Need Money for Technology

Are you sitting in your classroom wondering why you do not have the same technology products as the other teachers have in their schools? Are you wondering how you can get those technology items for the students in your classroom.

Why not try Donors Choose. What is Donors Choose you are asking.

"DonorsChoose.org is an online charity that makes it easy for anyone to help students in need."

So what do you do to get funding for your technology needs. Well all you have to do is to start with an idea, then take that to Donors Choose and then sit back and wait. Well it is not that easy but its pretty close. The process is very simple and easy to follow and will have you online and going in just a few minutes.
So what do you have to do? First you have to create an account with Donors Choose. You can find out more About Donors Choose from their webpage. This page gives you a broad overview of all aspects of the website from how it works to partners to affiliates and many other areas which will provide you with the necessary information to make an informed decision as to participating in the program.

So what you have to do is to set up your account by providing a small amount of information including your school email address and location, which you pick from a list of locations in the area in which you are from. Donors Choose will only send supplies to your school location they will not deliver products to alternative addresses. Then of course you have to check off that you agree with the terms of the agreement for using the site.

What else do you have to do? You will need to keep them apprised of the progress your students are making while using the technology in the classroom. This can be shown through video and pictures of the students interacting with the technology. You will also need to maintain your account and update any information that needs to be changed or modified.

Once a project is accepted, "fully-funded," you will be notified and will have a predetermined amount of time to respond with a Yes or No to the materials. Once that is done you will be required to send feedback on your project. This can be in the form of video, photos, letters thanking the donors for the funds to make your project take shape.

Go take a look at the site, sign up and get started with that project idea you may have set aside because you or your school did not have the money to purchase the necessary technology to complete the task.

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Sounding like Shmoop?

For some unknown reason, this primarily elementary school person has been spending time learning about resources for middle and high school. Most of the sessions I attended at NCTIES were related to middle or high school, and I have spent the first three days of this week at either a middle or a high school. I wonder if someone is trying to tell me something ...

In the workshop I did today, I asked teachers for resources they thought would be useful to other teachers so I could include them in a teacher resource my school system provides. After one session, a teacher asked me if I had ever heard of Shmoop. I had to tell her that was one I had not heard of (and in my mind I was wondering about the site based on the name). That teacher said that site was shown to them last year, and when she starts a lesson series on The Odyssey, she visits Shmoop. She showed me that Shmoop has learning guides and teacher resources. According to the website, it is a collections of "lively learning guides by experts and educators."

For The Odyssey, I found information on the characters, quotes, themes, assignments/activities, setting, analysis, music/video/photos, as well as a summary and even more. They are even sections on certain types of quotes (ex. lies and deceit quotes). When I kept looking, I found a section of the challenges, pitfalls, and opportunities of teaching The Odyssey and with a guide to the Homer writing style in The Odyssey. Wow!

Here are the Popular Learning Guides listed on the site:

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
2. The Scarlet Letter
3. The Crucible
4. To Kill a Mockingbird
5. The Great Gatsby

6. Beowulf
7. Catcher in the Rye
8. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
9. Love the Way You Lie
10. American Revolution

Here are the New Learning Guides listed on the site:

1. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
2. Titus Andronicus
3. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
4. Sound and Sense
5. The Wanderer

6. Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister
7. To Brooklyn Bridge
8. To the Virgins
9. Teaching The Aeneid
10. Teaching The Tell-Tale Heart
11. Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones

There are areas in Shmoop devoted to Literature, Poetry, Shakespeare, Best Sellers, US History, Civics, Economics, Biography, Music, Pre-Algebra, as well as exam prep and College 101. I was impressed by the high levels of information and background building materials to support critical thinking and analysis skills.

image from the shmoop site

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Updating the Firmware On the eInstruction Pulse Remotes

There have been firmware updates to the RF receiver for the Mobi wireless tablet and firmware updates for the Mobi tablet itself. There also have been firmware updates for the CPS Pulse RF receiver. The Pulse remotes also have firmware updates. That is what this blog is about. This update allows a user to enter more than 20 characters to answer an essay question in CPS using the Pulse remotes. The process is relatively fast unless you have many sets to update. The first step is to see if you need to update the firware on the remotes you have. You can find out what version you are running on your remotes by pressing the menu button (located at the top of the remote), then press the right arrow key six times until you see “diagnostic”, then press send (the key below the menu button). The old version firmware on the remotes is 00.47. The new version is 00.54.


Ok, here is the update process. First of course make sure you have the RF receiver plugged in the USB port of your computer and turn on all the remotes. Also, make sure that the RF receiver and the Pulse remotes are on the same channel. Click on the eInstruction icon in the system tray and choose “eInstruction Device Manager”. Right click on the icon for the Pulse RF receiver and choose “properties”. Press the control and shift keys at the same time. You will see two more tabs appear, “update keypads” and “update base”. If you haven’t updated the firmware on your RF receiver, click the “update base” tab and update the RF receiver. Click the “update keypads” tab to update the firmware on the remotes. Click “browse”, select the 0.54 folder and click “open”. Select “English Pulsestring” and click “open”. Click “update”.

You will see a message “You are about to upload new firmware to your Pulse keypads. Do not remove the USB receiver during this process. If you are sure you want to continue, select ok, otherwise choose cancel to abort the update.”

The next step is: “Manually join all CPS Pulse clickers to channel 21 by pressing digits 21 (your channel may be different) on each clicker and then pressing send. When all clickers have joined, press ok.”

The next message displayed is: “The firmware update is currently being sent to all CPS Pulse clickers. The clicker LCD may display blank during the update, please wait until all clickers read powering down and have powered off completely and then press ok to continue.”

The last message you will see is: “The CPS Pulse firmware has been successfully updated. Press ok to end the update process.”

I hope that helps. Thanks.

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Trick Out Your Next Presentation With Google Charts

I am constantly encouraging teachers to use the Web 2.0 tools I blog about and teach about in their classroom. One of the tools I use to hook teachers is Google Docs. I have been using Google Docs for a while now. I like the ability to write and create from anywhere and the ability to give access to others with a simple email invite (Think Collaboration...isn't that the definition of Web 2.0?). While there are a few things missing, overall I have moved away from creating documents, presentations and spreadsheets in stand-alone applications to online creation.

Google continues to roll out improvements to all of the Docs applications. One of the newer ones is the ability to create charts in the spreadsheet application. Because editing charts is as simply as editing an URL, it is now possible to make some pretty amazing charts to spice up your presentations. There are tons of websites that will walk you through the process. I recently discovered a few on a list that came to me from Twitter. Here are the the highlights:


Create Pac-man Charts: Google’s own Matt Cutts describes how you can make a pie chart that looks like Pac-man.

Making maps with Google Chart API: With the Google Charts API, you can make maps and even place charts on top of maps.

WeatherMole: This site uses a number of different Google charts to display weather data like wind speed, hourly temperature, and humidity.

Convert simple tables to charts: Here you’ll find out how you can take simple two-column tables and turn them into attractive charts.

Automated Polls: This automated poll site displays poll data in real time with Google Charts.

Using Google’s Motion Chart to visualize population trends: Analyze trends in population with Google Chart API and Motion Chart.

Twitter Statistics with Yahoo! Pipes and the Google Chart API: Google Charts makes it possible to create a scatter plot that shows how much a user "tweets."

Excel and Google Charts: With Google Charts, you can easily and quickly make charts for Excel that would otherwise be difficult or impossible.

Track your grades: Start visually depicting your grades for various assignments with the Google Chart API.

There are several more, so hit the link below to see the rest of the list. If you create one using any of these, drop me a line so I can see it or share it with me. Now, get to creatin' some fancy Google Charts!

50 Google Chart Tricks

Image Courtasy Matt Cutts Blog

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You Just Received a New Classroom Solution Cart ...

 ... What do you do now? 

I went to a workshop yesterday afternoon that my boss, Marlo Gaddis conducted on a classroom solution cart for the Activ Classroom. She talked about turning the computer on (and where it was located in the cart); the speakers, microphones, remotes, calibrating the board, and introduced the document camera.

On the remote control for the projector, there are a couple of buttons that everyone should be aware of:

• Blank button - (could sometimes be No Show on some remotes) if you don't want students to see what is on the board when they first come into the room, just Blank or No Show on your projector remote. You can still see your computer monitor, but it is not showing on the board.
  
  
• Freeze button - You can freeze the the interactive white board and do something on your computer without showing it to the students. Also, if you are reading a book to students, you can put the book under the document camera, freeze it, then pick up the book to read to the students.

There are two microphones in the cart that teachers can use to hang around their neck. One is marked A and the other is marked B. It is suggested that teachers use the one marked A because the hand held microphone (to give to students) is also marked B. The power button on the small microphone is on the side and when turned on, the light is blue. Teachers can adjust the strap so the microphone fits between the shoulder blades. If you start getting feedback, open the cart and adjust the volume on the amplifier (there is an A volume and a B volume). Keep necklaces away from the microphone so that they don't make noise. A good tip is to get into the habit of turning off the microphone when a teacher leaves the room or is having a one on one with a student. At the end of the day, teachers should plug all microphones into the charger. If the button is red, microphones are charging; if it is green, they are all charged.

The ActivBoard comes with two pens a dark gray and a light gray. Usually the dark gray is used as the teacher pen. Make sure to keep these pens in the drawer of the cart, or attached to the
board.

To calibrate the ActivBoard:

• Take pen and hold over flame (at the upper left hand side of the board) until the flame turns blue, or
  

• Take the pen and click on the Activ Icon in the system tray (bottom right hand corner of your board or computer screen), click on Calibrate, follow the on screen directions and click the pen in the center of all the crosses. Don't press the barrel button or the calibration will quit and you will have to start over again.

On the new ActivBoard, the speakers are on either side of the board. The controls for the speaker volume is on the left hand side.

Document Camera:

• Red button on the camera turns the document camera on. On your computer screen is an image of a ladybug. Double click that icon to open the software for the camera. Click again on the ladybug to open the software menu (you will see a group of images).
• To display a live image, click on the upper left corner (looks like a piece of paper with a magnifying glass on it).
• The remote for the document camera is red and it also has a Freeze button that works the same as the remote for the projector.
• When placing a book under the document camera, one side might be hanging off the cart. You can turn the book upside down and then press the rotate button on the document camera to rotate it right side up.
• To close Ladibug software down, right click on the Ladibug in your menu bar and left click Close.
• The camera can be used as a web cam; just turn the camera to face the students and rotate the image (great for using Skype).
• To Annotate over an image, open the Ladibug software, click on the Annotation icon (an image with a hand holding a pencil) and write on the board over top of the image.

At the end of the day, make sure to turn everything off. Take the microphone off, turn it off, and plug into the charger. Turn off the document camera and put the remote in the holder on the document camera. Shut your computer down and turn off the monitor. Turn the projector off (press the green button on the projector remote twice to turn the projector off).

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Advice For Animoto

If you haven't heard by now, Animoto is one of the best photo/video mashup tools out there. (You can read some past posts I've done on it here.) In a nutshell, users can upload photos and videos, select some music to set the mood and create some of the most professional (and really cool looking) videos out there.

Here is one I did for the Inauguration




A while back I asked my PLN what advice they would give to new Animoto users. Here is what they said:


What great tips! Remember, Animoto is free for Educators. Which means it will be free for your students to use. So head over there, sign up and get those creative juices flowing!

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March Resources

Even though there isn't a National Holiday during the month of March; many more events are happening. You can find events that are celebrated for the whole month, for a week, or for each day of the month.

About.com has a "Long List of March Holidays and Special Days such as
Women's History Month
Irish-American Heritage Month
Youth Art Month

It was really interesting to see that March 7th was the day that Alexander Graham Bell's Telephone Patent was granted and that the first paper money was issued on the 10th. What a fun way to do trivia questions, journal entries, or a great lead-in for a project.

Check out these other websites and resources for lessons, videos, and activities.
Learning Village:

• The Encyclopedia Britannica in NCWiseOwl spotlights Women's History.
• Thinkfinity for what's happening "Today in History"
• "This Day in History" in Learn360
• "Women in History" in netTrekker

Outside sources:

• Surfing the Calendar at Surfing the Net with Kids website by Barbara J. Feldman
• March Madness activity in SMART Exchange
• Social Studies for Kids
• My Vocabulary - Home of the VocabularyUniversity

Most of these can be subscribed to so you will get updated information monthly, some are weekly.

Here is a website for teachers called The Teacher's Corner with lots more lesson plans, thematic units, and activities. The calendar can be printed to help remind you of what is coming up next.

Image created in Wordle

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