Intro to Microsoft 365

Over the next several weeks, I am going to be focusing mainly on 365 in hopes of helping more people in our district become familiar with it. This first video is one I put together earlier this school year to go over the most basic aspects of getting started with 365. This video shows you how to login to your account. It also walks you through creating a new document and sharing with others. I hope you find it helpful. Please let me know if you have any questions by leaving a comment below, and look for more in-depth 365 videos in the upcoming weeks. ~Matt

'member me?? An Encouraging Word

It has been way too long since I posted. I could blame it on a thousand different things, but I won't waste your time. I am committing to getting back on the blogging waggon, so you can begin looking for a weekly post from me, usually towards the end of the week.

This week I don't have anything Tech related but it will still be focused on teaching. A friend sent me this from a devotional this morning and I thought the story would be great to share with educators. You may be familiar with the 1988 film Stand and Deliver. I was not. Here is what my friend sent:

"Encouragement can work miracles. In the movie, Stand and Deliver, high school teacher Jaime Escalante has two students in his class named Johnny. One is a happy child and an excellent student; the other spends his time goofing off and getting in trouble. When the PTA held its first meeting of the year, a mother came up to Jaime and asked, "How is my son, Johnny, getting along?" Jaime mistakenly assumed that she was the mom of the better student, so he replied, "I can't tell you how much I enjoy him. I'm so glad he is in my class." The next day "problem Johnny" came up to Jaime and said, "My mom told me what you said last night. I haven't ever had a teacher who wanted me in his class." The result? He completed his assignments that day, and brought in his completed homework the next morning. A few weeks later, he had become one of Jaime's hardest working students-and one of his best friends. His life had been turned around because of an accidental word of encouragement. It works like this: when you look for the good in another person, and express it, you give them something to live up to. In other words, you motivate them to be better than they are."

I just love this and think it is full of so much truth. So my encouragement to you today is to intentionally look for someone to encourage. Make it someone who might even be a little surprised to hear your words of encouragement. You might just change his or her life. And if you are a teacher, make it that one student who you really struggle with-you know exactly who I'm talking about! :)

Thanks for reading and drop a comment if you have any good stories about how your encouragement went.

~Matt

Summer Shout-Outs!!!

Today I'm going to tell you about THREE of my favorite blogs/resources to follow in the world of #EdTech. I'd encourage you to give them a follow and check them out this summer. You'll be shocked at how much you can learn and apply for the 2015-16 school year. So... here are my top 3 in no particular order:

#1: Free Technology For Teachers
website: www.freetech4teachers.com/
Author: Richard Byrne
Why: This blog is awesome. Richard always has quick and practical tips for teachers of all grade and ability levels. He updates it pretty much every day. This week he is hosting some guest bloggers which has been especially cool to get some different perspectives. Byrne is also a Google Certified Teacher and maintains these other blogs you should check out:
iPadApps4School.com, Android4Schools.com, andPracticalEdTech.com.


#2: Tammy's Technology Tips for Teachers
website: www.tammyworcester.com/
Author: Tammy Worchester Tang
Why: Tammy's website is full of ideas and resources that are especially great for elementary teachers. She has taught at every grade level from Kindergarten through Middle School. I think my favorite section on her website is her Tip of the Week. There are a TON of great (and simple) things for you to try out that I guarantee you'll love. Her section on "Google Stuff" is also excellent.


#3: MBG
website: www.mattbgomez.com/
Author: Matt B. Gomez
Why: Gomez is a Kindergarten teacher from Texas and a lover of all things technology and creativity. What I love about his website is the way he embraces technology even as a teacher of K-students. I get approached by K-teachers all the time asking me for ideas of how they can use iPads with their students. Almost every time, I direct them to this website and tell them to check out some of the cool things Matt has done with his kiddos.

I hope you'll take the time to start following these blogs/websites. I know you'll find them very helpful.

Don't forget to subscribe to my blog if you haven't already and leave a comment if you have any other blogs that are your favorites.

Thanks and hope you have a wonderful day! :)

Lesson Learned

Today I wanted to post about something a little different. There won't be a video or even any app recommendations. Today I want to share with you about my latest experience working with students. I'm sharing this story with you not because it was the greatest lesson of all time. In fact, it was quite the opposite. OK, maybe it wasn't the worst lesson ever, but it wasn't a whole lot better. I want to share this because I think we learn best when we learn from our mistakes and failures. It is important to be able to embrace your errors and do your best not to repeat them. Also, sharing your "learning" with others can help them not make the same missteps as well... So, you're welcome!! :)

So yesterday was part two of my lesson on using Aurasma in the classroom (the same lesson I've shared previously in this blog). I had already been to this same 4th grade classroom and worked with the students the previous week. Things had gone splendidly, and I was pumped to show them how to take the pictures and videos they had created and mesh them together into an amazing Aurasma experience!

First Lesson Learned: Prepare

I'm generally a very well-prepared person. However, for this lesson I made a couple crucial errors in preparing for the lesson. I failed to verify ahead of time that the Aurasma lesson was already downloaded on the student iPads. Thankfully, I did remember in the morning to ask the teacher, and she was able to grab a few students during recess to help her download the app on everyone's iPad. Also, I should have asked her to hand out the students' pictures ahead of time. This would have saved a couple precious minutes later in the lesson.

Second Lesson Learned: Don't Assume

There is that old saying about what assuming does... it makes "something" out of "u" and "me"... well... I assumed a couple things. First of all, I assumed that since my first lesson with these kids went so well, this one would as well. Wrong... I also assumed that since I had previously done this exact lesson with four other classes, I had this down and could breeze through it. Wrong... The other classes were all 5th grades and from a school that has much more access to iPads. Those factors may have contributed (and possibly the fact that it was about 105 degrees in that classroom on a late May afternoon) BUT I will readily admit that my guard was down when it came to classroom management. I didn't come into the classroom on my game, and I paid for it. The rapport I thought I had established on my last visit was quickly gone simply because I didn't do a good job of setting expectations again when I came into the classroom.

Third and Final Lesson Learned: Technicalities 

If I were to get a redo for this lesson there are a couple of other technical things I would have done differently. First of all, I would have quickly walked the students through a "how-to" on one of their iPads while everyone else watched. That way they would have been able to see the big picture first and we wouldn't have gotten so bogged down in the weeds. Some of the sharpest students would have gotten it right away and been able to help those who didn't understand. Then I would have gone back through the details a little slower for those that wanted to see it step-by-step. The other thing I would have done (and will do from now on) is this: Lead the students through this process--go into Settings > Privacy > 1. Location Services 2. Photos 3. Camera and verify that the app (Aurasma in this case) has permission to share locations, pictures, and access to the camera. This step can save you so much time in the long run. We had so many students keep getting stuck during this lesson because they didn't have all those permissions granted. Having them do this on the front end would have been the best way to eliminate all those interruptions.

What I did right...

The lesson wasn't a total flop so at least let me tell you what went well and what I'll do again... A projector with my iPad showing what I am doing is essential. I wouldn't do a lesson like this without it. Also, I think I did a decent job managing the chaos. I had to redirect the kids a couple times to go back to their seats and get a fresh start. This at least allowed the lesson to get back on track and not go completely south. I encouraged the students (as I always do) to collaborate together if they got stuck. I want to empower students to teach their peers. During a lesson with 31 kids in a classroom, there just isn't enough of me to go around. Other than the couple redirects, like I said, this helped quite a bit.

I did get a nice email from the teacher this morning thanking me for coming in. In the email she said:

"... the kids came in again today "on fire" excited about yesterday's lesson.  SEVERAL came in again saying they downloaded the app.  The ones that did not finish theirs yesterday are already completed today AND we have them all up in the hallway."

So I guess even in the end, even our failures can amount to something. I'm thankful it at least sparked interest for the students, and now they will take it and run with it, I'm sure.

I hope you found this helpful. Leave a comment or question if you've got one. Be sure to subscribe to my blog if you haven't already, and if you have anything you would like me to post about, please let me know. Summer is coming and I'll be looking for some fresh ideas to help teachers get prepared for the upcoming school year!

InstaShare a Keynote

Recently I had a teacher ask me what the best way would be to have her students share Keynote presentations they have created. After doing a little research, I figured out that using InstaShare would be the best option for the environment we are in. If you are not familiar with InstaShare, here is the icon for it:

We have made it available in our student App Portals so everyone should be able to download it. In the video below, I'll walk you through the steps to take a Keynote presentation and easily share it with another device. The reason teachers want to be able to do this in our district is because the iPads that students use are shared devices and therefore don't always have their email setup on them. This is a way for them to send their Keynotes to the teacher so she will then be able to email it to a parent or even herself to print it off.

I hope you find the video helpful and as always, please let me know if you have any questions. Have a great day!

Friday Funbag

Hope you are having a wonderful Friday so far. It is a beautiful day here in the Fort and hoping the nice weather continues throughout the weekend. Today, I wanted to share a couple things with you that I thought might be helpful as the year winds down...

Last month at our Talking Tech session, we had a special guest: Fran Hewett. Fran is the Instructional Coach at Croninger Elementary, a Four-Star school on the northeast side of Fort Wayne. She shared with everyone 5 tips she recently picked up at a conference that could be used immediately in the classroom. I thought I'd take this chance to pass them along to you...

• Answer Garden: http://answergarden.ch/ 

This is a very cool tool to help form word clouds based on responses that students give. The more an answer is given, the larger the word becomes. It is a wonderful (and free) formative assessment tool that can be used with either an iPad or a computer. 

• Discovery Education Video Streaming: http://www.discoveryeducation.com/

This incredible resource is often overlooked in our district. Every teacher has access to it using your network username@fwcs and "media" as the password. Students would use their 9 digit student number as their username. You can find videos that match our new 2014 Indiana Academic Standards. Fran also suggested using Discovery as a way to safely search of images (it's not just full of videos!) to use in projects.

• Plickers: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/plickers/id701184049?mt=8

Plickers might be the coolest app out there for the iPad. It is mind-blowing!!! When Fran demo'd it last month it was the first time I'd actually seen it used, and it was every bit as cool as I heard it was. You really do have to check it out for yourself, but basically, it turns 1 single iPad (your teacher iPad) into an entire set of "clickers" for your classroom. All you have to do is print out some cards that your students can use for answering questions. Then you simply ask a question, give students time to respond by holding up their cards, scan the room, and view your results... Incredible!! Seriously, anyone who doesn't already have a class set of iPads permanently in their classroom needs to check out this app immediately. 

• Kidrex Search Engine: Kidrex: http://www.kidrex.org/  

This is a great (and safe) way to have students use a Google custom search in order to be sure only safe websites are searched when students are doing research. Fran also pointed out that you can search by article complexity levels- Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced when doing a Google Search. In order to search by level, just click Search Tools, All Results, thenReading level. Click on the level to see sites with that reading level. Another unique search engine to check out is Wolfram Alpha. When you search for a specific topic, person, or date, you'll be shown tons of data and information. Try it now by going to https://www.wolframalpha.com/ and typing something like "Indiana" or type in your date of birth.

• SpeakIt! Chrome Extension: http://goo.gl/xvKYeh

There are some pretty amazing Chrome extensions out there and this is one of them. "SpeakIt!" allows students to have highlighted text read to them. All you have to do is download the extension to your Chrome browser. It will appear as a little gray speaker icon on your Chrome browser. All you have to do is highlight text you want read to you and then click on the icon. A very friendly voice will then read the text to you!

I hope you've found these few ideas helpful. Thanks again to Fran for sharing the things she has found to be the most impactful in the classroom. Please comment or email me if you have any further questions or would like to see a more in-depth review of any of these tools. Have a great weekend and God bless!

Aurasma Examples

I wanted to show you some of the results from all the great work the 5th graders did on the Aurasma Civil War project. The video below shows what the final project looks like for people who walk the halls at Harrison Hill and use the Aurasma app to check out the kids' work.

Several examples are in the video including work done by Special Ed and ELL students. Some of the students were comfortable putting their faces on the video, while others just prefered to show their artwork while they talked about it. Regardless, every student loved this project and they all did an excellent job!