ActivPrimary in the Classroom

If you are using ActivInspire in your PreK - 1 classroom you have another alternative. You can change the look and feel of ActivInspire to benefit your younger students by setting the system to open using ActivPrimary.

To do this you will Select the Configure button from the Dashboard and then put a check in the box on the Right side of the screen that says "Launch next time using the Primary look and feel."

Don't worry I have included this video:

When you open up ActivPrimary you will immediately notice the new look. One thing to keep in mind is that some things are not in the same place as they were in ActivInspire but all the same features are still intact. When you look at your Browser window you will notice that the two icons are missing for your Page and Resource Browser. Don't worry they are now located along the bottom of the floating Toolbar. Now since the features are the same and just the look is different there is no new learning curve with the software. Everything that you could do in ActivInspire you can do in Primary. However, if you need some additional assistance you can check out resources on Promethean Planet and videos from YouTube.

images from ActivInspire and ActivPrimary

video by: eherreid

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The 5 Reasons I Use Social Media

1. To share thoughts and ideas with others in my field.

2. Quick answers to questions I have on technology issues

3. Build relationships with my peers in Education

4. Helps me to keep track of resources.

5. Provides me the opportunity to help out others just as much as they help me.

For the past few months now I have been delving more into the realm of Social Media than I had ever before. I have to admit that I was a skeptic and was always worried that whatever I said could come back to haunt me. So I tended to stay away from it, positioned myself to avoid the conversation.

Since participating with colleagues from around the southeast in a conversation regarding the uses of Social Media for both Business and Education, I have let down some barriers. I have since started using Twitter to share my thoughts and ideas as well as to help out others who were looking for answers just like I was. I now have my own Blog and am reading more blogs than I had ever done so before. I think my blog feed now has literally hundreds of blog entries waiting for me to read through on a daily basis and really gets backed up if I am not keeping up with things.

Why the change of heart, what is different now from the way I felt just a few short months ago? I have to credit my peers who are using Social Media effectively whom have helped to guide me along this new journey. I look forward to continuing to use the current products out there as well as researching new ones.

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Where the Wonders of Learning Never Cease ...

I have recently been looking at the Verizon Thinkfinity site. One of their content partners (logos and links at the bottom of the Thinkfinity homepage) is Wonderopolis. Well, with a name like that, I felt a need to go check it out! I am very glad that I did!
It just so happened that the first day I looked at Wonderopolis, there was great information about the Wright Brothers and the First Flight. Being a former 4th grade teacher, that was one of my favorite things in North Carolina Social Studies. I decided to add a Wonderopolis widget to my blog so I could easily catch a glimpse of something new each day. I try to learn something (big or small) each day, so I think this site will help me accomplish that goal.
A couple days later, I saw some neat information on the moon from Wonderopolis. My 4 year old has been telling me lots of things about the moon recently, so I looked to see if there was anything she might like on the site that day. I found information facts, a video, an experiment to try at home, and some vocabulary words. While that information was probably for an older student, I will continue to check back. I found that if you miss the Wonder of the day one day or if you want to look back at a Wonder from the past, that is possible by clicking on the Wonders tab at the top to visit the archive. There is even a place where you can nominate a Wonder (another tab at the top of the page). Wonderopolis also has a presence on Twitter (@wonderopolis) where they share great litte tidbits of information and informative resources.
Here is some information from the About Wonderopolis page:

Create. Laugh. Imagine. Explore. Learn. Smile. Grow.

Visit Wonderopolis.™ It’s a place where parents seek and nurture a brighter world for their children through the power of discovery, creativity, learning and imagination. Wonderopolis™ is brought to life by the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL).

You see your children not only for who they are but for all they can become, yet you may need a little help directing that passion and igniting that wonder. We can help you get there — together. You don’t have to travel far. Wonderopolis is a special place found in a curious question, an everyday adventure and right in your own home. Just let wonderment be your guide.

Our Wonders of the Day will help you find learning moments in everyday life, ones that fit in with dinner preparations or carpool responsibilities or a stolen moment between breakfast and the bus.

Even though the focus of this site seems to be parents, I think teachers could use this site in many ways in the classroom. A few ideas that quickly come to my mind include using it for possible journal topics, a site of the day, a story starter, or even a research prompt. What are some other ways this site might be used in the classroom?

As both a parent and an educator, I am excited about the way Wonderopolis encourages lifelong learning on a daily basis.

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IWB Resources on Symbaloo



Below is a Symbaloo Webmix that I created for interactive white board resources. The orange buttons are for Promethean web links and the blue buttons are for SMART web links. Everything in pink or brown can be used on either software or board.



IWB Symbaloo Webmix



My IWB Symbaloo webmix has links to blogs and wikis from people that I follow through Twitter, Skype, or their Blogs. I added video tutorial links from Promethean and SMART's YouTube channels. There are links to lesson plans, interactives, games, and simulations that can be shown and played on the boards.

Symbaloo is a free social bookmarking tool that allows you to create a webmix (a webmix is a visual list of favorite web sites) of your favorite web sites and then share with other people. I really like Symbaloo because it is a visual image of my bookmarks. I use Diigo to save bookmarks, but with Symbaloo, I can organize by category. It helps me to better remember what I have saved in Diigo. I can share my webmixes with other people and I can add other people's webmixes to my webmix.

Some uses in the classroom would be if you were studying the Civil War, you could create a webmix of Civil War links and resources and share with your students. Of course, anything you were going to research, you could create a webmix and share with students. Other webmixes that could be created might be lesson plan resources, how to get math help, reading/literacy resources.



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What else can we find?

Let's look at some of the resources that are available (just from one site ... that is linked in WSFCS Learning Village on the dashboard)?

• Did you know you can find information on 21st Century Skills in Thinkfinity?
• Did you know you can find student interactives on Thinkfinity?
• Did you know you can do a State Standards Search on Thinkfinity?
• Did you know you can look at information on Today in History in Thinkfinity?
• Did you know you can find lesson plans on Thinkfinity?
• Did you know you can attend webinars to learn more on Thinkfinity?
• Did you know Thinkfinity partners with EconEdLink, EDSITEment, ArtsEdge, ScienceNetLinks, Wonderopolis, NatGeoEducation, and NCTM for great resources?
• Did you know @Thinkfinity @EconEdLink @EDSITEment @artsedge @ScienceNetLinks @Wonderopolis @NatGeoEducation @NCTM can all be found on Twitter as well?

My co-worker Dorene Bates has written about Thinkfinity and the great resources there in the past: Thinkfinity from Verizon.

I would encourage you to go check out Thinkfinity and see what you can find. If you find something you like, please come back and tell us about it so we can go look at it too!

image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/89165847@N00/3982881207/

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The Super Book Of Web Tools For Educators

There is lots of great information on there on Web 2.0 and using technology in the classroom for teachers. Heck, that's our job! But often if you have teachers that are just starting out or need some help figuring all this tech stuff out, it can be a daunting task as there is lots of information.

My good friend Richard Byrne, writer of the wildly popular Free Technology For Teachers blog approached me a few weeks ago and asked me if I would contribute to a free ebook he was putting together. I was happy to contribute a section on social media. Beyond that you have some of the best in the business of education contributing sections as well, such as Patrick Larkin and George Couros, 2 of my favorite administrators giving us the administrators view of technology. Or Kelly Tenkely, Larry Ferlazzo, Lee, Kolbert, Beth Still, Cory Plough, Adam Bellow, and Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano. Such an amazing list of educators. I am so honored to be included in a publication with them.

Here is the book. Download it, pass it out, share it with your colleagues, administrators, teammates. Once you have a chance to check it out, head back here and tell me what you think.


Super Book Of Web Tools For Educators

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Lessons From A Smackdown...

One of my favorite parts of many conferences is the Smackdown. What is a Smackdown you ask? Well, it can take on many different forms depending on who you ask but for the sake of our discussion a Smackdown is when people get up and they have a very limited time to share information about their favorite technology tool or trick. It could be anywhere from 60 seconds to 3 minutes.


Here is a video of one I did at #NTCamp in Philly over the summer.






Recently at EdcampCitrus in Florida they did a Smackdown session where several tools and tricks were shared. While I hate I could not be there in person, Jerry (one of the organizers) kindly created a Google Doc to share. Below is that doc so you can take a look.





I wanted to point out a few from this list that caught my eye:


Classroom 2.0 Live Archive-This is a great place to catch all the recorded Classroom 2.0 sessions. There are so many great interviews and sessions here. Everything is tagged and easy to find.

Wallwisher-I love this site for getting quick ideas on topics. It is basically a virtual sticky notes board that, when shared anyone can access. You only have a 140 characters but you can include links to websites, images, sounds and video, which can be helpful. I like this site for getting quick feedback and ideas for topics. (Be warned, however, it has been going down lately. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. But it is too good not to include here. Always check before you use it. Lino It is a good alternative.)

WhenIsGood-This online scheduler is great. Say you need to do a meeting. Click all the times you are available. Send a link to invitees. They click when they are available. When all matches up. You have your meeting time. This is really great when trying to organize events with lots of people. Best part? Free!

Fur.ly-This is a URL shortner that allows you to combine a bunch of links into one. Great for kids to share sites or web tours or for just sharing a bunch of links all at once. Very easy to use.


Be sure to check out the doc. What is your favorite tool not on the list that you think others might not know about? Leave some details in the comments.


Update: Thanks to Jerry (mentioned above) and the girls at SimpleK12. Below is the video of the Smackdown from #EdcampCitrus. Enjoy!

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Learn360 and Interactive White Boards

You have created a lesson in SMART Notebook or ActivInspire and you have found the perfect video clip in Learn360 to enhance your lesson. What do you do with it? In Learn360, change the format of your video to Flash by clicking on the "Switch to Flash" button under Formats. Once the format has changed, click the Download button to download the whole video or a segment of the video. Click Save and choose where to save the video. Always remember where you saved the file.

Open SMART Notebook or ActivInspire (whichever you use). If you are in Notebook, click on Insert and choose Flash Video File. If you are in ActivInspire, click on Insert and choose Media. Find where you saved the video and click on it. This inserts the video directly into your SMART Notebook or ActivInspire Flipchart. You can resize the video by selecting the video and using the resize handles.

This allows you to then save your notebook or flipchart with the video inside of it. You do not have to keep the video you downloaded on your computer after inserting it. When you are sharing your notebook or flipchart, the video goes with it and you do not have to send a separate copy of the video.

This works great. I hope you try it!

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Information from an Owl? I hope it is a Wise one ...

One of the resources that is available for WSFCS teachers from Learning Village is NCWiseOwl. I admit that for years I thought NCWiseOwl was just for the media center. I am happy to find out that I was wrong. I have been pleasantly surprised at the things I have found on NCWiseOwl. There are zones for Elementary School, Middle School, and High School with resources for each level for students as teachers. There is also a Professional Zone as well as a zone for Media/Technology.

I found this in What's New on NCWiseOwl section:

"When we added the EBSCO databases last year we were not expecting the overwhelming response they would receive. The Student Reference Center quickly became the most popular resource on WiseOwl, and several other EBSCO databases have become extremely popular as well. This year we're hoping for a similar outcome as we add Britannica Online to our collection. Britannica replaces the Grolier encyclopedias with a product that offers a broader scope and more multimedia features. At one end of the scale, The Learning Zone adds an interactive K-2 resource; and at the other end, Britannica High School provides a useful research starter and curriculum reinforcement tool for grades 9-12. "

The former elementary school teacher in me went automatically to the Elementary Zone. In the sidebar, I found the Learning Zone which would be good for younger grades since it covers shapes, numbers, and sounds. There are areas to explore, play, read, and draw. There is a section on Amazing Animals from Grolier Online Passport where students can find information on animals and habits, see images and videos, play the Jungle Jumble and read an article.

The Featured Websites section is organized by month. For December, there is lots of information available on the Wright Brothers and various holidays.

I could go on and on about the things I found, but then this post would go on for 2 miles ... so I just encouraged you to go check out NCWiseOwl and see what you can find!

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Online Project Receives 2.5 Million Grant to Aid Middle School Science

Inamge from http://phet.colorado.edu/

The National Science Foundation and the O’Donnell Foundation has given grants totaling $2.5 million to PhET Interactive Simulation Project to design 35 online simulations specifically for middle grade science education. The simulations will demonstrate how scientific concepts apply in real world scenarios. Once the simulations are created they will be available free to all science class students to enhance the curriculum.

According to Kathy Perkins, director of the PhET project, during middle school students “either get excited by science or turned off” and a goal of the project is to “make science classes both more effective and more fun.” The simulations will allow students to take the lead in conducting science experiments and help students visualize complex phenomena. Teachers can use the simulations in a variety of learning environments from class lectures, collaborative lab work to individual assignments for the students.

PhET was founded at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2002 for college and high school science courses and in an effort to improve STEM education at all levels these new simulations will target middle grade students to improve math and science education. Another benefit to the PhET simulations is the reduced costs in expensive materials and lab equipment for schools while providing a nonthreatening learning environment for the students.

The simulations can be run from online or downloaded to the computer, CD or USB. What a great way for students to learn. Instead of only watching or being involved in a lab experiment once, taking notes and trying to remember everything that happened the students can now replay the simulation over and over gaining knowledge and insight. Each simulation includes the main topics covered, content vocabulary, learning goals, teaching ideas, software requirements, and a choice of language translations.

To read this article:
http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/12/03/online-project-receives-2.5-million-grant-to-aid-middle-school-science.aspx

To visit the project site:
http://phet.colorado.edu/en/about

To view the library of simulations:

http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/new

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Awesome Library

I was looking through SimpleK12's 101 Free Tech Tools for Teachers to find something new for me to try. Even though I saw lots of great sites and tools that I want to check out, the Awesome Library caught my attention. Actually I guess it was the description of this site that caught my attention:
Awesome Library organizes the Web with 37,000 carefully reviewed resources, including the top 5 percent in education.

I decided to look at what this site had to offer. At the top of the homepage, there are 24 categories of resources that can be found. There are also areas of interest for teachers, students, teens, parents, librarians, and colleges. Under that category collection box, there is a list of linked hot topics. If you are not sure which category to look in, there is also a search box.

I decided to click on authors in the category box. The results showed up divided into books, lists, searches, and other terms to also try. I clicked on Free Online Books - Elementary School Level (Awesome Library) (the description again caught my attention: Provides an alphabetic list of classics available online, by author)

That click led me to a list of available books, lesson plans, resource lists, materials, multimedia, papers, periodicals, projects, and purchase resources.

I am a big fan of the teacher reviewed resources available from netTrekker, but this is another great place to find lists of reviewed resources in case you are in need.

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Come See the IRC!!

The IRC has a multitude of seasonal and holiday books for you to read to students! Come Check us out! Feel free to call us or log into our catalog to request that books be sent to you through school mail.

WSFCS Employees are encouraged to come browse our print and video resources (including the FREE Employee book exchange), get a headstart on their winter bulletin boards, use our educational professional database, laminate to their hearts content, and perhaps even make buttons for an upcoming event!

The IRC will be OPEN on December 20-22 and December 27-30.

IRC Holiday Hours

December 20 & 21 7am - 4:30pm
December 22 7am - 3:30pm
December 23 & 24 CLOSED
December 27 - 29 7am - 4:30pm
December 30 7am - 3:30pm
December 31 CLOSED

Happy Holidays to All -- and Happy Reading! (whether it is print, online or an e-book!!)

image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/47823583@N03/5228865665/

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Next Generation Learning

Next Generation Learning is the concept of using technology to develop learning models and personalized education pathways. Currently in the United States nearly 30 percent of students don’t complete high school and only 42 percent of students graduate from college with a bachelor’s degree. How will we address the learning styles and needs of the next generation of students and prepare them with 21st century skills?


The publication Next Generation Learning was produced by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “The foundation has invested $5 billion in programs and partnerships in the United States to address” the challenges faced by our education system and lack of qualified workers that is impacting our economy. The foundation supports the Common Core State Standards Initiative that has produced a set of standards for states to follow for language arts and math skills that students need to learn to be successful in college. Based on these core standards the foundation is investing “in the development of instructional materials that align with those standards” and “assessment tools that provide real-time feedback to students and teachers.”


The goal of developing innovative learning models and personalized pathways is to provide “access to high-quality, relevant and engaging content in a variety of forms” to all students. The elements of the next generation learning model include:

• Effective assessment tools that align with college preparation standards and clear postsecondary learning objectives
• Engaging digital content
• Algorithms and match student needs with content and delivery methods
• Technology-enable professional development tools
• Learning management platforms that integrate and deliver these components

Technology-based solutions can be a cost-effective way to provide effective learning solutions for schools across the nation in this time of tight school budgets.

Next Generation Learning Challenges is a nonprofit partnership that aims to “improve college readiness and college completion through the use of technology and digital media.” The main objectives are:

• To encourage more investment in technology-enabled solutions that improve the quality of learning and student outcomes for low-income students
• To support a portfolio of solutions that demonstrate evidence of success
• To encourage large institutions to partner with innovators to support adoption of their solutions
• To establish a network of collective learning among innovators and adopters

The Next Generation Learning Challenges is led by EDUCAUSE in partnership with the League for Innovation in the Community College, iNACOL the International Association for K-12 Online Learning the Council for Chief State School Officers, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with other funders. It is the belief of these organizations that providing the intelligent use of technology in combination with new emerging evidence-based models of teaching and learning will improve college readiness and college graduation rates in the United States providing a workforce of qualified employees.

To read this publication please go to:
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/postsecondaryeducation/Documents/nextgenlearning.pdf

To learn more about the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation please go to:
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/

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No more Ink from Overheads on Hand

Are you still using your overhead machine? Tired of dealing with cleaning the marker ink off of your hand after school each day? Since I am left handed I had ink all the way up my arm and had to scrub my arm raw every day to get rid of the ink.

Well there is a ray of light at the end of the tunnel "so to speak." If you have a Document Camera in your classroom along with an Interactive White Board or Tablet you can be ink free very soon.

With either Promethean ActivInspire or SmartBoard software you have a toolbar option that allows you to import the image directly from what the Document Camera is seeing and put it into the software and utilize the features of the program to interact and write on top of the displayed image.
Now what does this mean you may be asking? Well you can relegate that overhead to being a coat rack and use your Doc Cams and IWBs to display those old overhead sheets. Yes I am saying to keep all of those great overhead resources that you have used throughout the years just re purpose them and use them in another format.
Place that overhead sheet on top of a blank sheet of paper and then under the doc cam. Open up either the SmartBoard or ActivInspire software and in the toolbar select Inset: Image from Scanner/Camera. You will then click OK on the type of doc cam you are using(comes up as the default). Then look at the screen and there will be a new window that opens with the live image from the doc cam showing. Now click Capture on the window and it will place the image directly into your open Flipchart or Notebook file. Now it is just a matter of picking up a pen from the tray or using your stylus to begin writing on top of the overhead resource without getting any ink your hand.

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Open the Gift of Information Each Day!

Kelly Hines and Kelly Tenkely are two of my favorite people to learn from. Kelly Hines is a teacher here in North Carolina. The first time we met in person, she just plopped down beside me and started a conversation. Kelly and I had "met" online before (Twitter and Skype). We even got together a few weeks ago for pizza! She has a great blog, Keeping Kids First, and is very involved with the Discovery Education NC group. Kelly Tenkely is someone I have not met in person (yet anyway ... I hope to). She writes an outstanding blog sharing technology resources and how to use them in the classroom called ilearntechnology.com. Kelly and I have gotten to know each other through our blogs and twitter.

So, why am I am telling you about two ladies named Kelly?

Today Kelly Hines shared a link to a Web 2.0 Advent Calendar that will let you know about 25 Technology Tools this month. The calendar that she shared was created by ... Kelly Tenkely.

Kelly Tenkely wrote a blog post about 14 Online Interactive Advent Calendars and shared some good ideas on ways to possibly use them in a classroom. She went a step further and created a Web 2.0 Advent Calendar that would be great to share with others as well as to use to find out about so many neat technology tools. On the blog post linked above, Kelly shares information about how she created this, other ways this could be created, and we get to find out about 25 of her favorite web 2.0 tools for the classroom!

You will get to open the gift of information each day!

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Being Successful in an Online Moodle Course

In order to be successful in an online Moodle course in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County, several things should happen. First, you should always use your WSFCS email address when signing up for Moodle. This is the only way that you will receive updates to the Forum's; our Moodle does not recognize outside email addresses. Before taking one of our online Moodle courses, Atomic Learning has "Introduction to Moodle 1.9" videos in Atomic Learning. These videos aren't very long, but will show participants how to navigate around in Moodle.

If the online course you want to take is being offered by the Department of Instruction, you must register for the workshop online first. After registering online, you will receive an enrollment key at the beginning of the course. Most of the courses taught by the Department of Instruction run on a monthly basis and we try to send out the enrollment keys by the end of the first day of the month. Once you have received  the enrollment key by email, you can then enroll into the course and get started. After enrolling in the course, make sure to read everything. Start at the top of the course and read the Agenda and Course Orientation. The agenda and course orientation have the expectations of the course and what will be covered in the course. Most of the courses also have an introduction forum. This is where the participants of the course introduce themselves to the instructor and other participants. Also, this forum is a place where questions can be posted. A forum is only as successful as the participants make it; if participants will post to the forum and then reply back to other participants, it becomes a place to share ideas.

A lot of the course is reading information and/or viewing videos. Then there are activities to be completed. Please read all of the items within a topic before viewing the activity. Usually at the end of the topic is some type of activity; whether it is posting to a forum, taking a quiz, writing in a journal, etc. Make sure to read the activity completely before starting the activity. Also, put some thought and effort into the activity. After an activity is completed, look back over what you have done. Sometimes it is helpful to think, "Would I accept this from my students?" If the answer is yes, then move onto the next topic. If the answer is no, maybe the activity should be revisited. All activities are required to be completed as stated in the course. The more involved the participant is within the online Moodle course, the more satisfaction and learning can be gained from it.

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Technology Fun in December

Image from Crayola.com

 Many times some of the most fun that students can have is with colored pencils, crayons, markers, paper and glue. I enjoy reading the monthly Crayola newsletter to see the list of projects and craft ideas. This month as I read thru the list I started thinking of how many of these projects students and teachers could create with available technology.


The first one that caught my eye was taking old CDs and turning them into ornaments. Instead of students painting over the CDs, create a double circle template in Word or a double circle template in Publisher. Let students use the drawing tools, adding shapes and colors to each circle on the page, print and glue to both sides of the CD. Students and teachers can create all kinds of cards and projects with Publisher, uploading pictures and adding their own creative touch.

There is lots of coloring pages, crafts and educational ideas at Crayola. Teachers should check out the resources provided by Crayola: lesson plans, art tips and techniques, Crayola Dream Makers, success guides, parents & teachers as partners, certificate maker and color science. Dream Makers is a guide that provides fun and creativity to standards-based learning lessons for Language Arts, Social Studies, Mathematics, and Science. Currently Dream Makers is not available for North Carolina Standards but the free sample guides will show a subject area lesson complete with objectives, background information, resources, assessment and suggestions to extend the lesson to give teachers ideas in ways to enhance lessons.

Crayola continues to build lesson plans for all ages. If you haven’t looked at the lesson plans in a while here’s a list of available lesson plans by grade levels.

• Grades K-3          695 lessons
• Grades 4-6           929 lessons
• Grades 7-12         452 lessons
• Special Needs students - 355 lessons

To check out all resources for educators please go to:
http://www.crayola.com/educators/index.cfm?n_id=5

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6 Nifty Ideas For Using Google Apps In The Classroom

Over the past few weeks I have collected some great classroom resources surrounding the use of Google for various classroom activities. Here are a few of my favorites. (In no particular order. I don't want to make anyone jealous or anything...)
Googlios
http://sites.google.com/site/googlioproject/
E-portfolios are becoming more and more popular. This site teaches educators and students how to organize all of their digital content in one place (a Google Site) for showing off their best work. Using a Google Site is actually pretty easy but Googlios goes into great detail on how to create and maintain the portfolio and has a huge gallery of examples to draw inspiration from. Below is a preview video from the site.



Simple Google Docs Training
http://services.google.com/apps/resources/overviews_breeze/DocsSpreadsheets/index.html
This is a short (3 min, 56 sec) video slide show, introducing the features of Google Docs. If you are thinking about using Docs with your students or staff, this video could be a good jumping off point to your discussion.

Google Tricks To Save You Time
http://www.eternalcode.com/100-google-tricks-that-will-save-you-time-in-school
There are over 100 tips and tricks on this page. Everything from the most basic, like how to use the image search to keyboard shortcuts for your favorite apps (like Docs, Gmail and more), to how to use simple commands to perform deep web searches that will hopefully get you to what you are looking for faster. The best part for me were the tips for Google Books. Be sure to save this site. You will visit it often!

10 Google Forms For The Classroom
http://edte.ch/blog/2008/08/23/10-google-forms-for-the-classroom/
One of my favorite Edtech bloggers, Tom Barrett, post this a few months back but I keep visiting it because there are such great ideas. In short it is a list of 10 ideas on how to use Google Forms in the classroom. And the ideas are so great. Everything from the regular survey stuff to a prior learning assessment, to kids' book reviews. There are some great ideas in the comments as well.


Sharing Stories With Google Earth
http://joewoodonline.pbworks.com/w/page/10281223/Sharing-Stories-with-Google-Earth
I have written about Google Lit trips in the past, mainly showing the connection between technology an literature. Lit trips are great but what about other subject areas? This site will show you how to create your own story trips, step-by-step in Google Earth. Creating them is easy. The hard part will be figuring out all the great stories you want to tell! Lots of videos, handouts and directions here to guide you. 

Googleize Your Lessons
http://googlizealesson.wikispaces.com/
"Take your old worksheets, slideshows and webquests, and add a twist of Google to make creative, collaborative and engaging lessons," is the motto at the top of this site. There is tons of great information on the simple things teachers can do to spice up lessons using free Google tools. Here is an introductory preso to tell you all about it.

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Even on a Rainy Day you can get a Ray of Sunshine

As I was walking through one of our schools today I went into a classroom and started talking with a teacher whom has one of our Interactive Classroom Solutions set up in her room. We discussed some things about her board that she could not get working and were able to quickly correct the issue and get her back into action.

As we talked before her students came back in from specials she told me that this was her first year in a classroom with an Interactive White Board(IWB), and that she had not really had any formalized training. As we discussed some quick things she could do to get acclimated to the software and to the board itself she started telling me of all the neat and fun websites she had found on her own to assist her with using the technology. I could tell that she was excited and proud that she had learned to use the product on her own and began to show me all of her resources.

After this I imposed on her to ask how long she had been with the school system as a teacher. She immediately said that she had been with the school system for 30 years and this was the start of her 31st year. I then proceeded to ask her what technology had she used in the previous years and her response was a Chalkboard and Whiteboard, nothing else. So it came down to the last part of our talk as her students were lining up to come back into the room I asked how she felt about using the technology and what would she do if she had to go back to a classroom that did not have an IWB in it.
Her response "...they would have to drag me out of here kicking and screaming. I don't know what I would do without it now." To see the look of excitement and energy in her eyes brought a ray of sunshine and a great feeling that our teachers are "Getting It." They are beginning to understand that the technology is there to help them not to hinder or hold them back. Kudos to this 30 year veteran teacher to completely step out of her comfort zone and take a chance on what can feel like a daunting task smelling like a rose.

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So I found a neat classroom blog today with some great projects and pictures on it (I mentioned it in another blog post).

What is interesting though is the way that I found it. Where do you look for ideas and neat examples? I have places that I generally look, but I wasn't really looking this time, it just kinda found me ...

• So it started with when Marlo Gaddis found and shared EDU Symbalo.
• In EDU Symbaloo, there are collections of links and webmixes. EDU Teachers and EDU Tools are two of the ones automatically in your creation when you start.
• While looking at all the sites linked to those webmixes, I came across another collection called TOOLS4teachers.
• On TOOLS4teachers, one of the boxes has a title of Blooming Questions
• That box took me to a Storybird Creation that uses questions to introduce Bloom's Taxonomy to children
• I look and saw the creator of that Storybird is janeh271
• So I went to twitter and searched to see if I could find janeh271
• When I found that twittername, I saw this tweet: http://7rcs.blogspot.com/ added new revolver map to blog, pls check in so we can add to our map and track in classroom!
• So I clicked visited that blog to show up on the map
• Little did I know what a great blog I would find!! There are all kinds of great web2.0 projects, pictures, and ideas on this blog.
• I tweeted about her blog on twitter (she tweeted back thanking me for nice comments)
  
• Then I wrote about her Storybird Creation on my blog about Bloom's Taxonomy
• Janeh271 has now added to her blog also: Creativity ... a mixture of Teaching a Photography
  
• And now I have written a blog post about how I found her great blog ...

Look at all the ways things are connected ...

You never know what you will find ... even when you aren't looking ...

image fromhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/29875101@N00/3363502084/

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Bloomin' Creations ...

Recently I have been quite impressed with the various representations I have found online of Blooms Taxonomy.
Kelly Tenkely's blog ilearntechnology.com has several (including some digital resources):

• Bloomin' Tree
• Bloomin' Pinwheel
• Um-bloom-ra
• Bloomin' Peacock

Just today I came across another great resource related to Bloom's Taxonomy. I was very fortunate to find a Storybird creation that uses questions to help introduce the idea of Blooms Taxonomy to children. Storybird makes it possible to do so many things with collaborative storytelling and writing. This Blooming Questions Storybird was created by Jane Hewitt who also has a great blog (but that is for another post). I saw her name on the Storybird, so I went to twitter and searched for her. Once I found her on twitter, I found a link to her blog that contains all kinds of neat projects she has done with students.

Go to this link to read/play the story below: http://storybird.com/books/blooming-questions/

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CPS Items You May Encounter

I have received a number of questions dealing with the following things so I thought I would write a blog about the answers to these questions so that it might help someone. First of all when you open CPS, if your database is on a flash drive or somewhere other than the C drive, you will encounter the following message.

This message is fine. Just click yes to continue through the process of opening your database. If you click cancel, you will exit out of CPS. The best thing to do of course is to save your database on the C drive. You can copy your database to a thumb drive to work on it at home. Just overwrite the database to the C drive the next morning.

If you ever want to update the CPS or Workspace software, don’t forget to uninstall CPS, Workspace and the Device Manager in the Control Panel. These new versions are supposed to update without removing the older versions but you still need to remove the old before installing the new.

If you have Smart Board software on your computer and you’re not using it, uninstall it. The Smart Board software takes up the unused ports on your computer. This prevents your CPS RF receiver from being detected by the Device Manager. eInstruction emailed a site to me to download a program that clears a port for the receiver. The website is: http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm. I downloaded the 2.08.02 file to clear a port. Restart your computer and plug in the CPS receiver before the computer starts up.

When you want to give the students a test, select the “engage” tab and the “lessons & assessments” sub tab. You need to put a check in the box next to the test you want to give your students. Then click the engage button to give the test in the teacher lead mode. However, if you have the generation 2 or the generation 2 Pulse remotes, you also have the option of giving the test using the student paced or student practice mode. I think I discussed these modes in an earlier blog. If you want to give two or more versions of the same test, place checks in the boxes to the left of the tests and click engage. I think I blogged about this earlier too.

I hope this helps you out. Thanks for reading the blog if you made it this far. If you stopped at the title, I understand.

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Using EDU Glogster in the Social Studies Classroom

I had a workshop a week ago for some Social Studies teachers. They wanted to know how they could use EDU Glogster in their class with students. They also wanted to know why they would want to use EDU Glogster in their classroom.

So, I created a glog on Using Glogster in Social Studies. The workshop went well. We talked about ways to use EDU Glogster and I showed some examples of how other people have used it in their social studies classroom. One of the ways I use EDU Glogster is as a teaching tool. I usually show my glog to workshop participants and teach from the glog. EDU Glogster is a great introduction to a lesson also.

In the Department of Instructional Technology, we are creating "About Us" glogs to post to our department's web page and on our department's blog.

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Inquiry-Based Projects for the Classroom

Inquiry-based projects provide students with authentic science experiences. Here are some suggestions for creating and using inquiry-based projects with your students.

1. Action-Reaction blog – is it real or fake? Guided inquiry and student-centered learning to foster the development of critical thinking skills. Students may collaborate, be self-directed, communicate and analyze through inquiry-based projects. http://fnoschese.wordpress.com/
2. Connecting News with National Science Education Standards blog encourages middle school teachers to use current science events as teaching opportunities. http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/connectingnews/
3. Quantum Progress blog building metacognition curriculum for physics classes.
• a. Project – Measuring the earth with Skype and a stick http://quantumprogress.wordpress.com/2010/09/26/measuring-the-earth-with-skype-and-a-stick/
4. Snapshot Science provides ideas and resources for biology, chemistry and physics teachers. http://snapshotscience.co.uk/
5. WCYDWT – Science blog provides a collection of rich media that teachers can use as starting points for classroom inquiry. http://wcydwt.posterous.com/

To see all suggested websites please go to Edutopia:
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/standards-based-science-inquiry

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Provide Answers To Tech Questions Effortlessly...

It is very challenging sometimes to provide the help that teachers and staff need. Wouldn't it be great if you could just point them to a website that answered some of the basic questions you get everyday like what is a cookie, or how do I teach my students what Netiquette is, or how do I use Garageband?

There is a great resource out there from Center for Instructional Technology at the University of South Florida called Tech-Ease that I can point my teachers to. This is a great site that is basically a giant FAQ database on everything tech. There are topics on the Internet, Hardware, Files and Sharing, Email, Images, Chat and Classroom Management. When you choose your topic there is a list of common questions that teachers or other tech users might ask. For example in the hardware section there are questions like what is a flash drive, or how do I burn a CD in Windows XP? The questions are basic for those of us who work in tech everyday but very common for those that don't. Each section also provide additional links to other resources that users can consult when they have questions.

All of the information they provide is great. Very easy to use and understand for even the most basic technology user. All of that is great. But wait! There is more! There are video tutorials available that Professional Development Coordinators or Instructional Technologists can use or point teachers and staff to on a wide variety of topics. Podcasting, Google Earth, Windows Movie Maker, Wikis, and How To Create Interactivity With iPods are just a few topics. Oh wait there is more. There are some really great guides for users to download on even more topics like PowerPoint, Inspiration, Nvu, Google Docs, Social Bookmarking, Second Life, I really can not list them all. You just need to head over there and check it out!

There are tutorials for both PC only and Mac only products and they have a great section on enabling the accessibility features in both Windows and Mac OS X.

I was an instant fan of this site. I even learned a thing or two. So next time a teacher or staff member has a question or you want to brush up on your skills check out Tech-Ease, oh, and subscribe to their podcast in iTunes. You will love it!

Tech-Ease-Quick Answers To Real Classroom Technology Questions

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Testing Techniques

When I was asked to help administer a math test, I really didn't think much about it. Testing is testing, right?

All the students looked much the same as when I was in high school - young, studious faces; some a little nervous with others holding onto the "I can do this attitude." The most noticable difference was the technology piece available for them. Times have definitely changed. I had paper and pencil to figure out my solutions to the extensive questions. Some problems would take an entire sheet of paper. I watched the students read the problem and then reach over for their T1-84 calculators without a second thought to start plugging in the information. Within seconds, there was the answer. Of course, they still had to know the method to get the correct answer. It was exciting to see the changes from pencils flying across the page writing numbers and characters to fingers pressing buttons on the calculators confidently and quickly.

As the technologies advance and try to stay up with our thoughts and needs, I just wonder how we'll do testing in the future - touch screen with calculating capabilities built in, headset with microphone and individual testing areas, or devices that can read your thoughts and record the answers. The possibilities are endless. What direction do you think we're going?

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Calling all First Grade Classes ....

I just learned about an exciting Glogster project for first grade classes. Here is some information from the wiki for this project:

This project is created by Mrs. Kellam's 1st grade class with help from Mrs. Ogen, our technology specialist, at Nursery Road Elementary in Columbia, SC. We have created a glog (an online, interactive poster) about our community to share with you. Please view our glog and then create a glog about your community to share with us and other participating schools on this wiki. It will be fun to learn from each other and to see how our communities are similar and different.

More information and all the details can be found on the wiki for this project. I think this would be a great opportunity to combine the study of the geography of your area with creative expression by creating a glog. Here is an archived recording explaining how to create a glog (and even how to use netTrekker to find some of the information). The Glogster recording is near the bottom of the page.

Please let me know if you would be interested in participating: mwedwards@wsfcs.k12.nc.us

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SMART Board Basics

I have been going out to schools and conducting staff development on SMART Boards. As I was conducting the staff development several teachers asked if there were handouts for them to refer back to when they got back to their classroom and tried to remember what I had gone over. This got me to thinking about how I could get them information in non-traditional ways. The first thing I did was upload several Quick Reference Guides from SMART Technologies into my wiki for workshop attendees to open and view. Next, I created a glog from Glogster EDU on SMART Board Basics and embedded it into my wiki. Below is the glog I created.



I then created a postcard in Microsoft Publisher that had all the url's that they would need to find my glog, Quick Reference Guides, information on SMART Response Systems, and SMART Slates. I passed them out in yesterday's staff development and showed them how to navigate my wiki. I think the teachers were pleased.

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Remember — you don't need to be an engineer ...

Math and Science were not my favorite subjects in school, so when I was teaching either of those subjects I always tried to find ways to make it make sense for both me and the students. While looking at some of the resource sites available from netTrekker last week, I came across TeachEngineering. I have been impressed with what I have seen so far.
Here is a description from the website:

The TeachEngineering digital library provides teacher-tested, standards-based engineering content for K-12 teachers engineering content for K12 teachers to use in science and math classrooms. Engineering lessons connect real-world experiences with curricular content already taught in K-12 classrooms. Mapped to educational content standards, TeachEngineering's comprehensive curricula are hands-on, free, and relevant to children's daily lives.
Remember — you don't need to be an engineer to use these curricular resources!

The last line make me laugh about not needing to be an engineer to use these resources ... I am definitely not an engineer (even though I am married to one). I like how the lessons and activities found at this site are hands-on, real-world, relevant experiences. We are looking at possibly adding TeachEngineering to Learning Village in the future!

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Centricity 2 is coming!

This week, Melissa Edwards and I attended an workshop on the latest version of the Schoolwires Centricity 2, our district web hosting solution. When we transitioned to Schoolwires in March, we knew that a newer version was soon to follow. It was very exciting to hear how much the company has listened to its clients as they developed Centricity 2. WSFCS is currently scheduled to begin our upgrade on December 29, 2010. I would like to share just a few of the changes we will see once the upgrade is complete:

• You will no longer have to navigate to your allowed section to login and see Site Manager. You will be able to login to Site Manager from anywhere and it will open what you have rights to edit.
• Groups can be created by webmasters to better able sharing and collaboration. They do not have to be linked through LDAP.
• Webmasters will have the ability to unlock their users rather than waiting for district staff to do so.
• Hierarchy of pages will be drag and drop.
• Webpage design will offer editor layouts where you can choose to add specially designed sections like widgets (called apps). This will allow teachers to have more creativity in how pages are laid out but will also allow for sharing of apps (with live updating). For example: If I teach first grade at my school, I can create an app for our first grade team calendar. I can share that app with my team mates, have them add it to a page and then as any of us update the calendar, it changes on our page. This can be done for podcasts, news events, and much much more!
• We will be able to push certain events to collections of schools or teachers. We can push events up, down, and sideways! (up and sideways will require approval)
  
• Each site will have the ability to see the usage statistics for their own site.
• Webmasters will be able to create short urls for sections.
• Content Moderation- we will have the ability to approve content before it posts. For example: a teacher could create a page for a project at school and give students rights to edit. Before those changes show live, the teacher will have to approve the changes.

There are many other new aspects! Stay tuned for more updates!

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How to turn current events into Real-World Projects

Teachers have been looking for ways to do more than talk about current events in class by finding ways to apply science and math to real-world situations. But “how do you plan for academically rigorous projects that are ‘ripped from the headlines’?”

Here are some suggestions from the article.

1. Think about creating a project where your students take the role of the problem solvers, designing a rescue within a certain amount of time. Use the rescue of the 33 trapped Chilean mine workers as an example. Have students think about what they would need to know about human biology and conditions to sustain life Include knowledge about geology and what experts they would need to create a plan to rescue the miners.
• The Learning Network has a lesson for students to create a multimedia project focusing on universal themes. http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/15/chile-y-el-mundo-connecting-the-chilean-miners-story-with-universal-themes/
2. To bring real life events closer to students teachers are implementing projects where students discuss and see events thru other students who live at the effected site, such as the Gulf oil spill in Louisiana.
• Not only can student talk and share pictures from the site but students can discuss the “psychological, economic, and ecological dimensions of the crisis.”
• Does your school use Skype, webcams or pen pals to reach students around the world?
• Voices on the Gulf provides a blog forum for students to discuss ongoing issues related to the Gulf coast - http://www.voicesonthegulf.org/
• Project-Based Learning Camp provided by Edutopia provides a toolkit real world projects using various software programs: Delicious, Twitter, Wallwisher - http://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning-summer-camp
3. Look at real-life events where students live, such as water shortages, forest fires, water pollution and how polluted or dwindling resources affect their lives, the eco system and what that means for the future. Have students create multimedia presentations to present to the community or to run on local TV cable.
4. Students may also want to take part in service projects where they live or to provide help to victims in other countries.
• Here’s an outline of projects from schools in the Washington area where students researched problems and designed solutions using science, art and technology. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/02/AR2010020203425.html
5. Here’s a list of resources for teachers and students to use when developing service-learning or community service projects.
• National Service-Learning Clearinghouse - http://www.servicelearning.org/disaster_response
• Do Something promotes youth action within their communities. Students can be involved by receiving mobile volunteer alerts, posting a video, adding comments to discussion forums, setting up a DoSomething club or volunteering. http://www.dosomething.org/whatsyourthing/Disaster+Response+And+Relief/Disaster+Preparedness

To read the entire article from Edutopia please go to:
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/real-world-projects-news-events-suzie-boss

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Current Events in netTrekker?

I attended a netTrekker Search training recently and learned some new things about the various ways to search for things in netTrekker. If you have not moved any of the widgets around on your dashboard (which you can now do to organize better for personal preference), one of the boxes at the bottom of the dashboard is called Current Events. Now at first glance, this box did not appeal to me, but after hearing about it at the training. I might have to move this box from the bottom of my dashboard to the top of the dashboard!

• If you click on Breaking News, you get links to PBS, World News for Children, and Newsround from BBC.
  
• The News by Topic Link lets you choose from Science News or Health and Sport News. The Sport News category has topics related to baseball, basketball, football, golf, ice hockey, soccer, swimming and diving, as well as track and field. Each of those links takes you to lists of websites with up-to-date information. There is also a link to the Sports Section of The Washington Post in this area.
• Clicking on US News takes you to another category called News by State. Right now Florida and Idaho are the only states listed in this area. When I clicked on Florida, I was able to get News from All Cities and Towns. I was able to find a resource on the Everglades that contains a video segment, which is teacher recommended.
• The World News link takes me to North America where there is a link to Bermuda. I can visit the Encyclopedia of Earth's Bermuda section to learn all about the environmental issues, geography, ecology and biodiversity, government, people, water, economy, agriculture, and natural resources. (I wonder if that information is available about other places in the Encyclopedia of Earth ... maybe that is another project for me).
• Just looking at the list of links available, I thought the Impact of Current Events one looked the most interesting. I was pleasantly surprised to find these sites in that area:

SMART: World News
Teachable Moments (from the Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility)
The New York Times Learning Network
DOGONews: Kids News - Current Events
Lesson Plan: Current Events
WashingtonPost: KidsPost
TIME For Kids
Children's PressLine

Imagine all the possibilities of information students and teachers can find from these sites focused on the impact of current events. I know that checking out each of those sites needs to be added to my list of things to do! What is even better is that I know since I was able to access these sites from netTrekker Search, these sites have already gone through a teacher review process. If I access these sites from netTrekker Search, I have the Read Aloud and Dictionary options available.
I wonder what I will find next in netTrekker ...
If you come across something really interesting in netTrekker Search for me to check out, please let me know!

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Social Media And Promethean

Over the last few days I spent some time with the folks at the Promethean Headquarters in Alpharetta, Georgia, talking to them about their social media presence. If you didn't know, they have one. Well, sort of. In visiting, I hoped to talk to them about what they can do to increase their presence and how each of the different teams in Promethean can utilize things like Twitter, blogs, and Facebook to reach out and advance their mission.

I had spent some time there earlier this year at the opening of their beautiful offices. I got to spend a few moments with several members of the many teams and get to know what Promethean is all about. They are more than a technology company. They have a culture there that is simply amazing. Over 60% (according to the CEO) of the employees are former educators. Classroom teachers, curriculum and instructional coaches, technology integrators, and more. And what is clearly evident in my time I spent there is that each and every employee cares about kids and cares about making learning better for kids. They aren't about products. They are about learning.

What is was also clear in our time there was that Promethean is about action. If something can be better they want to know why and how. That is why I went to talk to them about social media. They know they want to be better and extend their voice but they needed some ideas on how. And I hope after our conversations we will see them get more into the space.

In the mean time you check out some of how they are reaching into the social media arena and I will update this post as they add more.

Official Promethean USA Twitter: http://twitter.com/prometheanusa
Offical Promethean Planet Twitter: http://twitter.com/planet_tweets
Official Promethean ActivBus Twitter: http://twitter.com/activbususa

Official Promethean Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Promethean/36412707093
Offical Promethean Planet Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/PrometheanPlanet

Remember, check back here for updates with blogs and other accounts as they are added.

And if you use Promethean in your district (or even if you use something else) check out Promethean Planet. There are tons of resources there, groups and forums and help at the click of a mouse.

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