Wednesday, August 1, 2012
I Trashed my Clicker at ISTE 2012
Monday, July 30, 2012
SMART Response Assessment Strategies Workshop
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.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
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.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
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.
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.
If you are a scooper, please feel free to suggest items for it.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Top Rated Educational Apps from ISTE 2012 and "Shlogin"
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.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Rock Stars of ISTE 2012
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.Sunday, July 1, 2012
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.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
High Tech Hall- here I come
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Free
Classroom Management with ClassDoJo
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Thursday,
November 8th
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3:00
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Table 3 in High
Tech Hall
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Tuesday, June 26, 2012
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!
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Short video clips tied in with language arts. There are so many possibilities.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Skyping with authors
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Virtual Author Visits in Your Library or Classroom -
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Authors Who Skype with Classes & Book Clubs (for free!)
Authors Who Skype with Classes & Book Clubs (for free!)
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Common Core Standards Resources for Edmodo Teachers
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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 isMrs. Kristina Holzweiss and the link to her as a connection is http://www.edmodo.com/lieberrian
Monday, February 13, 2012
Apps for Pre-schoolers
- 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.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Ebooks and opensource books for education
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Where Students Read Textbooks FREE | Flat World Knowledge | Flat World Knowledge
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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.
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Monday, December 19, 2011
Collaborative Projects using Minecraft
Minecraft is focused on creativity and building, allowing players to build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D world.
Some of the challenges included getting certain students to stop goofing around and they also failed to START with a plan. As they built their village, they argued about each inclusion and whether or not it followed pre-history in terms of historical accuracy. They concentrated very heavily on only using building materials that were accessible during that time period.
What they learned by the end of the project was to set up specific times that they could all work on it together to finalize certain areas and make group decisions, to have a common plan and set zones and directives for each student to work on. They also had to learn diplomacy, they destroyed project pieces that did not meet rubric guidelines, but they had to explain/debate/support why they made that choice. It would have been more helpful to have a project manager who made final decisions like this established from the beginning. There was also a student who gave a non- participant access to the server, which was against the rules and he was temporarily turned off until the project was complete and captured on video. When it came time to shoot video of their online world, the students tried out various screencasting scenarios. They used Jing, and screencast-o-matic.com. For the narration, the students used a group call coming through Skype which they captured while they navigated through the site. This way more than one voice was represented on the video and no one had to leave their homes. This scenario works wonderfully if you have students in different countries, provided they are able to meet according to the time zones. It was also challenging because certain students failed to mention to their families that they were recording. There were background noises that interfered at times, forcing them to make many retakes of the video. Some students had microphones and others didn't. Some students had Skype accounts and others had to quickly create one. The beauty of this project is that the students chose the technology, they had to problem solve on the fly, and use multiple web 2.0 tools to assist them. The teacher simply gave them the topic of their video and the students managed the project specifics and timeline on their own.
As a teacher who now understands how this program works I would have asked for a basic master plan on paper first along with a list of team members and their roles. Although the students managed their project on their own, they could have benefited from some project management guidance and follow-up. I think I would also have mentioned that they should have scheduled times to work on it as a team for the necessary debates as well as the asynchronous work. It would have saved them some time.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Memiary Tutorials and the Power of Edmodo
I have a teacher who needed a daily journaling program for his music students. He wanted them to have a place to enter certain information on a daily basis about the music they heard that day in class. Paperless was pat of the challenge. We debated using google forms but I posted my question on edmodo and received a quick response from another teacher. Memiary!
Here are the quick screencasts we made on using this tool. As a teacher, I can track all my student's Memiarys and make sure they are up to date. As a student I can see my whole calendar full of what I learned in music class during the year.
Here are the quick screencasts we made on using this tool. As a teacher, I can track all my student's Memiarys and make sure they are up to date. As a student I can see my whole calendar full of what I learned in music class during the year.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
The Loss of Creativity
Click on the comic to get the full view, The loss of creativity stems directly from what we ask of our students. Rote memorization and drills kill creativity. I thought this was one of the best articles a professor had ever shared with me.
A great article to read if you are a teacher or administrator...
Click on it...
A great article to read if you are a teacher or administrator...
Click on it...
Friday, October 28, 2011
Google+ New features -ripples and Creative Kit for quick photo editing
See how a post is shared through rippples. Tracking the flow of information is a useful tool if you want to market your own posts or services. You can evaluate how information is spread, find the fastest route for the type of information you are trying to share and model your flow based on your research.
The creative kit tutorial is very easy to understand. My students are going to love this.
Now Google+ should be available on Google app accounts. I will be checking that out later today for a few of my districts.
The creative kit tutorial is very easy to understand. My students are going to love this.
Now Google+ should be available on Google app accounts. I will be checking that out later today for a few of my districts.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Q-charts, Blooms Taxonomy and Edmodo
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| Adding questions to edmodo |
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| See where the questions are clustered |
We expect students will to improve their ability to ask higher level thinking questions on their own as they have opportunities to practice during their guided reading groups.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Using the Smartboard for Keyboarding
Smart Notebook solves many problems. We took a picture of the onscreen keyboard using the picture tool in Smart Notebook. Then hovered our hand over the home row keys and traced the outline using the red pen. We grouped the objects. The students come up the board and and we were able to move the keyboard with the hand placement to their height and resize it for their finger size. They were able to practice on the smartboard,(which they love) then go back to their seats and practice on real keyboards. We had them press each finger down on each key and sing the letters while they were up at the board.
Earning Edmodo Badges
Here is one of our students earning her first edmodo badge for Keyboarding in Computer Class. The other students are clamoring to earn their own badges. The gamification of the classroom is underway. We will be developing leveled edmodo badges so that students can "Level Up."Monday, August 15, 2011
Inspired by Mike
Never was hosting a podcast so easy as using soundcloud.com I cannot wait until they come out with a RSS feature, for now it is perfect for me to make podcasts in audacity and edit them, then upload them right to soundcloud. I am sure to exceed the free amount of space on my account in no time. Thank you Mike, in honor of your share I made a quick and dirty podcast about the edmodoCon conference I attended this week. I did not bother to edit out my uuuummms and aaaahhhhhhsss because I was doing it on the fly for a last wildcard fun exercise. Normally I script out my podcasts, but this was just a quick reflection. EdmodoCon by MichelleWendt
Meeting our classmates
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Wading through the debris
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| I always feel busy, so this is a fun picture that gives me an attitude adjustment. I am very lucky to be so busy... |
Last week some of my teachers attended a three day institute on technology integration. On the final day they had to plan a sustainability plan for technology use for the year. I had to talk one of them (let us call her Mary) off the ledge because she could not believe that she was going to use this document during the year. She was convinced that she would never open it again because that is not the way she works. Mary's orientation to learning demanded that she have a real-life application for her time spent on this project. Since she did not participate in the the planning of this activity, she couldn't see the connection to her own classroom and would rather have spent her day on something that was important to her. Although Mary learned how to use google docs and wikis on this day- skills she can carry back with her, this teacher would have benefitted from being involved in planning the learning objectives and activities. The next day, as we worked at our school on projects we had all planned together- there were no ledges or cliffs. I could tell that every teacher appreciated being in charge of their own learning, and were more oriented to learning. I see this trend in adult learners and do not see it as much in the pedagogical model. I think younger learners may be more conditioned to work on projects they did not select than older students.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Add Facebook and Twitter to Google+
I found this very useful post today and installed the plugin, it works properly, I am pleased, so far.
You do want to read the whole post and take the three minute tutorial that they suggest. It is worth
the time to work these social networking sites to your best advantage.
Here is the link to the extension.
http://www.vikitech.com/4817/add-facebook-twitter-to-google-plus
I now need to find a plugin for edmodo and linkedin. The one I found for linkedin says it has a verified author, but I still have the willies. Extended Share for Google Plus
Free
I now have the willies about all manner of plugins and extensions. I have to go back and check them all out because google+ is still so new.
Unplugged
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| Me against an insane asylum background |
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Schools may block Google!
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
All that for nothing!
The Innovative Educator: Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs - When and W...
The Innovative Educator: Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs - When and W...: "After week one I shared my thoughts about “ What Google+ Means for Education .” I’m on week two now and the big questions are: Do I really..."
Monday, July 25, 2011
Experience can go a long way- or it can get stuck in the mud
Epals post ( Guest Blogger)
Hi! I read your epals post and viewed your blog. It is wonderful!
I am Missy McCoskey in Missouri. I teach high school at risk students, which
means that I work with students who are at risk of dropping out of school or who
have already dropped out and are returning to try to get their diploma. I am
working on my masters degree on integrating technology in the classroom. Last
year I also taught one hour of math and was able to integrate technology in
innovative ways. It was wonderful. This year, I am focusing only on the at
risk students. They have a prescribed agenda to follow and it leaves me with no
outlet for my technology learning.....However, I have also moved rooms and will
have a smartboard for the first time. This is wonderful and I will play with it
and learn about it, but using it in my classroom will be a little difficult.
Since my students have a prescribed way to achieve, the smartboard is not part
of that, I will have to be creative. When my students finish recovering their
class, I want to have them work on projects for the school, like redesigning the
website, etc. I also want them to skype and email students in other countries.
I am open to ideas!
Last year I loved having my students start wikis. I created a wiki to organize
the wikis. Students created wikis for fractions, graphing, etc. They found
websites, games, etc. and posted those on the wiki. It was a very good
experience.
I have to collaborate online with other teachers for my masters degree and am
looking for someone to email or skype. Are you interested? It looks like your
schedule is already full and busy. Great job on your blog!
RESPONSE!
Missy, we would love to collaborate with you and possibly your class. We have new 6th and 7th grade classes starting up in September- let us know what time of year you are interested in and we can schedule it according to what works with your curriculum. April and May are tough for us, that is when we test, but we are available the rest of the months, September to June. I also have access to some high school teachers who may be a better match for you... They will see this blog post and let me know. I will be in touch through epals, thank you for being a guest blogger here!
Missy
I am Missy McCoskey in Missouri. I teach high school at risk students, which
means that I work with students who are at risk of dropping out of school or who
have already dropped out and are returning to try to get their diploma. I am
working on my masters degree on integrating technology in the classroom. Last
year I also taught one hour of math and was able to integrate technology in
innovative ways. It was wonderful. This year, I am focusing only on the at
risk students. They have a prescribed agenda to follow and it leaves me with no
outlet for my technology learning.....However, I have also moved rooms and will
have a smartboard for the first time. This is wonderful and I will play with it
and learn about it, but using it in my classroom will be a little difficult.
Since my students have a prescribed way to achieve, the smartboard is not part
of that, I will have to be creative. When my students finish recovering their
class, I want to have them work on projects for the school, like redesigning the
website, etc. I also want them to skype and email students in other countries.
I am open to ideas!
Last year I loved having my students start wikis. I created a wiki to organize
the wikis. Students created wikis for fractions, graphing, etc. They found
websites, games, etc. and posted those on the wiki. It was a very good
experience.
I have to collaborate online with other teachers for my masters degree and am
looking for someone to email or skype. Are you interested? It looks like your
schedule is already full and busy. Great job on your blog!
RESPONSE!
Missy, we would love to collaborate with you and possibly your class. We have new 6th and 7th grade classes starting up in September- let us know what time of year you are interested in and we can schedule it according to what works with your curriculum. April and May are tough for us, that is when we test, but we are available the rest of the months, September to June. I also have access to some high school teachers who may be a better match for you... They will see this blog post and let me know. I will be in touch through epals, thank you for being a guest blogger here!
Missy
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Reflections of Adult Learning
A picture does not always paint a thousand words, sometimes an explanation IS needed. This is what I learned this week in class. We each created an exhibit on the characteristics of adult learners. By themselves, just as pictures, we could infer a great deal, but it was the explanations that each member of our class added to the pictures that made them come alive.
For instance, this dog could represent an adult learner who is satisfied with himself, or it could be a trainer keeping a close eye on a learner.It might even be a proud teacher witnessing her/his class take charge of the their own learning. We figured out this week that our take on a situation is based upon our individual experiences and backgrounds. The connections we would automatically draw are going to be different for every one of us. It was difficult looking at exhibits from an earlier class and trying to figure out what the graphics meant. I personally had a lot of trouble understanding until I had to build my own.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
NOTE TO SELF
I guess the biggest realization I came to tonight was that I only had class one day per week until now. Guess I was spoiled, because I do not have two days in my week and time to do homework along with all my other obligations. NOTE TO SELF- only take classes that actually meet ONCE a week. I do not know if that goal is even achievable- It may take me a few years to complete my MAIT degree that way- but I am stressed right now, so this is my rant. Everybody needs a piece of me right now and I don't have any extra pieces to give. I think the projects we will work on in class will be interesting and very helpful to me in what I do, which is train adults, so I have to get past the stressed part and down to the learning. I also have to remind myself that people new to wimba and Blackboard have it way harder than me. SO I need perspective as well. (This is me yelling at myself for pitying myself) Don't feel sorry for me, because I am just whining here and not being constructive.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
New class-New Year and Newbies!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
QR codes
As we were walking around ISTE we kept running into the qr codes everywhere, so I was inspired to make my own using the KAYWA site, I can now read them too, thanks to the app I downloaded on my Blackberry. It is pretty darn cool that I can just take a picture and my blackberry browser goes right to the site that is associated with the code. I have to try it out for contacts. I wonder if I take a picture of my own and save it if I can just display it on my Blackberry screen for someone else to scan it. hmmmmmm. I DO know that I can scan it from my computer screen, I did try that already. It doesn't to be printed out. Here is one I created for the new band booster website. The website is still under construction, but enjoy trying my qr code anyway.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Just arrived at ISTE!
Very excited to be here, I am planning my day and have already managed to trade my free laptop case for a free iPad case. Since I borrowed my son's iPad for this day he will be happy I am bringing him back something cool. I will update as I go along. Right now Sheila and I are setting our strategy.
Monday, June 27, 2011
ISTE UNPLUGGED
How incredibly cool is it that I can be at ISTE 2011on Monday when I am not going to be there in person until Tuesday? Illuminate sessions of unplugged presenters are available with archives at this link.
I couldn't be more thrilled because I am only going to be at ISTE 2011 for one day and I was worried that I would miss out on a lot of PD options if I really explored the floor. These sessions remind me of the From My Classroom To Yours Conference at Stockton. They are definitely shorter, but everyone appears to be offering resources to help us use the applications they are showcasing.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Archive madness
Since I left early last week, I was trying to catch up with the archive and understand the military timing, it has been awhile. Looks like I missed a great wiki show by Ann. I am so pleased that she was able to make this tool her own this semester. There is a new commenting feature that the other talent 21teachers and I plan on using the coming week before school ends. This gives an almost blog functionality to us that we were missing and we are excited by that. Wikispaces has been the most successful tool for me over the last few months. Since we only have so much room in our teacher websites, this extension of our digital world has been priceless and we can make them as content specific as we like and leave them until next year after this year's class is done without maxing out our webspace. Thank you everyone for the warm comments in the aha's! I think you are all amazing people too!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Loving this service!
I had a project that I needed completed right away, it was all transferring text from one format to another and I just didn't have the time. This service is great, I posted a job and within 5 minutes, I had nineteen offers from people willing to complete the job. I selected my assistant at 11pm at night and the work was done by 6am the next morning. Great way to make extra income if you like to work from home and have skills. Awesome way to get a digital assistant. I made sure I emplyed someone from the United States because we need jobs in THIS country too.
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