May 9, 2013

Hello hello!

Happy Quint 5 to all of you. 

Here’s a quick overview of things that have been happening in teaching and technology in the past few weeks.

What’s working:

-         Sometimes it’s the small things that can save you a lot of time.   Renee F and Jeremy have both been using the Snipping Tool to quickly grab screen shots (just search in All Programs for the Snipping Tool and use the cursor to snap a copy of any image on your screen).  As well, a quick way to enlarge or shrink anything in your browser  is to hold the Ctrl button and the + or – button, to enlarge or shrink respectively.

-          Darren and other humanities teachers are modeling collaborative writing with Google Drive (previously Google Docs), here are some helpful tips and resources: http://gettingsmart.com/cms/blog/2012/09/google_docs_for_collaborative_writing/

-          Susan has set up a Dance Studio Calendar in Outlook – you can view the calendar (add Calendar in Outlook) to see when the Dance Studio is available as well as book the space for activities.

-          Jen’s international drama project – The Water Reckoning Rolling Role Project – is using a combination of websites including http://PlaceStories.com  (PlaceStories allows individuals or  groups of people to create digital stories, communicate and collaborate online), Google Hangouts, Google Drive and it’s all described on the project webpage: http://www.water-reckoning.net/index.html

-          Tuney and Rosalyn shared some great teaching ideas including how to check the reading level of a document in Word: http://grok.lsu.edu/Article.aspx?articleid=14250

-          I created a blog for NWS Wired Weekday postings - http://wiredweekday.blogspot.com/ - you can check it out for the full collection of Wired Weekday (previously Wired Wednesday) emails I’ve sent.  It’s searchable and a nice look back at what we’ve been up to here at school!

-          Our IT team upgraded the wireless network over the break… so great to have reliable, faster access!  More on this topic coming soon…

What’s wonky:

-          Email Etiquette -  We’ve seen some discouraging email etiquette lately.  For ways to encourage more courteous correspondence, check out this “contact me” page from David Montero’s teacher page: http://teachers.northwestschool.org/nws/dmontero/contact

To add this to your teacher page, login to SWIFT go to the Contact Me (or equivalent page on your site) and in that top Introduction field enter in text you’d like to appear.

What you wish for:

-          There has been a growing interest in more robust discussion tools.  I’ve been exploring options and this looks interesting: https://piazza.com/profs  I’ve been thinking about the possibility of a department-wide online discussion area/component… eg. Humanities or Math.  Could be interesting!

-          Free group calls with Skype?  Your wish is granted… check out Skype in the classroom: https://education.skype.com/ and sign up for 12 month  of free group calls (connecting with up to 9 multiple groups).  Skype in the classroom also has lesson themes you can search to find classrooms that are doing similar activities around the world.

Wild Cards:

-          Alicia just let me know about the free streaming videos from https://www.hoopladigital.com/  - a free alternative to Netflix.    Seattle Public Library is part of the initial group of library systems offering the service and all you need is your library card number and pin to log in. 

-          I’ve seen some excellent TEDtalks lately but a standout was by author, Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of the single story: http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html

Or check out TED Playlists – Collections for Curious Minds: http://www.ted.com/playlists

-          There are more spring/summer tech workshops through PSESD – a Google Day and more: http://www.psesd.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=327&Itemid=499

-          There is a free un-conference on teaching and technology happening Saturday, May 18^th – Puget Sound EdCamp - http://www.edcampseattle.org/

Thanks so much for reading!

-Catherine

March 8, 2013

Hello everyone,

On such a beautiful day I hope you all get a chance to enjoy the sunshine and unplug this weekend.   Today, the 6^th grade had an unplugged day (including poetry reading by candle light) and like many people who took part in the National Day of Unplugging last weekend, it sounds like they totally enjoyed themselves.    If you’re curious about this whole unplugging thing (and why it’s in my wired Wednesday) pop by the lab, email or let’s chat over lunch.

Below are some of the highlights of what’s been going on in the past few weeks as we use technology for teaching and learning.

What’s working:

-          Teaching in the Lab- York has a fabulous strategy for teaching in the Computer Lab… walk around the room but  teach from the back of the class, have students turn around and face you (turning their backs on the distracting computer screen and keyboard).  The key for teaching in this space is to roam, check out screens, and keep their eyes on you when you want attention.

-          David Montero Is using Edmodo for a secure online class experience – he is using it as a space for online interaction between our students and students in our partner school in Sevilla.   http://www.edmodo.com

-          The CRAAP test is taking off – more here -  and we have a few websites to have students test out the criteria, including:

o   Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus – a great hoax and excellent critical thinking activity http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/

What’s wonky:

-          Laptop cart hygiene – we’ve been seeing quite a few laptops not plugged in when they are put back in the carts, thank you for increasing your vigilance.   And, as Tuney highlighted at Community Meeting, please keep an eye out for students damaging keyboards and removing keys.

-          The IT Team has been making a few changes to the student profile – making it much faster for students to log in  We’ve seen a big improvement and the only snag has been that sometimes the default printer is not the one that’s closest to the computer.  Please have students check which printer they are printing to, if confusion arises.  

What you wish for:

-          An upgrade to our Survey Monkey/ Zoomerang account – this is in the works. 

-          Good typing resources – I’ve found a nice curated list of fun, typing games: https://sites.google.com/site/whiteoaktechlab/home/typing

-          While sitting in on meetings and talking to many of you in the hall I’ve heard that there’s a desire for some tutorials on computer skills – from basic to more savy topics – these are excellent: http://www.gcflearnfree.org/computers

-          There’s been some ongoing interest in teaching students how to code –here’s a great interactive, free site: http://www.codecademy.com  And for those of you wanting to teach computer science concepts without a computer – check out  http://csunplugged.org/ CS Unplugged is a collection of free learning activities that teach Computer Science through engaging games and puzzles that use cards, string, crayons and lots of running around.

Wildcard(s)

-          At the end of January, I presented at the NWS Parent Forum – there were 80 parents in attendance and we had a rousing good time.  The focus was on Finding The Right Balance, and we spoke about how to guide our children in finding the right balance with technology in their lives (and about how to balance it in our own lives).  The podcast of the talk is here:   and all the resources I used in the presentation are on my teacher page: http://teachers.northwestschool.org/nws/cseaver/parent-resources

-          Next week is Teen Tech Week – http://teentechweek.ning.com/ - Check out new books and resources in the library and lab.  The purpose of Teen Tech Week is to ensure that teens are competent and ethical users of digital media, especially the nonprint resources offered through libraries, such as e-books, e-readers, databases, audiobooks, and social media.   

Wow. Thanks for reading this far!

I hope this has been helpful.

 

Enjoy the sunshine!

Catherine

 

February 15, 2013

Hello everyone,

I believe most of us are too weary for anything more wired than this fun little video… 

I hope it makes your day:

http://vimeo.com/58659769

I will send out a much more dense email in the first week of next quint about all that’s been going on around teaching with technology.  Thank you to so many of you who have reached out to Nancy, Alicia and me to include more information and digital literacy in your classrooms – we have been busy!

Until then, good luck with evaluations and be well,

Catherine

 

 

January 22, 2013

Hello everyone,

I can’t quite believe we’ve only been back for two weeks!  This is a busy place and this wired weekday email is almost bursting at the seams.

Here’s what’s happening with teaching and technology here at school:

What’s working:

-          David Matlock is introducing students to the fundamentals of investing using the very cool website, Wall Street Survivor: http://www.wallstreetsurvivor.com/ Even students not in the class seem to be trying out the site.

-          Last year we had a surge of interest in blended learning and “flipping the classroom”-  turning a lecture or other basic materials into homework (watching a video of a lecture, explaining a concept online), and spending more class time in practice and problem-solving.  It’s also popular at UW (among other places) and highlighted recently in the Seattle Times: http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2019920197_flipping17m.html

-          Nancy, Alicia and I have pulled together some useful handouts and videos to help students evaluate resources (books, articles, websites etc).  The CRAAP test (we love the name, the acronym stands for Currency Relevance Authority Accuracy Purpose )is straightforward and easy to use.  You can use the handouts or the quick Youtube description in your classes as lessons or starting points for discussion: http://teachers.northwestschool.org/nws/cseaver/class-resources

-          My Backpack updates: you are now able to see a listing of  student’s teachers.  You are also able to see students’ email addresses.  Follow these steps:

o   Log into My Backback, Search for an individual student.  Select “Details” next to the student’s name.  Click the “Schedules Tab” and on this new page, select the icon above the list, to the left (it looks like a grid) to display “as a list”.  The student’s teachers will be listed.

o   You are also able to see students’ email addresses in My Backpack.  Please only use the Upper School students’ email addresses.  Middle School parents have not given permission to use these email addresses for direct contact of students. This information is also available in the Details section once you search for a specific student.

-          The computer lab and library is no longer a space for Computer Games (read: Minecraft madness is behind us) over lunch time.  This means that students and staff can use the space to do work.  We’ve seen an increase in magnetic poetry writing, face-to-face interactions, as well as MAD magazine and graphic novel consumption.  A huge thank you to Joe for coordinating alternative activities for the middle school students and to MS teachers for supervising.

What you wish for:

-          Tamara and Julie would love to see our default search engine on IE be changed from Bing to Google – Google has a much more robust image search that allows students to actually click back to the original webpage and as a result credit sources effectively.

-          A new audio system in the Commons is woefully needed  – I am contacting people for quotes so if you are interested in seeing any other specific AV capabilities in that space, please let me know.

-          There’s already been a request to add a projector and laptop cart to Standifer to make the room more versatile.  Please submit a tech request if you have other items you’d like to see happen.  The form is located here. 

What’s wonky:

-          Lately we’ve seen teachers’ computers being used by students without the teacher’s knowledge or consent.  I encourage you to lock your computer if you leave it unattended and to set your screen lock up in advance.   If you have your own desktop (instead of using a shared computer in the school) these are the steps to automatically lock your computer when you’re away: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/29410/beginner-automatically-lock-your-computer-when-youre-away/

-          A short note from Peter:

Hello everyone and welcome to 2013. There was something I wanted to bring up but figured two days before break started would be pretty poor timing. Over the past month while the kids have been at school, there has been a rash of keyboard vandalism. I know it doesn’t sound like that big of a deal – but I just wanted to bring it up because replacing keys on the keyboards are actually a real pain in certain places (especially for someone born with 10 left thumbs like me). I understand that some of the keys will just come off due to general wear and tear of being used and abused five days a week. But a lot of times they also come off because of wandering fingers that get bored and just like to pry. In fact, I actually ran out of used H keys and we had to order a new keyboard at the sum of thirty dollars. For one letter. So if you could keep an eye out, maybe let the kids know that twirling hair/doodling on a note pad are also appropriate things to do when zoning out I would greatly appreciate it.

Wild Cards:

-          The NCCE conference is coming up – February 26 – March 1 in Portland, OR -  and I will be coordinating a group of eager teachers.  If you are interested in attending please let me know.  The conference info is here: http://www.ncce.org/2013-home-page.html

-          Gabriel Teodros - the fabulous Hip Hop artist who performed at the end of our MLK celebration - has a TEDx talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvpgggGYtW4

-          This flowchart recently made me laugh - it is the Tech Support Cheat Sheet: http://xkcd.com/627/  (thank you Peter!)

Thanks for making it through this jam-packed installment of the Wired Weekday.

I look forward to seeing more of you in meetings and popping into classes in the coming days.

All the best,

Catherine

 

December 18, 2012

Hi Everyone,

I hope this finds you well or at least winning the battle with these nasty colds!  Here’s a snapshot of how we’ve been using technology for teaching and learning in the past two weeks.

What’s working:

-          Yesterday I had a chance to sit in on Jen Kulik's Applied Theatre class as they skyped with Danial Maposa from Zimbabwe.  He talked with the students about his work to promote human rights and creative expression using applied theatre.  The Protest Arts International Festival is an example of the work they do in Zimbabwe (http://www.comminit.com/governance-africa/event/4th-protest-arts-international-festival-oct-25-27-2012) and Daniel also mentioned the Drama for Life organization - both inspiring, activist arts programs: http://www.dramaforlife.co.za/

-           The new document cameras are set up in Fisken, Sprinkler and Feynman.  They have some impressive and easy to use features:

·         Use the dial on the right of the camera to zoom and then push the round button on that hinge to auto focus.

·         If you are using Smart Notebook software you can automatically add an image using the document camera by clicking on the little “document camera” icon at the top of the Smart Notebook file… it pulls in a photo of whatever is in the document camera’s field of view.

·         For teachers like Wynn who might have students come in with SD cards full of photos… you can slide the SD card into the little slot on the left of the Document Camera and then push the button for SD card view(third button on the machine, below the image of the laptop and the camera).  This will let you pull images from the SD card directly – could be useful for Yearbook.

·         Smart boards can now used SMART Mixed Reality Tools  – this little video gives you an idea of how to use these cool new cubes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sYRVaPPmrM   

What’s wonky:

-          We’re seeing a few people reporting issues with opening files with Adobe Acrobat Reader – the files do not open unless you specifically choose the Adobe Reader application.  It seems an Adobe update may have caused some problems with their own software.  If you’re seeing this problem please submit an email to helpdesk@northwestschool.org and we’ll  sort things out.

-          We’ve had a few issues fall through the cracks – laptops left in carts with post-it notes explaining a problem but no other communication sent.  Please do submit an email to helpdesk@northwestschool.org if you are having a problem, or call the HELP (4357) number, or grab us in the hallway, or whisper to us across the lunch table, or stick a post-it note on my shoulder… you get the idea.  Thank you in advance!

What you wish for:

-       From the remote access/VPN logs we can see that almost 60% of teachers use Macs at home….(myself included).  Do you have any requests for Macs (iPads etc) to use here at school?  Please email me so we get an idea of interest as we finish off budgets.

-          At students request, Stencyl software will be installed on the computer lab machines so they can create their own video games – we have a Game Design interest group emerging!  Check out this very cool little program that makes programming fun and straightforward: http://www.stencyl.com/ or come join our interest group!

Wild card:

-          The NCCE (Northwest Council for Computer Education) conference is happening February 26 – March 1  in Portland next year, we have money available to send people to this inspiring and exciting conference.  Please let me know if you’re interested and we can organize a group trip. The program is here: http://www.ncce.org/advance-program.html

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you all have a wonderful holiday.

All the best,

Catherine

December 4, 2012

Hello again everyone,

Thank you for making it so much fun to work with all of you.  It is a highlight in my week to see all the exciting things happening in our classrooms.  Here’s a quick look at what’s come up in the last two weeks with education and technology:

What’s working:

-          Remote access/VPN is working well – our records show a high usage and so far we have heard of very few problems.  Yay!   Click on VPN on the school homepage or https://vpn.northwestschool.org

-          Jen K is using Evernote as an easy way to collect and organize resources (from websites, to documents, to audio clips and annotated notes…) Their slogan says it well:  “Capture Anything. Access  Anywhere.  Find things fast.“ It’s free and has some great apps too:  https://evernote.com/

-          David Montero and Tina have been experimenting with Google Voice to do audio assignments – students click on the icon on their teacher page, enter their phone number and Google Voice calls them with a pre-recorded message from David or Tina with an audio assignment.  Students simply answer the question in the form of a voice message.  Here’s an example – scroll to the bottom of the page to see the Call Me icon:  http://teachers.northwestschool.org/nws/dmontero/9th-grade-course-materials Check out some of the pretty cool things you can do: http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html

-          More teachers are using Quizlet – online flashcards that students can use to study online or print out – cool little bit of background… Quizlet was founded in 2005 by 15-year-old Andrew Sutherland for a high-school French class. He wanted an easy-to-use tool for learning vocabulary. He built Quizlet for himself, shared it with his friends, and it grew from there.  http://quizlet.com/teachers/

-          Michelle has her 8^th graders creating their class presentations using Glogster – a website to create online multimedia posters – it’s free for the basic tools: http://edu.glogster.com/

-          Please continue to report any issues that come up by sending an email to helpdesk@northwestschool.org – please don’t worry about duplicating an issue that’s already been sent in.  It really helps to know if the issue is happening frequently!

What’s wonky:

-          The computer lab has been overrun lately during lunchtime with computer game-playing students.  We are reminding students of the bump policy that prioritizes schoolwork (you are bumped off a computer if someone needs to do school work and you are doing other things) and empowering  faculty  to ask students to leave if playing games while a class is happening in the lab.

-          You may have received an email reminding you to change your password.  This is a normal reminder every 6 months and you can change your password here at school (not remotely) by logging into your account, holding down the Control, Alt, Delete keys and then choosing “Change Password”.

-          The Carson Smartboard is currently sporting an impressive techy/crafty solution– a pencil and some tape are making the Smartboard behave.  Pop by to see but please don’t move the pencil!  A new board is likely going to be the only long-term solution.

 

What you wish for:

-          More easy to use video cameras… we now have new cameras- Sony Bloggies much like the old Flip Cameras - that allow you to quickly shoot video.  Check them out in the library!

-          New document cameras -  are now available in Fisken, Sprinkler and Feynman.  These are Smart Document cameras and seamlessly (hopefully) work with the Smartboards so you can pull images from the document camera right into your Smart Notebook.  More about these to come!

 

Wild cards…

-          Check out Mark Terry’s impressive article on our website called Getting It Right: Improving The Teaching of Evolution in Schools -  http://www.northwestschool.org/blog/teaching-evolution his most recent project is here: http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/evolution/Skeletons/01.html.

-          Some good tips on how to embed video – a great way to spice up your Teacher page (the trick is to copy the embed code into the HTML view of your teacher page) : http://www.miracletutorials.com/how-to-embed-video-vimeo-in-wordpress/

Phew! Lots of info.

I hope these are helpful and not too daunting. 

Have a great week,

Catherine

November 16, 2012

Hello again folks,

I wanted to share a few of the things that I’ve noticed in chatting with many of you and observing in classrooms in the last little while – the world of Educational Technology has been a busy place…

What’s working:

-         We’re seeing many teachers using blogs for their classes.  Cecilia has a Physics blog:  http://nwsphysics99.blogspot.com/  Francoise is using her password protected blog once again to connect students at NWS with students in France.  And more people are jumping in to try them for projects.

-         Blogs are also  useful as a reflective practice to focus on professional growth.  Here’s a great list of 100 blogs written by teachers about teaching.  Don’t be intimidated by the number, the list is broken down by location/subject with some quick blurbs to help find the most useful info.  Thank you Cecilia for passing this list on:  http://edudemic.com/2012/11/100-high-school-teacher-blogs-to-start-reading/

-         A few teachers are using Pandora as a great way to add music to their classes – just enter the artist, genre or composer you like and it creates a radio station that plays music you’re likely to enjoy http://www.pandora.com/  Pretty cool!

What’s wonky:

-         We have been seeing an increase in wireless problems, our wireless network controller has been randomly rebooting itself – this results in laptops (and other devices) losing their connection to the wireless network and students losing their work (temporarily in most cases) – this issue is obviously high priority and we are awaiting more information from our vendors about the source of the problem.   Here are the three steps to make sure your use of the laptops is as seamless as possible:

o    If you are using laptops for a test, please send an email to helpdesk@northwestschool.org with the date and time of the test -  Karl will be watching the wireless network during your test and able to respond as quickly as possible if things go awry.

o   Whenever students use the laptops, have them save the document immediately and often (MS Word, for example, auto-saves as soon as you save the document)

o   If the laptops lose wireless connectivity during a class  do not panic.  Reassure students and tell them to put the laptop aside for the moment, DO NOT quit any programs.    We have been able to retrieve student work once the laptops reconnect to the wireless when students have followed these steps.

Again, we know this is a serious issue and are working to resolve it as quickly as possible.  If you have more questions about the specifics I know Greg and the IT team are happy to go into more detail with you.

-         Lost remotes – if you know where the Raven or Maya Lin Smartboard remotes are, please return them.  We are ordering more but these are important items.

 

What you wish for:

-         A healthier, greener planet.  You can do your part by turning off your computer AND your monitor (it sucks a lot of energy) when you leave. 

 

Wild cards:

-         The list of Teacher Pages is much easier to navigate if you use a simple keyboard shortcut – hold down the CTRL key and the F key (for Find) and you can then type the name of the person’s teacher page.  The appropriate text is highlighted on the page – a great tip for general web browsing too!

-         This weekend is the TEDx Youth Day  - Dream Big... Then Do It! At TEDx events around the world speakers and performers share their great ideas with audiences of youth. Over 100 events hosted by young people in 42 different countries, and many can be joined by webcast.  Check out the schedule here: http://tedxyouthday.ted.com/webcast-schedule/  Another great resource from this event is their list of recommended Ted Talks specifically of interest to students:  http://tedxyouthday.ted.com/suggested-talks/

-         There is now a new Prezi interface – gone is the finicky bubble menu – if you were daunted before you just might be delighted now.  http://prezi.com

 

Thanks so much for reading and stay tuned for hopefully more frequent, and less dense emails in this Wired Weekday series (you notice I’ve given up on Wednesdays – my favourite quote of late is: “Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.”)

I hope this finds you well. 

Happy weekend,

Catherine