My New Techie Love

I'm sorry, Safari. I'm really sorry, Firefox. I'm kinda sorry Internet Explorer. I have a new love.  Chrome has stolen my heart.

Now, I don't pretend to be a Chrome expert - I honestly don't think there is anyone out there who knows it all since new features are added all the time.  But, I have recently learned about three extensions that I think everyone should have.

Note - as far as I know, you must use Google Chrome and be logged into your Google Account  in order to access Google Apps.  Please correct me in the comments if I am wrong.

In no particular order:

• Screenleap for Gmail - this extension allows you to remotely share all or part of your computer screen with others. After downloading the extension (see Google's instructions for downloading extensions here), you launch the app by clicking on the Screenleap icon in the upper right hand corner of your Gmail screen.
  
  Instead of recreating the wheel, I did a Google Search for "how to use chrome app screenleap" and found this article from Screenleap.com with the directions and screenshots. No sense recreating the wheel...
• AdBlock Plus - this extension will block all the ads on the different webpages you visit.  Take a look at the two images below. The top one was taken from msn.com using Internet Explorer without Ad Block Plus loaded. Notice the Geico ad on the right?  The bottom image is from msn.com using Chrome with AdBlock Plus installed.  Notice there the ad is gone, replaced by news videos.  I highly recommend this extension, especially if you visit a lot of website with your kids. You never know what kind of ad will appear.

AdBlock Plus not installed

AdBlock Plus installed

• Sexy Undo Close Tab - I constantly have tons of tabs open and then will suddenly feel overwhelmed and start to frantically close them.  Alas, I closed that blog I just found this morning and still wanted to read.  With Sexy Undo Close Tab, I can retrieve that closed tab. Click on your extensions tab opener (the two arrows) and select Sexy Undo Close Tab.  The list of all your closed tabs will appear and you can choose the one you want to reopen. This has saved my life a couple of times now...
  

  

  Click the double arrow to open the list of your extensions  - these are some of those I am trying out.

  

  Select the link you want to open.  Feel free to open multiple tabs.

  I'd love to hear about your favorite Chrome extensions!

School Loop Google Drive Integration

Carlsbad Unified, along with hundreds of other school districts, use School Loop for their major home-school communication system.  Recently, the company announced that they are working on a Google Drive Integration project (currently in beta). This allows users to access their Google Drive from School Loop lockers (online file storage portals).  Districts must request this feature in order for it to be turned on, and Carlsbad was one of the first districts to do so.

Some of  the benefits of Google Integration include:

• It is easy to move files back and forth between Google Drive and School Loop lockers.
• Students can actually submit assignments stored in their Drive via their School Loop locker without having the download and upload the files.
• Creating the document in Google Drive and then copying it to the locker will create a link to the file in Drive (not just a copy), so any changes made to it will be reflected in the locker.  This solves the "multiple copies" issue that many have experienced using the lockers to transfer files to and from home.
• Have a typo your document? No worries. Teachers can make changes to assignments/resources and give students immediate access to the most updated version. 
• Use the same documents/resources year after year in your classroom? Now teachers can safely store their documents in Google Drive and easily link them to School Loop lockers when appropriate during the school year.
• Schools can ensure all documents linked on their webpages are the most up to date by using Google Drive. 

I asked Ashley Crawford (@AshleyC13368912), teacher at Aviara Oaks Middle School, if she was interested in playing with the new system and she jumped at it.  AOM is currently piloting Google Apps for Education (GAFE) for our district, so most students have a Google account they can link to their locker. I spoke with her yesterday and she is absolutely loving it.

A couple of things to note before linking Google Drive and School Loop lockers:

• The user (student/teachers/staff) must be using the new updated Locker system in School Loop.  This new version makes it easier to navigate through the many different lockers teachers may have (personal locker, different course lockers, group lockers, website lockers, etc) and to use a drag and drop feature to add files to them. To activate it, open your locker and click on Try our new locker.
• Your Google Drive must have a folder in it before you attempt to connect it to School Loop lockers. That is a little glitch in the system that will be fixed on the next update.
• Once you are using the new locker, you can connect to your Google Drive using the button shown below.  You will be asked to enter your Google Account name and your Google password. Just agree to the Terms and Conditions and you're done.
  
  

For more information on using Google Drive and School Loop lockers, check out these School Loop webpages here and here.

While Carlsbad is working on the transition to GAFE, any teacher who has their own Google account can use that to link to School Loop lockers. So go for it! Try it! And let me know how it goes!

My Takeaways from CUE 2014

This year, I was lucky to attend CUE 2014 with nine other great educators from my district. It was the first time so many of us were able to attend. The conversations over dinner were worth the price of admission alone.

I created a Google doc for Carlsbad attendees to share their notes from the sessions they attended. Keep in mind, this is a work in progress. Most of my fellow attendees are classroom teachers who went back to school the following Monday to face 30+ parent teacher conferences. Now they are dealing with SBAC testing. I'm sure these notes will become clearer over time, but the links/sites/apps mentioned are worth taking a look at.

I personally had a few ah-has myself and, while the list below is seemingly random, I thought I would share anyway...

•  Everyone seems to be blogging regularly, but me. Why is that? How do they think of the things to share? I have no idea, but intend to use the rest of the year to find out...
•  @bcoeedtech (Butte County Ed Tech) shared the word of the day on March 20th in her session - bi-techual. I love it because it totally defines who I am (PC at work, Mac at home, Google everywhere)
• @levarburton (LeVar Burton - aka the Reading Rainbow guy) gave me two great terms: 
• Self Selected: teachers have "self selected" to be responsible for preparing future generations to do great things.  We are on the front lines, but only because we actually put ourselves there.
• Initiating Events: life changing moments come to fruition for years to come.  One of my initiating events was having my oldest son while still in college. I realized I didn't want to become a physical therapist and changed my major to elementary education. Enough said...
• @Dowbiggin (Diane Main) may just be one of my heroes.  I just love her personality and any professional development she offers will be amazing. Her YouTube channel, especially her parodies, make me wonder where she finds the time...
• Thinglink is a really cool site that I'd never heard of before, but everyone else seemed to know about it.  It allows you to take an image and embed links to websites - virtual field trips or even interactive student reports are great ideas for this.  It's a lot easier to use than I originally thought.
• SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition) for technology integration seems to be everywhere now. It can be a little daunting, but I always encourage others to try to ascend one level at a time. Makes it much more manageable that way.  I wrote two Tech Tidbits articles (issues 5.8 and 5.9) on the subject a few years ago.  It's great to see it truly catching on. Thanks to @dvocicka for his foresight.
• @sjbrooksyoung (Susan Brooks-Young) - her presentation on happier educators included something I've always taught my student teachers to help them remain organized, only she said it much more succinctly -- just remember the 4 D's:
• Do it now
• Defer it (but set an appointment)
• Delegate
• Dump/delete
• Finally - want your students on your district's wi-fi instead of their 3G or 4G?  Remind them that they won't be using their data plan!  You'll get parents on board immediately!!  Thanks to Cheryl Fiello for that priceless tidbit!

So, that was my first attempt at blogging. I'd love your thoughts, but be kind this first time around. I'm sure my blogging skin will thicken over time... 

Don't Just Grade - Grade Happy

Happy Grader is a semi-automated, computer-based grading program for teachers.  Designed by Jeff Simon (Math Dept Chair, Sage Creek High School), it provides an electronic means of assigning full- and partial-credit scores for any type of test question, even open-ended.

• Developed to:
  1. Save teachers time
  2. Increase consistency in grading 
  3. Facilitate the transition to the Smarter Balanced computer-based testing system.  

• Students take traditional pencil-and-paper assessments, but submit their responses to the teacher via a Google Form. The teacher then downloads the Google spreadsheet to Excel

• Initially, Happy Grader runs in “Rubric Building Mode” to assist the teacher in assigning full- and partial-credit scores for students’ responses to each question. Happy Grader stores the teacher’s grading patterns in a scoring guide, along with any standards-based comments that the teacher chooses to provide. These scoring guides can later be shared between colleagues and applied to future similar assessments.

• Happy Grader then runs in “Student Grading Mode” to guide the teacher in scoring additional student responses that had not been previously identified in the scoring guide. The program also facilitates the scoring of rubric-based constructed response items that students may have been prompted to type.

• Once grading is complete, Happy Grader reports summary statistics, prints mini grade reports by student, and generates standards-based feedback sheets for each assessment.

Happy Grader is available at no charge to active Carlsbad Unified School District employees at www.happygrader.com/carlsbadusd.html.  Be sure to download the free Demo Version first and read the system requirements and FAQs. Please note that Happy Grader is configured only for PCs at this time.  Other interested teachers can purchase it for $10 by contacting Jeff Simon directly at jeff@happygrader.com.

Don't Let Apps Get in the Way

When people find out I’m a technology TOSA, one of the first questions I am asked is if I know any good apps for the iPad.  Well, I know a lot of good apps - after all, there are close to 800,000 iOS apps and more than 40,000 that Apple has added specifically to their education store.

Too often, we “discover” a great app and work to find a way to incorporate it into our classrooms. A good teacher can find an educational purpose for almost anything.  However, if we have to work to fit it in, we have to ask ourselves if it really belongs there in the first place.

So, I always respond by asking, “For what?”  After all, it’s not really about the app - it’s about the learning, right? Why should we treat apps any differently than we treat other educational resources?  In my opinion, we shouldn’t. So, these questions should be asked:

What do I want my students to learn? (standards? character traits? social responsibility?)

How do I want I students to learn it? (learning modalities? learning styles? Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences?)
How will my students demonstrate their learning? (essays? group projects? formal assessments?)

So, “begin with the end in mind.”  Then look for the resources that will support your goals. 

Now, to answer the question about apps – some places I recommend:

Apple Education Store: http://www.apple.com/education/apps/

Escondido’s iRead (K-6):
https://sites.google.com/a/eusd.org/eusd-iread/ipod-apps

Tech Tidbits Symbaloo:
http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/techtidbitsapps

If you see an app that has been suggested by multiple sources, it’s probably a good one.

Get Googley with Google Forms

By far, my favorite Google App is Google Forms. This program is so absolutely versatile. Most of you have used Google Forms to submit survey answers and didn’t even realize it.

Some great uses for Google Forms:

• Collect unique info about students at the start of the school year.  It can be completed by parents and step parents (or anyone else who provides care for the child) and it can be resubmitted if information changes.  Great tool for learning about your students.
• Special Ed teachers can gather information from teachers (and/or parents) to prepare for IEPs or SSTs. 
• Administrators can conduct their classroom walk-throughs and take quick notes 
• PTAs can use it to find volunteers for their big events 
• Knowledge Brokers (see Tech Tidbits 6.5) can submit resources anytime to the teacher 
• Elementary sites can submit hot/cold  lunch counts to the cafeteria 
• Create self-grading quizzes in conjunction with a plug-in called Flubaroo (easier than it sounds, I promise) 
• SPED instructional assistants can track student behavior for the SPED teacher
• Turn independent reading logs into a paper free resource by posting 
• the responses online (talk to me about this one if you’re interested) 
• Collect lab data so students have more than one data set with which to work and analyze 
• Students can submit information prior to parent/teacher conferences 
• Report (anonymously, if desired) incidents of bullying 
• Collect questions from students before class meets to better prepare for the next lesson 
• Students can submit suggested test questions 
• Submit book suggestions to library staff 
• Students can provide feedback to the teacher on how they learn best based on a learning style inventory or multiple intelligences assessment 
• Submit lab write-ups 
• Complete Group/Peer/Self evaluations after a large project 
• Exit surveys for teachers/staff on what may need repairing before the next school year starts 
• Students can conduct their own surveys to gather data for an experiment or a problem-based learning activity

Search YouTube for instructional videos – they’re short and to the point. You can pause the video as you follow the steps.

Developing Knowledge Brokers

I just read an article by Larry Rosen in Educational Research called Teaching the iGeneration.  The focal question is how can schools respond to the growing use of technology by our youth to make education relevant.

In Tech Tidbits 6-2, I wrote about teaching and thinking with technology.  Rosen’s article brought me right back there with ideas of how we can do that –by identifing knowledge brokers.

A knowledge broker is “someone who helps you identify online resources.” There is so much online available for free that a teacher, especially one who isn’t very comfortable with technology, can feel completely overwhelmed when s/he does a Google search for a topic and receives millions of hits (i.e., “revolutionary war primary sources” = 5,290,000 hits or “multiplication facts remediation” = 2,370,000 hits).  Who has time for all of this?

So, I have some suggestions for helping you navigate the sea of free online resources:

• Split the work among the team. Teams can consist of any person, located at any site across the district, who teaches the same topic.  Fortunately very few of our courses/subjects are taught by only one person in the district. Once excellent resources are identified, they can be shared across the district. I would be more than happy to help you with that.

• Get students involved.  Give them a head’s up that a certain topic is coming up and ask them to do some research into online resources that both covers the curriculum and interests them.  Of course, the teacher has the final say in the validity of the sites, but at least it will pare down the bulk.

• Get older students involved. Many CHS students love the web and need community service hours. Combine the two and everyone comes out a winner.

• Get parents involved.  There are many parents who would love to volunteer in their child’s classroom, but simply can’t get to the school.  Asking them to become a knowledge broker will give them the opportunity to be involved without requiring them to be at school.  They can research at home and share their finds via LoopMail.

• Share what you discover. Not every resource has to be geared towards a specific curricular area.  Many are productivity tools that help with organization.  Take a few minutes at grade level, subject area, or school wide staff meetings to share a favorite online tool of yours.  Don’t forget a follow up email with a link to the resource to assist your fellow staff members in locating it online.  Include me, too, please.