PlanbookEdu.com

RH: Matt, Sue, Nancy, Mickie, and probably many others told me about this on line planner and that I should give it a look. I have and I believe it to be a really good program and very easy to use. To be honest I was hesitant at first as the format was not what I was used to. I had been using the CTL layout. After a few days of working with it I have come around. There is a free version but it has some limitations such as not being able to share your plan with others. It has a good print feature as well as the ability to one-click Indiana and Common Core Standards. Not only are you able to share your plan but you can set it up to collaborate with your colleagues. You can also upload files such as handouts and quizzes so you have them at the ready. Another feature that I like is the link feature. For example if you want to schedule a YouTube video you can embed it right on your plan and you are one click away from action.

I posted this to the DMS Tech Place blog but this just may be such an important find that I wanted to post it here as well. Anytime we can find tech tools that help make our jobs go smoother we don't want them to get away. There is a free 14 day premium trial to let you get the feel of it. For me, the premium version is the only way to go. Thanks to my colleagues that talked about cool useful tech tools.

Check it out!

Your Discovery Literacy Leaders

Mostly a Language Arts Sort of Thing

Hey all. This post is probably mostly for language arts teachers but when I saw it I couldn't resist bringing it to some one's attention. I fired off a text to Nancy Nash and ironically she had just seen it about the same time. "noredink" is a web-based platform that allows students to practice grammar skills using content they already are into such as music, movies, and other favorite interests. I know this post could have been on the tech tools or apps blog site but it really does have literacy implications. So, here it landed. Check it out. The 1:31 introduction video is well worth the time so, click, watch, and listen.

http://www.noredink.com/

Your Discovery Literacy Leaders

Paperless Stress Relief

We are going paperless, someday. So, when that day finally arrives be stress free. Are you all stressed out over the dilemma of how are you going to get this document, video, or picture, from your iPad, iPhone, Droid Phone, Mac Book, or PC, to your school or home device? Or are you wondering how to allow students to turn in paperless assignments without overloading your inbox? Well, maybe this will be the cure for your stress. No, it's not a tall iced Mountain Dew (insert drink of choice) but it could be the next best thing when you can't seem to get your devices to be compatible. I came across this article [on Twitter] covering transfer options so I just connected you to the link below. It is rather lengthy but organized in such a way that you may quickly look through to see if something strikes your fancy.
Stress Relief

Or, you could just email it to yourself.

Your Discovery Literacy Leaders

Sheila Knows Stress!

Whew! The turkey is about gone, Black Friday has come and gone, and Notre Dame survived USC. Okay, one holiday and several stressors down and one big holiday and several new stressors to go. Because while you're wondering what size mock turtleneck to buy for Grandpa Joe and whether or not Timmy is too old for another box of Legos (even if it is from the new Lord of the Rings collection!), you also have to worry about your SLOs and CLOs and TERs and BCS and Fantasy Football Leagues. It could all make you crazy enough to want to enter into a cage match against the cast of Expendables 2.

Enter Sheila Toth. The Queen of Calm. The Mother of Mind Control. The Lover of Yoga. The Teacher of Tantric...anyway.

Sheila is ready to put us all at ease, but not just for these next four weeks, but for the next several months as we continue to wade through all of these new requirements.

This Thursday, November 29, in room 206 starting at 8:15, Sheila will be sharing many of her magical ways to control the stress in our lives. Come and see what she has in store. We guarantee you will leave with a refreshing outlook and a peace of mind.

Your Discovery Literacy Leaders

ScreenCast-O-Matic

Hey all,
ScreenCast-O-Matic sounds very corny but in fact is a great little screen casting tool. One way I used it today was to record a rather lengthy (35 minute) screen cast of a geography focussed lesson "Around the World With Google Earth." I was out today for a meeting but wanted my students to move forward without me. I had my sub fire up our social studies web blog and click on the YouTube video of which I had instructed her. I also supplied students with a front and back map of North / South America and Europe.

Below are a couple of TubeChops of the video. Remember TubeChop (TubeChomp) from the staff meeting a while ago? It allows you to chop sections out of a YouTube video focussing on the part you like.

Another idea is that you could make up or use someone else's Power Point presentation and run that behind ScreenCast-O-Matic while you narrate. You can pause it and restart without any tell-tale evidence.

 Opening 58 seconds:
Mt. St. Helens flyover 1:19: 

Tools: ScreenCast-O-Matic (Internet based recorder), Google Earth (maps), Google Chrome (web browser), MacBook Pro (computer), and TubeChop (Internet based) to only show you a little bit so you would not waste any more time.

Your Literacy Team

Thinking On Thursday

Hey all. Even though we didn't have a Thinking Thursday event today I thought I would check out what was going on the sixth grade side of things. Here are a few samples of what I found.

Mr. Reininga doing a Gallery Walk classifying animals.

Mrs. Cobb working on Text Coding (Annotating) political articles.

Mr. Losch with students working up at the board.

And, Mrs. Nash using her iPad tethered to her LCD projector for a presentation.

Way to go sixth grade!

Your Literacy Team

Follow-Up Fridays Update

Hey! Here is the follow up to Friday's post with the "as promised" links to Cam's stuff. I found that the "link"
would actually be files so I decided to post a "how to get to Cam's stuff tutorial" (of course). So, if you will indulge me, I will post pics to guide you through the "how to get" there. If you are already familiar with the process, ignore me.
Just follow the clicks:
Click the start button at lower left
Click Computer

Click Groups

Click Teacher Shared

Click Algebra Activities

Click Activities that Engage etc...

Click Hot Potato Vocabulary

 
Click Hot Potato Directions

There you have it. In a very long nutshell.

Follow-Up Friday

Hey all. Greetings from another fabulous day at Discovery. This is a Follow-Up Friday post where  Cam and Raul delivered some great information regarding vocabulary. We had a number of friends in for today's presentation and guys, "Your check is in the mail." We have a few pics of our participants as well as some artifacts. Coming soon will be a link to connect you to the fabulous handouts provided by Cam. They are on the Teacher Shared link but I will provide the link here in a day or two for your pleasure.

There is a stack of handouts that were shared in this morning's session available in the workroom.
Coming Soon! A link to connect you to the handouts presented this morning.

Your Literacy Team

"As I demonstrate, here"

Intense attention!

Cam "On Fire"

Raoul sharing what he uses

Artifact Handouts

Another fine turnout for your Thinking Thursdays!

Thursday the 18th

Hello Everyone, We collected and reviewed your surveys and reflections and have started to put together an agenda for the next few Thinking Thursdays. To start off with we are going to examine different ways to review vocabulary since that was a concern that popped up often on the reflections. The amazing team of Cam Brundage and Raoul Donati will take us through a couple of the strategies they use to review vocabulary. We will be meeting in Cam's room (Room 202) this Thursday morning (October 18) at 8:15. We'd love to have you drop by if you are available. Thanks, Your Literacy Leaders P.S. Coming Soon: Shelia Toth and a Cornucopia of Ways to Reduce Stress!

Your Literacy Team

Story Book Project

Story Book Project

Wow!!! What a great day! I just got back taking the 8th grade Honors students over to Horizon to share their stories. They did an amazing job with the 2nd graders.

In class, we are studying converse, inverse, conditional and contrapositive statements. We read If You Give A Mouse A Cookie. It is filled with these type of statements. The students crested their own story from a rubric and then we shared the stories with the 2nd graders. It was a HUGE success!

Tangerine Book Mark

This bookmark (text coding) strategy has been brought to our attention. This would be a strategy you would copy, cut, and give to students to use as a guide for text coding difficult text. Maybe you would use it on easier text as a scaffolding activity, as well.
Thanks Erin, for sharing.
Your Literacy Team

Tangerine Book Mark

Google Forms for Documentation

Hey everyone,
James Howard was kind enough to send out a sample of his Google Form that he created to document activities related to Domain 3: Leadership. I saw a few samples such as his on the Edmodo forums and thought a quick tutorial was in order. Also, realize that you may simply copy a form someone else created and change the names to protect the Innocent. There is somewhat of a learning curve in using Google Forms but if you move around in it enough, you will get the hang of it. I have made this tutorial in effort to reduce that curve.

You may just say "Who needs a Google Form when I can just make up a spreadsheet and record my data?" If that is you and you would rather do that, that's fine. By using a Google Form you can complete the form anywhere you have Internet access and from any machine. It transfers automatically to a spread sheet. You can save that spreadsheet to a PDF and upload it directly into the Standard for Success teacher website. Also, another benefit of using Google Forms is that it gives you experience with Google Docs and this is a great tool for student surveys, tests, and any data collection you would like to do. If you use it for a quiz or test, it may be set to grade all multiple choice or one word responses for you. If you have free response questions, you will see student response on the spreadsheet. I could go on and on as the potential is huge.

Anyway, below is the tutorial on how to set yours up. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me, James, Kathy, or anyone who is using it. We would be happy to fill in any missing pieces.

Your Literacy Team

Google Drive

Google Form for Domain 3: Leadership - Tutorial Video

Follow-Up Friday

OK. Follow-Up Friday is here. I posted this Wednesday but now I'm amending it. The turn out was a bit down this morning as there were competing meetings. Thank you to those that could attend and remember, there is no pressure to do so. This time slot and topic is designed with you in mind. Kathy has made an open invitation for any who want more assistance or has any questions concerning Blogger or any other blog tool for that matter. Our next Thinking Thursday will be two weeks from today as we are going to an every other week time slot due to the otherwise insane schedule we are all trying to keep up. I have put together a few short screen casts and have included them below. I built them with ScreenCast-O-Matic and hosted them on MentorMob. There is a how to for MentorMob, as well.


Click on the MentorMob link below to view the video clips. The good news is that each of the tutorial Blogspot videos are under 4 minutes and the MentorMob tutorial is around 9:00.

Your Literacy Leaders

      
         MentorMob

The Blog Round 2

Your opening round jitters have dissipated.

Now it's just you and the machine: mano-a-mano (or woman-a-womano).

You've realized after talking with Kathy that this blog thing isn't as scary as you had feared.

The bell is sounding and round two is ready to begin.

This Thursday in room 108 at 8:15, Kathy will lead you back into the ring for round two of your head-to-head meeting with the blog. She helped you set your blog up last Thursday, and this week she will talk to you about different design possibilities and ways to effectively utilize it to your advantage and the student advantage.

So come join your literacy leaders (and the 16 other people who came to hear Kathy speak) as your Feature Teacher, Kathy Burnette, shows you how to jab, cross and upper cut your way to blogging success.

Your Literacy Leaders

Follow-Up Friday - Blogger (Blogspot.com)

Hey everybody,
We had another great Thinking Thursdays session today (I promise to do something with that name) and had another fantastic turn out. Our featured presenter today was none other than the self-proclaimed "Queen of Blogging" Kathy Burnette (your check is in the mail, just ask James). If you were in attendance, you would understand that claim. We opened up a Blogger account or signed in to one we already had and never really used. Literally within minutes people were blogging. Now of course, you can tweak your blog in many ways to make it personal and do as much or as little with it that you want. Kathy's presentation is here on this post as well as a 40 minute (ugh!) tutorial and, not nearly as fun as being there, screen cast on how to set up a Blogger account and an actual blog. Now, you will never get the 40 minutes back that you view my tutorial but you may be able to have a Blogger up and running and feel a little better about the process. Your choice.

Your Literacy Team

Kathy's Presentation

Picture made with TurboCollage Pro for iPad

Really, I'm sorry this is so long. I must just like listening to myself talk. There are much shorter tutorials on line for Blogger but it will not be as personable. It was fun to make and I used ScreenCast-O-Matic for screen capture using a Mac Book Pro. One tactic could be to run the screen cast on your iPad while setting up your laptop. Just a thought.

24 Hours to Go

Hello Everyone,

We are just a little more than 24 hours away from Kathy Burnette's scintillating presentation on blogs. She'll be leading us in how to set up and start your blog. We have had to have a change of location due to all the Acuity testing. We will meet Thursday morning in room 108. Please bring your laptops so you can practice what Kathy preaches. See you Thursday morning.

Your Literacy Leaders

P.S. For those of you already blogging, don't worry. We have something special for you next Thursday. On October 4th, Kathy will be discussing how to use the blog successfully. She'll share a variety of ways you can turn the blog into a useful tool that gets the kids interested and extends the classroom. Can't wait to see that!

Are You Kidding Me?

Nope.  I wouldn't kid you. 15 people showed up for our first Thinking Thursday activity in James Howard's room.  It was an amazing turnout.  Those individuals got the low down on the Show Me app and some personal attention on ways it can be used in the classroom.  

Now, guess what.  We are having another Thinking Thursday this week (September 27).  The Featured Teacher will be none other than our very own Kathy Burnette!  She will be sharing her infinite insight on how to set up a blog.  This will enable you to communicate with parents and students in a quick, efficient way.  Kathy is experienced and has done this presentation before.  Just listen to what a few former clients had this to say about the learning experience:

"Before Kathy showed me how to blog, I was scared to even look at one.  After 20 minutes with Kathy, I was writing my first post.  She's amazing!"

"I felt like I was stuck in the 80s with all those big hair metal bands. Kathy's blogging expertise brought me into the 21st century." 

"Other than the birth of my children, learning how to blog was the happiest day of my life! Thanks, Kathy!"

So come join us at 8:15 this Thursday in Lab B (upstairs off the IMC).  See what blogging can do for you.

Your Literacy Leaders

Format: iPad, Internet (Computer)
Price: Free
Vender: iTunes, Internet (Blogger)

Follow-Up Friday - ShowMe for iPad

Thank you all who made time to attend our first "Thinking Thursday" Literacy session. A great group showed up in James' room Thursday morning for a little demonstration on ShowMe. Thanks James for hosting and being our first "featured presenter." Your check is in the mail. We are planning more sessions on technology as well as literacy themes and welcome "new presenters" that would be willing to share your "expertise." If you have an idea, request, or want to present, please let a lit leader in on the magic. You could be our next "featured presenter." I know deep down that has been your fondest dream.

I thought it might be in order to put together a little follow-up video clip on how to import images, backgrounds, and pages, in ShowMe. The following video screencast (about 7 minutes) makes an attempt to do just that. If you have any questions or need more explanation or assistance on ShowMe, or any other application, please don't hesitate to check in with me, James, or anyone that is using it. We will be offering "Follow Up Fridays" or "just if you want to talk, Fridays," in room 203 (Lavon's room). The second one just doesn't have much ring to it (actually, it has no name).

Your Literacy Team

ShowMe screencast on how to use images, backgrounds, and pages.

Welcome

Welcome to the Thinking Thursdays and other smart things blog page. I guess the reason for the goofy title is that I will try to include updates on Thinking Thursdays, Follow Up Fridays, and any live action literacy strategies that are going on in our classrooms. If you have some cool things you wish to share, let me know and I will try to include it on a post. We can include pics, videos, and any other reporting method we can think of. Hopefully, you signed up for an email update by placing your email address in the "Follow by Email" box at the upper right of the blog page. That way each time their is a new post you will get an email. No checking the blog for the latest stuff.

Your Literacy Team