Technology Medley

We can probably all relate to these on some level. Turn your speakers on and enjoy!

Thanks for all you do every day, even on the days when you feel like this!

Chances are excellent that if you’re reading this, you don’t need to read this! However, since I sometimes get questions from teachers about now to navigate a blog, I created a document with general instructions that I shared with the folks in my schools. I am well aware of how difficult it is for educators to keep with a multitude of papers and other resources they are given along with their very busy schedules, so I’m going to repost the information here. Hopefully, someone out there in cyberspace will find this helpful.

What is a blog? It started out simply as a log that was posted to the web. So, if you say “web log” quickly, it sounds like “blog.” I’m using my blog to communicate with the teachers in my 2 schools. You no longer need to try to keep up with emails or handouts that contain information you may need later on. You can just return to my blog page (http://pelgin.edublogs.org) and search through the posts until you find the one you need

A blog is a very simple web page, but the readers can interact with the author by posting comments after any of the blog entries. Sometimes, whole conversations take place within these comment sections. Don’t hesitate to leave comments on any of my posts. I have this set so I have to approve comments before they actually show up though, so you may not see your comment immediately. You can also click on the comments links to see what other people have said.

To link to a blog, or to save it to your favorites, just choose the main blog address. For example, mine is http://pelgin.edublogs.org. When you go to this web address, you will see the most recent post at the top. If you scroll down the page, you will see several other posts as well. But what if you want to see something that was written a few months ago? There are a couple of options in this case. In the right sidebar, you will see a list of categories. If you click on one of these categories, a page will appear that shows all of the posts that have been written about that particular category. So, for example, if you need some information about Accelerated Reader, you would click on the AR link. Underneath the Categories, you will see an Archives section. If you want to see what was posted earlier in the year, you click on one of the months and you’ll be taken to posts that were written in that particular month.

People add all sorts of extra things in the sidebars of their blogs called widgets. The blue box that contains handouts is an example of a widget. It actually links to another website where these handouts are stored

There is usually a Blogroll which is a list of links to other blogs that most likely are similar to the blog you are reading. There is often a Search textbox that allows you to search through all of the posts for a particular subject.

That’s about all there is to it! Blogs are very easy to create and maintain. If you’d like to create your own, let me know and I’ll help you get started!

Another vital part of my personal professional development is the time I spend in the evenings reading blogs written by other people who work in the field of instructional technology. Many of these folks share new resources and reflections from their own experiences. These blogs provide invaluable information for me as I strive to stay one step ahead of the teachers in my schools.

If you’d like to check out some of the blogs I read, they are listed in the sidebar under the title Blogroll. I also read some general motivational and inspirational blogs that are not necessarily education related but are still quite interesting.

I use Google Reader to keep up with new posts in these blogs. There is no way I could visit each of these sites every day to see if there was anything new. With Google Reader, I go to one page on the internet and that page tells me what is new on all of the blogs I subscribe too. That’s the magic of rss….but that’s a post for another day.

Earlier this week, I attended the annual VSTE (Virginia Society for Technology in Education) conference at Hotel Roanoke. Some of you occasionally ask me how I stay up-to-date on emerging technologies for classroom use.  Conferences such as this provide staff development for me and other ITRTs throughout the state.I attended 5 sessions presented by Tammy Worcester, an education technologist from Kansas who specializes in activities that are simple to use in the classroom while teaching vital computer skills to young children. I will be sharing her numerous ideas with you as time allows, but if you’d like to go ahead and check out her website, you’ll find a wealth of resources already posted and ready to adapt into your curriculum.

Another favorite of mine was a presentation showing how to incorporate Marzano’s strategies from Classroom Instruction That Works using Kidspiration, PowerPoint, and other readily available software in our schools. Here is a link to lots of templates that are ready for you to use. Many thanks to Sherri Miller with Gloucester County Schools!

We’ve talked quite a bit recently about internet safety, and I would like to remind you to discuss with your students the importance of not sharing personal information online. In one of the sessions I attended, the ITRTs from Hanover County generously shared several activities that they had created for elementary students. Check them out!

There were numerous other wonderful sessions. You can click here if you’re interested in exploring more of what folks are saying about the VSTE conference this year.

Did you know that you can edit your digital photos online? Here are brief descriptions of 3 sites which allow you to upload photos, make changes as you wish, and then save the revised photos wherever you choose. Each of these sites provide sample pictures to allow you to explore their features before uploading your own image. The pictures below were created using these samples.

Picnik

The first and probably the most well known site is Picnik. Most of the features on this site are completely free. After you upload an image, you can crop, edit, adjust colors, resize, etc. Then click on the create tab and add snow, frames, text, and shapes.

Once you are happy with your picture, click Save and Share. You may either save the picture back onto your computer, or you can send it to one of many photo sharing sites on the internet.

FlauntR

FlauntR is a fairly new entity on the web, and it is just amazing! Click on one of the styleR or editR buttons, log in as a guest, and start playing! The editR features are fairly typical, including cropping, resizing, redeye removal, etc. Also in the editR window, there is an effects tab with numerous effects such as colorizing, neon embossing, and a pencil sketch.

Then, as if that is not enough, click on the styleR button at the top of the main window. The choices that you have at this point can be overwhelming. You will need to make friends with the history button, because at this point, that is the only way you can undo previous selections. Be sure to check out the compositions and frames!

The textR button allows you to add text along with numerous shapes and clipart. You can save your images to your computer or to an album that is stored on the site. You can also upload them to several photo sharing sites.

FotoFlexer

Another new online editor that offers numerous creative options and is very user friendly is FotoFlexer. Along with the typical editing features such as resizing and cropping, FotoFlexer offers several special effects such as colorizing and popart choices. There is also a distort option that is fun to experiment with if you would like to create a more artistic version of your photograph.

Like the other sites, you can save your edited images to online storage sites, save them to your computer, or email them to a friend.

All three of these sites provide holiday specific options. For example, right now they are all featuring hearts for Valentine’s Day. So, go explore these cool photo editors, and have fun!

Yesterday, I introduced laptops to the fourth kindergarten class at West Salem, and as always, I was absolutely amazed at how well these little friends adapted to the features of a laptop computer. Once I showed them how to use the touchpad and how to click and drag, they were off and running. Each time I’ve worked with kindergarten or first grade students, my thoughts have been the same. They are fearless! Even though they have spent time in the lab on desktops, using the mouse on a laptop is new to them. However, they are not at all intimidated by it. In fact, it seems as if the touchpad is intuitive for them.

We were using Starfall, one of our very favorite reading sites. Mrs. Gauck had printed the URL on sentence strips and had each student type in the web address themselves. She had previously talked about using the keyboard and showed them where the “dot” was, and of course we had a help a few, but the majority of the children typed in the address correctly. Honestly, I really don’t give these young children credit for doing as much as they are capable of doing for themselves! Hmm, we showed them how to press Ctrl-Alt-Delete, so maybe we’ll have them type in the passwords for themselves next time!

It is always fun to watch the kids once they actually start watching the videos and playing the games in Starfall. Their faces light up, they giggle, they help each other find games, and they stay completely engaged.

As the children were leaving yesterday, several indicated that they didn’t want to go home yet! They were so excited and felt like “the big kids.” Hopefully, all of our young children will have more opportunities to use the laptops as the year continues, and I will be more than happy to come in and teach or to lend an extra set of hands.

Children are just amazing!

Scholastic Keys is actually a suite of programs that interface with Microsoft Office, but the programs are designed to be used by young children. The software is installed in the computer labs as well as on all of the laptops on the mobile carts, and I highly encourage you to check it out if you have not already done so. When you click on one of the Keys icons, you will notice that the Office program opens up first, and then the Keys program. Here’s a very brief description of the 3 components:

MaxWrite

MaxWrite is the kids’ version of Word. Students can type, add pictures or borders, work with tables, and do almost anything you might normally have them do with a word processor. They can add images of Clifford or Ms. Frizzle, or they can draw their own pictures right within the program. They can also search for images from the regular Word images search. The documents are saved as a Word format, so they can be opened later on any computer that already has Office installed.

MaxShow

This part of Scholastic Keys is the interface to PowerPoint, and it’s probably my favorite to use with kids in the classroom. This is a wonderful program to use as a culminating event for almost any unit or story. We’ve had third graders create slideshows on their favorite animals, second graders create slideshows of their color poems, fourth graders create word problems shows….you get the idea. The possibilities are endless! After the children enter their information and images into their slides, they enjoy exploring other options such as colors, fonts, and animations to truly personalize their shows.

MaxCount

MaxCount is a spreadsheet program similar to Excel. There are several activities already built into MaxCount that can be used with the very young children. Older kids might enjoy creating multiplication tables or entering data and converting it to graphs. They love the “magic” of filling the columns with fomulas so the computer does the math for them! This is a great program for working with any type of data including practice with mean, median, and mode. It’s also excellent for showing various types of graphs using the same data.

There is a handout for Scholastic Keys in the blue box in the sidebar. Just click on the name of the handout and select download. I’ll be happy to come in and help you any time you want to use this awesome software!

I believe that we would all agree that the Internet is an exciting and invaluable resource for both information and communication, but we need to make our students aware that it can also be a dangerous environment if they forget to follow some simple rules.

In 2006, the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation requiring the integration of internet safety into the instructional program. They have created an online booklet entitled Guidelines and Resources for Internet Safety in Schools with a wealth of information as well as internet resources. The document is divided into sections for administrators, teachers, parents, and students and is worth spending a few minutes exploring. This post is divided into the five major sections found in the pages for teachers.

1. The Internet is exciting, rewarding, and challenging.

Our intent is certainly not to discourage the use of the Internet for research or for chatting with friends. There is great value in these activities, and this is the future for our students. We also want to be cautious that we do not frighten the children.

2. Monitoring is Crucial

I’ve heard it said that children are only one click away from an inappropriate site. Although I don’t necessarily agree with that statement, I do know how easy it would be for a student to accidentally stumble upon something that they probably should not be seeing. Any time we have students working on the Internet, we need to be constantly aware of what they are doing and what sites they are exploring. We have an excellent firewall in our school division, but firewalls and filters are not fool proof.

For example, Google Images is used often by teachers for picture searches, and it defaults to a Moderate Safe Search setting. However, it is very difficult for firewalls to filter images, and it is very easy to search for something that seems quite innocent and find inappropriate images. It’s fine for teachers to use Google images and other image storage sites (assuming the images are not copyrighted and you cite your sources) but please do not send students online to find images.

If you suspect that students have been surfing inappropriate sites, go into the browser history and check out what sites they have visited. Unfortunately, a particularly clever student will know how to delete the site from the history. That’s why monitoring is crucial.

3. Interactions in the Virtual World Can Be Negative

Cyberbullying is alive and well. Adults as well as students tend to say things in email messages and chat rooms that they would never consider saying in person. Students need to be reminded that anything they write on the computer can be copied and pasted multiple times and can get them in serious trouble as well as hurting feelings. They should not write anything online that they would not say in person. Here is an example:

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People Are Not Always Who They Claim to Be

It is all too easy for an adult to pretend to be a much younger person in order to win the confidence of a child over time. As students express interest in social networking sites such as Club Penguin and Whyville, they will most likely move on to MySpace or Facebook as they grow older. They need to have an acute awareness that even though chatting with strangers can be fun, they have no way of knowing who that person really is.

iKeepSafe.org has a fabulous video and book posted on their site that deals with this very topic. Watch Faux Pas, the Techno Cat with your class. We also have copies of these books and DVDs in the school libraries.

4. Dangers of Exchanging Information

Remind students that they should never share personal information online. This includes name, age, phone number, school friends’ names, family names, and anything that could be used for identification. When choosing screen names or email usernames, avoid using real first or last name, zip code, age, or any other personal information.

We never know who is reading what is being posted, as this video demonstrates:

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Students need to also be reminded that they should never post pictures that can be used to identify them or that they would be embarrassed for their grandparents to see. Once a picture is posted, it can be copied and recopied and never really goes away.

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In addition to the simplicity of copying pictures and text from the internet, there are archives of internet sites that keep copies of old web pages for research and historical reasons. Probably, the best known of these sites is the WayBack Machine.

5. Students Need to Hear the Rules Often

Use teachable moments to review rules for using computers with the students. A previous post on this blog reviewed the most basic information that students need to remember whenever they are online.

Helpful Web Links

NetSmartz Kids
Lots of games and activities that remind kids of internet safety rules
**This would be a great site to use during your computer lab time!

Surf Swell Island
Disney’s internet safety site with lots of fun quizzes and games

iKeepSafe
Activities and videos produced by iKeepSafe and D.A.R.E.

SafeKids
Lots of tips and tools for parents and kids

iSafe
Set up an account here for a wealth of information that will be helpful to all adults who work with children.

iLearn Online
This is actually part of iSafe. It includes excellent video modules, and after completing the modules, you will be able to download free materials to use as appropriate.

If you do a search for internet safety, you will discover numerous additional sites with more helpful information for students, parents, and educators. Stay informed, keep you students informed, and stay safe!

Several of you have created podcasts with your classes over the past couple of years, and I hope that you’re thinking about more ways you can use this exciting and relatively new technology. If you’ve never created a podcast, it’s much simpler than you may think. All you need to do is prepare the students by having them practice reading their scripts aloud. Then let me know when you’re ready to record. I’ll take care of all of the technical details for you! However, I’ll be happy to teach you how to edit using Audacity if you’d like to learn to do the editing yourself.

Why not have your students create “Did you know?” podcasts using facts from any of their SOL related units? Mr. Barbour had his third graders record several factual podcasts from their SOL units. For an example of this, click below to listen to Mr. Barbour’s third graders as they share facts they learned about Ancient Rome.

Download Ancient Rome Facts

Mrs. Routt’s third graders enjoy creating their own newscasts at the end of each school year in which they review almost everything they have covered during the year. When students have the opportunity to listen to themselves or to their classmates, they are more eager to listen to the podcasts as they review for their SOL tests.

Download Third Grade SOL Review

Podcasting is also an excellent way for students to share their original stories and poems. Mrs. Buchholz had her third graders write stories about the adventures of their class pet who escaped.

Download Oreo’s Big Day Out

It’s great to use readers theaters for podcasts as it helps students who may have difficulty with oral reading skills and fluency. The more fluent readers can practice speaking with expression and using creative voices. Mrs. Bowles had her fourth graders read several tall tales, and the children appeared to really enjoy using the imaginary voices of their characters.

Download Pecos Bill

Here are a few more ideas for podcasts that you might want to consider for your own students:

1. Interviews – Have students write questions and interview another person in the school, either adults or other students. You could also use interviews to have students answer questions as if they are a famous American or a character from a favorite story.
2. Announcements – Let students practice their broadcast skills as they present announcements for your class, your grade level, or for the entire school. Here is an example. Download
3. Riddles – Have students create “Who am I?” or “What am I?” riddles to review people from social studies units, book characters, famous places, or vocabulary words.
4. Songs – Make up new lyrics to familiar melodies, such as multiplication facts.
5. Book Commercials – Instead of written book reports, why not let students talk about their favorite books? Have them share a little about the book and why they recommend it.
6. For the Little Ones – Let them talk about something special in their classroom or something new that they have learned if they’re too young to read or to write their script.

So, give some thought into creating your own podcast this year, and let me know when you’re ready to record! To listen to more podcasts from your school, click on one of the following links:

South Salem Podcasts

West Salem Podcasts

Happy New Year! Like most folks, I am thinking about setting new goals for the coming year, or at least for the remainder of this school year. First and foremost, I plan to post articles here more regularly. The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas was filled with exciting things happening in classrooms at both schools, and I just didn’t have any extra time! However, I promise to do better. So, here are a few goals I have set for myself:

1. Post an article here at least once each week, hopefully even more often.
2. Create a database of activities that will assist classroom teachers in planning lessons using the laptops and the computer lab with the software that we have available in both schools.
3. Strive to ensure that every student has the opportunity to use the laptops in their classroom at least once before the end of the school year. (This includes kindergarten!)

So, what are your goals for using technology in 2008? I’ll list a few suggestions to help you get started:

1. Bring the laptop cart into your classroom. Invite me in to assist you and the students the first time or two, until you are comfortable with them. You will be amazed at how quickly the students learn to use the touchpad!
2. Learn to use a piece of software in the computer lab that you haven’t used before, such as TimeLiner, Scholastic Keys, or Kidspiration. I have handouts for most the the programs we own, and I’ll be happy to send one your way.
3. Have your students create something of their very own on the computers and save their projects to the K drive. That way, we can plan a way to combine and share their projects on the school web site.
4. Be adventurous! Begin your own blog, or set up student blogs using ClassBlogmeister.
5. Take lots of digital pictures. Upload them to a photo sharing site, and send the site address to folks with whom you would like to share the pictures. You can also share your pictures through a class website or blog.
6. Have students write their own newscasts and record them to use as podcasts.

I hope you see something here that is of interest to you! Please let me know how I can help you use technology as we work together to prepare the children for their future.