Treasures from the MSET Conference

Polly, Catherine and I had the opportunity to go to the MSET Conference last week.  As always, it was a treasure trove of great ideas for use of technology in the classroom.  I wanted to share a few resources we found with you all.

The first resource is an incredible blog titled: technology rocks. seriously.  If you are a Lower School teacher, I would recommend you bookmark it.  It is full of hundreds of resources to integrate technology into lessons - and also to use technology to make classroom management easier.  Be sure to consult the tag list to find resources that would work best for you:

http://www.technologyrocksseriously.com/

Tammy Wooster is always one of the most popular presenters at MSET.  She compiles exhaustive resources for using technology in the classroom... and creates excellent online reference sheets.   The list below will link you to her handouts for this year.  As we are beginning to introduce iPads into the Lower School, we were particularly interested in "Have an iPad - How do I Use it in the Classroom?"  For Upper School teachers who are increasingly using Google Docs, I think you would be interested in her resources on Google Spreadsheets and Forms (did you know you can create an online test that will correct instantly?) and Google Activities for Kids.

http://www.tammyworcester.com/TWHandouts/New_Handouts/Entries/2012/4/19_Common_Ground_2012.html

Catherine attended a session titled: Technology Power Hour.  The presenters used a program called Symbaloo to organize a comprehensive list of cool Web 2.0 tools that can be used in a variety of ways in the classroom.  Just click on each icon to link to a potential resource:

www.symbaloo/mix/technologypowerhour

A few of the resources we immediately thought could be used in HTS classrooms included:

Popplet - a graphic organizing tool

http://popplet.com/

Spelling City - a tool that turns weekly vocabulary lists into games and activities:

http://www.spellingcity.com/

Storybird - Storybirds are short, art-inspired stories you make to share, read, and print

http://storybird.com/

If you get a chance to peruse some of the lists and have any questions about how to best use some of these ideas in your classrooms, let us know... we'd be happy to help.

Happy Digital Learning Day

Hi all,

To celebrate Digital Learning Day, I thought I'd share a link from Edutopia: 30 Great Technology Makeovers and Ideas.

http://www.edutopia.org/digital-learning-technology-resources

I was particularly intrigued by the section on "Teaching with New Media Tools."  The "Twenty Tidbits for New Teachers" is an excellent article - and if you'd like help with any of the suggested endeavors, from setting up a wiki or a blog for your classroom, or experimenting with other Web 2.0 tools, I'm happy to help you with it (see tidbit number 6 - get a mentor)  

Word Clouds

One of my (two dozen or so) New Year's Resolutions is to blog more consistently on the tech blog this year.  This week, let's look at Word Clouds.  

I suggest three sites for creating Word Clouds: Wordle, ABCya and Tagul.

We've been using Word Clouds with our 6th and 8th graders this week.  Cheryl had been looking for an interesting way for the 8th graders to use words, or a quote to accompany the masks they had designed before the break.  I suggested they use Wordle to make a word cloud with their yearbook quotes.  The sixth graders also used Wordle with Dr. Martin Luther King quotes this week.

Wordle is free and offers a dizzying array of font, color and layout options.  The link to Wordle is http://www.wordle.net/create

For the 6th grade project I strung together the words in the Martin Luther King quotes using "~", so the words stay together in sentences:

If you do not link the words together, a cloud is created, as in this sample: 

The idea is that those words that appear the most in a block of text will be represented most in the cloud.

A couple of "lessons learned" for using Wordle:

• Once you have all your text in the box, you will want to copy the whole block of text - just in case something goes wrong, you won't have to retype the whole block of text again.  
• If you press the "back" button, you will lose everything, so again, be sure you have it copied.
• You cannot save Wordle documents to your computer, so they must be printed right away.  If you need to save a copy, a screen shot is a good idea.

A word cloud option for our younger students is: abcya.com:

http://www.abcya.com/word_clouds.htm

This is designed for students in 2nd -5th grades, and while it has fewer font, color and design options, is much easier to navigate - and you can save your work, which is not possible with Wordle. Here are a couple of samples, with thanks to Dr. Seuss:

And a third option, for older students, is Tagul.    On the Knewton blog, I discovered that: "tag clouds are similar to the “word clouds” that many news sites use to show the trending topics; they can scrape a website and pull all the terms that are used, and weight them by how many times they’re used. Tag clouds have one advantage over word clouds, though; they are all separate links to more information. There are several programs that can be used to create these tag clouds — I recommend Tagul because it’s easy to use and free for the first 20 clouds!"

I recommend the Knewton blog entry: Four Ways to Use Tag Clouds in Classroom lessons - I love the ideas, including Valentine's Day vocabulary lists, and ideas for President's Day, Black History month and teaching current events.

I also like The Top 10 Ways to Use Wordle at School This is a great list of ideas, including creating personal narratives, classroom polls, and student profiles.

Enjoy!  MB

NoodleBib Tutorials - Notes from Beverly

I know many students and faculty are using NoodleTools and NoodleBib.  (Reminder:  NoodleBib is the citation maker and NoodleTools has many other things for students to use when writing.)  If you are not using it, I hope you will.  Now that all students & faculty have an HTS gmail account it is especially easy to use.  The new tutorials below will be helpful as will the previous ones that are on the NoodleBib homepage and linked below.

All upper school students have had an introduction and I am happy to follow up in Technology class with 7th or 8th if needed and I am sure Mary Beth would be happy to with other grades. I can also do one-on-one with faculty and staff if you ask me.

Questions?  I will be happy to answer them.

Thanks,

Beverly


New tutorials about monitoring and assessing student work

A new series of four tutorials for teachers and administrators on how to set up a drop box for students to share their projects, how to view the projects, and give feedback about their projects. Links will take you directly to the screencasts.

*          Sharing (1/4): Creating an Assignment Drop Box
http://www.noodletools.com/noodlebib/tutorials/share_parta/             (4:34minutes)

*          Sharing (2/4): Viewing shared projects
http://www.noodletools.com/noodlebib/tutorials/share_partb/%20%20       (2:48 minutes)
           
*          Sharing (3/4): Viewing students citations, notecards and outline
http://www.noodletools.com/noodlebib/tutorials/share_partc/     (1:29 minutes)
           
*          Sharing (4/4): Providing feedback to students
http://www.noodletools.com/noodlebib/tutorials/share_partd/               (1:28 minutes)

All above tutorials are narrated and close captioned.

See also a tutorial http://www.noodletools.com/noodlebib/tutorials/share/
created for students (1:42 minutes) on how to share their projects with their teacher.

Check out other screencasts in the Tutorials area.     http://www.noodletools.com/helpdesk/index.php?action=downloads#category-3

Blog post link: http://www.noodletools.com/blog/archives/525

Have your students discovered Quizlet?

This is a great tool for students who need to study vocabulary - for English, or for any other subject.  Students can create their own flashcard set, then use Quizlet to test themselves.  Quizlet will even take the bank of information and create a test.  This is a wonderful resource to introduce students to before they enter High School - my own kids use it all the time to review their High School subjects.

I'm happy to help set up a sample for your class, or give you a tutorial...

MB

Welcome to Your New Homework Page

We have created step-by-step instructions for you to learn how to access, update and save homework pages.   A copy of this document can be found on the faculty pages of the new website, if you'd like to print a copy for yourself.

More Great Guides from Edutopia

In addition to subscribing to this blog, I believe you should all take the time to subscribe to Edutopia.  It is truly a goldmine of great ideas for educators.  I also love that George Lucas has used his millions of Star Wars dollars to establish this foundation to support innovation in education. 

Please take a moment to download - and read - the two latest guides - and keep in mind I'd love to help with teaching any of the new media ideas you're intrigued by!

http://www.edutopia.org/classroom-management-resource-guide

http://www.edutopia.org/ten-tips-teaching-new-media

Edutopia - Guides to Help You Start the School Year

Directions for checking a flash drive to make sure it is virus-free

When checking a flash drive to make sure it is virus free, these are the steps with the newer WebRoot antivirus software.

1)      RIGHT click on the little yellow orb in the bottom right toolbar (and make sure it is WebRoot client)  and choose SETTINGS

2)      Then when that console is up, click on Ctrl-Alt-P  to bring up a password box and type in   fedsolutions   (all lower case.)

3)      Then  from the SETTINGS submenu choice (40% of the way down the column) choose: Sweep all folders on the current drive and then use the pull-down to choose the appropriate drive letter for the flash drive.

Any questions?  Check with Charlie or MB

Synching your HTS Email Account with Your iPhone or Droid

Here's a truly useful technology tip.  I've long been frustrated that I couldn't access my school Email easily from my iPhone.  As it turns out, Tystan from Fed Solutions has worked out an easy fix for this.  His instructions follow:

"I’ve built a virtual directory into the Exchange system that will now allow any users with an active-sync enabled phone (such an iPhone or Droid) to receive their email wirelessly through the exchange server.  Active Sync was enabled on the server itself, but Exchange was not configured for the correct access type.

If you have a compatible device and would like to try setting this up, the server settings for the phone are: 

Username:         (just your windows username, ie. ckehoe)

Password:          (your regular mail password)

Domain:             (leave blank)

Server:               mail.holytrinitydc.org

SSL:                   Off

On an iPhone, it won’t ask you for the server setting the first time – it will ask for it after you try to verify the address without the server setting first."

I had no trouble setting it up for my iPhone, so if you encounter any trouble, contact me.  

Thanks Trystan!

MB