Spring--A Time to Reflect and Grow

It's spring and we're on the verge of spring break. Perhaps, like me, you're looking at doing some yard work, tending your garden in some way--seeing what needs dividing, what needs moved, where you need a new plant, etc. Thus, I thought this week we'd do some similar reflection with our tech "gardens." I'm not providing you with anything new to consider this week, but rather, asking you to do one of the following, then come back here and tell us what you did. And, of course, have a great spring break!

1. Revisit some of the tools and ideas we've covered in Learn and Earn. Identify one that you have implemented and tell us how its use is playing out in your classroom.
2. Revisit some of the tools and ideas we've covered in Learn and Earn. Identify one that you were particularly intrigued by, but haven't really had the chance yet to truly investigate or use, then spend some time doing just that. Come back here and tell us about it.
3. Identify something tech and learning related (that you didn't learn about in Learn and Earn) that you think has had a positive effect on your work and/or student learning. Tell us about it.
4. Identify something tech related that you think could have a positive impact on your work and student learning but that you haven't tried yet (for whatever reason). Why do you think it would be a good thing? What are the roadblocks keeping you from trying it?

So, there, you have it--choose one of the above, then get outside and tend your real garden. :)

Sign Up for SignUp Genius

A friend in another district turned me on to this site that lets you create an easy way for students or parents (or any group, really) to sign up for things like presentation times, conferences, volunteer activities--even potlucks! I played around with it a little bit yesterday, and it, indeed, was pretty simple to set up.

The only thing you really need to think about is how people will access the sign up list. In the end, I selected "Public Anonymous" for my test so that people wouldn't have to create an account with SignUp Genius in order to sign up for my event. However, the advantage of having an account is getting a reminder a couple days in advance of the event.

If you want, visit the test site I made for parent conferences. You can even sign up if you want.

What do you think? Try using this the next time you want students to sign up for in-class presentations or to help organize your club's next event. I think it shows promise and I encourage you to share how you imagine it could make your job a little easier.

Happy Thursday!

Now There's One More Reason to Love TED

This week I want to thank Kristin Edlund for turning me onto TED's ("Ideas Worth Sharing")  new venture: TED-Ed (Lessons Worth Sharing).

First, some background for those of you who don't know what TED Talks are:

TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences -- the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer -- TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize. (from the TED website: http://www.ted.com/pages/about)

Those who know me know that given the opportunity I will go on and on about TED Talks. (Is this an opportunity? I think it is.) I love them. I listen to them at the gym, I watch them while I make dinner, I make my friends watch them after I make them dinner. If I were still in the classroom I would make them a regular feature of my classroom. (Oh, wait! I did do that!--as part of the blended learning class I taught this fall at the high school, a regular assignment was watching, commenting on, and sharing TED Talks. Kids loved them!) I know there are a few teachers who share one talk a week with students and then they discuss it or respond in some other way. One of my favorite ways to have students respond to a TED Talk is to ask them What questions would you ask the speaker? then I have students do some research and see if they can find the answers themselves.

Now, for TED-ed:

TED-Ed's mission is to capture and amplify the voices of great educators around the world. We do this by pairing extraordinary educators with talented animators to produce a new library of curiosity-igniting videos. A new site, which will launch in early April 2012, will feature these new TED-Ed Originals as well as some powerful new learning tools. (from the TED-Ed website: http://education.ted.com/)

Even though the site hasn't officially launched yet,  you can check out the TED-Ed YouTube channel they've started. I watched a really interesting demonstration of how the brain works using a cockroach's leg.

What do you think? After watching the introduction video above and checking out some of their sample videos, come back here and offer your two cents' worth. Did you find something you could use in your classroom? Or, do you have a suggestion for a lesson? I think linking great lessons/talks with great animation is a super-terrific-fantastic idea. You?

Online Discussions in the Classroom

Every day it seems like a new tool for hosting and tracking online classroom discussions comes along. That's because teachers are realizing how powerful these discussions can be as a way to hear from EVERY student and extend learning beyond the school day.The video below from CollaborizeClassroom, a free online discussion platform for teachers and students, not only provides an overview of their tool, but also provides some compelling reasons you may want to consider using online discussions in your classroom.




Many of you may already be using the online discussion tools built into SWIFT and Moodle. Regardless of the tool, making online discussions rich and meaningful for students can be challenging. Check out the Free Resources for teachers over at CollaborizeClassroom to help with this. In particular, you'll find great tips and ideas for supporting online discussion in the "Getting Started" area, including Dos and Don'ts of Online Student Communication.

Want to experience CollaborizeClassroom from the student perspective? Head on over to my 10Tech CollaborizeClassroom site. When you get there, you'll be prompted to sign in, just as a student would. Click "Register now," then fill in the information, but select the "Don't have an email address? Click here." option (so that your email address is reserved for use as a teacher if you decide to use CollaborizeClassroom and follow the directions. As the teacher, I'll approve you and send you an email once I've done so, then you can head back, log in and even participate in some of the sample discussions I've posted for you. (NOTE: If I don't approve you right away, send me a gentle email reminder and I will.)

If you're here for clock hours, offer us your impression of online discussion and their usefulness in class. In particular, if you are already using online discussions, please share some of your tips and tricks with us.

What's Up Next? NextUp Keeps Your Classroom Running on Time

If you're like me, you often plan lessons down to the minute only to run out of time in the end because you let something run on longer than it should have. Of course, monitoring and adjusting is part of the job, and often we should allow more time for a discussion or activity than we originally planned. Nonetheless, I can think of several times when I wanted students to do something (for instance, share with a partner) for a specific length of time and not a second longer. Then I wanted them to move on to the next time-specific activity. In many of these cases I just simply lost track of time because I was called over to help or got distracted in some other way. Now there's a solution: NextUp. This site allows you to create agenda items with specific time allotments for each item. This is done on the fly--there's no account sign up and it's very easy and intuitive to use.

First, go to the site and start adding your agenda items/topics with the amount of time you want to allot for each activity.

Once you've added all your items/topic, select "Create Agenda." That will take you to a new screen that will allow you to "Start the Meeting." 

And you're done . . . the clock will wind down and you and students can monitor how much time is left by watching the seconds tick away if you project the site for all to see: 

That's it--it really is that simple. Drawbacks? There's no restarting the clock or pausing, so this wouldn't be appropriate for activities that truly depend on you being flexible about time. However, in certain circumstances, I think this tool would have really kept me and my students on track, in particular when students were working in groups and needed to monitor their time. I hate to think about how much time was wasted sometimes because I failed to keep us on track.

What do you think? What is a series of activities (aka "Topics")  in your class that you could use this for? Take it for a spin and tell us how it goes.