TED Ed: Lessons Worth Sharing

Most of us are familiar with TED talks, but do you know about TED Ed?

TED Ed is platform for educators to create lessons around TED Talks, TED Originals (other TED lessons), or any YouTube video.

It works like this:
Search through TED Ed's nearly 100,000 strong lessons, created by experts, artistically rendered by animators.  Customise the lesson to meet your needs. Share it with your students.

OR...

Have a favorite YouTube hosted video? Incorporate it into your own TED Ed video. Here is one I created to teach the Dewey Decimal Classification System.

It's not just about watching the video! Embed questions, provide links for digging deeper, and promote critical thinking by positing a question that furthers discussion.

Signing up is free, and your videos can only be viewed by people who have a direct link.

Managing iPads When a Student Needs Limits

I hope you'll find these helpful for when a student needs some limits set, whether they are reminders or new information.

Guided Access: Lock a Student into One App

Watch a brief tutorial.  Great during stations or independent work for a student who can't focus.

I HIGHLY recommend using our COW/MacBook Air Combination for the code when you set up Guided Access. This is important because if you forget the code, there is no way to look it up. The code is one we all know, so if another staff member needs to unlock the app for the student, we can do so.

iPad Restrictions: Turn off an iPad feature for a student, like Air Drop, Camera, Siri, etc. 

Watch this brief tutorial. Great for when a student is abusing a specific feature. 

Again, I HIGHLY recommend using the school padlock combination for the password/code.

Backing Up Your Computer Files

We've recently experienced some issues with our network that have left some of us worried our computer files were lost. Some of us keep losing them. Here's my take on why this happens and what you should do.

Why: 

Your computer automatically syncs anything saved to your Documents folder to the district network (unless you've changed the settings to sync differently.) When the network is slow and you have a large amount of data saved there in your files, the syncing can just "give up."

What to do:

Short version: Save any files on your computer that you'd like to keep to the Google Drive folder on your computer. Then delete everything you have saved in the Documents folder on your computer. From then on, only save things to the Google Drive folder. If you're a person who saves things to other folders, such as your Desktop, you will also want to include this in your move over to Drive.

The details: Back up your existing files to Google Drive. You can save any file type to Google Drive, including photos, videos, Word documents, etc. Click the Google Drive triangle icon in the top right of your screen, do a spotlight search through the magnifying glass icon, or open the Finder window and look on the left side.  Google Drive is a folder. (If you do not have this folder, you do not have Google Drive set up on your computer. Follow these directions from step 4 on.)

Copy your files in their existing folders and paste them into Google Drive. You will want to make sure you get those from Documents especially, but may want to do so in other locations you have things saved (Desktop, etc.)

This is also a time to purge things you really do not need anymore. The files and folders synced do still take up storage space on your computer (even though online Google Drive storage is basically unlimited since you have a Google Apps for Education account.) 

It's also an important time to think about how you want to organize these files. I would recommend organizing folders in your Google Drive first for any existing documents plus what you'd like to transfer the files to from your computer. 

Then go back to your Documents folder and delete everything after you've transferred it.

From this point forward when you save any file, click "Save As" and choose the Google Drive folder instead of Documents. You can find your folders and it acts just as any other folder. 

Tip: You'll need to make sure the Google Drive icon appears in the bar at the top of the screen when you want to save files and have them sync online with Google Drive. (This is what saves them online and is the backup.)

Ahhh, doesn't organizing feel good? And making this change now may save you lots of frustration down the road.

**Other storage options: Dropbox and Box are free cloud storage accounts you can set up.

Creativity App: Tellagami

I love this app. It has a lot of potential. It lets you create a short, animated video. You add a character to a background (any image you wish), and record your voice or let it read your text.

Right now it's available to you as a teacher, but I hope soon I can tell you soon it will be added to student iPads. For now, it's a great attention grabber if you create a video to present to your class. (It would also be a great incentive to earn; a student could earn a chance to create a "gami" video on your iPad, share it to their own iPad, and include it in a bigger project.)

This has so many uses across subject areas and grade levels! The great thing is you can save the video (30 second max with the free version) to your camera roll on your iPad. Then you can add it to other media in an app like iMovie for a longer project. Check out my Holmes School Tellagami to see how can put your character or yourself right into a location:

Download Tellagami  for free from the App Store and check it out!

A New School Year in Edmodo: Managing Groups

For those of you using Edmodo this school year that have used it in the past, you may find yourself trying to manage old and new groups. If you have your current class join an old group, they will be able to go back and view all the old posts from you and students in the past. But if you create a new group, you can start fresh.

Remember to add a new group for a class or subject, click the plus sign (in the full website on your computer.)

You can click the box next to each group to change the color for easy visual differentiation.

 

A couple tips for saving posts and content from old groups to use again with a new group:

• When you click "Show All" under your groups, you can hide a group from your home screen but still save the group to refer back to later. Click the star next to the group. A solid star means it will appear on your homescreen. An outline only of the star means it will only appear when you click "Show All" again (perfect for old groups to which to refer back.)
  
  
  
  
  
• For any old content you may have linked or uploaded, it should already be saved in your library. You can save old posts themselves in your library for future use, also. Hover over the post with the content until the settings gear icon appears and choose "Add Post to Library."

Do you have any other tips or ideas for using Edmodo you can share with others?

Scheduling Tool for Parent Teacher Conferences: Sign Up Genius

Some of you are starting to think about parent teacher- conferences next month. Dreading the back and forth papers and creating a schedule? Let an online tool do the work for you and go paperless!

Check out Sign Up Genius. The setup process walks you through several easy steps and then you're done! It should take about five minutes. It allows you to set up time slots you are available, then you can invite parents. You have the option to email parents directly from the site or just copy and paste the link to your signup page on your website, in an email to parents, etc.

Example of what a Sign Up Genius page looks like for parents. You can also create signups for other events, requests for volunteers, etc. 

Have any of you used this or another online scheduling tool? If so, what was your experience?

Highly Engaging: Skype in the Classroom

We're excited to share a site of resources with you for Skype!

You're probably familiar with Skype, the video call program. With your teacher laptop, you can easily set up a video call with another classroom. Face the built-in webcam to your students, and project your screen so your class can see the class with which you are Skyping.

Skype has a site devoted to educators: https://education.skype.com/.

• There are a number of lessons you can search through by subject and age range. 
• You can connect with guest speakers and other teachers looking to do a lesson. 
• One of the most popular activities is Mystery Skype. It's an educational game, invented by teachers, played by two classrooms on Skype. The aim is to guess the location of the other classroom by asking each other questions. It's suitable for all age groups and can be used to teach subjects like geography, history, languages, mathematics, and science.

Imagine how excited your students would be to connect to another classroom across the country or even world! Talk about a highly engaging lesson! Check out the short video below for a glimpse of Mystery Skype and the enthusiasm it brews in students.

We hope you consider trying a lesson using Skype, an opportunity to teach "above the line" on the modification or redefinition level of the SAMR model .

If you're looking into using Skype with your students, connect with Elizabeth to help you get started. You'll need to make sure you have the Skype program downloaded first, then installed via a tech ticket because of the required admin password. Then come back and share your class' experience in the comments below!

Welcome Back!

Welcome to the 2014-2015 school year! With so many technology opportunities for both staff and students, this is shaping up to be an amazing year. While sometimes we may get frustrated when our tech doesn't work so well, we are truly lucky to have so much available to us (many schools do not.) I look forward to working with all of you at Holmes to plan ways you can use all this technology for your students to learn, and to work it into CCSS and everything else you will teach!

This blog is here to share ideas. Mindi and I are excited to share these with you here, but we'd LOVE to have all of you involved, too!

• Please comment and share ideas at the bottom of blog posts. 
• Please share with us when you try something you've read here. 
• Please share any ideas or tools you'd like us to share with the staff via this blog. We'll give you a shout out.
• Please share any teacher and/or student examples of lessons or projects you've done so we can post it here and share with everyone!

~Elizabeth :) 

Random Name Selector

Have you ever written names on popsicle sticks to randomly choose students? If so, here's a quick tool you might find useful in your classroom: Random Name Selector from Primary Technology.

Type in or copy and paste a list of student names. Then press "Go" to randomly select a name. You have the option to remove a name from the list for the next selection (if you are making student groups, for example.)  You might even type in something other than names for random selection (student groups, station choices, etc.)

To make a list of your students and save it to easily come back to:

1. Enter your class in "Change names."
2. Click "Save and Share."
3. Copy the first web address in the black box. 
4. Paste it into a new tab or window in the internet browser you use most often.
5. Save this personalized page as a bookmark (even on your Favorites Bar) so it you'll have quick access to it anytime you need it!

Can you think of any other ways you might use this in your classroom? Please share in the comments below!

Back to School Activities with Tech Tools

It's really that time of year again already? Here are a few quick ideas to get you thinking about starting the year with technology- a tech take on those getting to know you activities. How interesting some of these ideas would be displayed in your classroom for parents on Curriculum Night!

1. Use the Popplet app for an All About Me graphic organizer (great for younger students.) This is a great time to teach about and set the tone for searching for safe images labeled for use in education (i.e. not Google images!) (See Mindi or Elizabeth for great options.)

2. QR codes hunt: each student answer some "all about me" questions and create in a specified format (Google Doc, video, etc.) Students link this to a QR code. Post QR codes on a display in the classroom and let students scan to learn about each other. Give a few minutes each day for a week, and each day you can give a task such as, "Find someone who likes the same type of books you do." Encourage students then to talk face to face about what they learn about each other.

2. Big Huge Labs website (see previous post): Students create their own trading card and share to learn more about classmates. (Combine #2 with these for a big hit.)

How will your students use technology at the beginning of the year?

Big Huge Labs

Have you discovered the online creation tool, Big Huge Labs? They advertise as being being able to help you "do cool stuff with your digital photos," which is certainly true...but the site is really so much more. It's all about providing you with a place to create with your students. Just upload a photo from your iPad or computer to start a project. 

Some highlights:

• Works well on both laptop/desktop computers and with iPads.
• Great for a quick creation to stand by itself or as one piece of a larger project.
• All finished projects can be "saved as" an image directly on to the device on which it was created, shared via email (there's an option to do so for each project), airdropped, or printed from a connected device. Projects need to be completed in one session, however. There's no way to edit them later. 
• A sampling of the things your students can create by uploading a picture: 
• digital trading cards
•  magazine covers
• maps (of places they're studying, visiting, etc)
• a movie poster
• a motivational poster
• a postcard

We'll be adding more to the blog about this tool as time goes on, but for now, check these creations out.

 Magazine cover based on civil rights unit. (This might make a great cover image in the Book Creator app with more info students write inside the iBook created in this app.)

Animal research project trading cards. Could be shared with teacher, who can print and share sets with students or post online for students.

Already Planning for the New School Year

It's never too early to start thinking about the beginning of the school year and how we might communicate with parents. Here are two ideas you may want to consider.

Remind 101

Parents don't always check their email but they always check their phones!

Remind 101 allows teachers to communicate to parents via text message without actually sharing phone numbers. It is great for reminders for field trips, class celebrations, project due dates, etc. or any other quick communication. It is an app but you can also sign up online. Click here to learn more. 

Google Forms

If you don't already use them, I suggest creating a parent survey or questionnaire in Google Forms to collect parent info. You might gather preferred method of contact, info that helps you get to know your new students, or even volunteer interest. It's great for student interest inventories, too. The best parts? All responses are collected in one place in a spreadsheet and it's paperless. Share the link via email or post it on your teacher page for parents to respond. 

One important note: No one outside the district can respond to the form unless you change the settings. At the top of the form, uncheck the box for "Require Oak Park School District 97 login to view this form." (Do this for any form you send students, also.)

Virtual Math Manipulatives

Math manipulatives take time to organize, distribute, and collect. We find base ten blocks and fraction bars on floors days after we've used them. An alternative is virtual manipulatives. Not only do they help with those physical annoyances, but they can help us take technology use up the SAMR model. A student could use a creation with virtual manipulatives, saved as an image. The image can be combined with an audio explanation, included in a report, etc. It can be part of a larger project, just a one-time assignment demonstrating knowledge, or even part of an informal assessment of understanding.

Websites

Here are a few websites with these tools for your students. You should note that these sites use Flash, which is not supported on iPads through Safari. Therefore, our students do not currently have a way to use these on iPads. They work just great on Chromebooks (when we receive ours in the Fall), MacBook Airs, and lab computers, though.

Math Playground has many virtual manipulatives, skill practice, and modeling/thinking tools.

Math Playground manipulative examples

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives is a classic you may already know, organized by grade level and category.

iPads

Students can demonstrate understanding and teachers can model for students. Some ideas to try with current apps (or apps coming soon!):

• Educreations, Showme, or Explain Everything: students can take pictures of or search the web for images of specific manipulatives and insert them. They can also duplicate them.  Then they record and share with you, the teacher, to check for understanding. 
• The word is that 3rd-5th graders will have the Virtual Manipulatives app on their iPads next year for fractions, decimals, and percents. K-2 student apps have not been finalized yet.

Do you have other math manipulative sites or apps you use? Please comment and share below!

Two Apps are Better Than One

For students or teachers, our iPads are fantastic tools. But sometimes we feel limited with what a certain app can or cannot do. If you've ever felt this way, I invite you to App Smash.

What is App Smashing, you ask? It's creating content in one app, then transferring and enhancing your creation in a second app and perhaps a third.


Let me give you an example.

1. A student creates a graphic organizer in Popplet like this one above.
2. The student exports the graphic organizer as an image and saves it to Photos on the iPad.
3. The student starts a new book in Book Creator. The student adds the image from Popplet, along with other elements, to create a ebook teaching people studying to become naturalized US citizens what they need to learn.
   

Our fourth graders are creating similar projects to this one. Ask a fourth grade teacher or student for more info!

There are many times that an image or video can be created, saved to Photos, and then inserted into a project in another app.

How Can I Use This?

Students with iPads can App Smash to create more detailed, engaging, and creative projects. Giving students choices about which apps to use or how to create an end product will lead to these types of projects. Teachers can App Smash to create tutorials, attention grabbers, or even share student work with families. Since you can install any apps you'd like on your teacher iPad, the possibilities are endless! Check the blog later and look for posts with the label "App Smashing" for more ideas. 

How have you used App Smashing or seen it used?