Lately, it seems like a hot topic again in Education blogs and Google Circles to look at finding good resources for student research in the classroom. As a former English teacher, it seems as though I've never left the conversation about finding good articles for the classroom. Whether it is sourcing information or just finding legitimate information for your classroom, it is going to be a never-ending topic as our resources are ever-changing. Although, who doesn't love a good article about a Tree Octopus?
The resource I want to share with you is a tutorial that was adapted out of the University of Wyoming and it is one of the best I've seen for students doing research. The students can go through each piece on their own or you could project it on the board and have them discuss as you show them the tutorial's slides.
Now, not only are "good" resources hard to find, so is making sure that students reference all of their work properly and are not plagiarizing. In our school system, we have been using EasyBib for years for students to cite their work, but it's important that students do not just auto-cite all of the resources. Instead, they have to make sure that they are putting in all of the relevant information that they can find from the website. And, if you can't find all of the information, maybe you need to re-evaluate the website for it's legitimacy.
Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Mathematics Resources
I have been researching different Mathematics resources and found some great resources that I wanted to share. At Illustrative Mathematics you can find PDF illustrations, drop down/ color coded illustrations and also videos of standards K-12. I think that the best part is the example problems, especially as I am a non-math teacher, it is important for me to get a chance to see how the math standards are layered.
Khan Academy has changed and developed a lot over the past few years. So, instead of just thinking, "oh, yeah... I've heard of Khan Academy." I'd suggest giving it another try. You can now create your own learning account or coach students through a program and see how they are working through their problems and moving from level to level. The coaching aspect that Khan Academy has now is much more exciting than just the videos. So, you have to go back and revisit Khan Academy... you can teach yourself coding, all levels of mathematics, chemistry, biology, organic chemistry even world history and finance! It is definitely a way that you can personalize your teaching/ learning for students as you can see where the student is struggling or advancing.
Desmos is another web app that I think has developed a lot as well. Make your graphs dynamic with interactive sliders, data tables and even challenge your students to replicate or create their own student art! You can do a lot with graphing calculators, plat circles and quadratic formulas, but how do you have them explain what they just did? Here's how: 1) Have students install Chrome Extension "Awesome Screenshot" to take a screen shot of their graphing, 2) Students can save the screenshot on their Google Drive, 3) Import the image they took of their drawing on a Google Doc, and 4) Have students explain on the doc the steps that it took for each of them to work through their problem and solve it with the graph. Students can go back to their Desmos problems to change them if they are incorrect, but it is a good way to have them do the explanation of their work and also integrate writing into the classroom.
Geogebra and it's supplementary video site, Geogebratube, are both great resources. Geogrebra is a construction piece to create three-dimensional or plane shapes. Geogebratube has tutorial videos that could be used just to be a bell-ringer activity, flipped classroom activity or even more!
Socrative is something I have used before, but I recently read a new way to use it in your classroom. First off, create your Socrative account and start creating your quizzes. The quizzes are self-graded and you can use this with iPads or Chromebooks. I have read some teachers use Socrative and have students log in with their device, choose about 5 different problems and have students just answer the problems with their final answer. Socrative self-grades and then you have just a good "check" on how students are progressing. I could see this being used easily for vocab quizzes, quick "check" for reading quizzes or even surveys. It will work well for exit tickets or there is even a feature for "space rocket races" where you could project the results on the board as the students are randomly put in groups and race to the finish.
Here are just a few ideas... for the math classroom. Hope you get a chance to try them out!
Khan Academy has changed and developed a lot over the past few years. So, instead of just thinking, "oh, yeah... I've heard of Khan Academy." I'd suggest giving it another try. You can now create your own learning account or coach students through a program and see how they are working through their problems and moving from level to level. The coaching aspect that Khan Academy has now is much more exciting than just the videos. So, you have to go back and revisit Khan Academy... you can teach yourself coding, all levels of mathematics, chemistry, biology, organic chemistry even world history and finance! It is definitely a way that you can personalize your teaching/ learning for students as you can see where the student is struggling or advancing.
Desmos is another web app that I think has developed a lot as well. Make your graphs dynamic with interactive sliders, data tables and even challenge your students to replicate or create their own student art! You can do a lot with graphing calculators, plat circles and quadratic formulas, but how do you have them explain what they just did? Here's how: 1) Have students install Chrome Extension "Awesome Screenshot" to take a screen shot of their graphing, 2) Students can save the screenshot on their Google Drive, 3) Import the image they took of their drawing on a Google Doc, and 4) Have students explain on the doc the steps that it took for each of them to work through their problem and solve it with the graph. Students can go back to their Desmos problems to change them if they are incorrect, but it is a good way to have them do the explanation of their work and also integrate writing into the classroom.
Geogebra and it's supplementary video site, Geogebratube, are both great resources. Geogrebra is a construction piece to create three-dimensional or plane shapes. Geogebratube has tutorial videos that could be used just to be a bell-ringer activity, flipped classroom activity or even more!
Socrative is something I have used before, but I recently read a new way to use it in your classroom. First off, create your Socrative account and start creating your quizzes. The quizzes are self-graded and you can use this with iPads or Chromebooks. I have read some teachers use Socrative and have students log in with their device, choose about 5 different problems and have students just answer the problems with their final answer. Socrative self-grades and then you have just a good "check" on how students are progressing. I could see this being used easily for vocab quizzes, quick "check" for reading quizzes or even surveys. It will work well for exit tickets or there is even a feature for "space rocket races" where you could project the results on the board as the students are randomly put in groups and race to the finish.
Here are just a few ideas... for the math classroom. Hope you get a chance to try them out!
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Publishing Student Content
I have a couple of teachers that are interested in publishing student content on the web in a magazine or newspaper-type format. So, I have been looking at options for the students. I'm quite excited about some of the items that I've found.
The first resource... Zeen (which I believe is short for MagaZEEN) is an online content creator and publisher. I have only explored this slightly, but it looks to have good reviews despite still being in the beta version. The layouts the authors/ designers can choose from are very professional in format and theme. Overall, it looks easy enough for even upper elementary students to use.
JooMag is my second find, which does have premium/ paid options for subscription, but I think for the purposes that we need for the classroom will work okay. I am normally leery of recommending any resource that may have additional, in-site or in-app purchases, but this may work. You can create the magazine from a template or by just uploading a pre-created pdf. I like both options and some of the templates are quite fun. Also, as you get started, there are tutorials that pop up to help you move along through your magazine creation. The publication options are also very similar to that of Google with private, anyone with the link, and simply public on the web. The publication can also be embedded in a site or downloaded as a pdf. I also like everything and anything that can be MOBILE READY! That is very important for me and my teachers as well.
I am still in pursuit of others, so if you have good ideas, please share!
The first resource... Zeen (which I believe is short for MagaZEEN) is an online content creator and publisher. I have only explored this slightly, but it looks to have good reviews despite still being in the beta version. The layouts the authors/ designers can choose from are very professional in format and theme. Overall, it looks easy enough for even upper elementary students to use.
JooMag is my second find, which does have premium/ paid options for subscription, but I think for the purposes that we need for the classroom will work okay. I am normally leery of recommending any resource that may have additional, in-site or in-app purchases, but this may work. You can create the magazine from a template or by just uploading a pre-created pdf. I like both options and some of the templates are quite fun. Also, as you get started, there are tutorials that pop up to help you move along through your magazine creation. The publication options are also very similar to that of Google with private, anyone with the link, and simply public on the web. The publication can also be embedded in a site or downloaded as a pdf. I also like everything and anything that can be MOBILE READY! That is very important for me and my teachers as well.
I am still in pursuit of others, so if you have good ideas, please share!
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Google Updates for October
Tomorrow for Professional Development, I will be updating the Middle School and High School on some of the Google updates that are coming down the line for us. We are on a "scheduled release" not "rapid release" so we will have time to update staff prior to changes coming out. If you can think of some others that I haven't mentioned, please let me know by commenting below!
Log in Updates:
- Still Red Sign in Box still in upper right hand corner
- Before Sign in:
- After Sign in:
- Google Plus (Google’s Social Media Equivalent)
- Gmail - This will take you to your Deuel GMail account
- Images - This will take you to a Google Image Search
- App Launcher icon (similar to what the students see on their chromebooks in lower left hand side- similar to windows start menu)
- Here is where the main apps are located and you can go to “more” to find the others
- You can also put shortcuts on your Chrome bookmarks bar to make this work as well
- Notifications
- “Share” (works with Google Plus) and Your Profile Image
A new place for Settings and Advanced Search in the lower right hand side of your screen.
- Search Settings can help you with filtering, voice search (the microphone icon in the search bar on the right side of box), and results opening in a new window, if you prefer.
- You can also save your search history, if you prefer.
- Advanced Search will allow you to add in search parameters, if desired.
- Search History will help refine your searching- Think of it like personalized searching… for example, the suggested results you see on Amazon.
Google Drive Updates: 
- Docs/ Sheets/ Slides/ Drawing/ Forms all changed the document header to make more compact and with a new icon in the upper left hand corner
- Icon also is an active link that takes you back to Google Drive in a new window
Other Updates:
- If you are a mobile device user, you can see that the new login interface is very much positioned to be for the mobile device user.
- The new update to the Google Search Algorithm (now called Hummingbird) is more question-driven and mobile based. They are really pushing the ability for voice integration. Social integration, location and previous search activity will help to build your search query now, instead of just key words, like previously.
- This will make it all the more important to choose a search engine, stick with it and be signed in at all times. For example, my searches probably have a lot about technology, google, curriculum, geography, babies… and Google will start to anticipate exactly what I may be looking for.
- Previously, the more words that you add into the search bar, the more difficult it was to get what you really wanted, now, they are moving away from that.
- Learn more about the Search Changes in the video below
- When in Chrome, right click on an image on the web and search the image.
- For Chrome 30 users, update this by opening chrome, going to the three lines in upper right hand corner of browser, selecting “About Google Chrome” and updating to Chrome 30.
- How can I use this?
- For finding what website the image was taken from if embedded into a project/ document.
- Finding the image in another size/ color
- Finding similar images
- These updates slowly roll out to students.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Making and Embedding a Google Form
Tomorrow I also get to work with the middle school and high school students to do a couple of different projects. We are going to combine Google Forms, Running a Script (flubaroo) and also embedding on a website! It's going to be a good day!
Basic Elementary Site from a Template
Tomorrow I get to present to the Elementary Staff at our school about a Basic Google site for parent/teacher/student communication enhancement! I'm really excited and wanted to share the presentation with you!
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
YouTube is More Than a Place to Watch Videos
Well, as you know, the experiment with YouTube has been working well... So, YES, it's pushing the limits and we may have trouble if everybody is doing this at once, but it's something I have to share!
There are some great options in YouTube that we haven't been able to use in the past that are too good not to harness for classroom use.
This will allow the signed in Google User (Google bought YouTube a couple years ago) to record easily from their webcam. Go to this link and click on record (you have to agree to the permissions first on both the Chromebook or your teacher computer).
When complete, click "upload" and for any video or student projects, you can have them set it to private or unlisted if you'd like. The user sets the privacy. Unlisted is a public video, but it doesn't appear in search results and private is available only to the user. You can only do videos up to 15 minutes at a time.
This will allow the user to create a slideshow of photos. It is something you could also assign students to easily do within Google Slides (under Google Drive), but this is set up more like iMovie.
This will allow you to edit videos that you have recorded or taken. Again, this takes up bandwidth, so it is probably something we will need to communicate about if we are all doing this as a semester project, but if we have the capability, we need to try.
The other on this page is about Google Hangouts, which are currently blocked, but will have a place in the future.
I am excited about sharing this opportunity, especially for short videos that you may want students to create. That being said, it is pushing our bandwidth boundaries, but I'm sure some famous athlete once said that we need to push our boundaries to know our limits- right?! So, give me some feedback if you'd like to use some of next Friday's PD time to go through some of this YouTube fun or if you just want me to come help you individually try something out.
Remembering that you or your students will be able to embed these videos on your website, blog or presentation to make your assignments even more interactive, if you choose. Also, think about the possibilities for flipping your classroom curriculum!
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Google Sites for Beginners Presentation
Here is "The Basic Site" Presentation for our PD tomorrow morning. We will be working on creating basic sites with some basic embedding and link creation from our District Teacher Template.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Google Apps for Edu Great Plains Summit #gpsummit
I had been looking forward to this all summer long and the #Google #AppsforEduSummit in Lincoln, NE lived up to the hype. In 100+ degree heat, five teachers and I travelled six hours by minivan to Lincoln and, somehow, everybody had fun and learned something!
I had personal goals of exciting everybody else on the trip, but not overwhelming them at the same time. I will be the first to admit, Google Apps for Edu and going Chromebooks can be overwhelming. But, like almost everything else, I liken it to running. As a marathoner, I'm often asked, "How in the world do you run 26.2 miles?" My reply is easy... one step at a time. When I started running, I never set out to run marathons, half marathons or even a 10k. I was going to run one local 5k that was raising money for a young family with a son in the NICU, but as I crossed that first finish line my mind was immediately changed. I didn't win and I wasn't last, but I knew I could do better. It wasn't a race against anybody else, it was to be the best I could be each day.
So after that first race, the educator in me set out to learn everything I could about running. I read every issue of Runner's World (old and new), asked questions to every runner I could find, and found blogs of runners that were just like me. To make a three-year story short, about fifty 5ks, twelve half marathons, a fifteen mile road race and thousands of training runs later, I became a marathoner two months shy of my 30th birthday.
Google Apps for Edu can be a lot like running a marathon for teachers new to cloud computing or online collaboration. If you try to run 26.2 miles just after getting off the couch, you WILL NOT make it. You will not be hydrated or fueled properly for your run and half way through will cramp and give up. So, don't let your Google Apps for Edu colleagues give up, find a training plan. Run a 5k, a 10k and a couple half marathons before you hit your stride for a full marathon.
If you are ready to start with Google Apps for Edu, head over to the Great Plains Summit page and check out some of the resource materials. There were awesome presenters that can bring you from Couch to 5k or send you out on your first full marathon.
Finally, here are the intro slidedecks from our Deuel trainings on Drive last spring. Check them out to refresh your memory. If you need help with your username/password for our Apps for Edu account, just email me.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Apps, Story Starters, and an Inexpensive Document Camera
Here are a few items for today! I hope that the week is going well for you.
Storylines for Schools: Looking at a new way to learn vocabulary terms? How about Spelling words? Check this out. Tell stories using your spelling words drawing pictures... even have the students sit in pods and rotate devices to get a really crazy story going!
Pic Collage: Want the students to create a collage on a topic? How about a collage to describe vocab terms? This is quick, easy and fun. Have the students create a collage, take a snap shot by clicking on the home button and the power button. Send the students to the "Photos" app and email you their collage!
ThingLink: I think I showed you this before, as I was using it in my high school classroom for students to create interactive maps. I just visited with teachers today using thinglink in 3rd grade classrooms with students in the computer lab. Each student chose an image of a place they would want to visit and put in 5 facts to remember and 3 links for more information about the place they would want to visit. Another teacher talked about students creating word doc with a paragraph, saved it as a jpeg, uploaded it to Thinglink and had the students label each part of speech on the jpeg. They were also required to find the wikipedia page that defined each part of speech as well. Great new ideas! If you are interested in trying out Thinglink with the devices you have access to in a lab or in your classroom, please let me know and I'll be glad to come be your aid in your classroom for a day.
iPEVO Camera :
I know that Document Cameras were something a lot of people wanted and I just got to play with one today and heard great reviews! I know requisitions are already in, but maybe something to check out/ see if you can go back and change. It doesn't have a light, but will go full screen and looks easy to use. It hooks up using a USB port and requires you to download some software, but the price will hook you! For those that are interested in a document camera, this is inexpensive for only $69!
Storylines for Schools: Looking at a new way to learn vocabulary terms? How about Spelling words? Check this out. Tell stories using your spelling words drawing pictures... even have the students sit in pods and rotate devices to get a really crazy story going!
Pic Collage: Want the students to create a collage on a topic? How about a collage to describe vocab terms? This is quick, easy and fun. Have the students create a collage, take a snap shot by clicking on the home button and the power button. Send the students to the "Photos" app and email you their collage!
ThingLink: I think I showed you this before, as I was using it in my high school classroom for students to create interactive maps. I just visited with teachers today using thinglink in 3rd grade classrooms with students in the computer lab. Each student chose an image of a place they would want to visit and put in 5 facts to remember and 3 links for more information about the place they would want to visit. Another teacher talked about students creating word doc with a paragraph, saved it as a jpeg, uploaded it to Thinglink and had the students label each part of speech on the jpeg. They were also required to find the wikipedia page that defined each part of speech as well. Great new ideas! If you are interested in trying out Thinglink with the devices you have access to in a lab or in your classroom, please let me know and I'll be glad to come be your aid in your classroom for a day.
iPEVO Camera :
I know that Document Cameras were something a lot of people wanted and I just got to play with one today and heard great reviews! I know requisitions are already in, but maybe something to check out/ see if you can go back and change. It doesn't have a light, but will go full screen and looks easy to use. It hooks up using a USB port and requires you to download some software, but the price will hook you! For those that are interested in a document camera, this is inexpensive for only $69!
Scholastic Story Starters: Want a good way to start a story for students? This will give you a story starter for your classroom. You can choose ADVENTURE (think pirates), FANTASY (think princesses and princes), SCIFI (think aliens) or SCRAMBLER. Then choose K-1, 2nd, 3rd, or 4-6th for grade level and SPIN THE WHEEL for your story information. Choose your format for the writing: newspaper, postcard, notebook and download to email or print when complete. Very fun!
Flubaroo Teaser: I have used Flubaroo for awhile, but until today (when somebody asked what in the world I was doing) I kinda forgot how cool it really is. Flubaroo is a script you can run in Google Drive's Forms application after you have the students complete a Multiple Choice, T/F, short answer, choose from list with multiple answers or ranking questions. It will self-correct and if you remember to have an item on the Form with their email address, email them their score report with the questions and answers (if you choose). Click on the link for a youtube video that explains it and if you are interested, please let me know and I will be glad to help! This is such a great time saver!
Have a great Easter!!
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Five Out of the Way Google Tools
I make no secret about how cool I think Google is for educators. So, I have a few Google extras to share today!
1) The Google Art Project has been around for a few years and only started with 6 institutions putting their artwork online. Today, 151 institutions from over 40 countries have their work online. Some have their work in Google's Street View that actually makes you feel like you are walking through the museum. If you are looking to target some of the multicultural or multiple medium interpretations standards, Google Art Project is the place for you! There is also an education section that allows you to make quizzes and evaluate art just like the pros!
2) Google Trends Search allows you to check what the trend of a particular topic has been in search. You can find out what the world or specific countries are searching right now like Hugo Chavez dead. (Click on hyperlinks to take you to the pages.) Or take something like the Superbowl that is annual and you can see the popularity rise every year. This could be very useful for research and also quick looks at popularity of certain topics.
3) Google Type will make your words into a fun, image print like the Google Search page is everyday! Check this out... Deuel Google Typed This could be fun for students to use and grab a snapshot of for a project.
4) Panaramio is a collaborative, worldwide collection of photos with geolocation tags around the world in using either the Google Earth plug in or Satellite view of maps of the world. Are you looking for images of Hayti? (I'm sure you are...) Then, type in Hayti and this what you get: Flooding Pictures somebody uploaded. Or you can be much more interesting and check out the "Bone Church" in Kutna Hora .
5) Finally, StoryBuilder by looks like a Google Doc that will let you create a conversation to play back. Just go to "Create Story" and create your account to save your conversations. It limits you to only 12 interactions, but it is a fun way to start a lesson or keep kids' attention for a short period of time. Very fun and it has sound effects like the keyboard too.
Hope you have a great week!
5) Finally, StoryBuilder by looks like a Google Doc that will let you create a conversation to play back. Just go to "Create Story" and create your account to save your conversations. It limits you to only 12 interactions, but it is a fun way to start a lesson or keep kids' attention for a short period of time. Very fun and it has sound effects like the keyboard too.
Hope you have a great week!
Monday, February 11, 2013
Snow Day Ideas: Google Drive App, Documents by Readdle and Socrative
Here are some snow day ideas:
1) Did you know you can Skype with a Yellowstone Ranger? https://education.skype.com/projects/2237-yellowstone-national-park-rangers-can-skype-with-classrooms I can help you set Skype up on your iPad or your computer if you are interested in having your students chat with a Yellowstone Park Ranger or explore the Skype in Education page to check out the other chatting opportunities that you may want to use.
2) Padlet/ Wallwisher is a blank page for upper elementary, middle school or high school students that allows you to collaborate and compose. Students could create a bulletin board for a presentation, share ideas with other students, project for a presentation or have an online question and answer session during literature circles or a reading activity.
3) Socrative online and the Socrative App for iDevices or Android Devices (Kindles, too) has made me feel incredibly guilty. This has been on my iPad for over a year and until last weekend when I saw the Instructors at STI using them, I always thought it looked not very user-friendly. Was I ever wrong! As a teacher, you sign up and are given a room number.
Step a) You can create short answer or multiple choice quizzes using the online program or Excel/ Sheets templates.
Step b) The students tap the app or go to Socrative.com and type in the teacher's room number.
Step c) Teacher is online with teacher app or Socrative.com teacher login using computer and assigns quiz.
Step d) Students take quiz.
There are so many options with this program! Teachers can let students go at their own pace or only let them go question by question (so you can review as you progress through lesson). Teachers can also combine quizzes as a review and have students separated into teams (as assigned by Socrative) to see which team can get the most questions correct the fastest! Tomorrow morning I'm putting this on the iPads and I'm very excited to use it! I am guilty as charged though, I downloaded it last year and never realized how great this is!
4) If you like Google Drive and you like your iPad, here is the tutorial for you. You can download this to your iPad and save in iBooks or Documents by Readdle App. The new Google Drive App has impressed me. And, for all iPad users, if you haven't downloaded the Documents by Readdle App yet, do it soon! There is no way this one will stay free forever. It is just a great document reading application.
5) TypingWeb is a free place for students to work on their typing abilities. There are games and tutorials for the home row. It reminds me a lot of the typing exercises I did in my typing class once upon a time... and it is free! I don't think it is something you would want to spend a lot of class time on, but maybe something to integrate or show students that want to learn to type quicker.
I hope you have a great day in the snow! Remember, we are so tough in South Dakota we don't name our storms we call them "Winter."
Also, this and all Tech Integration Idea emails are archived at teachertechweekly.blogspot.com
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Animals, Science Fairs, Numbers and Lingro!
1) http://explore.org Is a fun site that has live video streams of many animals or places. It might be fun for some background as students work on an animal assignment or for students to evaluate the behavior of animals.
2) https://www.googlesciencefair.com/en/2013/ The Google Science Fair is accepting submissions for the next 90 days. So, if you are interested in checking this out, they have a lot of age divisions and also have some inspiration here for other projects.
3) http://www.youtube.com/user/numberphile This link is a YouTube channel with "Videos about numbers and Stuff" as they say on their website. There are videos about everything from solving a Rubik's cube to Numbers and Brains. In the same place I found this, I also read an interested blog post about raising mathematicians: http://davidwees.com/content/raising-mathematicians Some of these questions sound very familiar to some of the morning Math I've heard in Elementary classrooms. Very cool!
4) http://lingro.com is a web tool that will allow you to translate a website or, even more exciting, define every word on a site. Here is one that I did for a Rube Goldberg website: http://lingro.com/translate/http://rubegoldberg.com
Steps:
1) Copy URL
2) Paste into lingro.com's text field
3) Click blue arrow and wait... it takes awhile for text-teavy sites
4) Then, your site will have the blue lingro bar on the top of the page and when you click any part of the page, it will pop up with a blue box with the definition!
5) http://d97cooltools.blogspot.com/2012/09/commoncoreunpackingacademicvocabulary.html The link prior is an Unpacking Academic Vocabulary for Common Core blogpost. It has a lot of good information about what "Tier" of words you are using in the classroom. It also talks about using the Find Tool that works in most browsers and web sites (control + F on windows or command + f on Mac). Check it out if you have time.
6) http://www.thinglink.com Do you know all those cool graphics in the Washington Post online or Time Magazine that you can hover over and get more info in a pop up bubble? Well, Thinglink allows you to make a jpg interactive. You have to create an account and upload your image or use a public image to start creating. I am excited to use this in Geography class so that students can take an image of a country or region and make it an interactive image with labels "hovering" over the image.
I am gone on Friday to a training, but if you have any questions or I can help with anything, please let me know. As a reminder, the iPad checkout is located at: http://tinyurl.com/deuelipad and you can check out the archived emails at : http://teachertechweekly.blogspot.com
Have a great day!
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Sites, Apps, Ideas and A Message from Santa
Good morning! This Friday I will be meeting with the HS in the morning and going through some testing data, but I will be available afterwards. Please let me know how I can help!
For those that are interested, the iPad Applications (for the classroom set) will be reviewed again on January 3rd. If you are planning on applying, make sure these are turned in prior to January 3rd. I have reattached the application form for you.
1) https://www.zooniverse.org/projects Zoo Universe is a really great place to explore the surface of the moon through pictures, check out historical cyclones, and even classify wildlife on the Serengeti! Check out this page of projects to see what else is there. You can also Experiment in the laboratory to see if there is life on another planet or help libraries identify digitized music!
2) http://www.youtube.com/user/CGPGrey?feature=watch CGP Grey is a YouTube Channel with a lot of short explanations that would be great to integrate into class or put together to create your own Performance Task. You can listen to a short video on the difference between the UK and Englad to another about Is Pluto a Planet?
3) https://sites.google.com/site/kernkelley/forms Google Forms Template by Kern Kelly gives links to great self-grading quizzes you can embed on your website or email out, word find maker, miscellaneous documents and also administrative docs you can use. Click on the link, click on the 'make a copy' link and (you may need to sign into your Google Account at this time, if you haven't already today) the template will be saved for you in your Google Docs account. To reuse the document multiple times, make sure to go to "file" --> "make a copy" each time you need to use the document again.
4)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/word-mover/id572997152?mt=8 Word Mover is a new app from ReadWriteThink that I have on the check out iPads that will acts a lot like the "magnet words" you can get and create poetry from. The reason that I like this app is that you can choose famous speeches or texts (like MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech) and only use those words to create a speech. It is a fun way to teach literary devices like diction and even syntax.
5) http://mp3cut.net/ Online Audio Cutter is a place to upload audio files from your computer, SoundCloud or YouTube and cut the audio and save it. It also links to an Audio Joiner and Audio Converter at the top of the page that I haven't got to check out yet, but sound promising.
6) https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/spacecraft-3d/id541089908?mt=8 Spacecraft 3D is a cool new NASA app that will allow students to explore 3D models of spacecraft. So cool!
7) http://www.portablenorthpole.com/home The Portable North Pole is the COOLEST place to send a message from Santa to your children, students (as a class even, it would be cool) or even another adult that needs a message from Santa to brighten their day! (Here is the example I made for Leah: http://www.portablenorthpole.com/watch/gQVvQZhcPP3pRRbS4NZ9vuA/p) I made one last year and it was not nearly as fun, so I was excited to see how it had changed. Can you tell? I just love Christmas!
8) https://bingobaker.com/ Bingo Baker is a place to create your own BINGO cards! I think this may be a fun way to review during the last few days before Christmas. You can create an account to save your cards, get a 'full screen' bingo card (which is easier to print) and also peruse other bingo cards people have created via the ink in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
Have a great week!
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Mind Mapping, Pin-It Bookmark, MyOER
Good morning! Thank you to those who came down for a review on some Google Advanced Search Tools! They are simple techniques that will save you time. We will meet next Wednesday in Mrs. Konold's Room for our last 15 minute session.
Up to 25 iPads at a time are available for checkout from my office. When you check them out, let me know if you have specific apps you want on them, otherwise there are multiple apps that I have put on them already you can come and check out. If you have any questions or I can help in any way, please let me know.
1) Mind Mapping via http://www.text2mindmap.com will allow you to put your outline into the left side text box and it will create a mind map for you. I think this could be an activity for students organizing papers, speeches and presentations. After completing the outline, have the students copy it into this page. Once it creates the mind map, students may need to reevaluate the placement of the topics.
2) Mind Mapping via the iPad app Inkflow: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/inkflow-think-visually!/id519524685?mt=8 The free version of this app only allows writers to use black writing and only 20 pages at a time, but Inkflow free is still a great "word processor" for drawings.
3) Visual Bookmarking via Pinterest http://pinterest.com This is nothing new to many of you, and if you haven't signed up yet, ask some of your colleagues about Pinterest. Everything from educational websites to crockpot recipes can be found on Pinterest. If you are interested in adding a "Pin-it" button to your browser or getting the "Pin-it" App, here is some more information: http://pinterest.com/about/goodies/ (This information will be based on the browser you are using at the time.) I can help you with this as well, just stop by my table during Conferences next week and I'll help you out.
4) Google Sites for the Classroom www.google.com --> Select More from top toolbar--> Even More --> Scroll down and select Sites. Creating a Google Site is a great way to keep students and parents informed of what is going on in the classroom. It could be a place to for you to create a list of links or upload student assignments. You can integrate it with Calendar and Docs to display information. Students can create their own sites for portfolios or you can create a Site for a particular unit and share it with colleagues. Check out a couple examples below and let me know if you are interested in this for your classroom:
5) Common Core Resources via myOER http://www.myoer.org I know many of you have already looked at this, but it is a good reminder of the resources available. MyOER is a repository of resources reviewed by South Dakota educators. Thinkfinity also pushes out new resources to their servers every month. I just want to remind you that you can do multiple tags as you put resources into your locker, this will help you to find the resources more easily in the future. Just like those Pinterest boards I had that said "food" and had to go back though make more specific... start out with multiple tags so that it is easier to find the resource when you go back to it in the future.
Up to 25 iPads at a time are available for checkout from my office. When you check them out, let me know if you have specific apps you want on them, otherwise there are multiple apps that I have put on them already you can come and check out. If you have any questions or I can help in any way, please let me know.
Here is the link to the iPad checkout: http://tinyurl.com/deuelipad
If you are still working on an app to keep the 15 in your classroom for up to 9 weeks at a time, please let us know and we can start making that decision as well.
Have an awesome weekend!
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Unsuccessful Narrowing Down
Friday is pretty packed with Common Core, but please let me know if I can help with anything at all. All morning I've been unsuccessfully narrowing down all the great ideas I have for you to just five, so I decided to just sort them instead...
Something about Google...
http://www.google.com/webfonts Check out all of the awesome fonts that you can add to your Google Docs account!
http://goo.gl/kg2lw Here is a place for you to try out Google Docs WITHOUT logging in! Test the waters, see how it works and play with it. You will find that it is very similar to PowerPoint.
Something about Common Core...
Friday morning seems pretty packed with Common Core follow-up, so I am going to remind iPad users of the
app at: http://goo.gl/I5f76 so that you do not have to print out the Common Core standards.
Something to make you think...
http://goo.gl/y8dA7 Despite being blocked in China by the Chinese Government, the most active Tweeters are from China. I experienced firsthand social media being blocked by a government entity when travelling in Turkey, but ironically enough the concierge at the hotel gladly provided me with a route around that he said "works for today, let me know if problem tomorrow." So, I pose the unanswerable question, is a social media site the most active website during school hours (regardless of device) across America, despite being blocked?
Something to help you collaborate...
http://pinsi.de Pinside is a quick way to create an online board to share information: http://pinsi.de/board.php?id=419 This example shows a way that we could post different iPad apps that we like to this site. It might be a great way for 1:1 students to study as well.
Something to download...
https://www.dropbox.com Dropbox is a great way to share documents from one computer or device to another. You can download it on your computer at school, your home computer, your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Android Device and access the documents. I know I have talked a little about this previously when you can hook it up with http://dropitto.me so students or parents can "drop" something right into your Dropbox.
Something with videos...
http://www.youtube.com/teachers boasts over 300+ curated YouTube playlists of videos that align with the Common Core. Might be worth checking out if you are interested in flipping or just some videos to integrate into your classroom.
Something about Nature (for kids)...
http://www.maine.gov/doc/foliage/kids/movie.html has a great video by the Maine State Parks about why the leaves change color. http://www.usatoday.com/weather/environment/2007-10-08-fall-colors_N.htm?csp=34weather Has a great infographic by the USA Today about fall with interactive graphics as well.
Something about writing...
http://oneword.com will give students one word as a prompt and they have 60 seconds to write about it. Student can submit themselves to the website and then email a copy to their teacher.
http://www.plinky.com gives quick writing prompts and would be a good bell ringer activity.
Something for iPad users..
Sync your iCal to your Webmail Calendar by going to your iCal app, tapping the 'Calendars' button in the upper left-hand corner and selecting Exchange to make sure that your Webmail calendar is synced with your iPad. You can do the same with your other email addresses and your other iDevices as well.
Something about Google... again..
http://www.google.com/edu/collegetips/#tab=prospective This site has video tutorials about using Google Apps for College Students. I know we aren't all college students anymore, but these are well done tutorials. The 'Current College Students' talks about using Google Calendar as well as how to create groups.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Get out and VOTE!
We are all busy with Homecoming this week, but here are a few resources to check out. As you can see... I am a bit biased and think that casting our vote for President is pretty important, so there are a lot of resources for you to check out there.
Let me know if I can help with anything and have a great day!
Samantha
- http://www.nbclearn.com/portal/site/learn/decision2012
- http://magazines.scholastic.com/election-2012
- http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/election-2012-teaching-ideas-and-resources/
- http://www.teachervision.fen.com/elections/teacher-resources/6615.html
- http://constitutioncenter.org/education/educators/learning-resources/election2012/
- http://www.c-spanclassroom.org/Lesson/659/Featured+Lesson+Idea+Primaries+and+Caucuses.aspx
- http://www.c-spanclassroom.org/Lesson/658/Featured+Lesson+Idea+Road+to+the+White+House.aspx
- http://www.livingroomcandidate.org
- http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/2642
2) http://www.wordner.com Wordner is fun, online game that is like Apples to Apples. You can create a free account (or a more generic student account) for students to play. I also like that you can create and print out your own cards too.
3) https://docs.google.com/present/embed?size=l&id=dhn2vcv5_8323t58h3ft Here is a Google Doc on using Google Docs in the classroom that was created by somebody else, but free to share. I am hope you take some time to look through some of it and then insist on trying it out yourself! Let me know if you are interested and I can help, too!
4) http://www.timetoast.com Timetoast is a site to make online timelines and share them as well. You can sign up for free and see other examples of timelines and also assign students to make one themselves.
5) http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/ Bookr is a free, online book creator. The student indicates a 'tag' for the photos or a 'user' (like NationalGeographic or China) and hits go. They simply drag the picture up to the book, add titles, captions and drag the page over to go to the next page or add content. When complete, hit Publish this book! Here is an example: http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/index.php?id=41035
Monday, August 20, 2012
Use Better Searches for Better Results- Handout
Use Better Searches for Better Results
**Adapted from Google Teacher Workshop Materials
“ “ Exact Phrase in Quotes: Search for an
exact phrase.
What
to type: “one small step for man”
What
you’ll get: results that include the exact phrase “one small step for man”
- Excluded Words: Excludes certain words or phrases from your search.
What to type: bass –fishing
What you’ll get: results about bass that aren’t related
to fishing
OR Multiple Words: Searches for webpages that include either word
What to type: vacation London OR Paris
What you’ll get: results with “vacation” and either
“London” or “Paris”
… Numerical Ranges: Searches for a range of numbers (works with dates too)
What to type: Willie Mays 1950… 1960
What you’ll get: Results about Willie Mays during this
time period
site: Site
Specific Search: Searches only
particular websites
What to type: Common core site:edu
What you’ll get: References to common core found on .edu
websites
After going to ‘Google’ and typing your term in the
search bar, look on left side bar next to results and click on “Show Search
Tools” below the search narrowing links.
Timely information: Click on a time range to determine the parameters of when the
information you request was published.
Images Sites: You
can search only sites with images to find visual aids for class with
information.
Related Searches: Not sure what you could search related to your topic? Click on this to
get a list.
Dictionary: Great
for vocab and defining difficult terms and getting visual aids immediately.
Nearby: Has
someone nearby our location provided information on this topic?
Translated Foreign Pages: Doing research?
Google will search sites in other languages for you too!
After going to ‘Google’ and typing in your term in the
search bar, a “gear” will appear on the upper right hand corner of your search
results. You can click on this “gear” to get to advanced search and start to
look for just PowerPoints, PDFs or different creative commons options as well.
Please let me know if you would like to learn more. Happy Searching!
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