Skype in the Classroom

Recently I had the opportunity to  facilitate a Skype session between Mrs. McAvene’s Spanish Three class and a class of English language learners in Barcelona, Spain.  Although Skype has been utilized by a number of ACPS teachers, this was my first opportunity to use this program in a classroom environment.  This session came about as a result of a digital story telling exchange her class is doing with Ana Guuisande’s  English class in which ACPS students, and their Spanish counterparts are creating videos depicting life in their respective areas.

              While working on this project  we learned that, although there is a six hour difference between us, there is a window of time in which we are both in school and in our respective language classes.  Once we had figured that out, it didn’t take long for someone to come up with the idea of a Skype exchange.  I tested Skype out from a student laptop computer one day while at NHS and found that it indeed worked.  

              So, one Friday morning, as the students were getting settled at the beginning of the school day,  I used an iPad and opened a Skype session with the class in Spain.  We had to reopen it about three times and then stay in the corner of the room where the connection consistently worked.  The students  approached the iPad about three at a time.  We had an interesting time to say the least.  The Spanish students suggested that they try to ask questions in English, and that our students should respond in Spanish.  We quickly agreed to this, and just as quickly seemed to abandon it in practice.  We did note that the students in Spain seemed to be no better with English than our students were with Spanish.  For example, when the class was about to end over in Spain, the students told us they were about at the end of their “journey.” 

              Ana’s students wanted to know if our students were familiar with any Spanish singers, if any of our students were licensed to drive yet, what sports we played, etc.  We also learned that the things the textbook suggest don’t necessarily work:  when they asked about  football, we tried to get clarification by following one of these suggestions—“Do you mean football Americano?”  That question seemed to baffle the Spanish students, but, we eventually straightened it all out.

              Everyone involved seemed to really enjoy this experience and we will probably be trying it again.  One of the lessons I learned from this experience is to use one of the student laptops with a camera, rather than an iPad  (so that by doing so we would then be able to project the image and use speakers so that the whole class could see and hear better.)  I’d also recommend that students prepare questions in advance and rehearse asking them in the language they are learning. 
              As part of this same project, I also worked with Mrs.Brittingham's French class and they also had a Skype session, except theirs was with French learning students living in Spain.  Here is what Mrs. Brittingham had to say following the session: "This project has been a cultural eyeopener for my kids and me as well.  I think it's more about our similarities than our differences.  My group is a multicultural group and we were all involved in the skype portion of the project with communication taking place in English, Spanish, and French...  If I do (this project again), I will be more specific in my guidelines to the students ... in the organization of the Skype project."

              At Nandua's fall athletic banquet they annually induct new members in to their athletic Hall of Fame.  This year one of the athletes who was being honored in this way accepted the award, via Skype, from California.  Mr. Reese, Nandua's athletic director pulled this off on his own.  However, if any of you would like to try a Skype session in one of your classes, and don’t feel confident enough to try it on your own, let your friendly, local ITRT know and we’ll try to be there to help make it happen.  

Newsela - Non-fiction Literacy and Current Events

from guest blogger Adam Hopkins:

Tired of not having enough nonfiction selections for your class?  Trying to teach comprehension using articles?  Upset about not finding enough on your class’ diverse lexile ranges?  Are you sick of foraging through the library for nothing but outdated nonfiction books?  You can relax now.  Newsela.com is a new website that seems like it was made with exactly these concerns in mind! 

            The mindboggling selection was the first thing I noticed when I stumbled upon newsela.  The articles are broken down in seven subsections ranging from articles about money, to articles about sports, and even one that keeps the class updated on current events.  If our students are interested in it newsela.com has articles about it.

            “Yeah but are they reading in their lexile ranges?”  Sound familiar?  I’m sure you’ve heard it once or twice at least as an English teacher but now we have the power to CHANGE the article’s lexile level.  Yeah, you heard that right!  Each article comes with a slide bar that allows the reader to seamlessly transition from as high as 1250L to as low as 700L. 

            The final benefit of newsela.com is the ability to sign your classes up.  (For free I might add, so nobody will make you feel bad about filling out a purchase order.)  After signing each class up you have the ability to assign articles to your classes.  When they login to the website they will have an online folder with anything you have assigned to the class.  Still not sold?  Then maybe the fact that most articles come with a comprehension quiz will get you interested.  If nothing else newsela.com could be just one more tool in your tool belt. 

Happy reading,

Adam Hopkins (AMS)(PPRD)

Posters with Quotes

I recently read an article about several websites that allow the user to create a poster with some sort of quote and thought teachers could make use of these sites in many ways.

1. Create posters for your classroom.  While many of the sites want you to purchase a printed poster from them, several allow you to download the poster and print it yourself. Perhaps a poster of your class rules?
2. Use a poster to peak your students’ interest in an upcoming topic.
3. Of the sites I tried none required any type of log in so students could:

a.      create a poster about the topic you are studying.

b.      use a quote from a book they are reading.

c.       create virtual postcards.

d.      write short poems and “posterize” them.

e.      summarize a book in poster format.

f.        create book covers or posters for a film or book.

The possibilities are endless. Each of the sites is different, but they all allow you to combine typography with pictures into an attractive piece of art.

1.       Recite (http://www.recitethis.com/) – go to the website, type in your quote and then choose from one of the many templates displayed with your quote. While your options are to order the quote printed on canvas, or share it on sites that are not allowed in ACPS (Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr) you can use the snipping tool like I did to grab the image and print it yourself (for free).

2.      QuotesCover.com (http://quotescover.com/) – choose a quote from a database of famous quotes, ancient proverbs, greetings & messages, or invitation wordings, or create your own quote.  Next step is to choose your editor (Facebook cover, Google+ cover, eCards, Wallpaper Maker, and For Print). You can then rotate, scale/resize, move your quote, change the font and color scheme, and then upload a picture for the background. Download your finished product to print.

3.      Pinwords (http://www.pinwords.com/) – “instantly add beautiful text to your images”. If you don’t have an image you can choose from one the site offers. Choose from one of six styles, write your quote, choose the font style, choose the font color.  I used the snipping tool to grab the image.  You may email it if you choose.

eMediaVA.org

Now what does that title imply?  e for electronic, Media--makes you think of video files, audio files, interactive lessons, etc.  and VA leads you to believe that this is somehow special to Virginia.  If those are the things you'd assume from the name of the website, you would be correct   Putting all of this together you might get the idea that the site is something like Discovery Education (DEstreaming, unitedstreaming).  Once again, if that is what you would assume, you would be correct.  Indeed eMediaVA was created with the thought that one day DEstreaming would become cost-prohibitive for divisions to maintain their annual subscription. WHRO and the Hampton Roads Educational Technology Association (HRETA) began developing a product that could eventually fill in the void.  Indeed, Mathews County no longer subscribes to DE streaming as the cost became too much for a school system that has made drastic cuts in teacher positions.

eMediaVA is relatively new and is adding more content all the time.  They are underwritten, in part, by the Virginia Department of Education.  Therefore, the content is searchable by SOL rather than by the Common Core Standards.  At this point they have over 8000 videos, over 500 audios, and over 650 interactives, as well as links and documents (mostly background material supporting the videos, etc.)  Trying to determine which of the two services provides more content turns out to be no small tasks, and is not important for you to know.  What is important for you is; How much content do they provide in your field?  The answer seems to vary greatly depending on what field you are referring to.  I didn't find much for French, but I found a lot in other areas. I think you'll like the search engine. You can sort through their content based on specific SOLs, or other filters which include subject and grade level (which is done with a slide bar).

You may be aware that with Discovery Education you may download the videos (so that you don't need to use up bandwidth by streaming them), but you can not keep what you download for more than a year--you are supposed to do a fresh download with each school year.  One difficulty you will find with eMediaVA results from the fact that they have obtained their content from various sources, meaning that some you can download and show in perpetuity and others you cannot download at all (but will need to stream).  If you can't find the link that allows you to download, it is most likely because you can't.

eMediaVA has some features I'm not going to review today.  However, you can go to the site, log in, sample and download content, and explore the other features for yourself. As you do so, don't overlook the interactives. You have an account that has been set up for you (thanks to Melissa Rollosson).  Your login is your school email and your initial password is "welcome".  Your students also have accounts--although they probably aren't any more aware of that than you were until you read this.  Their login is their school id. and their password is their first name.  So, go have a look and you can comment below on what you find.

For years now I've been recommending that teachers use DropBox.  As with Edmodo some teachers have begun using DropBox at my suggestion, others have not.  However, the idea of using tools such as DropBox and Edmodo is beginning to gain traction. 

I understand that all NHS teachers were set up with DropBox accounts at a recent teacher's meeting.  At AHS I was in attendance at a teacher's meeting when the recommendation was made that teacher's use DropBox.  By now, if you aren't familiar with DropBox, you might be wondering what it is?  DropBox is one of those websites which offers online (cloud) storage.  Online storage is a way to back up your files so that if your computer crashes beyond repair, you don't lose these files.  An added benefit is that your files can be accessed from any Internet connected computer.   DropBox offers 2 GB of storage free.

You could establish an account, and take advantage of it in its simplest form--you could open your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.) go to dropbox.com, log in and upload a file of any kind.  

A better way to accomplish the same thing is to install the DropBox program on your computer.  If you do that, DropBox creates a folder on your computer.  Anything you store in this folder (or subfolder) is automatically synchronized to your DropBox account on the web.  Your browser doesn't even need to be open; DropBox just uploads it to the web while you continue to work on something else.  If you do not have an internet connection, DropBox will upload it next time you are connected to the web.  If you are working on a computer other than your own--say a library computer, you can upload to your online DropBox account and the next time you boot up your computer it will automatically download that file to your computer--your online DropBox folder and the folder on your computer are kept in sync.  

Although in the above paragraph I repeatedly refer to “your computer,” I should point out that there are DropBox apps for any IOS or Android device.  You can have DropBox on your phone, your pad and your computer all at the same time.  The DropBox folders on each of these devices will automatically stay in sync.

In addition to these features, there are a couple more really neat things you can do with DropBox.  Within your DropBox folder there is a subfolder named “public”.  Any file you place in the public folder has a public link--a web address you can share with students (or friends) allowing them to access that folder.  This is useful for sharing worksheets, etc. with your students.  

DropBox also allows you to create a subfolder which students can upload to, thus allowing them to turn in homework on the web.  To take advantage of this you go to dropitto.me and establish an account there.  DropItToMe creates a folder within your DropBox.  A student who goes to your drop it to me internet page can enter a password and upload a file to that particular DropBox subfolder – without having access to your DropBox other than the ability to upload a file to it.  They never see the contents of your DropBox.

Finally, DropBox can also be useful for photo sharing--you can share a whole folder full of pictures with your friends and relatives.  

You might want to go to DropBox and establish an account right now, or, you can send me an email stating your interest--I’ll send you an invitation to join DropBox.  There will be a link in the invitation, if you use that link to establish your account I’ll get additional free 500 MG of storage space in my DropBox.  So, now you see that I just might have an ulterior motive--not only will this be a benefit to you, but it will benefit ME as well.

Padlet--Simple and Flexible

Padlet is a handy tool that everyone ought to be able to use during the coming school year.  I can easily see some teachers using it every day.  To put it simply, Padlet is on online refrigerator door.  A teacher can place a “sticky note” to the web page (door) and have students respond by adding notes.  Much more complicated tasks can also be done of course, but, let’s talk about some of the more obvious and simple ones first.

Getting started is very easy.  You actually don’t even need an account, you can just go to “build a wall.”  Once there, double click and type something.  If students go to the same web address they can add notes of their own.  (I’d put the url as a link in a portaportal—to make it easy for the students—see you friendly, local ITRT about this)  I envision the teacher displaying this page on their screen, students adding notes, the teacher reloading the site and there you have it, a more engaging class because you’ve made the assignment interactive.

Here are some ideas for using Padlet.

1. Brainstorming / Ice Breaker activities.  You post a question, students give a brief response, the class views them—if you are using laptops with cameras built in, students could post pictures of themselves.  One note, Internet Explorer 7 does not support some features—such as dragging the picture to the wall—it would have to be uploaded instead.  Click here to see a sample ice breaker.
2. Short excersices, in English class students might: a) use the word of the day in a sentence, b) practice tense, c) give an adjective to describe a character in the reading, c) come up with a synonym and an antonym,
3. Writing activities – there is a 160 character limit within which students could write descriptive paragraphs, poems,  essay plans, short stories, etc.  One student could write the first paragraph of a story, and subsequent students could add new notes continuing the story.
4. Posting assignments, notices, etc—students can post questions on the assignments.
5. Post numerous math problems and have different students post their answers to different problems.
6. Notifications – the most obvious 
7. Speaking Activities – for those who don’t like to speak in front of a class.  Students could record a comment on a photo, an opinion on a current issue, etc.
8. Kick off a topic with a KWL chart where students paste notes on what they know and what they want to learn about a topic.

 Now, more complex uses could involve students making individual walls posting multiple pictures and telling about them.  If you have done projects where students have produced online slides shows, videos, posters, etc., you could use Padlet to have them post or link to their best work of  the year.  Of course I could suggest many more possibilities, but to spur your imagination it might even be better for you to look through the gallaryof samples offered by Padlet.

While in the "more complex" category, I should note that there are various privacy options available in Padlet.  You can change the settings so the wall is private, so that it is only viewable, so that viewers can add only posts which you approve, can add post but not change the wall, or have the liberty to change the wall.  In other words you can lock things down and be super secure, or leave it more freewheeling as in a classroom discussion. 

For other sites similar to Padlet click here.
Now might be the time of year to experiment with Padlet and evaluate it as a tool for using next year.

Have a wonderful, relaxing summer and come back all refreshed and ready to teach.

Putting the "E" in STEM Education

Science, Technology, Engineering and  Math.  Each of these areas has SOLs.  Two of these areas have SOLs which are tested—science and math.  Technology and Engineering SOLs are not tested.  Which do you suppose get more emphasis in the classroom? 

I, naturally , am an advocate for technology.  However, not for the sake of technology.  Rather, I advocate using technology to teach other areas.  Technology education should be a by-product of its use to teach math, social studies, etc.  Engineering may be different.  If we focus on engineering, the by-product might be learning in other areas.  Engineering, simply put, is problem solving.  “Children, just like engineers, are creative, innovative, and imaginative when it comes to solving problems.” (Cox-Boniol, 2012)  Why not harness the child’s natural enthusiasm for problem solving in order to teach math, science, team building,  and communication skills (required to work together and to present)?  “Hands-on activities and  project-based learning are fun and effective ways to help students learn and retain more math and science concepts.  By choosing to teach engineering, teachers can help students make the links between classroom learning, their everday lives and the wider world. (Cox-Boniol, 2012)

A teacher might start by giving students an understanding of what engineering  is and what engineers do.  Some suggestions from the authors cited above include making Hollywood connections.  For example, ask students to identify scenes in which Willy Wonka, the chemical engineer, did engineering work.  Have them investigate how engineers developed the iPod.  Have them imagine other designs for skateboards.  Show how engineers worked to design video games, cell phones, etc.  A valuable resource along these lines might be www. Howstuffworks.com.

To access design briefs, listed  by grade level and SOL, and submitted by elementary teachers from Chesterfield County, Viginia, click here.  To access many other links which lead to more design briefs and resources, click here.   A design brief is the paper you would hand out to the students explaining the assignment—here is the problem, here are the materials you have to work with, have your group create a solution.

I’ve kept this post brief, giving you time to view some of these design briefs and consider their use in your class.

Work Cited:

Cox-Boniol, C. B. (2012). Teaching Engineering Made Easy; A Friendly Introduction to Engineering Activities for Middle School Teachers (Second Edition). Springfield, OR: Engineering Education Service Center.