Photo Math App, The Good, The Bad...

I know Photo Math is an older App, but I never really played with it until recently. A friend reminded me of the App and then I became more aware of students using the tool. I noticed some students using it to cram some algebra homework in homeroom. I was curious how accurate the tool might be. Like any other tech-geek, I downloaded the app that night, grabbed one of my sons math worksheets he has to do for homework (don't get me started on that) I snapped a photo and viola...answer revealed. At first I was very impressed and jealous that an App like this didn't exist during Calculus III days back in college. I wondered if it would have been able to solve this problem and produce the graph...

Let C be the oriented closed curve in the first octant consisting of three circular arcs: the portion of (x^2 + y^2 = 1, z = 0) from (1,0,0) to (0,1,0), followed by the portion of (y^2 + z^2 = 1, x = 0) from (0,1,0) to (0,0,1), followed by the portion of (x^2 + z^2 = 1, y = 0) from (0,0,1) to (1,0,0). Let G = [y^2, z^2, x^2]; and compute the integral along C of G.d r, both directly and using Stokes' Theorem.

Fortunately the App can't handle this problem, so let's just say I felt pretty good knowing at one point in time I could do math that this App can't do. Well, back to the point, the App was doing homework for students. I wasn't sure if it was cheating, or if it was a great resourceful way to complete the numerous repetitive problems they needed to do. Sure, they probably weren't learning much, but how often is homework used as an avenue for learning? I would argue that most teachers utilize homework as work to do outside of class for drill and practice, or because the classroom agenda didn't allow for everything to get done, so "just do it for homework."

I started thinking more about this tool. Obviously the math teachers must know about this, I mean Wolfram Alpha does the exact same thing, sort of. You have to manually put in the equation, but it will solve it for you, with steps, graphs, charts...etc. It can solve the problem I used as an example (on a side note; the engine behind Wolfram Alpha was the tool I used back in the day in college to create the 3D graph pictured above. If only I knew enough to take the opensource software and host it on a site for everyone to use, I could be rich. Oh well.) So, why am I so flustered by this App? 

I arrived at two conclusions, one good and one bad. 

The bad one was based off of what I mentioned before. The App does exactly what it sounds like, it accesses your devices camera to scan a math problem and then solves it for you, no thinking involved. Just point, tap, and viola homework done. The tricky thing is, this app most likely won't be allowed on any test and quiz. The way that I have experienced math classes, and the way in which a majority of math classes are still taught, the drill, practice, memorization, and regurgitation is the only way to get through. The app cuts all that out and you are left with only the classroom note taking experience to pass the course. 

The good thing about this app, is spawned from the bad. Knowing that students are utilizing this tool might trigger a greater paradigm shift in math education. Instead of the rote memorization of and regurgitation of mathematical process, students are now suddenly required  to think and defend their thinking with evidence from their own conclusions! Imagine that, a student using some information provided, identifying the problem, developing a solution and defending that solution with evidence of their own work; sounds like what math class should be.  Maybe this app is exactly what teachers need, a little reminder that computers can take our place, unless we shift what we actually teach. Content is merely a vehicle that can be used to teach how to think critically, solve problems, and defend and communicate conclusions. I think we need more apps like this to trigger the paradigm shift education needs to really start teaching students to think, instead of how to play the game to get an A...what is an A anyway? Does an A really matter? Why does regurgitation get me an A? 

6 Online Resources for Virtual PD

Professional development can be easier than you thought. Typically, when PD comes to mind you think of the traditional conference, or huge meeting where a speaker tells you about some topic relevant to education. Sometimes these are useful and helpful, other times, unfortunately, you discover they are not that great. I occasionally run PD opportunities for teachers on integrating technology. My mantra is always..."please don't let this suck, don't make it be one of THOSE" I think you all know what I mean by "THOSE."

 Professional development opportunities are tricky to find and tricky to attend. It often requires you to be out of the classroom away from your students. It's a bit funny how it works, you typically leave the school and your students for a day to learn how to better do something with your school and your students. You would think that it would work better if you were in your classroom with your students and the PD came to you.

Well, it can, with some creativity. I have found some great PD opportunities online and have been able to squeeze them in, without leaving my classroom, or ditch my students, and haven't had to spend a ton of money. Here's the magical acronym MOOC. I imagine that is not a new term for anyone, regardless, a MOOC or massive open online course is an opportunity to participate in a PD or furthering education courses related to your profession. There are a ton of free MOOC's and a ton of organizations that offer great courses. Here is a short list of a few places for some great Education MOOC's that can be used for PD.

Coursera

Coursera is a place to access free online courses offered by known colleges. Some topics many not specifically be geared toward teachers, but I bet you could find something useful. I have singed up for courses only to be able to access more materials that I might be able to use with my students.

Udemy
Udemy is another place to access free online courses in various topics. Again, they are not specifically only education related courses. However, many of the courses are free, provide great resources and can be used for professional development or just for your own enrichment.

PBS Teacherline
PBS Teacherline is geared directly for educators. There are a variety of courses, some which are free, some are paid, and some are available for course credit.

ScholasticU
ScholasticU is a cool resource for teachers, however, it is pricey for an individual. I don't know about you, but my classroom budget is fairly small. Enough to obtain the necessities. This tool is really geared towards use within multiple schools in the district. If you look at the pricing chart, you'll notice that the price breakout is per school. You would be better off approaching your administration of superintendent and presenting the benefits of online options to them. School administrators want us in our classrooms working with students and they want us to continue to learn how to be better teachers, it should be an easy persuasive conversation to set up an account, hopefully. Regardless, there are great opportunities through this resource.

ASCD
ASCD has a large selection of professional development for teachers and is very reasonable priced. They do not offer courses for graduate credit, this is strictly professional development opportunities. However, the topics they offer are intriguing and the course I attended offered great ideas and resources.

Teachers First
Teachers First is a great place to take a course without doing much at all. You essentially sign up for a course, kick back and watch. The courses gain you access to moderators discussing the topic at hand and share the information through live videos. It is just like being in one of those professional development opportunities that school administrators provide for you, except you don't have to leave your classroom and can fit it in when it is convenient for you.


There are other sites and resources out there, but these sites listed here are places that I have used and have liked using for professional development. In my opinion, online PD is a huge time saver and money saver. You will not need to leave school for the day and arrange a substitute, you won't have to pay for a course, pay to travel, pay for food and then hope that the course is worthwhile. If you are looking for taking courses for credit, I would look through the PBSteacherline resource. There are great courses for credit, and the prices are not too bad.

Publitas, a pdf publisher for large documents.

I stumbled across Publitas today. It is a a very cool PDF publisher and viewer that enables the user to upload and share very large documents. It is marketed as a digital catalog, magazine, and brochure publisher and viewer, but it also works really well for large ebooks.

In the past, I've promoted ISSUU for it's simplicity, and unique viewer. I still like and use ISSUU, but recently I ran into a snag. The digital document I wanted to share with students was too large for my free account. So I thought I would just use Google. Unfortunately, the document was also too large for the Google pdf viewer. I tried Scribd, but the upload never completed. So I thought I would try adding an add-on to Drive that would open the document. That worked, but then I wasn't able to share the document through Google Classroom to send students directly to the reading. They would have to go to classroom, follow the link to drive, make sure they have the same add-on installed, then make sure to "open with" the appropriate add-on before they could view the document.  I don't' know about you, but if some of my students have a multi step process just to access work, they "check out" before they even start.

So, I searched around and stumbled across Publitas. Again, it is marketed as a free pdf catalog, brochure and magazine viewer. I contemplated the obnoxious size of a catalog and concluded that there is no way my earth science open document is as large as a catalog, so it should work fine.  I made an account and uploaded my first document. And, just like that, problem solved.  I  now have an online viewer, similar to ISSUU than can host and share documents larger than 100 MB. Best of all, it is easy to share to students. If you have the rights to a document that is too large for other online readers, try Publitas. It was quick to set up, quick to publish, and quick to share documents.

3 Tools For The First Day

As many of you know, a new school year is upon us. Like most teachers I do take some time off. However, most of my summer is dedicated to teaching at a unique school that does not use overwhelming technology tools with students. The philosophy of the school is to kindle communication through socialization and vocational education. Allow me to rephrase that, we teach students to use different technology tools to provide tangible results, such as various hand tools, carpentry tools, various farm equipment, and the most important tool, your own voice for communication. As I start my new school year, I  reflect on my summer experiences and the emerging tech I used last year. Here is a quick list of tools I plan to use on day one with my students.

Socrative: This is a great student response tool, but on the first day, I plan to have a space race with some basic science questions and few tricky logic questions thrown in there. I'm not sure what the winning team will get yet. It will most likely be something simple, like some big hero 6 stickers or frozen stickers. Who knows, maybe I'll award them with some impromptu poppin'.

Google Classroom: I use Google classroom as my virtual classroom. It doesn't have as many public features and parental involvement options like schoology might have, but it is a nice tool to streamline google apps. I use Google classroom to share my course syllabus, any paperwork that needs to get home, and of course for classroom discussions and assignments. I find it to be a very simple way to create a pseudo virtual classroom.

Google Maps/Earth: I teach earth science. This is a solid tool for almost everything in earth science. I have students make maps for climate, weather, natural resources, geology, plate tectonics, stream morphology...etc. I would argue that this is my "workbook" for my classroom. On day one, we will make a map of our local area naming mountains, lakes, rivers, streams...etc. It's a fun activity to introduce the tool for more than stalking a friend on street view. I group Earth and Maps together because they talk to each other fairly well, and each tool offers it's own strengths. I won't go into the two here (keep an eye out for a future post.)

The final tool we will use will be....you guessed it, our own voices for communication. It's an underestimated piece of technology, yet, many students forget how to use this tool and forget how to interact face-to-face. So, I have a unique challenge planned out, one that takes away your sight and only relies on your voice to communicate your needs. Lets face it, as a student you need to be able to voice your concerns, otherwise you're left behind, even though we aren't supposed to leave any child behind, so if you learn to communicate Every Child Achieves.

Day 2 will be saved for all the boring paperwork, developing classroom expectations, discussing the "no grading" grading policy, discussing my "no homework" homework policy, and most importantly discussing the expectation to have fun while learning.

Music Soothes the Beast

I'll be blunt and put it right out there...my students call me a hippie. Which, I take as a compliment. I am peaceful, loving, accepting to all walks of life, and am typically very calm (my 3 year old can unravel that calm and unleash the beast, but a 3 year old has magical powers to amaze and annoy within a matter of seconds.) But, I digress, the point is my students call me hippie, I'm guessing it's mostly because every class starts with Jerry jamming in the background while students enter and begin to settle into the routine. If it isn't Jerry its Trey, if it isn't Trey it's Melodious, a.k.a Thelonious Monk.

So why am I talking about music on a technology for education page? Here are some good music streaming sites, and a few reasons why musics sets the tone* of the class.

*yep, that was intended

First, here are some great streaming tools that are, of course, free.

1.   Google Music - it speaks for itself. Upload your own, purchase, or stream channels from other users.
2.   Pandora Radio - You have two options with this one, paid or free. The free version is the same, but with ads. Essentially, you're paying to remove commercials. It has a tendency to downward spiral into weirdness. For example, a station with Grateful Dead will throw in a   Zeppelin song, which is a good mix, but suddenly you're onto a classic rock spiral that gets way far away from the Dead. Or, you put on the Allman Brothers Band and it will horribly spiral into country music. Which will cause you to delete the channel immediately. However, you can combat these downward spirals  if you take the time to "thumbs up or down" certain songs to tweak your channel.
3. Archive.org - This is your best place to find live music. You can stream and download shows of just about any decent band you can think of. It is now also affiliated with etree.org and 
4.  Slacker Radio - This is similar to Pandora, the track selection is not quite as deep, but allows you to create some unique channels of your liking. Again it takes some time to customize the channel to avoid downward spirals. Again, the paid service really only removes advertisements. 
5. Spotify - This isn't my first choice, only because it requires a download and an install. I like to keep things in the cloud. It is a decent service, it allows you to archive your local music, create custom radio stations. However, it always thinks you want to listen to terrible pop, and always wants to share with facebook. 
6. iTunes - I'll mention this one, only because people know of the service. I don't think it is worth the download and install. In my experience, it always needs an update, it is slow, the store requires so much verification, to the point where you eventually just give up on your purchase and turn to a different place to buy it. It's not friendly with many devices, and the new streaming service is only specific to mac devices. I won't go into this much further. 

OK, so why music? Well music truely does soothe the beast. If you have some ramped up music playing, you will see the energy level of your students rise, to a point where they are out of control. If you play some jazz, or relaxing jam band music, you'll see the energy level reduce and become more focused. The music choice really does set the tone of the classroom. Many times I'll hear students come in and complain about the music playing, but within minutes they are sitting at their table, doing their introductory work, and tapping along with the beat. On the days, that I don't have music playing, I've discovered that these intro activities are a bit more cumbersome to start.  Again, the choice of music is key for the energy you want in the classroom. If you want your students to be very energetic and distracted, then put on current pop music or country music. ( I would never play country in school. Many of the lyrics, and themes are not appropriate, and in my opinion, the music is not all that interesting. However, it ramps up students). If you are looking for alert, but calm, then Jazz is the way to go, hands down. (Medeski Martin and Wood is a great choice for this energy.) If you're looking for calm, quiet, relaxed, and focused I would suggest a jam band of some flavor. Of course as you really dive into various music styles there are various intricacies in flavor. The point is, the right tone can create that attitude adjustment you need to maintain focus and hard work. So rock, on and work with tunes in the background. 

There isn't an app for that!

It has been quite some time since I last wrote a post. Those that care to read, sorry for the delay. Those of you that know me, know that summer is a time for me to focus on my other true calling; farming. I also use the summer to take time to teach at a unique school where communication, farming and other vocational work effectively tie into learning. I bet you never stopped to think about the physics, history and math that goes into choosing the proper shovel for a job? (not all shovels are for digging). Which brings me around to my point. There isn't an app for that.

You couldn't find an app to tell you what type of shovel to use, and if you are looking for that app you should probably find an app that can call someone else to do the job for you. Sorry to be so harsh, but technology has made us soft, in terms of actual work and learning. The best way to learn these lessons is from physically interacting with people who can pass this knowledge along by asking questions, and getting your hands dirty. Sure, there is an appropriate time and place for technology, but when is it too much?

During the time I've been avoiding writing I've done a lot of reading and reflecting on technology use in education. And, just like everything else that is engulfed by teachers, the use of technology to enhance education has blown way out of proportion. There is too much tech, too much pressure to use tech, and too much focus on the best tool to teach. Many of you know my classroom, and know how I interact with students. I treat them as equals, speak to them as equals, redirect them as equals, joke with them as equals, learn with them as equals, and discuss real relevant life events...you guessed it..as equals. It is perfectly OK to take 10 minutes to discuss issues like a jail break, the death of a pet, the song that's stuck in their head, the movie they love, a fight with a loved one...etc. How else are students supposed to learn how to deal with these real life issues, from misguided media that is only looking for good entertainment?

If you were to walk into my classroom, when the year is under way you would either catch me talking about a story I heard on the news, responding to a story a student has told, or seeing us gather gear for a lesson in the shop or outside. My classroom is filled with various projects, student built contraptions, student creations, science gear, samples, maps, and best of all tools. I have discovered that the best student engagement occurs when  they are comfortable communicating about anything and by using a tool. Not a typical piece of technology, but a tool. Something like a shovel, a skill saw, a miter saw, a hammer, a measuring tape, a chisel, a soil auger, things that require awareness of surroundings, critical thinking, and communication.

Sure, technology can offer and even enhance these skills under certain conditions, but educators have started to lose site of the goal. We are supposed to teach students skills to help them become productive members of society. There isn't an app for that. We have to put down the tech, get our hands dirty, and teach. I am guilty of trying to use too much tech, and need to tone it back. Which only means I plan to incorporate more hands on learning. So, my hikes will be longer to get to those good geology sites, the samples will be more substantial, and the work will be more meaningful. The sugar house will get built by students before winter, students will have the compost system up and running by fall, and best of all, this will all be something students can look back at and say...I built that and learned "this" as a result. There isn't an app for that, and teachers need to stop searching for those apps. Students need to discover that many times the best solution is to learn how to do it yourself. This requires using your own hands and brain, and learn by asking someone else the right questions. Google can't show you how design the field equipment you just invented to then use a skill saw to cut the custom angle for the board needed on that design.

So, as many educators enjoy summer, take time to reflect on ways to reduce the use of tech for the sake of using tech, and discover ways to ensure that an app can't teach your class.

Really "flipping" the classroom.

Technology use in schools has been a buzz word since I became a teacher eight years ago. At that time I wasn't sure why it was such a "new" idea. I mean, I left a career in science that was flooded with technology. It was second nature to use various tech tools on a daily basis. However, most of these tools were presented in such a way where we had to use them to "create" a solution. It seems that technology in schools has become a little stuck.

I recently read a post from Vicki Davis that reminded me that technology is more than a substitute for paper, books, and pencils. I took a moment to reflect on my own teaching to find areas where technology is a substitute and where it is used to create. As I was reflecting, I realized something; there are places where technology is a substitute and it is OK. Like using Google Docs, or Slides, or digital media. But, more importantly I realized that my classroom really is "flipped." Not in the sense that flipped is used in educational technology, but flipped in the Constructivist sense. Somehow I've been able to evolve my classroom into an environment where students are comfortable to direct their own learning and reflect on the process to realize what knowledge they gained from those experiences. As the teacher, I  guide them toward opportunities to engage with the content, but the project based, problem solving that occurs  grasps the idea of using technology to create, as Vicki Davis describes.

borrowed from Pixabay

I am looking forward to school tomorrow for many reasons;

  At the end of one class a  student showed me the amazing website she built for a virtual project tour. I am excited to see the creativity of the rest of the class.

Another student shared a great idea where students will use their understanding of various Earth systems to design a Utopian Solar System to support carbon based life.

Another class has been tinkering with robotics and the use of robots for space exploration. The end of the unit arrived with some audible disappointment. However, a student shared one more idea for  project that will use robotics for another Astronomy concept.

Planning for the next project was completed by my students. The technology that will be used to engage in learning activities was also driven by them. My role is to outline the project to ensure these ideas align with the curriculum by creating appropriate assessments framed by the Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core State Standards. I also need to provide access to appropriate technology tools.  "Flipping the classroom" is more than giving the students a technology tool to complete classwork at home...in other words; providing a tool to do different kind of homework. It is more of letting go of the "Sage on The Stage" mentality, listening to students, and using their ideas. Students are creative individuals and their creativity should be encouraged to help direct the learning of the entire classroom.

Increased Readability

Getting students to read in the classroom always poses a challenge. Here is the typical scenario, the teacher assigns a reading complete with appropriate "pre, during, and post" reading strategies that are creative and engaging to hopefully increase student participation. Most students will do the work, but may not truly grasp all the information. Here is the typical student reaction to the reading;

They flip to the first page, stare at it for a few minutes, maybe read a sentence or two. Then they get distracted by something for a few minutes, go back to the reading and realize they don't know what they just read so they go back to the beginning. Then they are frustrated with having to start over, so they start to look how much they have to read. They then bend the book back and physically hold the chunk of the pages they need to read, and stare at it with a look of defeat and wonder how they will ever get through it all. Then, they start again, only to go through this whole process again before asking if they can go to the bathroom.  

 It is clear they are simply reading for the sake of getting through the assignment they aren't really getting much from it, despite the efforts you put forth with the reading strategies. Here is my super secret process for getting students to focus on the content and not the amount.

Super Secret Tips

1. Choose current, relevant topics that are short, sweet, and right to the point. Some of my favorite science places to obtain good articles are:
1. NPR Science
2. BBC Science
3. Smithsonian TweenTribune
4. Student Science
2. If I need to use other readings from a book or text book, obtain digital copies, and again use recent publications. My textbooks from 1992 are really just good for a weight or building material for some lab activities. They make really good holders for Popsicle stick bridges, great walls for Lego Robot courses, awesome supports for ramps when doing acceleration and velocity experiments, they also work really well to hold down the end of a board for pendulum demonstrations. 
3.  This is super important for this final trick...Use a digital formats. This will allow you to use various reader tools to adjust how much text will show on a single page. 

Now, the moment you've been reading on for, the final trick!

Use an appropriate reader tool to make the font huge, and limit the amount of text that appears on a page. You need the digital format to work in your favor, meaning that you want the format to keep your students engaged and feel as though they are making progress. Essentially, you are taking away the "chunk of pages" they want as visual cue to the finish line.The trick is to make the text as big as possible, and adjust the formatting to squeeze two to three paragraphs on a single page. It feels like you are cruising through the reading, and there is not an overwhelming amount of text on a page to throw you for a loop. 

I will use one of these two methods.

My first option, if I already have an epub, or mobi in the correct format is to use a online  tool for chrome called Read &Write for Google. What this does is allow me to upload my epub, mobi, azw3, pdf...etc to Google drive, share the document with students, and let them open the edoc. The app provides a nice online viewer that has the described format of a large font and limited text per page. 

Or, I use Issuu to share documents with my students for reading purposes. Issuu does a fantastic job making the digital format feel like a physical book. To obtain this trick I have students choose the single page mode, and zoom way into the document.  This requires students manually adjusting the settings, it may not be quite as effective. 

A Positive Social Media Experience in School

I stumbled across and interesting competition on-line. Being the season of basketball madness, a group of scientists organized the Mammal March Madness.  Essentially it is a match up between species of varying habitats to determine who could "survive" in head to head species competition. This seems like a great opportunity for Biology and Ecology students to perform relevant research on the species to be able to make an educated decisions about survival. Just as we seen in the natural world, the native species may not always be victorious, the one who can out compete for resources has a strong advantage.

The "battles" will be play-out in "real-time" through Twitter at #2015MMM. In order to be able to view the results at school, twitter would need to be an acceptable resource to use. In my school district, as well as many others, all social media sites are blocked by network security. It seems like many school districts block these sites as a way to combat cyber-bullying.


Which is a serious matter and one where students should learn the laws and regulations and understand that their digital citizenship matters. Social media is all around us and is something students should learn how to appropriately use. I recently read an article that is related to a similar issue of personal smart phones and other devices being blocked by schools, to only result in retaliation from students to use the tools secretly.  Should we "block" these tools from our students or should we teach them how to use them to further their education and careers? I'm of the mindset that social media etiquette should be taught in schools, cyber-bullying should be faced head-on just like all other forms of bullying and harassment, and students should learn how to actually use the powerful devices they carry around. They have so much information readily available at the touch of a screen. While the Mammal March Madness seems like a very engaging, entertaining, and unique educational activity, access to social media is a key player for the full experience.

Even though my school has twitter blocked, I still plan to run this activity with my students, and access the live tweets of mammalian battles in a round about way. I will simply save the "search" of the hash-tag from my personal twitter account at home.  Then I will print the search to Google drive for my students to view the next day in school. This will help them experience some of the excitement of the "real-time" matches and also provide the opportunity to view the details as they unfolded and follow the reactions of other players.

Here is how to save a search in twitter and archive for later.

1. Sign in to your Twitter account.
2. Type your search query into the search box at the top of the page and hit return or click the magnifying glass icon.
3. Click Save at the top right corner of your search Results
4. Click anywhere in the search box at the top of the page.
5. Scroll to your Saved Searches and click on the saved search to revisit the results
6. To archive the search, scroll down the list to the farthest tweet back you want to save and use this chrome addon either in chrome or opera to save to Google drive. 

Good luck to those of you who fill out a bracket, have fun, and use creative, but safe alternatives to access blocked tools at school.

BYOD

Many schools offer 1:1 programs for students. If you are unfamiliar with the concept, the school provides a device to the student to use as their "own" for the length of time they are a student in that school or district. There are various pro's and con's to this kind of program, but that is a larger debate. My school is not lucky enough to offer such a program, yet. I will keep pushing until it happens, but until then we need to be creative. It can also be challenging to book computer labs and laptops for students when they are in high demand among all teachers. How can I create a 1:1 environment and deliver a flipped classroom that is all the rage these days, when the technology isn't quite there?

http://dilbert.com/strip/2008-05-28

Here's how:

My school has a unique cell phone/personal device policy. Students are allowed to bring
them to school, use them "freely" at certain times and places throughout the day and are allowed to use them at teacher discretion. Within any given class a teacher could assume that 99% of the students in that room have some kind of personal device on them. One that is capable of accessing the Internet and use as a pseudo 1:1 environment. Allowing students to use their own devices that they are comfortable with  and really know how to use, can be a huge advantage compared to giving them a device and saying "Here. You have to use this."  It is not uncommon to walk through my classroom and see various devices out and about. If you were to look at the screens of those devices you would see many of the same apps running; Google Classroom, Google Scholar, Wikipedia, and Issuu. I allow my students to use their devices, and encourage the use for learning purposes. It helps provide that 1:1 environment without purchasing a device. This also allows me to use Google Classroom as a mechanism for a flipped environment. Knowing that 99% of students have a device, and 99% of them can get access from home, I am confident that I can deliver a flipped environment through various devices.

Now what about that 1% of students who do not have devices? Here's where the hoarder creative teacher comes into play. First and foremost, teachers are hoarders. If we hone those skills to hoard "old" technology,  we can provide for our students. I have been able to obtain 35 "old" desktop machines, 3 "old" laptops, 8 "old" netbooks, and I am always on the lookout for more. These "old" machines are ones that were labeled as trash, because they were slow, or had windows xp. The easy solution was to wipe the hard drive and install Linux. Just like that, these "old" machines are speedier, and more responsive then the brand new machines kicking around the building. This allows me the freedom to sign out machines to students who might need them. I really only have 11 machines that are practical to sign out, however that is 11 students that I can provide that 1:1 for if they do not have their own device.

I mentioned that a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is advantageous to a 1:1 setting. Think about the one device you have that you really love to use. Think about how well you can use that device to find out something completely random and useless like what was the name of the horror movie that kick started Julia Louis-Dreyfus's career?  Now if I handed you a random device and asked you the same question, how much longer and how much more frustrated might you get trying to find the same information? Compound that by a million to understand how a student might feel when they are asked to find some serious information related to the content on a device they don't like and don't really know how to use. This is where their own device eases the pain of researching content information.

To conclude this long winded post, if your school policy allows for it, and you do not have a 1:1 program, or your 1:1 program is struggling, try letting students use their own devices. You might be surprised at the results.

Final Exam Portfolio's with Google Drive.

As a secondary level educator, it is inevitable that my students will have to take some type of "final exam." Apparently. I am a rare breed in my neck of the woods, as far as viewing this "final" culminating assessment as a way to prove without a doubt that students mastered the content, instead of a massive regurgitation exercise that shows how well students memorize and recall information they're told they need to know. Every year my culminating assessment takes a different flavor. One year it was a lab practicum, one year it was a collection of thought experiments, another year it was a TED-talk like presentation...this year there will be three parts to the assessment. First,  I plan to use Google Drive and Google Classroom for students to "host" a portfolio of work that can serve as evidence to prove mastery of specific content. The portfolio will include various reflective prompts that will require students to dig deep into their inner learning and rate their own mastery of the content.  The second part of the exam will challenge students to access their inner Earth Science STEAM brains to create a solution to a local Earth Science themed problem using limited resources. The third part will require students to peer review their work. How will all this work you ask? Let's start with the portfolio.

The First Part: Host a portfolio on Google drive.

Students will be required to select appropriate documents, that meet specific criteria to serve as evidence for their learning. They will be expected to organize a domain public folder with a document that defends their evidence as proof for their understanding. Students will also have the bonus option to customize a generic index.html file that can be edited using Drive Notepad to serve as a landing page for their work. (A separate standard will be amended to the assessment to rate their mastery if they choose to use HTML)

Part Two: Inner STEAM Challenge

For this section, students will be presented with three local scenario's that are related to Earth Science. They will be required to design and propose a solution to one scenario. The scenarios will be presented in such a way that students have to use Earth Science concepts and scientific thinking to be able to develop a plausible solution. The solution will demonstrate mastery of specific concepts, contain visuals/schematic plans where necessary for appropriate apparatuses, and be presented through formal proposal writing.


Part Three: Peer Review

Grading is a significant part of teaching, but how can we make grading easier? For this assessment, I'm turning to my students to help take the edge off the massive amounts of grading following this assessment. Students will participate in a peer review activity, where they will politely critique portfolio's and STEAM solutions. This peer review won't be the end all be all of arriving at a grade, however, it will significantly help me streamline my efforts. This peer review session will use the grading rubrics, retrofitted into a Google form to quickly gather student data that I can use as reference while I review students' work.


With the help of Google Drive, Google Forms, and Google Classroom my students will be presented with a unique culminating assessment that will prove the opportunity for them to prove their understanding on multiple levels.

Twitter Guide, Dr. Seuss Style.

Here is a fantastic guide for using twitter. I think it really is the "helping friendly book" of twitter. 

A Dr. Seuss-Inspired Guide to Twitter from HootSuite



 

1:1 Chromebook vs iPad

I stumbled across this post from Joshua Koen and found the student perspective very insightful. I also have to agree, the chromebook offers more functionality and is my go-to device when the computer lab is booked. 


Chromebooks In A 1-1 Environment

Photo: Courtesy of Daniel Proczko

Classroom Noise Level Indicator

There has been a bunch of posts and information floating around recently about classroom noise monitors. Free Technology For Teachers had a fantastic article about using an iPad app called Too Noisy to monitor classroom noise. As the post also describes, there is a browser version of the same tool, but the sensitivity of this version is very low. I literally have to yell at the top of my lungs to get this meter to jump about half way, and that is even when my internal microphone settings are adjusted to the most sensitive level.

I prefer using calmCounter.  It has a built in meter to adjust the levels and sensitivity, which automatically adjusts your internal microphone settings. All it does is access a microphone and causes the meter to move in response to the sound level of the classroom. It's a great visual reminder for students to use appropriate voice levels. I teach in an open concept High School. Which means there are not any traditional walls and doors. Classrooms are defined by partitions, and there is always the concern of being too loud for your neighbors.





If you aren't' sold on this tool, a similar tool to calmCounter is BouncyBalls. This tools does the same thing, but the microphone sensitivity is much lower, which means it needs a louder sound to trigger the effect.


These are great visual reminders for students to work at an appropriate sound level.

A Tool For PLC's, Teams, and other Educational Collaboration

Here is a very useful tool for schools. I discovered this while clicking around on Google Plus. I was looking at other communities to get a better idea on how to create a community for a PLC, school team, or my department. I stumbled upon this gem; gafe.slack.com. Which made me curious, because I couldn't do anything without it trying to make me sign in. After some clicking and digging on the site I created my own account from here https://slack.com/ , and set up an interface for my team. 



















As I was clicking around the site and becoming more familiar with the tool, it offered so much potential to work as a place for PLC's to communicate, share ideas, documents, files, plan meetings, schedule meetings, and more. It is very similar to a Google Plus community, but it is way easier to navigate, and mange than Google Plus Communities. The interface is pretty clean and well organized. There are various options for searching posts, and categorizing content. It just seems to offer so much potential to gather a team of educators in one virtual location. The layout just seems to flow like an RSS reader instead of a typical social media page. 

The settings as a 'team administrator' are very simple to use. Everything is organized and labeled intuitively, so it is very easy to make changes, add team members, link other apps like Google Drive and Dropbox. The tool just seems to offer so much potential to streamline education teams or PLC's to help foster more effcient meetings and hold on-going conversations. Take a few minutes and make an account and start exploring. It is really worth while. 

EDpuzzle

     I discovered a very fun and super useful tool called EDpuzzle. The tool allows the user to take a video and add various annotations. Once you create an account, you will need to create student accounts to be able to access the site. Once the housekeeping is all complete, the tool allows you to upload your own videos to then add voice over comments, or questions for students to respond. You could search through the database of educational videos from sites like Khan Academy, TED, or LearnZillion to borrow and add your own custom annotations. I tried using this tool with my students on a video about the Higgs Boson particle. I uploaded this video and added my own questions.  The questions that they were asked were typical questions that would have been a classroom discussion. However, I thought it might be fun to have them respond to these question while they individually watched the video.

     The students enjoyed watching and responding to these questions individually, prior to a larger class discussion. I found that in enhanced the lesson and allowed students to gain a better understanding of the content.

Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium

Now that the Common Core is, hopefully, well implemented into schools.  The common assessment is also up and running. Many schools have elected to participate in the field test for various reasons.

 I would suggest that schools work through a  practice test  and download the secure browser to ensure device compatibility. The practice test allows educators to become familiar with the interface as well as the content. It might also be a good idea to get a subset of students to experience a  practice test.

After taking a practice test, the interface has a few flaws that I noticed. For example, some questions are in a typical A-D multiple choice format where you can only select one answer, and some have check-boxes that allow you to select more than one option. As far as other flaws, I will leave to you to discover and provide feedback to Smarter Balanced prior to the official release of the exam.

As educators, we should do our homework to  prepare for these new assessments and help ensure student success. I'm not an advocate for standardized testing, but it's here, and we have to ensure that we prepare students to do well. While we  prepare students for these assessments, we have to be careful not to fall into the trap of "teaching to the tests." If we are truly aligning  the taught curriculum to the common core, students should do well on these assessments; assuming that students are motivated and held accountable for their performance. In the meantime, explore these assessments and ensure that the infrastructure is ready and that your students are ready.

Google Forms For All That Paperwork.

Recently my school had a registration day for incoming freshman. The process involves a lot of paperwork to be filled out by the parent/guardian, then the paperwork is shuffled around to various offices in the school; guidance, the nurse, administration, and the school secretary. Some forms might require the parent or guardian to bring the form home to obtain some information, such as immunization records. While some of these forms are confidential, and provide necessary information about registration, some of the forms are less confidential and could be streamlined with the use of Google Forms.


Imagine the typical parent or guardian  meeting to review registration paperwork, where you are prepped with a folder of various forms that require the parents to recall detailed bits of information they may have to look up. Now imagine,  instead of handing over the folder , you hand  the parents a Chromebook to access the majority of the forms online. The data collected would instantaneously be filtered to the correct person, who could then quickly filter the data to the appropriate database used in the school. This would reduce the amount of time it takes for school faculty to transfer all this information, physically store all the paperwork, then shred all the paperwork upon graduation or transfer. It might also provide an opportunity for the parent or guardian to look up bits of information they might need. For example, maybe they just changed their primary care physician through the universal healthcare, they might now know the contact information just yet. They could quickly look it up and continue with the forms.


Google Forms could be used to streamline a vast majority of forms used by teachers, students and parents. Simple forms like field trip permission slips, parent/volunteer signups, purchase order requests, maintenance requests, student schedule change requests (add-drop forms),  or various registration forms for sports and clubs. It could help to reduce the percentage of forms lost in transit from school to home, to school, and finally to the appropriate person at school. I'm not sure most schools would dive right in and adopt a Google form to collect confidential information, but maybe schools would be willing to take baby steps, and use Google Forms for some of the small things. I have been using Google Forms to collect parent or guardian information for my classroom. The form collects simple things, like parents or guardians name, preferred mode for communication, the appropriate contact information, and preferred times for communication. It has helped keep me much more organized, to find that information quickly. Schools are under utilizing a powerful tool that can streamline a lot of paper pushing.

Digital Resources

I recently stumbled upon two great educational resources.

The first is called KnowRe. Which claims “KnowRe is An Adaptive Learning Curriculum for Mathematics, Designed to Provide Students with The Most Personalized and Engaging Learning Experience.” The site provides fantastic learning opportunities in Math and offers unique ways for teachers to provide math curriculum to students. The nice thing about KnowRe is that it provides the teacher with a one-to-one ratio to ensure that the student gains the attention they desire. Obtaining the teachers full attention will ensure success with mathematics.

 The other resource I stumbled upon is inkling. It has a wide variety of digital texts. It offers many current books and textbooks in a digital format, with a built in reader that is easy to navigate. The tool allows the reader to keep custom notes that can be shared with others.  Many materials are free, and the ones that are not, are very reasonably priced for educators and students. I discovered a fantastic Physics book that applies to my Astronomy class, for FREE! 

Opensource OS For Education

      For some of you, Tux, over there is the lovable Linux mascot, for others it might be a new face. So why is he there? He's there, and there without citation, because he is a lovely face for opensource, and a great mascot for Linux in education.

      School budgets are tight, the push for more technology use with students is in high demand, and these tools aren't cheap. How can we make them more affordable?
     Why not use opensource operating systems like Linux?

There are a variety of distributions, or distros that market themselves as educational packages. Meaning that the operating system comes fully loaded with a variety of tools useful in education, and are marketed as free. It is good practice to leave a donation for the team who puts in the effort to make these tools, but it's like the tip cup at an ice cream shop. You could place your order, and shift your glance from the tip cup to the college kid working, and back to the tip cup, take your ice cream and leave. Or you could throw your change in there as a thanks for serving me. The moral and ethical debate about a donation can be discussed later.

      The point is, these opensource operating systems have the potential to curve that large technology budget, to leave room for other tools. With many educational tools available online, it doesn't seem like it is worth the money to buy a huge clunky OS like Windows, to get a bunch of tools the students might use once, and then flood it with malware, viruses, spyware, trojans, worms and all kinds of bad stuff that renders the OS useless, until the technology person can re-image the thing. Students could use a snappy OS to access the tools they need, with very little security issues like all those listed above.

     I have worked closely with the Technology Director at my school to take machines that were destined for the land fill, clean them up, install Linux, and doubled the size of the computer lab for the Science Department. The only cost might be the extra electricity usage for adding 10 more work spaces for students, to allow 20 students to work on a machine. On average, that only leaves about 2-4 students without a work-space, compared to the 12-14 students without a work-space. I think that's a pretty good turn around, and allows me to better integrate technology tools into my curriculum.

    If you are not so sure about diving in just yet, dig out an old laptop, or desktop, download a Linux distro, install it and start exploring. In no time, you'll fall in love and see how easy it could be to use this in education, and safe a lot of money.