***The HOUR OF CODE***

Inspire your students to solve, think, and create with Code!

This year, Computer Education Week is December 8th through December 14th, 2014. You and your students can become participants by completing an Hour of Code.
http://hourofcode.com/us


Students can interact through a variety of fun, self-guided, hour-long tutorials on Computer programming, and computers are OPTIONAL (but highly recommended, of course)!
The Hour of Code goal for 2014 is to get 100 million students participating, and it's totally possible with your participation.

"Every student should have the opportunity to learn computer science. It helps nurture problem-solving skills, logic and creativity. By starting early, students will have a foundation for success in any 21st-century career path." (http://hourofcode.com/us)

Inspire your students with these videos, provided by http://hourofcode.com/us/resources/how-to 

Google Search Tricks Using Google Search Modfiers

In the November 2014 Google for Education Newsletter, Google provided tips to help students and teachers get better search results. Try using these Google Search modifiers the next time you surf the web.

Introducing Otus- A 1:1 Solution for iPads and Chromebooks

Created by teachers who needed to simplify the process of getting multiple items handed out to their students in a 1:1 classroom, "Otus is an easy-to-use, yet powerful classroom tool that brings the best iPad and Chromebook education features together into one secure environment." (iTunes)

     

                                                                                  
The creation of Otus came out of the need to solve the issue of students having multiple tabs, windows, apps, and/or documents open at one time, and having difficulty following where they were supposed to be during a lesson.  

With Otus, teachers can now provide students everything they need in one location including assessments, polls, documents, items from Google Drive, and more.  

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSHH9-5b4JY

If you're looking to create a more blended environment and distribute lesson materials and assessments to students, Otus is a tool worth exploring. 

PS- Both the Teacher and Student versions of Otus are absolutely free. 

http://otusplus.com/

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/otus-teacher/id827403487?mt=8

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/otus-student/id827410177?mt=8

Class Messenger - powered by Scholastic

"Everyone wants the best results for kids, but one of the most common problems for teachers is their lack of time. " ~Class Messenger

Class Messenger is an easy to use, digital service available on iTunes and in the Google Play store, that allows teacher more time by reducing their workload, rather than adding to it.  

Class Messenger allows for greater communication, connections, and relationships between teachers, students, and parents.  It can then keep parents more involved in their child's school experience with a simple glance at a phone or click of a mouse.  

In fact, Class Messenger allows parents a more detailed response to the age-old question, "What did you do at school today?"  Teachers can use Class Messenger to update parents about tests and quizzes, projects, or to remind students about due dates. They can even share photos and video with individual parents or the entire class at once.  

Take a closer look at Class Messenger through this Prezi

K-5 Apps to try this Summer

Many teachers have asked us what apps we would recommend for summer learning, so here's a VERY short list of apps we like for all subject areas in Grades K-5.  

Math Doodles
 Math Doodles was chosen the 2012 Parent's choice Gold award winner, and Editor's Choice award for Excellence in Design.  It includes Math challenges such as Sum Stackers, Connect the Sums, Splat Go Round, Symmetry Shuffle, and a Sneak Peek Challenge.  There are also several challenge modes for children to keep track of their progress.  It is bright and entertaining to eliminate the "I'm bored with this" response!

Stack the States
 Stack the States is one of my children's favorite apps!  It includes multiple choice questions about state capitals, landmarks, geographic locations, and flags.  When you answer correctly, you drop the states onto the board, one on top of the next, in order to reach a goal line. It has similarities to Tetris, but more educational!

Puppet Pals
 Puppet Pals is a very simple digital storytelling app for young students.  The free version of this app is slightly limited to characters and backgrounds, etc. but overall, Puppet Pals offers a good starting point for students to get creative with the writing process.

Trading Cards 
 Trading Cards, from ReadWriteThink, is a great app that allows students a way to express their understanding of a topic in a more unique way.  Students can sort their cards into collections, create fictional characters, or use this app to fulfill the Trading Card requirement in the Frog unit for 3rd grade.

BrainPop Jr. Movie of the Week
 If you are already familiar with BrainPop or BrainPop Jr., the Movie of the Week app is available on iPads and iPods for your students to view the movie and then follow up with related materials such as quizzes, and other educational activities. All core subjects, as well as Health and Arts & Technology are included.

30 Hands
 30 Hands is an innovative storytelling app that allows for students and teachers to be creative with their pictures, drawings, writings, etc., while recording audio to coincide with their images.

Vocabulary Spelling City
 Vocabulary Spelling City is an app that tests both Spelling and Vocabulary with built in word lists or customized lists from school.  Students can play different games like Alphabetize, Sentence Unscramble, and HangMouse to practice their list.  Fun app for the summer, indeed.

From The Field - Port Jervis High School Students Doodle 4 Google

This year Google again offered its Doodle 4 Google competition for K-12 students throughout the country.  The winner of this competition will have their doodle shown on the Google Homepage, receive a $30,000 college scholarship and $50,000 in technology for their school.  This is an awesome opportunity for students to have an authentic audience for their artwork. Granted, it is artwork that revolves around a for profit business, but much of the art in today's society is done in the name of commerce through advertising.

Google doodles began in 1998 when Larry and Sergey, Google’s founders, placed a stick figure drawing behind the second ‘o’ in the word Google as a message to users that they were “out of the office” attending a music and art festival. From there the idea of decorating Google's logo to mark cultural moments was born.  Since then thousands of Doodles have graced Google's homepage for holidays, significant historical events and famous people's birthdays.  On June 9th some talented student will have their Doodle displayed to the world on Google.

This year Ashley Kaufman, an art teacher at Port Jervis High School, had her students create a Google Doodle and were given the opportunity to submit it to Google as part of this competition.  The theme this year was If I Could Invent One Thing to Make the World a Better Place...  and Ms. Kaufman gave her students two weeks to come up with a Doodle to submit.  Most of that time was spent preparing through brainstorming and researching their ideas.  Students had a smaller public audience initially with other art teachers coming in to the classroom to critique the students' ideas and execution as well as provide feedback.  Ashley commented that "It really is a fantastic exercise in creative problem solving, a very valuable part of the arts."

Six brave students submitted their work to the Doodle 4 Google contest.  Ashley shared that "Most of the students were quite self-conscious about putting themselves “out there.”  A few of the students completed the assignment but didn’t submit their entries to google, so I compliment those that had the courage to do so." Here are the designs of the 6 students and their description of what they would create to make the world a better place.

Brittany – Miracle Machine

If I could invent something to make the world better it would be a machine that cures all diseases, disorders and sickness. It would all be accomplished by one machine.

Maria – Grid at First Sight

What if people who were blind were given something to let them see? The sensor on their shoes broadcast a grid around them, outlining objects in their path. It would be similar to sonar.

Marissa – Wordly Conversation

If a translator could translate from any language to any language, people would make new friends and learn new languages; making the world a better, more understanding place.

Molly – Peaceful Radiation Device

I would invent a radiation device that will emit a compound that will end war and create peace.

Sarah – To Here, There, and Back Again

I love to travel, and so much of space is unexplored. My invention is a plane-like-rocket in which you can see the elephants in Africa, explore through space, and then come back and visit the Eiffel Tower all in one day.  

Zoe – Memory Helmut

I would invent a helmet that sees into peoples memories and deciphers whether they are lying or not. This helps decide if the person accused is really the culprit.

Google Add-Ons

Google has done it again.  They have made awesome products even better! Add-ons provide increased functionality from right within Google Docs and Google Sheets (the new Google Spreadsheets) with a growing number of applications.  Some of these may be familiar to those of you who used Google Scripts like Doctopus and Flubaroo to many that have been used for research like EasyBib and Lucidchart.  To get started, simply click on Add-ons and then choose Get Add-ons.

If your tool you installed doesn't automatically load, then select your tool from the under the Add-on tab and follow the directions for each.  Most open in a side bar just like your research tool and have simple step by step instructions.  Here are a few of my favorites:

EasyBib Bibliography Creator

Easybib has been a favorite tool for creating bibliographies for papers and now it is even easier.  When you select manage Bibliography from the Add-on menu, Easybib opens to the right.  Select whether you would like to cite a book, journal or a website, then insert the Title, ISBN number, etc... and SEARCH.  You will have a list of possible matches listed below.  SELECT the one that matches your source and it will be added to your bibliography.  

Once you have added all of your sources, you simply click on ADD BIBLIOGRAPHY TO DOC to plug in your WORKS CITED list at the bottom of your document.  I recommend inserting a Page Break right before so that it will be on its own page.  

Doctopus

Don't be scared by the name, Doctopus is not from Spider Man or James Bond, but rather a fun group from the NewVisions for Public Schools that have really pushed the limits of what Google Apps can do for Schools by writing scripts that work with the Google API.  Doctopus manages assignments using google docs by creating copies and automatically sharing them with students or groups of students, managing sharing, grades and feedback all from a single spreadsheet.  This used to be a Google Script that required a bit more savvy to install and run, but it is now a Google Add-on for Sheets making things much easier for all of us.  Read more about Doctopus and how it works here.

There are many more Add-ons and they are being added weekly.  What is your favorite Google Add-on?

Doctopus - The best tool for sharing Google Docs assignments

Doctopus

Don't be scared by the name, Doctopus is not from Spider Man or James Bond, but rather a fun group from the NewVisions for Public Schools that have really pushed the limits of what Google Apps can do for Schools by writing scripts that work with the Google API.  Doctopus manages assignments using google docs by creating copies and automatically sharing them with students or groups of students, managing sharing, grades and feedback all from a single spreadsheet.  This used to be a Google Script that required a bit more savvy to install and run, but it is now a Google Add-on for Sheets making things much easier for all of us. 

When installed, Doctopus first asks what roster you are working with.  You will need to have a list of your students (First Name, Last Name, Google Apps Email) to create a roster for sharing.  The beautiful thing about this feature is that, not only does it remember your roster for future assignments, but it can create a series of shared folders that manages all of your shared documents with your students!  This is an absolutely essential function for managing many assignments with students (whether you use the other features of Doctopus or not).  

Once your roster is created, you will need to set up your assignment for sharing.  The settings are for the following:

• Sharing type (individual, group, etc...)
  
  
  
• Whole Class Access - Whether or not students can view other students work (helpful in group projects and facilitates peer editing)
  
• Student Access [to document] - does the student have edit, comment, comment or view only rights to the google doc you are sharing.  You can also control whether or not students can share these documents with others by allowing editing rights.  By limiting this, it controls students sharing their work with others to copy.
  
• Add Co-Teachers 
  

Once all of those settings have been made, it is time to select the document that you are going to share for this assignment.  You will have to first select the folder in which the document resides, then select the document that will be used as a template for this assignment.  It is called a template, because the actual document is not changed - Doctopus actually makes a copy of it to share with each student.

Once you have identified the document template, you need to determine where the assignment will reside in your google drive.  You can choose an existing folder or create a new one.  You can then also use Doctopus to send a personalized email to your students.  

The last step is to review your settings before creating a copy and sharing it with your students.  Once you have created the copy, Doctopus, inserts columns in your spreadsheet that will allow you to easily monitor each of the student's assignments and provide grades and feedback right from within the spreadsheet.  You can click on the link to the document to see what work has been completed to comment and provide a grade - there is no hunting through your Shared With Me folder in your drive or wading through all student assignment folders.  This simplifies the entire process of using google docs for assignments and is where the real power of Doctopus resides.  Some other neat features are the ability to Embargo documents for grading (if you say you have to have it completed by Friday at noon - then you can enforce that deadline - however, you can un-embargo the assignment for editing purposes.)  You can also send an email to students with their grades and feedback once the assignment is done.  Now - if this was all possible inside of an LMS like Schoology or Edmodo, I would be jumping for joy!  I believe the new Google Classroom is supposed to have such features - I can't wait to see. 

Please share at below if you have used doctopus and how you like it.

From the Field - 4th Grade Digital Citizenship Pledge Using Padlet

In the Little Britain Elementary School Library in the Washingtonville School District, Library Media Specialist Tracy Ebenhoe worked with a group of 4th graders to take a digital citizenship pledge using Padlet. Padlet is an online bulletin board that allows users to post comments and add pictures, videos or documents to tell a story or weigh in on a topic.  "As part of a continuing discussion on digital citizenship and safety, students worked together to brainstorm and discuss a list of safe behaviors when online. Using Padlet, I loaded an image of a digital citizenship pledge (from commonsensemedia.org) and students "signed" their names and commented."  Students were able to login to her Padlet page, sign and also comment if desired. Two of the features Tracy liked best was that the sheet was able to be password protected and that she was able to monitor and approve all posts before they became visible to the other students.

For Tracy, digital citizenship is an ongoing theme in library. She asserts: "with the prolific use of technology and new resources available to us everyday, students need to be smart and cautious users."  We couldn't agree more.  Tracy has been using Commonsensemedia.org as a resource for lessons on these issues.  Tracy came up with the idea after being inspired by Tech Challenge of the month developed by Tech Coaches in Washingtonville.  

Do you have a project you are proud of? Share it with us and we will feature it here (or keep it private if you prefer).  Fill out our short form here.  Let the world know what incredible instructional uses are being made of digital tools in the classroom  

Enabling Google Docs for Offline Use

One major frustration of working in the cloud is when it is a sunny day and there is no cloud available for you to work in.  Google has provided you with an opportunity to work with Google Docs, Slides (Presentations) and now the new Sheets while not connected to the internet.  To do this, you need to enable Offline Mode in Google Drive on each computer that you would like to use Offline.  To do this you need to first have the Drive Web App installed.  If you haven't, you will be prompted to do so when you attempt to enable this access.  First, click on More from your Google Drive left-hand menu, then click Offline.  If you haven't installed the Drive Chrome Web App, you will be prompted to do so at this time.  Once you have installed this, you will then be able to Enable Offline Access.  Check out the animated Gif below.

When you are working on a document while in offline mode, you will see a circle with a lightning bolt to the right of the name of the document indicating that You are Offline.  Once you are again connected, your changes will be synced to your drive

There are a few important caveats to using Google Drive offline

1. You will need to enable Offline Mode on every computer that you wish to use.  
2. Anyone using your computer will have access to your offline docs so only enable offline mode on a computer that only you use if you are worried about security of your documents
3. Only one Google account per Chrome profile can set up offline access to Drive. If you are unable to set up offline access because another user has already done so, you can create a new Chrome profile and then follow the above steps to add offline access for your account. Learn how to create a new Google Chrome profile.

Get Organized with 2 Great Chrome Extensions

Staying on top of your to do list is vital to staying organized and being effective.  There are some very comprehensive project management software with some helpful apps, plugins and chrome extensions, but for most people they are simply too complicated for our needs.  For some of you with only a few things on your to-do list and only one Gmail account, simply using Google Tasks will fill your needs.  But for those of us with multiple mail accounts and multiple devices, it is helpful to find something in between.   In our search for the best tools to get organized we have found two that work seamlessly with Gmail, are simple and easy to use, have both chrome extensions and mobile apps, and are robust enough for most any user.  The two that we found are Todoist and Any.do. There are others such as Toodledo, GQues, and Wanderlist, but today we am only focusing on the ones that have a chrome extension with the free version (GQues has one with their paid level).  Below I review each one with a comparison view between the two.

Any.Do is a simple tool with lots of free features.  The things I like most about Any.do is the ability to add any tasks from a webpage in Chrome.  With the chrome extension installed, simply right click on any text or hyperlink in a webpage and choose "Add To Any.Do" and select Today, Tomorrow or Someday.

The other great features of Any.Do is the integration with Gmail.  Embedded within the email is a Gmail Followup toolbar that allows you to add a task easily related to that email such as "follow up with Serena about...".  They also have a Gmail Button added to the email toolbar that allows you to quickly add a task with the subject of the email as the title of the task.  Either way you add it, there is a link to the email attached to the task in the chrome extension.

Any.do allows for adding notes and sharing tasks with others (only in the mobile app) and has a fairly straightforward way of adding folders and notes/sub-tasks.  You can also move tasks around both within a folder and between folders.  There is also reminders for your tasks that pop up on your desktop and on your mobile device.   It is easy with Any.Do to see all of your tasks across all folders or see what is due today, tomorrow, upcoming or someday.

Todoist is a slightly more robust program built on Projects rather than folders.  The interface on both the Chrome extension and the mobile app are simple and intuitive.  The one feature that we really like about Todoist is that in the Gmail integration, there is a popup that is similar to the Google Tasks window.  This makes it easily accessible and uses the same type of interaction that you are used to in Gmail while using tasks and chat windows.

While features such as adding documents and images, reminders, and adding labels is part of a paid premium account, there is a lot to like about using Todoist.  Tasks and projects are easily dragged and dropped and sub projects can be nested under main projects.  In the image above, Soccer and Groceries are projects that fall under the main project Home.  For adding a due date and time, or a recurring task, it is as easy as speech.  Just type when you want your task due - Every Monday at 10am; Friday at noon; or today.  Go to Todoist Help Center for more suggestions.  

The Gmail integration uses a button that adds the email to your popup task list where you can then add a time to follow up.  This task is also hyper-linked to take you to that email to follow up.  This link even works in the mobile version though it takes you to the browser gmail and not to the app...  

Another cool feature that helps with motivation is the Karma trend rating in Todoist.  This rating goes up (and down) based on how many of your tasks you complete.  If you like badges and rewards, this may be the app to boost your productivity.

Whatever you choose, both apps have great features for helping you get things done in your life. Check out the comparison chart I have put together to help you decide.  

Augmented Reality in the Classroom

Augmented Reality is poised to change the way we look at the world, never mind impact education and the way students engage in learning. Connect the world of printed documents to an interactive, 3D environment using Augmented Reality Applications.  Aurasma, Layar, and Daqri AR apps, to name just a few, will allow students to literally interact with books and paper.  Watch the videos below to give you an example of how AR can be used to enhance students comsumption in the classroom.

Test Prep with Varsity Tutors

Let's face it - high stakes tests are a part of our lives and, while we don't want to teach to the test, we do need to prep students for them.  There is nothing that will replace quality instruction for preparing for a major exam, but there are a number of quality online assessment tools out there that are effective at helping students build on that quality instruction and get great test scores.  One tool that we have come across recently is Varsity Tutors.  This site offers free diagnostic and practice tests with feedback that help students prepare for an exam.  All of these tests are free and open to the public and, should you find from taking these assessments that you need extra help, you can sign up for in-home tutoring from them (for a fee).

 Creating an Account:

Creating an account is easy and allows any user to take any of the tests and get immediate feedback. 

Taking Tests:

When you first create an account, you are taken to the list of tests that you can take. You can select from over 100 tests and sub tests for everything from the intermediate and high school level to AP, SAT and CLEP.  

Diagnostic Tests, Practice Tests and Flash Cards,

There are 3 main types of assessments that you can take.  One is a diagnostic test for the major exams that are intended to be an overview of the entire exam to see how you would do.  The practice tests are broken down into different sub categories and the Flash Cards are really individual questions that you can work through one by one.  Your receive feedback on how much time was spent on each question as well as your performance on each question.  They have included an explanation of the correct answer on each question so that you can learn from your mistakes.  

Classroom Tools

• Creating Tests
• Teachers can create their own tests by either adding questions of their own or by choosing questions from the item bank.  

• Sharing Tests
• Once created, you can share the tests with students either individually or as a group

• Viewing Results
• Once students have completed their test, they get a Full report - View an example by clicking here.  
• Teachers can then see an item analysis of those test results for their whole class and can drill down and see how each student did on each assessment.  

Embedding Assessments and Flashcards

If you are interested in having students study and want to keep them on your website you can embed both complete tests and flashcards right into your website or LMS.  Check out the example below:

Powered By Varsity Tutors

Overall, we are impressed with this assessment tool and think it is worth checking out.  Let us know what you think.  

Happy Birthday Albert Einstein & Happy Pi Day

Next to "My Hero Zero", Pi is probably one of my favorite numbers. Though I may be a bit irrational at times, so is Pi, also known by the by the greek letter π. Pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference to it's diameter and is approximately equal to 3.14159.  March 14th (get it 3/14 -- 3.14!) is a day to celebrate the uniqueness of this mathematical constant and ironically it is also Albert Einstein's Birthday.  Below is a collection of websites taken from an Edutopia Article by Matt Davis for you to explore Pi with your students - If you want to celebrate Einstein's Birthday, I suggest a round cake!

• Pi Day Activities from the San Francisco Exploratorium: Without the Exploratorium, we might never have had an official Pi Day celebration. In 1988 Exploratorium physicist Larry Shaw started the tradition, and it was finally recognized by Congress in 2009. The Exploratorium highlights some great hands-on activities, and there is also a great list of Pi-related links.
• Happy Pi Day from TeachPi.org: TeachPi hosts a trove of Pi Day resources, featuring fun classroom activities, Pi Day-inspired music, and other fun learning ideas. There's plenty here to keep students engaged, and learning, on March 14. Check out the activities section for a bunch of great learning ideas.
• Pi Day Teaching Ideas from Scholastic: Scholastic produced these great lesson plans for three different grade levels -- preK-1, 2-3, and 4-6. There's also interesting information about the history of Pi, as well as a link to aWeb application that allows students to explore Pi through music.
• Pi Day Resources from Math Goodies: Math Goodies features some great, free math lessons that incorporate Pi. Check out their circle lessons, as well as links to other online resources and list of questions for students to research the history of Pi.
• What Is Pi, and How Did It Originate?: Scientific American dug deep into the history of Pi in this article, offering an insightful look at the origins of the mathematical constant.
• TeachersFirst's Pi Day Resources: TeacherFirst offers this great roundup of Pi-themed lessons and resources from around the Web focused primarily on high school. Included in the collection are some general math resources, like Simpsons Math, and they all come from a variety of great sources.
• Celebrate Pi Day with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics: There's plenty of great resources here from NCTM. Along with fun activities, there's also an Illuminations lesson plans section with some great standards-based lesson plans for educators.

Chromebook Keyboard Shortcuts

The Google Chromebook has a keyboard shortcut overlay that can be very helpful if you're feeling like you are missing the capabilities to use Accessories you may previously have used on a desktop.  This was particularly helpful recently when we found something similar to the "Snipping Tool" that we used so often to create tutorials with screen images, but goes far beyond CTRL-V and CTRL-C for copy and paste.


Click CTL-ALT-? to open the keyboard overlay.

Hold down the CTRL key to view the first level of shortcuts.

Using the image below as an example, CTRL-d is "Bookmark current page".

Hold down CTRL-ALT for a view of more keyboard shortcuts.

Using the image below as another example, CTRL-ALT-t is "New Terminal"

Hold down CTRL- SHIFT to view the last of the keyboard shortcuts.

Using the image below as a final example, CTRL- SHIFT-w is "Close Window"