iPads Mania

Google Hangouts, with its screenshare option, proved to be the perfect tool for a conversation with Mrs. Schmidt and Mrs. Olson.  The English teacher, Mrs. Schmidt, and the science teacher, Mrs. Olson, are collaborating on writing reflections pertaining to the annual science egg drop.

Mrs. Olson wanted to share hundreds of photos from the egg drop with students and decided that a Google Group would be a great place to put the link to her Picasa Web Album.  In addition, the Google Group is a great place for students to conduct prewriting comments and suggestions by student for students that Mrs. Schmidt provides.

Since the Google Group has a private setting, below is a screen shot of the number of views and comments.

Mr. Nickerson discusses how using an online business simulation resource with students allows participants to put into practice class concepts.

Having the Chromebooks has increased class time as each student was able to log in with ease and efficiency.

Listen to benefits and reflection on the process!


Video Link
ITLS Standard 1, 2, Skill 2A

The Whiteboard app for the iPad has many uses.  Hear how, Ms. Thut, uses the app in her science class.


Video Link
ITLS Standard: 1 and Skill (Grade 9)

Thanks to our IT department member, Mr. Westphal, some tips were give so that staff Google Hangout Sessions were run with efficiency and clarity.
Those tips are below.

• If you are using external speakers and the mic is too close, you will get an echo.
• Make sure that the Echo Cancellation box is checked in your Gmail Settings under Chat Tab
• There may be some delay if a Hangouts message conversation window is open for a long time
• To fix, close and re-open the conversation window
• Google Hangouts will soon get much better - no plugins and better video quality

Chromebooks: What Are They? LINK


Chromebooks: How Do Students Use Them

• Flip Top of Chromebook Up
• Left Corner - Add User
• Chrome Sign Up Same Username/Password For Google Account
• Choose Picture For Display of Account
• May need to sign in with password again
• Click App Launcher on bottom left
• Will see same extensions from any computer when using Chrome
• Done?
• Log Out
• Find Bottom Right Time Display, Click
• Click Sign Out, Done

Video Link
Multiple Google Accounts

Mr. Anderson, Anatomy Teacher at PHS, wanted a means for online discussions of informational text.  The Google Groups has a number of great features that allows it to not distract learning, but only to enhance it.

• Usable on the iPad in Google Chrome
• Chromebook & Laptop User Friendly
• No need for additional username & password as we are a Google Apps For Education school
• Threaded conversation allows for quick replies to students or teacher
• Able to upload documents (informational text) for analyzing

Two days ago, some high school staff members came together for an hour of brainstorming on how we can improve our @PCSD_PHS twitter feed.  During that hour, we decided that we would make our focus for every tweet based on several hashtags.  Those hashtags consist of...

• #PHSRaiderPride
• #PHSPerforming
• #PHSCompeting
• #PHSContributing
• #PHSKindness

Because of my summer graduate class, a teacher has been using the random group generator feature in SMART notebook.

View How To Make One

Video Link

Teacher Example

Video Link

To update your profile on our Pulaski Schools website, follow the directions below.  If you want to watch how to do it, the video tutorial is below as well.

Thank you for doing this!

• Log Into CMS4Schools
• Log In With Username
• Log In With Password 
• Click on "Edit My Profile"
• Change Title
• Change Phone Number
• Change Profile Picture
• Change Bio
• Add Links To Other Digital Documents
• If you have a CMS4Schools Website
• Click "My Navigation Builder Home"
• Edit Webpages

Teacher Collaboration day consisted of fifteen minutes of the why informational text should be implemented throughout the content areas.  We also provided teachers with resources and methods for saving resources.

It was also the first time that our administrative staff conducted one minute videos to provide information to staff instead of meeting as a large group.



Presentation Link

If you are a reader of this blog, Evernote on the iPad and on a computer, has become a great "saving tool".  Recently Evernote made an update to their Web Clipper Chrome Extension which falls under "the many uses of Evernote".

In order falls the alerts, reminders, and screens that I received when using the Web Clipper Extension for the first time today.

Mrs. Hoffman approached me last week to gain ideas of how to be in more than one place at a time.  As she  explained content area teachers want to incorporate art concepts with students and really needed her help in discussing how to draw cartoon characters.

Our solution was to use her IPEVO camera as her video device while using Screencast-o-matic to record her actions and voice. She placed her recorded video clip in Windows Movie Maker and added a text graphic. We then posted it to her YouTube channel by uploading it which serves as the vehicle to host and access the video.

Using this process, Mrs. Hoffman can be in multiple classrooms while she is still teaching her own art content.  Hear her reaction and see her production!

Lunch N' Learn will be about updating your staff bio information on our school's website!

Mr. Manning, after taking my three credit graduate class this summer, decided to use Quizlet on the iPad to build relationships in speech class.  As he stated, "Students need to feel comfortable in the presence of others in order to successfully deliver a speech."  Because of this, students provided details about themselves as students in the class documented information about the students.  Quizlet provided a great tool to learn who each person was in the class.

Mr. Manning also states a great observation as to how the iPads, and the iPads alone, engage the students.



Video Link

Mr. Goodness continues to utilize seamless integration with his iPad, the Google Drive app, and a Google Spreadsheet on his computer to document student progress.  View how the organization is allowing him to know the specific accomplishments and areas of work for each student.  In addition, all of this information is at his fingertips for parent viewing during IEP meetings.

Awesome!



Video Link

Mrs. Schmidt is in her second year of implementing Chromebooks on a "as needed basis".  That means, she has Chromebooks present in her classroom whenever she needs them.  More importantly, whenever the students need them.

View how she efficiently guided her students to log in for the first time and set up their web browsing experience.

Seamless!

A colleague in the education world, @helpreaders , is starting his schools version of Lunch N' Learn or Breakfast Bytes.  He wanted to know tips for making it successful.  Since we have conducted these over the school year and started year two, I thought I would outline successful strategies to include while conducting optional tech tool tip sessions.  We have Lunch N' Learn every Tuesday for high school teachers and Breakfast Bytes every other Thursday morning for middle school teachers.

• Play music as teachers enter!  Make it as festive and non intimidating as possible!  Food a few times throughout the year.
• Choose a topic to begin that they already have...Google is a great place to start!  Our topics from last year are located here.
• Create something that you can send to teachers so they can follow up on their own.  Blog posts serve as a great tool for this.
• Promote the crap out of it!  Send Google forms once in a awhile with choices of topics.  Most votes for a topic is the one that is discussed.  Plan ahead for this!
• Personal face to face interaction with teachers inviting them is THE single best way to get people to attend.
• Post, tweet, and brag about teachers who attend!

Of course videos like the one below are a great help as well.  This is our 2013-2014 promotional video for the middle school Breakfast Bytes.

Last year, the civics teachers, Mr. Nickerson and Mrs. McCumber, had the students complete a black and white map labeling the areas of the library.  This year, with the help of Pic Collage on the iPad, creates an authentic picture of the areas in the library with pictures of the students.

Check it out actual video footage and reflection from Mrs. McCumber!

Google Plus is an application that our school district has enabled for staff only.  One teacher stated, I made time for it (Google Plus) because teachers were posting so many great resources and conversation."

Why would you want to use it?

• Professional Learning Network
• Meetings
• Hangouts-Video Conference Calls (Up To Ten People)
• Sharing Your Screen For Tech Help
• Learning From Educators From Around The World
• Study Group With Students (If students have personal Google Accounts)

How Do I Get There?



What Are Circles?



I would like to know more!



Really, I haven't had enough Google Plus!  Please Give Me The Complete Guide!
HERE IT IS!

Chad Kafka & Jennifer Magiera Explanation
Help!  Johnny Circled Me On Google Plus

Creating a promotional video for our Pulaski High School weekly Lunch N' Learn provided me with a great opportunity to use a technology tool that I learned about at the Apple Distinguished Educator Institute in Austin.

Final Cut Pro X provided me with so many eye catching graphics that no other program has provided me.  I decided that I would use the great people of Pulaski High School to promote our Lunch N' Learn.  I recorded as many people as I could saying, "I'm there!" using my iPad 2.  I then used the fantastically efficient Photosync app and Mac client to seamlessly and efficiently transfer the video clips from my iPad to a Mac wirelessly.  I imported the different media clips into Final Cut Pro X and combined them with the amazing graphics that Final Cut Pro X provides.  I decided that the best song for this video would be OK Go's Here It Goes Again! because it's our second year! Through the sharing options that Final Cut Pro X provides, I was able to easily upload it to my YouTube channel.

The entire process of recording, editing, and producing took just under three hours.  I am thankful that I am able to use Final Cut Pro X and look forward to finding more features and uses for this amazing production tool.

The promotional video is being sent out this morning to over 80 high school staff members as tomorrow starts year two of our wildly famous (ok, just famous) Lunch N' Learn.  I truly appreciate the energy and enthusiasm that our staff brings to these volunteer learning sessions.  Our staff also did a fantastic job of demonstrating their unique personalities when stating, "I'm there!"

Awesome!

Our eighth grade communication arts teachers needed a place to house multiple resources that each of them are creating.  As of now, they were emailing the resources to each other which was causing email overload!  The Google Drive will be used as a cloud storage opportunity with the ability to download the documents that are created.  The documents can be any digital documents including SMART notebook files.  The great thing about this process is that digital tools created on a computer/laptop/chromebook or on an iOS device can be shared with all teachers!

Todaysmeet.com has been used in many different classroom content areas at our high school.  Ms. Koch implemented it for the first time in Music Tech class this morning.  She created a chat room for her class which allowed her to ask questions and receive answers from students.  It was a great way to engage students who may not otherwise discuss questions.  Ms. Koch used the initial typing dialogue to fuel verbal classroom discussion.

Here it in her words and reactions from a student:

Several teachers use a blog to update their classroom content.  It is year two for some of them, and they wanted to know how to remove blog posts from last year.  This would enable teachers to use the same blog posts from year to year or modify them as needed.

Process For Removing Posts:

• Blogger Dashboard
• Click Posts
• Click Individual Posts or Box above all posts
• Click Revert To Draft

Process For Updating Posts:

• Edit Posts
• Right Hand Side Post Settings
• Published On
• Change Date
• Click Update

See the video tutorials for how to do this below.

Last year, the U.S. History teachers created a Google Map kmz file to import into Google Earth on the iPad.    In year two of integrating technology, we will do the same process, but students will need to get the file from a teacher's website.

View the process below.
Step 1


Step 2



Want to embed the tutorials into your websites?  Simply get the orginial and embed into your site.
U.S. History Civil War Battles Google Maps & iPads
Google Maps KMZ File To iPad

>Get Link To Calendar (Only Pulaski Community School Employees will have access)
>Paste Into URL (website on Chrome)
>Lower Right Corner Find (Google Calendar Button)
>Click on the Button

Mrs. McCumber decided to incorporate Poll Everywhere to facilitate first day discussions.  Instead of looking for hands to be raised and having only a few people discuss their summers, she decided to have students use their cell phones to start the discussion.  Hear how she believed the technology broke the ice and facilitated classroom discussion.  The responses from students tailored her questions to the students which facilitated even more discussion.

We truly have amazing, innovative teachers at Pulaski High School.  One of those teachers, Mr. Gosse, found a great way to toggle through all of the programs that are open on our Windows 7 machines.  Thank you, Mr. Gosse, for sharing this great technology tip that can make teachers more efficient!



No time to read?  Like written directions?

Alt + Tab = rectangular boxes for all open windows programs

Windows + Tab = scrollable windows

The Windows button is below...


Try It!




Photo Credits