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My Macbook Pro Was Possessed!

Today was the weirdest day. I was sitting at my desk and was working on my pc.   I also had my Macbook Pro open and about halfway through the day I noticed that strange foreign music was playing out of it.  At certain moments the screen kept changing. I almost freaked out when I saw the pink screen of death flash for a moment.   Pictures were flashing up that I had nothing to do with anything  I had on the computer and I really thought that it was possessed. I started thinking about a when I could fit a trip into the apple store, but after a few minutes the activity stopped. All was fine for a little while.   A few hours later I received a phone call from the main campus and it was a woman who told me that she could see my MacBook Pro come up on her iPhone when she tapped her home button three times from the locked position.  She said she noticed it in a meeting and that everyone in the room could see it on their phones as well.  They noticed a square with a triangle on it and when they tapped it  they could see my computer name.  

I tried it out myself with my  iPhone and realized  it was happening there too.    I immediately checked my sharing settings in system preferences and they were off.   I checked my bluetooth and shut that off.  It was still there on my phone.  I could not see anything on the phone, just the listing that my computer was there.  I closed all my programs out and restarted my computer. 

It took me an hour to figure out I left my AirServer on and anyone on the same wireless account with an ipad or iphone could start broadcasting to my Macbook Pro. The people in the meeting were broadcasting al their iphone stuff to my Macbook Pro all day.  Unbelievable. 

 In case you do not know what AirServer is, it is an affordable app ($14.99 for 5 downloads) that you download to your computer so that you can Mirror broadcast your iphone or ipad to whatever computer is on the same wireless connection.  No dongle is needed to mirror on a laptop or macbook if they have the app on them.  HOWEVER, if you fail to shut it off, other people can also broadcast on your computer.  I was a mile down the road, but sharing the same wireless connection because it was networked.  I am so relieved I do not have to contact the Vatican or the Apple store, I simply have to remember to quit when I am done mirroring. I can see how easy it is to have students share their ipads while in a classroom, but they can also take over if they like unless their teachers remember to quit AirServer.

The New Edmodo- EdmodoCon 2012

EdmodoCon 2012 was thrilling this morning as we watched the Keynote presentation given by Nic Borg.  I was excited to see all the new features that would be available to conference attendees before they are rolled out to everyone else, but also wished that the rollout happened earlier in the summer so all teachers could start with it in the new school year. They kept the new edmodo completely under wraps, so this first presentation was a revelation. There were no hints on the blog.
 I was thinking of the day before, when over 40 teachers walked away from my training classroom, ready to start using the current edmodo interface. I want them to have the latest and greatest version and since I invited them all to edmodocon 2012, at least some of them will know about the changes that are coming our way.  Although the calendar and Gradebook will have an updated look and functionality,  (We can soon track badges!) the most exciting features will be Apps, Discovery and Insights.  I have had Apps for a while now and can't wait to try them out with real students this fall instead of my test students, although many teachers complained about the prices associated with them.  I know that a lot of districts already pay for some of the apps that are being linked with edmodo.  The benefits are that students have one login to access both edmodo and apps. The work they complete using  the apps will be tied in with edmodo assignments and gradebook.  Discovery is a feature that will enable teachers to post their topics and search for topics in a much more user-friendly fashion. Think of google search capability within edmodo, in a visually appealing format.  Collaboration will be much easier from now on, without having to scroll through groups and communities. Insights is one of the features we have been asking for. We wanted "like" buttons, and now we will have a choice of reflection buttons that can help us know what students respond to, and what they have trouble with.  They can reflect on their assignments and I can't wait to see the output of this feature.  Valuable data about how our students learn will only help my teachers be better at what they do, and the students will have that reflective piece for themselves. Get ready for a new look, better functionality, and many of the features we have been looking for. As soon as I get my beta invitation, I will update you on how they all work.

I Trashed my Clicker at ISTE 2012

 I had a bit of fun trashing my clicker in San Diego this past June, I have great aim and was intriqued by the product they were offering.  Quick Question is great for classroom formative assessment - students use any web enabled device, no 'clicker' required!  iPads, smartphones, laptops, netbooks, etc - they all work.  Instantly assess your students using Yes/No, True/False, Multiple Choice, or Text (Free response) questions.  Use Quick Question as a class discussion starter, exit tag, or anytime you need to know what your class knows.  Teacher accounts are free, and students don't need an account.  Have a teacher friend or colleague that would like Quick Question?  Have them sign up at www.naiku.net/quick-question.  It's free!

SMART Response Assessment Strategies Workshop

SMART Response Assessment Strategies- DEMO ONLY
Formative assessment enables educators to adjust teaching and learning while they are happening. Use SMART Notebook software, SMART Response interactive clickers, and accompanying Teacher Tools to see how well each student has understood lesson material. Learn how to use the clickers to engage your students, create question sets that will increase their performance, set up class records, and establish effective assessment strategies to raise student achievement. Learn how to modify your lessons based on quick and easy responses from your students. Target your lessons for success while engaging students of all ages.

Audience: All Educators
Workshop Code: TIPS13009
Dates: Tuesday, July 31, 2012
From: 9:00 to: 12:00
Cost: $106 OR 4 ETTC Hour(s). For info on membership, call the ETTC.
Instructor: Michelle Wendt
Location: SRI & ETTC - Meeting Room #128


Location:
Southern Regional Institute & ETTC
Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Parkway Building
10 West Jimmie Leeds Road
Galloway, New Jersey 08205
Directions


Here is the Registration Link.

Music Research Project Glogster Rubric

• Interesting rubric for a glogster multimedia project for music teachers that enjoy a one-to one device program or have access to a computer lab.
  
  
  
  
  
  Music Research Project Glogster Rubric this is the link to the actual pdf.
  
  

Minecraft and the Common Core Standards

Here is the other topic I have begun on scoop.it.  

 There is going to be a lot of interest in this topic as teachers scramble to justify a reason to use minecraft to their administrators. We know the kids are into it, we just have to tap into the magic that is inherent in the product. After my son and his friends spent weeks building pre-history village for social studies (after- school) and making sure the details were meticulously correct for the time period, I knew that it had amazing potential.

Minecraft and Digital Storytelling

This is my first scoop.it, thought I would go with a topic that has lately been on my mind as I see more and more schools start their own minecraft servers.

If you are a scooper, please feel free to suggest items for it.

Top Rated Educational Apps from ISTE 2012 and "Shlogin"

After a little pre-conference sightseeing and the ISTE Unplugged'd SocialEdCon,   I attended the SocialEdCon After-Party hosted by StudyBlue at the Marriott Marquee in San Diego. What a great group of people I met!  In fact I kept running into the same faces all during the conference, which made me feel right at home.  I met the friendly Jerrilyn Jacobs, a Media Arts Educator from Encino, California and we spent quite awhile together sharing our experiences and challenges with multimedia projects. We had a chance to app-share with each other and the rest of the crowd and Zach Galin just released the list of top apps that all us educators and business people voted as the most critical to what we do.  If you don't know these, perhaps you should. At least 4 are always at the top of my own list. Here they are... don't forget to check out the honorable mentions at the bottom.  I will be looking into the apps I currently am not familiar with to see what I am missing.




Also of note was the incredible opportunity afforded us by Startup Weekend. Educators were pitching the rest of us their 1 minute appeals for products or services that they think  need developing for our market. It was truly hysterical, but most ideas were valid.  We voted on 5 teams won the opportunity to attend a StartUp Weekend to develop the ideas they came up with that we voted on.  My favorite idea did not get picked, it was for "Shlogin,"  an app that would allow at least 5 users to login on an ipad or tablet;  tell me that is not desperately needed! We have students that change the settings on each other all the time. The winners had great ideas, but that was the one I was yelling for.  I included a picture of that teacher, it is a little blurry, but I was cheering pretty hard. Next year I hope to get a chance to try my own ideas out on the crowd.  I would love to be part of another startup.  

Rock Stars of ISTE 2012

All year long I am on the computer, checking out blog posts, tweets and wiki updates from other professionals in the Technology Integration field.  Since we come from all over the world, it is rare that we get to meet one another face to face.  Luckily I had the chance to meet one of my gurus at the ISTE 2012 conference in San Diego, Lisa Johnson.  Lisa is a self  proclaimed appaholic and is the creator of techchef4u, where she shares the lastest free IOS apps for educators on a daily basis. I have been following her on Google+ since I first signed in and have no idea how I originally hooked up with her contact information in the first place.  Anyway, at the ISTE conference she was hosting a poster session a few boards down from ours and I was able to catch her in action. After battling the swarm of people around her booth, we had a chance to speak for a few minutes. She shared one of the latest tools in her arsenal,  iCardSort, and even gave some of the partcipants a redeem code.  Ask me for the code for the app and I will share it with you.

In case you have need of information on apps for educators and classrooms, be sure to get the the techchef4u app for yourself, you can also follow her on blogtalkradio.com where she has hosted over 36 episodes so far. they are archived and always ready to play, or you can participate in her next show. You can check out some of her sessions below.

Listen to internet radio with Techchef4u on Blog Talk Radio

Google and more at ISTE 2012

Google in education was all over the place at ISTE 2012 and I didn't mind making a fool of myself taking this picture.  I was lucky enough to meet some fabulous educators from Canada at the Google for Educators event at Wine Steals wine bar in the East Village.  It was a very sticky floor downstairs where all the youngkins were playing the quizzes, but upstairs on the deck was where the true action was.  As well as free eats and libations, there was lots of networking. The most fun people we met that evening were Shelagh Lim and Kevin Amboe from Surrey Schools in British Columbia. Shelagh is a STEM integrationist, who I just really needed to meet, while my friend Ann was whooping it up with Kevin, the technology integrationist. Hopefully, we can share ideas between our districts. I have never been much for networking, it takes me a while to warm up to new people, but since I traveled so far...  I decided I like it after all.  We met so many interesting people that I wouldn't want to have missed the opportunities. The view from the deck was incredible, it is a perfect place to catch the Padres playing in Petco Park. We did find a Jersey Girl at the Google event, she was from Ocean City but may never leave sunny San Diego.

High Tech Hall- here I come

I am very excited to announce that I will be presenting in the High tech Hall at the NJEA conventionin Atlantic City on Thursday, November 8th 2012.  I hope you  get a chance to stop by and check out this free web 2.0 tool that has helped us in some of the more challenging classrooms in which we work.

Free Classroom Management with ClassDoJo

Thursday, November 8th

3:00

Table 3 in High Tech Hall

The Literacy Shed

This fabulous website was shared in one of my edmodo groups, just had to check it out.  Tell me what you think!

• The Literacy Shed - The Literacy Shed Home
  Short video clips tied in with language arts. There are so many possibilities. 
  tags: literacy writing reading fantasy ghostly inspiration moral picturebook fairy_tale

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Royalty free music and songs

• Royalty Free Music & Songs | Free Background Music Downloads
  tags: music audio creativecommons mp3 royaltyfree royalty download podcasting

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

QR codes across content areas

• 
  QR codes across content areas
  tags: qrcodes qr technology learning web2.0 tools

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Talk about perspective!

• Award winning short film - Chicken a la Carte - YouTube
  tags: Hunger_games award winning short film chicken carte youtube

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Skyping with authors

• Skype An Author Network

  Virtual Author Visits in Your Library or Classroom -

  tags: skype author authors collaboration literacy books classroom web2.0

• Authors Who Skype with Classes & Book Clubs (for free!)

  Authors Who Skype with Classes & Book Clubs (for free!)

  tags: skype authors literature literacy author authorvisits Reading author_visit

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Common Core Standards Resources for Edmodo Teachers

• 

  Example of conversation

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  There is a wonderful group on edmodo that addresses the common core standards everyone is trying to make friends with. I came across a particularly helpful reminder post about using the appendixes.  Teachers may forget they are there to help make sense or provide guidance.  I have posted a picture of what you can expect from this group with the user's names and faces  blurred.  It is just a sample of the rich conversation I have found in this  professional learning community.  If you are an edmodo teacher and want to join this group, the group organizer is 

  Mrs. Kristina Holzweiss and the link to her as a connection is http://www.edmodo.com/lieberrian

How to subscribe your edmodo group to an RSS Feed.

Apps for Pre-schoolers

• http://www.jogtheweb.com/run/OiSA0H7fiby1/Preschool-Appy-Hour
  This is a jog the web  Created by Lisa Johnson, Instructional Technology Specialist at NEISD.  It contains apps for pre-schoolers.  Teachers will get to see the itunes preview by navigating through the left side of the jog. 
  tags: ipad_apps ipadapps ipadedu ipad ipads pre_school technology education web2.0 resources educational edtech

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Ebooks and opensource books for education

• Where Students Read Textbooks FREE | Flat World Knowledge | Flat World Knowledge

  tags: students textbooks free College flat knowledge ebook resource books ebooks opencontent

• Download free ebooks at bookboon.com

  tags: ebooks college textbooks books ebook resource travel library opencontent

• OER Commons

  tags: education resources opensource curriculum lessonplans learning opencontent collaboration

• Curriki K-12 Open Curricula Community

  Curriki is a hub for free, open course materials. Find thousands of course materials in a variety of subjects and grade levels, including free courses and textbooks.

  tags: ebooks textbooks opensource science math ck12 curriculum resources lessonplans wiki learning teaching

• CK12.ORG - FlexBooks

  tags: ebooks textbooks curriculum opensource flexbooks science math ck12

• 150 Free Textbooks: A Meta Collection | Open Culture

  tags: textbooks ebooks education books free

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Embedding youTube Videos in PowerPoint