I LOVE Plickers!

At this time last year I was teaching 5th grade.  A fellow teacher introduced me to Plickers and I was hooked.  Since that time I switched jobs.  I am now the technology coordinator/teacher at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic School in Haubstadt, IN.  I work with absolutely amazing educators.  The staff here embraces technology and is eager to learn more and more and more.

In October I introduced Plickers to the staff at one of our faculty meetings.  To say my presentation was a success is far from true.  The technology didn't want to work the way I wanted it to.  I was a tad flustered. I have spoken at national conferences with less anxiety than I had that day.  However, I apparently sparked the interest in many of my co-workers!

Blow you see some pictures of Plickers at work in our Science Classroom.  Remember I said that the technology did not want to cooperate during my PD Session?  Well, this teacher's Smart Board was not working when she decided to begin using Plickers.  If you look closely at her board you will see the projector is missing.  This did not deter our veteran teacher!  She chose to push forward and take the plunge to become a Plickers user.  She entered all of her questions from a post test or her students and read the questions to them.  They held up their Plicker cards and she scanned away!  One thing I always told teachers when I trained them -technology does not always work the way we want so have a back up plan!  Mrs. Feller, the Science teacher, has now introduced Plickers to all of her Science classes.  When the students come to see me they are so excited to tell me about it (they don't know I already know!).



The next set of pictures are from Miss Erny, one of our Kindergarten teachers.  She fell in love with Plickers and has used it in her own unique way, too.  We all know that not all Kindergarten students are reading fluently at this time of the year.  Therefore, she decided to share her worksheet on the board with multiple choice answers.  Then the students used their Plicker Cards to answer!  Yes, it was extra work for her to put the questions into Plickers and then into her Smart software but it was well worth it when she saw how excited her students were to use the cards.

As I stated earlier in my post, I work with an amazing staff of educators.  I can honestly say that there is NOT one teacher who runs from using technology.  They ALL want to find ways to put it to work for their students.  I know that as time passes, more of the teachers here will begin to use Plickers!

After I submitted my PD session to Plickers I was thrilled to receive two sets of Plickers cards!  I put out a little contest to the staff to find the most creative lessons.  Mrs. Feller and Miss Erny use Plickers so much now that I awarded them each with a set of the fancy Plickers cards!  Thanks, Plickers!  I am so lucky to be a part of the Plickers Ambassadors Program!

Teaching with Videos

I remember times when I was teaching and had to be absent.  I wanted something neat to get the student's attention while I was gone.  I used things like Voki and even created video lessons for them.  Substitute teachers are hard to find and when you do - you have to have sympathy for them.  Unfortunately, they don't get the full respect they need from the students.  Here is a neat tool that could help on days you can't be at school or if you want to try somewhat of a flipped lesson.

First - I hope you are a Google user!!  If you follow my blog, newsletters, etc - you know I LOVE my Google.  In Google Drive:

• click on Create
• connect more apps
• search for VideoNot.es
• install this extension/app in your Google Drive

Creating with VideoNot.es is easy!  You simply find the video you want to use.  For this example I used a beautiful video of dolphins and whales.  The YouTube link I used is http://youtu.be/Bo_f8mV5khg.

I then went to my VideoNot.es and used the shorten URL given above and created this:
(you will need VideoNot.es installed to view) https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1KeJK28opiIcXRPMWlUYWxpcWs/edit?usp=sharing

You will see the video on the left and notes on the right.  There are timestamps highlighted on the right.  If you click on the timestamp it will take you to that point in the video and you can see what the note is talking about.

Pretty cool!  The video is beautiful, too.

Technology Tension

Do you ever feel tension from the pressure to use more and more technology in your classroom?  Every individual looks at this pressure differently.  We can divide the population into groups like the altitude zones in Mexico (I was just studying this with my daughter for a test).  There are three altitude zones: the top one is the Tierra fria (this would be our advanced technology users), the middle is the Tierra templada (intermediate users) and the Tierra caliente (the beginners).  I apologize for the comparison but that is fresh on my mind!

For the beginners, individuals that feel they are being forced into the technology education era, don't be afraid.  You aren't going to break it and so what if the students know more than you, learn from them!  I recently read an online article "5 Tips to Help Teachers Who Struggle with Technology".  While these tips are wonderful tips some don't necessarily apply. I've added to those 5 tips here.

1.  I would say that most schools already have a tech team.  I would change this to don't be afraid to use your tech team.  As teachers we tell students to always ask questions, one of the best ways to learn.  Then why are we the first ones to shy away from asking questions?  Asking questions does not make us look stupid.  It makes us look quite the opposite.  It shows that we are true teachers - always eager to learn!

2.  Do you have professional development overload?  Have you ever been to a workshop or conference and learned so much that you don't know if you are walking forwards or backwards?  Well, I am a technology trainer and I can honestly say I have.  Anytime I go to a conference it feels like my head is going to explode because I want to implement everything and have a hard time knowing where to begin.  So - here's a good tip.  Take the time to write (or type) one sentence about everything you learned (if you learned alot of web apps just write the name).  Review what you have and pick ONE thing.  Spend the next week (or two or three) learning this and then implement it somehow (in your classroom, with your PLC).  After you feel good about this you can check it off your list and move onto the next thing.  Babies see other babies crawling, older children running, adults walking, etc.  Do they start out running?  No, they start out crawling and they master that before moving on.  The same goes with Math.  You start with one concept and you build on it.

I hate to tell you this but technology is not going away.  We are surrounded by digital natives, human beings born into the digital age.  It is second nature to them, easier than learning how to blow a bubble with bubble gum!  Throughout time there are what I call fads in education (just like fads in fashion), things that come and go.  Well - this is not a fad but a shift in learning.  We can't expect students to learn to read without books or to write without a pencil.  Well, we have to help them use these digital tools responsibly and effectively.  Therefore, don't be afraid to learn (it kind of puts us in the students' shoes - do you think they feel lost sometimes in class?).

FREE technology!

Free technology is always exciting - especially for teachers.  I have recently read some blog posts that touch on good Free Technology and would like to share:

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2014/02/a-quick-comparison-of-five-popular.html#.Uwy5LkJdVhk

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2014/02/purpose-games-create-online-review-games.html#.Uwy5H0JdVhk

My digital footprint!

Finding time to learn for a teacher

It amazes me how much we expect from teachers. Sitting here and looking at the life of a teacher from the eyes of a teacher and a parent I see so much. As a parent I unfortunately forget about my teacher eyes and forget how busy teachers are on a daily basis. As a teacher I wonder how in the world do we all stay sane? Testing, behaviors, planning, teaching and throw in learning because a teacher should never stop learning! Now, as a technology coach for teachers I have established a new goal for myself - how can I make learning something that isn't a task for teachers? Teachers have a hard time finding "free time" to spend learning new tools. I've tried e-mailing teachers - what teacher actually has time to sit and read an e-mail that isn't at the top of their list (top of the lists would be parents, principals and other administration). There are so many tools available to teachers but many don't have the time to sit down and look for these tools. Watch this blog for fun and easy to learn digital tools that you can use in your classroom.

My Presentation Blog Post from EVSC ICATS Website

In the techie world we live in, there are endless possibilities to what teachers and students can do to liven up a presentation!  Today, I would like to share with you Blendspace.

Blendspace is an online presentation application, formerly known as Edcanvas.  I personally love the new name because it really describes what a user can do - blend different things together to make a very creative presentation.

Create an Account

You will first want to create an account.

1. Go to www.blendspace.com
2. Click on the blue Sign Up button
   
3. Who are you?
   
4. Choose I'm a Teacher
5. Follow the steps to creating your account

Now you are ready to start.  If you plan to use this as a classroom tool you can setup classes on your account and pass the class code out to students.  Once you have successfully created your account and logged in you should see a screen similar to this:

Create a Class

To create a class - just click on Classes.  You will then see:

Choose the grade level and name your class.  Once the class is created you will receive a class code to give to your students.  Students will create their accounts exactly like you but they will choose I'm a student and when prompted will enter your class code.

Now that you have all the "business" out of the way you can start creating lessons.  Blendspace calls all the creations lessons.  These lessons can be created in your account and also shared with specific classes that you have created.

** When students are creating a lesson for your class, make sure they select the class when the first begin creating.  ** 

Create a Lesson

Let's walk through creating a lesson and all the features of Blendspace.

Click on New Lesson - the next window will be

The parts of a Blendspace lesson:

• Templates:  There are five templates to choose from
• 
• Themes:  Two color themes.  The only color that changes is the color behind each section heading.  (Dark or colors)
• Play:  This is the feature you will use will presenting your Blendspace lesson.
• Print:  If you choose to print your lesson.

What can you put in your Blendspace lesson and how?  What is awesome about Blendspace is you can search YouTube, Google, Educreations and more right in your Blendspace lesson template!  You can also connect your Dropbox account and your Google Drive account!  Your options are:  Create your own Text or Quiz, YouTube, Google Search (website or image), Vimeo, Flickr, Educreations, Gooru, Website link/embed code, Upload your own media file, files from Dropbox or Google Drive, or insert a Bookmark.
To search for what you are looking for, first select what you want to insert (example - YouTube), then type in a search word.  I am creating a Blendspace lesson on Halloween so I searched Halloween kids songs.


Now I just simply click on the video I want (I can preview it right in the search box before using it, too) and drag it to the spot I want to place it.

*** To add additional rows to your lesson, click on Add Row underneath the lesson template:

Share Your Lesson

Now - once you have gotten everything you want placed onto your Blendspace lesson it is time to share it.  If you created it for your class you will share as follows:

Click on Share in the top right corner and a new window will pop up.

For your class - click on the class you want to share it with.

For others - you can share via Edmodo, Facebook, Twitter, email, grab an embed code for your blog or website or share the QR code with anyone!

Happy Blending!!  http://blnds.co/1clLJCy