Wow! That's just about all I can say about these book report trailers.

Sometimes you get an idea and it seems like it might be pretty cool.

I really liked what my Apple Distinguished Educator buddy Sean Junkins had created when he used Discovery Education footage to make historic movie trailers.

Since we don't have access to Discovery Education anymore, I was perplexed how I could do something similar with our kids. Coincidentally at about the same time I was thinking how kids still need chances to do old fashion arts and crafts and little skits. Somehow this project ended up lending itself to the best of both worlds. They would use the Apple iMovie app's trailer building capabilities but would have to get really creative on how they would produce the footage. It was completely open-ended but after a week of brainstorming we had really focus on the project being do-able.

The other guidelines were:
A) Trailers had to provide important information about the plot or focus on character traits.
B) Trailers could not be "spoilers" for anyone who had not yet read them.
C) Trailers had to be non-violent.
D) Several students could work together and there was no limit on the number of projects in which students could participate. Students could work solo but all students had to be included in meaningful ways.
E) This was basically an introduction/exploration activity and I didn't fully know what we would accomplish so there wasn't a set evaluation rubric beyond my formative checkups along the way.

The results were mind-blowing. Here is one on the Hunger Games Trilogy's Mocking Jay. More can be found in the project's album on Vimeo.



My biggest reflection on this project is that you never know how a project might go. Sometimes they flop but as long as you salvage the key points, that is okay. Sometimes you get way more than you ever expect. Also, don't think this is rocket science and beyond your capabilities. I completely left completion of it up to the kids (with some progress monitoring and coaching along the way) but it was them who knocked this thing out of the park.

An insane amount of new interactive resources to share

Thanks to Julie Woldring and Lori Sanders for sharing these sites over the last couple of week.

Julie reminded me of all of the great stuff up on Funbrain.com. She is currently using the cookie dough activity with her second graders to work on writing number words.

Next up is Scholastic's Character Scrapbook.

[caption id="attachment_91" align="alignleft" width="300"] Scholastic Character Scrapbook[/caption]

It is a new take on the old book report wanted poster option. Students have to change the character's physical characteristics to match what they perceive it to be. They then add ten character traits to further show their knowledge of the character.

Lori also shared a site she uncovered full of more student interactive site links. The site is part of the Jefferson County (TN) Schools' website. The Math Interactives have over 150 activities alone. There are also reading, language arts, science, social studies, and assessment.

Give them a look and thanks ladies for sharing.

EdReach.us: Can we find some Common Ground with the Common Core?

Here is a blog post from over at one of my other ventures, The Disruptors Channel on Edreach.us.

This is how I try to go about my duties as a technology integration specialist and coach here in Hamilton and someone who is deeply involved with the goal of continuing to move education forward. If you ever catch me not practicing what I preach here, call me out.

“There’s something happening here.
What it is ain’t exactly clear.” ~Buffalo Springfield

On Wednesday morning as I prepared for school, the news programs worked through their post-election coverage. The one phrase I kept hearing was “a need for common ground”.

Yep. If there is one thing this country needs right now it is some common ground. That couldn’t be truer in the world of education either.

To quote Buffalo Springfield again, “There’s battle lines being drawn. Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong.”

A lot has happened legislatively, economically, and technologically since I first started teaching in the mid-90’s. With all of the change has come increasing divisiveness. Back then it seemed like the only real squabbles in elementary education circles I heard were from the hardcore phonics and whole language camps. Oh, there was also that time when a first grade teacher declared she was now going to do a penguins unit although a second grade teacher had done been doing her own penguins unit for 17 consecutive years. Total chaos in the teachers’ lounge almost led to no Secret Santa exchange that year.

Now it seems like there are passionate camps on both sides of absolutely any issue…even issues that aren’t issues.

I have been hopeful that the new adoption of the Common Core State Standards might help us find some common ground. Unfortunately that is yet to be experienced.

We must not have disrupted this thing enough yet. Right? Sometimes though you have to disrupt the disruptors…call out your own.

Read the rest of the article.

Tip #6: Controlling which applications open specific file types

Sometimes you want to open a document in a specific application or your MAC isn't opening them in the one you want. Changing those behaviors is really pretty simple.

Tip #5: Changing Scrolling Direction in Apple OS X Mountain Lion

Apple's "natural" scrolling gesture seems anything but natural to me. Here is how to get your cursor to move down as you stroke down with your fingers.

Here is a quick how-to tutorial.

Tip #4: Changing how Firefox handles certain types of files like .PDF

Sometimes a web browser like Firefox doesn't handle files the way you want them to be handled. Taking control of those actions is only a couple of clicks away.

Here is a quick tutorial how.

Everything you ever needed to know about IXL.com but didn't know where to look

The good folks at IXL.com have put together a very comprehensive help page for using the site. Getting showbox for pc started as well as running reports are all covered and an in-depth teacher's guide is available for download. There is even a section for parents.

IXL User Guides

Lunch and Learn #2: Five key elements to understanding iPads in the classroom

[caption id="attachment_69" align="alignleft" width="300"] putting iPads to use on a Kindergarten shape safari[/caption]As we start to have more access to iPads in our buildings, it is important to take some time and spend it not so much on learning what buttons to push but discussing key elements that can go a long way in determining how successfully we put these devices to work for us. As I wrote in the Grand Rapids Press last year, iPads don't improve education. Teachers and students improve education with iPads.

Tom Daccord at Edudemic posted a great article (thanks for sharing Abby Perdok) in late September entitled, "5 Critical Mistakes Schools Make with iPads (and how to correct them)". I don't want to just rehash Tom's ideas here but his piece shows us that the devices have been in schools long enough that we now have critical accounts of what works and what not to do with them. Let's look at five elements (some similar to Daccord's) that can help us get the most of our investment in this highly engaging technology.

1. Understanding Apps: When it all boils down, there are basically two kinds of apps. There are "knowledge in" apps and "knowledge out" apps. This is true with any website...okay, educational ones but...I'm not even going to finish this thought. I think you understand the logical consequences. As I was saying, any website or technology tool does one or the other. Kids go to websites on lighthouses to learn facts and deepen their understanding of these structures' history and roll in the world. They then can go to something like Kerpoof.com and create pictures to share their knowledge. Voicethread.com lets them post pictures and give narration. A number of iPad apps like the Voicethread and Screen Chomp apps do too. Just because there isn't an app for a specific part of the curriculum, doesn't mean that an iPad can't still be extremely effective. Have kids put knowledge into their heads and then choose a "knowledge out" app to let them share it in spectacular ways.

2. Getting App Savvy There are thousands upon thousands of educational apps in the Apple App Store. Apple has a webpage dedicated to highlighting a handful of featured apps but to really dig in and find out what teachers really find useful and what kids think, check out these sites: Appitic.com and iEar.org.

Appitic.com is the brainchild of a group of teachers from Mexico and has contributors from across the globe reviewing apps. Things are nicely broken down by a ton of different categories so you can search by subject or grade level but also by higher order thinking skill.

iEar.org is another site "by educators for educators" (my tagline, not theirs). It has plenty of app reviews from teachers and students, but iEar (i Education Apps Review) also features a number of audio selections like interviews with app developers or ideas for implementing certain apps or techniques in your classroom.

A couple of iPad apps can be especially helpful in developing your savviness. App Shopper helps you find apps by subject matter but will also watch the prices of apps. Many times developers will run special promotions where they drastically slash the price of an app and sometimes make them free. When that happens you will receive a message from App Shopper to go and scoop up the app. App Price Drops is a little more stripped down in features but helps you find the deals, especially free apps.

3. iTunes is far more than music It always surprises me how many people don't rely heavily on iTunes for adding content and organizing their iPads. Yes, it is nice to be able to download and install apps from the app store on the fly through the device and it is fairly easy to create drag and drop folders on the device as well. It can be faster though and in many cases a lot easier to do that work while plugged into iTunes. Using iTunes also lets you add all kinds of your own specific content to the devices for student use. Educational movies, audio books, and anything in .PDF form (see earlier post for a how-to) can be placed on the iPad but you have to use iTunes in order to do it. A screencast will be coming that shows each of those processes in detail. Most importantly, every time you sync you diminish the severity of potential disaster by creating a backup file. If your iPad was damaged or lost, a replacement could be synced with your backup and you could start right up where you were on the old device.

4. It just feels right Through all of my experience of working with kids on iPads, there is a constant thread that is present. The iPad's user interface is incredibly intuitive. You just swipe and tap, drag and move. Many argue that kids are wired for the iPad. Much of that is likely true due to the prevalence of technology in our world, but I am starting the think that the iPad is far more wired for kids than the other way around. Apple is cracking the code on the best possible tablet, but Apple is also cracking our code for how we most naturally work and interact with a device. Here is how 5th graders explain this.



5. Think Different It is great to start out by concentrating on things you normally do in your classroom and finding ways to replace those tasks with the iPad. Chances are you will find higher levels of student interest and more engagement. Don't stop there though. Start to ask yourself, "What if? What if instead of typing animal reports, we made videos? And then what if we used those videos to teach our lower elementary reading buddies about the animals". Share your ideas with your colleagues and challenge them to ask, "What if?". Soon we will be watching our students do things we hadn't ever dreamed possible.

Google Has It

Here are 3 minutes and 49 seconds of awesome from a dynamic West Coast educator. Diane Main sums up extremely well in this parody of Adele's "Rumor Has It" all of the advantages that Google Apps can provide a teacher.

If there is something you see in this video and want to know more about, then let's use it as a springboard for some one-on-one learning.



Great work @Dowbiggin

Put a Genius Bar in your classroom

"I'm done. What do I do now?" is an age old question. I am sure teachers all the way back to Ancient Greece probably heard it too.

In Infotech the standard expectation for completed projects or work is to go and explore other links I have posted or to work in an application that interests them and doesn't disrupt; sorry Photobooth. Late last year though I tried something a little different when it came to wrapping up big projects.

At an extra table in the library we set up a Genius Bar. Yep Apple, I am not even disguising it and am blatantly using one of the anchors of your retail stores. Every Apple store has a Genius Bar and offers how-to and fixit advice for all of their products. Now, every major project in Infotech has a Genius Bar where students that are finished with the project can serve as the how-to guides for those still working.

Helping others finish when you are finished is a teaching technique as old as the "What do I do now?" question but there is something electric that happens when you deem students geniuses and give them their own operating space where two or even three kids together can help solve problems. It really creates that same kind of energy you feel when you walk into an Apple Store. Here, kids with questions get up and move to the Genius Bar and find who out of the group can best help them. Usually they pair up and head back to the student's seat to take care of the question. This also seems to change the perception of the advanced student who resents having to always help the strugglers when he or she finishes. Maybe it's just being called a genius but I really think it is the opportunity to work in a collaborative environment as a leader that helps him or her feel less like a crutch.

Here is the basic procedure I use:
• I set up the Genius Bar on the days I am "hoping" we wrap up projects. Some projects seem to need multiple "wrap up days".
• The initial set of geniuses are the students that are finished already when 2/3 to 3/4 of the class is still working. I always have this first set show me their projects to insure projects are really complete and were done with quality.
• When other students finish, they become geniuses too and are available to help. They need to show me their work too.
• It is important to watch for "the point of diminishing return", the point where you have too many geniuses to really be helpful anymore. At this point I make the option of "independent exploration" available but allow multiple geniuses the chance to work together on something.
• Everyone who finishes adds his or her name to the genius list. This includes the last kid finished.
• I thought I would have to worry more about students wanting the geniuses to do their work for them instead of just providing support but after only a brief explanation, everyone has understood what this model can do and what it shouldn't do. This is just one spot where I have been pleasantly surprised through this implementation.

I have had great success now wrapping up video projects in second grade and landform collages in fourth grade with this model. It teaches students how to work collaboratively in a super-charged environment and it provides lots of motivation for that student that would let a project linger on all year if you let them. Implementing a Genius Bar doesn't have to technology specific. Try it for any project at any grade level. I think it would shine in a readers' workshop setting or science lab as well.

From Infotech with Mr. Losik: Adding images to iPhoto from Safari...and citing them too

Here is a quick screencast showing how to send fishing kayak accessories  images found in Safari directly to iPhoto.

Check out "Adding images to iPhoto from Safari...and citing them too" as posted earlier today on my classroom blog.

Lunch and Learn #1: Getting Creative with Images and Working in Word

Thanks to everyone at both schools who stopped by for our first Lunch and Learn of 2012-2013.

We discussed some free online sites that let you have fun and express some creativity with everyday images you take before finishing up with some tips on using them in Microsoft Word.

Photofunia: This site lets you upload any photo and feature it in all kinds of scenes and backgrounds. Here I made myself look like I was being spray painted on an outdoor wall. Photofunia keeps adding more and more scenes. Be aware that some have gotten increasingly violent so it might not be somewhere to send younger students. There is nothing gory or offensive, just the presence of some weaponry. It is addictive though.

[caption id="attachment_39" align="aligncenter" width="193"] Photofunia.com[/caption]

Pixlr.com: Here is another easy to use site for adding a little flair to your images. There are three levels from which to choose on the home page. The middle choice "Pixlr Express" is the quick and easy choice for adding borders and stickers to your images. It also lets you make photo collages in literally seconds. Here is one I did in less than a minute.

[caption id="attachment_41" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Pixlr Express image[/caption]

We wrapped up the lunch hour by doing a little work in Microsoft Word's "Publishing Layout". It is under the VIEW menu in Word. The big advantage we discussed for this layout method is the ability to organize and control a newsletter all through floating text boxes and inserted images. Also under VIEW is control over your toolbox. When you click on your "Object Palette" you have direct access to your iPhoto library. When out saving images for clipart, why not use Safari? It has one major advantage over Firefox and Chrome. With a CTRL-Click or right-click (for you two button mouse users) you can send those images directly to iPhoto and have them one click away in Word. Below is an example of how that looks.

[caption id="attachment_40" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Organize clipart in iPhoto and it is just a click away in Word[/caption]

The next Lunch and Learn is set for October 17 and 18. The topic will focus on how to manage your iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches through iTunes. See you there.

Tip #3 Using the readability feature in Microsoft Word for Mac

Thanks to Ellen Berens for sharing this tip with the Blue Star staff today.

Microsoft Word will gauge the reading level of any document. It is one of those features that isn't turned on by default but easily added to the Spelling and Grammar tools.

This feature is especially useful when insuring that your students of varying reading ability are able to understand the selections you give them to read. It is also important to insure that the materials you are sending home aren't written at too high of a reading level. This isn't to assume our students' parents don't read well. This just helps you keep your newsletter from being too wordy...and nerdy.

Here are Ellen's instructions. I also created a screencast showing visually how to use the feature.

1. Open a word document, scan some text, etc.

2. Click on “Word” at the top of your screen.

3. Click “preferences.”

4. Click “spelling and grammar.”

5. Check the box next to “readability statistics.”

6. When you want to check the reading level, run spelling
and grammar check. Once you are done, your reading level
will be displayed.

For the YouTube video below be sure to watch full screen so you can see the menus clearly enough.

The Anatomy of a Collaborative Endeavor

Today Melinda Bronkhorst, Brian Lancaster (both 4th grade teachers at Bentheim Elementary) and I laid out three collaborative projects in under a half an hour. Here is how it all came together so quickly.

Melinda initiated the planning session by signing up for some collaboration time. She basically just wanted some ideas on how she could engage her students a little more deeply with technology. We came up with an idea where students would connect the iPhoto use skills I had planned for Infotech with their beginning studies of the United States regions. The plan is to have me bring down the mobile lab on Thursdays and ask students to begin exploring the tourist sites of states in their assigned region. They will find pictures that show examples of physical characteristics, save those to iPhoto, add bibliographical information to each photo, and organize them into albums. We will continue the work each Friday when the students visit me for Infotech. The three week project will culminate in some type of production where students share their photos to show the uniqueness of their regions.

I love planning like this. I am able to share my technology knowledge and the classroom teachers share their content and curriculum knowledge. Jointly we can put together an endeavor that is solid in all aspects of learning.

We weren't quite done though. We started to then think about what the next step might be and what other grade level objectives we might be able to address. I shared that sixteen years ago I used to have my fourth graders practice business letters by writing the game and fish office of different states. Every student was tickled to get a packet of information in the mail that featured all kinds of posters, pamphlets, brochures, and stickers. We decided we would resurrect the project and work together to do some business letter writing with Google Docs. Students will find the natural resources office for one of the states in their region and ask for some information on the wildlife that call it home.

That second project led to a third one that involved meeting briefly with Brian. Every year he does animal reports with fourth graders in Science. In the past we have worked together to give students links to research sites, and published them with the computers. This year we are going to try to connect the animal investigations all of the way back to the original regions investigation. The animal that will be the subject of the science report will one that students learned about through material solicited from the business letters. This is designed to build a little extra connection between the student and the subject they will research.

All of this planning and brainstorming took about 25 minutes. In that time we were able to tie together Social Studies, Writing, and Science...all of which were infused with educational technology. These are just examples of the types of projects we can do together. We took Melinda's general initial idea and quickly generated three very specific projects designed to engage learners in new and different ways.

Tip #2 Saving a document as a .PDF on a Mac

There are a number of advantages to saving a document from Word or Pages as a .PDF, especially when you want to share it or keep it on a mobile device. You don't have to depend on your recipient having the same application or version of the application to read it. Graphics stay where you want them and most mobile devices handle .PDF files quite easily.

If you have ever gone to your FILE menu and looked for an option to save a document as a .PDF you have come up empty. It is somewhat counter-intuitive to click the PRINT button but that is what you have to do.

1) Click PRINT under FILE or do a Command-P. I still mentally think of it as Apple-P.
2) Look at the bottom left corner of the window for the PDF button. Click it.
3) Click on "Save as PDF".

There are also a number of shortcuts that you can use from this menu as well. You can mail your .PDF. This is great for sending your newsletter to your principal or emailing a document to parents. You can also send .PDFs to iTunes. Huh? It might not make sense on the surface but iTunes will organize your .PDFs under Books. When you sync your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch you can then have all of those documents handy in the iBooks app. I keep different schedules and lists of meeting dates handy with this feature. It is also really great for taking things like A to Z Reading books in .PDF form (used legally with a subscription) and putting them on an iPad or iPads for students to use.

Here is a screenshot of the .PDF menu that you can access from a PRINT screen.

Tip #1: Compressing Files with a Mac

Consulting time is open to all staff who wish to learn something new. Yesterday, Blue Star Principal Teisha Kothe and I completed the first one-on-one learning session. We talked about bookmarks in Firefox, Google Calendar, and especially about how to compress a number of files into a .Zip file. By compressing a file, you greatly reduce the size of the item or items and it makes it easier to email.

Here is a screencast of the basic steps with a Mac.

And so it begins...

This year at Hamilton Community Schools we are re-inventing professional development one educator at a time.

Wendy Baker who covers Sandyview Elementary and Hamilton Elementary and I are expanding our roles as elementary Infotech teachers. This year in addition to teaching 40 minutes of combined media and technology instruction to students in grades Young Fives through Fifth we will be providing elementary staff a number of professional growth opportunities.

Instead of sticking with the old model of professional development coming in the form of a one day workshop where the great new idea has little follow-up we are choosing to truly differentiate and do PD on an individual needs based level. No matter where anyone might be on the road of technology integration we will help them grow in ways to improve their teaching and engage learners.

The following are the goals of our program:

•To provide elementary teachers with relevant, usable, needs-based professional development in the areas of educational technology and its successful integration into the curriculum
•To create team-teaching opportunities for consultants and classroom teachers to integrate technology together into the core curriculum
•To develop collaborative projects based on a combination of technology skills taught in Infotech and the content being taught simultaneously in the regular classroom
•To create a repository of online self-help reference materials for teachers to utilize. Most likely a blog or Weebly site that houses help guides but also highlights the successes we are having through teacher reflection pieces and examples of student work accomplished through this process
•To champion and highlight professional development the way it should be . . . a bottom-up approach that is individualized, not a top-down shotgun approach that is presented one day and then never addressed again

This blog will share my experiences working with staff members at Blue Star Elementary and Bentheim Elementary this year. It will feature many of the lessons we learn, tips and tricks, as well as reflections from real educators sharing their experiences with this PD model.

I hope you will join us on this journey by reading and leaving your own comments.