Thursday, June 30, 2011

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Quick and Easy Google Activities for Kids

www.tammyworcester.com

Go to:
Handout and Presentations
Click on ISTE 2011
Select Wed. 11:45

Google Apps for Educators is FREE.

Using Google Docs
Presentation- Use 1 slide to create a postcard where they pretend they are visiting a place they learned about and wrote a message to home. (Print as a handout so you can save paper and will print as a postcard size.

Switch settings to anyone with the link, and allow them to change. Will need to do this for each student, however you do not need a Google account to do this.

Use google doc(or word) to do I'm T-Rrific Because (kids list 5-7 reasons as to why) Move title down from the top (about 10 lines) so you can turn paper into a tee-shirt like shape.

Blogger: Post to blog by sending an email to it. (I don't know how I feel about this because then students are not going to the blog)
**Go to settings
**Email and mobile
**set up an email posting address

Students can take pictures and post to the BLOG with a caption to go along with the story.

Google Maps: Must have a Google Account
Log in and go to "My Places" then Maps. Create new maps. You can place pins on the map with descriptions and links.

Teacher can create a generic Google Account for students to use within the classroom.

In groups the students can plan to go on a tour and at each place they are going to stop at they have to include something they will do there. (3rd grade can do with State Projects, each student can mark their state and a specific place to visit there.

Google Spreadsheets and Forms

Can collaborate to collect data (great for staff meetings in lab, and of course with students)

Fill out a form under Google Docs and you will instantly collect anonymous data.

If asking for people to put in words that describe how they feel about something you can copy and paste into a Wordle. People need to not use caps b/c it will read as a separate word. www.tagxedo.com (Does same as Wordle, with option to put the words into a shape.


Click underneath a category, select formula and you can determine average, totals...

If highlight names, places to live, information go to www.batchgeo.com
* Input the data
* It marks on Google maps where everything is and when you click on a pin their information comes up.
* Have the option to then embed map or a link to it, in your BLOG

For a Quiz competition
Go to form
Question one says: Name
Question 2 says: Answer
(use tiny url to make link easier)
To use this same url again, can't delete data with just delete key, need to delete those rows!

Twitter in the Schools

@roseannesessa
@afs8science

Roseanne Sessa 8th Grade Science Teacher and Dean
Private Quaker school

John Rison
Drector of Technology Abington Friends School
@johnrison

Build a Personal Learning Network first for teachers to improve skills
The Pope is on Twitter! ...on an iPad!
Roseanne started by following what the Tech Director followed
Created a class account
Followed the oil spill
Students followed their interests
Teaches students about their digital footprint
Students examine who follows us and who we follow
Check out hashtags
Be careful about certain hashtags
Look up the hash tags of people tweeting you
Students go to www.worldpress.org,NPR, or the New York Times, and tweeting about it

Getting Geeky with Google Apps

NETS*S: 1-6; NETS*T: 1-5

http://goo.gl/Y4Q0s

Chris Fitzgerald Walsh
Twitter: @fitzwalsh
Email: cwalsh [at] newtechnetwork.org

Dancing Robots

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BDshijAX6c

Using your SMARTBoard All Day Long

Get your students up to the board!

Move an object on the board when done with morning work. (Kite in the sky, move a person outside the room....)

Look on SMART Exchange for attendance slides to start off the day, get the kids engaged early.

Could have a mystery pic on board, when finish work come up and touch an area that disappears to reveal a picture. Then go back and write a sentence or two in their journal about what they think it is and why.

Use dice with words/pictures to determine setting, character, and prop in a story.

Have multiple activities planned and have students roll dice to determine activity.

Sequencing map where students can drag words/pics into correct order.

Students can create their own quizzes or sorts using the SB. Template can be saved on class website for students to open at home.

The "Yeah, Buts": Answering the Top 10 Arguments Against Change

NETS*T: 3, 5

Will Richardson and Rob Mancabelli
Book "Personal Learning Networks: Using the Power of Education to Transform Education"

Today's Meet
Todaysmeet.com/wriste11a

Presentation is at: bit.ly/istewrrm

#yeahbut
 They study how people change
Beyond the book- how to build a strategy, framework

ISTE top "10 yeah buts"
Hearing yeah but means you are successful, you explained it well, this is it I can help them change

http://fluidsurveys.com/

Books:
Switch
Change or Die

Only 10% patients changed life when told they would die if they didn't do all these "rational" things
It's the result of a purely rational response.
Totally missing the emotional piece...
Did all the same stuff as the first,
Engaged people in a conversation about change.  Set long term goals and short term goals.  Gave support to overcome roadblocks 72%!!!!
*to change we need a rational response, but also an emotional response

Feeling of fear, anger, embarrassment, overwhelmed

Time rational response- takes time upfront, less and less next time, reallocate time, half-days, use social networks to continue learning

Time emotional response- talk about doing it over a long period , if I could wave a magic wand what could I get rid of to help you do this, what do you need to succeed? Give them permission to fail, tell them there will be support

Give them an avenue to publicly say yeah but and address the positives and negatives
Brainstorm what we can leave behind, old baggage, ADDING without taking away

We need to assess opportunity cost of new technology

Giving Student Control of Interactive Whiteboard Learning

The presentation for this session can be found at:
http://www.teachersfirst.com/iste/iwb/

It doesn't matter if you love them or hate them, if you have it, USE IT!

For some kids, touching it HELPS! Make the whiteboard their space!


Good Reasons To Use a Board
Kinesthetic Learning
Color Code, highlight,
rearrange, order, sort
Send Home or post on web
Main idea, summarize, cloze
large view of interactives

Tips of what you need to know on SB many of these are done as whole class or in centers


* Drag and drop activity for a class discussion, where the class makes the decisions on where things go. Can do thumbs up or thumbs down from class to make non-consensus decisions.
* This sort is on the website

* Teach people to get a screen shot. KIDS NEED TO KNOW HOW TO DO THIS

* Dragging items. Have your students become comfortable doing this so they feel comfortable coming up in front of the class.


* Kids highlight important ideas
Sentences, words, or groups of words to work on sequencing, or creating sentences.

*Working with words for Main Idea and Summary for any content area. Students can highlight/underline. If you double tap on a specific word once in text format you can pull a specific word out of the passage. This will allow students to identify specific words for main idea that they can then use to write a main idea sentence.

* Ranking words. Use words from thesaurus for the word ___________. Rank them in order from good to bad. Categorize into three groups; Great, Good, Not Great, Don't Know (if they are unfamiliar with the word)

* Kids can do these and link to a class BLOG and then other groups can comment/compare with what they have done.

* If you use color coding, BE CONSISTENT. If you can be consistent with other grades, even better!

* Working with words as images. Kids brainstorm words for an idea. In group turn into word cloud. More important words stand out, less important words smaller. Use color to also group similar words. Take a screen shot to share on class BLOG.

* Web Tools- Visuwords

* Create word concept maps, or complete organizers

* Put an image up and have students drag labels over. Also could drag over animal adaptations, how/why and an organism uses a particular part of them.

* Kids can draw on maps the paths that someone or a group followed. REMEMBER the lines can move and be re-sized! EX: Battle of Gettysburg troop movements.

* Use images to sequence or tell a story.

* Students can take images or photos that they take and create an activity (labeling, sorting) to go with it.

*** Peer editing-NOT JUST COMMAS AND PERIODS. True editing. Works best in small groups. Protect the person who wrote it, we have no idea who wrote this. (maybe swap with a partner class) Kids touch and move things around the board.

* Collaborate to create, improve, or decide- Google Docs...

* Create a study guide together or a concept map.

* Brainstorm- easy to move things around

* Have something soft for students to pass around for whose turn it is to go up and share

Management Tips and Strategies
Center/Student Sidebar
All 4 one (all work for shared grade)
anonymous drafts
small groups
tool master or master of ceremonies (kid up front running the show while teacher walks around and leads discussion)
whole group
Bump Vance/Vanna (Student up front doing.... and students can "bump" them)
Student made activities (ALL STUDENTS need the software, you don't need to be at a whiteboard for most of these)

Blended Learning

This ended up being a sponsored event from Educurious.

Real world problems with teachers as coaches.
www.educurious.org

Algebra
English
Biology

Based on Gates Foundation Core Principles
CMS+Social Media=the platform.
A social network built of experts in different fields.
Students have a Home page (Similar to Moodle)
Meet on line and in person.
Six week sessions all based on big questions and challenges.

Project is less than a year old and based on Common Core Standards. It is pretty exciting, but it is too early to draw conclusions about it. They have been focusing on creating exciting and relevant courses for the students on the margins.

Swimming in the Flow: Navigating  the New Information Landscape

Will Richardson's talk to SIGMS

Slide show here
bit.ly/istewr2

Backchannel here
http://www.todaysmeet.com/sigms11

Will Richardson's talk to SIGMS

"curate" we need to teach this
"The word “curate,” lofty and once rarely spoken outside exhibition corridors or British parishes, has become a fashionable code word among the aesthetically minded, who seem to paste it onto any activity that involves culling and selecting." http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/fashion/04curate.html

buckets
Not using tools well in a learning context
Need LMS to teach students how to "connect" through the technology
Important book by Clay Shirky "cognitive Surplus" not information overload, but filter failure
"The Filter Bubble"
"The Power of Pull"

http://refynr.com to parse down twitter feeds

http://www.tumblr.com hits sweet spot between blogs and twitter, update really quickly, 140 not always enough, here he can do both, has built in community

http://iftt.com "if this, than that" rules it you post to twitter, goes to tumblr, beta, invite only, ties to evernote, find someone on twitter who can invite you, send from evernote to elsewhere

Instapaper- synchs to iPad
Flippad great for iPads

Who do you trust online? http://klout.com eventually we might look to this

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Virtual workshop- Touch the future: iPads in K-12 Classrooms

Quick post now as session is in progress...we have 10 minutes to explore the resources just introduced. The agenda and web links can be found at:

http://opportunitygroup.org/id72.html

wiki is available at:

http://itouchthefuture.pbworks.com/w/page/33970901/FrontPage

The webinar itself is a terrific example of a really well done virtual experience while the substance of the workshop is tremendous.

The New Tech Extreme School Makeover

NETS*S: 1-6; NETS*T: 1-5

Presentation notes here:

Their software, Echo integrates with Google Apps, does Edline allow this? Also has a ShareStuff interface which is just like Facebook

Wants of New Tech:
Student centered
Working in teams
Accountable to peers
Active learning
Dynamic information

Started by community and business leaders
Designed to mirror the workplace- real-world projects

Open spaces, moveable furniture, lots of glass,
Shared decision making with kids
Need trust-respect-responsibility

COLLEGE AND WORK READINESS ASSESSMENT (CWRA)
http://www.cae.org/content/pro_collegework.htm
-tests 21st century skills

We need more PD, and other myths about professional development


This session took a new look at how professional development should be run at school. According to the presentation, teachers learn better from technology PD when their learning experience takes place close to the classroom (as opposed to workshops held in removed environments). The main suggestion given was to incorporate GenYES, a program that trains students to help teachers with tech support. By training students to help teachers with technology, they are giving new learning opportunities to students. Since they are assisted in their classrooms, teachers become more familiar and comfortable with technology. Main message: students become agents of change and not objects of change. Let them learn along with the teachers.

http://www.genyes.org/

School Libraries and Cloud Computing: Roles and Possibilities

NETS*S: 2; NETS*T: 3
Doug Johnson
http://www.doug-johnson.com/

Notes from this presentation: http://dougjohnson.wikispaces.com

I also shared this resource with the room
Google Calendar now has customized appointment features, which might be useful for booking our labs and library media centers

http://gigaom.com/collaboration/wwd-screencast-how-to-use-google-calendar-appointment-slots/

Nick and I joined this presentation a bit late. I think we may want to reach out to this presenter as a resource. I also think we need to consider if we need an email retention policy for students and staff. The state has been mum on this as a requirement.

The scariest YouTube Ever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8ofWFx525s&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Leading in 3D- Strategies for Effective Technology Leadership

* Look up I-School initiative
* leaders.wikispaces.com
* 5 Challenges to leaders for 2011 school year:
*Model technologies appropriately
*Reflect more deeply about technology use
*Prepare for tech (and other) staff development differently
*Rethink classroom-level digital equity
*Be an active member of a professional learning community enhanced by technology

*http://tinyurl.com/chrislead
* Have students paste a paper into Wordle to pull out main ideas
• People try to float by, by saying they are doing fine, have too much on their plate.
o It is the fault of the collective group for these attitudes.
o Age is not an issue- it’s attitude

• Bring stragglers to a conference (CECA?)
o Hold them accountable for when they come back
• Every child in the building needs to do __________. (Collaboratively write)

• Reflect More Deeply
o Not just I am excited about doing this, EXPLAIN WHY
o Don’t say “Yeah, but the problem is”

Alan November

Children go to YouTube rather than Google.
Assessment is the weakest part of PD on new tools.
Number the Stars videos book trailers...

What should we teach teachers about how to teach this book.
Root zone database gives country codes for searches DK is Denmark

Site:dk "number the stars"
Gives content from Denmark for Number the Stars
Ideally you talk with students in Copenhagen to get authentic

Alan asked the CEO of HSBC
What is the skill that top talent has? Empathy... The ability to respect cultural differences.
What is the quality of top talent? Passion

West Point needs to teach Islam- a Messy Problem... They like messy problems.
Pope gave a speech in Germany quote about Islam. What was the impact in Turkey?
Almost no Turkish sources.
This is a huge problem.


We need to Globalize all of our curriculum. Teach global empathy.

There is power in Twitter.
Teachers can use it to interact globally.
Twitter gives you news from the ground.
Contact someone and Skype with them.

Wow! I just got the chills from Alan's middle school story.

NETS in Action: Online Resources By and For Educators

NETS*S: 1-6; NETS*T: 1-5
www.readwritethink.org

Climbing the Interactive Whiteboard Mountain - Finding Your Base Camp

Bret J. Gensburg form Eagle Technology Integration
This guy is funny and a bit crazy. Started with a tip- orient the board with the pen tool to reduce shadows. Smartie toss... Pez dispensers...

Here are a few take-aways...

-Don't be a master of Notebook- be a learner.
-Stress content over presentation... Does not have to be pretty to be effective
-Dealers choice and we are the dealers... You do not have to do it the same way
-You are the mouse... Free yourself from Notebook when you need to
-Positioning is key for teachers... Set it up so you face the class at all times
-Pull the menu to you... Do not block content for 1/2 of your students
-Work enough to wear out your pen trays (I did not know this was possible!)
-Eraser tip- choose thin size and use the circle tap
-Teach to the absent child... Differentiate with color in such a way that an absent child can view and understand
-You do not have to build content beforehand... Build together during the lesson
-You do not need to add applause or other feedback to the presentation
-SMARTBoard for assessment... Easier than Word and copier

Here is his website: www.eagleti.com

Flip Your Classroom: Implementing a successful digital age classroom

NETS*S: 2, 4; NETS*T: 1-4
"Flip your classroom by using elements of Universal Design for Learning, blended learning, standards-based grading, and asynchronous mastery to make your classroom a student-centered lab of learning."

Love what these guys are doing!!!!! I know Westport has been doing some of this...

Too many kids missing classes for sports, other events, started recording lectures and telling kids to go watch it
Kids taking notes, but not processing
Kids getting stuck at home
Calling friends for help, but kids found it easier/faster to copy homework
They need our help during class, started pre-recording lessons

Presentation can be seen online
flippedclass.com

YouTube.com/learning4mastery

Showed clip from "ferris bueller"

Flipped-Mastery Model

Benefits of this model:
they become independent learners
Fewer misconceptions
No place to hide
Below is the link to the wiki for the workshop that I wanted to attend on setting up iPads for administrators. The workshop presenter, Chris was excellent and let me join the wiki. This allowed me access to the resources and sharing from the group.

http://ipadbackpack.wikispaces.com/space/changes

Google and SMARTBoard

I went to a workshop on SMARTBoard PD with Nick yesterday and was mildly disappointed. We plan to attend a better workshop today.

I went to a Google workshop that Alyssa also attended. After I went to the Google booth and got valuable feedback on launching Google Apps for Edu.

Steven R. Covey

I am watching the keynote. Nice content, despite being a bit pithy. I am surprised that I am a bit annoyed about it.

Below is a link to the video that I shot of the robots.
http://db.tt/g3f9CE0

Monday, June 27, 2011

A gardeners approach to learning: building your PLN

David Warlick stressed an important point that in the 21st century, teachers need to be Master Learners. We must rethink and reinvent what it means to be educators in the 21st century. Warlick recomends building a Personal Learning Network so that we continue to be both educators and students. His PLN accesses a variety of educational blogs, twitter, and social media sites. Access the URL below for online handouts to help you build your own PLN and further your own development as a learner.

Rss feeds are particularly important in building a PLN, because you can search many sites and blogs from just one place. This could be done through an igoogle page were one can create pages by subject to funnel in all of the relevant blogs and sites. Instead of going out to find the information, use rss feeds to bring the information to you.

Some helpful sites for a PLN:
Technorati: to search blogs and posts by subjects
Blekko: search blogs by subject
Topsy: for searching tweets
Delicious: for finding tagged/bookmarked websites for a specific subject
Flicker: can search by subject to find recent uploaded photos and popular tags

David's blog to help you build your PLN (with video tutorials)
http://davidwarlick.com/colearners/#!/page/1

Integrating Digital Citizenship in a Web 2.0 World

NETS*S: 5; NETS*T: 4

Presented by ISTE and NCDC (National Council on Digital Citizenship)

ISTE Learning courses available online for members- learn what you want, when you want
(we are members since we registered for the conference)
Teachers can register at ISTElearners.org

ADOS

2nd edition Digital Citizenships in Schools: 9 elements students need to know, available Oct 2011

"what it means to be a citizen in the Digital Age"

http://tiny url.come/pike is hooks
http://digitalcitizenship.new.edu.au (putting curriculum online for all the use)

Three Broad Areas:
R Respect yourself and others
E Educate yourself and others
P Protect yourself and others



Digital Citizenship
Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. Students:

a. advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.
Students create a public service announcement about internet safety, cyberbullying, or copyright.

b. exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.
Students create a digital movie about the safe and productive use of technology.

c. demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning.


d. exhibit leadership for digital citizenship.
Students create and produce a movie about appropriate web sites for students.

Digital textbook

A great workshop on the potential of digital textbooks in the near future. The PDF of the presentation can be found through the URL posted below. The session also utilized a rich variety of free web 2.0 programs such as poll everywhere (for texting responses via mobile phone to the presenter's website.) These web 2.0 sites can be found in the handout.



http://mediashare.discoveryeducation.com/mediashare/index.cfm?event=pushFile&guidAssetMediaFileId=cf1d2600%2D1cc4%2D4143%2D6aa5%2D36c3558f7f43

Collaboration Fluency: Creating a Learning Environment for the Digital Age Classroom

FANTASTIC!!! Really does a nice job looking at 21st Century Skills. He is doing 3 more presentations this week, I recommend attending. Search for Ian Jukes and Lee Crockett in the program guide.

All of the presentaiton notes along with other information can be found at
• See web site for notes www.fluency21.com
o Got o button click on “Commit Me”
Will be asked for email so you can sent a log in. This will get you to his BLOG where his Keynote Presentations are.

The iPad Revolution: Innovative Learning in the Classroom

NETS*S: 1-6; NETS*T: 1-4

So full I had to find a spot on the floor under the screen! I hope it's worth it. Will post the content later.

Mike Mathes TedTalk video a next generation audio book
Our Chioce- interactive, unfold images, Al Gore voiceover, documentary footage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV-RvzXGH2Y

Students writing and illustrating their own books, each chapter is a students work, really cool would be great for closing houses at lower levels!

All iPad resources from this session listed on this page
Great Stuff http://tinyurl.com/4yj6pll
Today I spent time at the poster sessions. I met a teacher from the Florida Virtual School who shared her experiences with teaching both asynchronous and live online courses. It was interesting.

Later in the morning I was in a roundtable discussion about preparing Administrators to transform school districts for 21st Century Learning. There were many takeaways from this including the need for districts to have common language about 21st century skills. Another critical piece is the need to remove the gap between what we believe about these skills and what we actually do. Do we still evaluate teachers based on 20th century teaching expectations?

Google to the Max: the power users guide

NETS*S: 2, 3, 5 NETS*T: 1-5

Dr Howie DiBlasi
www.drhowie.com
Workshops/presentations licensed under creative commPBS

www.toolsfortheclassroom.com

Inkling- interactive textbooks
Word lens app- translates signs from another language using iPhone

More to come...

iPads in the secondary science classroom







By using free apps (sparkvue by pasco) a physics teacher incorporated iPads into a physics lesson on laws of motion. The iPads built in accelerator enables students to graph and calculate the acceleration of a moving iPad in their hand. Students also used the iPad to read an ebook version of their textbook.

Resources for Emerging Literacy Teachers

Great workshop for the K-5 in terms of using computers in your classroom in order to get your students thinking and problem solving. Focus is on Literacy and contained some great resources for both teachers and students. She also gave some great Web 2.0 tools. Here is the wiki for the presentation.




www.easyintegration.wikispaces.com

Will Richardson session "8 Shifts for Every Classroom (and Every Learner)

NETS*S: 1-4; NETS*T: 1-3, 5
"New learning literacies can't be taught as separate skills. They must be an integral part of every course we teach."

This was probably the BEST presentation I went to at ISTE!! I'll write more about it later.
The presentation can be seen here bit.ly/wriste11

Some of the best quotes from were:

According to the current definition of literacy by the National Council of Teachers of English, 98% of our graduating seniors are illeteriate!!!

21st Century readers and writers need to be able to "manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information."

"It's not a matter of information overload; it's 'filter failure.'"
--Clay Shirky

Sunday, June 26, 2011

First Workshop- Took the Plunge, Now What- Resurfacing by Maximizing Whiteboard Use

I am about to start my first workshop. It is about how to spread the use of interactive whiteboards (SMARTBoards) after you have made a large investment in the equipment. Sound like a district you know? I am looking forward to it.

Friday, June 17, 2011

ISTE Conference...The Beginning

I created this blog for the Wilton Staff members who will attend ISTE 2011 in Philadelphia. I want this to be a place where the team can post their reflections on the workshops, presentations, any anything else related to the event. We will have smartphones and Flip cameras, so we can also post video clips. What do you think?