Mexican food is always a good idea!
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!
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