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Saturday 7 July 2012

There is more space if you want!

There is plenty of space but they squeeze into 1/3 of the space in the Prius!
Mandy Lane, Lacey Loralai, and Jett Blue...The is was on the way home from picking him up at GPA. Two of them have on gentle leaders for control when out of the car and walking, at this time....

Wednesday 20 June 2012

Inserting video from You Tube

It was not easy to get a video of Jett Blue rolling over at agility. Holding the camera, not having my finger over the lense! And he is very fast and spontaneous! It isn't easy for a greyhound to roll over because of their build.

Tuesday 19 June 2012

It is a miracle she was still long enough for this photo!



Don't forget to stop and smell the flowers....

Playing with Picasa Mosiac ...

This is Jett Blue, Mandy Lane, and Lacey Loralai! The boy is definitely interested in watching the computer. 

#11 Tool Self Assessing and Reflecting

Wow, there are so many tools/options to have in my personal technology toolbox! Wattpad, Penultimate, Evernote, CloudWord, Idea Sketch, iBrainstorm, Storyrobe, oh so many! Where to start will be the next thing to do.


I am so glad that the use of technology will improve in the class given the NetBooks and iPads! I just need to spend some time figuring out how to improve their writing skills and English Language fluency skills using these tools.


I am really happy to see the podcasts about using the Netbooks so they can be shared with the students. I am using Symbaloo to bookmark what I am going to need easy access too. 


The next year will be coming soon!

Jett Blue looking closely at the action on the screen!

#10- Underneath it All-Digital Citizenship

I looked at Janie Livingston"s and Sandy Zarea's post on this because they have been working at this for a while. I liked Janies: (1) Establish Clear Expectations and (2) Personal Responsibility. Sandy's three:


      Three things I want my students to understand:
1. The Internet is a wonderful research tool, but you must double or triple check the information and use multiple sources.
2. Any information that is put on the Internet can come back to "haunt" you in various ways, personally and professionally.
3. There are many different types of cyber-bullying, and it is not appropriate in any form.

I will use this to help create my direction for instruction.
I am putting a link to the district chart and might have assign students certain links to view and report what they learned to the class. They need to learn to form their own opinions and express them.

Digital Citizenship responsibilities need to be at the forefront of beginning to use the Dell Netbooks and iPads, as well the computers in the lab.

Monday 18 June 2012

Tool #9 Incorporating Class-Based Devices as Tools for Learning

     It is important that students be working with technology because they will be having to use it in any job they go to. The students that like it will produce ampt-up products and be able to help others as experienced with my students this year. It allows them to be more advanced in their thinking and producing brain. Problem solving becomes easy, not a challenge, and their reasoning skills get practice. 
      Accountability = responsibility
They are learning to be good internet participants for the future. 
    I was disappointed when I visited TES iboard - it meant either a free 30 days or sign up for maybe $18.81 but it wasn't clear if this was for a year or a month. I had to convert the cost. It is not an American based website. The projects looked applicable for a LA's teacher but couldn't move forward.
     Mangahigh was for math. Great if that is what students who come in at lunch want to do.
    I have an Audible.com membership and have downloaded books for the students to listen to, but they also have to be looking at the novel, as well. I mentioned Wattpad earlier which is short stories, and even if I don't have a Kindle, I have the Kindle app and it is great for students to be reading with.
   Look at #8 for a couple of app ideas. As I explore finding more apps I will put them into this blog for "safe keeping." I still place things in the 23 Tools Blog I created in 2008 for that exact reason. It becomes my personal resource parking lot!

Tool #8 Taking a look at the tools

Wow, I already was using my personal iPad in the classroom with my PreAP students. I had one that downloaded a short story APP that she uses at home. She was an avid ready and finished everything to the nth degree of perfection so she earned privileges. I was more than glad to have a free short story APP for my iPad. Wattpad is the App. I just looked at it and OMG. It is great for our students that want to read. It is teen fiction. It has other categories. I have had my iTouch in class, also. 


I liked looking at Angelia McNeils video about the webcam. I believe if I can the students will watch this. I think it would work great as the "Who I Am" station for them to finish their initial writing about themselves at the beginning of the year.


After looking at the website for ACER about classroom management, I think I have an idea of what I will do. I copied the routines and procedures from a website to put into an Active Chart for next year. The cool thing is I copied and pasted into Evernote this  information so that I can use it easily. http://11toolssbisd.blogspot.com/2011/02/tool-8.html and I can even pull it up on my android phone! How cooool is that?


I explored some apps recommended in "iPads in the Classroom"  http://www.schrockguide.net/ipads-in-the-classroom.html. Most of them cost money. Two I have downloaded and think one will be very useful - Brainstorm is 0$ and you can write with your finger and erase and put post-it notes on it and it saves them or doesn't! Another is MindMeister, and I am attempting to get that one to working for me, but will take more attention than I want to put in it right.


How I plan on managing the devices will be decided as to how the students respond to using them which will direct things to be student groups/stations. At this point I haved used computers as a station and for projects and it automatically creates a different dynamic with instruction. Problems will be handled as "situational issues" arise.

Tool #7Reaching outside the classroom...

After talking this idea out with a teacher that I collaborate with at NBM....
Project Idea: Objective: The student will collaborate with other students in other Language Arts classrooms to design a creepy Poe poem, using multiple digital tools.

The time line for this project would be early to mid October.

Process --
1. Consume multiple scary poems, storybooks and short stories to develop topics for their own poem. Also students could listen to a CD with scary sounds to reflect this imagery in their own writing.

2. Draft their poem.

3. Choose a digital tool -- Glogster; Prezi

4. Design and produce their product.

5. Share and Present product with her classroom using Skype.

Tool #6 - Using Web tools to Promote Discussion

Google Docs was something I was beginning to have students work with at the end of the year so they can have their documents for later editing, ect. I have signed up for Today's Meet as I completed a 5 useful Tools last year with Karen Justl and will be trying to implement the use of it more this year.  I was looking at VOXOPOP and thinking that between TM and V there could be some possibility of students practicing more English Language Literacy. I love Edmodo. I started using it after signing up last year during Tech U. It is a great place for them to place their projects. I am able to make comments for them. I had students putting their Glogsters, and Prezis on it so that maybe I could give feedback and editing guidance. I have signed up for WallWisher and Diigo and want to incorporate it, as well. I just have to play around in them enough to figure out how it would be explained to students for successful implementation. Hopefully with the 8 pieces of technology we will be able to follow through with using Skype.

Ropes course-into Motivation Poster- BHL

I have used BHL

for book recommendations. I have built a tri-fold folder and the students have created a trading card about their favorite books. We have organized them into Fiction/NonFiction at this point.
I have had students do the same in Animoto for Books. I have two other blogs, Greytpassion - which is the one that I created when I did 23 Tools. I continue to drop things into it to save them. I have a another blog, LMSReadingLyons, where students put some of their animoto book projects if you want to take a look.

Showing a fellow teacher friend how I put poster into Blog


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Last of #5 - Animoto with video -Mandy Agility




Motivation Poster- Big Huge Labs part of #5 tool


I have used the motivation poster for Motivation slogans, and it could be used for Main Idea, or for extracting a theme for a short story.

Sunday 17 June 2012

Part of #5 - attempting to work w/ Glogster BeauRae

CLICK ON THE LINK TO SEE THE GLOGSTER
BeauRae  Glogster

/http://drlyons.edu.glogster.com/glog-8485-6664/

Glog-8485 Glog thumbnail

Big Huge Labs- part of tool 5


This was created in Big Huge Labs in the Trading Card Format - If you click on it, it will become bigger and you can read what was written on it. The amount of text is limited. The numbers on the little icons represents how many cranes the students made.

#5 - Part 2 - Kachina glogster

Day in life of retired greythound Glog thumbnail
I have created a glogster that is about my first titled greyhound, Kachina Doll. 
Click on the link:
http://drlyons.edu.glogster.com/day-in-life-of-retired-greythound
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Tool # 5 Let's get along Animoto



Part 1 - This is an Animoto with a Power Point inserted that I use at the beginning and during the school year for how we might be able to get along in the class. I converted the Power Point into a jpg. file and then uploaded to Animoto. I have a free teacher account that I have to "update" every year, but it is worth it. The amount of time for the video isn't limited. I can print out the notes in the PP and then have students give me input about what they would like the celebrations to be. I can attempt to make sure that they understand about consequences that result from certain behaviors.
Greyts on the way home after Jett Blue's adoption! Now why do they just lie in 1/3 of the space?
I am trying to see how this works.      
This picture is a fixed picture and I am able to move it around. So, I am pretty happy about students using Google Docs to create documents. The biggest problem will be for them to plan on wanted pictures to be put in a folder for uploading.    

I am also messing with adding and deleting fonts.
I need to find out about being able to tab to indent the first word of the document, also.          
http://support.google.com/docs/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=179738 - Keyboard shortcuts

     http://support.google.com/docs/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=183618 - Formatting tabs and margins  

This is really good information because the one of the most difficult writing issues to get across to the students is that they have to indent for paragraphs on the STAAR writing test.

It is actually very easy to do. I have a checklist that they must do for several documents until they show they know how to work with formatting. I model the process multiple times, also. This is a really good font for them to use because I want white space around the words for them to be able to go back in and edit. It is “The Girl Next Door.” Line spacing is 1.0. I used a typewriter for papers with my first degree. My Master’s was later and I actually had professors that were very specific about margins, fonts, and font sizes and page length. I have exercised that process with my students since I started teaching in 1998!
So, I just copied and pasted from the Google Doc. I have made it a "share" document for all to look at.
I am constantly trying out things to see what can be done, how am I going to tell the students, and what they might do that will need to be fixed.   https://docs.google.com/a/springbranchisd.com/document/d/1ZK-ZjeAzdgiq6yfisCK2RdxBP_B2nsD_IvPijXLil5U/edit

Thursday 14 June 2012

Tool #4

Another teacher created a doc. and shared with me so that I could edit according to my needs. I shared a form that I created for an assignment tracker with another teacher at LMS and NBM. They can edit it according to their needs. I shared a doc. that I tried to paste a picture in and discovered that the picture can't be manipulated so pictures need to be brought into presentations. I also emailed a link to the form. The staff at LMS has successfully implemented the use of Google Docs through forms for ICU. I have used it with teachers at the school, NBM, and SFM. I started having students use Google Docs for projects on the computer, the only real issue was finding it even after they had started a document. Students will a choice of how to create a project using Google Docs!

Tool #3 - Don't Give Up- Sesame Street -Bruno Mars

To me, one of the biggest obstacles to overcome is student motivation to work and be successful. So, finding motivational messages that the students connect to is important to me. I can use them at the beginning of class to get their attention to start. So, I am collecting a bank of motivational You Tube videos... This one could be used and stopped after each proverb/idiom for success, students in small groups could brainstorm personal connections to be used in narrative writing. Another motivational one with various famous motivators... Fairy Dust is an narrative immigrant story that from 1st person point of view and the students have write a narrative the first nine weeks. This is just one many digital stories that can model creating a digital story later in the school year. I continuously explain to the students the importance of making a list of sources when compiling information for a project. When they at are at the computer, I tell them to copy the link of their sources and paste it on the document. I tell them that they need to be aware that there are ramifications of not documenting the source and if it goes public and it will be discovered and can taken to court for plagiarism. The district is going to be using a program "Turn it In" to determine how much is plagerized as opposed to original thoughts and ideas. I created and have been using Dropbox since the beginning of last year.

Tool #2

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/ The Learning Network/New York Times http://teachwritingright.blogspot.com/ Teach Writing Right After looking at many blogs, I found 2 that were of importance/value to me as a Language Arts Teacher. I have included the web addresses so that others can view and form their own opinion. I am sure these blogs will be quite useful for me during the coming school year. I signed up last year for Diigo and there isn't enough time in the day for viewing and following other websites. Everything I spend my time on has to directly apply to me producing what I need for my classes and preparing for STAAR testing in the Spring. I am a very private person and I am aware of PLN and participating in online communities, but I am not the kind of person that wants to share, other than in a personal one-to-one conversation, what my thoughts are because they are MY personal thoughts. Once shared publicly, it becomes a legal document, it is no longer "confidential" and sets one up to potential lawsuits and/or open forum criticism. I also signed up for Google Reader during the 23 Tools back in the summer of 2008. Quality vs. quantity becomes an issue. Again, am I not supposed to sleep so that I make sure I am loading myself up with so much information that can't be used?

Monday 11 June 2012

Tool #1 Well, creating and adding a voki was an interesting experience. It is done!