#17 Twitter in the Classroom

This blog post is about using Twitter in the classroom.  As I mostly spend my days with the elementary set, this is a little more difficult task.  Almost all my students are under the Twitter age threshold of 13.  Of course, barring that our county blocks Twitter.  So that is a big wall to get over.  I really enjoy Twitter and have talked several people into using it.  It is a little "Schizophrenic" to follow until you get the hang of it.  But lots of good education ideas on there.  The trick is to find the right people or stuff to follow.  If I was going to use it in the classroom, I would think it would be good for current events and especially government study.  As a class, I would have the students follow the WV Legislature, the Governor, and they could also follow specific bills and see who is interested and tweeting about what is going on in the bills.  I think it would be interesting to follow bills from committee to the Senate, to the House and then to the Governor. Government in action and current events all rolled into one.  Pretty good use of Social Media and learning I think.

#9 Learn something from a Podcast

I have listened to podcasts for awhile. My favorite time to listen to podcasts is when I am walking. I feel like I am killing two birds with one stone. I get really bored walking and I don't feel like I have time to listen to podcasts and do nothing else. My days get really full and this provides a pretty good solution. I regularly listen to This American Life, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, Selected Shorts and discovered the Teachercast.
 But I am supposed to find something new and tell about it.

I searched and scoured the app store.  There are a whole lot of Podcasts out there.  There are many categories as well.  This made the decision more difficult.

FinallyI chose Couch to 5K.  I am really interested in learning to run.  I always said if you see me running, you better run too because someone is chasing me. This podcast is supposed to make it so you can run for 30 minutes without stopping because it builds you up gradually.   I have always wanted to get enough strength and guts to run a 5K.  I have already worked on week 1.  I am going to try to make the whole 8 weeks and see if I can't run for 30 minutes without stopping.  Wish me luck I am going to need it.

#23 Final Reflection

I can't believe the difference the 23 things have made.  I have learned a lot of new things and tools to share with my schools and teachers.  At times, I find this blog frustrating and time-consuming.  But as I tell students it takes time and effort to learn.  I feel like this is a large amount of work for a teacher to undertake, but so is the whole TIS certification process.  I came in feeling pretty good about my self-taught tech skills.  They have served me well but I have also grown and learned many new things.  This blog and the course in general pushes you to "reach for the brass ring".  I do really feel TIS's need to be on the cutting edge of what is happening in education and technology.  It is a lot of work to stay relevant.  The last 10 years education has changed so much and will continue to change.  I plan to continue blogging in my weebly site.  I have a few teachers that follow me.  I really like connecting with teachers from other states on Twitter, Facebook, Edmodo, and Schoology.  I learn so much all the time.  I would just like to add one final thought to this post,  Teachers can never be replaced by technology, but teachers who use technology can replace those who don't.  That is the truth and the future.

#20 Share, remix, and reuse legally

I have learned a lot about Creative Commons taking this TIS Course and today I want to talk about something I didn't realize before.  This is that by law all government stuff put out on the Web is Creative Commons.  This is what I found on the Creative Commons site about the U.S. Government.

United States

Federal

• Works by the US federal government are automatically part of the public domain in the US as stipulated by http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#105
• Third-party content (such as the text of speeches by the first lady) on the White House web site are licensed with CC BY 3.0 US by default.
• President-Elect Transition Team, Barack Obama and Joseph Biden. CC BY 3.0 Unported. (Not an official federal government site, but an election team site, hence not required to be public domain.)
• The U.S. Department of Education has made OER an invitational priority in their Ready to Learn (PDF) and Ready to Teach (PDF) grants.
• The U.S. Department of Education has included open educational resources in their Notice of Proposed Priorities for discretionary grant funding. Essentially, if the priorities are adopted, it could mean that grant seekers who include open educational resources as a component of an application for funding from the Department of Education could receive priority.
• The U.S. Department of Labor and Department of Education commit $2 billion to community colleges and career training; CC BY required for grant outputs.
• The U.S. Department of Labor Career Pathways Innovation Fund Grants Program; CC BY required for grant outputs.

So I feel the government is being very open sharing all this stuff with the people.  Obama and Biden who were not compelled to be public domain did it also.

So I feel like at school we use the site

http://www.whitehouse.gov/our-government/the-constitution  when we teach about  constitution day .  It is good to know that we can share and use that legally

This is the link to the White House copyright policy

http://www.whitehouse.gov/copyright

#11 Learn from A Video

Today's blog is about Learning Something from a Video.  Actually, I use videos a lot as tutorials and to help me with stuff I am not sure about.  I just watched a video on how to take off a Mophie Juice Box for my neighbor's iPhone.  They put it on at the AT&T store and she wanted it off.  I have only ever used Otterbox.  My own daughters use YouTube to find ways to beat video games.  But today I want to talk a little about SchoolTube.  I always considered not all that useful but I did find something very good on School Tube which I have shared with all my teachers at school.  This is the StorylineOnline Channel.  You can go to the website and see some of the videos but it is blocked at our school but the School Tube Channel is open.  Basically, this is members of the Screen Actors Guild reading childrens' books.  They are nicely done and enjoyable to listen to.  Here is a link to the channel.

http://www.schooltube.com/search/?term=storyline+online

These are some of the CSO's it supports.  I listed 2nd grade because most of the books are geared for the primary grades.  I believe there is a listening component to most grade levels.  Children enjoy listening and watching the videos.  I give them a big thumbs up!

RLA.O.2.3.1  listen, recite and respond to familiar stories, poems and songs (e.g., retell in sequence, relate information to own life, describe character, setting, plot, engage in creative dramatics, imagine beyond the story). RLA.O.2.3.2  describe the main idea or intended messages in a variety of visual media (e.g., pictures, cartoons, weather reports, newspaper photos, visual narratives). RLA.O.2.3.3 access media tools to create an oral or visual presentation (e.g., desktop publishing, electronic resources, photos).

#8B Make a Video Tutorial

Well, while I have made many cheat sheets, I have never made a video tutorial.  I am going to try to make a tutorial that also involves Acuity.  Like I said in my last post, teachers do not care for Acuity.  It is not user friendly, nor all that easy to navigate.  My tutorial is how to Create a test using Acuity. You can make free up to 5 minute tutorials using screenr.  Really it is quite easy to use.  I will probably make some more of these.  I uploaded mine to my YouTube channel also.

 Here is the link to my screenr.

http://www.screenr.com/Zwn7

#8A Make a Cheatsheet

This blog post is about creating a cheat sheet for teachers.  I have personally done many of these for teachers.  They really appreciate a screenshot with a tutorial.  I usually make them as Powerpoints because most teachers know how to navigate through a Powerpoint.  I am uploading the one I made to use Acuity as a mini lesson or bellringer in class.  Most teachers are not a fan of Acuity.  It isn't very intuitive at all.  So this was to help them feel more comfortable using Acuity to look for resources for teach and reteach.  I converted the Powerpoint to a PDF document, but am not quite sure how to put a PDF or for that matter any document into Blogger, so I uploaded it to my Webtop Dropbox and am sharing the link with you.

http://files.k12.wv.us/ccr/abtre/6gne8l27ce80ww/Using%20Acuity%20for%20mini%20lessons.pdf

#22 Reflect on a Conference Presentation

Today's blog is titled Reflect on a Conference Presentation.  Well since I didn't get to attend any ISTE or FETC high-end conferences, I will have to reflect on a presentation at WVSTC.  Actually, I think our conference is pretty good.  I have been to it before when it was live and attended this year virtually.  In fact, I have presented at it live and virtually.  I won't reflect on my own session though I thought  it was pretty good.  The session I want to reflect on is "Students Love Learning Math with Sum Dog"  which was presented by Elaine Matheny.  Elaine is a TIS in Mason County, a friend of mine, and in fact  I had her children in school and knew her long before she ever became a TIS.  But I didn't pick her because of any of those reasons.  I picked her because she had a very dynamic session.  I had signed up for a Sum Dog account but hadn't really used it.  After her session, I was sold on it.  I got all my teachers using it.  I did a few training's on it and convinced the principals at 2 schools to buy the subscription for the school to customize it further.  My school's have won daily winners in RESA contests and I've had several Top 10 students in the RESA and 1 for a National Top 50 student.  The students enjoy it and are learning math facts so much easier.  That session by far was the most useful one I attended this year.  It isn't very often that a session does that for me.  So I call it winner!

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#16 The Backchannel

Today's blog is about using a back-channel   A back-channel is a way to have additional input going on with a class while you are doing the direct instruction or hands on activities.  It is a way for a student to have input without voicing it out loud.

Our back-channel was to write what our greatest challenge in teaching was.  I saw many teachers had answered this already.  Here is my screen shot of the teacher back channel

The back-channel I made was to ask the students was the first thing I put up on Edmodo for our Blended Learning Unit.  I ask the students to answer what they thought Blended Learning was.  I made several screen shots to see all the answers.Some were pretty interesting. I've attached all the Today's Meets the students answered.  Once I got the county to unblock the site, I found it easy to use with the students.

#13 Mid-Module Reflection

Today's  blog is a mid-module reflection of what my journey to become a certified TIS has been like.  In some ways, it is exactly what I expected in others it is so different.  Some days I feel like the teachers are vampires sucking the life out of me.  I get very little done besides putting out fires with little annoying technology stuff.  Then some days, I really feel I make a difference and make people reach out and try something they wouldn't have tried without me.  Having 3 schools to service is overwhelming.  I am not as comfortable at the High School, the teachers aren't as open and willing to try new stuff.  They want troubleshooting and everything to work.  My elementary that I used to be the music teacher at is the most needy.  They haven't had a TIS in years and work me hard.  My other elementary, the teachers are very nice but mostly want me to work with them in the lab.  This makes them more comfortable.  It has been interesting working with almost 80 different teachers.  What I have found out is that working with teachers is a lot like working with students.  You have your overachievers, those that will do it,  those that will do it with nagging, and those that will never even try.  Also, teachers are sometimes the worst students.  I knew that already.  If I could have my druthers I would like to work only in elementary.  I feel like I belong there.  To have one school would be awesome.  My other schools won't want to share me.  I need a couple clones :)
I really like being a TIS.  When I first changed I felt remorse for leaving my other gig.  But the longer I do it, the more I love it.

Here is the screen shot of the comment I made.

#6 YouTube

Today's blog post is Thing 6, Web top and YouTube video.  Since Mark Moore has made it so much easier for teacher's to show YouTube videos in class, they are being used quite frequently.  This has increased student engagement.  But if you aren't a teacher, a video still needs to be unblocked for you to see it.

I worked with the music teacher at my school.  They watched parts of the movie "Pitch Perfect".  A few of the students taught themselves the cup trick and the rest of the students wanted to learn it.  So we found a tutorial on YouTube to teach the students step by step and i showed her how to send in a request through the webtop to whitelist the video so the students can get to this video without the teacher showing it. This is an excellent rhythm activity for music and even P.E.class.  

#7 Play with Images

Today's Blog post is about playing with Digital Images.  I must have downloaded over a dozen apps trying to find one to work with.  My favorite of these apps is Skitch.  Skitch lets you write on your photo with your finger, notice the smile on my daughter's shirt.  It also lets you crop your picture and put a frame around it.  You can use many different colors.  I also like that you can type a caption in the photo.  You can change the size of the letters from large to small, depending on what you like.  You can also make it black and white and color in just parts of it.  That is pretty cool too.  Skitch saves your pictures to Evernote.  Then from Evernote you can save them to your pictures.  Skitch is available for Android and Apple market.  I think it is a pretty cool app for digital manipulation of your photos for a pleasing effect.  Check it out and try it yourself.