My Chrome Theme

This year we rolled out Chromebooks to all of our students grades 2-8. It's been a lot of work, but so

much fun.  This week we learned the value in the Chromebook and harnessing the power and creativity of our students.

With our Google Apps control panel we have tried to keep the Chrome Web Store under control. We didn't want students installing inappropriate themes and playing games on the laptop. Over the last week students began emailing me to request access to apps, extensions, and themes.  They figured out the web store pretty quick. After all they have only had the Chromebooks for about 2 weeks!  Google does a nice job gathering all apps and extensions for education, so it was simple to make 50 or more apps available to our students.

Themes are a different animal.  I really didn't want to go into class and find garbage all over each student's Chrome theme. Nonetheless, students kept asking for themes. I had received a warning about one of these students from his principal. I was warned that this student was cunning and crafty with a computer.  We figured we could use this to our advantage. So we challenged him to create themes for his school or anything else school related. He asked me to open up the My Chrome Theme app in the web store, and I did right away. He emailed me 3 zip files less than 24 hours later! So we uploaded his themes to the webstore and made them available in the GAFE Domain folder of the Chrome Web Store.  Check out how we did it below:

1. Enable the My Chrome Theme app in the web store for GAFE domain users.
2. Install the My Chrome Theme app
3. Follow the steps in the app for creating your own theme. (For a really nice theme you will need access to some type of photo editing application.)

4. Install the theme into your Chrome browser.  (You will need to take screenshots in order to post the theme to the web store.)

5. Download the .zip file

6. Navigate to the Chrome Web Store.

7. In the upper right-hand corner click on the gear and then "Developer Dashboard"

8. Add a new item.
9. Upload your file, and fill out the form on the following page.  * You will need logos and screenshots for your theme.
10. Publish your app to the Chrome Web Store. * A one-time $5 developer fee is required.
11. Finally, in the GAFE control panel, navigate to Chrome management and enable the themes you uploaded so that students can install them on their Chromebooks


This process has been so slick, that I'm planning on creating a contest for students to create the best Chrome themes for our school district.

Mythology eBook project...

A few weeks ago I shared an ePub project that I was working on where students wrote their on children's books.  Today, I wanted to share the latest project I worked on with a few 7th grade ILA teachers.

For this project the students were learning about writing styles and had write their own Greek Mythology-like myth.

1. Students wrote, revised, and edited their myths in Google docs
2. Students drew pictures that depicted their myth
3. For homework students were required to scan their drawings to convert to .jpg format
1. The next steps used Pages on the Macbooks
4. Students created a title on their document & assigned the paragraph style as "Title"
5. Students inserted a picture to use as their book's cover
6. Students put their names below the pictures (leaving the paragraph style as "Title"
7. Students inserted a page break below the author name
8. Students inserted a Table of Contents
1. In the inspector the Table of Content Included only Title and Heading 1
9. Students inserted a page break below the TOC
10. Students created chapter 1 & assigned the paragraph style as "Heading 1"
11. Students pasted the body of the text from the their Google doc into the pages document below Chapter 1 & assigned the paragraph style as "Body"
12. Students inserted a page break below the body of chapter 1
1. Students repeated steps 10, 11, & 12 for each chapter
2. The students ran with this and started creating chapters for 'About the Author', dedication,  prologue & epilogue.  It was great to see them get so excited!
13. Students saved the pages document.
14. Then they exported the document as an ePub, and saved it to their desktops.
15. Then they emailed the epub file to themselves or whatever device they were using.
1. Many found errors by reading it on their own devices.  Then went back to the macbook and edited the document further to later export the epub again.
16. The ePub files were loaded onto one iPad and then shared over the projector.  Students who wanted were able to read their stories to their peers.
17. Students were encouraged to email the epub file to parents and grandparents as well.

Results:

Students: The students came alive when they got to see their book on the iPad.  They began asking questions about how they could write their own eBooks at home, if they could share their books, and if they could sell their books.  (although I will add that some students did not like having to draw their own pictures. They could've used sketchup or other software to create images for their books)

Parents:  The teachers involved with this project sent home emails to the parents explaining what the project was about.  After the books were completed many parents replied to the teachers explaining how much they and their students loved this activity.  They went on to tell about how they found typos or gramatical errors together while reading their eBooks at home.

Teachers: The teachers expressed how much they loved the engagement from the students.  They were blown away by the amount of parental involvement in the revising and editing process.  (I think this was facilitated by the ease of having the students email the file right to their parents in class.

We will definitely be doing more projects like this!

BYOD Jam Session...

Jam Session, Appy Hour, Show & Tell, Pair & Share, or whatever you want to call it...



Objective: Students share with you and their peers their favorite tech tools, website, apps, etc, that help them be more productive with your content. Students discuss how each tool helps them learn more and perform better in your class.

1. Invite your students to share their favorite tools, apps, or websites that help them in your class.
2. Give them a day or so to prepare.
3. Have the students, one at a time, show off their tool and explain how it has or is helping them with your class.
4. Keep a Google doc, today's meet, or some other way to document and share all of the tools shared in class. Make this available to students outside of class.
5. Allow students time to discuss the tools and download any apps that are shared in class.
6. Allow the activity enough freedom to explore different angles and perspectives of your course content, while steering toward tools that are productive, add value, and/or make your class fun.

This is a fantastic way to have your students find and discover great tools for learning about your classroom content.  If done properly, this activity will be engaging, fun, & informative.  You'll be surprised at some of the neat tools your students are using and how many of them you can probably use yourself.

We did this lesson with the 7th grade teachers and let them share any technology they used for work or play & it was a blast!  We'll probably do it again a few more times after the Christmas holiday. Our future jam sessions will will probably have specific themes creativity, communication, productivity, etc.

Children's eBooks with ePub

ePub is the standard file format for ebooks.  The software used to create ePub files is popping up everywhere and might soon be as simple as word processing.  (If you're a mac user it already is.)  ePub supports text, pictures and some ePub readers even support video (iBooks for example).
________________________________________________________________________________

OK, this is quickly becoming one of my favorite tech projects of the year.  Students write short stories and/or children's books.  We use simple software and epub templates to help the students paste their text into the document.  They find public domain photos to use as illustrations (could also team up with the art classes). Then publish them as ePub files so that they can be read, shared, or even sold digitally. Once the books are published, they can be shared with the elementary age classes in your district, parents, grandparents, etc.  Providing your students with an instant target audience that could be reading the stories hours or even minutes later.

Why have your students create ePub files?

1. Being able to produce and distribute your own book is a paradigm shift as influential as the invention of the printing press.
2. Teach students they don't need a publisher to become a published author.
3. Teach the importance of authors and writing (producing vs. consuming).
4. Give students a large audience for their work.  The pressure of knowing the audience is more than just their teacher should be enough to dramatically improve their work.
5. Teach students that digital text is and should be much more than texting.

Resources for creating ePub files:

• Create ePub files using Pages for Mac.
• How to Make an ePub file...
• Convert Word Documents to ePub
• Convert pdf to ePub

*Sidebar: One of our students wrote her book in Spanish.  It was an ABC book.  I happen to have a 1st grader learning to read in the bilingual program at school.  So I took the book home to her and her read it that evening.  She loved it and I loved being able to show her a book that another student just a few years older had created.

Future epub lessons I'm working on:

• Mythology projects - students are creating their own myths
• Student created campus cookbook, complete with pictures and videos taken in class and at home.

Radio Morning Show

Today I have a guest blog post by one of my favorite teachers, Mrs. Patterson.  Mrs. Patterson is the Theatre Arts teacher at one of our middle schools.  I hope that one day my own children get to be in her class or have the opportunity to know a teacher like her.  Her project below is a great idea and if I can convince the kids and parents, I'll post some samples of their finished projects in the next week or so.  Thank you Mrs. Patterson for sharing.

My beginning and intermediate theatre students were introduced to radio vocabulary and advertisement on Day 1 of this assignment. We listened to a few short morning show clips and after the notes were taken students were assigned a group (3-4 students). They then brainstormed ideas for call and frequency numbers (96.7 Kiss FM).  The students must also have radio “names” (Lunch Box, Susie Q,) and research current news stories to include in their show. Here is a quick summary of the lesson:

Objective: Students will create a 8- 10 minute morning show with current events, commercials, and sound effects through the use of SoundzaBound, IPOD’s, Sound Bible, Garage Band, and any device of their choice. They will present to the class and will follow the rubric handed out to them at the beginning of the project. Students must have 2 local news stories, 2 US news, 1 world, 2 sports, 2 entertainment, weather, 3 songs (no longer than 30 seconds) and 2 sound effects.

Procedure:

• Students will take notes over radio terminology.
• Pair students up and distribute radio worksheet and devices
• Students will brainstorm radio show name, call sign, character names, genera of music
• Students will research current events and write out 3 sentences on each story
• Students will write their commercial
• Students will put all information into a script and can type it up in Google Docs.
• Students will ding sound effects using Sound Bible, SoundzaBound, or IPOD free sound effects.
• Students will rehearse their show
• Performance day!! (Students will be in front of the classroom while the others turn around. Students will just hear the radio show. They will not see it as you can “see” on the radio.

Check out some of the best radio shows below:

This is one of my most favorite projects. Not only does it integrate current events and history into theatre, but it allows the students to use technology, be creative, write a script, and perform. Students are learning to work effectively in groups, monitor time, all while putting together a finished product. In the middle of their presentation I hand them a Breaking News article that they must add into the program. I love to listen to them when they are complete! My students have a lot of fun with this project!

Mrs. Patterson's website

Library Gallery Walks...

About a year ago, a technology facilitator and a librarian in our district got together to create a type of Super Lesson/Project.  Their idea was to pool the combined efforts & resources of the course teacher, the librarian, & the technology facilitator to create a lesson that provides students with hand-picked/rich content, tasks to accomplish with that content, & opportunities to engage in discussions/projects with the content.  These gallery walks are examples of good instruction and learning.  100% engagement, higher order thinking,

Their idea was so successful that they took it to the $100,000 Follett Challenge.  Check out their video below:

Contest details

Now that you've had a a good look at the concept here are some of the lessons we've prepared so far.

• The Count of Monte Cristo
• The Grapes of Wrath
• C2G Rhymes with Technology
• Shipwreck at the bottom of the world
• Aliens and Extra-Terrestrials
• Crispin
• Middle Ages
• Review- Number the Stars and Hatchett
• Black History Study
• Civil Rights Movement

The Count of Monte Cristo was our most recent project.  Here is a sampling of the resources we used to introduce the French Revolution and the Count of Monte Cristo to our students:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WczbEyx5J74
• http://historywiz.com/oldregime.htm
• http://historywiz.com/execution.htm
• http://library.thinkquest.org/C006257/revolution/tennis_court_oath.shtml
• (book) Aftermath of the French Revolution
• (book) You Wouldn't Want To Be...
• (book) Aftermath of the French Revolution
• http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson404/HistoricalFictionDefn.pdf
• http://www.youtube.com/user/historyteachers#p/u/8/wXsZbkt0yqo
• http://www.youtube.com/user/historyteachers#p/u/3/fOki3qAZe4g
• http://www.qwiki.com/q/#!/Alexandre_Dumas
• http://www.qwiki.com/q/#!/Napoleon
• http://library.thinkquest.org/C006257/timeline/default.shtml

Tools used:
Webtools & software:

• http://www.a.freshbrain.com/solvr/ - Discussion threads
• www.youtube.com
• Qwiki app (iPad & Web)

Hardware:

• 6 Digital Photo frames
• 22 Laptops
• 12 Desktops
• 4 iPads
• Books

Infographics with Students

Infographics are quickly becoming very popular, especially in schools.  It makes sense since there is more data, in more accessible formats than ever before.  Infographics can help us make sense from all this data.  But, what if your students had the opportunity to make an infographic?  In what ways could creating an infographic help my students learn course material?

• Creating an infographic requires the student to collect infomation (research)
• Then they must understand the data themselves,
• Analyze how the data could be organized to help others understand
• Then create a visual scheme to put all the elements together and teach others.

Hey!  Look at that....It's Bloom's Taxonomy!

Getting Started - 

• 10 Awesome Free Tools To Make Infographics - includes some great tips and tricks for researching, planning, and creating infographics.
• The Anatomy of an Infographic: 5 Steps to Create a Powerful Visual - includes rules and suggestions for creating a successful infographic.
• 5 Unbeatable Types of Infograpic & Free Tools to Create Them - 
• 5 Amazing Tools to Create Your Own Infographics
• Teaching with Infographics: A Student Project Model
• The 7 1/2 Steps to Successful Infographics

Free creation tools (programs/websites):

• Google docs Drawings
• Wordle.net
• Tagxedo.com/
• Gliffy.com
• Creately.com
• Gimp.org
• Visual.ly

Visual.ly - Has the potential to be the best site on infographics, and it will be when it's online creation tools become available in the next few months.

1. Search engine for web-based infographics.  See all the best infographics on the web in one place.
2. Infographic hosting
3. Create infographics no special software needed. (coming soon)

Resources for finding quality infographics:

• http://awesomeinfographics.com/
• http://www.coolinfographics.com/
• 40 Useful and Creative Infographics

Why Every Home Ec. Class & Cook Should Use Evernote...

While cooking cookies with my kids on Father's day, I was fumbling through my wife's recipe box looking for a recipe for No Bake Cookies. Then I realized what an antiquated system this recipe box was. There are a handful of sites on the web that bring digital indexing and searching to recipes but for the most part those are for recipes that are on that website, not your personal recipes.

That's when it occurred to me that Evernote is a fantastic solution. You can create a note for

each recipe. Inside of each note you could then use a smartphone or webcam to take a picture of the recipe card, or the notes could have the recipe transcribed from the card and typed into Evernote by hand. Evernote has handrwriting/text recognition software for pictures. This means that you can search through your Evernote notebook and the search will include all the info written in the pictures of the recipe cards.

The big picture here is that, in theory, you could open Evernote, run a search by any ingredient, name, or other keyword and pull up all the recipes that apply to your search.

Next, to make your recipe search even more robust, in the future when you use another website like Epicurious or Allrecipes.com to discover new recipes you can send the recipes that you like to your Evernote and continue to build an arsenal of recipes to your repertoire.

Now when you are ready to cook, you can use your ipad, laptop, or smartphone to search and follow any recipe that you want to use. Not to mention, all your recipes are now backed up in the cloud. So no need to worry about spilling on, lending, or losing a recipe. All your recipes are available to you anytime, anywhere that you have an internet connection.

But what if you don't always have an internet connection? Well there are some great internet tools out there like blurb.com that will print hard-bound books of your digital projects. In fact, this would be an awesome project. Have your class or group collecting and entering into Evernote their favorite recipes. The Evernote notebook could be shared among the group. The group could then review the recipes, add comments, perhaps even remove some of the recipes. The final product could be a killer recipe book created by the class/group as a collaborative work.

Give it a shot, you'll love it.

Stay tuned for blog posts as I digitize my wife's recipe box.

Civil War Newscasts: Part I

Since the end of the year is upon us, I wanted to finish with a bang. This, in nerdy tech/history teacher terms, meant a major collaborative project. My goal was to create an assignment that went into detail in many aspects of the Civil War but also incorporated different pieces of technology that are available to students at our school. Ultimately, I decided to have the students pretend like there were televisions and news stations during the Civil War Era and create a newscast based on some of the particulars of the time.

My goal for this post is to begin to break the project down into parts so any teacher could incorporate this into whatever your subject area may be. So here goes...

The first day was simply going over the project with the students. Each student was given a group, each group a topic, and each topic an instruction sheet and checklist. Here is a teacher information sheet to guide you as well.

The second through fourth days is what I'd really like to focus on in this post. This is the script writing process. Students were made aware that they could not begin filming until all scripts were complete.

The first piece of tech integration shows up in the script writing. Students used Google Docs and their checklist to create their scripts. Google Docs allows for the utmost in student collaboration. Each group created a Google Doc for each of the scripts before they even started. Immediately, the students were asked to share the document with each of their group members and their teacher. This allows for each group member to edit the document at any time from home or school. For more information on Google Docs please click here.

I have to share a one story about our Google Docs experience to show you how cool it is. I had one group that had two of the three group members out while we were writing our scripts. In the past, that one remaining student would be stuck with a lot of work. With gDocs, the students that were out sick were actually working on the script at home at the same time as the one student that made it to school. VERY COOL STUFF!

Many students used their former notes, textbooks, or the internet to research their topics as they were typing their scripts. I was able to read the scripts as the students were typing. Another nice feature of Google Docs that I used was the insert comment feature. I typed several comments on each script during the class period as the students were working. This freaked them out at first that "big brother" was watching their every word being typed. In the end they found it helpful, and they were very excited that I could add some insight before the scripts were officially due.

I'll share the remaining parts and tech integration of this project in future posts. They will appear on my blog at Teaching History with Tech. If you enjoyed this post please consider joining my PLN @HistoryandTech. And finally, I'd like to thank @techforschools for allowing me the opportunity to guest post.

Have a great summer...the next school year will be here before you know it!

Regards,

Andy

Job Interviews using the iPod Touch Lab

In my Career Investigation classes we have been talking about interviewing for jobs and the importance of being professional and prepared. We did moc interviews in class and used the iPod Touch lab to record the interviews live. Not only did my students love doing the interviews and using the technology, they also learned that they needed to work on their interview skills if they wanted to get a job in the future. Many of the students commented on how shocked they were at how silly some of their answers were and requested a second chance at the interview to improve their answers. It was an awesome learning experience for them that helped the students realize that the "business world" is much different than their "social world". Here is a quick summary of the lesson:

Objective: Students participate in a job interview recorded using iPods and Audioboo.

Procedure:

• Discuss with students common interview questions asked


• Pair students up and distribute I Pods and a list of interview questions to ask


• Each student gets a turn being the interviewer and the applicant


• Students publish the interviews to the teacher account on Audioboo


• Once published, students go back and listen to their interviews and critique themselves as well as their partner's interview. They have to decide if they would actually get a job based on their interview.


• The teacher listens to the interviews that were published and decides which students would get a job and which would not based on the recorded interview.


• As a class, discuss some of the "good" and "bad" things from the interviews (playing specific examples with student permission)


• Students get a "call back" interview where they can improve their answers and interviewing skills.

This lesson was fun and actually really easy to do, and I am NOT very saavy when it comes to technology! There are so many things you could do with the Audioboo App and the iTouches, please don't be afraid to try something new. My kids loved it and I had a blast watching them learn and try to improve their skills.

Posted by Mrs. Baker of Hunt M.S.

Shakespeare SMS/Twitter project...

The Shakespeare Twitter Project

Objective: Students give presentation of Shakespeare as if it happened over Twitter

Procedures:

• Students study a scene/act of a play
• Convert the major parts of the scene/act into sms or tweets & write them down
• Create a Todaysmeet.com wall for class project
• Students give oral presentation to class about their scene/act
• Presenting group members sign in as their respective characters
• While presenting, the group is broadcasting their tweets on behalf of their characters, to the rest of the class.
• The class watches the presentation while also watching the twitter stream. Students could use any internet connected device to follow along.

This lesson comes from Liz S. @ Hunt MS.

Wikipedia project...

Have your students create a wikipedia page in ppt. I have attached the full Wikipedia template for PowerPoint so you to get started right away.

Objectives:

• Students recreate a wikipedia article about themselves, another classmate, or any person/place/thing
• Students use hyperlinks to make the pages function like real webpages.
• Students create a references page

I created this template in PPT 2007. You can download the file here. In the speaker notes you will find some extra tips and explanations for using this template.

Enjoy! & If you have any other ideas for student uses of this template, please share.

Email Template Project...

I heard about a website the other day that created fictional emails generated by fictional characters. What an interesting idea... Creating emails as if you were another person place or thing. As a spin off of that idea I created an Outlook ppt template. This template will enable you to re-create an outlook inbox as well as outgoing/incoming messages as if it were some else's inbox.

An activity such as this allows students to use a tool they are familiar with while at the same time thinking from a new angle. Students could do this for historical characters, fictional characters, or perhaps even an object like an igneous rock.

(Click here to download the outlook ppt template)

(Click here for Google doc template)

This is also a spinoff from the Facebook ppt Template. Be sure to check that idea as well.

The Frisco Fab 5

Two weeks ago a colleague and I presented our 5 favorite technology projects @ the TCEA 2011 conference in Austin, TX. We had a great turn out, around 300 or so came to hear about the projects our teachers have done with technology this year. The feeback was so good that we want to share the projects with everyone:

1. The Web 2.0 Super Secretive Collaboration Project
2. The Geocaching Virtual Map Project
3. Student Video Tutorials
4. The UStream.tv Debate Project
5. The Digital Photo Frame Media Library

We had such a good time with this presentation that we have decided to submit it again for next year with 5 brand new projects from this year & next. So if you get a chance to go keep us in mind.

Interactive story project...

You may not be familiar with QR codes, but if you aren't you will be soon. QR codes are the new bar code for the 21st century. They can be scanned by any smartphone or iPod touch with a camera. When scanned the code will take you to a place on the web or to a document or whatever info you have designated. Anyone can create one. The apps that scan them are almost always free.

Yesterday I had the chance to sit and jam with one of my GT teachers, Vawterila. Last time we did this we came up with our UStream Debate Project. Yesterday we took it to whole new level using an existing lesson, webtools, & QR codes. GT teachers and technology department have been learning more and more about project based learning and this lesson fits in great.

So here is the general idea...

Objective: 1. Students will write a story. 2. Students will create rich media and interactive, web-based activities to go along with the story. 3. Students will embed QR codes into the story to enable the interactive activities.

1. The story part of this project could be a collaborative effort using any number of cloud computing resources. (In our case our students would you Google Docs)

2. The added media and interactive activities could be anything the students choose. In fact, I'd be inclined to leave this open for the kids to choose their own tools. But here are just a few ideas:

• YouTube video
• Google Maps (my maps, guided tour)
• A blog or threaded discussion
• A VoiceThread
• Any webtool

3. Students could use any QR code generator found on the web. They would then take each code and paste it into the document at the appropriate place.

The final product would be a story that any class could read while using a smartphone or iPod touch. They would scan the codes as they read and participate in the activities as they go along.

To take this lesson a step further students could be assigned or given the choice of one of the 3 different elements of the project. The Google model of 20% time could be used to give students opportunities to dabble in the other elements from time to time.

This project has great potential. If you decide to give it a try please share your results. We would love to be able to see other classes final products.

Geocaching Lesson: The Virtual Map

Virtual map - Imagine that one of your athletic practice fields is like a map. Plot points on the map that correspond with your unit. The Points could represent battles, countries, cities, or other points of interest (P.o.I.). Then choose one activity below:

• Give each group a different color pen have them add one or two key bits of info to a log book within the cache that pertain that P.o.I. (dates, battles, vocabulary, etc) Then make the info in the log books available for students to do other activities.
• Place information about the P.o.I. inside each cache. Then give the students a worksheet/quiz that has questions about each point. They can answer the question with the info inside of the cache.
• Give each student a camera & have each group take a picture/video of something that relates to the P.o.I.

USTREAM - taking your class to your parents...

Using a USTREAM channel could become an amazing tool for sharing the many wonderful things happening in your class with parents and families. Including parents in Education, more often than not, has very positive results.

Below is an idea that came about with an ELA teacher at one of my schools


Case #1 - Students debating each other

1. Ask parents to vote on a list of topics for students to debate. (I recommend using a Google form)
2. Set up a uStream.tv channel
3. Password protect your channel
4. Place a link to your channel on your blog/wiki/website
5. Advertise your bradcasting
6. Send password home to parents (email, letter, etc)

When you are ready to debate:

1. Turn your uStream channel on
2. Begin your broadcast
3. Record your broadcast
4. Post your recording to your channel

Have other ideas? Please share by leaving a comment.

Facebook project & Template

We've had a lot of fun in my district doing a Facebook project. Teachers from almost every subject have jumped into this.

• Science - create a page for a certain type of rock.
• History - historical figure/group.
• Geography - Country page/profile.
• Foreign Language - country, author, historical figure, featured verb, fictional character.
• Math - formulas, theorems.
• English - Character (fictional/non-fictional), Author.

You can click here to download the Facebook project template.

Here is what it looks like:

The template is a .ppt that should have all the tabs linked to each slide. So it should act like a normal facebook page when you are viewing as a show.

Click on the image below to see a sample of instructions for this project.

Let me know how you like it.