How do you Edit a Photo?

Now that Digital Cameras have image resolution capabilities up to and beyond 18 megapixels what do you do when you want to edit those pictures after you have taken them.  How do you take an image that is 4000x3000 and reduce it or compress it so that it can be put somewhere else like a webpage, blog, etc.  What tools are out there to do this? There are programs out there that can help you out but what if you cannot afford to buy a program what is your alternative.  Well up until recently there was a website that offered the ability to edit an image on the fly for Free, Picnik.  The site offered more than basic editing features for images that some pre installed computer software could handle.  But as you know websites come and go everyday and Picnik was caught in that wave of passing websites recently.  So what do you do now if you were an avid user of Picnik?  What are your options now, some sub par or expensive software that will either not give you what you want or go way over the top and give you so much more that you will never use all of the it in your lifetime.

Recently Mashable put together a small list of viable alternative websites that will allow you to edit your images on the fly on the web, Free and without the need for a registered account.  I took a look at them and these are some really robust and feature filled websites to allow you to edit pretty much any aspect of an image you want to.  The only issue that I founds that might come up is that Thumba requires you to have the most recent version of Microsoft Silverlight.  I think that you will have a lot of fun editing images on any of these sites.

• PicMonkey
• BeFunky
• iPiccy
• Pixlr Express
• Sumo Paint
• Thumba
• Psyko Paint

Now if you are a teacher and are going to use any of these in the classroom with your students then make sure that you take a look at the sites ahead of time.  Some of them do have ads along the sides which could be of questionable material out of the grade level you are in which could cause some questions to come up from your students.   Some even have Apps that you can download to your Smart or iPhone.  Not that I want to promote any of these over another but PicMonkey does not have any ad space on its site that I could find as I was using the site.  But you make the decision on which one will be the best fit for your situation and comfort level.

photo credit: austinevan via photo pin cc

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A Different Type Of Professional Development

 I love checking things off on my list!


First Edcamp

 

First presentation at Edcamp 

Last Saturday, April 21 was the first ever EdcampNC. It was held at Poe Hall on the North Carolina State Campus. I wasn't really sure what to expect because I had never attended one before. I had heard about others around the country: EdcampPhilly, EdcampDenver, EdcampSocialStudies, etc. I really wanted to see what it was all about.

The first thing that was different was that no one put in proposals for what they wanted to present on and no one had any "prepared" presentations. The morning of Edcampnc we all arrived at Poe Hall to see a list of times, room numbers, and blank sheets of paper on the wall. It didn't take very long for people to start writing things they wanted to learn on the blank sheets of paper. There were a lot of good ideas on the board, now what to choose?

I very much enjoyed the professional sharing that went on during the day. I was able to meet so many wonderful educators and catch up with others that I chat with on a regular basis in Skype and/or Twitter.  During each session I attended, I was so impressed by the discussions that were being held. In a regular conference, you don't necessarily get to have conversations during the presentation. At an unconference, it is much more laid back and everyone who wants to can voice what they think or how they do something with their students.

I created a list in my Diigo account of resources that were shared at various sessions and on Today's Meet from EdcampNC.

I had such a good time at EdcampNC. I can't wait until next year!

Image: 'check' http://www.flickr.com/photos/81833876@N00/5227436224

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My First Edcamp Experience

This past weekend I was able to attend my first Edcamp in Raleigh, North Carolina.  I was not sure what to expect and really did not know how things were going to work since I was told that there was no agenda.  No agenda I thought to myself, how will I know what I want to do and where I am supposed to be throughout the day.  If you do not know me, and my co-workers and friends can tell you, I am a very strict timeline follower.  I am used to doing thing according to a schedule and when that is disrupted I am not one that can appreciate the change rather quickly.

I was told that there was no solid agenda with no specific content to be covered or topics to be discussed.  It was up to the participants to choose what was going to be discussed.  Choose, I said, what do you mean.  Well how things work is that there is an "Idea Wall" where anyone attending the Edcamp could come up and write down a topic of discussion that they felt passionate enough about that they wanted to have a session dedicated to it.  Then hopefully you will have enough topics to cover through the entire day with enough diversity so that people have lots of choices to pick from.  So I figured why not, so I threw a topic up on the wall for a session time.  I was not sure if anyone would even show up but that is also the catch at an Edcamp.  You may have a session that everyone wants to come to and you may have one that is not attended at all, and it is all OK.  You may have people coming in and leaving during your sessions and that is OK as well.  There are no hurt feelings and the opinions of everyone are valued and not squashed. 

I was prepared for the worst case scenario being that no one would attend my session.  I just was not sure that there would be any interest and I since this was my first Edcamp I would have been fine with no one attending.  But when the time came I was surprised that I had some people walk in to participate and the game was on.  I felt that it was a really good session with lots of discussions in it and I even got a round of applause from the few people that were there.  All in all it was a great day and I feel that I will attend more in the future and even sign up on the "Idea Wall" to present a session again.

I have a confession to share with you know.  I can now say that at one point in time I was very concerned and unsure of myself as a presenter.  Now I can say that after presenting at a number of conferences I am feeling more and more comfortable with being in front of people.

Image provided by: @bethanyvsmith, NCSU

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What can questions do?

How many questions do you ask each day?

How many questions form in your mind each day?

What does it mean to have questions?

Is it Ok to have questions that don't have answers?

I think asking questions is a good thing (even the WHY? questions from my child).

If you are asking questions, that means you want to know more .... which means you are engaged in learning, even if it is not always the traditional definition of or setting for learning to take place.

This past weekend, I was at a traditional learning setting ... NC State University. I was even in Poe Hall which houses their College of Education. However there was what one might consider untraditional learning taking place ... at least for me!

I got to attend my first EdCamp Unconference ... EdCampNC. The title of the event explains it in many ways: a bunch of Educators got together to talk and learn from each other but not in a structured conference setting.

Now as someone who likes to have things planned, organized, and on a time schedule ... there was a chance that this Unconference would not work too well for me, but I can happily report that was not the case. I had a great time ....and it was mostly focused on questions ...

The day started with a grid on the wall with blank paper for people to write questions and/or things they would be interested in learning more about and/or sharing. There was a piece of paper for each time slot and room. There were not specific topics or session planned ahead of time. When it came time to start the unconference, I looked at the wall to see what questions I had about the suggested topics and chose a room to go to for that conversation.

The conversations were initiated by questions ...

The conversations were fueled by questions ...

The conversations promoted, encouraged, and caused even more questions ....

And it was OK to have all those questions and to discuss all those questions and to think of even more questions ....

I enjoyed hearing the questions of others and reflecting on their questions and how the connect with my own questions ...

I am sure that in the midst of all those questions, we can find some new ideas, resources, and opportunities for learning ...

Do you think asking questions is a sign of curiosity and a desire to learn?

I can answer that one for me ... Yes!

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Leading Change? Creating Innovation?

The old saying is that "No one likes change but babies in diapers." (Barbara Johnson) If that is true, how does a district make systemic change? Kotter International states, "Urgency is becoming increasingly important because change is shifting from episodic to continuous. That means there is a constant need for an urgent focus on what is important." Change is around every corner. There is no longer a period of breathing room in education. In North Carolina, it is no different. Our districts are facing very large changes:

• Focusing on 21st century skills
• NC Teacher/Administrator Performance Evaluations
• Common Core/Essential Standards curriculum changes
• Online assessments to be given statewide in 2014

We must communicate a sense of urgency to all education stakeholders. Parents, teachers, students, and community must be involved in how schools do business. They must understand the WHY of change as much as they want to know the HOW of change. Without a sense of urgency, it is easy to put off what needs to be done (spoken by a true procrastinator by the way!). Most change needs immediate action. By waiting, it can compound issues to where you have to climb a mountain to solve a problem rather than a small hill.


When I took my first leadership role, someone recommended I read the book "Our Iceberg is Melting" by John Kotter. This is a very quick read (within an hour) and is presented in a narrative format. Through the example shared, Kotter reveals several steps to bringing about change successfully. These steps have helped me throughout my career. Upon reflection, I realize that I have developed my own off-brand approach.

• Build the infrastructure: As a leader, you must know the political landscape and the resources that you have at your disposal. Are there structures in place for communication? How does everyone collaborate? Find out what is there and see if it can be used to accomplish your goals.
• Know the players, build a team: People are important. If you are not a "people person", education is not the place for you. A good leader will take the time to know the players of the game and figure out how to strategically place them to bring about the best results. Find strengths and play to those. If weaknesses are too great to ignore, figure out how to grow strength in those folks or help them find a place better suited for them.
• Answer the "so what?" factor: Everyone wants to know what is in it for them. Why should I care? I remember asking my own high school teachers that very same question. It is the same for leadership. Teachers have tons of responsibilities on their plates. It is the job of the leader to make connections so that everyone understands how to work smarter. I use the analogy of "Chopped" on Food Network. On the show, chefs are given random ingredients and told to make a meal from them. The key is to make something that tastes good, looks good, and is good. Leaders in schools have to do the same with the different issues, programs and responsibilities on that teacher plate.
• Bottom-up: Change needs to be a grassroots effort. If you can get buy-in by those affected the most, it can be very successful. There is a great video about leadership from the perspective of the "first follower." Although funny, it illustrates perfectly how change can become a movement.
• Top-down: Leaders need to lead change. Period.
• Differentiate for the learners (a.k.a. give them choice): Have multiple methods for teachers to get on board. This might be in timing (letting some go first or let those who need to be last, be last), in presentation of the information (multiple formats), or in application of the change (let them choose where they will contribute to the adoption of change).
• Meet them where they are: Don't make the assumption that everyone is the same. Figure out the needs of your audience/staff and work towards that. My husband is NOT a technology person. He gets overwhelmed with the technical knowledge I have. If I tried to teach him on my level, he would shut down. Instead, it is important for me to teach him something about technology WHEN he needs it or wants to learn it. Then he embraces the knowledge instead of kicking back.
• Be ready to drop back and punt: Not all change will be smooth sailing. Give the change time to take hold but if the writing on the wall early on says that this is not the way to go, don't be afraid to stop the implementation of change and work toward a better solution.

 Image by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mabi/208649874

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Free Electronic Field Trip

Visit Colonial Williamsburg website where teachers and students can find out more information about colonial times. There are videos, podcasts, blogs, etc. Find out if Thomas Jefferson's ideas about education are still valid today by viewing his blog. Read recipes from the colonial era at "History is Served". There is also a Kids Zone with games and activities. There are many more activities for teachers and students to find at Colonial Williamsburg.

Last year, Colonial Williamsburg offered a free electronic field trip to teachers. They are offering another free electronic field trip for September 1 - 30, 2012 (next school year), just in time for election year. It is called "The Will of the People". Teachers can register for this field trip now and plan for next fall. The field trip has information about the negative campaigns from Thomas Jefferson's time. I think that this field trip would fit in well with our upcoming election. When was the last time (if ever) that we have not heard our candidates spreading negative campaign messages? By registering, teachers will be able to view streaming videos, lesson plans, online activities, and a teacher guide.

This electronic field trip fit very nicely into our TPACK (Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge) model that we are using. A previous blog post on TPACK can be found here. In the Social Studies Activity Types, there is a section on "Experience a Field Trip". This also ties into the Information and Technology Essential Standards (ITES) of Access and Gather Information. As I scrolled down our Social Studies Activity Types, I also found several other activities that "The Will of the People" will fit into. For example "Sequence Information" which meets the Organize Information standard for ITES; or,"Discuss" which meets Organize Information and communicate Information. There are a lot more activity types that this electronic field trip will go with also. ITES for K-5 can be found here; 6-8 here; and 9-12 here.

Why not check out the Colonial Williamsburg website and register for "The Will of the People" free electronic field trip. I think it will be very interesting.

Image: 'Jefferson? Williamsburg' http://www.flickr.com/photos/67958110@N00/4665575366

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More PD In Your PJs From @SimpleK12

Some of you may know but, in my spare time I do presenting for Simple K12. These free webinars are on a wide variety of topics. There are loads of other great presenters too who present on a whole host of topics. Everything from iPads, to flipped classrooms, to time management. (You can view the entire list here.) Yes, they are free. So cool right?


Well, the bunnies at Simple K12 have outdone themselves this time and created their first virtual conference. Every 30 minutes for 24 hours there will be a webinar, completely free.


What can you learn about? Perhaps the better question is, “What WON’T you learn about?”  Conference sessions cover ALL of the latest educational trends and topics, such as:

• Google Earth
• iPads For Educaiton
• Free Web Tools
• 21st Century Projects
• Blogging
• Google Maps
• Podcasting
• And More!

There is so much,  you will have to just check it out for yourself. Oh, and its free too. So it doesn't get much better than that. 


The conference starts April 26 at 8am EDT. 


Head over to the conference site to learn more and to sign up for the webinars. 


Hope to see you there!

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Did you know there is a city in Texas named Melissa?

At times I find the comments after an online article more interesting than the article itself ...

I think it is quite interesting to see people's responses to the information being shared.  There are times when I learn things from reading the comments, and there are times when I don't learn anything (other than that people in general need to think more about the comments they leave and their word choices at times, but that is another topic).

The things I learn are not always related to the topic of the article ...

One day I was looking at the comments in response to a news article online (I actually don't remember which one I was looking at but I do remember what I learned from the comments section). One of the comments caught my attention ... so I looked to see who wrote that comment and I saw where they were from ... Melissa, Texas!

I have no connection to Melissa, TX other than the fact that my first name is Melissa, but I decided to find out more about it. When I found out that there was a Melissa Public Library, Melissa Police Department, and a Melissa Independent School District, I started sharing that information with my coworkers ....

For some reason, they did not find it as interesting as I did ... :)

The City of Melissa is a small community about 35 miles north of Dallas, TX. Along with its population of about 5,200, it has an exemplary rated Independent School District.  This city also has a very informative website as well as facebook and twitter accounts. Melissa even has its own YouTube channel!

The more I learned and shared about the City of Melissa, the more proud of it I became!

My finding out information about this city began as just a fun project ... but I began to think of ways this type of activity could be used with students in so many different subject areas ...

• introduce research methods ... especially ones for online and offline research
• find data to compare with other cities
• use as prompts for various projects (informative, persuasive, descriptive writing)
• teach the five aspects of geography using specific locations
• design a logo or flag for a certain area based on the information found
• create a commercial 
• use as a setting for a story
• create word problems with data found
• contact the town by writing a letter of request
• explore the wildlife/plant life there related to the geography/habitat of that location

The many times I have mentioned Melissa, TX inspired some of my coworkers to start finding cities with names close to their first and/or last names ...

For example, one of the guys I worked with, Marty, found several places named Martin .... there is a City of Martin in Tennessee and a Town of Martin in Georgia (which if we are going to make connections .... that town in close to Toccoa, GA where I used to live and is located in Stephens County ... we work with another guy named Steven ... spelled differently but sounds the same).

What are some online or offline skills that you can use to find a location similar to your first or last name?

Wouldn't it be beneficial to teach students those research skills?

What are some activities students could do with the information they are able to find using those skills?

I do have an uncle that lives outside of Dallas, TX, so maybe I can get him to get me something from Melissa, TX! :)

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Using CPS Verbal Engage Questions and ActivInspire Expresspoll for Formative Assessments

When teachers ask students questions in class without the use of Student Response Systems such as CPS or ActivExpressions, do they receive an accurate assessment of whether or not the students truly understand what was covered in class? Student response systems allow students to remain anonymous and therefore permit all students to respond without worry or concern. Teachers can ask questions that require more thought provoking text responses from the students.

CPS users have a choice of a large screen where teachers can type the question they want to ask the students or a smaller response bar that can be placed anywhere on the screen. To change the setting from a large screen to a small response bar, choose “delivery options” from the settings menu. Teachers then have the option to check or uncheck the “show large screen” box in the verbal questions section of the delivery options window. Once that is done they would click “verbal engage” from the “engage” tab and choose “short answer” or “essay answer” depending on the character response they want from their students. Short answer has a maximum of 40 characters and essay answer has a maximum of 120 characters.

ActivInspire users would open the expresspoll from the main toolbar and choose text response “ABC”.

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Tools And Resources For Creating Infographics

Infographics.

 You have probably seen them before. There are so many out there on a wide variety of topics. Here are just a few. (Click the images to see more):

The Computer Can Be A Dirty Place

Visualizing Wikipedia

Even Batman has an infographic

These really are a great way to visualize data. And believe it or not, you don't have to be a graphic designer to create them. All it takes is some data you want to visualize and knowing where to go to create them.

Here are a few of my favorite sites and tools to use when creating infographics.

Wordle: Chances are this is one you have heard of. But in case you haven't, Wordle takes chunks of text, speeches, songs, or just lists of words and creates graphics out of them. The larger the word, the more often appears in the text. It's a really great tool for seeing which words are most emphasized. While it might not look like the others above it's still a visual representation of data, it's just the data is words instead of facts or numbers.

Visual.ly: It doesn't get much simpler than using Visual.ly. Register for a free account and select a story. They have a limited amount to choose from. They all revolve around Facebook or Twitter in someway. Here is one I created on #edchat. You can change the design, look and feel so there is some customization but you can't import you own data...yet. According to the site, there are plans to open it up a bit and make some of the creation tools available.

Creately: Creatly is an online mindmapping program that is pretty powerful. You can create all sorts of diagrams and you can do it collaboratively so this could work really well in the classroom. You can even try it out without signing up for an account.

Google Public Data Explorer: It probably goes without saying but Google has access to lots of data. On this site they make it very easy to mine public data and return some amazing visuals and animations. Want to know what the unemployment rates in Europe or the birthing trends in the U.S. look like? Here is one I created on the population sizes of various states after the last census. Again, this would be a great site for gathering images and graphs.

Aviary Phoenix-Once you gather your images, charts and graphics, you are going to need a way to put them together. It doesn't get much better than Aviary Phoenix. A very powerful, browser-based, image editing program, you can import images and create many layers to produce the infographic of your dreams. It sounds complicated but it is a fairly easy program to learn and use. Oh and its free!

Kathy Schrock has an entire webiste dedicated to using infographics in the classroom. She has gathered a ton of apps, sites, lessons and ideas. It's definitely worth checking out.

What other sites do you use to visualize data? Come across any interesting infographics you have used in the classroom? Leave a comment below.

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Interactive Sentences Using ActivInspire

Have you been trying to figure out a way to engage your students a little more while they are in their writing centers creating sentences?  Why not use your ActivBoard and ActivInspire to make creating sentences a little more fun.  There is a tool called Append Text that will allow your students create sentences by Appending (adding text) after a sentence starter word.

To set this up you will need to open ActivInspire and on a new flipchart create your list of words that you want students to use to create sentences.  Then in a blank area of the page put your sentence starter word, remember to put a space after it.  Move the words on the screen in an area where they are not in the way of the sentence they are creating.  You can also use objects to provide a visual component for your students.  This will allow you to reach from Pre K students and up.  

For the rest of the words: Watch the video to see this in action

• Open Action Browser (View - Browsers, or CTRL+B)
• Select the word
• choose Append text from the Action Menu
• Choose the Target Text ellipse button to select the sentence starter.
• In the Text box type in the word you originally selected, "make sure to add a Space after the word"
• Click Apply Changes button

 

Now you are finished with the set up.  You should now save the flipchart page so that you have a clean page copy for the students to work from.  This allows you to use the Reset Page button to clear what has been selected after each student comes up to write their sentence.

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Who is your favorite?

Part of my classroom library one year

Do you have a favorite author?

How many books have you read by that author?

Did you enjoy reading one book by that author so much that you went in search of other books by that author?

I admit that I do that as an adult reader. I greatly enjoyed reading Walking Across Egypt by Clyde Edgerton, so search for other books written by that author. I have enjoyed most of the books I have found, and I have found many books I would not have in any other way.

I often use that as an example when I hear students say that they don't know what to read next.

Looking back, I can't tell you how many Baby-sitter's Club books by Ann Martin I read growing up ... that was an author and series that I enjoyed reading. Judy Blume was another one of my favorite authors.

Do our children have favorite authors?

Do they know how to find other book written by that author?

Do they know how to find interesting bits of information shared by that author?

Do you know many authors of books for children and young adults share ideas, upcoming books, frustrations, and even things to laugh about using various types of social media?

Many of the authors and publishers have facebook and/or twitter pages. I have found better information on some of the publisher pages. There are also a large number of author who share things on their blogs (and sometimes you can even find contests and projects for students on those blogs).

On a day of learning at Simplek12, I attended a webinar about connecting with authors on the web as a way to motivate readers.

Here are just a few of the author with things out there for you to explore:

• Cynthia Leitich Smith (her webpage offers an EXTENSIVE list of info about authors on the web)
• Kate Messner (was a teacher, has a twitter acct, and an awesome blog post about starting a new book) She has a list of authors who skype with classes on her website!
• Grace Lin (has certain things she blogs about each day ... on Mondays she writes about what it on her desk and she shares fortune cookie Friday)
• Dan Santat
• Mo Willems

My challenge for you this week is to find a book you enjoy reading and then see what other information you can find on the author (and/or publisher) of that book.

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Updates in StudyLadder

Yesterday I received an email from StudyLadder about what was new for 2012. Also, from one of my Diigo groups there was a link to Mathematics Patterns. Guess what; it was from StudyLadder! This started me thinking about another blog post on StudyLadder. In May, 2011, I wrote a blog post about StudyLadder (Work Your Way Up The StudyLadder). I talked more about Literacy in that blog post; now I want to talk about Math.

StudyLadder is free for teachers (K-6) to sign up for and they can import their class list to create username and passwords for students.  All students have free unlimited school access and limited homework access. Adding classes is very easy to do. A teacher can copy and paste their class roll into StudyLadder and their system will create the username and password for students. There is also a parent letter that you can print and send home that explains what StudyLadder is. 

So, what's new in StudyLadder?

• Instant RESOURCE SEARCH function
• Now covers over ten K-6 subjects
• Aligns with the NEW National Curriculum
• Now includes Financial Literacy
• More certificates for teachers to print and present

Now let's talk Math. As you can see from above, StudyLadder now includes Financial Literacy which is in the new Common Core. Yea!!! After you register and click on Financial Literacy link, there are several interactive activities (would look great on IWB's). There are activities on money, needs & wants, goods & services, loans, etc. Not only are there interactive activities, but there are printables, videos, and assessments available.

Make sure to look under Mathematics and Mastering Numeracy for lots of great activities. The activities are sorted by color for grade level. You can also search by resource type, topic, etc. 

Some of the topics covered are: Fractions and Decimals, Subtraction, Fractions, Area, and every area in Math for K-6 teachers. Teachers can assign extras to their classes and create certificates for the students. There is a challenge area, drills, posters, and much more. To find these, after the teacher logs into StudyLadder, they can click on the Resources tab to search for items to use or assign to students.

View the video below for highlights about StudyLadder.

YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax7e9bauUJc uploaded by StudyLadder

Why not try StudyLadder now?

Image: 'P1270276' http://www.flickr.com/photos/66989813@N00/3311318564

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Anything Containers in ActivInspire

So let’s say that you are using ActivInspire with your students to teach a concept in class and you need a place on the page for students to write notes or calculate math problems. Let’s also say that you need more than one area for you students to answer your questions or solve your problems and there isn’t enough space on the page. You can use the shape tool to draw a rectangle (note paper) with a tab so that the student can slide it on the page answer the question or problem and slide it off the page to make room for the next students answer. If the student wrote their notes on the rectangle and slid the rectangle off the page, the notes they wrote would not move. Not so if you select the rectangle, click on the properties browser and choose can contain “anything” in the drop down in the container section. If you don’t see any options in the container section of the properties browser, click the plus sign to the left of the word container. Now when the student writes in the rectangle and slides it off the page so only the tab is visible, the notes will go with it. You can also create more than one rectangle (sliding note area) on the page for multiple students.

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StudyBlue

So, what exactly is StudyBlue? Who is it designed for and how would you use it? 

StudyBlue allows teachers and students to make flashcards online. You can use StudyBlue online or on your mobile device. Students can view their flashcards as a review sheet, or quiz themselves while reviewing for a test. One of the newest things students can do with StudyBlue is, they can search and find other students flashcards on a subject.

Click to view the StudyBlue Blog. StudyBlue can be synced with your Evernote account and you can place a direct URL into Edmodo for your students to view any flashcards they create, or the ones that you have created for them.

A teacher can sign up for free at StudyBlue. After signing up, a teacher would need to create a class. Once the class is created, the teacher will receive a unique URL and class code that students will use to join the class. Both teachers and students can create their own flashcards to study for the next test. You can either type in your words and definitions, or import words and definitions from a spreadsheet. Images can be added to your flashcards also.

Obviously flashcards can be used for vocabulary and definition. But what about for math facts? Things like multiplication tables, learning addition & subtraction, or anything that students need to learn math facts for.  


Image was created in Wordle from the words in this blog post.

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Quick & Fast Mapping Made Easy

While attending a conference recently I was in a workshop that was offering a lot of resources for Social Studies and Science and I was introduced to what I thought was a really great website.  As soon as I saw the website my ADD kicked in and I started thinking of all of the ways that it could be used for Social Studies mostly and as well for the other curriculum areas.

The site, oh yeah I have not told you yet, is Batch Geo.  This site gives you the ability to quickly create an interactive map from Spread Sheet data.  Yes you can create a map from a simple data sheet.  As long as there is an address field you will be able to create a map in three steps, yes three steps.  After you go to the Batch Geo website step one is to get your data sheet and copy and paste the information into the text box in the middle of the screen.  They even have a downloadable template which you can get so that you can just fill in the blanks with whatever information you want to map.  Step two (optional) is where you can set some parameters for the map contents.  Step three is just you pressing the Map Now button so that the website will create the map from your data.  Now depending on how much information you paste into the window will depend on how long it will take for the site to convert the data into a map.  It really does not take that long, I pasted in a five column by eighty row spreadsheet and it still took less than a minute total time to create the map.

After the Map has been created you have the option to Save & Continue which allows you to give the map a title, description, email address and to list as public or unlisted.  Once you Save the information you will be sent an email with the information about the map you have just created.  In the email that you receive is a weblink to the map, a link that will allow you to edit the map afterwards and the full embedding code so that you can place your map into a website, wiki or blog like I have done below.



View Colleges of NC in a full screen map

So now that you know how to create the map what can you do with it?
Here just a very few things that I thought about during the conference session:

• Time lines
• War Battles
• BC
• Medieval Times
• Revolutionary
• Civil War
• WWI, WWII
• Author, Scientist, Famous people time lines
• Virtual Field Trips
• Literature Trips
• College Planning for HS Seniors
• Disaster Events

Give it a try and see what you think about the website and then share some more resources on how this can be used in your classroom by commenting on this article.

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Do you think learning and curiosity are connected?

How do you encourage and support curiosity?

I saw something on Edutopia that caught my attention: Four Strategies to Spark Curiosity via Student Questioning by Kevin D. Washburn.

I admit that the the way curiosity and questioning are connected in the title is what first caught my eye.

One of the first statements that jumped out at me is "Curiosity is the name we give to the state of having unanswered questions. And unanswered questions, by their nature, help us maintain a learning mindset."

I talk a lot about encouraging and supporting students to ask questions, to wonder, and explore but I had never really thought of connecting unanswered questions and learning in that way.

Here are the four strategies explored in this article:

1. Equip Students to Ask Questions
2. Provide a Launch Pad
3. Cast a Wide Net
4. Avoid Cutting the Search Short

I am going to try not to tell you too much about this article since I really want you to go read it for yourself, but I am going to highlight a few of my favorite statements:

• "At its essence, curiosity is asking questions and pursuing answers."
• "Questions ignite curiosity."
• If students don't have much background knowledge, "giving just enough information to launch inquiry can help."
• "The brain does its best work in an active and receptive state" so searches need to be both focused and open to discovering new paths.
•  "A new idea or perspective raises new questions, and since the brain does not like unanswered questions, curiosity continues to motivate the search."
•  "We can spark curiosity by engaging students in questioning and in pursuing answers"

The connections between curiosity, learning, and the brain really appeal to me based on my background and interests. (I suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury in high school and written several previous blog posts about things connected to the brain and learning, especially creativity. ) When I read this article, I immediately think of Wonderopolis, a project of the National Center for Family Literacy.

In my opinion, Wonderopolis does a good job of modeling questioning. I like how the questions posed are not ones that can be answered by just using one word. Their questions lead to other questions ... and "ignite curiosity" in many ways. I often tell people that Wonderopolis asks thinking questions ...

I also feel that Wonderopolis does a nice job of providing a little background knowledge to help things make sense while still not fully answering the question .... which still allows thinking and wondering to happen. I think there is enough information provided to make you want to know more ... and they provide links and ideas for finding out stuff if you want to know more .... which encourages exploration and discovery based on interest!

I think this statement from Kevin D. Washburn's article sums it up best:

Learning "compelled" by questions is learning driven by curiosity

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The word cloud at the top of this blog was created using the words from the article that inspired this blog post.

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