Searchin' and Surfin'

If you're like me "surfing the web" means you type something into the Google search bar, then choose from the top 3 search results.  And then, if you don't find what you want, you give up your search, find yourself browsing through dessert recipes and exercise routines on Pinterest.  When I assign a research paper or project over a specific topic, I find myself bored after grading about 3.  This is because they all say the EXACT SAME THING, they give IDENTICAL INFORMATION, from the EXACT SAME SOURCES!!!  I already knew about a lot of the advanced search tools available through Google, but this was a great review/reminder of how powerful this search engine really is.  I need to start showing my students some of these simple tips and tricks too.  So, even though I am familiar with a lot of the things the Google search engine can do, there were several new things I learned this week that I am really jazzed about!  First of all, did you know your Google search box can be a calculator?  Yep, no more opening up the calculator application on your computer and switching back and forth between it and your web browser (seriously, THE STRUGGLE!).  Also, I found out that you can narrow your search by reading level!  Hooray for instant classroom differentiation!  I have one class of 8th grade social studies students with a wide range of reading skills.  There are 3 students with a 2nd or 3rd grade reading level, and a handful of others who are reading at a 12th grade+ level.  There are materials and articles that would work great for one student, but it would go completely over the head of another.  If I have students researching a specific topic, for example the Revolutionary War, they can type "George Washington" into the Google search bar and then click the advanced search button to narrow their search down to a specific reading level: basic, intermediate, or advanced.  How awesome is that!?  Here is a video that explains it in further detail.

Since we're already talking about research, I want to mention Wolfram Alpha.  Basically you ask it any question and it gives you a well organized answer.  For example, if you type in "compare President Lincoln and President Kennedy", you will get a result that looks like this:

All of that wonderful information from one simple command!  Talk about streamlining research!  Plus, there is a lot of really neat things you can do with Math and Science using this tool.  I'm definitely sharing this one with my colleagues.  I love getting all of these great ideas that I can tell my fellow teachers about and they think I'm a total genius!  :)  Here is the website, you should check it out too!

Ever worry about using copyright materials in the classroom?  I do all the time.  Especially since I have students who constantly ask me, "Did you create that Power Point yourself?"  "Where did you find this worksheet?"  "Who made this crossword puzzle?"  Maybe I'm paranoid, but there are times when I feel like these kids are out to get me!  When I was in middle school, one of my classmates got a music teacher in big time trouble.  He turned her in to whoever our school bought sheet music from because she was making copies of the music for students instead of buying the appropriate number.  Anyway... the kid got a truck load of free CDs, the teacher got a slap on the wrist, and that whole incident stuck in my mind for years.  So, I don't want to be that teacher who gets in trouble for using something that isn't mine.  There is so much out there in the digital world, Creative Commons licenses are a great way for people to share each others work in a legal and ethical way.  From the teacher standpoint, the Creative Commons website for searching content on the web is a wonderful tool.  I don't have to second guess what materials I can and cannot use, I just type in what I am looking for, click on the search tool I want to use (Flickr, YouTube, Google, etc.), and then viola, content that is appropriate for me to use in the classroom shows up in the results! 

As I finish up this final post for the Connected Educator class, I want to propose a New Year's Resolution for myself.  I would like to try and keep going with this blog in 2015, or possibly start another blog that is geared towards communication with my students.  Either way, I think blogging is great, it has been a good outlet for me to express myself, and to share my random thoughts on education with the world.  This is my final course in Baker's MAEd program and in a lot of ways I feel like this class was a perfect way to complete my degree.  I have gained so many wonderful tools, tips, and resources from this course that I will really, actually, in real life, like legit, for real, I will seriously, honestly use this stuff on a daily basis!  Woohoo!  Gotta love that kind of learning!  So, before I close, I want to leave you with one final thought.

    

Well, almost!  

     

"Pin"-a-holic

Hi, I’m Haley, and I’m a “Pin”-a-holic.  That’s right, I have over 2K pins on Pinterest, 38 public boards, and 6 private boards.  I’m slightly obsessed, if you haven’t noticed.  It is one of my favorite online organizational tools.  You have no idea how pumped I was when I looked at this week’s Pinterest assignment!  Last week the teachers in my building had a collaborative day.  One of the main goals of this day was to share online tools that both teachers and students could use.  Prior to the meeting I set up several new, school-related boards on Pinterest, then I invited my colleagues to join the boards so they could contribute to them.  I set up 9 different boards: iPads, Art, PE, Math, Social Studies, Science, SPED, Language Arts, and Classroom Management.  There are times when I am searching the web and find an awesome lesson that I know one of my colleagues would love, but I don’t want to take the time to pull up my school email account, attach the link and send the idea via email.  With Pinterest, I can just quickly pin the link to the appropriate board and all teachers in my building can look at the boards to use the resources and materials pinned.
 

I would really like to start using Pinterest in the classroom as a collaborative tool for students.  I’m not exactly sure how I want to execute that in order to guarantee students are using the site as a tool and not becoming distracted with it.  I just found this great link: A Teacher's Guide to Pinterest.

Another great topic from this week was the use of social media in the classroom.  I’m still pretty leery about having my students use Facebook or Twitter for classroom purposes, but I can definitely see the appeal and benefit of using social networking in schools to increase student collaboration, participation, and engagement.  My main concerns are that it will be a distraction to learning, and it could be used inappropriately and cause issues I do not want to have to deal with.  Below is a video of a teacher who uses Twitter in his classroom and it has been a success.

Finally, why the heck is this the first time I’ve ever heard about the magical “Research” button!?  Holy guacamole, talk about life changing!  I am really excited to introduce this to my students.  The majority of the kids I teach have this serious problem of highlighting information from the Web, copying it, and then pasting it into a document without any form of sourcing or citations.  They really don't fully understand plagiarism and the potential consequences of "stealing" someone else's work without giving due credit.  Below is a video introducing the Google Research tool.  I found it very helpful and I hope you do too!

Giving Thanks!

There are so many things I am thankful for:

My family, my job, friends, my home, living in the USA, yummy food, holiday traditions, my sisters, the internet, cars, my husband, my children, awesome co-workers, KU basketball, public education, books, coffee, learning new things, summer, fuzzy socks, yoga pants, my church, chocolate and so much more!!  I am truly blessed!  Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

 

"I'm Googling it!"

Google is great.  I've always been a huge fan of it.  As this school year progresses I'm realizing the full extent of its awesomeness.  Up until a few months ago I thought the main purpose for using Google was to call people on their "bull".  Google really is the ultimate fact-checker; someone makes a sketchy claim, "I'm Googling it!"  Seriously, why do people allow random things to fly out their mouths without thinking about it first?  Well anyway, turns out you can do loads of cool stuff with Google!  I'm still pretty new to all of the wonderful things Google has to offer, but this year my school district switched over to All Things Google.  Bye bye expensive Microsoft Office, hello awesome free stuff.  So aside from the basics of Google documents, presentations, sheets and forms (which are pretty much identical to Microsoft, but thousands of dollars less for a school district), you can like, add stuff to them that makes it EVEN BETTER!!!  I know, this is for real, I promise, I'm not pulling your leg, you can even google it if you want to!  

So, about 2 weeks ago I had a student ask me, "Mrs. Dean, do you think Google is taking over the world?"  I'm sure you can already guess what my response was!  :)  Ok, so now that you've "googled" it, let me tell you some examples of how epic Google can be!

With google drive, you can share any document, spreadsheet or presentation and turn it into a collaborative piece of work.  Google "add-ons" for any of the google tools allows you to create anything from movies to cartoons!  After browsing some of the super handy templates I found a lot of great resources for the classroom such as project/report starters, lesson plans, rubrics, and syllabuses.  My students are your typical 21st century student, they want to create things, collaborate and share their work and ideas with their peers.  Google tools for the classroom allows students to do all of these things and much more.  Below are links to some great articles with ideas and tips on using Google Drive in the classroom.  

"20 Things You Can Do With Google Classroom"

"15 MORE Things You Can Do With Google Classroom"

"Google Apps in Classrooms and Schools"

"40 Ways to Use Google Apps for Education"

"The Paperless Classroom With Google Docs"

"21 Interesting Ways to Use Google Docs in the Classroom"

"100 Ways to Use Google Drive in the Classroom"

"Docs and Drive Level 2: Classroom Application" 

This year I started using Google Classroom in all of my classes.  I am now pretty much paperless.  The majority of student work is done online and turned in online.  No more excuses that "the dog ate my homework" or that they swear they turned it in, I must have lost it!  I know the exact moment a student turns their work in.  They can ask me questions about an assignment from home, or find out what they missed if they are absent.  I am able to comment on student work and return it to them quickly and easily if it needs to be revised.  Here is a video showing you how easy it is to set-up and use Google Classroom!  

  

She's Makin' a List, and Checkin' it Twice!

I. Love. Lists.  I love making lists, reviewing my lists, and then checking things off.  I am not an organized person by any means, but I am definitely a list person.  So I was very excited to find several list creating websites this week while browsing through digital organizational tools.  Remember the Milk and Thought Boxes are two great sites with to-do lists on steroids!  Thought Boxes allows me to push my list making habits on others with great collaborative features to use with colleagues or students.  And both sites keep track of my lists in one convenient place.  As I mentioned before, I love lists, but I am not an organized person.  Once, I had a student (who sits at the back of the classroom) come up to my desk, arm extended, holding a little yellow post-it note.  As she approached me I got a quick glimpse of the note that was home to words like, "eggs", "butter", and "milk".  The student said, "Mrs. Dean, I think I found your grocery list."  I need organization in my life, I need tools like Thought Boxes and Remember the Milk.

Guess what!?  I got an early Christmas present from my school district this week!  I got an iPad!* (school issued and can be taken away from me at any given time)  Although I know that "technically" this is not my iPad, I am super excited because it means that my school gets to pilot 1:1 iPads after Christmas break!  Woot woot!  So, all of the teachers at the Jr. High have been issued iPads to start working with, exploring and researching new ideas and lessons using the iPads, testing out apps, etc.  We have a collaboration day scheduled for the 25th for all of the Jr. High teachers to get together share things that are "share-worthy" and learn new ways to use the iPads in the classroom.  The goal of course (and the reason I have an iPad before my students) is to go into the new year prepared to have students using their iPads as learning tools rather than just toys.  The timing of this seemed to have coincided brilliantly with this weeks EDU 5312 topic of Digital Organizational Tools.  I cannot wait to share these links with my fellow educators.  Below are a few things I've put together, or discovered, that I want to show at the collaboration meeting on the 25th.  The ChatterPix video would be a great way for students to explain a concept or topic (the one below is my cat Sophie and my daughter singing her favorite song, but I can see the educational value in the app).  To create the cartoon I used the app "Caption Distraction", and again, I was just playing around, but I can only imagine the possibilities in the classroom!  I also looked into PicCollage and I already have ideas for using that app, along with this example of a "ShowMe" presentation (this one is not created by me, but a great sample of what is possible with this app).  

 To conclude this weekly blog post, I want to talk a little about Google Calendar.  My school has switched over to Google accounts, so it is surprising that no one is using Google Calendar yet.  What a handy little tool to keep everyone on the same page.  Every week there are at least 2 different meetings (IEP, staff, parent), school related events, teachers covering other teachers during their plan periods, etc.  I typically find out about these things via email and then I have to search through my emails to remember what day/time the event is.  I would love if my school could utilize a shared Google Calendar where all staff could write in school-related events.  As I was creating my own Google Calendar for the week's assignment, I was shocked to see that Thanksgiving is just around the corner!  Being a history teacher I always like to discuss the history of Thanksgiving with my students on the Monday or Tuesday before break and I am always searching for new resources to use on this topic.  

And of course, as a visual learner I love infographics!

Well, on that note, I better start working on my Thanksgiving grocery list!

Twitter, and Edmodo, and Blogs, Oh My!

I'm really starting to get into this whole PLN thing!  I signed up for a personal Twitter account a couple years ago, I didn't really understand or care for it much so I stopped using it.  At the beginning of this year I got a new principal at my school who required every teacher get a Twitter account as a way to stay connected and collaborate.  I find myself using Twitter all the time now and I have found so many great resources for my classroom.  Click on the infographic below to check out a Beginners Guide to Twitter for Teachers.

I am really getting into Edmodo.  I set up a group for my colleagues who teach in the same building as I do.  It is my hope that we can use this site to share resources and ideas on ways to integrate technology into the classroom.  I also see this as a place to discuss issues and brainstorm solutions.  My favorite thing about Edmodo is having folders to collect resources.  I am not an organized person by nature, so having online tools like Edmodo makes life much easier for me!  It appears my district is going to a 1:1 initiative with iPads and rumor has it (fingers crossed) my school is getting the devices soon to pilot the endeavor.  Here are some awesome links I placed in the group folder with ideas for using iPads in the classroom.

103 Interesting Ways to Use an iPad in the Classroom

Best 100 iPad Apps for Middle School Students

Using iPads in Grades 6-8

In discovering new PLN resources I have discovered some great lesson plans and activities as well.  One of the activities I found was meme making.  My students love memes.  So I had them create their own Revolutionary War meme.  Here are a few samples from students who finished today.

https://imgflip.com/i/dwwyk

All things John Green

I love all things John Green.  I love his books, I love his movies, I am obsessed with his youtube videos, and I love following him on Twitter!  For those of you who do not know who John Green is, he is an American author of young adult fiction, he creates educational online videos (Crash Course videos), and he and his brother (Hank Green) video blog, or vlog.  If you have not watched any Crash Course videos I would highly recommend checking them out and using them in class.  Below is an introduction to Crash Course.

John and Hank Green call themselves the vlogbrothers.  Their video blogs are short, 1-3 minute videos that are a great way to start a lesson or get a discussion going.  You can find all of their videos on youtube at https://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers.  Some of the vlogs are just random updates on what is going on in their lives, but most of the videos are about a specific topic or current event.  With election day coming up soon, I plan on discussing one of the greatest practices in any democracy -- voting!  The vlogbrothers just posted a vlog that breaks down American's top ten excuses not to vote.  This video would be a great way to begin a discussion over elections and voting in America.  I came upon this video a few days ago on Twitter.  

Twitter has been a great place for me to find resources for my classroom.  Teaching at a small school means I have several preps each day.  I teach two subjects, social studies and language arts, and I have 5 different lessons to prepare.  I love finding new ways to engage my students in both content areas at varying levels.  Twitter is the best place to find new ideas.  Some of my favorite groups/people to follow are: @edconnectr, @edutopia, @DiscoveryEd, @TheCrashCourse, @johngreen, @GoogleForEdu

I also use Twitter to share ideas with my colleagues, this year I have a new building administrator who has required all staff get an account to be able to easily collaborate with one another.  This week in EDU 5312 I explored ways to use Twitter as a professional development tool.  I had already been doing this to some extent, but this week I increased the amount of time/effort spent searching specifically for educational purposes and I was pleased to find tons of amazing ideas to use in my classroom and to share with my colleagues.  Check out this link to find TONS of great stuff for the classroom!