Google Drive (Docs) in the Writing Classroom

Hey all,
Hope you've all had a wonderful break and as you may be thinking about getting back at it you might want to consider some ideas on writing instruction. This post may especially interest language arts teachers but as a social studies teacher I have been drawn to Google Drive (formerly Google Docs). You really don't want to hear from me so I have linked to a Fractus Learning article about the advantages of working in the Google Drive environment vs Microsoft Word or like platforms. The requirement here is access to a computer lab and internet connectivity. Sixth grade social studies has been using Google Drive and its sharing capabilities to write, comment, and turn in essay responses. If this is an interest area for upcoming Thinking Thursdays, that may be arranged.

Have a great one,
Your Discovery Literacy Leaders

Google Drive Article

PLC Post

Hey, all you acronym lovers. You have successfully arrived at the PLC post from this morning's staff meeting.  Please click on the survey link below.

Thank you in advance for participating.

PLC Staff Survey

Thank you,
Your Discovery Literacy Leaders

Tech Resources (You Tube)

Hey all. We are nearly ready to get Thinking Thursdays off to its initial post in the 2013-2014 season. I came across this collection of YouTube resources on an A.A.E. website that may be of interest to you. They are specific channels with focus. Check them out on these links. You may find a new one that just hits the spot for your classroom.

Khan Academy – Belongs at the top of every list, covers nearly every topic at every level, and is informative and entertaining - a ‘must’ for flipped classrooms!

Discovery Channel – Science, nature, and history clips from their mainstream television channel.

Biography Channel – Mini bios and ‘on this day’ for a short intro to a social studies topic.

Smithsonian Channel – Engaging and informing short videos on science and history, as well as videos that take you behind the scenes of Smithsonian institutions.

Library of Congress – A little something for everyone, from long talks about different books to illustrated books and videos about library and information science.

National Geographic Channel - Features clips from their geography, history, and science themed cable channel.

Channel One News - Features clips from their daily TV show offered free to schools across the country.  Clips often focus on current events or broadening students’ awareness of social, political, and world issues.

Periodic Table of Videos - Science videos any chemistry teacher will love.

Schmoop - Hundreds of humorous and informative videos, designed with students in mind and on covering every topic imaginable.

Crash Course - Like Schmoop, this channel covers every topic imaginable in an attempt to explain the complicated in short, easy to understand videos.

Your Discovery Literacy Leaders

Blogger (BlogSpot.com)

Today is a short glimpse of Blogger. There are a ton of blog tools out there including the one provided by PHM. I never got used to that blog and elected to go to a third party host for quite a few years. Last year I made the leap and after much hesitation switched to Blogger (blogspot.com). The primary reason was that it looks good, is free, and is very easy to use, unlike PHM's. Our clients are acustomed to communication on a regular basis so a simple blog is a very good tool. Below is a quick guide to getting started on Blogger.

Setting up Blogger Guide

On another note, Jennifer and I tried out Electric Slide on our parents during open house. A simple free download from iTunes and we were up and running. It worked flawlessly and consequently we looked like pros. Check it out for ios devices.


Electric Slide
Devices: ios (Apple)
Price: Free Version
Vendor: iTunes









Your Discovery Literacy Leaders

Welcome Back to a New Season

Greetings all. In thinking about Edmodo and why I use it in my classroom I came across this short YouTube clip on just the subject. Check it out.

Your Discovery Literacy Leaders

Twitter

No, in the title of this post I am not calling anyone a "twit." After having a few conversations with my colleagues and suggesting they join the Twitter-verse I thought I would post a bit about Twitter and some ways in which I use it.  First off I will say that I don't like FaceBook and Twitter is not even close to that. By the way, I faithfully check my FaceBook page ever few months or so. Twitter is basically a social network, similar to FaceBook, but is limited to 160 characters or less. I can scan through my time line and take as much or as little time as I want. It is easier to view on a smart phone but may be accessed with ease on any computer with Internet access. Maybe easier is not truthful. It is handier because I can check anytime anyplace in just a few moments. In fact, I started my account before I had a smart phone and you can read, post, and do anything on a computer.

So, you say "Why would I or do I need to look at a social network as an educator?" I am not an avid tweeter but love to read them. After two plus years on Twitter I have only 626 tweets (of this writing), follow 86 people, and have 27 disciples. I mean followers :). A real Twitter Hound has 12,250 tweets in that time. But, I digress. Actually, I do like reading things the people I follow have to say but mostly I enjoy reading about the latest and greatest technology innovations connected to education. After scanning the less than 160 characters or less many times the Tweeter will include a link to a picture, article, or other media source tied into the tweet. You can access their link or just move right on to the next one.

A warning to you all that Twitter is an unfiltered outlet and people let all things fly with no real consequences. Professional people follow a decorum appropriate for their station. Remember, your disciples (followers) are reading. And, any tweet may be re tweeted, copied, emailed, favorit-ed, and somehow resent in many ways.

The bottom line for me is that I can follow my friends, mostly my own children's friends, my own children, and any professional people from Major League Baseball players, news outlets, teacher types, and many more. The teacher types have been my largest source for ideas including Edmodo and other technology themes. 

I don't even come close to being the guru of Twitter in fact a few of our own Discovery progessionals are way better versed and use it more but here is a list of some of my follows in education. I am only listing the professionals outside of Discovery Middle School:

@21st Century Tech
@osxdaily
@edmodo
@thestateoftech
@timbuckteeth
@kylepace
@WeAreTeachers
@rmbyrne
@edutopia
@tomwhitby
@NMHS_Principal
@Larryferlazzo
@web20classroom
@ShellTerrell
@FractustLearning
@flippedclass
@DelilaBush
@HistoryandTech
@edtech
@MacTrast
@BreakingNews
@WSJ

I follow a few more but kept this list to education and a couple of news outlets. I typically find out news events from Twitter way before the TV news carries it. Caution! it may not be true. Check it out first.

Code:
@ - At (Everyone's address starts with this)
# - Hashtag (A way to sort topics)
Arrow - Reply to
Two Arrows in a box - Retweet
Star - Favorite
Three bullet points - more ways to share
I won't even get into Twitter Speak. I hate it as it butchers the English language and you all know the English Language is my specialty.

Ok, enough for now. If you have any questions or even read this rant, give my a holler. And, by the way, Twitter is free for the taking.

Your Discovery Literacy Leaders

New Thinking Thursdays Sessions - Announcement

Thinking Thursdays is back in business. The next offerings will be on May 9th and May 23rd. The technology topic will be Google Drive (Docs) per staff survey. We will explore setup-settings, making and organizing folders, sharing, passwords, form creation, and more. If Google Docs is a new to you, don't worry, we will start at the beginning. If you are an expert, don't worry, you are needed.

Kathy Burnette will be our "Featured Presenter" for both sessions.

Hope to see you all there,

Your Discovery Literacy Leaders

Vocabulary Help!!

Hey all,
It has been some time since Thinking Thursdays has been engaged. Today, on Twitter, I came across a list of vocabulary sites to assist students. I am including them here. Sorry about the background white. I have not personally used these sites but they are all "live" and may fit a need. They range through all grade levels.

I did find Vocabgrabber quite interesting as you copy paste a document and it pulls out possible vocabulary terms from that document or paste. You can check them out. Maybe, you could post a comment on any you find useful.

Flashcard Stash- registered teachers create vocab flashcards and can share with their students

Free Rice- each correct answer generates a donation of 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme.

Graph Words- online visual thesaurus

Knoword- helps boost vocabulary and spelling

Learning Chocolate- vocabulary learning platform includes a huge array of interactive lessons

Learning Vocabulary Fun-vocabulary games, English vocabulary word games, including Slang Game, Hang Mouse and Letter Games

MyVocabulary.com- root word lesson plans, puzzles, word lists and SAT/ACT test prep

PBS Kids Vocabulary Games- from Radio Martha to the Great Word Quest, a nice listing here

Professor Word- add the bookmarklet to Chrome, Firefox, IE or Safari and when reading a webpage; SAT and ACT words will be identified; can also give the definition to any words on the page which are not understood

Spelling City- teachers can save vocab lists, learning activities and games

VocabAhead- SAT and ACT vocabulary building

VocabGrabber- "VocabGrabber analyzes any text you're interested in, generating lists of the most useful vocabulary words and showing you how those words are used in context."

VocabSushi- " VocabSushi provides thousands of sentences that demonstrate any vocab word's contemporary usage in news articles."

Vocabulary Worksheets- from the Lesson Corner

Vocabulary Worksheets and Printables- filter by grade level


Wordia- includes videos of students and teachers explaining the meanings of certain words, many games


These are courtesy of 
http://mediaspecialistsguide.blogspot.com/2013/04/18-fun-resources-to-help-kids-with.html?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+AMediaSpecialistsGuideToTheInternet+(A+Media+Specialist's+Guide+to+the+Internet)


Your Discovery Literacy Leaders

Socratic Seminar

Warning! Read the following only if you are interested in our Social Studies 6 Socratic Seminar experience.

We just completed a unit on "Players" of the Renaissance. Students chose from four categories of Renaissance personalities (players) and then, by blind draw, selected a player to research. We used a fixed computer lab one day and Jennifer and I split the mobile lab combined with BYOD (bring your own device) the second day to complete research. Next, we had students grouped according to their "category" to expand their notes to include the other players in the category. The next step had students jigsaw grouped so that each represented one of the four categories. The last step was for students to leave their jigsaw groups and complete, solo, the three questions that would be their final preparation for the Socratic Seminar.
The three questions were:
     What category impacted the Renaissance most and why?
     What player made the biggest impact and why?
     What player was the most interesting and why?

All three opinion open ended questions were the basis for our Socratic Seminar discussion as a finale. We used this process to assess students as well. The basic level of our assessment included the initial research on student's Renaissance player. Students that completed basic research earned a basic C. The actual discussion (Socratic Seminar) took place over 1 1/2 class periods in which we used three rotations. One third of students were in the actual discussion and two thirds seated around the outside. Students seated around the outside each had an "observation" sheet of which they had to complete by observing an assigned student from the inside one third. A key to success is to include students that are not directly involved in the discussion. The observation sheets accomplished this very well. Next time we may consider a better accountability tool for the observers as it kept them very involved but students overall did a poor job of noting what they heard. We did not use the outside observation for grades. Students could  earn a B-A+ range grade for their conversation in the seminar about the players of the Renaissance.

This was our first attempt at a major Socratic event. After much discussion and idea sharing with colleagues we built handouts to guide students along the way. This unit took 7 days including the final two days for the actual discussion and exit card reflection.

Socratic Seminar is a CTL technique and you can see a couple video clips from Lavon's class.

Lavon's Socratic Seminar clips

Your Discovery Literacy Leaders

Folow-Up Fridays

Hey guys. Thursday morning Matt, Nancy, and Cam were our featured presenters and they showed us how to begin using PlanbookEdu. This electronic plan book is a dandy especially if you like to use technology and particularly if you like simple. Matt did a more full blown presentation but I screen casted a short tutorial (10:45) on some basics of the web-based program. Matt did a fantastic job but for those of you who may have wanted to attend but couldn't, here is the upshot.

Also, when I uploaded this clip to YouTube I noticed a few other video tutorials. I will link them here below in case one is specific to your needs or you just don't want to listen to me.

How to create a plan book:
Setting up templates:
Planbook Explainer:
PlanbookEdu Commercial:
You Should Get This:
Standards:
Introduction:
Bump Forward:

Well, maybe I overdid it again. Or, don't watch any of them and just try it out for yourself. You won't regret it.

Oh, and, presenter's checks are in the mail.

Your Discovery Literacy Team

Thinking Thursday

Hey all. I'm live blogging from Matt's room. Matt and his trusty assistants are showing set up and the fabulous uses for PlanbookEdu. It is a web based electronic plan book. There is a free version and fee-based version but the fee-based version is so worth the money ($25 per yr.). The fee version allows you to share, attach files, and many other little perks such as spell check. You may attach files, links, and even YouTube videos, that are live and click able. Standards are available and visible for your subject area (more than likely) and Common Core and track your use of them.

Another cool feature of PlanbookEdu is that you can set up as many classes as you wish. If you teach more than one section, you can set a plan for each and even additional plans if you like to add notes to each day. You can share or collaborate with anyone (fee-based only).

At the very least, check out the free 14 day trial version.

Have a great one,
Your Discovery Literacy Leaders

BYOD - Oh My!

-BYOD-
Are you familiar with this acronym? If you have wondered how to get two classes 1:1 Internet connection with only one lab (ML or fixed), this is your answer. Bring Your Own Device is where students bring their iPod, iPhone, iPad, iPad mini, Nook Color, Kindle, and the list keeps growing, to class and log into their school accounts to reach Internet service on PHM wireless connectivity (what a mouthful!). Now, to give credit where credit is due, many Discovery teachers have been employing this method to get around limited machines and the method has been around for a long time. It just takes a little getting used to to actually put it in practice.

Door Announcement

Today, social studies 6 went into full solution mode to figure out how to allow 64 students 1:1 access with only one mobile lab as we continued our research of Renaissance "players." This was pulled off without a hitch and with the addition of student's personal devices to our Mobile Lab (ML) we were able to connect in a 1:1 environment. Because each student had a different player to research we were prepared to pair students between our two classrooms but with the many personal devices available this was not necessary.

Students using the ML

We did not suddenly arrive at this level of device use without some preparation over the last few months. Students have done very well with the responsibility device use requires. Any discipline necessary resembles that of regular lab use and less than responsible users are met with probation of further use or even higher tech. misuse consequences.

Personal Device Use

The wireless network has operated very well as long as reading and researching is taking place. When you start saving and loading Internet items, which test taking requires, the network slows down considerably.

Personal Device Use

We start them very young in sixth grade




Your Discovery Literacy Team

"Give Me Five"

This post may not really fit with Thinking Thursdays but I hope it fits with  "Other Smart Things."

Have you wondered what technologies people are actually using and why? Well, maybe you haven't but I have. So, I thought I would talk about the five I am using at this time and a bit of why I am using them. Here goes:

Number One: Edmodo - This Learning Management System is one I use daily. I post daily blogs which are as simple as a short recap of the day's activities up to detailed instructions which may include a document, video clip, link to an Internet site, and or assessment tips. I am sure to post every day as my required homework is to check my daily blog. Students are given a group (class) code and their parents may join as well. Parents and students may check a notifications box in account settings that will send notes to their email inbox. I am still not sure what parents get in their email notifications. They may not get "notes." I will have to research this.

Format: Web Based, iPad

Price: Free

Vendor: Edmodo.com

Number two: PlanbookEdu - I use this web-based teacher plan book every day to lay out lessons and units. There are a ton of ways this can be used. You can plan very simply or as meticulous as you might want. I lean on the meticulus as I place video resources, assessment pages, standards, and resource links right on the daily planning space. Since it is web based, the links are live. There is a free version but the fee based ($25 - yr) version allows you to share your lesson plans with others. Jennifer and I create common assessments and common lesson plans so we share our entire lesson plans on PlanbookEdu. That cuts our planning nearly in half. There is an option to print and although maybe not ideal we have used print outs for sub plans. 

Format: Web Based
Price: Free and $25 yr
Vendor:  PlanbookEdu

Number Three: TeacherKit - I use this app every day. This is a classroom managment app for iPad and I have my seating chart on it. I can take student pics and insert them into the chart. One huge advantage for using this app as opposed to the seating chart feature on my desktop is that I can carry this around the room, if I choose. It is also avaiable for my iPhone but I have not taken advantage of that as it would be rather small for my old eyes. There are other features such as attendance, behavior charting, and general student notetaking that I really have not used yet. 

Format: iPad, iPhone, iPod
Price: Free
Vendor: iTunes

Number Four: Blogger - This web based application is the solution to my classroom blog (web page). For the last five years or so I have kept a third party web page. It did what I wanted but it was a huge hassle uploading content and blogs. Blogger is a dream come true for ease of use. Jennifer and I share a page and just call it DMS Social Studies 6. We share the page but in reality we copy/paste our Edmodo blog to this site. We also upload content such as videos and other resources we want to hang onto. I am not sure how necessary this is now that Edmodo is working so well and parents may sign up to receive Edmodo email updates through Edmodo groups. This is way easier than the PHM blog site (my opinion).

Format: Web based, iPad

Price: Free

Vendor: blogger.com

Number Five: Google Drive - Drive (formerly Docs) is an automatic for Discovery because most everything we do is compatable with Google Drive. I don't use this every day because I have not been able to kick some of my other word processing programs. You can simulate most Office Suite tools with this and tool I have use most is Google Forms. This web based program allows you to share anything you make easily and is possibly the easiest tool for going paperless with your students. I have used this to take polls, collect assessment data, and Internet hosting of documents. 

Format: Web based

Price: Free

Vendor: Google Drive

Sorry this got a bit long but these are the ones I am using most every day. With technology it seems that we use what ever is the latest so I imagine this list will change in time.

OK. Tag! Now its your turn. Using the comments box tell me what your top five are.

Your Discovery Literacy Leaders 

Follow-Up Friday (posted on Thursday)

Finally, we have come to another "Follow-Up Friday." Yesterday  Jennifer and Scott led a Thinking Thursday session over the Learning Management System (LMS) Edmodo.

Edmodo utilizes a design similar to Facebook, and provides teachers and students a secure place to connect, collaborate and share content. Teachers are also able to post assignments and quizzes to students. Quizzes are auto graded and you have the option to allow students to see their grade or not. Students can submit homework and view their grades and any comments the teacher may have posted about their assignment. Technically, you could go completely paperless as students can download documents, complete them, and then upload them back to you. Teachers can also create polls and post topics for discussion among the students. Teachers can differentiate and individualize learning through the creation of sub-groups within a course. After each course period is completed; the teacher closes out the network and creates a new one for the next course. Edmodo also has iOS and Android apps available through the Apple App Store and Google Play (respectively). These were made and published by Edmodo developers.

Update: Parents may go into their Account Settings and click the dial to determine which, if any, posts they wish to get an email notification. They would have to have joined the parent group associated with their child in order to activate that feature.

A major drawback to this program is our inability to have reliable Internet access at student homes. Between our two groups of six graders there are about 8 students that have to make use of print outs or other creative ways to get content. 

Edmodo session handout

If you are wanting to start your free account and take it for a drive, please use the following link as that will automatically put you in Discovery's network for Edmodo.

http://discoverymiddlein.edmodo.com/

Pics from Thinking Thursday

Pics by Tim B.

Come and join us in two weeks when we do it all again.

Your Discovery Literacy Leaders

No Time For Videos!

So, don't have time for videos? OK. Here are a few screen captures from the 4:00 video on DOKs from NY DOE. The background theme for this video example is the document Gettysburg Address. They have composed a DOK 1 and then developed it into what a 2, 3, and 4, might look like. I also included the captures of simple type examples for each category.

         Question Types

Sample Questions (Social Studies)

You may agree or disagree with these question samples but they do offer something else to think about on our journey toward understanding the concept.

Your Discovery Literacy Leaders

DOK - Oh My!

Hey guys. I hope DOK is not becoming a nasty acronym to us but I found a short video to attempt to shed some additional light on the subject. For sure, this is a complete novice subject for me and I'm no Mike Rush but this clip made some sense. We didn't have time to share it out in today's staff meeting so I thought I would post it here today. This is courtesy of NY DOE.

DOK Video Clip (If it does not come up try a couple of times.)
http://vimeo.com/42788913

I also had a short discussion with my content group about DBQ (Document Based Questions). They are the Internet version of our PLT (Performance Literacy Task). Don't you just love all the letters? Most of them include scaffold ed questions prior to the "big" task. That seems to be following the pattern of including DOK 1, 2, 3, and some 4s in the same task. I have linked some sites here that include DBQs. If you have interest, check them out here.

http://www.dbqproject.com/
http://www.edteck.com/dbq/
http://www.peterpappas.com/journals/dbq/index.htm

On this archives site some of the links are dead. Choose your topic and see if it is up.
http://blogs.mtlakes.org/curriculum/2010/07/23/dbq-archives/


Your Discovery Literacy Leaders