Screencast-O-Matic- my adventure

So, the final tech tool for this year was the screencast-o-matic.  This tool proved to be a bit tricky.  First, I had an issue accessing the website from BOTH Internet Explorer AND Firefox.  I of course chose my work day to be Sunday, as I unfortunately often do.  As I was not connected to the school network, Internet Explorer would not let me update the Java plug-ins needed.  Secondly, Firefox was not downloading the necessary Java plug-ins either.

Problem solved as Monday rolled along.  When I went to school and bothered our Media Specialist, being on the school network allowed IE to update Java without any super important passwords.  The Media Specialist found that Firefox has disabled some Java settings due to security reasons and simply typed in enabling Java in the help bubble (now why couldn't I think of that?).

Talking into a microphone did not entice me in the least; however, I do see some awesome future applications to this tool.  See my screencast-o-matic at this link.  I created a link to show students how to access their school gmail account.  I frustratingly find that students do not know they have a school email.  Go ahead and send your PC students to the link to walk them through the process!

Future uses: I would like to create a video showing Park Center teachers how to access student reading scores in whole class sections.  Then I would like to show teachers, in that same video, the Word document we use for placement in English classes.  This will be a good video to have on hand as the years and trimesters start.

I would like to create a video showing basic Word formatting for papers (some of my students do not know how to truly double space!).  I would then be willing to share this with other English teachers. 

Another English/Reading teacher and I have discussed recording some lessons to show students if they are absent as another "re-teaching" method so our class time is not used constantly catching absent students up.

That's all for now.  Here's hoping I win the Kindle.

Diigo

Dhaivyd and I worked a bit on considering using delicious for a bookmarking site for students working on the big 12th grade English research paper.  I wasn't completely sold on it but I liked the idea of saving bookmarks to the "cloud" instead of to my computer (Note to self: easier check off on that end-of-the-school-year checklist if I don't have any bookmarks on my school computer.  Plus, I don't need to figure out how to reload them and I can access them from anywhere?  Sold).


So, this tech tool brought me to diigo.  There are various things I like about this site.  One, it has the bookmarking feature- bookmarking on the "cloud."  A perk?  You can upload bookmarks from a past delicious account.  See here for info.


Adding highlights and annotations was pretty easy.  I can possibly see this coming into use for my English/Reading classes.  I work collaboratively reading online news articles with a professor from MCTC and students could possibly annotate news articles as they read them.  This would help information retention and active reading.  Also, students could save news articles to "read later" (a function on diigo).


I personally like the read later tab.  I find that I repeat those words (I'll read this later) to myself over and over and then do nothing to the websites and eventually lose them.  Here's hoping for some summer productivity.

I agree with Mr. Kemmis' comment on the image function.  


Some consideration for possible further uses of diigo in my classroom include possibly using the knowledge sharing tool- possibly having students save and annotate online sources for their research papers through diigo and then sharing that with me.  Or, I also want to look a bit at the group-based collaborative searching ideas.  I could possibly just have a research paper account and students throughout the years bookmark useful articles.  Then that is helping the students after them.

Here is a link to my diigo page.  I think it is public for all (which I haven't decided whether it's good or not?)

Google Forms

I was able to go to a Google for Educators conference last spring, I believe.  The timing doesn't necessarily matter but the fact that it blew my mind did!  So, I was able to start working with Google Docs, Presentation, Pages, Forms, etc. a bit before the district even got wind of it. 

That being said, I am a bit familiar with Google Forms.  I have spent the past two years (and hopefully continuing into future years) collaborating with a professor from MCTC who teaches a basic reading class.  The students from her class post and respond to news articles from the students in my English/Reading 12.  The hope was to get our students reading and expanding their prior knowledge; the hook was being able to collaborate on news in a social-networking fashion. 

Anyway, there were several forms that we created so that students from my class and students from her class could give feedback on their internet usage before the unit as well as their feedback on the unit once it was done.  Interesting results that I was able to present with her at a conference this fall!  If anyone would like to discuss what we're finding out, let me know!

Here are links to copies of those forms, if you are interested in seeing how the forms look:
<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/embeddedform?formkey=dHZRc2l1VlkzdkhCTWdVZTdncUM2Y0E6MA" width="760" height="4565" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0">Loading...</iframe>

<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/embeddedform?formkey=dDJBNlk2My1nNEV1Z0dXQmZLcUhuUUE6MA" width="760" height="3723" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0">Loading...</iframe>

Finally, I usually collect data from students at the beginning of the trimester.  One year I opted to try it through a google form.  If doing this I would recommend having students in front of computers to complete it as you are watching.  Even with my AP class students didn't follow through to fill this out independently even when it was factored (GASP) in their grade (I know, before SBG).

<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/a/apps.district279.org/spreadsheet/embeddedform?formkey=dHJtUHhWanNFVnYzWFA1OWtESzNiYXc6MA" width="760" height="3413" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0">Loading...</iframe>

If anyone needs or wants copies of these just let me know.

Creating wikis, navigating internet browsers, and being awesome

I had the advantage of going to a Google for Educators workshop last spring, so I am vaguely familiar with some of the tools Google has (I am still crossing my fingers for Google Earth to not be so huge and "work" on our systems; I'm dying to see and use the Kite Runner lit. trip).  While at the workshop I decided two things: 1.  Google has a lot of cool things to start integrating into the classroom.  2.  I think it would be AWESOME to work there.  Ok, there is a third but this is the conspiracy theorist talking: What the heck is Google doing with all this information?  Is it going to be Feed??? 

Coming back from conspiracy-theory crazy and staying on-task, I have created several docs, presentations, spreadsheets, and forms in Google and have used them in my classroom.  As a result, I am going to "share" some with you that you may want to take a look at.  Please comment, use, modify (please remember to save it somewhere OTHER than my original), improve.  If you like what you see but there are some weird permission things in the way, let me know and I will share them with you (if I like you). 

Class evaluation- document.  Final survey for students to let me know how I did, what they liked about the class, what they suggest I change for next year.  I have learned to take this with a grain of salt BUT the really good, insightful comments and suggestions are just good enough that it makes me keep handing this out.

Independent reading tracker - English/Reading and some English teachers assign independent reading as part of the class.  We can have a whole discussion on whether or not that should be happening later, but for now here is a tracker I thought might help us keep students accountable and still hold them to a high standard (you can't double dip, junior!  I know you did that for...).  Also, this can be updated yearly in real time by all the teachers at once if necessary.  Downside: time.  I know.

GRAD result student tracker- Data, data, data.  Eng/Read 11 and 12 are constantly trying to track all the data we get.  This spreadsheet is something we print out and keep on every student.  Now, we just have to figure out how to keep using this data to teach ;) 

I hope I haven't screwed all this up and allowed editing when I didn't want to allow editing.  Here's to crossing your fingers and hoping the cosmos out there stay in check! 

I'm not completely sold on Google Docs yet.  My students get frustrated because printing is different and sometimes what they see on the screen isn't how it prints.  I like Google presentation.  It is simple and straightforward.  I found that navigating between using Firefox and IE worked GREAT.  I have to remember that for future use.

Also, shout out to all PC peeps.  I thought I had my apps email account forwarding to school email but I just went in to recheck and it wasn't.  I would recommend checking in on that again if, like me, you abandoned ship and just went with the fact you didn't think it would work in the past. 

What I've been doing...

Ok, so the task is to blog about who I'm following and the labels I've used.  Here goes. 

I'm new to the blogger world so I jumped on the bandwagon quickly and followed nearly everyone I came into contact with at some point during my school day!  I'm following
5 Tech Teaching Tools
gorman's blog - She is my building reading specialist and supports my curriculum
isketch- I used to play this game in college and when I signed in it was right there on my screen.  Weird??
Jess' Tech Tools- I went to Canada with this woman!  Cool video about "flipping the classroom."
Justin Jacobs PC Math Blog- This man must know by now that math is not my strongest subject.  I send a math question to him about AT LEAST once a trimester.  If you go to his blog you can FEED HIS FISH!!!
Laura's Education Blog- She's a kindred spirit, a fellow English friend.
Morgan Kingstedt- We laugh A LOT.
Mr. Kemmis- his formal title is way too long BUT when I need to check to see if I'm doing something right I check his blog :)
No clue- I want to see if he can figure it out!
Personal Foul- I think his rants could be funny
Rants.Raves.Randomness- a fellow friend from high school.
Students and Technology- Our art teacher.  No pressure but I'm waiting to see what awesomeness she puts togther.
stuff for school- totally respect this woman! 
Tech blog- I'm waiting for the witty remarks.
The Chemistry Teacher- when I think about what kind of blogger I want to be when I grow up, it's this one.
PHew.  Too many?  Time will tell!

Labels I have so far:rant, scary technology , following, labels, Gaming in the classroom, need for social media,

Just a rant

Why does technology scare me?  I've seen changes in the way my students write because of twitter, email, IM, chat, and texting.  I have seen my students read less traditional fiction and nonfiction and read more email, facebook, blogs, tweets.  I have seen my students' prior knowledge and vocabulary limited because they choose the tiny, tiny world they are interested in and deeply envelop themselves in just that.

I have a SMART board in my classroom, I read online newspapers with my students, I use online study tools, I use moodle, I text, I email, I facebook.  I DON'T tweet. 

Technology seems like that unknown thing, the one that has 50% chance of being something really good and 50% chance of being really bad.  The suspense is killing me!

My rant?  A discussion I overheard in the hallway today:
Girl student says to other girl student: I think it was false, false, true, false, true, true...(you get the drift).
Other student: oh, but what about this?
Girl student: Do you have your phone? I'll just text you.

Good thing I wasn't giving a true/false quiz that day.  Other teachers?  Beware ;) 

Is reading fun?

So, for me reading is fun.  For many of my students it is not.  I love reading; I see the characters in my head and when I put my book down it is like I am putting down some friends for a while only to pick them up later.  Crazy, I know.  How do I get that love of reading to my students?  While finding the right text is key, how do I get them to practice much needed reading skills without boring them to death?  A colleague of mine is super amazing and took on the challenge of inventing and running a RPG in her classroom.  Students could "power up" based on how well they did on assignments, they could "earn" extra health, etc.  My colleague is awesome and energetic and even she found that it was hard to control and manage.  Give me something in a package!  How can I use games in my classroom?  Google is now giving out google badges for newspaper articles read, and I am looking more into that.  For now I guess I have to just live in the abstract, the-idea-is-out-there moment and wait for someone (one of my students, perhaps) to create something for me.  Click below to watch a brief video discussing the possible positives that could come from gaming in the classroom.  My concerns: internal motivation- are we losing it altogether if I compete for "prizes" all the time, could my role as a teacher become (gasp!) obselete?

The Game is on!

AND

Just as an ironic side note- I watched this on a Sunday afternoon by my patio window, sipping my tea with my computer next to the book I was reading.  You will probably laugh if you get to the end of this video.