Top 100 iPad Apps for Middle Schoolers

Just a repost from the blog "Edumic."

http://edudemic.com/2011/11/ipad-middle-school/

Google Calendar might make conference scheduling a little bit easier with "Appointment Slots"

Conferences are coming and that means lots of slips of paper moving back and forth between home and school and lots of scheduling by teachers. Last year Google released a useful addition to their Calendars service that might make this a little easier for you to manage.

In your Google Calendar (if you keep one already, you can use it; if you don't, you can make one just for conferences), you can set a region of time up as 30-minute appointment slots. Then when those slips of paper come back in, you can just click on a slot and enter the name.

If you want more automation, you can send the URL out to parents and they can sign up from home... no more slips of paper! Unfortunately, this only works for parents who have a Google Username (gmail, google docs, etc.).

Here is a video tutorial about using appointment slots in Google Calendar:

Use TEAM BLOGS to keep parents in-the-know!

The blog you are reading right now is a great example of a team blog. Janae set up a couple of different authors to be able to post on it so that many people can share what they learn in one place. You can do a similar thing in your school. It is especially useful if you are in a team such as in a collaborative specialist model at elementary, or in a team model like at middle school.

Here are the basic steps:

1. Create a blog at blogger.com.
2. Under SETTINGS tab, select PERMISSIONS.
3. Select the ADD AUTHORS button and add the Google Username of anyone you'd like to give permission to post on the blog.

Okay, so that's the basic series of steps. But you will probably want to make it so that parents can subscribe to your blog with their email address. That way, whenever you make an update, those updates will not only exist on your blog but will be pushed to the subscriber's email address. Pretty slick! So here's how you add that function:

1. Under the DESIGN tab, select ADD A GADGET wherever you'd like their email input box to appear.
2. When the gadget window pops open, select FOLLOW BY EMAIL and it will be added to the blog.

It's as simple as that! 

Cheers,

Brian

Are your students motivated by "badges" and such?

Edmodo just rolled out a new release last night and in it they implemented student profiles and badges [link to blog post]!

Um... what are badges? They're kind of like Boy Scout or Girl Scout merit badges. Online or in Edmodo, they're kind of like customized stickers that you get to create (whatever picture you like) and establish the criteria for (totally your call and discretion). When a student demonstrates proficiency or meets your criteria, you can award him/her the badge and it appears in their profile! The only people who get to see a student's profile and badges are that student, his/her teacher, and other students enrolled in the group (a.k.a. class).

I've already created two badges for my science students: "Data Cruncher" and "Inventor". I'm now working on criteria for "Scientist" levels 1-3 for designing different types of experiments and participating in a science fair (that doesn't exist yet... but might soon).

This is very similar to how the Khan Academy rewards students with badges.

I admit that I am not certain that I philosophically agree with these rewards and motivators. But I've seen some pretty apathetic students work for over an hour on basic math fact drills on the Khan Academy just so that they could get that badge!

Alfie Kohn and "Punishment by Reward" definitely have a point. But based on what I've seen amongst some of my own students I have to reserve judgement and even admit excitement!

Cheers,

Brian

Resources for a "blended learning classroom" in '11-12

A "Blended Learning Classroom" seeks to use technology to empower students to extend their own school day beyond the final bell. There are as many definitions of "blended classrooms" as there are blended classrooms. But usually they consist of a class that meets as part of a regular school schedule and uses that time to help students orient themselves to tasks and resources that are available to them any time of day. This post just shares a few readily available tools that could help you and your students move toward a blended learning paradigm.

1. Edmodo. Edmodo has become very popular over the past two years. Think of it like a safe and secure version of Facebook or Twitter wherein students can only interact with entire classes in which they are registered. You can post assignments, grade assignments (there's a built in grade book), carry on class discussions, flexibly and responsively create working groups, and post due dates and important dates (there's a calendar). Unfortunately, Edmodo doesn't integrate with Google tools (like Google Calendar)... yet! But supposedly they are working on that! If you need support joining up with the rest of the Bellingham School District, contact Cathy Gersich!
2. Moodle. Ever taken a class online using Blackboard? Moodle is kinda' like that. It lets you create and host classes online. Initial setup could require some support for you, but Ken Russell in our district can help you get started! The advantage of Moodle over Edmodo is that it lets you create a template of a class (assignments, links, discussions, projects, grading scales, etc) that you can use over and over or tinker with each time!
3. Google Apps: This is the big name that Google applies to their online productivity software. Google Docs includes a word processor, a spreadsheet, a presentation app, and a drawing app. Google Calendar is, well, a calendar; but it's a really good one you can get to from almost anywhere and that people can subscribe to. Google Sites is a website creation tool. Technically, it is a Wiki. But it lets you really easily paste together all these other Google tools into a website that could also support a blended classroom. Add an email link for students to submit their work and the communication loop is complete! If you need assistance, you can contact Brian MacNevin.

I know that there are lots of other options out there. I tried to just give you three to chew on over the Summer. If you have other resources to share to support a blended classroom, please share them in a comment to this post.

Back up your 2010-11 files to the cloud with Google Docs!

CD-ROMs are just unwieldy and get damaged easily. Flash drives get lost so easily! Dropbox (previously discussed in this post: link) is awesome; but at only 2GB for free use, that might not be enough space for your files. But there is another option for backing up the files from your h-drive: uploading and entire folder of documents to Google Docs!

Here's the process in 4 easy steps:

1. Point your browser to Google Docs.
2. Select the UPLOAD button and then select the FOLDER menu item.
3. Navigate to the folder name that contains the files you want to store in the cloud.
4. UNcheck the option "convert to Google Doc" if you want your word files remain word files and your excel files remain excel files (etc.) and then select OKAY.

And you're done! Your entire folder and its contents will be uploaded and stored for you to access anywhere you have Google Docs access!

Have an exciting and stress free last few weeks of school! 

Do parents and students want to receive your blog posts in their mailbox? Can do!

Having a blog is a great way to store information or share information. But it sure is a hassle if you have to go and FIND the blog you want to follow. Wouldn't it be great if you could get those blog updates in your mailbox instead of having to hunt them down?

Well now there is!

Google has created a gadget version of their feedburner subscription system! Parents and/or students can now register to have your blog posts sent directly to their email mailbox!

Here's a video tutorial to get help you get this added to your blog:

Using iTunes with multiple devices

Another tip from Lisa Christensen--this one shares how to use iTunes on multiple devices.

Click here to learn more!

Wiki for educators using iPads in classrooms

From Lisa Christensen at Lowell, here's a wiki I came across that is geared to educators using ipads in classrooms:

Click here to check out the wiki

Professional Learning Networks on Twitter: Now in BSD!

What is a PLN?
Do you sometimes find that you wish you had more brains to bounce things off of? As a recent arrival at a very small school where I'm the only person teaching what I'm teaching, I find myself missing the collaboration expertise of my middle school science colleagues and my mentors from the North Cascades and Olympic Science Partnership (NCOSP). But there is a way to tap into that kind of collaboration and expertise from all over the country and the world: create a professional learning network (PLN) on Twitter (recently opened up to teacher accounts on the BSD network).

A PLN is a collection of people whom you follow and who follow you. You can ask them questions; share professional development articles, videos, resources, practices; you can ask for their advice or offer some of your own. A PLN lets you access the minds of way more people than just yourself.

What is Twitter?
Twitter is a short message micro-blogging service. Your messages are limited to 120 characters, which really makes you think about how you'll type something! But everything that anyone types is viewable by everybody else.

Twitter can be imagined like a single large room and everyone is chatting about all sorts of things -- this is playfully referred to the Twitterverse (similar to the idea of the blogosphere). Twitter listens to all of these conversations and displays to you the things spoken by people you know, trust, or learn from (these are people you "follow"). Many people also label their conversations with tags preceded by a pound symbol (like #scichat, #edchat, or #edtech) that describe the conversation. You can tell twitter to display to you these labeled conversations even if they include people you don't follow. So there's no such thing as a truly private conversation in the Twitterverse, and therein lies its power.

So how do you get started with twitter?
First of all, be prepared to feel a little overwhelmed at first. There is so much going on all the time in the Twitterverse, that you have to give yourself permission to explore and get your bearings.

But many many teachers have made this journey before us, so here is some help to get you started: Blogger and education technologist David Wees shared with me his page of eight screencasts to help you get started on Twitter [link].

Okay, I'm in... but who can I "follow"?
There are so many people you could follow and so many PLN's you could listen to. Here are a few starters:

• You are welcome to follow me: @bjmacnevin (I've got to get a friendlier picture up there). Likewise, there are many other Bellingham teachers and employees on Twitter. Anyone with a twitter account can add your Twitternames as comment to this post so we can all find each other out there!
• The #edchat conversation is a general conversation about education issues. Conversations are going on all the time and you can find some more people to follow there.
• The #scichat conversation is dedicated to science education.
• The #mathchat conversation is about... well... math education.
• The #edtech conversation is about technology in the educational setting.
• The #cpchat conversation is about connected principals! These people have found a way to make one of the most isolating jobs in public education more connected and collegial. They also have a wonderful website that's chock full of resources at connectedprincipals.com.

Want to remove the Blogger navbar from your blog?

If you're blogging through Google's Blogger service (and let's face it: it's free, so a lot of people are) you have probably noticed the ubiquitous navbar at the top of the page that includes some nice navigation and search tools, but which also includes the distracting and sometimes disturbing NEXT BLOG button.

"Next Blog" takes you to some random blog on the site and sometimes you don't want to be the launch point for your students or parents to be sent to silly topics and/or discussions.

So -- and this is a great pedagogical discussion for another arena -- as a teacher, do you want the navbar? If you are teaching your students to be self-reliant responsible digital citizens, then you welcome this link to randomness. But if your aren't focussed on that, then here's all you have to do to remove it:

1. Go to blogger.com and on the dashboard for the blog you want to change, select the DESIGN tab.
2. Select EDIT HTML.
3. Find the line that reads </b:skin>. Just before this line, paste-in this chunk of css code:
   #navbar-iframe {
   height:0px;
   visibility:hidden;
   display:none
   }
4. Select SAVE TEMPLATE.

That should be it. I have never experienced a problem with this solution, but the potential is there that it may conflict with the template you have chosen for your blog.

From what I've read, this does not explicitly violate your blogger terms of service and it may save you from the embarrassment of explaining to a colleague, a parent, a student, or a potential employer about why they jumped from your classroom blog or online resume to the "LOL Catz got Mohawks" blog.

Cheers!

Self-Paced Training on Classroom Technology

Here's a great resource shared by Janet Woodworth from Shuksan Middle School:

Our local rep from CIM Technologies, Rachael Holmdahl, maintains a website with user tips on their top products --Mobi Pad, Mimio & CPS Student Response System Clickers

Click here to see her site which is designed for classroom teachers.

GeoGebra lets you create interactive embeddable applets

GeoGebra is a FREE, powerful, open source, java-based, geometry and mathematics tool. One of the difficulties in teaching geometry and graphing is that students often get the impression that the graphs and figures are static instead of being instances in time. GeoGebra lets students do geometrical constructions and graphs and then play with them. It is similar in many ways to Geometer's Sketchpad for computers or to Calibri Jr on the TI graphing calculators. GeoGebra goes farther and lets you EMBED the creations. Très cool!

To try and put this in use this year, I created an offshoot google site [link] from my homepage [link] wherein I could embed some of the experiments (I call them toys so that kids aren't afraid of breaking them). I have had trouble sometimes getting them to open in Internet Explorer, but on Firefox or Google Chrome they run perfectly.

An embedded interactive GeoGebra worksheet.

Try one out! The picture here is of a concept that is in the 5th grade standards: the area of a triangle. Click on the picture's caption to go there and play with the toy! One rule the 5th graders had to know: the triangle's movable point had to be touching the top of the rectangle.

Simple online quiz maker: ThatQuiz.org

Home Screen for ThatQuiz.org

ThatQuiz.org is a FREE, really clean, distraction-free place for you to offer simple online quizzes to your students. The website lets you use ad hoc quizzes stored on their system but also lets you create and store class lists so that your students' progress is stored and followed. The class database lets you view progress for each student easily.

It's great for things like math timings and basic recall quizzes, but it also has built-in measurement tools.

The super simple interface is almost totally distraction-free and lets kids focus on the task at home.

Paperless monitoring notes

Here's a Tech Tip from Dawn Christiana at Alderwood Elementary:

I have come across a wonderful app for my iPhone or the iPad.  It is important to monitor students' progress and to maintain records of the conferences you have with kids, but all the paper can be a challenge.  A Seattle teacher has been working with Lucy Calkins and wanted a more organized way to keep his monitoring notes so he designe the app called:  confer.  It is great!

Click here for app (note you need an iPhone, iPod touch, or an iPad). The app costs $9.99

I found a free version called confer lite. Click here to link to it.

Media and text file converter-free!

Thank you to Cathy Gersich from Bellingham High for this tech tip!

This free online file converter lets you convert media easily and quickly from one format to another.

Click here for converter.

Tools for students to create timelines

Thanks to Tracy Shaw from Squalicum for this tech tip!


Here's a link to 2 free sites that allow you or your students to create timelines:

Click here for link

Converting PDF's to Word

Another tip from Carter Maden at Squalicum High:

Another useful tip I found is an online PDF converter. It will convert PDF files to word and email them to you very promptly. You don't have to download any software- all you do is upload the PDF and you receive an email of the word document.

Click here for Converter

Saving your Bookmarks in one place

Thanks to Carter Maden from Squalicum High for the following tip:

Carter said, "For people like me who use several different computers (one at home, one at work, etc), there is a free download called X-marks which synchronizes your "favorites" in Internet Explorer. So whenever/wherever you are online, your favorites are always the same."

Janae added, "I see that that they also have free downloads for Firefox, Google Chrome, & Safari ."

Click here to go to Xmarks

Embed a YouTube video into PowerPoint or other applications

This is a great option if you have YouTube clips you show but want to avoid the "comments" or "other video" sections that can pop up.   It is a tutorial that shows you how to place the clips into a PowerPoint.

Click here for Tutorial

Copyright free images for student projects

Here's our next tech tip. If you would like to receive tech tip updates in your inbox, select Follow (need a gmail, yahoo account or twitter account) or, simply bookmark it in your Favorites.

Tech Tip #2, courtesy of Carolyn Hinshaw, Birchwood Elementary:

Here are a couple of sites from which students can find pictures that are copyright free:

Pics for learning

Wiki Commons

www.dropbox.com

Do you tire of sending yourself documents back and forth from work to home and from home to work? Here's a nice solution:

www.dropbox.com

You install this "dropbox" on your teacher workstation, home computer (free for 2GB of storage-2GB holds a lot of documents); an icon appears on your desktop and within it your documents are stored. One can also access it from other computers (friend's house, hotel, public library, etc.) by simply logging in to www.dropbox.com. You can also share some or all of your folders and documents with others--makes sharing with colleagues very easy!

You can easily move documents into it and can create folders and subfolders within it. After saving a file into it, if you open it to make changes it automatically syncs the changes. I've been using it over a year and still have space left of my free 2GB. If you experience trouble downloading and need the proxy settings, please contact me and I'll send them to you.

If you would like a demo on this, a one hour class is scheduled
Tuesday, April 12, 3:30-4:30 in the Central Services basement lab OR
Thursday, April 14, 4:30-5:30pm in the Central Services basement lab.

You only need to attend one of the sessions!

To register, go to: http://bellinghamschools.org/online-registration