MSM 139 Testing, Conferences & Tools
Jokes:
Ailments
A man was feeling terribly out of sorts and decided to go to the doctor so he made an appointment and showed up the next day. After the doctor examined the man, the doctor invited him into his office for the consultation. The doctor came into the room with three different bottles of pills. The doctor told the man to take the red pill in the morning with a big glass of water, the blue pill in the afternoon with a big glass of water and the green pill in the evening with a big glass of water. The man, terribly shocked at the amount of pills he had to take, asked the doctor what in the world was wrong with him. The doctor replied, “You aren’t getting enough water.”
On Our Mind:
Testing Relief
Conferences
Wayne County Prosecutor Kim Worthy’s Take on Conferences.
Middle School Science Minute
by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com)
Human Body Systems Facts
From the Twitterverse:
* Twilliamson15 Todd Williamson: @Frideswidel haha, thanks…I’ll stick with hoping enough folks show for a decent conversation |
* drmmtatom Monte Tatom Education Secretary Arne Duncan to Co-Host TEACH Town Hall w/ A&E Network @ Temple University | U.S. Dept. of Ed http://tinyurl.com/2esmcml |
* drmmtatom Monte Tatom Action Research: What Do We Know About Learning in the Cloud? #fhuqep http://tinyurl.com/2dw7ww3 |
*appleplaza Apple Plaza Angry Birds Halloween Edition Comes to Apple iOS Devices http://sns.ly/AEq59 |
* AngelaMaiers Angela Maiers Chalk Talk 10/22/10 http://bit.ly/9lcqsv |
*ktenkely ktenkely Animation Chefs will teach your students how to create their own stop motion animations http://bit.ly/czXqTX #edtech #edchat |
* lthumann Lisa Thumann Web 2.0 apps from the afternoon session with @edutecher and I http://thumannresources.com/2010/10/22/tltechforum/ #tltechforum (Call us if you try any of these websites at (262) 724-6653) |
*timoreilly Tim O’Reilly Rule #1: Have Fun. Summary of my talk on innovation at Greenbiz Innovation Forum: http://bit.ly/b92W4f |
*mcleod Scott McLeod Can a student bully a teacher? Do these videos constitute teacher bullying? http://bit.ly/ce2i1i @russgoerend |
Advisory:
Famous Partners
Place the names of famous couples on index cards, mix them up, have students match up. (http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/List_of_famous_pairs/)
Life Raft
Students stand on top of shower curtain and flip it over without anyone stepping off.
Life Skill Lessons
How to tie a tie, how to set the table, how to do anything….celebrate success!!
This Part for Infamous40000 . . . :
Animation Chefs: Learn how to animate from these three chefs!
Tech Tools:
National Library of Virtual Manipulatives
http://nlvm.usu.edu/
TestMoz
http://testmoz.com/
Google Fusion Tables
Google Fusion Tables is a modern data management and publishing web application that makes it easy to host, manage, collaborate on, visualize, and publish data tables online.
http://www.google.com/fusiontables/public/tour/index.html
News:
Charter school first in county to switch to four-day week
A Palm Beach County charter high school plans to switch to a four-day school week beginning in January. Students would be in school for a total of 902.4 hours this year, above the 900-hour minimum state requirement, according to a calculation received by the district, Edwards said.
It’s pitched as an opportunity for students to have more time for part-time jobs, school activities, and dual-enrollment programs that enable students to earn college credit. Daniel also described it as a way to decrease “discipline issues and student absences.”
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-four-day-school-week-20101021,0,6276565.story
Moving Forward With the Common Core
By Sarah Fine
If there remains any doubt about the momentum of the Common Core State Standards Initiative, let it be abandoned once and for all. Thirty-six states and the District of Columbia, which collectively educate three-fourths of all school-age children in this country, have pledged to adopt the core. Intellectual gatekeepers have given the standards a resounding pass. Plans for implementation have begun. For better or worse, the boulder is on its way down the mountain, gathering strength and speed as it goes.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/10/20/08fine.h30.html?tkn=LYXFpDDbwWg77mw9AnpIQPhrrQpBWyZw4y%2Fk&cmp=clp-edweek
Webspotlight:
Virtual Pumpkin Carving
A, um, virtual pumpkin to carve.
http://www.ncs-tech.org/pub/carve_pumpkin.swf
The Fisch Flip
Colorado teachers Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams were some of the first educators I learned about who are leveraging the power of podcasting, screencasting, and video sharing to “flip” the traditional model of lecture in class and homework at home which predominates in many schools today.
http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2010/10/20/the-fisch-flip-in-michigan-dale-eizenga-on-flipping-traditional-lecture-and-homework-routines/
ISTE 2010: Google Apps in Education
For full online presentation, go here: http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dd4wqj5_406gwcsdnf4
Connecting Education.com
New Approaches for the 21st Century
www.connectingeducation.com
alt: www.schoolinfo.ca
Waiting for initial slide . . . .
Side note: look for Googletrekers
I’ve so got to check out TodaysMeet
Telling us a little about Skoodat
• Similar to Salesforce.com
• Large toolset to work with.
• Very scalable.
• www.skoodat.com
Roger Nevin
“School is becoming irrelevant.” – Student Quote
Bridging the gap
• Connecting education with how young people use digital technology in their personal lives. This web site has the following mandate when recommending technologies:
• it must improve learning
• it must engage students
• it must be based on best practices and research
• it is free and sustainable
• we have tested it successfully
… and one more
Using Google Apps Education Edition to Improve Learning.
Presentation content
• Challenges of traditional uses of computers in schools
• Paradigms of cloud computing and the 2009 Horizion report
• And many more ……
Teacher Comments
• Students worked in groups.
• Students were engaged.
• Students who liked music were into podcasting.
• Every student worked and collaborated on the group wiki.
• Students were engaged.
– Jackie Anderson, Teacher
Despite our success with using technology there were still challenges
• Audacity
• “Microsnot” Office
• Corel
What do you do if…
• Jason arrives to school with is World Issues ISU essay on a USB key. He tries to open it at school but it is unable to because of . . .
• Maria creates a presentation for her Law class on a Mac computer at home. Unfortunatelly she can’t open it at school. (NOTE: This is not necessarily accurate. Macs can save it so that it can be opened on a Windows machine. I included it because it was part of the presentation.)
• You have assigned a group presentation in your ENG 4UI class. In one group . . . .
• You are teaching a grade 12 history course and the final June essays are due. One of your students loses the assignment.
• You have asked your Grade 10 Science class to do their class presentations using Power Point. . . .
Cloud Computing
• You are already using cloud computing
• Data is held on internet servers.
• Programs which run the email service are on Internet servers.
Research & Best Practices
• The 2009 Horizon Report “introduces six emerging technologies or practices that are likely to enter mainstream use in learning-focused organizations within horizons over the . . .
Cloud Computing
• Which means …
• You only need a browser to access both programs and data.
• Google has servers on ships.
• Accessed by any computer or PDA through an Internet Connection.
• Main apps
• email, chat, talk
• Images – Draw
• Calendar
• Word processer
• Spreadsheet – forms
• Can make online tests.
• Presentation Software
• Wiki/Web Page
• Video
UNDER ONE PLATFORM
• site: http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=?
• Google Apps Education Edition is Free! and Ad Free!
• Why is it Free?
• This is their version of Charity Donations
• Secondary School in New York Video
• Teachers and Principals talk about Google Docs
• What do you get?
• 7 gigs of space for students to save podcast and video assignments
• Gives users a virtual drive that can be used to uplad and download any file up to 200MB to a total of 2GB
• Spam/Virus Checkers
• It is a paperless solution
• Saves printing costs.
• Documents are never lost – saves automatically
• Do not have to worry about the correc software version
• Can both upload and download documents off of your hard drive
• Quick setup
• Easy to administrate
• Ability to share assignments, documents
• Student to student
• Student to teacher to student
• Teacher to teacher to administration
• Communicate using documents to parents
• Prevents plagiarism
• Improves learning
• On-line tests and surveys
• Private or public
• Can record names
• Can automatically mark tests
• practice for EQAO Literacy Test
• Surveys (student, parent, staff)
• Example: Adam Scott: adamscott.ca
• Administrator power
• Can disable services
• Have precise control of who has access to what.
• Students keep their login and all account data for their entire school career and further.
• Challenges
• Need Internet Access
• However you can save documents off line as a word, ppt, rtf, open office document
• PDAs can access most features – but not all
• Your data is stored in another country (maybe)
• Patriot Act allows the US government to access your data
• However … there is not document cast where any government tapped into students or faculty google apps documents or emails.
Google Apps – Postini
• July 2009 Google added Postini security suite
• Audit emails
• Filtering
• High level virus and spam checker.
Selling Apps to Admin.
• Realize that many IT departments are not in favor of Google Apps
• Use applications such as bitstripsforschools which use the cloud.
• Start smaller with Google Apps Standard Edition
• Say, “This is a pilot project.”
• Use Google Standard Edition.
• Set up a formal meeting or presentation.
• Google Apps and the cloud is supported by leading research (Horizon Report)
• Is Secure
• Easier to administer
• Saves lots of $$$$$
• Easy for teachers to learn and allows them to be more productive
• Improves learning while teaching 21st Century Skills
• Promotes the school
• Is Green.
• Everything you make in google docs is searchable text.
Setting up Google Apps (easy)
• Get a domain (godaddy is good) – Cost is $10-15 per year
• Go to google
• Simple form to fill out (showing admin approval)
• Set MX records on the domain you registered and use forward feature from your domain to redirect your domain to the Google Apps Site
• Get a text file of students with first name, last name, login and password (could use pseudonyms)
Administration
• Less than one hour per week spent on it per 1000 students
Implementing Google Appls
• Use “buy in” approach (if you are not a schol administrator)
• Start with a few classes
• Must be successful from the beginning
• Teach both the students and the teacher – Helps to have (Yellow highlighting white words)
• Create an ? where the students have to create both a shared document and a web page where they images of the video.
Google Apps Activity One
Google Apps – Quote
“Everyone saw the benefits of share . . . .”
The Did You Know Video 4.0
Free Netbook program a success at Milton High School
• The price of netbooks is coming down.
• Lightweight
• Google is bringing out their own operating system.
• Kids prefer the net books
• Portability and connectivity
connectingeducaiton.com: Presentation site.
Presentation: http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dd4wqj5_406gwcsdnf4
Events & Happenings:
Calendar of Events:
NMSA News:
- National Conference: Thursday, November 04, 2010 —Saturday, November 06, 2010 Baltimore, Maryland
- Need a letter to your administrator explaining the benefits of attending NMSA? How about this one?
- Registration forms are now on the website:
- Promotional Materials:
- Housing
- Follow this link to either online housing registration or PDF forms.
Other News:
- ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
- The ISTE Special Interest Group: Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.
- The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 17 – 18, 2011.
- The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 17-18, 2011 in Coopersville, MI. Coopersville Middle School is a National Schools to Watch School. (Phone: (616) 997-3400)
- The North Carolina Middle School Association’s Annual Conference March 13-15, 2011
- Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
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- Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog: Archived content is available.
- Second Life:
- Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details. Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
- Video: Educational Uses of Second Life