NOTE: This is a post from my other site​ that I thought I'd share on here since it's technology related.

Lately, I've been looking for ways to utilize technology to accomplish what we as English teachers have traditionally done with index cards for the source card and note card component of research. So far, working with other teachers, we've found three methods that seem to work. Special thanks to Tim Reger and Jen Moyers who worked through this process and created the materials shown below.

If you're only interested in giving your students one option, Google Slides (the first of the three listed below) is the simplest and the easiest to check and grade.

What we did in class: Before we got into the options for the students, we went over the basic concept of using source cards and note cards. We found that it was really helpful for them to have a firm grasp of what they were trying to accomplish prior to showing them different ways to accomplish it. We talked about the importance of pulling single pieces of information for the different notes, and the teacher assessing the project told the students to pull direct quotations only (instead of paraphrasing information). When I taught research, I had them take that approach, too. It kept them from making as many mistakes when it came to quoting and citing in their essays. We used the diagram below and explained the significance of choosing subjects and how the use of those subjects would ultimately help them shape their research papers. Then, once they seemed to understand the way that note cards work with source cards, we moved on the the specific method options.

• Google Slides: We created a template that only included two slides, one source card and one note card. We talked with the students about how to duplicate the slides and suggested that they keep those top two slides as they are so that they are easy to duplicate. We recommended that they change the background color for each source (so all cards, source and note cards, for the source would be a specific color). We also showed them how to create links to other slides in the presentation, so they could link every note card to the source. (That's what the "citation" word on the note card should be used to do--the students just highlight it and link it to the source.) Students could use the Find feature to search all of their cards for specific subject words, and they could choose to print their slides as handouts (6 or 9 to a page) in order to see them easily. They could even cut them up if they wanted to be able to move them around easily.

Slides was a simple option, and it was easy for students to access and turn in on Classroom. Even if you don't normally use Google Classroom, you might want to use it for this assignment so that you can easily share the template with students. Otherwise, you can just share the template with each student and have the students make a copy. They can share their completed source and note cards with you when they finish.

• Evernote: Evernote is another great option for research as well as lots of other online work. They have a great app and a nice Chrome extension (Evernote Web Clipper) that enhances their program. Students have to create accounts, and they can sign up through Google. For source and note cards, we had the students make a notebook for each source, and we told them to title their notebook with their last name and the source number (Ex: Dickson Source 1). Then, they made each bit of information a separate note, and they tagged the notes according to their subjects. They could search by tags or by source, so they were able to move around the information to see what fit together the best for their essay. For checking the note and source cards, the students shared the notebooks with the teacher through an email. 
• Google Keep: I love Keep for many things (if you use Stickies, it has a similar feel but is with you on any device). In this case, we had the students create notes for each source. They could color code them. Then, for the note cards, they created a new note with the number of the source and subject indicated at the top of each note. They could label the notes, and then they could sort their notes according to the different labels. When they were ready to share with the teacher, they could highlight all of the note and source cards that went together and put them into a Google Doc, which they would then share with the teacher.

Overall,  I liked the way the tag/label features worked better on the Keep and Evernote options, but the Slides were a simple, visual way to organize information, and the Find feature (command + F) worked when students wanted to sort their information according to subjects.

Let's just start with this basic fact: the Chrome Web Store has changed my life. To be clear, the extensions I'm going to discuss (things that appear to the right of your URL window that perform different functions) ONLY work in the Chrome browser. If you "sign in" to Chrome, where you are logged in all of the time, your extensions will travel with you to different computers. If you do not "sign in" to Chrome, they'll only show up on the browser of your normal personal computer. The extensions are basically short cuts and other aids that enhance what you are able to do while browsing the internet. They are different from add-ons (which are programs that enhance some of the things you're already using--those appear in a drop down menu but do not permanently show up when your browser is open). The Chrome store also has a "themes" section (which I just discovered today) where you can personalize the way that your browser looks. I choose the "Totoro Rainy Day" theme, and I'm currently enjoying Totoro's sweet profile image on the top left side of my browser window. The store also has game and applications. There are lots of things you can find in the Chrome Web Store, but the extensions are my favorite. 

Here are a few extensions that I love: 
(A NOTE about the links below: The links will show you the search with the highlighted extension I'm discussing as the top hit on the search. If you want to add the extension while in your Chrome browser, you select it, and it opens in a pop-up window to be added to your Chrome browser.)

• Save to Google Drive: This is an easy way to save web pages and images into your Drive. You do have to be "signed in" to Chrome for this one to work, but it's worth it if you're gathering information and want a simple way to get it all in one place. 
• One Tab: For those of us who find ourselves swamped with tons of open tabs, One Tab is a great answer that can quickly declutter your browser (and save battery power). It can simply consolidate all of your tabs to a single list on a "one tab" page, and then you can sort out what you need to reopen. It's a great way to keep a record of everything you've looked at without having it clutter up your browser window. One tab also has several other features, including the ability to close all tabs but the one you're on (which I use often in meetings when I've opened a lot of the items being discussed but need to get back to just the agenda) and the ability to exclude certain sites from One Tab (if there are some that you'd like to always leave open). Pinned tabs (which can be created by right clicking on the tab at the top of the window and then selecting "Pin Tab") are not affected by One Tab, so they will not disappear when you hit the One Tab button. You can also lock a tab group, name it, or SHARE IT as a webpage (which means you could use it as an easy way to share a lot of different links with students or colleagues).
• Web Paint: This extension enables the user to draw and write all over whatever is on the page. It's a great way to annotate pages, and it can be used with students as a way to write on and share what they understand about a passage. It also works well for some math applications that are difficult to read on a the computer screen. The image below shows what the tool bar looks like. You can see that there is a pencil, some shapes, a way to TYPE on the page, and lots of different lines. The camera button lets you choose whether to download the page, take a picture of it, copy it, or print it, so there are lots of ways to save your notes. 

• Cite This for Me: This extension makes it really easy to cite a web page or image from the web. It is NOT foolproof, however. Just like easybib.com and other cites that automatically generate information about a source, it must be checked carefully by the user to ensure that the information is correct and complete. Still, for people who aren't doing much citing or who need a quick way to get started with a citation, Cite This for Me is a really quick way to get the initial part of a citation. 
• @ Point: I learned about @Point at VSTE and almost wrote about it in that post, but I was still learning how it works. Basically, it's an easy way to share sites with other people (and can be used as a way to annotate sites and share those annotations as well). Since that time, I've used it often and found it to be a great way to keep up with resources and to share them with others. I often use it as a way to share a page I'm on (rather than using Google Tone or emailing the link). I love the way it keeps track of what you've sent, so I use it to bookmark articles and information that I might need in the future (but don't necessarily want to bookmark as a whole site). 

I hope that helps you get started with or find some new Chrome extensions that work for you. As I said before, they have changed my life for the better. Have you found some others that you love to use? I'd love to see what they are in the comments!

This year was my first time attending the VSTE conference, and it was amazing! Virginia Society for Technology in Education (VSTE) is an organization that focuses on how educators can utilize technology to enhance instruction. I loved many of the sessions I attended, and I even had the opportunity to present with Molly Highland, a middle school teacher in our county who is doing some amazing things with Google Hangouts on Air as a way to broadcast morning announcements. I most especially enjoyed the keynote speaker, Dean Shareski, and the followup session that he led on easy ways to integrate five minutes of creativity into classes.

Here are the things I most loved from the conference: 

• PechaFlickr: This was shared by Dean Shareski during his "Making Creativity Happen" session. PechaFlickr is a part of Flickr that allows you to choose a topic, and then you get a random selection of images that are tagged with that topic. Under "advance settings," you can choose the amount of slides and duration of each slide. To me, this simple, no-prep program has MANY applications. I love the idea of using it to get kids to make connections between the images and the concepts from a class period (or, for English teachers, between what they are reading and what the image shows). I also love it for brainstorming. They could talk through or write down whatever comes to their minds for each picture, and those words and ideas could become story starters for a writing assignment. Alternatively, students could be in different groups trying to pitch a product using the images, and then the class could vote on which group was most effective... So many possibilities!
• Comic Strips: I went to a session about incorporating comic strip creation into class. Jessa Henderson, the presenter, talked about how she used a comics project as a way for her AP Psychology students to make some of the difficult, abstract concepts of the class more concrete. For example, in one student's comic, the character Luna had to conquer her nemesis Insomnia to be able to get some sleep. I loved this idea, and it reminded me that comics could easily be incorporated into many class activities as a way to reach a wider range of learners. I'm still investigating which options are the best (FREE) comic creators on computers and iPads, but so far, I really like MakeBeliefsComix, and it has a free app as well. 
• Coding: First, a confession. I'm a coding newbie (like so new that I often don't have the faintest idea how to even start, and often I don't know what to ask, and often I'm too embarrassed--in tech circles at least--to admit that I have NO IDEA what is going on!). I'll probably write more about coding later, but this session, led by three teachers from Portsmouth, really helped me get a handle on easy ways to get started (both for myself and for helping the students). Some great sites are code.org, which has modules that the students can select to learn coding basics, Light Bot (where the students can program the robot sprite to light up certain tiles), and Combat Code (where students write code to play a game). As students learn a little more about coding, they can look at other programs like Scratch (now online) and ALICE (download only), both of which were developed by universities, MIT and Carnegie Mellon respectively, to help Computer Science students who needed more practice. Once students get the basics down, there are many applications. Coding can be used as a way to tell a story or have a dialogue between characters, and it can be used to create a game related to content. Learning to code helps students think critically and problem solve, and it helps them better understand how computers work. Even in non-traditional settings (like a humanities or fine arts class), coding can be used to enhance instruction, and it can be an alternate way for students to demonstrate what they know.

There were so many awesome tips and tricks that I learned at the conference, but these are a few things that stood out to me as easy components to integrate into the classroom. The biggest takeaway I got from Shareski's keynote speech was the notion that we should reintegrate joy and creativity into our classrooms--and the increase of technology access in the world and in our schools is a great way to do just that. Who doesn't want to have fun while learning?

I had a great time today with a Spanish class at Hillyard Middle School. We used Adobe Voice (see this post or this page for more information about Voice), and we had some glitches when it came time to share and post the projects. One student (who had worked with a partner, and who had done an awesome job with their project!) had some trouble getting her video posted on the class's Padlet (more info about Padlet here). She was doing exactly the right thing, but the program wasn't responding correctly. She said (with a slightly frustrated smile), "This stuff always happens to me with technology!" 

I laughed because I know exactly what she means. Who doesn't? Don't we all feel that way when it comes to technology? I turned to her and said, "If there's one thing that I've learned now that I do technology stuff all the time, it's that this stuff always happens to EVERYONE. You're definitely not alone."

She laughed and said, "I guess that's true." Finally, after the fourth try, we were able to upload her video. Woohoo! (We did have to save it to the camera roll first--the clipboard feature that we were trying to use never did work for her group.) 

That's what it's like to work with technology all of the time. Technology requires us to be brave. And patient. Endlessly patient. (How interesting--and humbling--that in this one instance, our students are often so much more patient than us!) And it certainly calls for trial and error. Then more trial and error. More and more errors. And finally, on the really great days or in the best moments, it rewards us with the VICTORY that comes with a success after many, many failures.

And yet, those problem solving skills are such an important part of being a successful person, and they're a vital part of what we need to teach our students. Technology (and most especially trying new programs) gives us the opportunity to learn, to grow, and to solve problems as we fumble along in the dark, looking for the light switch. And how awesome are the days when students find that light switch first! Today, I enjoyed watching the students using the target language, coming up with creative expressions, and integrating their speaking of the language into their projects. The best part was watching them help each other and watch each other's video! They'll do great on their upcoming quiz because of the hard work and practice that they did today.

So yes, technology can be so frustrating. But it can also be so invigorating, and it can lead us to think in new, creative, collaborative ways. I just have to remind myself of those affirmations when I have a "this always happens to me with technology" day.

Since I talked recently about Adobe Voice, I wanted to follow up with a post about another awesome, free program by Adobe (that is VERY new) called Slate. The best part of Slate is that it's now available on BOTH iPads AND on computers. It works well using either device, but it's nice to have the versatility to work with either one.

Slate functions as a photo slide show with lots of options for text and images. You can easily upload photos from your desktop, or you can use the photos that Adobe provides within the site through Creative Commons. The projects are easy to create and develop, but the finished product is so polished and professional! It looks great with minimal time invested and maximum results.

To get started, you'll need to sign in on the iPad or computer using your Adobe ID, or you can create one if you haven't used Adobe yet. (The same ID works for Slate and Voice, and you can let your students all login using an ID that you create.)  Then, you'll "Create a New Story" to make a Slate project. 

As I've mentioned before with using any new technology program, it's important to just play around with the program to get a feel for how it works. Don't worry about getting it right or making a perfect project the first time. You can just jump right in to see how the basics go. Slate is a pretty simple program--I usually give students a 5-10 minute overview and then let them get started.

The most important element of Slate is the PLUS button that lets you keep building your Slate. When you open a new project, the top slide is your title slide. The top slide just requires an image--if you don't want a title or subtitle, you can leave those blank, and the text will not show up in the finished product. You can change the focal point of the photo once you add one.

​The basic PLUS button has the following options:  

With the single image option, you'll get a second pop-up that lets you select how you'd like the image to appear on the Slate. The image can be in-line (with margins on both sides), or you can fill the screen with the image, choose a "window" options where the Slate lays on top of the image, or you can choose full width, which gets rid of the margins. The "window" option and the "fill screen" option both allow for captions on top of the image. 

Once you've gotten your images and text together, there are many theme options that allow you to customize your Slate even further, and the text options allow you to create various kinds of headings as well as other types of text. Your Slate will be easy to share through a link, or you can embed the Slate in a website. 

In short, Slate is an amazing program that both you and your students can enjoy using. I've seen quite a few impressive student creations so far, and I know some teachers are using Slate to share their content with their students. I often recommend Padlet as a great way to post the Slate (or Voice) projects for other students as well as the teacher to see.

I'm in love with the ease of use and polished look of Adobe Voice (and Adobe Slate, but I'll get to that in another post!). It's an iPad only app, so that's something to be aware of when you're considering using it in your classroom, but the students LOVE it (and so do teachers!). Here are a couple of examples of Voice projects. It takes five to ten minutes to show the students how to use the program, and then they are able to jump right in and create their projects.

Voice is a slide show that plays like a movie. It allows the creator to add slides with images, icons, text, and voice recording. They can also change the theme of the project (and those themes can be customized, which also changes things like the fonts), and they can change the background music or remove it completely if desired.

The program is so simple, and yet the projects look polished and each project can look distinctive and unique. We've been using them with ALL ages and all ability levels, and they have consistently been successful.  The elementary school students get the hang of the programs easily, but the program is not too juvenile for middle or high school students. As a matter of fact, adults use this program all the time to create awesome projects. Voice features some of the public projects on their site under the "explore" tab, so you can quickly see the wide range of ways that the program gets used.

As far as sharing, it's incredibly easy to get the projects off of the iPads. When the creator is finished, s/he can just hit the icon on the top right of the screen (it looks like a box with an upward arrow), and then they can choose how to share the project. Most often, we have students choose the clipboard and then paste the URL that they get into a Padlet or in Google Classroom. (The nice thing about Padlet is that everyone can see each other's projects, and they can all be presented easily from the same location. The nice thing about Classroom is that the projects can be a bit more private.)

This week, in the classroom of Janie Thames, who teaches English 9 at Spotswood, students took a body paragraph they had written for a persuasive essay. She had them underline the key words in each sentence of the paragraph, and she had them highlight the different parts of the paragraph (the topic sentence, their first example with support, and their second example with support). For the Voice part of the project, the students took the words they had underlined and used each of those words or phrases to make a slide. They chose images to represent each of those words. Then, they had a slide for their topic sentence, a slide for their first supporting reason or example, and a slide for the second supporting reason or example. 

It was an awesome activity to accentuate the power of word choice, and it gave students more ownership over their ideas and their writing as they used their own text to create the project. They read their paragraphs along with their slides, and that gave them more power over their language as they used their voices to share their writing. The best part was that the program is so simple that the students were able to complete the entire activity and post their responses to Padlet within only an HOUR. Minimal time invested, awesome results. That's something I love to see!

I've discovered so many awesome platforms and programs lately, but one that I knew before I started this position but did not fully appreciate is Padlet. I'm loving Padlet more and more as time passes, and I find that I have many occasions where it is the simple answer to what can sometimes be a difficult problem of sharing work with the teacher and classmates. This is a relatively simple site that has so many versatile ways it can be used in the classroom. A couple of weeks ago, I helped a middle school math teacher use it to post students' work. They had created similes to explain the math properties they were studying, and they chose images to complement their similes. Their Padlet can be seen below. I've also worked recently with a senior AP Literature class, who will be using the site to post the Adobe Voice and Adobe Slate projects they make in their groups. It's just a great way to quickly and easily share information with a class or a larger audience.

To use Padlet, you'll simply create an account (the students DO NOT need to do this--another plus in the ease of use category). You can log in using Google to simplify the process. Then, to get started, you'll just choose "New Padlet" on the top right as you see in the image here. Then, you can use the toolbar on the right side of your screen that you'll use to navigate the Padlet (which you can see on the similes Padlet below). The toolbar gives you lots of control over the padlet that you've created. The gear at the bottom of that toolbar opens up another bar with many interesting features. You can change the background, change the name of the link, give a title and a description, and change the layout of the posts. (As a side note, I often change to the grid view (as shown below) or stream view instead of leaving the layout as freeform. The freeform layout looks neat but can sometimes cause students to have work hidden under the posts of other students.)

Once you've created your Padlet wall, you can share it with students using a URL or a QR code. That's how students will access the Padlet to add their responses. All that they need to do is click on the Padlet. They need to post their name and then their responses in the box that opens. (Do make sure that they put their names in their posts--since they don't have to log in, they need to put their names to receive credit.) They can upload lots of different types of files to the Padlet wall (including audio and video files). There are lots of different options with the plus button, but the button is all the same (which is important to note if using iPads--they don't need to click on the camera specifically, for example. They can just click anywhere in the plus/ upload area, and it will automatically enable them to upload whatever file they need. 

Overall, Padlet is a great, easy tech option to add to your toolkit. It does have an app if you'd like to use it, but it's also fine to just use it on your browser even with iPads.  You can use it for discussions, research, collaboration, or as a space to share projects. Enjoy!

Google Hangouts is an awesome, free way to video chat with lots of people. We use it with my husband's family, which is pretty big,  so that we can all catch up at once from lots of different places. However, Google has been expanding this feature, and they now have Google Hangouts on Air, which actually RECORDS the video that is made. 

Thanks to this recording feature, schools can now use Hangouts to broadcast their daily announcements. In RCPS, we're already using Google Apps, so it's really easy to setup Hangouts in a way that will work for our schools. Molly Highland at JFHMS started doing this last year with the morning announcements, and it's been a huge success that continues to grow. We helped MVES set this up, and they're now using it to show announcements. Several other schools are doing it as well.

Here's how it works. If you want to start using Hangouts on Air with a specific community, it's a good idea to create a Google Plus community and invite everyone who would normally watch the videos (important note: you'll have to be logged in to your Google account for the links from this section to work for you). At a school, you'll want to create a community that includes all of the faculty and staff who might want to watch the announcements. Anyone in the community can see the videos on their Google Plus homepage (when they are upcoming--they don't stay there forever) and on the Community page under the events tab. They will also receive an email when each new video is made, so they can just click on the title of the video in the email and play it from there. 

For step-by-step instructions about setting up a community and recording for the first time, see this guide. 

For more instructions about how to VIEW the Hangouts on Air, see this instruction sheet.

Once you've created your community, you are ready to record a Hangout on Air. Just make sure when you create your Hangout on Air that you've selected the appropriate audience (so you don't accidentally show your video to the whole world! Or, in RCPS, to the whole RCPS world...). Recording is simple--just hit "Start Broadcast" and listen for the ding that indicates that it's ready to record. Then hit stop when you've finished. When you want to check it, hit the play button to watch it again.

As a random note (that was very frustrating and required quite a bit of tedious work), we discovered (the hard way, after hours and hours of experimenting) that, at least in Rockingham County's Google system, the videos only consistently play IN Google Plus if they are longer than 40 seconds or so. They will always play on YouTube with a link, but they will play automatically in Google Plus on the homepage and through the email invite as long as they are a bit longer. With the Moment of Silence and the Pledge, you'll never have trouble with a video being too short, but if you're just doing test videos, make sure that you record a little longer than you feel is necessary in order to get them to play appropriately. 

There are lots of interesting features available to you--you can add multiple cameras, show what's on your screen, use the silly hats and face decorations (like on regular hangouts), and many other neat features. Once you get things going, you might find that the students are ready to try all kinds of fancy filming!

If you're in RCPS, please contact us, your ITRTs, to help you get set up with Hangouts on Air!

I've recently discovered an awesome site that has so much potential for educators and students! This nifty site enables users to take an image and make it "come to life" with as many links, videos, and other interactive features as the user deems appropriate (or as many as a class assignment mandates, as the case may be).

This post chronicles my experience getting started with this site. For the quick tips information, please see my Resources page that has instructional videos and printable instructions for both teachers and students. If you still have questions, please email me through the contact form (or, if you work for Rockingham County, just search for me on the directory and email me directly). I can also share any of the resources with you on Google Drive, so email me if that would be helpful.

To try it out, I took one of my own photographs and uploaded it onto the site. I chose a photo from Angkor Wat, a place I visited while living in Japan in 2006. That place, a  UNESCO world heritage site, was the most phenomenal place I've ever visited, and every time I consider my experience there, I'm reminded by how awed I was to stand in the presence of such remarkable work. However, despite the amazing work that was done to create the magnificent temple, the jungle overtook the entire area and all of it was lost for hundreds of years. There are still some temples where the jungle can be seen, growing its way through the hallways and ceilings of the structures.

I chose this image because I thought students could easily do a research assignment that connects to a historical site; it could work well in either an English or Social Studies class, and it would be easy to adapt it to fit different grade levels and standards.

As an aside about uploads, I downloaded my photo from my Flickr account, and I chose to keep it at its original size/ quality, which was quite large. That has made it more time-consuming to load each time I want to make changes. In the future, I will probably sacrifice some of the quality of the image in order to have a more manageable file size.

As you can see, the interactive image is easy to share and post in different locations. I wasn't sure if it would save changes once embedded, but it does, so you can share something and then continue working on it without having to update the embedded code.

There are some different options as far as adding students. You could give students an invite code (to see your code, you need to click on STUDENTS on the top right, then GROUPS, and then the settings tool on the right that says "manage groups" when you hover the mouse over it). Then have them create their own account by entering their own information and the code in order to create an account. This is the simplest option. HOWEVER, this option requires an email address for the students. If you do not want them to need an email to log in, you can manually enter the students' names on your own page. The site will create an account for you with login information and passwords. That information must be printed--you'll only see that screen once--so I recommend saving it as a PDF on your computer from the print screen.

Once students log in, they have the same control that we as teachers have (meaning that their pages are not restricted or limited). Their controls look a little simpler on the toolbar, but that is just because they don't have a "students" tab or an "upgrade" tab. Their overall access is the same.

Once you (or your students) have an account, you're ready to create! The creation feature is quite straightforward, and it's simple to add buttons with links and captions. To get back to the projects you've already created, you'll use the "Me" tab at the top right, which takes you back to your homepage.

When creating a project, here are a few quirks that were easy to navigate but could seem confusing. The biggest one I noticed while editing is that while you're working on an image, it's in a pop-up box. If you want to get out of that and back to the main site, you just need to click on "Save Image." That enables you to get back on the main page where you can see all of the image collages you've created. Also, if you want to link to an image (but not the whole site), you need to RIGHT CLICK on the image (control click if you’re a Mac user) and select “Copy Image Location.” Paste that location link (command V) into the box on the thinglink editor page. I also made my works cited page on Drive and linked it to the image, but I discovered (through a very helpful information box and an easy tutorial session) that I needed to "Publish to the Web" before my link would work from the ThingLink site.

If you register your students, the preset options make it where you follow your students and they follow you. I like this feature, but you can manually change it if that is not your preference. However, if students create their own accounts, you need to "follow" each other by searching for each other. You can also create "Channels" (which are available to you on the "Me" page with all of your own projects), which is a great way to organize your classes and have students submit assignments.

There is also an app for the iPad and for mobile devices. The app seems quite user friendly, and I know that my students use the app that comes with their Weebly blogs quite often, so I think this app would get some good use as well.

I'm excited about this site and all the ways it can invigorate some of our more traditional projects in the classroom. Here's to happy thinglinking!