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.

Video Notes a Must Have Google App for the Classroom

Videonot.es is a new versatile Google Drive app that allows you to watch videos and take notes at the same time. It looks like a great way to get student’s thoughts or questions on a video. The notes you take are synced to your Google Drive. In addition, when you go back to your notes, you simply click on a part of your notes and it will take you back to the relevant place in the video. Currently, Videonot.es supports Youtube, Khan Academy, Vimeo, Udasity, EdX, and Coursera videos.

VideoNot.es does appear to be pretty user friendly. After linking VideoNote.es to Google Drive, students can copy and paste a video link into the box on the left side of their screen and click load. Once the video loads, students watch the video on the left side of the screen and take notes on the right side. Since all files sync with Google Drive, students can easily go back and access their notes at a later time. Google Drive also allows students to efficiently share notes with you or other students. Checkout the ThingLink below to learn more about how VideoNot.es works.



So give Videonot.es a try if you are looking for a way to use video in your class. Using Videonot.es your students can take notes while watching the video, share those notes with others, and review their notes at any time. Check it out at www.videonot.es and let us know what you think or if you need any additional support.

Become a Master Google Searcher

Recently on twitter, someone tweeted out this link to free Goolge courses on improving your search skills. I took the advanced search course last year and learned quite a bit.  Basically there are an assortment of videos that you watch and then complete some type of evidence of understanding. If you have time this summer check it out.  I do believe it helped me become a more efficient searcher and saved me time in the long run.  In the meantime, try out my top five search tips that I learned from the course.  These are definite time savers!

1. Use quotes to search for an exact set of words or a phrase.

• "Abraham Lincoln"

Using quotes can narrow down your search results. For example if I were to search for Abraham Lincoln I get 40,000,000 results, however by adding quotes I cut down my search results to 7,480,000. Still a lot but more manageable.

Note: only use quotes if you are looking for an exact phrase, otherwise you could be excluding results.

2. Search within a site or domain.

• site:www.teachinghistory.org or site:edu

We all have our favorite sites to find lesson plans and teaching ideas. You can use the site: operator to efficiently find things on that site. For example, one of my most trusted history sites has always been www.teachinghistory.org. If I want to find all of the teaching materials on www.teachinghistory.org that involve Abraham Lincoln, I would type in “Abraham Lincoln” site:www.teachinghistory.org. Notice I also included quotes around Abraham Lincoln to narrow my search down even more.

You can also search within a specific domain like .org or .edu. For example I might try “Abraham Lincoln” site:edu

3. Search for a specific file type

• filetype:pptx

Search for a specific file type such as .pptx, .pdf, .xls, or .docx. I use this all the time to find power-points that I can modify to fit my needs. For example, if I were looking for power-points on Abraham Lincoln I would type “Abraham Lincoln” filetype:pptx.  I have also found a lot of success looking for readings that are classroom ready by searching for a pdf.  I might type in "Gettysburg Address" filetype:pdf to find a classroom ready reading on the Gettysburg Address.

4. Search within a specific date range

Google allows you to search for web content by a date range.  You can only access this feature after conducting your initial search and clicking on “Search tools” and then “Any time.” From there you can choose the date range you would like to search. This feature helped me identify why Microsoft office products were crashing after we updated the Mac operating system to Maverick. I searched for Mavericks “Powerpoint” and chose “Past year” because I know Maverick was recently released. This helped me narrow down my results and quickly identify a solution.

You can also use this search trick in class with your students. If you are doing a current events assignment, teach them this trick and require them to find a current event articles published within the last year. It is also great to search for primary sources. Google has digital newspapers dating back to the 19th century! You can search through the newspaper archives for classroom material or even better have students search the database for primary sources.  Below is a screencast I created last year for my US History class.

5. Search for content based on reading difficulty: beginner, intermediate, and advanced

Google allows you to filter your search by reading levels. First type in your search query. Then click “Search tools,” “All results,” and “Reading level.” Finally, click the reading level and Google will filter your results. This is great to find differentiated readings on the same topic.

Do you have any go to search filters?  Add them to the comment section below.