Making Leaps And Bounds Into the Future

Just a few days ago, I was speaking to a fellow educator about her differentially gifted students and their means of operating tools of technology to communicate and demonstrate mastery of the objectives. We were discussing how to manipulate the iPad and using the Universal Access on the Mac to overcome certain challenges. However, the thoughts continued to roll, I get an invite to take a look at a new product that is about to be unveiled and I immediately leap in the air with excitement.

Leap Motion has come up with a way to improve interaction with your computer through the natural movements. The idea is to replace the mouse and keyboard with a technology that will allow you to use your motion to dictate the applications on your device. Basically, you begin to conduct your computer like a technology orchestra using swipes, pinches, and any other normal hand movement to direct what you want to happen. Imagine some of our Differentially Gifted students having the ability to communicate with and manipulate complicated programs with their own natural movements. They receive immediate feedback and gratification by doing something on their own. The technology is comparable to what we have seen in the movies like Iron Man (Which I vow to have a system just like that one day) and Minority Report and makes huge strides in bringing similarities to our homes at a very affordable rate.

I can't wait to see this technology in schools across the country and I look forward to having it in my home real soon.

Update From JibJab Jr. Books

Reblog...Sneak Peek into Our Upcoming App Update!.

Truly love using JibJab Jr. Book, oops, I mean, StoryBots Starring You Storybooks both at school and at home. My own children have asked me to sell all of their books off of their bookshelves because this is all they want to read at night. In the classroom, younger students love being portrayed as the main character in a book. I have suggested to some to use the story to highlight the "Star of The Week" or whatever student highlighted activity going on in the classroom. However, as an extension, the great animations allows for the students to easily act out the scenes to practice literary elements such as sequencing.

I'm excited about the changes to come from JibJab Jr. Can't wait until the day they add multiple starring me character opportunity within the stories...hint hint!

Moby You Should Pass On This One...

As normal, I peruse the web searching for the newest tools to turn into Ed Tech super weapons to annihilate traditional teaching methods fed to today's digital student. In my search over time, I have found myself connected with more than enough social media platforms. Therefore, having a way to share, participate and be in all places at once is attractive. While looking at my social media hangar, one of my twitter PLN buddies posted something from MobyPictures and described it as a place to share photos on all your social media networks from one place. Perfect...so I thought. As soon as I went to the home page, my computer was flagged for inappropriate images. (I have it set up that way because I have kids.) Well, come to find out, Mobypictures does allow you to use one site to share with them all, but anyone can share anything, and I mean anything, including...well, I Leave it at that.

If you are looking to eliminate having to access multiple social media points in your classroom and simply use one to share to all, pass on Mobypictures, you could lose your job because of it.

I Love Prezi, but....

Ok, years ago, I become enraged when walking pass a classroom and students were putting together boring presentations on Power Point instead of using animation tools on Keynote or Xtranormal (When it was free and G-Rated). My, how time has flown by. Most people are now hooked on Prezi and for good reason. However, I think I may have found something that will provide a great alternative.

PowToon is the brand new Do-It-Yourself animated presentation tool that supercharges your presentations and videos! It's marketed as a time and money saver for creating Presentoons that bring the WOW!-factor to product demos, business presentations, social media clips, and much more. The educational factor is what interest me. Most teachers ooh and awe at Speed Draw Cartoon Presentations, or demos put together by the folks at Creative Commons. Well now, teachers and students can create those type of presentations themselves. 

I highly recommend the tutorials before jumping in and you have to keep in mind that PowToon is in Beta form, but oh the possibilities. I'm ecstatic. I love Prezi, but.... I may turn real soon. 

Not My Normal Technology Post, But I Had To Share

CLICK TO WATCH THIS VIDEO PLEASE!

On my way home tonight I saw a church billboard which asked the question:  “Are you showing God’s love?”  IMMEDIATELY the song I’ve included above came on.  PLEASE go listen to it.  It’s one of those songs I’ve heard before, but I admit, I have never really, truly listened to it’s lyrics.  It answered the question on the billboard.  I HOPE THAT MY LIFE IS PROOF OF GOD’S LOVE! 

I know my life  has not always reflected God.  There were years in my life that I knew who Jesus was.  I talked to God.  I prayed my little night time prayers and I blessed my food.  I even felt goosebumps when I felt like I was close to what God wanted me to do.  BUT I DIDN’T really reallly reeaaallly know Jesus.  I didn’t look at God as my true creator.  He was more like this big guy in the sky.  You know, that is what I’ve heard some athiest call Him.  EW!  I never ever never want to think like that ever again.

I can’t tell you the exact day I finally figured it out.  I mean, I know there are people who can tell you the exact day and hour that they actually got “saved,” and I'm one of them, but I can estimate the time where I finally figured out that Jesus is my personal savior!  I **FINALLY** decided that there were things in my life that were actually plans of the devil himself.  Did I drop all of those things cold turkey?  No.  Wish I could have!  Who doesn’t hope for peace, hope and a clean conscience!?   Even though I wasn’t able to drop them immediately, I did begin my journey of moving away from them.  Amen, Halleluia, Praise God!

I am such a sinner.  SUCH A SINNER!  We all have those gritty grimey things that clutter and cloud our mind.  I know I cringe or even get sick to my stomach thinking about some of the things I’ve done that were not Godly.   Positively though, I know, looking back, I’m not where I was 10 years ago.  I’m not where I was 5 years ago.  I’m not where I was a YEAR AGO!   AND I am not where I want to be now.  I want to be closer to God.  I want to be able to be in constant fellowship with Him.  I want to be able to LISTEN and hear what He wants me to do in all things.  I know I want a lot!  But I totally and absolutely believe that because I have Jesus as my savior, my faithful friend, my grace and my power, I can do all things THROUGH HIM!  I can continue to grow in Him and become THE PROOF OF HIS LOVE!

How to get more done quicker using your voice in Evernote

How to get more done quicker using your voice in Evernote

As I'm trying to become more familiar with the impact Evernote can have in the classroom, I came across this piece that actually taught me something new. It's worth looking at for certain, plus I definitely trust the Cool Cat Teacher!

Online School Newspapers

I made the decision to follow my god-daughter on twitter after meeting some of her friends at her High School graduation. Interestingly enough,as I begin to follow her, I thought about categorizing the different conversations, tweets what have you and putting together a college of messages for her to create a poster from. Well, a few days later, I ran across a web 2.0 tool that made start thinking about my initial idea as and educational project.

Paper.li is a content curation service that allows it's members to collect digital information and publish it as a newspaper all based on the topics enjoyed by the owner himself. Now of course I'm thinking of ways this can be used in the classroom and I can't help but be excited about using this tool in our journalism class. While teaching the basics of news reporting, students can be assigned various topics, comb the web for related information, articles, videos, etc., and then use Paper.li to pull it all together in wonderful template that actually engaging to peruse. I also though about using this as a staff development assignment for teachers to gather information about classroom management, or technology implementation and publish their papers as a way to share what they have learned.

 The truth is, there is a ton of information out there and I don't believe it is possible for one person to get to it all. However, working with tools like Paper.li many people can be reached and not have to search through the massive content of the world by themselves. Here are some links to some trending examples:

Wonderful Wedding and Wisdom
The Patrick Monroe Daily
The Obsession Fitness Daily

Teen Choice Awards Classroom Engagement

Ok, having a tweenie in the house brought my ears and eyes to the attention of the Teen Choice Awards on ABC Sunday night. This is the 14th annual show and I never new this existed, mainly because I haven't been a teenager in eons (that word shows my age). However, after having to unglue my eyes from the tube due to uncontrollable gazing at the massive use of technology going on during the production, I felt obligated to say that this is what today's classroom should be like. No, Justin Beiber or Zach Efron do not need to visit your class to keep the students engaged, but giving them a choice does.

I have always been a fan of self-paced project based learning mainly because it allows the learning to individualize his instruction based on his individual way of comprehending information. It gives them a choice in what they learn and how they learn it which in turn, makes learning more impactful. The role of the teacher should be to facilitate the process and serve as a guide and mentor in the development stages.

Years ago, when classroom management turned the methodological page to adapt this generation, the rage was about giving students a choice in what the rules of the classroom should look like. Students felt empowered because these where their rules, their consequences, their choice. I'm willing to bet that in classrooms where the teacher patiently facilitated the classroom according to those rules, the success rate was off the chart. That movement has digressed a bit, but that doesn't change the truth. Why not let them text you an answer, there's an app for that? Why not let them create a summary of the topic at hand in a 140 character tweet? Why not let them create to demonstrate mastery of a science lesson? Trust me, the reason why so many teenagers and preteens, (not my daughter of course) watched the show and performances was because they were giving a choice of who the winners of the coveted Surfboard award would be. They were also given a choice to how they viewed the show.

So, If a teacher at the end of each week puts out a survey to have students choose what they want to learn the next when, the order to learn it in, the method of delivery and how they will demonstrate mastery, I would be willing to bet that 100% of your students would tune in to watch to see what happens. Oh, and during instruction, give a chance to let you know how they feel. Feedback for the teacher is good too, given a choice.

Can You Say Bye Bye To Document Cameras?

Not too long ago I participated in a very insightful conversation about document cameras in one of my LinkedIn groups, which I am beginning to enjoy using as a viable educational technology networking source, and I was amazed and the information given. The initial questions was centered around finding the best document camera to use on a modest budget. I didn't know that there are thousands of document cameras being marketed as the supreme educational tool for the classroom. However, the overwhelming response were that many people, teachers and schools are going away from document cameras and are beginning to use iPads as a replacement. So, I begin to do some research and I found two new tools that would make this not only possible, but a ton of fun.

One of the challenges of using iPads in the classroom so far is displaying content from the teacher's iPad directly to the projector screen. Many are using Apple TV and using AirPlay to mirror the content directly to the screen. AirPlay lets you show exactly what's on your iPhone 4S or iPad screen to everyone in the room. You can display webpages, games, photos, videos, documents and even Skype using your iPad and display it on the big board. All this works wirelessly allowing the teacher to roam around the room and keep the students engaged. 


At the fraction of the cost, a great alternative is the Reflection App. This app is adding to your laptop or desktop attached to your projector and uses AirPlay to mirror not only your projector, but you can also mirror your desktop onto your ipad. What's even cooler is you can screen capture your ipad as your a demonstrating a cool concept or game. Now you have an instructional video that can be loaded to YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler, etc. for future educational reference. 

The problem is, holding the darn thing in order to use it as a document camera. Where here lies this neet tool called Justand. Justand is a simple yet powerful tool that adds functionality to your ipad as a document camera. As a matter of fact, that what it marketed as, the iPad Document Camera.  The following video gives you a brief overview of how Justand can be used with the iPad and the Reflection App.

3 Inevitable Changes Coming To A Classroom Near You | Edudemic

3 Inevitable Changes Coming To A Classroom Near You | Edudemic.

Make It Take It

The lazy days of summer are a thing of the past. With the ability for kids to collaborate online, Google+ has come up with a fantastic concept for the summer that could blossom into a project based juggernaut for STEM programs across the country.

Introducing Maker Camp on Google+

Maker Camp is a free online experience where teenagers have the opportunity to participate in a different project everyday from July 16 - August 24. For 30 days, 1 project will be given online to complete for a total of 30. Counselors will provide guidance and support for each project throughout the day to help to make sure teens successfully complete each task. At the end of each day, Maker Camp will host a live Google+ Hangout to display successful projects and allow teens all over the world to chime in on the experience. Each day of the week is themed to appeal to every camper’s unique interests:

 • Maker Monday

 • Tinkering Tuesday

 • Weird Science Wednesday

 • Theoretical Thursday

 • Field Trip Friday

"Now every teen can experience summer camp no matter where they live because it’s online

and it’s free!" Cool thing about it is kids get to talk about their experiences online, and you know how much they love doing that.

Reengaging Students in Research and Reporting

I was having a conversation with a school librarian, excuse me, Media Specialist the other day and we were discussing research projects and how students rarely use the reference materials on the library shelves. With today's digital child, we both understood, but we were prompted to brainstorm ways to spice up research in schools along with how students would present what they learned. Well, I ran across something that I thought would be quite intriguing, Storify. Storify is allows a user to curate social networks to come up with a "Social Story" that brings together media scattered all over the web into a comprehensible piece narrated by the logical understanding of the user. Imagine, students would be able to comb various social sites, congregate meaningful tweets, Facebook post, google+ shouts, and put his/her own voice to convey a meaning to it all. Students can embed video and relative stories while adding headlines and text within. What you end up with is a meaningful, real-life, and engaging research paper and presentation in one neatly put together space and you can even go viral with the finish product to accumulate more knowledge. I truly believe that in order to reach today's student, we have to meet them where they are, I believe this could possibly be a tool that would do just that.

Keeping A Pulse On The Classroom

Teaching students to communicate effectively is very important to my classroom. Hence the reason my students blog so often. The problem for me in the past has been keeping up with everyone's blog for grading and pleasure. Well, I found this great tool that is already in massive use for news related stories, but I figured I could use to compile all my student blogs with. 

Pulse News.  Pulse takes your everyday favorite websites and compiles them into a rich interactive collage of sites that you can easily access. Once you use the easy set template provided, any site that you rss will automatically come to you in this beautiful design. So, I simply put in the addresses of all my student's blogs and voila! As soon as a blogging assignment is complete, it come right to me. No more searching to see who is done. Cool huh! The best part about it is I can do this all from my iPad or iPhone or an Android based phone. Grading on the go! I can then email the student their grade directly from the app. If one of my students writes a particularly fabulous post, I can tweet the link to the class or post the link on our community FaceBook page. Making bragging on the students to the your following public simplelicious. (As one of my students puts it.)

Classroom Communication....?

As we get closer to state assessment time, parents are extremely interested in what is going on in the classroom. They become more nervous than the students, who are still oblivious to the importance of the upcoming assessments. Nonetheless, Parents want a closer look inside the classroom, mainly to ensure that their student passes on to the next level. Therefore, communication is key....so what are the best ways of doing this while using technology? I thought you would never ask.

I'm finding no avenue is perfect for every parent, but if you try to differentiate with your parents, like we all attempt in the classroom, then here are a few areas to dabble in.

Class websites:
There are many website tools out there, but cost is a premium issue. Some I have used effectively are SchoolWorld and Wix. SchoolWorld is an easy website template that comes ready made with interchangeable designs that fit the need of your classroom. There are unlimited pages that you can create and the content is up to you. You also can import class list to create quizes, polls and games to make your site more interactive. The coast is $39 a year for the basis, $59 for the advance version which includes the quiz maker. However, if several teachers sign up at the same time, you can save money with the bulk discount SchoolWorld offers teachers, schools and districts.

The only thing I do not like about SchoolWorld is the inability to embed html. Therefore, no third-party video and sound.

Wix is a flash website building tool that is actually free. You would get basic layouts that are tailored toward certain industry genres, but can be manipulated to fit your style. You can add many animations and flash effects to make your site more engaging. It also works as a drag and drops platform, allowing for easy page building. You also can embed your own polls from third-party website along with video and audio simply by pasting the html code.

The draw back to Wix is that it runs slow for families that have low-speed internet connection at home. Also, the more animation you add, the slower your pages takes to load.


Blogs:
Another popular way to correspond with parents is simply by putting all your information in a blog. Blogger and Wordpress are very simple to use and parents can ask questions or provide feedback easily via commenting and emailing you through the blog.

With blogs you can also, post cool videos to go along with lessons, embed polls, and truly make it an interactive experience for the families that you need to keep in the loop.


E-Magazine:
Many teachers create weekly newsletters to print out and send home. Some make it, some do not. Therefore, I began uploading my newsletter into ezine creators like issuu. I simply create my newsletter using my favorite publishing tool; which Pages, upload to issuu and they publish my newsletter as an online magazine. Parents can rss to your issuu site to receive updates on when the next issue is available each week or whenever you publish a newsletter. You can now be as creative as you want without trying to fit everything on one page. Teachers can even create a grade-level magazine highlighting the weekly events. The best thing is, it's free!

These were just a few ways to keep the families in touch that you have an impact on Monday - Friday during the school year. The key is communicating so find you niche and get your class involved. I guarantee, the more your parents feel involved, the more support you will receive from them.

An iPod In The Hand Is Better Than A Book In A Nook

As more and more district contemplate going BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), attention to what device has the greatest impact in the classroom will rise. In my class the debate is on. We are doing a novel study and I allowed the students to use their own e-reader. We ended up with 2 Kindles, 1 Nook and 9 iPod Touch. Once we downloaded the book on all devices, students were salivating to start reading.

Now, this post is not to compare the devices but to prove a point. I assigned two chapters to read, 10 questions per chapter over inferencing, author's purpose and organizational structure along with a response post on their student blogs. 15 out of 25 students completed the assignment on time, which included all 12 who used a hand held device. What was more interesting, was 11 out of the 12 students with a device held thread conversation on one another's blog about the 1st two chapters.

Is this just a coincidence?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Virtual Zoo Can Enhance Problem Solving Skills

Social Media games can be time consuming and very addicting, however troublesome if you get to caught up. Well, this year I got into a game for my first time and immediately saw how it could impact the classroom in a powerful way. Tap Zoo is a virtual zoo application that allows a player to grow his/her own zoo. The player will manage the animals placed in the zoo and have the opportunity to collect revenue for each animal and revenue generating object used to enhance the decode of the zoo environment. Some animals generate more revenue than others so how you spend your money and calculate your profit determines the success of your zoo.

What I did was download the app to my iPad and found an animal buying guide (http://tapzooguide.com/animals) to post to a Google Doc to create a discussion board. Then we held a discussion surrounding the guide about profit. We looked at the animals in each level that would allow us to make our investment back the quickest. Then we developed a strategy and timetable for making our purchases. Then I let the kids grow the zoo. The students used Google docs to collaborate on ideas and document the expansion of the zoo. As a class they decided on who the buyers would be, who would be in charge of breeding, who would cross-breeding (mixing of the animals to create more exotic creatures and sometimes highly profitable) and finally they chose designers who would be responsible for not only the upkeep of the zoo (you have to clean the zoo), but would also try to make the zoo look good.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Drop it Like It's Hot

Ok, ok... I know it has been a while since I have lade down some technology knowledge for classroom use, but since my MacBook was stolen in October, I've been sort of lost in space and I'm just now finding myself. Sad part about the entire fiasco was loosing so many personal items like photos that I hadn't had the opportunity to upload elsewhere. The cool thing is, I was still able to grab a ton of files, music and important work documents because I use a cloud storage device.

Let me introduce you, if you haven't been already formally acquainted to Dropbox. Dropbox allows you to get rid of the flash drive and always have your information readily accessible on all device that you have it loaded to, or from any computer that has online capability. Folders can be shared with anyone you like, and you and your cohorts can utilize the same documents from anywhere. Here in Mesquite ISD we have a teacher share folder, but the problem is, you can only access the folder from the Mesquite ISD server. With dropbox, you can start working on a project at work, save it to Dropbox, open it at home then share it will a colleague just by dropping it in your shared folder. Your colleagues can see exactly when you upload the document to the folder or even when someone makes changes as soon as it is dropped. Collaboration made easy!

The really cool thing about Dropbox is deleting file. My wonderful thief and new owner of my macbook attempted to delete all my files that were stored in Dropbox. However, I accessed my Dropbox account online and I was able to restore all my deleted files. If an item is deleted from any device, your online account will archive the file just in case you didn't truly mean to delete it in the first place. Hallelujah!

Check out the video for more info, then ditch the flash drive (that you loose so many times anyway) and drop a Dropbox on your device today!