A great read about Google Classroom! I couldn’t agree more, Classroom works!
Monthly Archives: June 2015
How to make Google Search work for you
Ok, everyone knows that if you want to search the internet for something, Google has been the go to search engine for quite some time. Many people, however, do not fully understand how to use Google’s search engine to get precisely the results they want. Follow along and I will show you a few tips and tricks to make Google more… Googleable.
1- Use the right wording. Often, people search for something and get frustrated because they can’t find what they are looking for. Sometimes, the problem is in the words you choose to search for. Remember, Google is looking for the words that you put in the search box, so you have to “talk like a website”. For example, look at the following search phrases:
-I want to learn to make enchiladas -how to make enchiladas
Those two searches bring up different results. The ‘how to’ search will likely get you better results.
2. Quotes are your friend- Want to make your above search even more accurate? Put it in quotes. When you have a search in quotes, Google searches for the exact phrase you type in. Without quotes, Google just looks for the words, in any order. When you know exactly what you are after, quote it. Teachers, this is also a great way to check for… umm… shall we say, authenticity of a student’s writing. Quote chunks of text and you might be amazed at what you find.
3. Use the tabs after you search- After you type in your search, you will see tabs at the top. Clicking on those tabs filter your results even further. You can also search directly inside of each of those tabs. Looking for a picture? Click the images tab. You get the idea.
4. Use big words- Ok, not really… but you should use the important words when executing a search. Think about it, do you really want to know every result that has the word THE in it? Use the words that you know are important to your search, cut out the little guys.
5. Index- Index searches are a different beast altogether. To execute an index search, head to Google. Instead of just typing what you are looking for, we are going to get more specific. Let’s say you are looking for a certain type of file, perhaps an mp3 file that is out there. Let’s say it is a public domain recording of the reading of “Treasure Island”. Type the following in your search bar: “Index”+”mp3″+”treasure island” then hit enter. You end up with over 100,000 possible locations for the file. Just make sure what you are searching for is public domain, and not protected under any copyright law.
6. Plus and Minus- You may have noticed I used the + symbol in the search above. What that did was tell Google to search for results that had the “MP3” AND “INDEX” (think of it as a directory things are stored in) AND the phrase “TREASURE ISLAND”. You can also use the – symbol to tell it to exclude results with certain words. So, if you are looking for cute dogs, you could be sure to say -pug and ensure no pugs make it into your search. 🙂
7. Site specific search- Ok, the last one I will cover today. If you know you are looking for results on a specific site, you can head to Google and search for it from there. The syntax for this is just to follow up your search with the following:
site: cnn.com
That tells Google you are only interested in results from CNN, nowhere else.
There are tons of other tips and tricks Google has built into their search engine. Explore them, figure out what Google really can do. Most importantly, teach someone else how to use them. Students today need to learn to find the RIGHT information EFFICIENTLY, and Google certainly has the tools to do this, if we would just take the time to show them how.
Using Goodreads as a classroom checkout system
I was having a Twitter conversation with Eric Démoré (@EricDemore) about books for classroom libraries. Check out his blog as well, it has some quality stuff. (http://demore.ca) After going back and forth for several minutes, the conversation turned to our blogs, and eventually, to the use of www.goodreads.com.
We discussed the strengths of Goodreads, such as being able to have a list of “to read” texts, a way to keep up with books you have read, and a place to find suggestions for one’s next great book. It is made even better by the fact that one can download the app to a mobile device, and add those books straight from the bookstore, using the UPC barcode scanner.
Eric then mentioned that he would like to find a way to make it work as a means of keeping up with student checkouts; a way to keep up with what student has what book off the classroom shelf. I had not thought of that before, so I was intrigued.
Quickly, I poured myself another cup of coffee, and got to it. As it happens, it is far easier than one would think.
Step one: Log into your account at www.goodreads.com (or make one if you don’t have one and really want to be cool)
Step two: In the header section, click MY BOOKS
Step three: Click ADD SHELF on the left side, and name it something like BOOKS BORROWED
.
Step four: Next, click the new folder (whatever you named it), then click settings. Here you can change what is viewable in that folder. You will want to uncheck several of the items, as you probably are not as interested in the ratings and such in this area. Be sure you keep title, author, and date added. Also, click the box to add NOTES. This is where you will put the student’s name who has the book.
Step five: Finally, you are ready to add books to this shelf. You can either scan them from the app, or add them by typing the name. After you add the book, just click the little “edit” link in the NOTES column and add the students name. When they return the book, just delete it from the shelf by clicking the X at the end of the line.
Now, get reading!
Digital Footprints, why Students need to understand them now!
Admit it, you have Googled a person or two, trying to see what you can find out about them. Maybe it was someone who was applying for a job with you. Or maybe it was the person doing the hiring, and you were the one in the hot seat. Whatever the case, odds are they found you… or someone with your name, at the very least.
Let’s face it, information is power. The major difference between now and just 10 years ago is the accessibility of that information. 30 years ago, it was extremely difficult to dig up information on someone, you had to ‘know’ someone. 20 years ago, it was still hard, but there were some of us active on the early stages of the internet, or bulletin boards (yes, that one dates me).
Now, pretty much everyone has a digital footprint. What is a digital footprint you ask? Think of it as a history of what you have said, done, and who you have been hanging around. Things you have done and said when you were happy, sad, angry, etc. The prevalence of social media just increases the size of one’s footprint.
Kids today are all over these social media sites, posting, taking pictures, sharing information, etc. All of it is saved.. somewhere, someone has a copy of it. What a student posts in anger in 9th grade will be there, forever.
Every time that student later applies for a high paying job, you can bet that someone is doing their homework, looking for that person’s digital footprint. Many people think they can just use fake names, etc on websites, and thus avoid being found.
We, as educators, need to ensure that students understand, if someone is determined enough, they can be found. You can find people by trolling through Google, Facebook, etc. If you know who their friends are/were in real life, that just helps you find them.
So, as you prepare for the beginning of next school year, please take the time to really teach what a digital footprint is. Don’t do as many do, write in your lesson plans, so you can say you did it, then don’t. It’s important, kids MUST understand this.
Should the toughest kids be assigned to the best teachers?
Should the toughest kids be assigned to the best teachers?
You know exactly which kids I’m talking about here–their faces appeared in your mind’s eye as soon as you read the blog post title. These are the kids who are violent and relentlessly disruptive in class, the ones who have a reputation throughout the school as being incredibly difficult to handle.Each spring, the teacher’s lounge is filled with speculation over who will get each of those kids the following year…and in many schools, it’s a highly predictable pattern. The teachers with the best classroom management skills get the toughest kids. And every year, those teachers say, “I don’t know if I can take another class like this one. I need a break. I can’t keep doing this year after year.”
Sometimes the principals listen and spread out the toughest kids among multiple classrooms in a grade level, but many times, they don’t, and the teachers who used to be amazing become mediocre because they have nothing left to give. They stop researching new activities in the evenings because all they have the energy to do at night is sleep. They show up at school early to plan meaningful learning experiences, and then get so disgusted with breaking up student fights all morning long that they put on a movie in the afternoon and call it a day. They don’t have the energy for the hands-on activities they used to do, so they pass out worksheets.
I’m not saying that response is right. What I’m saying is that it’s happening, in thousands of classrooms all across the country. Our best teachers are burning out from bearing too much of the burden.
I understand the need to place students with the best possible teacher for them. The problem is that teachers with strong classroom management skills often feel like they are being punished by getting the most challenging students year after year after year. It doesn’t matter that it’s not intended as a punishment. It feels that way when your job is knowingly made 100 times harder than the job of your colleagues simply because “you can handle it.” What happens when you can’t handle it anymore?
And what happens when the grouping of students interferes with the entire class’ education? I can think of two years in particular during my teaching career when I considered it a miracle that the rest of the class learned anything because my attention was so focused on the third of the class who had constant meltdowns. It absolutely broke my heart to see some of my sweet, hard working kids get less attention and assistance because I had to spend every spare second heading off their peers’ violent outbursts. No child should go to school each day in fear of being harmed by other kids in the class, or be unable to get the individualized learning they need because the teacher is constantly attending to severe behavior problems.
I don’t know of any clear cut solutions. I’m wary of principals burdening brand new teachers with students they know will be challenging–the teacher attrition rate is already astronomical. Some of these kids are so challenging that a new teacher would probably leave the profession before the year is out. I also don’t want to see high needs students suffer under the leadership of a teacher who is unable to handle them.
Maybe schools need to provide more professional development to teachers so they are equipped to handle a wide range of student needs and behavioral issues. It’s rare that a district acknowledges how much classroom management issues interfere with student learning: PD in most schools is centered around improving test scores and implementing curriculum. I did work in one district that allowed principals to identify teachers who struggle classroom management skills and provided extra training through CHAMPS, which is an excellent program, but the change in those teachers’ classrooms was negligible. Without ongoing, individualized support, the results are not going to be transformative. And some kids are just so disruptive that all the PD in the world is not going to prevent the average teacher from being exhausted by 9 a.m. on a daily basis.
Is the solution to get rid of teachers who aren’t able to handle their students? How would we identify those teachers in a fair way? Many of them are not “bad” teachers and are perfectly capable of educating the majority of the student population, they just aren’t prepared to manage the type of kids who throw desks when they’re frustrated and threaten to stab any adult who dares to correct them. Let’s be real: some of these students have no business being thrown into a general education classroom with little to no support. I don’t think it’s fair to blame the teacher for not being able to handle such extreme behaviors in addition to, you know, actually teaching the other 29 kids in the class.
So maybe this brings us to the heart of the issue: schools need to figure out how to meet these tough kids’ needs, instead of tossing them in the classroom with teachers who are expected to manage on their own. These students deserve small class sizes, psychological counseling, ongoing social skills/coping strategies support through small group sessions with the school guidance counselor, and so on. Some of these students even need individual one-on-one behavioral aides. But these resources take money, and schools just don’t have it.
Where does that leave us? If all outside factors–teacher training, special services, class sizes, and so on–stay exactly the same, what should principals do? Should all the toughest kids go to the teachers with the best classroom management skills? How does this work in your school?
Wikipedia… a credible source?
Over the years, Wikipedia has managed to create a chasm between educators. Some educators have preached that great evil resides in all things Wiki. Others, such as ourselves, have always said Wiki is a great place to begin research.
Wiki has many advantages over a standard dusty set of 10 year old encyclopedias. Obviously, the fact that it is probably more current is a huge one. Another is the fact that Wiki is searchable. That fact makes it extremely easy to find information that would otherwise be extremely tedious to find.
Wiki has stated that they are not a credible source, however, many educators in the K-12 and Higher Ed systems are beginning to accept Wikipedia citations.
We had the pleasure of presenting paperless classrooms at the Alabama Educational Technology Conference recently. While we were not presenting, we attended other concurrent sessions. One of those sessions was presented by Jeff Utecht. Jeff showed the audience things about Wiki that many of us were not aware of.
For example, all Wikipedia entries are ‘graded’. Entries that are ‘stubs’ or ‘starts’ are generally considered not accurate or credible. However, articles graded as a C level article could be considered credible, and A or B graded articles almost certainly are.
The key here is that you have to teach students how to tell what is credible. You can no longer just preach Wiki is bad, when in fact, it is often more up to date and more accurate than other sources.
So, the question is, how do we see what each article is graded? It is far simpler than we think.
First, let’s start with the Wiki quality scale. An example of this can be found by scrolling down on the following page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Cricket/Assessment#Quality_scale
Next, in order to find an articles rating, you just click on the TALK tab near the top of the article.
You then see the screen that gives you some of the nitty gritty about it’s quality rating. This is where you see just how credible an article is.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2bkbfkwtz9fevlw/Screenshot%202015-06-12%2009.01.46.png?dl=0
So, the answer to the question… Is Wikipedia a credible source? The answer is changing over time… it could be credible.
todaysmeet.com, a way for everyone to participate
Have you ever had those students… you know, like that one, in the back. The students who rarely speak unless forced to do so? Of course you have, we all have.
In the classroom, discussion and debate tell us far more about how well a student grasps content than doing a multiple guess worksheet. Many teachers think that having students regurgitate answers in short answer format is much more meaningful… yet they give them the answers ahead of time, so all the students have demonstrated is how to memorize answers to test questions.
Enter todaysmeet.com. This is a format we use regularly. Students can discuss topics, silently via the website. They bill it as a backchannel, and it truly can be. Kids can discuss a movie they are watching as they are watching it, without bothering others. They can engage in debates about characters, motives, etc., and never disturb a soul.
The interface is about as easy as it gets. Go to www.todaysmeet.com and you find a screen like this:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fsik5gqgg2xsx5y/Screenshot%202015-06-08%2007.08.36.png?dl=0
Simply type the name of the room you wish to create or enter, select how long you want the room to be ‘alive’ and you’re off and running. The interface is quite simple.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/55xrzm2lcdvl62f/Screenshot%202015-06-08%2007.19.34.png?dl=0
You can sign up in a couple of steps, and get a bit more control over who can enter your room and such, but that is not required.
All in all, todaysmeet.com is a great tool for classroom teachers who want to facilitate discussion and get everyone involved. Give it a try today!
The Benefits of Chess
Why Teachers and Students Should Blog
Reblogged from http://www.edudemic.com/how-and-why-teachers-should-blog/
Blogs have the potential to expand student creativity, not to mention their writing skills. Language Arts and Reading specialists will love that, right? But how do I convince them that their students are thirsty for the knowledge they want to share but not the same way that they themselves obtained it? These kids are 21st century students and are adapting to a digital world that they are eager to learn from.
Fortunately for teachers, blogs are surprisingly easy to use. They require minimum technical knowledge and are quickly and easily created and maintained. Students will be able to pick up how to use blogging platforms with minimal technical assistance and teachers will enjoy the ease in the initial setup. Unlike many traditional Web sites, blogs are flexible in design and can be changed relatively easily. Best of all, students and teachers will find them convenient and accessible via any computer or mobile device.
Why Blogging is Great for Students
1. Blogs Allow for Multi-Faceted Learning
Educators need to teach important materials in several ways because each one of our students learns differently. What’s more, we also need to provide students with multiple ways to engage with assignments, based on their individual talents. Blogging is one technique for doing so, as it can allow a quieter student, for example, to feel heard online. Those shy and quiet students feel less pressure when they need to “speak” in their blog or when giving peer feedback, as they are discussing the text on their own terms. Additionally, this journaling format works great with read-and-write learners as well as visual learners.
2. Blogs Promote Literacy and Sharpen Writing Skills
Blogging gives students an opportunity to become published authors and showcase their writing skills. In addition, blogs give students the ability to improve communication and collaboration through the commenting feature. Peer review and feedback become an invaluable part of the writing process. Students from other parts of the world can also comment and provide a new cultural perspective to our own students’ thoughts and opinions. Students’ writing skills are vastly improved through the blogging process, since they have to work harder to hold the readers’ attention. To do that, every word, phrase, sentence, and even punctuation mark must add something to the posting.
3. Blogs Are Accessible and Engaging
With the availability of blog apps, blogging has become very simple and accessible to our students. They can blog from anywhere about anything whenever they are in the mood to reflect. They are not tied down to a desk and feel more free using this writing media. Also, in the age where every person has a camera in their pocket, we have become a society that journals through photography and video. Along with other multimedia artifacts, blogs become more engaging and almost interactive for the readers.
4. Blogs Can Serve as a Classroom Management Tool
When used as an in-class assignment, blogs can keep your students on task and focused. The more blogs students post, the more opportunities they have for others to comment on their blog. It’s an exciting feeling for students to see proof of someone reading their published work, taking time to reflect on it, and posting their opinion or question. Creating a classroom blog instead of individual blogs fosters an online community for your students to extend the classroom beyond the 4 walls. The learning continues wherever they go and their thoughts and conversations keep going.Blogging is a great tool to create student portfolios, as it can be used both as a “learning portfolio” and a “showcase portfolio”.
5 Tips That Will Make Blogging a Breeze
1. Use a simple blog application
Look for popular classroom blogging apps that have been tested in classrooms and made simple even for early elementary students. Blogger is a Google app and is completely free. It is easy and simple to use if you have a Google account you can set up your blog in minutes from a computer or mobile device. Edublogs lets you easily create and manage student and teacher blogs, customize designs and include videos, photos and podcasts. Kidblog provides teachers with the tools to help students publish writing safely online. Students exercise digital citizenship within a secure classroom blogging space and teachers can monitor all student activity. Other great options include WordPress, Weebly, and Tumblr (for photoblogs).
2. Start with a specific writing prompt
If you’re beginning with a class rather than an individual blog, you’ll be responsible for those initial posts, while the students will respond in comments. As students demonstrate both keenness and responsibility, give them more freedom where they earn the right to write posts on the class blog and/or get their own student blog. You can start with Sentence Starters like “Today was the best day ever…” Image-based prompts that can also be incorporated into daily and/or creative writing activities whether they are pictures you took or random ones from a web site or app. You can also invite students to create prompts for the class and use these prompts whenever possible.
3. Create a rubric
Providing detailed explanations of an assignment using a rubric can help students in both completing tasks and thinking about their performance. Be sure to include expectations for the first post as well as for commenting on another student’s post.
4. Know your audience
The audience makes the work matter to students as they have an opportunity to showcase their writing and respond to real feedback. Initially, the teacher and classroom peers are the major audience that provide the feedback. However, you may want to consider sharing the blog details with parents through the school website and newsletters to grow the audience to family members and other parents. This can have unexpected practical use. For instance, if a student is writing a piece on the topic of technology and one of the parents in the classroom is an engineer, that student may be eager to produce quality work to get real feedback — and they may find themselves a great interview source, too.
5. Make content concise
Tight, concise, easy-to-read pieces are ideal for most online readers. Long, complex, convoluted ones are just confusing. Very often, the longer a piece is, the less the writer holds a reader’s interest — all the more so on small screens. As such, your students would do well to get right to the point — a skill they’ll find valuable as they continue up the academic ladder
Takeaways
Educators know that students write better when they have a real audience. But with blogging any student can write for the world to see. Students have an authentic audience for their writing and that has an impact on the quality of their posts and comments. Encouraging students to blog about all sorts of topics helps them see connections among subjects and different aspects of their life and realize that writing is a worthwhile skill in any field.
Want to learn more? Visit my blog here.
Editor’s note: This is an update to Hanna Shekter’s original post on this subject, which first ran on January 5th, 2013. A lot has changed since then, so we invited Hanna back to update her wonderful tips.
Gutenberg.org A plethora of free resources
Anyone making an effort to go paperless will, sooner or later, as the question…
What will my kids read if we have no books?
My answer to that is one that has been around for quite some time. www.gutenberg.org has a wealth of classic literature, free for the taking. We are going into our third year of being paperless, and gutenberg has made the transition much easier.
Head over to www.gutenberg.org and search for your favorite classic. When you do, you get a screen that looks remarkably like…
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j85eqmn1t90a7p3/Screenshot%202015-06-06%2020.24.05.png?dl=0
Click the text you want, and you will see some options.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tbqp955ulc2c3ac/Screenshot%202015-06-06%2020.26.38.png?dl=0
You can download the format you wish, send it out to students to put on their devices, or you can click more options and download it as a text file. The text file is by far one of our favorites. We copy the text into a Google doc, then send it out via Google Classroom. Students can then comment and collaborate inside the document they are reading. What more can you ask for!?