Apps in Education

Found this blog. It looks like a great resource to keep in our now organized bookmark lists. It lists Apps by subject area making it easier to find ones that are applicable to you! Mathsmagic sounds fun!

Everyone Gives

My current event for next week talks about the website Everyonegives.org. (see info on my current events page). My school is thinking about doing something like this for our Take Action Day coming up, and I thought I would try to use my own social networks to see how many people I can influence. I have posted it to my facebook, and twitter, and I hope to see some more donations soon.

If this idea speaks to you, feel free to check out my tree.

Tablet Woes!

First of all, sadly, I am not implying by the title that I finally got an iPad. But the current (less than satisfactory) laptop tablet I have in my class has been annoying me for months! The screen has always been so sensitive that it thinks I am writing when my stylus was nowhere near the screen! The results were hard for students to read, and difficult for me to write - even semi-legibly!

It got to the point where I would rather write on the board than use technology! I finally started asking around, and tried updating the laptop's drivers, but that didn't work. Then I tried with the specific stylus program and searched around online for an update of that one. It took an hour or two of searching, and updating, and restarting (you know the drill) but the good (well great) news is that it is finally fixed! Now I can write notes on the tablet without my equals signs looking like z's! And my writing doesn't join up (unless I want it to that is).

I think my lesson here was that I shouldn't just settle for the way things are. If things are bothering me I should change them, or try to fix them! Enter Job Action :)

Back to Moodle

My goal was to have my marks on Moodle so that the kids could see them, but since I already use Integrade (which is super easy to email parents progress reports with) I didn't want to have to constantly change 2 grade books. I haven't decided if I should just put up total grades every once in a while, or just upload a PDF of student grades (by student #) every week or so. For the time being I think I will just put on PDF files so I won't have to change it all the time, and this way students will still be able to see what they are missing when they are not at school to ask me.

HootSuite

According to their website HootSuite is“the leading social media dashboard to manage and measure your social networks”. I took the quick tour to get a quick run down of what this tool actually does. I have heard good things about HootSuite. It was easy to create my account using my Google account, and easy to add twitter to the feeds. Eventually I might try to add Facebook too, see if it makes it easier to follow everything if it is all in one place.
I have added a few hash tags to follow and I really like the way I can see them all at the same time. I must admit paging side to side through the lists isn’t as fun on my laptop as it is on an iPad, iPhone, or iPod…. But perhaps someday soon I will share in the fun with other iPad users.
The hash tags I have added were suggested to me: school district, school, provincial education. I will try to find some more to follow over the next week or so.

haleymath

Well I have done it: something I said I would never do. I have signed up for a Twitter account.

First of all Dislikes:
I do not like the way that when you set up an account it makes you follow people. I understand why they do that, so that you can understand how it works, and to get you started. But I did not like the way that you couldn’t continue with the application until you had picked 5 famous people to follow. It seemed useless. I ended up going in after and “un-following” them.

I also do not like the way that just anyone can follow you. A teacher at my school warned me that people will try to follow you mostly just to advertise something they are offering, no matter if you share that interest or not. So I have made my account a little more private and I have to accept all my followers. Perhaps this goes against the whole idea of what Twitter is: to share not only what you are doing, but also sharing links and ideas, to the world. But something about me just shies away from opening my profile completely to just everyone!

But despite the above I do like the way that you can change your tag at any time (if it is available). At the moment I have chosen haleymath (pretty self-explanatory I think….my name is Haley, and I teach – and love – Math). I have put on a picture of my Mii to make it slightly personal. I am not sure if I will change my tag at some point, to give myself more anonymity perhaps, but for the moment I am happy with it as it is. So I now have a Twitter account. Feel free to follow me……well if I allow you that is.

Twitter - Why?

In a world where now everything is described as something-2.0 it is important to understand what that implies, and the impact on everyday life. According to Wikipedia the now-widely-used term Web 2.0 used to describe applications, and programs online that encourage sharing and collaboration. “A Web 2.0 site allows users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as creators of user-generated content in a virtual community, in contrast to websites where users are limited to the passive viewing of content that was created for them.”

This trend is here to stay, not matter how tech savy you are. And it isn’t just in the education system. Most businesses, charities, towns, and almost anything else you can think of has a website, facebook page or twitter feed. Berger and Trexler state that most students use the internet, and up to 77 percent have their own networking site (Pg. 161). Teachers come from generations where we remember what it was like before the internet (and I am only 30!), but we still need to realize that there are benefits of using Web 2.0 tools in the classroom, and not just to teach students how to be safe online. "When asked what they learn from using social networking sites, the students listed technology skills as the top lesson, followed by creativity, open to new or diverse ways, and communication skills" (Berger & Trexler, pg. 162, 2010). By definition Web 2.0 tools are interactive and invite collaboration and "Social Networking supports all phases of inquiry as learners interact and collaborate" (Berger & Trexler, pg. 163, 2010).

It has some promising uses in the classroom, but the real reason I am getting into social media at this time is to collaborate with other teachers. The NSBA (National School Board Association)”recommends that schools consider using social networking for staff communications and professional development". Using Twitter I hope to be able to find easily new trends in education, locally, and globally.

Berger, P. and Trexler, S. (2010). Choosing Web 2.0 tools for learning and teaching in a digital world. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.

Creating & Connecting: Research and Guidelines on Online Social – and Educational – Networking. 2007. National School Board Assoc., in association with Grunwald Associates LLC. http://www.nsba.org/site/docs/41400/41340.pdf

Web 2.0. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved February 16, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

Google Reader - Organization

I have just taken Katrina's idea, and now my Google Reader account is a little more organized, and easy to follow. I have renamed all my subscriptions to make them easy to find.

Moodle Update

Just has a total 'aha' moment or maybe it was more of just a lightbulb moment. I was uploading things to my moodle site realized I didn't like the layout because the list was already really long and my classes are only just finishing the first chapter..... Then I thought, why can't I post more than one file in a heading, and it turns out you can! So now I have all the chapter 1 stuff under the same title so it takes up WAY less room. See?

I even added important stuff under the title. I like this SO much better!

Moodle

I have been working on starting my Moodle website for my Math classes. With a huge help from Michael (our district tech helping teacher) for inputting all my students I have set up the account. I have now uploaded all my outlines and daily notes. My hope is that students will be looking here daily for notes (especially if they miss a class).

First I changed my background. It is a nature scene that changes each time you log in. Here are some 'leafy' examples.

Then I started uploading my files (in PDF format)

When students log on they will see a list for uploads from their course only

And when they click on a file they can view the notes, and catch up on any missed work!

I am hoping this will make my life easier by putting more ownership on the students to know what they are missing rather than me chasing them up. Now when they say they haven't done their homework because they weren't here for the notes I reply "but I am sure you went on the moodle site to get caught up!"

Semester 2

This is a busy semester for me. I am teaching 4 blocks and 3 new courses (new to me, and also to the math curriculum) so I find myself so busy with the developement and preparation for the courses. The good thing about my Enquiry project is that many of the things I want to learn and initiate I can actually complete directly within these new courses. But still for the whole week I have been at school until at least 7:00PM. It will be a long semester, but the work and positive attitudes I get from my kids reminds me that putting in the extra effort makes it worth it. I know I could just come in in the morning and do examples right from the textbook, but students loose interest so fast that way and it would be more work to get them back.

I have my Moodle site all set up which was the first thing I wanted to do, I have played around with all the settings, and now have a nice waterfall or nature scnene on all my class pages. I have also started uploading class notes. When I have some time I want to find links on the internet to supplement the students learning, or so they can review topics from home. I will try to get up some screne shots soon so you can see what I have done. I have emailed all my parents about the moodle site so I hope this will increase their awareness of what we are doing in class, and make sure that they keep up to date with their childs' learning.

I have also set up a Google Reader account as Joanne suggested, and am finding it very useful. At the moment I am only following the blogs of my small group members (hello members!), but will add more to the list as time goes on.

I have been using PowerPoint to create lessons for years now, but I am just learning all the new features in PowerPoint 2010 which is a bit time consuming as it takes time (obviously) to play around. But now my presentations in class are much more interesting, but also it is easier to illustrate many math concepts so that students can see things visually. Because I am teaching these new courses it is pusing me to develop new lessons and I think it will be good for both myself and the students in the long run.

Overall I am pretty pleased with what I have done these last few weeks. I am excited to get my twitter account up and running soon I have a list from other colleagues of people that they follow.