I hope you enjoy! (Sorry it's so late)
Friday, August 4, 2017
Digital Story with a Cell Phone
All pictures and video clips were created/found with my cell phone, but everything was spliced together with Adobe Spark.
I hope you enjoy! (Sorry it's so late)
I hope you enjoy! (Sorry it's so late)
Francis--you.com
I created a website that could be used as my online portfolio and shares a little about me as a teacher and a technology student. You can view that here.
I decided to use wix.com to create my website because I've heard a lot about it and I wanted something that would give me some pre-planned templates. The actual layout of the site was fairly easy, but I found it difficult to decide what all I wanted to add to it. In all fairness, I have been creating blogs, tumblr sites, and other pages that have documented my journey through the technology-in-education-land, so I decided that I would create a page that brought all of that together, plus told a little bit about me as a teacher, and showed a real-life example of how I use technology in my high school English classroom.
The process was easy (well, kind of), but very time-consuming. I hope you enjoy it!
I decided to use wix.com to create my website because I've heard a lot about it and I wanted something that would give me some pre-planned templates. The actual layout of the site was fairly easy, but I found it difficult to decide what all I wanted to add to it. In all fairness, I have been creating blogs, tumblr sites, and other pages that have documented my journey through the technology-in-education-land, so I decided that I would create a page that brought all of that together, plus told a little bit about me as a teacher, and showed a real-life example of how I use technology in my high school English classroom.
The process was easy (well, kind of), but very time-consuming. I hope you enjoy it!
Sunday, July 30, 2017
Broadcasting Myself
I'm a teacher, so you would think that broadcasting myself live would be no big deal. I found out, though, that with live broadcasting, you're staring at yourself as you give a talk to invisible people who may or may not be judging everything you're saying.
I decided that since this was my first live broadcast, I was going to keep it pretty casual and talk about something low-stress. I discussed different ways that teachers can make sure that they go back to the grind refreshed and ready to deal with the hours of work that none of us ever account for. I, for one, know that there are always so many activities and piles of paperwork that I never am prepared for at the beginning and throughout the school year. Making sure that we are as prepared for that as we can be is really important, I think, to our mental and spiritual health.
The first thing I had to do was make sure that my microphone and my camera on my computer were working. I used uStream, and they had an automatic check of all the features that live broadcasting used. It was really nice that this was an automatic feature. While filming, there wasn't anything out of the ordinary. I could see my two (yes, two!) people who were viewing my video. I don't know who they were and if there was a place for them to comment, I didn't see it, nor did they seem to comment. I was really okay with that.
I decided that since this was my first live broadcast, I was going to keep it pretty casual and talk about something low-stress. I discussed different ways that teachers can make sure that they go back to the grind refreshed and ready to deal with the hours of work that none of us ever account for. I, for one, know that there are always so many activities and piles of paperwork that I never am prepared for at the beginning and throughout the school year. Making sure that we are as prepared for that as we can be is really important, I think, to our mental and spiritual health.
The first thing I had to do was make sure that my microphone and my camera on my computer were working. I used uStream, and they had an automatic check of all the features that live broadcasting used. It was really nice that this was an automatic feature. While filming, there wasn't anything out of the ordinary. I could see my two (yes, two!) people who were viewing my video. I don't know who they were and if there was a place for them to comment, I didn't see it, nor did they seem to comment. I was really okay with that.
It was also really nice that the website made it easy for me to share the link to my live broadcast. Honestly, I put it on facebook because I have more followers there, but I did not tweet it because that is mostly students who follow me on Twitter (other than the random other people who followed me back after I branched out on Twitter for a previous assignment).
One issue that I had was the "broadcast" and "record" buttons on the uStream. While practicing, I hit both so that I would have the broadcast recorded (obviously). It worked well. When I wanted to finish the whole thing, I first stopped the recording and then stopped the broadcast. When I tried it a second time, I reversed the process, and that did not work well. It resulted in lots of spinning and waiting and the whole time I was still "recording."
Next time, I knew that I had to stop the recording before the broadcast. It made things run a lot smoother.
The whole process was pretty daunting and scary and I felt like I had to be as great as those teachers who constantly post videos of great ideas and beautiful resources to their Instagram stories. In reality, it was just me--very rough, very real, with lots of "ums" and stutters because I didn't script anything out (which I probably should have done). This was probably one of the hardest assignments I have done and I really think the majority of it being hard was that I could watch myself the entire time and not see me audience.
I'm not sure how or if I would use this in my classroom in the future. I've tried to think of ways I could use it in a secondary English setting, and I just don't see one, unless my students were watching a live broadcast of someone who could help with an assignment or idea that we were working with in class. I don't think I would have my students actually broadcast themselves because of legality concerns and the amount of parent permissions we would have to deal with. Plus, I'm not sure how that would benefit their learning in the long run.
Friday, July 28, 2017
Attending a Live Webinar
I've attended live Webinars before for other classes and for professional development, and I'm always amazed at how different they can be depending on the platform that is used.
I attended a Webinar given through EdWeek that focused on teaching students writing. The first thing that the lead presenter did was to give a few moments for everyone to check their audio and visual feeds. She posted in the comments section (because there was a comments section) that everyone should be able to hear her talking because she was live with audio. I had to click on the "allow flashplayer" icon that showed up on my screen to see the PowerPoint that she was running during the Webinar itself. What was the most interesting is that there was a list of resources, even a troubleshooting resource, available for attendees along the side of the webinar.
I attended a Webinar given through EdWeek that focused on teaching students writing. The first thing that the lead presenter did was to give a few moments for everyone to check their audio and visual feeds. She posted in the comments section (because there was a comments section) that everyone should be able to hear her talking because she was live with audio. I had to click on the "allow flashplayer" icon that showed up on my screen to see the PowerPoint that she was running during the Webinar itself. What was the most interesting is that there was a list of resources, even a troubleshooting resource, available for attendees along the side of the webinar.
There was also a transcript available for reference if anyone needed it later or for audio-impaired attendees. I also really appreciated that there was a space for us to post questions and one of the commentators would reply. Their response was in bold, so we could tell the difference between those who were running the show and those who were attending. Others could also respond to questions posed, but not many people did.
The Webinar that I attended was also very interactive. The moderators posted polls and questions that we could click on the answers and a few moments later, they gave us the data that they collected. I thought that was really interesting! There was also one head moderator who was joined by other teachers/administrators and educational specialists from around the country, but I believe only one person had control of what was on the screen. It was nice to hear input from more than one person on the given topic.
One thing that I wish could have happened was that more than a PowerPoint was shown. At times, the moderators were just reading from the slide, and that wasn't helpful at all. I've seen Webinars created that basically screen cast and we can watch someone on their computer as they use it. The one that I watched was an hour long, and it was basically like sitting through a lecture, but without anyone else around, and after a while, I got a little bored. Most of what I was watching was just text, and when describing how to keep education engaging for students, I think it's important to also keep that information engaging for the teachers!
I think Webinars would be useful in classrooms to get ideas and lessons from people outside of our school building. I think students could also create Webinars to give their ideas/presentations/even lessons to other students within our community and outside of it. Webinars could really help develop the "guide on the side" type of classroom, although I think it really just transfers the direct instruction from the classroom teacher to whoever is presenting the Webinar.
Sunday, July 23, 2017
Integrating Social Networking
I have a weekly current event assignment that my students must complete. They must read one national news article and one international news article. Then, they fill out a worksheet that requires them to analyze and summarize the content. This is all due every Friday. They usually whine about it because they forget, they lose the worksheet, or they don't know where to look or how to search through everything.
I figured I could fit Twitter into this. I'm actually semi-copying what we have been doing in this class (and what I have done for other classes). I would still have students fill out the worksheet, but I would make it a digital version on their Google Classroom. THEN (and this is the new/exciting part), students would need to find that online article and tweet it. They could use an existing Twitter handle, or they could create a completely new one just for the class (I have two Twitter handles, and it's incredibly easy to switch between the two). They would have to retweet with a question attached to it for their classmates to respond to. They would also need to attach a specified hashtag, like #cefrancis so that I could quickly find and check that they tweeted. Students would also be responsible for responding to the question attached to someone else's article-Tweet with the hastag #ceresponse, so I could keep track of responses too. The Twitter idea would allow students to interact with content on a platform that they understand and is easily accessible, plus they would be reading more than just two articles every week. It seems like a win-win to me!
I might make the current events themselves due every other week and students respond to 2-4 classmates on the off-weeks, so it doesn't get out of hand for them and for me.
Here is the link for the current event worksheet that I use.
Here is an example tweet: (I know it's an infographic and not an article, but it is still worthwhile)
I figured I could fit Twitter into this. I'm actually semi-copying what we have been doing in this class (and what I have done for other classes). I would still have students fill out the worksheet, but I would make it a digital version on their Google Classroom. THEN (and this is the new/exciting part), students would need to find that online article and tweet it. They could use an existing Twitter handle, or they could create a completely new one just for the class (I have two Twitter handles, and it's incredibly easy to switch between the two). They would have to retweet with a question attached to it for their classmates to respond to. They would also need to attach a specified hashtag, like #cefrancis so that I could quickly find and check that they tweeted. Students would also be responsible for responding to the question attached to someone else's article-Tweet with the hastag #ceresponse, so I could keep track of responses too. The Twitter idea would allow students to interact with content on a platform that they understand and is easily accessible, plus they would be reading more than just two articles every week. It seems like a win-win to me!
I might make the current events themselves due every other week and students respond to 2-4 classmates on the off-weeks, so it doesn't get out of hand for them and for me.
Here is the link for the current event worksheet that I use.
Here is an example tweet: (I know it's an infographic and not an article, but it is still worthwhile)
Goals: TSW read and respond to multiple non-fiction articles dealing with current events.
TSW use technology to access information
TSW identify relevant and factual information.
I'm going to think a little bit more about the logistics of this and how realistic it is that I could keep up with the grading, but I would really like to do this.
Twitterthon Review
I actually found this assignment quite daunting and difficult. Finding 50 people per day to follow was incredibly difficult, especially when trying to find legitimate educational resources. But what I found most daunting was the idea to keep up with this information. In fact, it was information overload.
I had many people whom I followed, follow me back, and I also had random others that seemed to have no connection at all to my theme follow me. Many marketing people and "brand managers," whose purpose I know not decided that I was the kind of person that would give them great information via Twitter. I assure you, I retweet information that I find interesting and relevant, but my original content comes very few and far between.
The immense amount of information that is available via twitter now is overwhelming. Following so many people, I feel that I'm probably missing some, but then again, not following them meant that I was definitely missing that information. For instance, the U.S. News Education twitter feed posted a link to study that says "reading literature is a natural way to broaden vocabulary and improve SAT results." Now, I thought this was common sense. I teach context clues in depth to my high schoolers, but when I got to think about it, I believe that people still think we learn our vocabulary the way you learned how to spell--by memorizing words. When I retweeted this, I thought of my students, and hopefully some of them saw that quote because learning new vocabulary is only one of the many bonuses of reading.
Many times, I watched interactions between educators or educational strategists on a given topic. It usually revolved around the current political climate--school vouchers, school choice, weapons/security in schools. Many kept their dialogue civil, but some became so frustrated that it became a middle school-esque battle of the minds. When watching these, I thought it would be interesting to join the conversation, but I was afraid that I didn't know enough on the subject or that I would be attacked like I was watching happen. Mostly, it was fear of not knowing enough. All of the sudden, I was the kid in the classroom who didn't want to raise her hand for fear of looking stupid to the rest of her classmates.
From this, I'm really hoping to just learn from other people who are smarter than I am. Hopefully seeing posts and linked articles will enable me to learn more about the best practices of my profession and make me a better educator all around.
I had many people whom I followed, follow me back, and I also had random others that seemed to have no connection at all to my theme follow me. Many marketing people and "brand managers," whose purpose I know not decided that I was the kind of person that would give them great information via Twitter. I assure you, I retweet information that I find interesting and relevant, but my original content comes very few and far between.
The immense amount of information that is available via twitter now is overwhelming. Following so many people, I feel that I'm probably missing some, but then again, not following them meant that I was definitely missing that information. For instance, the U.S. News Education twitter feed posted a link to study that says "reading literature is a natural way to broaden vocabulary and improve SAT results." Now, I thought this was common sense. I teach context clues in depth to my high schoolers, but when I got to think about it, I believe that people still think we learn our vocabulary the way you learned how to spell--by memorizing words. When I retweeted this, I thought of my students, and hopefully some of them saw that quote because learning new vocabulary is only one of the many bonuses of reading.
Many times, I watched interactions between educators or educational strategists on a given topic. It usually revolved around the current political climate--school vouchers, school choice, weapons/security in schools. Many kept their dialogue civil, but some became so frustrated that it became a middle school-esque battle of the minds. When watching these, I thought it would be interesting to join the conversation, but I was afraid that I didn't know enough on the subject or that I would be attacked like I was watching happen. Mostly, it was fear of not knowing enough. All of the sudden, I was the kid in the classroom who didn't want to raise her hand for fear of looking stupid to the rest of her classmates.
From this, I'm really hoping to just learn from other people who are smarter than I am. Hopefully seeing posts and linked articles will enable me to learn more about the best practices of my profession and make me a better educator all around.
Review of Mini Photo 365
Here is the link to see the photos that I chose this week.
When I first read this assignment, I thought "wow, I'm going to have to remember to take photos every day this week!" I've also seen friends post 365 photo projects on Instagram and Facebook, but sometimes they comment about how they almost forgot. When it came time to post a picture, sometimes I did forget to take a photo for this project, but I found that I had taken photos that day. We can probably blame this on the fact that it is summertime and I am documenting my fun activities that I'm doing with friends, which is where I got my theme.
My goal with this Mini photo 365 was to show the highlight of my day, whether that was dinner and badminton with friends, a beautiful sunset, or trying to fix my car. Note, the highlight of my day does not necessarily mean the best part of my day. It's really just the most memorable part, and even a few days later, it is fun to look back and see what my days were like this week.
Getting my photos wasn't too difficult, but that's only because I knew the process from a previous course. I have an iPhone, but I have the Google Drive app on my phone. I saved the photos I took to my Google Drive via my phone. I then got on my computer, and downloaded the photos from Google Drive to my desktop, and uploaded them from my desktop to Blogger. While it is a multi-step process, the steps are quick and pretty intuitive, especially when you have practice.
I really enjoyed this, and would really like to utilize it somehow in the future. Maybe I could use it with my students and ask them to capture photos that revolve around a theme! I'll keep thinking.
When I first read this assignment, I thought "wow, I'm going to have to remember to take photos every day this week!" I've also seen friends post 365 photo projects on Instagram and Facebook, but sometimes they comment about how they almost forgot. When it came time to post a picture, sometimes I did forget to take a photo for this project, but I found that I had taken photos that day. We can probably blame this on the fact that it is summertime and I am documenting my fun activities that I'm doing with friends, which is where I got my theme.
My goal with this Mini photo 365 was to show the highlight of my day, whether that was dinner and badminton with friends, a beautiful sunset, or trying to fix my car. Note, the highlight of my day does not necessarily mean the best part of my day. It's really just the most memorable part, and even a few days later, it is fun to look back and see what my days were like this week.
Getting my photos wasn't too difficult, but that's only because I knew the process from a previous course. I have an iPhone, but I have the Google Drive app on my phone. I saved the photos I took to my Google Drive via my phone. I then got on my computer, and downloaded the photos from Google Drive to my desktop, and uploaded them from my desktop to Blogger. While it is a multi-step process, the steps are quick and pretty intuitive, especially when you have practice.
I really enjoyed this, and would really like to utilize it somehow in the future. Maybe I could use it with my students and ask them to capture photos that revolve around a theme! I'll keep thinking.
Friday, July 21, 2017
Thursday, July 20, 2017
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
Mini 365 Project!
Monday:
Because this was my day...
Tuesday:
We played badminton against the boys and WON!
Wednesday:
Virginia sunsets are some of the most beautiful I've ever seen. This photo doesn't do it justice.
Francis_u04a1
It's pretty difficult to get permission in my school to allow students to use brand new technology, especially when it comes to my principal, but one of my coworkers got it approved.
A fellow English teacher this year started a Genius Hour project with his eighth-grade students a couple years ago. When this began, he took one of our four computer labs all day every Friday. To put it mildly, not many people were happy with him, especially some "old-school" teachers who weren't happy he wasn't using that time for curriculum. Many were unhappy that he was taking lab time that could have been spread throughout the school. He described to me at first that people weren't so bad about it until about halfway through the year when the "every Friday Humenik has this computer lab" started to get old. He also said that one of the top things you don't want to do as a teacher is to make all the other teachers mad.
So, he decided to do his Genius Hour project differently this year. He first went to our principal, who, as he described it, was hesitant toward the idea of allowing students to bring in their own devices to use on our network. I believe she also didn't quite understand what that meant, so she brought in our Instructional Tech Resource Teacher, who explained to her what this would entail. She gave the okay, and over the course of a week, Mr. Humenik had his students bring in whatever mobile device they wanted to use for their Google project--either a tablet, laptop, or smartphone--and had them added to our network so they would be able to use them for their Genius Hour projects.
Now, to get to what Mr. Humenik expected of his students: the Genius Hour project (or 20% project) is, from what he described to me, a project that has gained some notoriety because of Google's own 20% initiative for its employees. The teacher allows students to spend 20% of their class time, whether that's a little time every day or one day out of the week, on a project of their choosing. Mr. Humenik's project allowed students to focus on research, a creation, or a service project of some sort. They had to be okayed by him before they could continue. As we work on a semester schedule, students only had about 14 Fridays to work on their project, and then they presented their completed research, creation, or an overview of their service project to the class.
As Mr. Humenik described, most of the students decided to do research because that seemed easier for them. A few students who were more involved in the community decided to do service projects--and one student actually created an outdoor seating/garden area for our local library (which I think is pretty awesome!). Mr. Humenik also stated that students who brought in iPads or laptops seemed to have a better time than those who brought in smartphones, although some documented their progress outside of class through video and pictures using their cell phones.
Overall, I think this is a great way to have students use technology they are comfortable in order to access those higher-level thinking skills on something that is interesting to them. I'm interested to see how Mr. Humenik continues to tweak this project in the coming years.
A fellow English teacher this year started a Genius Hour project with his eighth-grade students a couple years ago. When this began, he took one of our four computer labs all day every Friday. To put it mildly, not many people were happy with him, especially some "old-school" teachers who weren't happy he wasn't using that time for curriculum. Many were unhappy that he was taking lab time that could have been spread throughout the school. He described to me at first that people weren't so bad about it until about halfway through the year when the "every Friday Humenik has this computer lab" started to get old. He also said that one of the top things you don't want to do as a teacher is to make all the other teachers mad.
So, he decided to do his Genius Hour project differently this year. He first went to our principal, who, as he described it, was hesitant toward the idea of allowing students to bring in their own devices to use on our network. I believe she also didn't quite understand what that meant, so she brought in our Instructional Tech Resource Teacher, who explained to her what this would entail. She gave the okay, and over the course of a week, Mr. Humenik had his students bring in whatever mobile device they wanted to use for their Google project--either a tablet, laptop, or smartphone--and had them added to our network so they would be able to use them for their Genius Hour projects.
Now, to get to what Mr. Humenik expected of his students: the Genius Hour project (or 20% project) is, from what he described to me, a project that has gained some notoriety because of Google's own 20% initiative for its employees. The teacher allows students to spend 20% of their class time, whether that's a little time every day or one day out of the week, on a project of their choosing. Mr. Humenik's project allowed students to focus on research, a creation, or a service project of some sort. They had to be okayed by him before they could continue. As we work on a semester schedule, students only had about 14 Fridays to work on their project, and then they presented their completed research, creation, or an overview of their service project to the class.
As Mr. Humenik described, most of the students decided to do research because that seemed easier for them. A few students who were more involved in the community decided to do service projects--and one student actually created an outdoor seating/garden area for our local library (which I think is pretty awesome!). Mr. Humenik also stated that students who brought in iPads or laptops seemed to have a better time than those who brought in smartphones, although some documented their progress outside of class through video and pictures using their cell phones.
Overall, I think this is a great way to have students use technology they are comfortable in order to access those higher-level thinking skills on something that is interesting to them. I'm interested to see how Mr. Humenik continues to tweak this project in the coming years.
Sunday, July 9, 2017
Francis_u03a2
The first website that I decided to explore and review was easybib.com. I have used easybib before, especially in college, but I didn't know all of its capabilities until now. If you sign up on the website, it takes you to an area where you can create "projects" for any research that you are doing. You then are able to create a Works Cited, start a journal where you can post notes, mindmap, or type out an outline.There is also a "paper" button that you can click on to begin typing a paper. The nice thing about this, is that EasyBib allows you to login to your Google account, so you can link a Google Doc straight to the project that you've been working on. That way, in every project, you could possibly have your outline/notes, Works Cited, and your paper all in one.
This website has an awesome availability for teachers to use if they have students complete research papers. Each student can create their own "project" on the site and complete the entire research assignment on easybib.com!
I think this site is easy to use and readily available for students. The major downside is that the developers are shutting down the "project" portion of the website on July 31st. I'm not sure why; maybe because not enough people are using it? Their main site, where you copy and paste information into boxes to create an MLA citation, doesn't say anything about creating a login to access other portions of their website. I'd really like to email their developers to ask some questions and explain my displeasure at this.
My second website that I wanted to explore some more was Google Docs. My school district is slowly becoming Google-powered, and students at the middle school level are getting Chromebooks this coming school year. Google Docs is not only Google's online version of Word Document, but it is also collaborative and saves automatically. Google has provided templates that allow you to create any kind of document that you would like to.
If a person allows others to view their document, they can also comment and edit the document. Once you open a Google Doc, you can also hit the "explore" button in the bottom right hand corner, which opens a panel in which you can look things up in another Google Doc or the Internet. This makes it incredibly easy for students to research anything they need to without ever leaving their Document. I also like the feature that Google Docs can be linked to other Docs, so you can create a trail, or linked information through the Documents.What I really like about this application is that it is collaborative, and changes are made in real time. It is also continuously saved, so there is not fear of losing new work. Teachers would be really interested to know that there is an option to "see revision history" of any document that you can see. Because students may use Google Docs to collaborate (especially in a group setting in a classroom), teachers can use this tool to see who has done what work.... a.k.a. if the work was shared evenly among participants.
I think this is great to use in the classroom. It's easy, it's free, it's collaborative, and students can CREATE using any of the features on Google Docs!
The last resource that I'm reviewing is easel.ly, which is an application that is for the more visual learner. Here, you can create beautiful infographics and posters.You begin by picking from one of their numerous templates, and then you can customize it to your linking. It can get a bit complicated with the customizing feature, so it might not be the best option for students/teachers who aren't very tech savy.The other point of contention with me is that it does not save automatically; you have to manually save your work, which can get monotonous, or students might completely forget to do it.
Once students are finished creating their inforgraphic, they can export it as a PDF, or they can present their document, which basically means that the website makes the background around the inforgraphic black. All in all, it's not the most intuitive website, and although it's really nice that students can create posters and infographics online and from a certain amount of templates, it would be nice if they could have more simplified options and more options for exporting/sharing the completed project.
This website has an awesome availability for teachers to use if they have students complete research papers. Each student can create their own "project" on the site and complete the entire research assignment on easybib.com!
I think this site is easy to use and readily available for students. The major downside is that the developers are shutting down the "project" portion of the website on July 31st. I'm not sure why; maybe because not enough people are using it? Their main site, where you copy and paste information into boxes to create an MLA citation, doesn't say anything about creating a login to access other portions of their website. I'd really like to email their developers to ask some questions and explain my displeasure at this.
My second website that I wanted to explore some more was Google Docs. My school district is slowly becoming Google-powered, and students at the middle school level are getting Chromebooks this coming school year. Google Docs is not only Google's online version of Word Document, but it is also collaborative and saves automatically. Google has provided templates that allow you to create any kind of document that you would like to.
If a person allows others to view their document, they can also comment and edit the document. Once you open a Google Doc, you can also hit the "explore" button in the bottom right hand corner, which opens a panel in which you can look things up in another Google Doc or the Internet. This makes it incredibly easy for students to research anything they need to without ever leaving their Document. I also like the feature that Google Docs can be linked to other Docs, so you can create a trail, or linked information through the Documents.What I really like about this application is that it is collaborative, and changes are made in real time. It is also continuously saved, so there is not fear of losing new work. Teachers would be really interested to know that there is an option to "see revision history" of any document that you can see. Because students may use Google Docs to collaborate (especially in a group setting in a classroom), teachers can use this tool to see who has done what work.... a.k.a. if the work was shared evenly among participants.
I think this is great to use in the classroom. It's easy, it's free, it's collaborative, and students can CREATE using any of the features on Google Docs!
The last resource that I'm reviewing is easel.ly, which is an application that is for the more visual learner. Here, you can create beautiful infographics and posters.You begin by picking from one of their numerous templates, and then you can customize it to your linking. It can get a bit complicated with the customizing feature, so it might not be the best option for students/teachers who aren't very tech savy.The other point of contention with me is that it does not save automatically; you have to manually save your work, which can get monotonous, or students might completely forget to do it.
Once students are finished creating their inforgraphic, they can export it as a PDF, or they can present their document, which basically means that the website makes the background around the inforgraphic black. All in all, it's not the most intuitive website, and although it's really nice that students can create posters and infographics online and from a certain amount of templates, it would be nice if they could have more simplified options and more options for exporting/sharing the completed project.
Friday, July 7, 2017
Francis_u03a1
Having technological tools in a teacher's toolbox can be incredibly time-saving and beneficial to him/her and his/her students. After reviewing a few tools, I have decided a few are better than others.
Using bookmarklets can make accessing specific websites much easier. I chose to review Quietube.com, which took me a moment to learn how to use. When I clicked on the link, it took me to the basic website without any directions of how to use it, but I decided to look at a Youtube Video on its own. Once viewing a video, I then clicked the Quietube bookmarklet that I had saved to my bookmarks bar and it transferred the YouTube video I had chosen to bookmarklet's plain background.
I really appreciate the clean look of this because there have been many times when I have shown YouTube videos and students are distracted by ads or the "suggested video" column to the right. They spend more time after the educational clip trying to convince me to click on something else than they do on reflecting on and reacting to what they just watched, so getting rid of these distractions is very nice indeed.
URL shortening is very nice for people who have their own websites they need to share, however, I'm honestly not sure how I would use it in the classroom or on my own.
I've seen QR codes used in the classroom, and I think they would be really helpful for discovery learning, especially in classrooms that are rendered 1:1. I would like to be able to use these in literature circles or grammar stations if I could get iPads for that use.
I have created the below QR code (although I can't print it out for lack of a printer) that takes you to a specific resource I have used for my own photography.
The interesting thing about making a QR code is that I can create one and post it to the class website for students to use or I can print them out and put them around the room for a pseudo-scavenger hunt.
These are just a few of the tools that I can use in and out of the classroom, and I hope I can use the QR code and the Bookmarklets in the future.
Using bookmarklets can make accessing specific websites much easier. I chose to review Quietube.com, which took me a moment to learn how to use. When I clicked on the link, it took me to the basic website without any directions of how to use it, but I decided to look at a Youtube Video on its own. Once viewing a video, I then clicked the Quietube bookmarklet that I had saved to my bookmarks bar and it transferred the YouTube video I had chosen to bookmarklet's plain background.
URL shortening is very nice for people who have their own websites they need to share, however, I'm honestly not sure how I would use it in the classroom or on my own.
I've seen QR codes used in the classroom, and I think they would be really helpful for discovery learning, especially in classrooms that are rendered 1:1. I would like to be able to use these in literature circles or grammar stations if I could get iPads for that use.
I have created the below QR code (although I can't print it out for lack of a printer) that takes you to a specific resource I have used for my own photography.
These are just a few of the tools that I can use in and out of the classroom, and I hope I can use the QR code and the Bookmarklets in the future.
Sunday, July 2, 2017
Francis_u02a2
Here are my reviews into three online teaching tools.
Social—Edmodo
I have heard of this website before, but I’ve never used it, nor have I known how well it works. From my research, it seems that it’s similar to Schoology, in that teachers can communicate with parents and students and vice/versa. Students are also able to do work and submit it through Edmodo. I think this is incredibly useful for everyone involved in a student’s learning to be as informed as possible about what is happening inside and outside the classroom.
One of the reviews I read was that the educator really appreciated how often Edmodo updated their service so that it made it very user-friendly for the educator. (Link)
When looking at how teachers are using Edmodo the best, I found many examples of how people are using the basics withing the site--posting announcements and assignments to students and parents, but I also found a few clever ideas. One idea was creating a "Current Event" group within the classroom online and students would post interesting news articles and their reflections once a week. I do a current event with my students weekly, but I have them fill out a worksheet that asks about an article they read. It would be much easier if they could do it online.
I also found a way that Edmodo classes could speak with other classes around the world and create an inter-cultural study. Some students chose to do a book study with a class in another country, and I think this is a great idea! It teaches empathy, communication skills, and shows students different viewpoints from different cultures. (Link)
Creative--WeVideo
I had never heard of WeVideo before this class. Apparently, it's a video creation/editing website that anyone can use. What makes me a little cautious of this is that is can be used by anyone, and it isn't targeted for school use and/or children. However, engaging students with creating video is a great tool to use in the classroom, and I can understand why some teachers might want to incorporate WeVideo.
One review that I found said that he appreciated that it was a one-stop shop cloud experience. Once you were done editing your footage, it would automatically upload to YouTube and it was quite fast because you were doing everything on the cloud.
Another pro of this site was that it is collaborative, so students can work together on projects.
One major downfall of the entire thing, that I read, was that it can get pretty pricey to use once you reach a certain point in the whole process. Some teachers were also pretty wary of the privacy issue with students being able to post videos of themselves to the open Web.
Curation--Symbaloo
I have seen teachers use this before, specifically my technology resource teacher, and I think it's a great tool for everyone to use. Teachers would be able to compile resources on their homepage to use for each subject, class, or unit.
Teachers can share their Symbaloo with students and parents, and every time the teachers add a new resource to their Symbaloo, those who have subscribed to it are notified that something has changed. Teachers can create their sections of Symbaloo based on the unit of study or subject they are studying in class.
While it seems like a really good resource to keep a teacher organized with his/her resources, I think that having sites available on a Google Classroom or Schoology would be easier and more streamlined for students. I don't necessarily send students to specific websites unless we are working on a unit that I need them to find something, and this would easily be done through linking resources on their Google Classroom along with the assignment for that day or unit.
Some classrooms, or even libraries, however, have used Symbaloo in interesting ways, and you can find that here.
It's always interesting to find new resources that teachers and/or students can use, and I look forward to finding many more in the future!
Friday, June 30, 2017
Francis_u02a1 Colleague Interview
For this assignment, I chose to interview Kristin Ezzell, a history teacher at my school. She has about the same amount of experience teaching as I do, and she had very similar answers to the assigned questions as I did.
Ms. Ezzell said that the criteria she uses to decide which online tools to use with her students basically cover the three following ideas: Is it user-friendly? Does it teach the necessary material in a variety of ways/does it offer differentiated instruction? Does it collate data and/or self-grade and allow for feedback to both students and teachers.
One of the tools she has been using for the past year is Google Forms for weekly assessments. Because our school has limited technological resources available, she had to receive special permission to sign up for the only Chromebook cart our school has every Friday of the year. The stipulation was that she could have the cart of Chromebooks for her students during 1st, 2nd, and 4th period, every Friday, but teachers were aware that they could call her to ask if she needed them every week, just in case she wasn't using them. For what she told me, I think there were some teachers who weren't happy that she had the only available Chrome-cart every Friday, and I can really understand that. But I really think that this is a prime example of how teachers can utilize technology that's available, but also how schools really need to provide the necessary tools for their teachers to use.
When I asked her what advice she would give to other teachers trying to replicate the same procedure, she said that she would also advise them to ask permission from the technological rep in the school as well as administration. She also advised speaking with the Instructional Tech to see if it would be possible to implement BYOD for one day per week. She mentioned that allowing students to use their own devices would ease tensions among staff and free up the limited technology our school has for other students to use.
I agree with Ms. Ezzell that the technology should be able to give feedback and data, and hopefully, that it could alleviate some grading from the teacher. As one of the teachers who uses the only chromebook cart our school has, I think it might have been better if she had rotated her use of computer labs and the chromebook cart based on how many students she has in her classroom.
Ms. Ezzell said that the criteria she uses to decide which online tools to use with her students basically cover the three following ideas: Is it user-friendly? Does it teach the necessary material in a variety of ways/does it offer differentiated instruction? Does it collate data and/or self-grade and allow for feedback to both students and teachers.
One of the tools she has been using for the past year is Google Forms for weekly assessments. Because our school has limited technological resources available, she had to receive special permission to sign up for the only Chromebook cart our school has every Friday of the year. The stipulation was that she could have the cart of Chromebooks for her students during 1st, 2nd, and 4th period, every Friday, but teachers were aware that they could call her to ask if she needed them every week, just in case she wasn't using them. For what she told me, I think there were some teachers who weren't happy that she had the only available Chrome-cart every Friday, and I can really understand that. But I really think that this is a prime example of how teachers can utilize technology that's available, but also how schools really need to provide the necessary tools for their teachers to use.
When I asked her what advice she would give to other teachers trying to replicate the same procedure, she said that she would also advise them to ask permission from the technological rep in the school as well as administration. She also advised speaking with the Instructional Tech to see if it would be possible to implement BYOD for one day per week. She mentioned that allowing students to use their own devices would ease tensions among staff and free up the limited technology our school has for other students to use.
I agree with Ms. Ezzell that the technology should be able to give feedback and data, and hopefully, that it could alleviate some grading from the teacher. As one of the teachers who uses the only chromebook cart our school has, I think it might have been better if she had rotated her use of computer labs and the chromebook cart based on how many students she has in her classroom.
Sunday, June 18, 2017
PSA Viewing Reflection
Role: Parent
Video 1: Telenor the Essay Commercial
I believe that the main idea was that even the "craziest" or far-fetched ideas are attainable, and not everyone will believe in you. As a parent, I was rather disappointed to see that her parents didn't believe in her dreams.
I think the audience is the basic market for cell-phones--the general public who want to be the people getting the newest version of a cell phone and it's capabilities, even if that made a person "different."
I think that the main focus of this video was about how people treated the little girl because she was ahead of her time. If we are supposed to want to buy that phone to be ahead of our time, the leap in logic would lead you to believe that "we should buy that phone even if people treat us like outsiders." I'm not sure watching a small child be bullied, taken to psychiatrists, and disbelieved by everyone around her was the most effective way to sell a cellphone.
Video 2:We Think
I believe the main idea of this video was that being online is best for everyone because it creates "Mass Innovation," which allows anyone and everyone to share their ideas and come up with the best ones.
I think that anyone who is wary of the Internet and how to use it/why to use it is the audience for this video.
I believe that the method of using mainly text for the audience to read was effective. I think that reading something makes people think about it more in-depth than watching a video or skit about that same topic would. I liked that it was a simple way to explain a simple concept about a very technical mode of communication and innovation.
Video 1: Telenor the Essay Commercial
I believe that the main idea was that even the "craziest" or far-fetched ideas are attainable, and not everyone will believe in you. As a parent, I was rather disappointed to see that her parents didn't believe in her dreams.
I think the audience is the basic market for cell-phones--the general public who want to be the people getting the newest version of a cell phone and it's capabilities, even if that made a person "different."
I think that the main focus of this video was about how people treated the little girl because she was ahead of her time. If we are supposed to want to buy that phone to be ahead of our time, the leap in logic would lead you to believe that "we should buy that phone even if people treat us like outsiders." I'm not sure watching a small child be bullied, taken to psychiatrists, and disbelieved by everyone around her was the most effective way to sell a cellphone.
Video 2:We Think
I believe the main idea of this video was that being online is best for everyone because it creates "Mass Innovation," which allows anyone and everyone to share their ideas and come up with the best ones.
I think that anyone who is wary of the Internet and how to use it/why to use it is the audience for this video.
I believe that the method of using mainly text for the audience to read was effective. I think that reading something makes people think about it more in-depth than watching a video or skit about that same topic would. I liked that it was a simple way to explain a simple concept about a very technical mode of communication and innovation.
Sunday, June 11, 2017
Francis_Infographicsreflection
I think using infographics in my classroom for students to show theme, main idea, or some kind of research would be the best way I could use them. They might even be able to use these to explain a grammatical concept, or to map out a story sequence, or explain a vocabulary word. I really like the idea of using infographics as a substitute to a PowerPoint or research presentation. Depending on the program used, it can be very user friendly and students can be very creative with it.
Because of my high school aged students, they can use this technique to take concepts and teach their peers or explain their own ideas. I think the availability of computer labs in my school would suffice to be able to utilize some of these options. Because it's all online software (and I especially liked Canva), it's very easy to use.
Because of my high school aged students, they can use this technique to take concepts and teach their peers or explain their own ideas. I think the availability of computer labs in my school would suffice to be able to utilize some of these options. Because it's all online software (and I especially liked Canva), it's very easy to use.
Sunday, June 4, 2017
Online Presentations Reflection
I liked Padlet, and it would be great as a type of journaling assignment or a portfolio for students to create, but it's hard for me to envision how else I could use it in my classroom.
I would use, and I have used, Adobe Spark Video before. I've used it in my English 12 Remedial classes, and had students create PSAs on a topic of their choice. I really like that it is incredibly user friendly and gives options without being overwhelming. The image search that is built in is also really useful, especially since all of the pictures Adobe offers fall under Creative Commons licensing.
Creating the Adobe video was easy enough, however, I think something has changed since the last time that I used it. I could only record 10 seconds of audio at a time, and that was also the longest I could get a slide to run before moving to the next slide. The last time I used it, it allowed me 30 seconds of audio before switching to the next slide. This made me feel rushed, and I'm sure my presentation sounds rough too.
It's somewhat difficult to be able to do online presentations in my school at this current time because of lack of computers. It would be a lot easier to do this type of activity in a 1:1 based school. I think creating these types of presentations, however, is not overly time consuming and can be done while teaching students the 21st century skills they need to learn.
Overall, I liked this assignment, although I would like a little more flexibility in Adobe Spark Video.
I would use, and I have used, Adobe Spark Video before. I've used it in my English 12 Remedial classes, and had students create PSAs on a topic of their choice. I really like that it is incredibly user friendly and gives options without being overwhelming. The image search that is built in is also really useful, especially since all of the pictures Adobe offers fall under Creative Commons licensing.
Creating the Adobe video was easy enough, however, I think something has changed since the last time that I used it. I could only record 10 seconds of audio at a time, and that was also the longest I could get a slide to run before moving to the next slide. The last time I used it, it allowed me 30 seconds of audio before switching to the next slide. This made me feel rushed, and I'm sure my presentation sounds rough too.
It's somewhat difficult to be able to do online presentations in my school at this current time because of lack of computers. It would be a lot easier to do this type of activity in a 1:1 based school. I think creating these types of presentations, however, is not overly time consuming and can be done while teaching students the 21st century skills they need to learn.
Overall, I liked this assignment, although I would like a little more flexibility in Adobe Spark Video.
Sunday, May 21, 2017
Connecting with Students--When is it too much?
Recently there has been a lot of mediums created for teachers to easily connect with students outside of the classroom. What used to be hailed as "inappropriate" and teachers were told to "stay away from", is now being used for teachers to connect, respond to, and use to educate their students. Social media is now praised as a new way to teach students and for teachers to use to inform students outside of their class of new information, updates, or reminders. Twitter, Remind.com, and even Facebook groups are being used more and more by educators, but is it ever too much?
I read articles about how teachers who are constantly connected to their jobs go through "burnout" much quicker than teachers who take a break from the educational world. Is anyone worried about this with our students? When do we allow our students to walk away from us, and how do we know when to draw the line between "hey this is just your teacher reminding you or giving you some more information about..." and "hey, this is your teacher not letting you forget about me and our class and insisting that you keep thinking about school 24/7"?
I use Twitter and Remind.com for my classes, and I am part of a Facebook group for the senior class at my school that regularly updates the students on important events coming up. Mostly, these three are used to remind students and give them important updates that I don't want them to forget, but I wonder if I am doing them a disservice. Is this not only forging the line between school and life, but also taking away the opportunity to teach them responsibility?
I've had students get mad at me for giving them a test without sending them a remind text the night before. This test date had been written on the board for four days and I had told them about it every day for a week, but it was because I had reminded them while they were at home and able to study, that I was somehow in the wrong. Part of this is just the "I'm going to whine because I didn't get my way," but I honestly think that part of it is that I dug my own grave. I have trained them to expect updates from me via technology to constantly remind them to do what they should already be reminding themselves to do.
So when is it too much tech?
I read articles about how teachers who are constantly connected to their jobs go through "burnout" much quicker than teachers who take a break from the educational world. Is anyone worried about this with our students? When do we allow our students to walk away from us, and how do we know when to draw the line between "hey this is just your teacher reminding you or giving you some more information about..." and "hey, this is your teacher not letting you forget about me and our class and insisting that you keep thinking about school 24/7"?
I use Twitter and Remind.com for my classes, and I am part of a Facebook group for the senior class at my school that regularly updates the students on important events coming up. Mostly, these three are used to remind students and give them important updates that I don't want them to forget, but I wonder if I am doing them a disservice. Is this not only forging the line between school and life, but also taking away the opportunity to teach them responsibility?
I've had students get mad at me for giving them a test without sending them a remind text the night before. This test date had been written on the board for four days and I had told them about it every day for a week, but it was because I had reminded them while they were at home and able to study, that I was somehow in the wrong. Part of this is just the "I'm going to whine because I didn't get my way," but I honestly think that part of it is that I dug my own grave. I have trained them to expect updates from me via technology to constantly remind them to do what they should already be reminding themselves to do.
So when is it too much tech?
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