Paperless Classroom

http://gcmouli.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/paperless_it.jpg

With all the budget talk, as well as talk about a paperless classroom. I thought I would take a moment and describe how I removed handling papers in my class this year. (BEFORE you stop reading please read the next couple of sentences.) From this list I’m going to develop a summer workshop for teachers who would like to learn how to convert their classrooms to either paperless or almost paperless. With budget cuts and the student laptop this is very doable.

1. Starting with the easy solution … Assessment (test/quizzes). I used http://www.quia.com for all my tests and quizzes. Quia allowed me to create multiple choice, true/false, fill in the blank, short answer, and essay questions. I could import charts, maps, graphics and even sound clips as part of my assessment. By setting up a class in Quia, students logged in and took the tests, but more importantly, it archived the tests for the student. This way rather than hand back the test they could log in again to see the results of the test. Yes, if they needed a hard copy it would use more paper than a normal test, but they really shouldn’t need a hard copy. Most of you already have Quia accounts.

2. Study Guides/Worksheets .. there are several ways this can be done.

• One is with Quia.com where students submit the answers, but there are drawbacks to this (cover during the training). A better way for me was to create the study guide/worksheet in a Word document format and place that document so students could download it onto their laptops. This is easy to do. Simply place the file in your web folder and provide the student with the URL (through iCal, iWeb, Moodle or other means). By downing a “Document File” students simply typed on it, saved it and return it to me through e-mail or dropbox (more on dropbox below). When I graded the paper I simply typed in a different color as I graded the paper, saved it and sent it back. (There are better ways!)
• Using Moodle makes it easier to manage. The student would download the word document and then upload it back to Moodle with done. There Moodle organizes it’s placement (not so hard to track). While you still have to open the document to grade, Moodle has a box where you can type your comments and submit a grade.

3. Blogs (WordPress) .. for the first time I used blogs in my classroom. http://wildcat.wordpress.holton.k12.ks.us/ Blogs allowed me to do several things:

• I asked my students to develop a film project. Directions, list of movies, etc. were all provided through the blog. Students could even submit their final project within the blog if they so chose. (More on projects later).
• Critical Thinking .. each month I asked students to post their thoughts on a subject I selected. Sometimes it was historically related, sometimes it was just something I thought the students could relate to.
• Discussions … students were asked to comment on other students’ posts to create some dialog between the students.
• I even used the library book review blog for my students’ book reviews. I provided my grade through an e-mail. Note … I really believe if you want to go paperless you will find that student work submitted via a blog is easier to grade than a bunch of Word documents (clicking and opening and closing). If  you wanted to, however, you could copy and paste the blog to a Word document, add your comments, and then return the document to the student (either in Word format or as a  pdf). I haven’t yet figured out how to grade items just posted on a blog (w/out the Word transfer.)

4. Blogs (Moodle) .. provides the ability for you to setup a discussion thread. The extra power of Moodle over WordPress is the “threads”. The ability of students able to easily comment on other select students comments.

5. Collecting of Material from students … how students turned stuff in.

• E-mail was used most of the time for smaller or document style assignments.
• For video and audio collection I used the “Homework Hand In” (dropbox-more later).
• I offered to accept CDs of material as well but no student chose to hand an assignment in that way.

6. Delivery of Material … This is the means by which I provide material to my students.

• Used my website http://www.holton.k12.ks.us/abeam/collegeamhist I designed my website with DreamWeaver but would highlightly recommend you consider using iWeb. The material available on my website included by not limited to PowerPoints, study guides, study resources, outcomes, reading assignments, notes, classroom activities, maps, terms, links to documents, links to video clips, links to other sites related to the topic, current event links, links to other blogs, links to other podcast and general links.
• When I wanted to students to watch a video clip I tried several things but the only way it seemed to work the fastest was to give students the videos on a cd. If I place the video on the web and all the students tried to access it at the same time I had problems.
• I did do one assignment using Moodle

7. Grading … this is one of the challenges of trying to do paperless. We are so use to having the paper in front of use to write on. A few items follow:

• Word documents … you may or may not be aware but Word allows you to add tags. These tags can serve as a way to highlight text and add comments.
• Pages allows you to add tags as well.
• Moodle … has a system built in where teachers can add comments and assign points based on how the teacher set up the point value per-assignment.
•  

8. Projects … … I used the “Homework Hand In” (dropbox) for powerpoints, podcasts, video productions, book reviews, etc.

9. Wiki … this is an area I haven’t spent much time with, but I know it offers a good solution as well. My plan is work with this and have more to offer this summer.

10. Tools:

• Teacher Delivery Method .. Moodle (free), Web design (free sites, iWeb -Holton teachers have, DreamWeaver (costs), e-mail, place work in the dropbox, Wikis …
• Assessments .. Quia.com (cost), Moodle (free), textbook service (costs and is only available to a  those that bought this resource when textbooks were purchased)
• Documents Submissions … Word (e-mail, dropbox, upload on Moodle), PDF …..
• Written Word … Word  (e-mail, dropbox, upload on Moodle), Blogs such as WordPress (free, supported by district), Blogger.com (free but not supported by district)
• Student Projects … PowerPoint or KeyNote (dropbox), podcast or other audio clips (dropbox), video productions (dropbox); Other software programs in the building may require a short study to determine if projects can be placed in the dropbox,  but most likely any file should be able to be dropped and pick up by an instructor.
• Student Projects #2 … there are number of websites that allow you to set up student accounts that can be viewed by the instructor. a) U-Stream does video, …
• Misc. Tools.  zamzar.com

Summer Training (NOT SURE ABOUT THE FOLLOWING)

I will offer a couple of summer training sessions on how you can convert your classroom to paperless or almost paperless. I encourage everyone to consider attending. If you have questions on whether it will work for you, please ask – don’t assume it won’t or will.

• Choose a Delivery Tool: How will you provide material to your students?
• How will you collect student work ?
• What is this Blogging world you speak of?
• How do you convert a hard copy worksheet into a digital one?
• What about projects - how can I handle them?
• Bonus stuff

The goal is to cut our copy cost by HALF! Yes, I said by half. This would be a savings of 10,000.00 dollars for the district. To help motivate everyone to work toward this goal I’ve been thinking (yes, that’s scary). If we reach the goal I  would like to throw a …..

Principal Questions

Please post the questions you like to see asked during the interview.

Simplybox (Social Networking)

The other day I was listening to a college professor who stated that high schools really AREN’T training students in technology. He stated we do a great job teaching word processing, powerpoint, google searching and some excel. But there are so many tools out there that high school teachers are simply missing.

One of those areas is “Social Bookmarking”. Similar to social networking (places like facebook and myspace) but a place to organize your bookmarks (websites) in such a way that you have access to them no matter whose computer you’re on and can share bookmarks with others with similar interest. For example the Language Arts department could have a set of bookmarks that all English teachers had access to. They could add or delete as a team.

Few weeks ago I introduced Diigolet. I really like it because it allows you not only to bookmark your sites but  highlight/place stickies on that site as well. This week I want to introduce you to http://simplybox.

NOTE: You must use FireFox with simplybox at this time. They are currently working on it for Safari.

On the intro page of simplybox you will find the following descriptions. 1) Visual Research … it allows you to bookmark a site by choosing a section of the site (photo for example.) and placing it into a “box” that you create (create as many boxes as you want). 2) You can share your box with others with same interest. This way they can place links in that same box for you to see. 3) You can create a box for photos, videos, etc that you may want to use in class. Whether it be on a powerpoint or simply a click and it appears in your browser. 4) You can setup a whole class where you share bookmarks, photos, videos, etc.

The best way to get a feel for this is watch a very short video click at http://simplybox.com Before you write this off please watch the video.

I RECOMMEND YOU WATCH THIS CLIP OFF YOUTUBE … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKbmETeuN68 How to use simplybox in the classroom (8 minutes long)

If you decide you want to give this a try the first step will be to create a “FREE” account. Locate where it says “Simplybox for Educators” and click. Then click on “Sign Up Now”. I would suggest you place the username and password somewhere you won’t forget (again, I recommend “Pastor“). Once you create this account you will need to visit your e-mail and locate the e-mail from simplybox (check your junk box if its not in your normal e-mail box). Click “Verify and Confirm” in your e-mail.

Now you have an account … log into http://simplybox.com. Remember you need to use FireFox for this. The first thing you will be asked is to install an update for the browser. Do as instructed. Once the download and update is complete. You will need to quick FireFox and reopen it before the changes will take place.

Once you reopen FireFox notice the NEW buttons near the top of your browser. 1) Simplybox (when you click this it will take you to your simplybox website). 2) Box and Save (this is how you choose a part of the site, photo, video, etc. to place in the box. 3) Box and Send (this is how you choose part of a site and then e-mail to a friend.

To get started I would recommend you try it first. Locate a website you like a photo from.

Step 1 .. Click Box and Save (Notice the screen is darken and you now have control of clicking with the mouse and highlighting what you want within a box. Click highlight.

Step 2 .. Once the object is highlighted drag it to the box(s) that appear at the bottom of the screen. If you like to create new boxes simply visit your site and create the boxes. Or click “New box” to create a new one.

Ok .. thats enough to get you started good luck.

MACE Websites Part 1 of ?

This week I thought I would share just a couple of websites I learned about during the MACE conference. In the weeks ahead I will provide even more from this conference with details on how to use them. But to get started I’m trying to provide a few easy one’s you can explore.

#1. Twitter your Congressmen … Many of you are familiar with Plurk. The social network site Kevin Honeycutt showed us back in January. Twitter is a much larger social networking site. http://www.twitter.com. But my post is not for Twitter but instead a way you can follow the Congressmen of your choice as they use twitter. Please note not all Congressmen have moved into the 21st century yet but the number is growing daily. Simply visit http://tweetcongress.org/ Then enter the zip code of your area (this gives you our two senators and Lynn Jenkins) or enter the Congressmen by name. At the time of my posting only Lynn Jenkins is twittering. But you can expect our Senators will be doing so soon. Oh yes, you can find a couple of links to polls and/or survey’s which Congressmen collect the opinion of the voters.

#2 Classtools.net allows you to create free educational games, activities and diagrams in a Flash! Host them on your own blog, website or intranet! No signup, no passwords, no charge!  http://www.classtools.net. This includes templates which you can use. The following list are the most popular templates on the site as I write this blog post.

• Arcade Game Generator!
• Flashcard Generator [new]
• Countdown Timer
• Random Name Picker
• Dustbin Game
• Post It
• Diamond 9
• Fishbone (Ishikawa)
• Venn Diagram [updated]
• Animated Book [new]
• Timeline
• Lights Out
• Target
• Hamburger
• Living Graph
• Learning Cycle
• Jigsaw Diagram
• Priority Chart
• Source Analyser

#3 iEARN.com … It was difficult for me to figure out what the third post should be here. I wanted to keep this post simple but so many good sites were shared at MACE. For this one I decided to introduce you to a site that allows teachers and students to partner up with teachers and students from around the world. Before you run away think of the different perspectives your students could have talking with others around the world. Whether it is a historical event, science project, piece of literature or application of math. Whether it was singing together, or sharing different cultural foods. The list here can go on and on! Once you visit this site you do have to create a free account. Doing this will place your name out there for teachers to find you as well as you being able to search the world for others. You go on to create a class account and setup students with their own log – ins. It’s difficult for me to show you more because it depends on what you decide to do that will lead to the next step. You can find samples of projects on the site, news related to the site, and professional development you can do online. Take a peak what do you have to loose short of opening the world to your students.

“Thought” … ask your students how many people they talk to now outside Holton, Ks. With online gaming I bet there are number of students who now communicate with friends in different parts of the country. How do they communicate? Text, phone, online systems, Skye, virtual chat, etc. etc. etc.

AEP Guidelines (2008-09)

With all the changes taking place in our AEP confusion has set in. So to clear up some confusion and help create some common ground here are few rules that everyone must follow.

1. Students identified for Tier 2 will be assigned to either/both Reading and Math Monday thru Thursday.

2. Students assigned to Reading or Math can STILL attend activities that they are members of on Monday and Wednesday. (I strongly suggest the math and reading teachers identify what clubs and organizations a student belongs to day one with the students).

3. Tuesday and Thursday for ALL AEPs is set aside for Grade Level activities. While the Math and Reading students are working on their subject. The remaining Grade Level students can work on ACT Prep, College Prep, etc. We will for now continue to allow the grade levels to determine what the activities are and when.

4. Tuesday and Thursday students should not be allowed to leave your room unless a teacher has provided some form of communication to the AEP teacher (pass, phone call, e-mail, etc). BUT ONLY if there is no grade level activity planned.

5. The first 10 minutes of AEP will be used for Channel 1/Wildcat News. This is prior one if you are allowing Channel 1 to be viewed in your class. 

6. Some grade levels want to require silent reading. Silent reading can ONLY be scheduled after the first 10 minutes and before the last 5 minutes of AEP.

7. The last 5 minutes of AEP will now have open e-mail. Allow the students to check their e-mail.

8. Monday and Wednesday students can go see other teachers with your permission. Excluding the Language Arts and Math teachers who will be busy with reading and math students. Make sure to track where your students are. 

9. The remaining time (what ever is left) should be time focus on school work. No school work then have students bring something to read or provide them with something to read. No games, no television, etc.

1 to 1 Questions

If you were asked the following how would your respond?

1. What were some of the challenges you faced with students having laptops in your classroom?

2. What are some of the positives you’ve seen by having students with latops?

3. What would you like to have seen done differently in launching the 1 to 1?

4. What did we do right when we launch the 1 to 1?

5. What would you change now if you could? 

6. What wouldn’t you change that we are doing now for the world?

What A Great Website

Provide URL’s to websites your using in class. Provide a brief explanation of how the site is used in your classroom. 

SIT’s What to do & how to run them

Write out ides that help you either run a SIT or how you prepare for them. 

Hello world!

Welcome to the world of Blogs. The staff at Holton High School can use this blog site to propose questions for the staff in general. Provide teaching tips for others and maybe just for some fun.