Tool # 6

The first decision I had to make this week, was whether to approach this tool from an administrator's perspective or from a teacher's perspective.  I decided to go with the administrator's perspective and design both my activities around professional development, with an emphasis on Designing and Delivering Instruction (also known as DDI).

The first tool I selected to use was Poll Everywhere.  I created a professional development question about which DDI component teachers are interested in receiving more support or information about in order to tailor a staff development session targeting what my campus specifically needs.  I embedded my multiple choice question into my blog.

The second tool I selected to use was Edmodo.  I created a group called DDI Chat.  It can be found at the following url: http://edmodo.com/ddichat.  Continuing with the DDI theme, I posed the question to teachers asking what they are doing right now in their classrooms to incorporate Active Participation into their lessons. You can add your comments by joining the group: Group Code is 2p3dds.  My hope is that it would encourage teachers to post what they are doing and the chat would become a way to share ideas and get ideas for using active participation in the classroom in every lesson.

Tool # 5

The first tool I chose was to create a movie on Xtranormal.  I thought I would model it after Edith Ann on Sesame Street...one of our family's favorite skits to reinvent in our own crazy way.  It is a huge family joke because my mother looks exactly like Lily Tomlin.  Anyways, I chose a bear and put her in a large chair and then used her voice to talk about the work I put into the 11 tools yesterday (a school holiday).  Creating the movie was quite fun even though it took a bit of time to figure out.  I hope you find it funny, and I had to pay homage to my dear friend, Denis.  Enjoy!  As for how it connects to the classroom, I can see using the movie to review a concept or to reflect on a reading assignment or activity in class.  Bringing in humor always helps!

The second tool I chose was to create an online scrapbook on Mixbook.  I have lots of pictures from my trip to Italy and found this site very easy to use with lots of ways to be creative.  The best part is that I created a coffee table book I can order to give to my family for Christmas.  Awesome!  I can see this being used in the classroom when students are researching a college or a country.  They can also pull quotes from various sites to add to the information they have collected.  I can also see it as a fabulous way to display their own photography in an art class.  Very cool!

I have linked my movie to the blog.  I am still not sure how to link my scrapbook, but it will be fun to get a hard copy to share.  I could have spent many more hours working on the scrapbook!!

Tool # 4

I created a Google Docs Master Calendar for our campus.  I shared it with every staff member and gave all department chairs and team leaders access to edit it in real time.  This allowed my electives department to add concerts for band, choir, and orchestra, and allowed my coaches to add in all the games for football and volleyball.  Additionally, it allowed all team leaders to post tests to the calendar.  It allows all members to access and find out how many tests are being given on any one day and what upcoming events are scheduled.  I also pull two weeks out and send them in an email format weekly so every staff member can view the next two weeks of activities.  It has been a much easier way to collate all the assorted information between departments and I am no longer keeping track of six different calendars.  I have already started the second semester and people have begun posting events there as well.

I also created a form to be used with my grade level - 6th grade.  I asked for feedback on their top ten academic and top ten behavior concerns.  The form will allow my teachers to directly respond to my two questions and it will easily collate all their answers for me on one form.  I see this as something I will use in the future with my grade level.

As a classroom teacher, I can see using the form as a way to close out or begin a lesson by asking a simple question.  The form collates the answers and I can easily see who understood my lesson and who needs some reteaching or redirecting.  In addition, I could also use it as an open discussion on something they are reading in class where they can see and post comments about what they are reading.  We did something similar to this in a graduate course I took and it was very interesting to read a comment and then post on it.  We kept posting and asking questions and the discussion was very enlightening.  It also allowed us to meet virtually but still have a deep discussion about the readings.  This could be used in a department or grade level meeting to respond to a book study too.

Tool # 3

Discovery Education and You Tube have some amazing videos!  I found two videos and was able to embed them into my blog.  The first is a promotional video for one of my favorite songs.  Classroom use, you ask?  I was thinking that students could choose a favorite song and pictures from a recent trip and create their own I-Movie with their pictures.  The second is a video with a great message on acceptance.  Two high schools got together in a Flash Mob at a local mall. How great would it be to get our own students to create videos of their Anti-Bullying messages and post them on our school website?

Fair and Acceptable Use Policy - It has changed quite a bit since I was in school.  It still amazes me that anyone can post anything online and it can easily be embedded into your own web page, I guess until the link no longer works.  If I am using it for educational purposes, the copyright holder is exempt from giving me permission to use it.  Very interesting!

I downloaded Drop Box on both my laptop and my I Pad as I am already using Picasa Web Albums with my sisters.  I was able to upload pictures from my trip to Italy this summer.  I can see that this will make sharing documents much easier for our students.  They no longer have to email documents or pictures back and forth nor carry a thumb drive.  They can simply log on and access their files on any device.  Amazing!

Tool # 2

Sharing my thoughts has never been hard for me, so posting comments to others pages came easy for me.  It was a lot like posting comments on Twitter though there was more room to comment.  It is amazing to read what others are posting and then adding to their comments.

I joined Diigo and was amazed after searching for technology to find that many people are trying out amazing things in their classrooms.  I also checked out Google Reader.  I visited many blogs created by teachers all over the world. I want to spend some more time searching around to see what else is out there...it's just finding the time!!

Creating our own campus' PLN would be an excellent way for our teachers to share the great things they are trying out in their classrooms.

Tool #1

Creating the blog was very simple once I settled on a name for my blog.  Creating my Voki was a bit more challenging as there were no dachshunds under the choices for dogs.  I settled on a woman and set her up in Venice.  I then found a voice I liked.  Once I figured out how to embed her on my page I was done.  It was fun creating it because I was hanging out with a friend who helped me.  We were laughing at all the crazy things we were making my avatar say.  On to tool # 2!