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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