As someone who leads professional development workshops and classes, I know first hand how hard it is to coordinate a place and a time that meets everyone’s schedules. I don’t usually like to admit defeat, but it seems to be IMPOSSIBLE these days. Therefore, I am extremely grateful that more and more people are archiving their PD sessions for people to attend on their own time table. (I know this saved me in #ETMOOC this winter.) Of course, the drawback is not being able to interact with other participants or ask questions live, but being able to get some great ideas from other educators and leaders in your content field when the house is finally quiet; the laundry is folded and the pajamas are on: priceless!

Recently, I discovered a page of webinars hosted by Thinkfinity’s Content Partners and ISTE. The topics vary from mobile devices, digital citizenship and how to use tools – to name a few. The page seems to be updated on a regular basis, too. Perhaps, there’s something there that you have been looking for, but not the time to seek it out.

Three years ago, I wrote my first post about Twitter.

If you are looking for a way to keep parents informed in bite-sized portions, Twitter may be a good solution for you as it can integrate nicely into a parent’s handheld lifestyle. Likewise, Twitter can help students make connections in their learning.

Once again, I have been searching out and reading advice about how to use Twitter in the classroom. I’d like to pass along a couple of good resources that you should check out if you are using Twitter already or considering using it with your students:

Silvia Tolisano‘s Twitter HOTS & Establishing a Twitter Routine in the Classroom

This post has a great visual K-8 guide as well as an example of how the Twitter policy has been explained at one school. It also starts to examine Twitter as a tool that can really stretch students’ thinking. I really the etiquette section and emphasis on practicing digital citizenship.

Five-Minute Film Festival: Twitter in Education from Edutopia

Still not sure how tweeting really would fit in your classroom or why a teacher would even want to dive into this universe? The Five-Minute Film Festival has some great videos to check out that will hopefully answer a lot of questions and get you thinking about the possibilities. It’s one stop shopping on the subject.

And of course, since I’m talking about Twitter, I have to mention a great resource that has emerged within it: #Comments4Kids

A while ago, I wrote a post about how #Comments4Kids can impact the writing process for kids. This is a great way to harness the power of Twitter in your classroom. As adverse as it may be to your own upbringing, this is an example of when it is OK to talk to strangers. It’s a great way to model for students the positive experiences that can be take place on the web. We often focus too much on the negative. The result: people are scared, and good opportunities are missed.

That brings me to the recurring theme during my whole #ETMOOC experience: sharing and being connected. Either by letting a parent have a snapshot of  their child’s classroom life or having students learn how to engage with a real world audience and practice some important netiquette: Twitter is one way to start building relationships in our digital world.

You’ve set up a classroom blog. It has an eye-catching theme, and you’ve included tons of pages to help the students and parents know the expectations of the classroom. You even write a post updating the latest happenings. Maybe, you have your students writing posts, too. So how come no one is reading it?

I’d like to share a couple of ideas that I picked up during Sue Waters‘ #ETMOOC Blogging with Students session. Plus, I’ll throw in a few of my own.

• Have a blog launch party. Invite students and parents into the classroom either during or after school for a live demonstration of the blog. Kids love a party, and what better way to build excitement and curiosity about the blog! It is the perfect opportunity to go over how to access the blog and give a tour. Also, expectations for posting and commenting can be explained and clarified. (Thanks to #ETMOOCer, Michelle Cordy, who suggested the party idea during Sue’s session!)
• Make a detailed direction sheet (with screen shots) about how to find the class blog. On this sheet, also explain guidelines and expectations for using the blog at home.
• Make a QR code for your blog address. Typing in a long email address from a flyer can be frustrating. By making a QR code for your blog address, parents/guardians with QR readers on devices such as SmartPhones, iPod Touches and iPads quickly can scan the code and jump right to your blog. This code can go right on the direction sheet as well as on business cards or any paper that is sent home. Why not tape the code to the inside cover of a homework agenda book?
• Add a subscription by email option to your blog. At Edublogs, this is a widget that easily can be added to your blog. What happens is when a person visits your blog, s/he can choose to supply an email address and then will receive a notification when there have been changes made to the blog.
• Sign up for a Twitter account for your class. Let parents/guardians know so that they may follow your class. (Please see a previous post that explains a little more.) Essentially, when there is a new post or update to the class blog,  you would tweet it out. That way caregivers will receive notice in real time on devices. Perhaps, accessing and reading your blog will be a good use of time while in line at the grocery store?
• Use the #comments4kids hashtag if your students are writing posts. What will this do? It sends out a tweet to people who are interested in leaving comments for students. (Read a previous post about how this works. Interested in being added to the #comments4kids list, go here.)
• Choose a month to be family blogging month. During this time, have students invite specific family members to visit the blog and comment. Here is a link that was shared during the #ETMOOC session about how one class took this approach to getting more people involved in their blog.
• Get a buddy class. We comment on yours; you comment on ours. Start a partnership to increase readership. This could be another class in your own school or town, or you could find one via another network such as the Student Blogging Challenge or the Global Classroom Project.

For more ideas and inspiration, check out Activity 6 of the Edublogs Teacher Challenges on Blogging with Students and/or watch the archived #ETMOOC Blogging with Students session.

Tomorrow, I am going to attend a webinar sponsored by BrainPOP:

The App-solute Best Advice with Mike Amante

If you and your students like BrainPOP quizzes, then you just might love this very useful tool for making your own: BrainPOP Mixer.

Watch this video to see how easy it is to make your own BrainPOP style quiz:

What I really like is that you don’t even have to make up the questions. (This is one feature that Google Forms doesn’t have.) With thousands of questions being shared, there is no re-inventing the wheel. Plus, you can use convenient tools for grading the quizzes. More time saved! In the end, your created quiz can be accessed from your own blog or a common web page through this portal. Students just need to use an access code that you can tailor make.

So what are you waiting for? Get your own free Educator account, and link it to your school subscription to start making interactive quizzes today!

(If you couldn’t tell, I’m very excited for us to start using this tool. Let me know how I can help.)

Do you find researching with elementary age students to be a real challenge?

(If yes- keep reading! OK- and if you don’t have time to read, at least watch the demo video at the bottom of this post!)

Just setting students loose on a search engine is not an option. Even though we have a strict filter set at Google, there is so much sifting that has to take place. The more we scroll, the further we get away from our topic usually. Then there is the readability issue. I know we can use the Advanced Search at Google to choose a reading level, but even then I still find the results are not always what we want as well as the format is a bit cumbersome for the elementary level. Things need to be a little more straightforward.

Perhaps, something that came across my radar last week is the answer to our searching woes: instaGrok.

instaGrok is a search engine with a very visual appeal. It allows students to set the complexity of the information searched with a simple toggle bar. The results are easy to navigate from a web or on a sidebar. The key facts are quickly offered up in their own category. Perfect for elementary searchers! The sidebar also offers more websites, videos, pictures and even quizzes- all on the topic. So far all of my random test searches have yielded appropriate, and even great results.

But wait there’s more! A bonus feature of this site is a built-in journal for students to use for their research, gathering all information, links and pictures all in one place. It’s a snap to use, too. No multiple steps necessary!

This free site can be used with or without a log-in. The advantage of getting a log-in is that you can save your journal pages for an extensive research project. The sign up requires no email. (“Yay” again for elementary!) When a teacher signs up for an account, s/he can assign a class code. This class code is used by students when they set up their accounts. It links the teacher to the students, and the teacher now can see student journal pages and keep better tabs on student research.

If you research with students (and have felt the frustrations), then it’s well worth the minute and half to check out this demo of a search engine designed for students- instaGrok:

Anyone using this site already? I’m looking to get a collaboration going in my school!

I wanted to share something that we are piloting at grade 4 in our school: online math logs.

Four nights per week, students are expected to complete a two minute timed math fact practice sheet. These sheets must be returned to school. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, and the school district is looking to keep students (and parents) accountable for learning basic facts.

However, this is a lot of paper, and how will teachers manage these accumulating piles? How will they collect the data from these sheets? And who has the time to analyze all of this?

The proposed solution: using Forms in Google Docs. Here is a sample of an online math log. Feel free to take it!

Below is a partial screen shot of what results would like from this log. It is housed in an online spreadsheet.

Pros:

• Students seem to be a lot more interested in doing the math sheet online versus the traditional paper method. There is something also very powerful and real world about a submit button!
• Parents like that students are using computer skills, and there is no paper being sent back and forth to school.
• Each student submission is time stamped in a spreadsheet for the classroom teacher documenting accountability.
• A simple sort in the spreadsheet allows a teacher to see the number of submissions and answers for any student over the course of the week. A teacher easily can see the progress a student is making with the number of facts completed.
• Also, the data at a glance can identify with which facts a student needs correction, and the teacher can on Day Two of the log week quickly meet with the student to give him/her a post-it of facts that the student should focus on in study.
• More math logs are created simply by making a copy of the Google Docs and then plugging in new math facts.
• The teacher takes the quiz first, typing in “” for the student’s first name and “Key” for the Last Initial fields. This Answer Key makes it easy for comparison to student results as they are filtered.
• A tool called Flubaroo may be used right in the Google Doc to grade the results to give the teacher more information about how the whole class and individuals are doing.
• Data is secure since only collaborators (teachers) have permission to view the results.
• Data can be downloaded to a teacher’s computer as an Excel spreadsheet for archiving purposes.
• Old data can be cleared from the online Google Doc, so it may be reused year to year.
• Google Docs is free.

Cons:

• There is no built-in timer. The student has to use the same timing method that s/he would have used for the paper sheet.
• Students need to remember not to use the Enter/Return key to go from problem to problem.
• All students may not have computer/Internet access at home, and a paper copy may need to go home instead.

More grade 4 classrooms will be using the online method this month. Every week a new online math log will be available for students from a teacher’s web page and/or a central math curriculum web page.

Your feedback is welcome!

Last winter, I wrote about the excitement of mounted projectors in our school (Classrooms with a View).

This month, more projectors were powered up and ready for business in classrooms. What follows is a little sample of how projectors are being used as well as how they could transform learning in the classroom. Get inspired. Please add your own ideas as well!

Ideas for using a Computer Projector

•    Daily Slideshow for Students – Eye-catching slideshow of regular routines and new information that is displayed each day as students are settling into the classroom.

•    Notes – Type notes using an application like Word or Excel for students to view and copy. Easy to store and print out for absent students.

•    Review Books – At the end of each lesson (science or studies) create a page/slide in PowerPoint that summarizes what has been learned. At the end of the unit, this book/slideshow can be made available for students to review.

•    BrainPOP or online videos – watch current, up-to-date, curriculum related videos as a whole class.

•    Maps – View maps from Google or take virtual tours through Google Earth.

•    Graphic Organizers – Use Inspiration or another application to create and fill out Graphic Organizers with your students. Online organizers also are available.

•    Skype – Connect with another classroom or expert in the field to share and exchange ideas on any topic. Find partners at Skype in the Classroom.

•    Graph – Survey your students in the moment and create a graph using Excel or an online tool.

•    Flashcards – Make your own or use an online tool, such as Flashcard Machine, to study as a class.

•    Photo Slideshows – Take pictures of events, experiments or any topic and then as a class watch as iPhoto slideshows. Students can discuss observations, connections and reflections, even record annotations.

•    Jeopardy – Review topics by playing as a class with a game board created in PowerPoint.

•    Your Own Classroom Computer Lab – Sign out the laptops and use your classroom computer and projector to guide students right from their seats through a technology infused project.

Ideas for using an IPEVO P2V USB Camera with a Computer Projector

•    Sharing – You no longer have to pass artifacts around which can become a management and focus nightmare! Students can see when it’s placed under the camera and the projector is on, letting everyone concentrate on the discussion.

•    Read-Aloud – Place a picture book under the camera, and everyone has a great view to enjoy the pictures as well as follow along with text. Don’t forget to flip the text!

•    Textbooks and Maps – Don’t have a digital copy or no time to make one? No worries- put your document under the camera to enhance your directions or lesson.

•    Math Manipulatives – Much easier to see than on an overhead.

•    More Demonstrations – Show students what buttons or apps to push on an iPod. Or maybe you need to show them how to do some intricate origami folds. No matter what the demonstration, the camera and projector make it easy for everyone to see clearly.

•    Microscope-like – Perform science experiments and analyze results right under the camera. No more crowding around a table! Snap pictures with the camera, too.

•    Need more ideas? Go to IPEVO’s website for Tips, Tricks and Ideas.

Many moons ago when I was a second grade teacher, I was involved in a grant that brought three computer projectors to my elementary school. Our focus was the traditional five paragraph essay and how projecting student work and our own mini-lessons was faster, more efficient and eye-catching to students. The tools, resources and technology have evolved so much in a decade; however, one thing has remained the same: having a clear view to learning opens up your world.

In my current district, stimulus funds allowed us to mount a dozen projectors this school year. Unfortunately, we have more than a dozen classrooms and specialist rooms. Therefore, we had to have a selection process. Over the years, I have seen many pieces of equipment collect dust because it was doled out to a targeted grade level or even building. Either support was not available to foster its integration into the teacher’s classroom curriculum, or there simply was no investment. (I recall many computers appearing in my second grade classroom, and no one ever showed me how to use them. That was a turning point for me. I wanted to learn and went down a new path with a Masters program. This is not the case for everyone.) Therefore, the principal and I decided to have teachers apply for projectors. We were looking for individuals who were going to figure out how to give their students that view on a daily basis.

Today, I met with the projector collaborative group. Installation took longer than the district anticipated, but many have had two months to “play”. Today we supported one another by sharing tips and tricks on screen resolution, brightness and signal loss as well as what unique ways the equipment is seamlessly helping students learn curriculum. I took this opportunity to introduce the teachers to Wallwisher as a way for us to share these fabulous integration ideas (and then in turn use this new tool with their students, hopefully). Please check them out here.

I’m hopeful that our enthusiasm will spread amongst teams and that a new application process will be funded and, most importantly, embraced.

On a side note: At the MassCUE 2010 Conference, Suzy Brooks shared this Wallwisher PDF from Passy World with her participants. Suzy’s presentation was a real inspiration on how to be “Technically Invisible”. This is what we aspire to with our new mounted projectors. Thanks, Suzy!