Going Global

Have you ever wanted to connect to another class in another country? Are you looking for someone to video conference with your class? If so, I came across this infographic the other day and found the information perfect...

Notice the "Global Educational Chats" section. What a great way to connect! Type a "looking for" Tweet and add the hashtag for the country you're interested in and viola! Let the connecting begin!

While you're perusing the image, you may notice subject area or grade level chats that you can join. Search them in Twitter today and see what you can find. It's a big world and teachers are great at sharing! Take advantage today!

Image courtesy of Kid World Citizen

This Is How We Do It!

Check out First Grader Oscar coding a saxon phonics word using the annotate feature on the Promethean Board! You go Oscar!

Ms. Harris' Hoppin First Graders: This Is How We Do It!

{Tech Team} Cell Lab on the iPad

Tina Christian: Cell Lab on the iPad

Check out how our Biology classes are using the iPads and Evernote to perform their labs. This classroom is completely paperless!

{Tech Team} Genius Hour

Mrs. Pullen's Kindergarten Class: Genius Hour



Check out Stephanie Pullen's first attempt at 20% Time or Genius Hour with her Kindergarten students!

{Tech Team} #greatness: Math Journaling on the iPads!!

Mrs. Pullen's Kindergarten Class: #greatness: Math Journaling on the iPads!!: Check out how Mrs. Stephanie Pullen, Kindergarten teacher and CES campus technologist, used her iPads to math journal for the first time. #greatness

{Tech Team} iPad Mini Cart

Ms. Gardner's Group: iPad Mini Cart: We are so excited that our cart of 22 iPad Minis arrived today. We are ready to use our new tools for learning and creating! Follow me on Tw...

GoNoodle

I am a huge advocate for giving students movement breaks in the classroom.  Research shows that short bursts of activity improve student performance.  In my classroom, I gave students a "brain break" between every subject area.  For elementary teachers, Brain breaks are a great way to transition to the next subject because they not only allow students to have a few minutes of movement time, but also allow the teacher to have a few minutes to prep for the next lesson.  At the secondary level, those students need to move too! There’s a short brain break activity for every part of the day. Calm the classroom or energize your students depending on the time of day.

Check out GoNoodle at www.gonoodle.com

Thanks to Janet Corder, technology trainer for J2 training and friend of Commerce ISD, for this great resource shared on last week's #cisdtigerchat Twitter chat!

Mobicip Web Browser

Telling you all about Mobicip, the web browser app, has been on my "ideas" list for about a month now. Current events have put it on my heart to tell all of my teacher and parent friends about how to protect our children. 

We are living in a MUCH faster world than we grew up in...and I'm only 35! Children have unlimited access to any information available in the world via the internet and they don't possess the maturity to know what is appropriate and what isn't. This is where we need to teach our children digital citizenship or a way to prepare students for a society full of technology. In the meantime, blocking access to certain sites is a step that we must take to protect our younger students. 

If your child uses the Internet for research, I recommend purchasing the Mobicip app. The app is technically free, but you pay $10 per device per year for the service. You set basic school-age levels, on/off times, white list, black-list and key words. You can view reports, download them or have them sent to you. You'll see that some very questionable sites were blocked, sites your kids might have accidentally stumbled upon, or sites you really don't want them to seek out. Check on your kids browsing history from anywhere, anytime. I don't use it to spy on them - they know they have a special browser. I use it to keep them honest - if I have reason to doubt their claims, I can go to the reports.

If you own an iOS (Apple) device, I would recommend making a few adjustments in the settings:

• Turn on Restrictions and set a password that only you know
• Disable Safari and YouTube
• Turn off App Store (Your children know how to download free web browser apps that can take them anywhere and doesn't show in the browser history)
• Turn off In-App Purchases 

These days, in order to protect our children, we have to know at least as much as they do about their devices that connect to the internet. I have been knocking around the idea of offering some parent/student training sessions or even a technology camp for students. If you are interested in one of these sessions as a parent, please contact me.

Simple Transfer App

Simple Transfer is an app that I learned about from Kasey Bell, our Digital Fluency Academy trainer, and it has changed my life! Simple Transfer is the easiest way of transferring your Photos and Videos to computer and other iOS devices wirelessly. You can also transfer the other direction from your computer to your iOS device. No need for a cable, iTunes or extra software on your computer. There is a free version but I went ahead and paid the $2.99 for the app without restrictions. 

GaggleTube (Filtered YouTube)

Do you want to use YouTube videos for the students in your classroom?

The vast majority of school districts (including Commerce ISD) use internet filters to prevent students from accessing YouTube, and with good reason. There is a lot of inappropriate content available on the site, and that content changes rapidly. In fact, every minute more than 24 hours of video is uploaded to the YouTube site. But there is also a wealth of good information on YouTube, and many videos could be very beneficial in instruction at all grade levels and across all content areas. That’s where Gaggle comes in! 

GaggleTube allows searches of appropriate videos with an added layer of Gaggle safety, while still allowing us to block direct access to the YouTube website. Teachers and students can search and preview videos, tag or save them, and show them directly from Gaggle, full screen. Videos can also be embedded in blogs to promote discussions outside of the classroom. We gave our students a version of GaggleTube, allowing them to view only videos that have been filtered by the YouTube Safe Search filter. You’ll find the GaggleTube icon on your left panel within your browser and in the Gaggle iOS app. 

Keep in mind that no filtering system can catch everything all the time, so be sure you watch and listen to any video you might want to use before you show it to your class. And although we have the option to allow students to search filtered video on their own, active monitoring by the classroom teacher is the first line of defense for our students. With GaggleTube and a few minutes of previewing, the world of YouTube video can bring an exciting new dimension to your classroom!

Safari Montage Live 5

SAFARI Montage® Live-5! is the ideal solution for providing reliable school-to-school or school-to-home education for many applications, including AP classes, distance education for homebound students, professional development for teachers at school or at home, and virtual field trips to remote locations.

Other uses include:

Large meetings - faculty, school board, superintendent address, professional development.

Small meetings - teams, collaborative groups, student led conferences.

One to One meetings - evaluations, peer collaboration, parent teacher conferences.

Instruction - online, blended, virtual trips, expert discussion panels.

Intrigued? Watch this video explaining how the system works!

Have an idea for SML5 use in your classroom? Let me come and help you get started!

Gaggle

Gaggle is a student learning program that Commerce ISD utilizes. It encompasses many blended learning pieces including the following:

• Email: Gaggle Email includes extensive text filtering, inappropriate image detection and human monitoring.
• GaggleTube - Allow safe searching of YouTube videos even when YouTube is blocked by your district filters. All YouTube access is logged, filtered and monitored. Teachers can also upload videos, and saved videos can be shared, embedded and linked in multiple ways.
• Assignment Drop Boxes - Enable teachers to easily create, assign and collect assignments for a truly paperless classroom. Assignment Drop Boxes are integrated with Google Apps and GaggleTube for a full, rich media learning experience.
• Digital Lockers - Provide online file storage with integrated editing of Word documents, spreadsheets, photos and more.   Individual files and folders can be shared with specific students, classes or the entire school or district. All files are filtered for appropriate content and accessible from school or at home.
• Discussion Boards - Support curriculum and extend learning with ongoing classroom discussions. Teachers can create discussion boards restricted to specified students and classes.
• Social Wall - Provides profile-based connections with sharing, similar to the most popular social networking experiences.

Plus, there's an app for that!

The latest addition is the integration of Google Docs. Students can use their Gaggle login to log into Google Drive where they have access to all of the Google Apps for Education. Google Drive is a wonderful resource for students to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Their work auto-saves and is web based for access across any device and even offline editing. 

The good news is that EVERY STUDENT and TEACHER already have a Gaggle account! All logins follow this 

Username: firstname.lastname@cisdtigers.org

Password: network login

Happy Gaggling!

Heather

Quick Key Turns Your iPhone Into a Scanner

Quick Key is a new and free iOS app that turns your iPhone into a bubble sheet scanner. Thanks to Richard Byrne at iPad Apps for School for posting about this app!

Quick Key has two parts to it that when combined make it very easy for you to quickly grade multiple choice and true/false quizzes. Here’s the basics of how it works; create your quiz on the Quick Key website then print and distribute a bubble sheet. After your students have completed the bubble sheet you simply scan the sheets with your iPhone (it works on iPads too, but the resolution is grainy) and the grading is done for you. From the app you can send grades to the classes that you have created on the Quick Key website. If you enter students’ email addresses in your class rosters on Quick Key, you can have grades emailed to students.

I can see this being used to grade homework, bell ringers or exit slips in a secondary classroom! Check it out in action in this YouTube video:

The Pencil

I found this sticker last week from the AC Williams Scholastic Book Fair. 

It was the final straw that told me that I needed to share some things that I came across this week in regards to the school supply staple...the pencil.

As we all struggle to integrate technology into our classrooms, we have to remember that the students that sit before us are not us. They don't learn like we learned. Kasey Bell, our Region 10 Digital Fluency facilitator, said it best when she said, "Technology is the pencil of our time." How true are those words!

I want to share this video about pencils...actually technology in the classroom. This is an Xtranormal video made from a Twitter conversation about the use of technology in the classroom...except they replace the word "technology" with "pencils". It's funny, don't get me wrong! However, it makes me think about how far technology has come since I was in school and how we, as educators, need to adapt and change some things to meet students where they are! Okay, I'll step off my soapbox...enjoy the video!

Easy Grading with Flubaroo

Flubaroo is a free tool designed by a classroom teacher that helps you quickly grade multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank assignments using Google Forms. More than just a grading tool, Flubaroo also computes average assignment scores, average score per question, and flags low-scoring questions. It can even show you a grade distribution graph. You can email the students their grades and, if you want, an answer key. Flubaroo will also allow you to send individualized feedback to each student.

You can use your CISD Gmail account to use Flubaroo. Detailed steps for getting started with Flubaroo are provided here. A user's guide with more information is also available.

Keeping your students on 1 app

Apple has introduced Guided Access in iOS 6. It keeps your device in a single app and allows you to control which features are available.

Locking a mobile device into a single app has been a request of parents and educators for some time. Using Guided Access to limit an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch to one app can be handy when you want a child to remain on task and focused. It is also nice for youngsters who might accidentally click the Home button.

To start Guided Access: 

1. Launch the Settings App.
2. Go to General and choose Accessibility.
3. Turn Guided Access On.
4. Set a passcode.
5. Launch the app you want lock the device into.
6. Triple-click the Home button.
7. You can choose to disable touch or motion in addition to disabling the Home and volume buttons.
8. Tap the Start button.

Thanks to Primary Possibilities for the image

To exit the app, triple-click the Home button and enter the Guided Access passcode.

iOS 6 is now available as a free upgrade for iPad 2, iPad 3rd generation, iPod touch 4th generation, and iPhone 3GS and newer.

Flipped Classrooms

In the secondary classrooms within Commerce ISD, we are using our technology to shift the focus from teachers being the lecturer to becoming a facilitator of learning. This includes using the resources available to flip our classrooms. The "flipped classroom" is a buzz word that is gaining focus in the ed tech world and it can sound scary to the novice tech teacher. I created this Prezi to help introduce the concept to our teachers and clarify any misconceptions. I hope that it intrigued our teachers to try the model!

Techy Icebreakers for Teachers

On Monday I will begin my new job as Instructional Technologist. I am nervous and excited for the first of school, and eager to meet all of the teachers. As an educator, I know that teachers struggle to get to know their students through a “Getting To Know You” fact sheet.

In an effort to bring the classrooms of Commerce ISD to the present, I have assembled a list of 10 icebreakers that use technology and fit with 21st century students. Maybe even our Administrators can use some of these icebreakers with their faculty and staff!

• Have students create a Pinterest board with 10 pins that summarizes them. 
• Ask students to create a 30 second video clip that introduces themselves to their peers. Then allow students to present them or play them on separate devices as an audio gallery. Here are some very easy and simple to use tools for this purpose :
  
• Animoto
• Stupeflix
• Vimeo
• WeVideo
• Create a classroom blog and ask each student to write a blog post introducing themselves to the rest of the classroom. 
• Gaggle
• Edublogs
• Blogger
• Wordpress
• Kidblog
• Have students create a quick comic strip to describe themselves or to recreate a recent funny moment in their lives. 
• Use Poll Everywhere to ask students interesting questions and get to know them as a class, like their favorite subjects, bands or TV shows. 
• Use Google Forms or Survey Monkey to survey students about their interests, academic inclinations, and background info – a 21st century alternative to the “Getting to Know You” info sheet! Have students create word clouds to describe themselves and share with the rest of the class. 
• Have students go on a QR code scavenger hunt in teams to learn about your classroom rules in a fun, engaging way. Students can also use free QR code generators to produce a QR code that others have to read to know them. They can create QR codes and print them then scatter them in class then each one randomly picks a code and scan it to see who it is about. Here are a few tools for this:
  
• Kaywa
• Snap.vu
• Delivr
• Sparqcode
• Ask students to create their own avatars that introduce themselves to the class. Encourage them to be creative with the backgrounds, characters and details of the avatar to reflect their own personalities and preferences. Here are some tools to do this :
  
• Voki
• Build your wild self
• DoppelMe
• Clay Yourself
• Toy Creator
• Have students create mashup videos of themselves with Weavly to introduce their interests to the class. 

Try one with your students on the first day and comment below to let me know how it went!

Ask3 iOS app for a flipped classroom

Ask3 is a free iPad app from TechSmith. Ask3 is a tool that teachers can use to create short instructional videos that are shared directly to their students’ iPads. Students can use Ask3 to ask questions about the video, mark the video with drawing tools, and create their own audio comments about the video.



You share Ask3 videos to your students through a virtual workspace room. When you register as a teacher you are given a room number to share with your students. Students then open the Ask3 app on their iPads, enter their names, create a password for themselves, and enter the room number that you gave them. Students do not have to have email addresses to use Ask3. Anytime students enter your Ask3 room they can access the videos you’ve posted to the bulletin board in that room.


Ask3 could be a great app to use to develop and share short tutorials with your students. The option for students to insert comments and questions might make Ask3 your new favorite whiteboard app.

Thanks to iPad Apps for School for the tip!

Screenleap

Screenleap is a free web site that enables you to share what’s happening on your computer screen with anyone with a web browser, instantly. Viewers can see your screen from any device, including tablets and smartphones. There are no downloads, installs, fees, or sign ups required.

Just visit the Screenleap home page to start a session, then share the link or PIN code with your students or colleagues, and viewers can begin seeing your computer screen instantly.

Screenleap is most useful for ad-hoc collaboration, but people use Screenleap for other purposes: remote computer support, virtual meetings, remote training, sharing photos, team projects, and as a free alternative to Webex and GoToMeeting.

We have a student with Dyslexia that has difficulty copying information from the Promethean board. ScreenLeap helps him see the same information as his peers, but on the iPad in a way that he can process. I cannot wait to see other ways that this site can be utilized in the classroom!