Making Teachers Nerdy

Top 20 Websites No Teacher Should Start the 2010-2011 Year Without

MrsSmoke — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:58:11 PDT

I have to tell you that it was a tough call to make these decisions, especially when we’re talking every teacher no matter what grade level or subject, but I hope that you find a couple of gems to put away in your virtual treasure box. You may have others you’d like to add to the list. Please post them in the comments for all of us to explore.

Le Arrgh! Digital Anti-Piracy Website is LIVE

MrsSmoke — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 09:15:46 PDT

This is the site that my students produced with our PBL unit over Treasure Island and digital anti-piracy. Take a peek Le Arrgh!

Social Networking Power with Edmodo in the Classroom

MrsSmoke — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 20:30:23 PDT

After being in full time tech integration for nearly seven years, I’ve had the privilege to return to the classroom at such a pivotal time in education. With the use of wonderful Web 2.0 tools and the ability to easily collaborate across the globe, students have opportunities today that weren’t even envisioned three years ago. One of those opportunities involves creating a professional learning community through Edmodo, a teacher moderated social network where students can share ideas, publish their work, and learn how to communicate effectively online. What better place to build on our 21^st Century Skills? What can Edmodo do? Let’s take a look at some of the features:

Accessing My Personal Library- A new feature that I recently discovered is the teacher personal library. Here any file I’ve uploaded or URL I have shared sits in an online storage area for me to quickly recycle next year. As one who works with multiple computers, this feature has certainly caught my eye. Similar to a curriculum map, I can walk through my Edmodo library and recall previous assignments and projects.

Building a Student/Teacher PLC – The best feature of Edmodo is having the ability to build an online community with my students. Quite often students have questions about current assignments or discussions after school or on weekends while they are doing homework. With Edmodo, my students can post a question directly to me or to the entire class, and within a few minutes responses are given. My students stated that this feature provided teacher support they had been missing in other classes, and that they felt part of a real group rather than an individual in a class.

Collaborating with Other Teachers – This is another new feature that I’ve enjoyed discovering. As I teach technology professional development workshops, I’ve begun to create Edmodo groups my participants as a place to collaborate, share ideas, and build our own community. It’s been wonderful especially for collaborative projects as new groups linking classrooms together can easily be formed.

Connecting with Absent Students – Edmodo has also provided a paradigm shift of communication for students who are absent. Even though they are not in class, most of them do have Internet access at home and can complete assignments before returning. I simply upload any handouts and answer any questions as though the student was in class. I’ve also set up discussions during class and the absent student participates in live time from home. Not having to grade late work is such a wonderful feeling, isn’t it?

Embedding Just About Anything - Can I just say this out loud? I LOVE this feature. Whether I’m sharing a YouTube video, Glogster, ProProfs quiz, Google Form, Voicethread, or Slideshare, this feature is such a treasure. Now, I must tell you that yes, indeed have a class wiki where I can embed, at least three steps are involved. In Edmodo, however, it’s a one stop paste of an embed code, and ba-da-bing – it’s there. Plus, now students are able to have a conversation around the embedded item. It’s brilliant!

Posting Handouts – Do your students leave handouts on their desks? Lose Rubrics? Leave homework in their lockers? Yes, my students do, as well, but I have found that uploading my handouts within Edmodo has eliminated much of this worry and reduced late work issues. With Edmodo’s document viewer, even the students who don’t have Microsoft Office at home can view the embedded document or print if needed. Talk about nice!

Providing Online Data Storage – How often do students lose their files? Jump drives crash or viruses run rampant), but with Edmodo, the students quickly upload any files they are working on for easy access in other classes or away from school. My students have commented often how nice this feature is for them, especially since many of them had lost their jump drives within the first few months of school.

Providing Teacher Big Brother Features in a Student Centered Environment – I believe Edmodo is successful for teachers because it allows us to set up a social network for our students while still being in control of the content. I love that students can send posts to me or the whole class without direct messaging their peers. Yes, I want to nurture the student dialogue, but I also want them to recognize that our professional learning area is not a Facebook environment. By having the ability to delete any posts that are inappropriate, the teacher can redirect discussions to a more focused topic.

Publishing Student Work – Quite often I have students utilize creativity web 2.0 tools such as Glogster or Voicethread, but when it comes to grading them, I have to login to those tools and search for student products. With Edmodo on my side, the students simply copy the embed codes for their products and post directly for easy grading.

Receiving Text Message Updates – The students rave over this one. Whenever I submit an assignment, question, or reminder to the students, they receive a text message on their phones. For those students who have organizational skill troubles, this has been wonderful. It was an instant reminder to login to Edmodo in order to complete an assignment or answer a question.
I, too, have the text message feature setup for direct posts. If a student has a question at any time, I instantly receive a text on my phone so I can address it quickly and easily. I can tell you late work diminished tenfold when they knew I would answer questions in a timely manner.

Setting Up Classroom Discussions – One of my favorite assignments is to provide “Edmodo Homework” every few weeks. I generally post an open-ended question on current classroom units, literature, independent reading, or projects and ask the students to pop in for class discussion that evening. It’s rather amazing to watch them do homework in “real-time” as I moderate the discussion or sit back and watch them communicate with each other. I get such a kick out of it, and grading is quick, as well. As they post, I update the gradebook. TIP – Assigning a whole class discussion can be lengthy and confusing for the students since responses are not threaded. I recommend sending conversation assignments out to groups of four to six.

Sharing Links – We’ve all been in a similar situation – students in the computer lab with the assignment of students visiting four or five websites. We’ve given handouts, written URL’s on the board, or created a list of hyperlinks on a wiki. With Edmodo, time is less wasted as I can instantly post a link and have all students there in less than three seconds. No files to open or URL’s to type. I can also say this feature was a dream during the research paper assignment. Each student researched a different topic and as finding resources online became difficult for a select group of students, I could easily provide support.

If you haven’t explored Edmodo previously, I highly recommend it for grades 3-12, especially if you teach in a 1:1 learning environment. No more having to set up shared drives on the server, posting stacks of URL’s on wikis, or waiting for student emails. Edmodo makes sharing files and communicating with students easy cheesy lemon squeezy. Give a go.

Putting the Nerdy Teacher Back in the Classroom - Let Project Based Learning Begin

MrsSmoke — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 20:33:34 PDT

The most wonderful thing happened to me this year – I lost my job. After several years in full time tech integration, budget cuts landed me back into the classroom. Isn’t that a strange twist of fate? Yes, I was a bit bent out of shape at first, but quickly (and I mean in just a few days) realized how amazing it would be to take all the training I’ve been doing with teachers and directly give it to the students we’re trying to impact. What would it be like to actually run my own 21^st century classroom? What tools would I need? What projects would I want to run?

I tossed the ideas around for a few weeks while I was finishing up my summer nerdy teacher workshops and pulled out one of my favorite novels to teach, Treasure Island. Knowing that I would be a project based classroom, I immediately went to work on designing a Treasure Island unit. Today’s post will feature the steps I took to develop this unit in hopes of guiding other teachers into developing their own projects.

Google Features That Make Teachers' Lives Easier Part 2 - Wonder Wheel and Timeline

MrsSmoke — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:13:31 PDT

Today I’m sharing with you a couple of my favorite Google treasures, and these have the potential to finally make searching for students less stressful as they turn searching into a visual – Hooray! I’m hoping this will eliminate some of the “being lost in the web” time teachers and students face and help to find better results more efficiently. Honestly, I cannot wait for school to start and see how students interact with these features. I hope you have fun playing with them and even more importantly, find great uses for them with your students.

Google Features That Make Teachers' Lives Easier Part 1 – Google 411, SMS, and Book Search

MrsSmoke — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 12:06:35 PDT

Today’s post is the first in several that will give you an insight to some Google tools you may not have not had the chance to previously explore. Yes, we all Google in one form or another, but most of us are unaware of little tools and great updated features that make Google more than a basic search engine. Plus, with the newest features of Google Squared, the Timeline, and the Wonder Wheel, students and teachers have a way to navigate through information more efficiently and effectively. I don’t know about you, but I’m a big fan of getting results quickly rather than wandering in the web for hours.

Today I’ll talk about two free Google phone applications and the Google Book Search. Though I’m pretty confident these tools were not invented with teachers in mind, they do feature great applications for educators.

45 Websites For Students To Create Original Artwork Online

MrsSmoke — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:00:49 PDT

More and more websites are coming online to give students the ability to unleash their creativity in new and innovative ways. From abstract art to pointillism, students now can click and draw their way into original works of art, and today’s freebie gives you a great list of places to begin.

The sites are labeled by grade level to help guide you to those that best suit your students. In addition, I’ve added ratings to give teachers and students an idea of how much interactivity is available at each site. Some allow students to create from beginning to end, while others simply generate the final product with minimal effort. What you will not find here are basic virtual coloring sheets. I tried to find sites that would give students a chance to generate their own original works of art. What could be better?

I will warn you that some of these sites will drag you in to create for long periods of time. Don’t worry, you’ll just be channeling your inner artist. Have fun!

Action! Get the Cameras Rolling with Digital Storytelling

MrsSmoke — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:09:23 PDT

Who doesn’t love a good story? I love the kind of story that leaves you hanging on every word or the one that brings back feelings of nostalgia. What makes us remember these stories? Is it how we personally relate to them or the moment where we know the comic punch line is about to be said? In any case, stories are how we capture the moment or reflect on how things once were, and with today’s resources students have a wealth of tools available to make them present day archivists.

Today’s post shares resources to help you get started In exploring what digital storytelling is, what web 2.0 tools are available to use, blogs from other Ed-tech folks who are brilliant in digital storytelling, and few ideas to spark your imagination. Be certain to check out some of the student samples such as SFETT and Oklahoma voices as these are true indications of what can be done with a great story.

Free Collaborative and Private Photo/Video Sites for Teachers and Parents

MrsSmoke — Fri, 29 May 2009 08:23:11 PDT

Those special events where everyone seems to have a camera flashing such as field day, classroom performances, and field trips offer a special opportunity for teachers and parents. It gives everyone a chance to grab those candid shots and capture great moments on film, but often there is difficulty sharing all those photos and videos in one place. Email works to a point, but often this is cumbersome and has limitations with file sizes. Worry no more. Today’s post will make video and photo sharing easy while keeping those treasures private and safe.

Best Sites to Find Public Domain Images and Sounds for Student Projects

MrsSmoke — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:52:44 PDT

Now that more and more classrooms are publishing student work for digital storytelling, podcasting, or through wikis and blogs it is becoming increasingly critical students follow the copyright and fair use guidelines. To help you and your students, I’ve created another freebie post – free images and sounds for student projects. Yes, there are multiple websites out there for public domain images and sounds, but I tried to pull those that are safe for student searching. You will find glorious photo landscapes, character illustrations of fairy tale characters, tornado sound effects, and more.

In addition, the links do have suggested curriculum units that could be supported through the use of the websites. Hopefully, that will guide your search.

I encourage you to place your favorite resource links on your own classroom website for students to access easily.