Tech Tuesday Tip

Personalize your Macbook
Does the upper right corner of your Macbook screen still say "Teacher"? If so, it's time to personalize your Macbook. The video below will show you how to set your name, password and Apple ID on your Macbook. This is important if you use the App store, and necessary for software updates.

Tech Tip Tuesday

Changing your password
You're a BHS staff member and you are starting to feel confident about using the Macbook. One morning you open your Groupwise email app and see "YOUR PASSWORD IS ABOUT TO EXPIRE". You try to cntrl+alt+delete on your Mac but there is no "cntrl+alt" on the keyboard. Panic starts to set in. Should you put in a tech ticket? What if it's too late?

No worries! Changing your password is as easy as accessing web-based Groupwise. Open the browser, login, a few clicks and you're done! (NOTE: If you are still using your laptop/PC, it's still best to make your password change from the PC to keep everything in sync).

Curate Youtube Videos by Creating Playlists

I can't tell you how many times in the past, I have used a youtube clip one year and then have been unable to find it the next. Over the last few years I started to create youtube playlists to overcome this problem. Youtube playlists are a great way to organize and keep track of your favorite classroom youtube videos. I tend to organize videos by units of study, however you can organize them in any manner you choose. Every year, I go back to that unit’s playlist and all the videos are organized and ready for classroom use. It also comes in handy when I see a video that could potentially be useful in a unit we are not currently on, I can easily add it to the appropriate unit playlist for later. Checkout my playlist on World War II propaganda cartoons to see a sample. Here are some more sample playlists.

You can create playlist in two simple steps.

1) Click “Add to”

2) Choose from the playlists you already have created or create a new playlist.

This can save you a lot of time searching for that video you saw a month ago but now can’t find.

Playlists also allow you to designate a start and stop time to a video if you don't want to show students the entire video. To change the start and stop time, first go to www.youtube.com and sign into your @bsd220.org account. Then click the sprocket and video manager.

Next click "playlists" and "edit."

Click "More" and "Edit start / end times"

From there you can adjust the start and or end time for the video.

Tech Tip Tuesday

An easy way to navigate the Mac

A favorite feature on the Mac is to setup multiple desktops. This sounds more intimidating than it is and once you discover this feature, it will change your workflow and simplify navigating between open applications. Watch the quick video below for this week's Tech Tip.

 

ICE 2014 - A Tech Guy's Dream

ICE 2014 is in the books and it was an amazing experience! ICE is a lot of tech nerds like myself getting together and sharing practical classroom examples of educational technology integration. I was able to attend a variety of sessions such as Differentiation in a 1:1 Classroom, 1:1 Technology Learn Today Use Tomorrow, Teaching Tough Math Topics with Technology, and Flipping Professional Development. Feel free to checkout any of my notes and shot me an email if you need clarification. Here are some of the highlights from my sessions:

The session on differentiation in a 1:1 classroom was lead by Kristen Olsen and Megan Ryder, instructional coaches from Downers Grove District 58.

• We discussed the concept of “Sandbox Time” to introduce students to new technology tools in the classroom. Instead of taking time to demo a new tool give students 5 minutes to play around with the tool and teach each other. This also gives students the time to "get the giggles out" when playing with a new tool. You might get some resistance at first from students but overtime they have found this to be a productive way to introduce new tools in class. 
• They have found a lot of success in giving students autonomy as a way to differentiate in class. The first example they provided was an iPad Menu or bingo card, where students choose three activities to make bingo. Here is a similar example but for a high school spanish class.
• They are currently working on using Google Forms to create choose your own adventures. By using the Google Form Page Breaks, students are taken to different questions based on their answers to the previous questions.
• TeenTribune was another great site shared during this session. This site allows teachers to differentiate by selecting grade level specific news stories as well as stories in spanish. Students can post comments, with all comments moderated by their teachers before they are published. There are also critical thinking questions and quizzes at the end of many of the articles.
• Learn Zillion and Ten Marks are both free sites that help differentiate math curriculum.
• Finally, they described how they set up a differentiated lesson. At the end of a class, they will have students fill out a google form as an exit ticket. They use that data to place students into groups for the next day. The next day’s instruction is based on whole class, group work, and individual practice. Here is an example for a differentiated math class.

1:1 Technology Learn Today Use Tomorrow was another great session I attended. It was led by Jim Rowley, Michael Lezon, Christa Morgan, and Ginger Shelato from Rochester Illinois. In this session I was introduced to the following tools, which all looked intriguing.

• Online Newspapers is a great site that has newspapers from every country in the world. This site looks great for a social studies, english, or world language course.
• Actively Learn is a site that can help students comprehend difficult readings. Teachers are able to embed questions directly into any book in the public domain, any web article, or PDF. The free version of the site also offers 150 commonly taught books with questions already embedded that teachers are able to modify. Teachers can then track student progress as they work their way through the text. Actively Learn looks like a great way to efficiently administer formative assessments as students work their way through difficult readings.
• Illustrative Mathematics is a useful site for math teachers. This site creates word problems for algebra, functions, geometry, statistics and probability, and number and quantity courses.

One of the last sessions I went to was Teaching Tough Math Topics with Technology by Greg Tang and Tammy Worcester.

• The main theme of Greg and Tammy’s presentation was to get students thinking in patterns to help them learn math. They developed a six step process to help students attack any word problem they come across. 
• They also developed Kakooma to help students think in mathematical patterns. Think of Kakooma as mathematical pushups for students. They recommended that students play kakooma for a little each week. To spice up KaKooma, they have their students compete against each other and enter their scores into a Google Form. The high score at the end of a period wins! Here is one teacher's perspective on using Greg Tang's math games in class.
• Greg and Tammy also use self grading quizzes to efficiently give students formative assessments throughout a unit.
• National Library of Virtual Manipulatives is a site they have used to teach difficult math topics.
• Hooda Math is a search engine for math games. These games can be great anchor activities for a differentiated math classroom.

Hopefully everyone can benefit from my time at ICE and get at least one idea to take back to their classroom. Enjoy!

Student Gmail Accounts

Did you know our students have district supplied gmail accounts? Starting in middle school, students can access their @bsd220.org gmail account. This is a great way for students to communicate with teachers and other students. Staff members also have an @bsd220.org gmail account that gets forwarded to Groupwise. So, if a students emails you, staff do not have to worry about checking email in two different places. Please encourage your students to use their @bsd220.org account for school communications. This account can also be used sign up for web 2.0 tools. The guidance department will also be utilizing the student Gmails for student communication and Naviance sign up. This video demonstrate how students access their school gmail accounts.

ePortfolio: Student Growth / acts like a "virtual kitchen refrigerator"

I had the pleasure of going to many neat workshops, but the one that I found most helpful was regarding ePortfolios.  As an instructor, one of the most difficult parts of teaching 150 students is being able to reach every student.  This is a way of giving students choice, and a way of showcasing their work.  The virtual portfolio of work is done on GoogleSites, and it is open to parents.  Students showcase their best graded work throughout the school year.  This student led/generated website portfolio also shows student growth / understanding over time.