common problem being an inability to distinguish red from green. If you have red words on a green background, some of your audience may perceive that as a blank slide!
Type, or font, is also important. It is easier and faster to read lower case letters, so don't put everything in capital, or uppercase, letters. If you are presenting to a large group or in a large room, consider whether your font and font size is big enough and clear enough to read from the back of the room. A good idea Dr. Burmark shared from another author is to prepare your presentation then approximate what your audience will see by looking at the slides in the slide sorter view at 66%. One rule of thumb is not to have more than two typefaces on one slide and to be especially careful with the number of words on each slide. Can you limit yourself to only one or two words per slide to guide your audience instead of the average 40 words per slide?
Most of us feel comfortable with presentations in today's society, especially in education. It probably is a good idea to visit the basics every now and then and go back and tweak our previous presentations so they are the best they can possibly be for our audience.
23 January 2012
17 January 2012
This week I want to share three more interesting Web sites which I hope will prove to be of benefit to you and your students . . .
1. Better Lesson - This site has over 300,000 resources uploaded by teachers you can browse. You can also upload and share your own resources, plus connect with fellow educators around the world. The home page has featured lesson plans, too. You can register for a free account simply by giving them your name, e-mail address, and selecting the school where you work. Once inside your own account, you will see featured files for elementary school, middle school, and high school levels. Each school level is divided into the core curriculum subject areas of math, science, social studies and English. You can add a personal profile with a biography and photo if you desire. Once you have an account, you can upload files in many different formats - Word, PowerPoint, Adobe, etc. You can design courses as well, inputting information into a lesson plan template. As you save documents, you can select whether you want them shared with the public or keep them private. Luckily, many of the teachers using this service are allowing their documents to be public so you can choose what you'd like to utilize. No sense in re-inventing the wheel if something else is already out there you can use!
2. Class Parrot - I am so impressed with this site! ClassParrot allows you to text students or adults in a safe, simple way. The home page suggests you use the service to remind your students of upcoming exams, homework updates and reminders of events. Also, parents can opt to receive texts, too. Very quickly, I established a free account and added a class. The next screen gave me instructions to send a simple text message (@mrsmeear) to a certain number. Once I did that, I immediately got a reply that said "Thanks, Mrs. Earnest needs to know who you are before adding you to @mrsmeear. Please reply with your full name." After I sent my name, I received a text that said "Welcome to ClassParrot Melissa Earnest! Mrs. Earnest will use ClassParrot to keep you posted. Your phone number will remain private." I then sent a test message to myself and it came through very quickly. As part of the service, you can create a poll asking students or parents to reply with a Yes or No answer to your question. You can also see a history of messages you have sent. For the members, you only see the name they sent, not their phone number, so the system is secure. If you click the Setup tab, you can get a printable page of instructions for students and parents to start receiving the messages. You can click the "How It Works" link to find out more about ClassParrot. Again, I was very impressed with how quickly I could set up an account, set up a class, register a class member and send a quick text message. The initial free account gives you 500 messages.
3. Dynamic Periodic Table - For the chemists out there, here is an interactive periodic table. Colorful and easy to read, you can click on any of the elements to find out more about them. For example, clicking on Ag (Silver) I see the Wikipedia article about the element, plus a picture, general properties, physical properties, vapor pressure, atomic properties, and other information. Back to the full table, you can select different features to show - weight, names, electrons, and even a wide version. You can also select different languages. Simply hovering your mouse over the Nonmetals and Metals groups, the table will change color accordingly, highlighting the types you select. Across the top there are four tabs - Wikipedia, Properties, Orbitals, and Isotopes. Selecting any of these tabs will bring you to a different appearance of the table with even more selections. I'm the first to admit, chemistry was not my favorite subject in high school, but maybe if I'd had this interactive table, I might have found it a lot more fun and much easier to learn!
I hope you will try these three sites soon!
1. Better Lesson - This site has over 300,000 resources uploaded by teachers you can browse. You can also upload and share your own resources, plus connect with fellow educators around the world. The home page has featured lesson plans, too. You can register for a free account simply by giving them your name, e-mail address, and selecting the school where you work. Once inside your own account, you will see featured files for elementary school, middle school, and high school levels. Each school level is divided into the core curriculum subject areas of math, science, social studies and English. You can add a personal profile with a biography and photo if you desire. Once you have an account, you can upload files in many different formats - Word, PowerPoint, Adobe, etc. You can design courses as well, inputting information into a lesson plan template. As you save documents, you can select whether you want them shared with the public or keep them private. Luckily, many of the teachers using this service are allowing their documents to be public so you can choose what you'd like to utilize. No sense in re-inventing the wheel if something else is already out there you can use!
2. Class Parrot - I am so impressed with this site! ClassParrot allows you to text students or adults in a safe, simple way. The home page suggests you use the service to remind your students of upcoming exams, homework updates and reminders of events. Also, parents can opt to receive texts, too. Very quickly, I established a free account and added a class. The next screen gave me instructions to send a simple text message (@mrsmeear) to a certain number. Once I did that, I immediately got a reply that said "Thanks, Mrs. Earnest needs to know who you are before adding you to @mrsmeear. Please reply with your full name." After I sent my name, I received a text that said "Welcome to ClassParrot Melissa Earnest! Mrs. Earnest will use ClassParrot to keep you posted. Your phone number will remain private." I then sent a test message to myself and it came through very quickly. As part of the service, you can create a poll asking students or parents to reply with a Yes or No answer to your question. You can also see a history of messages you have sent. For the members, you only see the name they sent, not their phone number, so the system is secure. If you click the Setup tab, you can get a printable page of instructions for students and parents to start receiving the messages. You can click the "How It Works" link to find out more about ClassParrot. Again, I was very impressed with how quickly I could set up an account, set up a class, register a class member and send a quick text message. The initial free account gives you 500 messages.
3. Dynamic Periodic Table - For the chemists out there, here is an interactive periodic table. Colorful and easy to read, you can click on any of the elements to find out more about them. For example, clicking on Ag (Silver) I see the Wikipedia article about the element, plus a picture, general properties, physical properties, vapor pressure, atomic properties, and other information. Back to the full table, you can select different features to show - weight, names, electrons, and even a wide version. You can also select different languages. Simply hovering your mouse over the Nonmetals and Metals groups, the table will change color accordingly, highlighting the types you select. Across the top there are four tabs - Wikipedia, Properties, Orbitals, and Isotopes. Selecting any of these tabs will bring you to a different appearance of the table with even more selections. I'm the first to admit, chemistry was not my favorite subject in high school, but maybe if I'd had this interactive table, I might have found it a lot more fun and much easier to learn!
I hope you will try these three sites soon!
09 January 2012
In the January 2012 edition of Tech & Learning, there was a list of 100 sites/apps they recommended for educators. I found several I wanted to research further. With that in mind, I spent a little bit of time looking at these sites and would like to share the following:
1. Useful Charts - This site claims it's for lesson plans, study help, or quick reference. Their homepage is divided into several categories such as most popular, science, social studies, English, and even "just for fun". The first one which caught my attention was under the psychology section. Simply clicking on the name or icon for any of the charts will take you to the appropriate page. In the case of the Myers Briggs Types, you are shown a screen which includes information about the various MBTI types. You can click on the Short Personality Test link and answer four questions. Once you do that you get a four letter "code" which you can then read about to find out more on your personality. This might be a great activity to do with students, especially at the start of a new year or new semester. It could really make a difference in how you interact with students and even reach as far as letting them know how they can interact better with each other. There are so many charts on this site, it's virtually impossible to preview them all, but hopefully you can find something you can use, either personally or with students.
2. Draw Island - This is a very quick drawing program. You can select from several sizes of drawing space and then use different tools on the left-hand side to draw. There is a pencil, a line, different styles of rectangles and circles, plus an eraser, etc. You also can change the opacity and size of the drawing tool used. There is even an animation piece! Once you are done with your drawing, you can save it as a png file. Even though this site would be appropriate for any art class, you could also use it for other courses - for example, a student could make a quick illustration of what a poem or short story means to them.
3. Fraboom - An online children's museum, Fraboom has many "rooms" to explore. If you click on the Map beside the name at the top of the homepage, you can see some of the possibilities. Being a social studies teacher, I checked out the US Presidents part first. There were different activities and games to do and my favorite quickly became the "Name That President" game. Presenting some caricature-style drawings of the different presidents, you have to select from four possibilities to see if you can match the president's picture with their name. It was more difficult than I had anticipated! Another interesting game was trying to decide which presidential function went under a particular category.
Try these three sites this week and in the future, I hope to share a few more of these interesting sites with you! Have a great week!
1. Useful Charts - This site claims it's for lesson plans, study help, or quick reference. Their homepage is divided into several categories such as most popular, science, social studies, English, and even "just for fun". The first one which caught my attention was under the psychology section. Simply clicking on the name or icon for any of the charts will take you to the appropriate page. In the case of the Myers Briggs Types, you are shown a screen which includes information about the various MBTI types. You can click on the Short Personality Test link and answer four questions. Once you do that you get a four letter "code" which you can then read about to find out more on your personality. This might be a great activity to do with students, especially at the start of a new year or new semester. It could really make a difference in how you interact with students and even reach as far as letting them know how they can interact better with each other. There are so many charts on this site, it's virtually impossible to preview them all, but hopefully you can find something you can use, either personally or with students.
2. Draw Island - This is a very quick drawing program. You can select from several sizes of drawing space and then use different tools on the left-hand side to draw. There is a pencil, a line, different styles of rectangles and circles, plus an eraser, etc. You also can change the opacity and size of the drawing tool used. There is even an animation piece! Once you are done with your drawing, you can save it as a png file. Even though this site would be appropriate for any art class, you could also use it for other courses - for example, a student could make a quick illustration of what a poem or short story means to them.
3. Fraboom - An online children's museum, Fraboom has many "rooms" to explore. If you click on the Map beside the name at the top of the homepage, you can see some of the possibilities. Being a social studies teacher, I checked out the US Presidents part first. There were different activities and games to do and my favorite quickly became the "Name That President" game. Presenting some caricature-style drawings of the different presidents, you have to select from four possibilities to see if you can match the president's picture with their name. It was more difficult than I had anticipated! Another interesting game was trying to decide which presidential function went under a particular category.
Try these three sites this week and in the future, I hope to share a few more of these interesting sites with you! Have a great week!
02 January 2012
Building Relationships with Students
I have been a member of ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) for most of my educational career. I have found many of their publications to be of use to me, not only when I actively taught in the classroom, but also as I have continued my own education. They publish books, newsletters, and are a wonderful online resource. ASCD was founded in 1943, so they have been assisting educators for a long time. In the latest edition of Education Update, dated December 2011, Brad Kuntz discusses how important it is to build personal relationships with students. Even though this isn't necessarily a technology article, I could see how technology could be used to do some of the things he mentioned, so this week I'm going to paraphrase some of what he has said and include how technology could be used.
Kuntz says he has seen students who are failing all other classes receive the highest test score in his class. Why? Because the student felt a connection to Kuntz and wanted to do his best for him. The relationship between a teacher and a student can have as much to do with a student's success as anything else. The teacher who has earned the respect of the student is much more likely to keep that student engaged during instruction.
Kuntz notes teachers can engage students by carefully sharing a more personal side of who they are and by getting to know the individuals in a classroom. Giving students a glimpse of your personal life (without revealing anything private or controversial) can show them you are willing to open yourself up, invite them in, and trust them with a part of who you are. Share humorous, exciting, meaningful, or even humbling or embarrassing stories that, at least, loosely relate to your content area.
For example, a math teacher could tell a story about screwing up a currency conversion while traveling overseas and grossly overpaying for a souvenir. What if students entered the classroom seeing a picture of all sorts of currencies/monies on a screen projected from the teacher's computer? You could even ask students if they could identify the money (which country) before sharing the personal story.
A history teacher could explain how they felt overcome emotionally while visiting the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. Again, using a projected image of the Wall or other symbolism could be the "hook" to get students interested. Sharing the personal story could then lead into the lesson or discussion on the Vietnam Conflict.
A foreign language teacher could share a humorous story about a mistranslation with embarrassing consequences. There are several examples of these types of misses to find online, especially in the area of advertising. Many common phrases used in the United States do not translate well into other languages and result in hilarious sayings! After hearing the teacher's personal story, students could research the issue of translation from one language to another online and then share what they find. This easily could lead to a discussion about advertising and how careful a company must be when designing an ad, especially when it involves language.
Students appreciate the opportunity to relax and be entertained, but in the meantime, they can see examples of your subject area in a real-world context. Don't forget to share personal experiences which might also interest students who have similar experiences. For example, on Monday tell your students about your weekend fishing trip or attendance at a sporting event or a concert. There are bound to be students in your classroom who fish, like sports, or share an interest in music. Make an effort to notice and comment to individual students about details specific to them. This is difficult with as many as 40 students in a class, but that's also why it's much more important to students to be noticed. Comment about the band on a student's t-shirt; compliment a student on the impressive doodle on their math notebook; or commend a student on their performance in a game or in a concert. Show students you pay attention and you see value in what they are doing.
No matter the method, developing personal relationships with students is a win-win! Be a good role model and personally influence the young people in your classes in a positive manner. Perhaps at the same time you'll increase their motivation to succeed and improve their academic habits.
26 December 2011
Using Rubrics
Rubrics are a great way to quickly mark a student's performance. In the Teacher Tip Newsletter of December 19th, from Teachnology, there were lots of quick, free rubrics spotlighted. For most of the rubrics, you enter a title for the rubric, your school name, and your teacher name. For several of them, you can select a graphic to appear on the rubric. Once you make your selections and enter the required information, simply clicking the Generate button will give you a rubric ready to use. In my case, once the rubric showed on the screen, I clicked the Print button in my browser and saved it as a pdf file so I could print it to use over and over. I looked at samples of the following:
If you are truly tech-savvy and save the rubrics in Adobe pdf format, you might be able to run form field recognition on the rubrics and use them electronically, saving printing, ink and paper in the process. It worked quite well for me on several of the rubrics. The rubrics could then be sent by e-mail to the student or even to the parent/guardian.
I hope you will try one of the rubrics provided free by Teachnology.
19 December 2011
The holidays are here!
There are only 5 shopping days left until Christmas, so if you haven't finished buying and wrapping your gifts, you still have time! I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year. I hope we all remember the reason for the season.
I particularly enjoyed the way Germany observed the season when I lived there, so I thought I would share a little bit of information about their celebrations. In Bavaria, St. Nikolaus comes on December 6th. Children write letters to the good saint and put something to feed his horse/donkey at their door the night of December 5th. They put their shoes beside the door, too, in hope St. Nick will leave them a gift of some kind - hopefully enough to fill their shoes! Tradition says during the night St. Nickolaus goes from house to house carrying a book n which all the children's deeds are written. If they've been good, they receive fruits, nuts, candies and maybe a small gift. If they've not been good, they may find potatoes, coal or twigs in their shoes. December 24th and 25th are reserved for the celebration of the Christ Child. Candles are lit on Advent wreaths in the weeks previous to Christmas Day and stories and songs are shared about the birth of Jesus Christ. Many homes have a Christmas pyramid which depicts the nativity scene. The pyramid I have is built on the premise it "runs" on candle power. The nativity scene is depicted on the bottom and the four candles surrounding it make just enough heat to turn the small fan blades at the top, which then turn the nativity scene. The one I have is about one foot tall, but in Germany there are many Christmas pyramids which reach heights of many feet and are very elaborate. On the night of December 24th, the Christkindl, or Christ Child, brings gifts to the children. After the twelve days of Christmas (which run from December 25th to January 5th), January 6th is celebrated as All Kings Day. This is the day the three wise men supposedly found the babe lying in a manger, worshiped Him and gave Him gifts. Many doorways are marked in chalk with the initials of the three kings and the new year, for example "G+M+B+2012" (for Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar), and hopefully this brings prosperity and good health to the inhabitants of the home during the coming year.
If you want to find out more about St. Nicholas and different traditions, visit the St. Nicholas Center.
Also celebrated during this time of year is the festival of Hanukkah and the celebration of Kwanzaa. To find out more about Hanukkah, visit the Jewish Outreach Institute. To find out more about Kwanzaa, visit The Official Kwanzaa Web Site.
Again, I wish all of you a very happy holiday break and hope everyone stays safe in your travels and gatherings. Enjoy your time with family and friends and come back in January ready to teach, learn, reach, and share!
I particularly enjoyed the way Germany observed the season when I lived there, so I thought I would share a little bit of information about their celebrations. In Bavaria, St. Nikolaus comes on December 6th. Children write letters to the good saint and put something to feed his horse/donkey at their door the night of December 5th. They put their shoes beside the door, too, in hope St. Nick will leave them a gift of some kind - hopefully enough to fill their shoes! Tradition says during the night St. Nickolaus goes from house to house carrying a book n which all the children's deeds are written. If they've been good, they receive fruits, nuts, candies and maybe a small gift. If they've not been good, they may find potatoes, coal or twigs in their shoes. December 24th and 25th are reserved for the celebration of the Christ Child. Candles are lit on Advent wreaths in the weeks previous to Christmas Day and stories and songs are shared about the birth of Jesus Christ. Many homes have a Christmas pyramid which depicts the nativity scene. The pyramid I have is built on the premise it "runs" on candle power. The nativity scene is depicted on the bottom and the four candles surrounding it make just enough heat to turn the small fan blades at the top, which then turn the nativity scene. The one I have is about one foot tall, but in Germany there are many Christmas pyramids which reach heights of many feet and are very elaborate. On the night of December 24th, the Christkindl, or Christ Child, brings gifts to the children. After the twelve days of Christmas (which run from December 25th to January 5th), January 6th is celebrated as All Kings Day. This is the day the three wise men supposedly found the babe lying in a manger, worshiped Him and gave Him gifts. Many doorways are marked in chalk with the initials of the three kings and the new year, for example "G+M+B+2012" (for Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar), and hopefully this brings prosperity and good health to the inhabitants of the home during the coming year.
If you want to find out more about St. Nicholas and different traditions, visit the St. Nicholas Center.
Also celebrated during this time of year is the festival of Hanukkah and the celebration of Kwanzaa. To find out more about Hanukkah, visit the Jewish Outreach Institute. To find out more about Kwanzaa, visit The Official Kwanzaa Web Site.
Again, I wish all of you a very happy holiday break and hope everyone stays safe in your travels and gatherings. Enjoy your time with family and friends and come back in January ready to teach, learn, reach, and share!
16 December 2011
Ring in the New Year with Writing!
In the latest edition of the Teacher Tip Newsletter, there are some writing prompts for the New Year I thought I would share:
1. What is your New Year's resolution? Do you think you can accomplish it?
2. If you could make five positive changes in your life, what would they be?
3. You are coming back from a New Year's Eve celebration when the snow starts to fall so hard you can't see in front of you. You pull into a diner. What happens next?
4. Create a timeline of your entire last year. Include all important events.
5. What was your happiest day of last year? Describe it in detail.
6. What do you wish would happen to you this year?
7. Think back to last year. Describe the day that you wish you never got out of bed.
I thought these were great 'food for thought' questions and might be a good way to start out the new year/new semester. Even if you don't use them as a specific writing assignment, you could project one or more of the questions on a screen the first day back as a bell ringer, an individual journal entry, or even as a whole-class discussion topic.
1. What is your New Year's resolution? Do you think you can accomplish it?
2. If you could make five positive changes in your life, what would they be?
3. You are coming back from a New Year's Eve celebration when the snow starts to fall so hard you can't see in front of you. You pull into a diner. What happens next?
4. Create a timeline of your entire last year. Include all important events.
5. What was your happiest day of last year? Describe it in detail.
6. What do you wish would happen to you this year?
7. Think back to last year. Describe the day that you wish you never got out of bed.
I thought these were great 'food for thought' questions and might be a good way to start out the new year/new semester. Even if you don't use them as a specific writing assignment, you could project one or more of the questions on a screen the first day back as a bell ringer, an individual journal entry, or even as a whole-class discussion topic.
12 December 2011
Nothing like being sick to make you appreciate everything more!
Once again the pneumonia bug grabbed a hold of me. I didn't feel too good over the first weekend in December and by Monday afternoon I was in the doctor's office. Thinking I would get over it, I got an excuse for two days but by Wednesday it had moved into my chest and viral pneumonia set in. I feel like I missed an entire week of my life, but at least I am on the mend and back in my office today!
I want to share a quick site which was suggested by Thinkfinity. It's mainly for primary school ages, but could be used in elementary as well. The site comes from ReadWriteThink and is called Puzzle Me Words. To use the site, simply go to the link, click on Get Started and listen to the school bus introduction. It is very simple! There are two levels - beginner and advanced. The beginner game gives the student a limited amount of letters to select from as they build a three-letter word. A graphic of the item they are to spell shows and the student hears the word pronounced. Then the student simply clicks and drags the appropriate letters to the puzzle piece spaces provided. If they get the word correct, they'll hear it pronounced again, along with a congratulatory phrase and the school bus moves along the road at the bottom of the screen. When the school bus moves across the finish line, the student earns a piece of a prize puzzle. For the beginners, three pieces must be earned and for the advanced students, six pieces of the prize puzzle must be earned. At the end when all the prize puzzle pieces have been earned, the student will have the option to print, save or e-mail their prize puzzle certificate. The certificate can be printed for the student to color, so that's a nice option rather than just printing an already colored certificate.
If you haven't checked Thinkfinity lately, you might think about taking a look there to see what you might be able to use for next semester! They've spent quite a bit of time aligning lessons and activities with the new common core standards. Content is being added all the time so give it a look soon!
I want to share a quick site which was suggested by Thinkfinity. It's mainly for primary school ages, but could be used in elementary as well. The site comes from ReadWriteThink and is called Puzzle Me Words. To use the site, simply go to the link, click on Get Started and listen to the school bus introduction. It is very simple! There are two levels - beginner and advanced. The beginner game gives the student a limited amount of letters to select from as they build a three-letter word. A graphic of the item they are to spell shows and the student hears the word pronounced. Then the student simply clicks and drags the appropriate letters to the puzzle piece spaces provided. If they get the word correct, they'll hear it pronounced again, along with a congratulatory phrase and the school bus moves along the road at the bottom of the screen. When the school bus moves across the finish line, the student earns a piece of a prize puzzle. For the beginners, three pieces must be earned and for the advanced students, six pieces of the prize puzzle must be earned. At the end when all the prize puzzle pieces have been earned, the student will have the option to print, save or e-mail their prize puzzle certificate. The certificate can be printed for the student to color, so that's a nice option rather than just printing an already colored certificate.
If you haven't checked Thinkfinity lately, you might think about taking a look there to see what you might be able to use for next semester! They've spent quite a bit of time aligning lessons and activities with the new common core standards. Content is being added all the time so give it a look soon!
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