Social Media and Your Digital Tattoo

Last week, I had the pleasure of partnering up with the counseling department in Bedford High School's first annual Social Media Awareness Day. I must say that not only was it fun to help organize the day, but is was also very rewarding.

Last year the counseling department came to me with an idea to work together to help remind students (and staff) about how to handle social media in showcasing the 'goods' and the 'bads'. Throughout the school year, we got together in meetings to brainstorm what we exactly wanted to accomplish. We knew that there was going to be a presentation but we wanted to make the day even more than just that.

When it came to the presentation, we knew that we did not want to just lecture about the negatives of social media. Instead, we wanted our message to come out that it is ok and encouraged for students and staff to use social media with keeping precautions in mind.

To open this Prezi presentation in a new window, CLICK HERE.

We also wanted to make it real and personal for the students. With that, we surveyed our staff at BHS as well as all of our freshmen and sophomore students. That is right, we surveyed almost 600 students and staff!

We asked similar questions to both staff and students so that we would be able to make comparisons amongst each group. The results were very informative and helpful. Not only did we share the results in the presentation, but the counseling department also created posters to showcase in the main hallway.

We also decided that since we wanted to highlight how social media can have a positive impact on others (and we did not want students to get 'bored' of listening to Mrs. Puffer and I) we interviewed some teachers in the building. We asked them how social media has had a positive impact on them. It was really interesting to hear what the teachers had to share - personal and professional examples are both given in this video. To view this video in a new window, CLICK HERE. 

At the end of the presentation, we highlighted the YouTube video, "Look Up" by Gary Turk. If you have not yet seen this video, then you must take a look at it. This video really makes you think about your 'screen time'. We decided to challenge the entire BHS community and 'Look Up' during the lunch block that day. If you would like to view this video in a different window, CLICK HERE.

As students walked into the commons, some of the National Honor Society members as well as the BHS counselors reminded students of the challenge to not look at a device for 25 minutes and to be present.

These students actually took it another step further and placed all of their phones in the middle of the table while they were hanging out socializing and eating during their lunch break.

All in all, it was a great day! It was very refreshing hearing from teachers talking about how it either impacted the students or themselves in some way. The day would not have been possible without the Counseling Department - all the way from concept to reality. And a big kuddos to Ms. Puffer for helping give a great presentation. I know that I am already looking forward to next year.

Another GREAT Day to be a BULLDOG!

Sharing Information Through Infographics

In our world these days, we are obsessed with pictures and videos. We take selfies, we upload and watch videos on YouTube, and we like to share photos through social media. We like to see information in a visual form.

One of the ways in which information is being shared with others is through what is called Infographics. Why they are appealing you might ask? It is due to the nature of pictures, graphics, and limited text curated into a 'virtual poster'. Color, different sizes of font, and organization of diagrams and pictures is important when creating an infographic. And, if done well, infographics can do or almost do what a research paper can, even though there are not as much text involved.

If you do a simple google search on infographics, you will even find blogs dedicated to infographics.

The very first time I was introduced to infographics was from listening to Kathy Schrock present on the topic at the Christa McAuliffe Technology conference a couple of years ago. After that presentation, I challenged myself to create my very own infographic. Mine focused on the technology at our high school that I presented to the high school staff at the beginning of the 2013 school year. I had a goal of sharing how far we had come with technology, and I thought that an infographic would be a great way to do that. It was definitely a better way to go, instead of just putting some text on a presentation as it was a bit more engaging and entertaining for the staff.

To see the infographic in a larger format, click HERE.

Before you even create an infographic, it is important to first figure out what your ultimate goal is with the infographic. You will find that time will be wasted if you do not think about this first, no matter what infographic website you use. Things to think about:

• Is there a theme that can help determine your 'background'? (if you want one)
• Is there data that you can organize in some sort of chart/diagram?
• How is your information going to flow from top down?
• Is there one image where all information will feed off of?
• What is the most important information? (maybe that should be in bigger text)

Infographics in the Classroom
Last month, Mrs. Dudgeon came to me wanting to have her Roots Honors students create an infographic. I was thrilled as I had not had the opportunity to integrate infographics into a classroom prior to this.

There are several infographic websites that make it easy for people to create their own infographic. We decided to go with www.easel.ly. Easel.ly provides templates that people could use in creating their infographic or they can start from scratch. Easel.ly also provides the user with some stock images to help create the infographic.

Prior to students creating their first infographic, I came into Mrs. Dudgeon and Mrs. Magnusson's class to help them create their account with Easel.ly and the three of us explained what an infographic is all about as well as showed examples. I also provided instructions for students as a go by in case they were stuck with how to complete a certain task in Easel.ly. To view these instructions in a different window, click HERE.



Then Mrs. Dudgeon and Mrs. Magnusson shared with the students that their infographic had to include the cost/benefits of either tradition and progress or costs/benefits of morality and power during the Renaissance Unit.

Collecting Infographics

Once the students completed their infographics, they were required to post them on their class Padlet wall that Mrs. Dudgeon created. Mrs. Dudgeon has been a big fan of using Padlet as a means of collecting and sharing information. Below is a screenshot of what one of them looked like. This is a very easy way for students to each post their infographic as well as to see each others infographic.

Student Examples

To view some examples of what the students produced, click HERE! 

It is important to note that besides being graded on the content that the students provided in the infographic, they were also assessed on

• the type of infographic they created (timeline vs. venn diagram, etc)
• fonts
• colors
• layout
• citations

The purpose of that was to make sure that students truly understood the point behind infographics and I am glad that Mrs. Dudgeon and Mrs. Magnusson felt this was important.

Infographics are not going to go away any time soon. I think it is a great way of sharing information, and at times, they make learning fun due to the way it is presented. I feel that all students at some point in their career should be challenged to create an infographic as I think it is a great skill to learn and know.  I am excited that Mrs. Dudgeon and Mrs. Magnusson provided this opportunity for their students.

If you ever want to learn more about infographics or figure out how you can use them in your curriculum, you know where to find me. 

Google Sites - Beyond Teacher Websites

Over the past year, I have been talking about how creative teachers have been with their teacher Google Sites. This time, I am highlighting how the counseling department has decided to use a Google Site.

Every year, college representatives come to BHS so that students can meet with potential colleges/universities to hear what they have to say to give them a better idea of what that college/university is all about. At each of these meetings, a counselor attends the meeting with the students who have signed up. As the representative is talking, the counselor takes notes so that anyone can look at them in the future for a potential situation when a student has a question about that school.

This year, the counseling department decided to step it up and organize all of those notes on a Google Site so that parents and students can easily find information regardless if they were able to go to the meeting or not.

To View this Website, click HERE

Tools Used To Put It Together

• All work done in BHS Counseling Google Account
• Google Site - curating all of the notes
• Google Docs - template made for notes (copy of doc for each school)
• Google Drive - folder system created for organization of all notes

Note Taking

In order to make sure that information was not lost in different Google Drives, all counselors log into the BHS Counseling Google account. This is where all of the notes are taken. Mr. Rider, a counselor, created a template Google Document - so that there was consistency of how the documents looked. The counseling department got together to discuss how and what should be put on the document. He then created a folder called School Visits. Under that folder, he made a folder for each letter of the alphabet. This is for ease sake in finding the schools in the future. Then each week, Joe created a Doc for the schools that are visiting that week. The counselor on duty for the presentation would then log into the Counseling Google Drive to find the document with the school name on it in the appropriate alphabet letter folder to take notes. (Joe also makes sure that the link is live on the Google Site).

Creating Google Site

Again, the Google Site was created under the Counseling Google Account so that it was not tied to any specific person's account. After thinking it through the decision was made to customize the horizontal heading bar of the site so that all of the pages show at the top of the site. A page was created for each letter of the alphabet. Then, once the Google Document was created, Joe copies the link to the document (making sure sharing permissions is anyone with the link) and creates a sub page.

If you would like to learn how to manage the horizontal navigation bar in Google sites, watch the video below.

As a side note, I am also pleased to see the counseling department 'flipping' by creating videos for students and parents on how to use the tools that are required of them. On the Google Site, you will find that there is a video that shows students how to sign up in a program called Naviance so that they can attend College Visit meetings. Just another way of being efficient rather than have students ask how to sign up. The counseling department can now point them to the website for instructions.

There are many advantages to this new process:

• Parents, students, and teachers can find the information very easily
• There is consistency in what is looked for in the meetings
• The 'leg work' that Mr. Rider did this year will not have to be done next year as the counselors will just edit the document that was created this year
• Helped organized and streamlined the process

Just another example of how you can use a Google Site to share information to the community. I look forward to helping move our main school website off of a web service that we are currently using to Google Sites this year. Excited for the possibilities!

Of course, if you have any questions on how you can use Google Sites, you know where to find me.

Efficiencies in Sharing, Collecting & Grading Google Documents

We all know that the big Google buzz this school year has been about Google Classroom. Yet again, Google is doing what it can to help make teacher and student lives easier. With Google Classroom, Google has made it easy for teachers to be able to create a course to help elevate headaches of sharing information, documents and due dates with students. Prior to this, some teachers were using Doctopus, Goobric, Google Forms, and/or gClass Folders.

At the beginning of the school year, Google Classroom was still missing the ability for teachers to be able to grade electronically with a rubric. What I mean by this is once a teacher opens up a Google Document to assess, there was no ability to grade with an electronic rubric. (Obviously this will be helpful as schools start moving in the direction of doing things electronically.) Classroom allowed you to enter in a final grade if you wished to report to the student but the student was not able to see why they got what they got.

Andrew Stillman, creator of Doctopus and Goobric, made revisions to his product to allow the script to be integrated with Google Classroom. Why is this important to you you might ask? Well, the best part of using Doctopus (and Goobric) is that the electronic rubric that you assess the student is attached to the bottom of the Google Document. In other words, once you open the student's document, you can attach the rubric right to it. An email is even sent to the student to notify them the results of the rubric. How does this work?

• You create an assign an assignment in Google Classroom. 
• You then create a rubric a specific way in Google Sheets (Doctopus gives you those parameters)
• Once the assignments have been collected, you create a blank Google Sheet and open an add-on in a blank Google Sheet called Doctopus
• You follow the steps of Doctopus so that all of your students have the rubric 'assigned' to their document.
• You open up student work and grade using the rubric electronically.
• Once done with grading that one student, rubric is attached to document and email is sent to student.

A couple of weeks ago, the New Hampshire Google Education Group ran a Google Hangout On Air with the major focus of Doctopus and Google Classroom. I asked our very own Jennifer Baney, Physics Teacher at BHS, if she would be willing to join in on the conversation as I knew she was an expert in using these tools. In fact, Baney originally was only going to use Google Classroom with one of her classes until she discovered that Doctopus worked with it. (She has been using Doctopus now for at least a year). Now she is using Google Classroom with all of her classes.

To view this Google Hangout, click HERE.

**Doctopus Conversation starts 28 minutes into the Hangout**

**Please note that this was NH GEG first Hangout On Air - so it will not be polished.**

In the Hangout Jennifer Lowton (@jllowton) gives an explanation of Doctopus and how it can be used outside of Google Classroom for those teachers who have not used Classroom or do not plan on using it. Jennifer Baney gives more explanation of how she uses it with Google Classroom as well as provides insight of how she creates documents to push out to students. Some ideas that she recommends to teachers (and I would second these suggestions):

• When creating a document for students, provide space that you want them to type in. Maybe change the color and/or font so that when they start typing in that spot it looks different from your instructions on the document. This will be easier for you when you are grading electronically.
• Another way to help break up your instructions and student work is to create tables where you want students to type so that it will show up in a 'text box'.
• When you want students to be able to annotate pictures/images/graphs, please those images in a drawing right in a Google Doc. By doing this, students would double click on an drawing so that they can 'annotate' it.

Jennifer Baney has been very creative in how she uses Google Documents with her Physics students and I commend her on that! If you have any questions on using Google Classroom and/or Doctopus with your courses, you know where to find me.

'Flipping' Out at BHS

Over the past couple of years, some BHS teachers have shared with me their interest in experimenting with the flipped model. While in some cases this might seem daunting, there are different ways in which flipping can happen.  Three teachers in particular have started to create instructional videos for their students to watch outside of the classroom: Mr. Fritz, Mrs. Dudgeon, and Mrs. Dreyer.

Mr. Fritz teaches mathematics at Bedford. In his videos, he typically highlights a particular problem for his students. By doing, this he hopes that it will trigger their memory as to what they have to do on their own for their homework. The videos that he makes are no longer than 5 minutes long and are to the point.



Tools that Mr. Fritz needs to complete the video:

• SMART Notebook software
• This allows Mr. Fritz to be able to annotate his work while he is recording
• Screencast-O-Matic software
• This allows Mr. Fritz to record what he is doing on his computer screen
• Free downloadable software - allows you to create up to 15 minutes worth of video per recording
• Direct uploading options right to YouTube
• Wacom Tablet
• This allows Mr. Fritz to take control of his laptop with a pen so that he can 'pencast' his lesson
• Basically a pen takes control of his computer so that he is able to write and annotate his work
• YouTube
• This allows Mr. Fritz to store all of his videos in one place online for his students to access

Here is the process that he takes to complete a video:

• Opens up SMART Notebook software
• Pre-populates the question that he will answer in the video on a notebook file
• Opens Screencast-O-matic software and places the recording window over the area he wants to record
• Records the video
• Uploads video to YouTube
• Sets appropriate settings to video as well as puts it in a playlist in YouTube

Mrs. Dudgeon teaches humanities at BHS. She attended a history conference last spring and got jazzed up about the possibilities of flipping her classroom.  In her videos, she asks her students to learn about a new topic or idea ahead of time for homework. Then, students come into class the next day ready to discuss what was shared in the video. In the video below, you will even hear Mrs. Dudgeon say that students must fill out the homework worksheet as they listen to the video. This will then be proof to her that the students watch the video as well as through the discussion students have with her about the topic. What is also great about this is that if students are ever absent from class, they can still watch and listen to the lecture online. In addition, any student can go back to these videos as many times as they need to to make sure that they fully comprehend the information.

Mrs. Dudgeon uses a similar process as Mr. Fritz in creating these videos. However, you will notice that she does not have any annotations.  Instead, she had a presentation made in either in Google Slides, PowerPoint or Keynote. Then she used Screencast-O-Matic to record her lecture, followed by uploading it to YouTube.

If you would like to see more videos made by these two teachers, check out their YouTube Channels:

Mr. Fritz YouTube Channel

Mrs. Dudgeon YouTube Channel

Feel free to even subscribe to their channels and be notified when they upload new videos.

YouTube Tips:

• Make sure videos are public when you are ready for people to see them
• Make playlists to group similar videos to help viewers find videos
• Use tagging feature with each video - this helps with the 'related videos' that pop up at the end. Might not be a bad idea to create your own tag. For instance, I always use #bhstech222 whenever I upload a video to YouTube.
• Uncheck allow comments or moderate comments for each video to fight against spam or inappropriate content

It is important to note that there is not one way of making videos. In fact, there are many apps on the iPad that allow teachers to create and upload videos online for viewing. One such application is Educreations. Mrs. Dreyer has been teaching a Personal Finance course for the past couple of summers to students in a hybrid/online platform. As a result of this, she had to make sure that students could access content online and in some cases, this meant that videos had to be made. Similar to Mrs. Dudgeon, students had learned about the topic ahead of time in the video. Then the participated in a discussion via Google Groups. Since Mrs. Dreyer is using the Educreations App, her videos are stored on their website rather than on YouTube.

Mrs. Dreyer has even shared with me results from her end of the class survey from her students. Students have shared their appreciation for Mrs. Dreyer in making her own videos. They indicated that they enjoyed hearing from their own teacher rather than a stranger.  Now this does not mean that a teacher can never show a video made by someone else, but it does shed light on the fact that students connect with their own teacher.

Click HERE to view this video in Educreations

I appreciate the fact that these three teachers are willing to put themselves out there for the world to see and hear. Humans are not perfect and Mrs. Dudgeon, Mrs. Dreyer, and Mr. Fritz are not an exception.  It is ok if the videos are not perfect - in fact I think that is one stumbling block that some teachers have a hard time with. They want things to be perfect, but in reality it is ok if the videos are not perfect.  Mr. Fritz even mentioned in one of his latest videos that he was going to try and stop saying the word 'HERE' as students made a comment about it. I think it is great that theses teachers feel comfortable enough to make these videos.  Most people do not even like to hear their voices out loud but this did not stop them from starting their adventure into 'flipping' their classroom. It is also important to note that flipping is not meant for everything - I believe that high school students still need that human interaction.

If you are inspired to potentially implement some videos into your curriculum, feel free to talk to me any time! No idea is too small of an idea. I will help walk you through a process that makes sense with your needs and wants. You know where to find me...

** Big thanks to David Gilbert of Windham High School for the inspiration of how he flips his math classroom**

Exploring 'One-to-One' with Chromebooks

This year, we have decided to explore what a one-to-one device scenario would look like with Chromebooks.  When I say one-to-one, I am using that terminology very loosely.  Students do not actually have their own device.  However, we are trying to replicate that situation as best as we can.

For the first semester, we have two chromebook carts housed permanently in one room that is being used by the American Dream Post Secondary Prep Humanities classes. This consists of three classes taught by two different team teachers (teams are taught by a history and english teacher). This year, Mr. Ahnert and Ms. Uliasz and Mr. Lukach and Mrs. Corbin are involved. Our thought is that if the teachers and students can both rely on the fact that there will always be a device in the room, both parties might find it more useful to implement the technology.

In our current system, teachers have to plan ahead to sign out a laptop cart in order for students to complete work using technology.  In some cases, if the teacher does not sign out a cart at least a week in advance, they might not get the devices when they absolutely need them.  As a result, particular instruction might not to happen at times due to a scheduling issue. We all know that there are moments in instruction where a teacher could really use technology for five minutes due to the conversation at that moment.  In our current model that is just not possible.  However, with our one-to-one pilot, we hope that these spontaneous moments will be served well.

Setup:

• 2 Chromebook carts housed in one classroom.  These classes have class numbers ranging from 35-45 students
• Students using the device are 10th graders
• Our tech department set up the chromebooks with management software so that we can control certain things with the device.
• I worked with the American Dream team to come up with a plan as to how these devices would be introduced to the students as well as why they even had them in the first place. (It is important to note that the majority of the students have never used a chromebook before as prior to this year, seeing as though we have only been a Mac school).

Introduction:

It was important to the teachers that the chromebook was not the focus of the course, instead they wanted to make sure it was a supplement to help support their learning.  I could not agree more.  Thus, these devices were not introduced to the students until the third day of school.

Before I even spoke to the students, one humanities team had students think about what the advantages and disadvantages would be if students were in a classroom where computers were always at their disposal.  They had to write their responses down in a T-chart. This was a great way of having students process what that setting would look like prior to being introduced to it.

I was blown away when I heard the responses from students as I did not expect to hear some of them.  Below is a picture of the results from the students.

A short presentation was created for the students to understand what our expectations are of them when using the devices.

In this presentation, students were explained

• to use the devices for educational purposes
• only use their issued device for that block
• lock their computer when leaving the room
• close lids when not using device to help with self management
• not to eat or drink when devices are out
• how to know if they need to pick up device when walking into the room
• differences of logging into the chromebook as opposed to a Mac computer

Picture above shows a que for students in letting them know if they are to pick up a chromebook when they walk into class. (teachers will not have students get one if they know for certain students would not use them at all).

Activities:

After the presentation, students logged onto the chromebook to do their own exploration through a Chromebook scavenger hunt. I was able to find a scavenger hunt that was already made, but made some alternations to it to Bedfordize it. (Thanks to Rick Lapi)  Chromebook Scavenger Hunt Google Doc The students individually worked through the scavenger hunt.

Since this document was not something that the teachers were assessing students on, student did not submit their work using Google Classroom.  Instead, they were shown how to organize their digital work in Drive. One or our focuses as teachers for these classes is to make sure that students are learning how to be a good digital learner. The teachers want to eliminate all of those untitled documents.  They also do not want to see any document on the My Drive list meaning that all files have been stored in some folder. Students were walked through the process of creating an American Dream folder to drop the Scavenger Hunt into it.

The next day, students came into class and played a Kahoot! quiz on chromebooks to see what they learned from the day before.  Again, the teachers wanted to make sure that students knew how to use the device that was in front of them so that they can start off the year right.  If you would like to see the quiz that the students took on Kahoot!, we made it public. Just search for Intro to Chromebooks (authored by sheilc).

We look forward to seeing if and how these devices help with student learning.  We have made a Google Form that teachers will fill out every week to help keep track of how often the devices are being used each week and for what purpose.  Just another way of collecting data to look at in the future.

I must say that BHS is very fortunate that we have a group of teachers who are willing to try something new and potentially change the way they have taught the class before.  I can't wait to see where this might bring us.  Only time will tell...

Proud to be a Bulldog

Kahoot!: Competition is a Great Thing

Hard to believe that another school year has started.  Only seems like yesterday I started my new journey in becoming a Technology Integration Teacher and here we are 3 years later.  As I write this, teachers have already been back for a week and we have had students for 3 of those days.

This year, in my opening tech training to the high school staff, I demonstrated three new concepts/tools for possible implementation into curriculum: Kahoot!, Plickers, and Google Classroom (more to come in a future post).  I was not surprised to see the excitement from the teachers when they were demonstrated.

Kahoot!
This web 2.0 tool, hands down, is my new, absolute, favorite game based learning tool.  I first learned about this when I attended the ISTE 2014 conference in Atlanta this past summer and wondered why I had not discovered it sooner.


Why I love it you ask?

• Teachers create a free account
• Teachers can create their own or use public Kahoot! game quizzes
• Kahoot! works on any platform to include mobile devices
• Kahoot! is very engaging, competitive and fun
• Teachers can get a print out of results

How to Start:

A teacher creates a quiz topic. Then they determine what questions to ask. With each question a picture is associated to it to help give clues for the participants.  In most cases, there are four choices for participants to choose from and the teacher can decide how long each question should be for participants to respond to the question.

Implementing into the Classroom:

Before playing the game, participants enter a code on their device to get into the quiz.  Once everyone is in, the teacher starts the quiz game.  The first question is displayed on the board for the participants to read the question and figure out their answer.  Once the participants have an answer, they click on the appropriate area of their screen on their device to lock in their answer.  What is important to note is that participants earn points based on how fast they locked in their answer assuming it was answered correctly.  After time is up, participants individually see how they are rank on their screens and the top five are showcased for everyone to see on the board. Then the teacher starts the next question. This process is repeated until the quiz game is done.

I have made 9 Kahoot! games already within the last 2 months to help reinforce information that was shared during tech trainings.  In every scenario, teachers were engaged, competitive, and showed excitement for learning.  There were even some instances where teachers were saddened that we stopped a game quiz early due to time constraints. All they wanted to do was continue to play the game.

Uses for Kahoot! in educational settings:

• Reinforce a new concept
• Review for assessments
• Advisory activity

Beware, Kahoot! is VERY ADDICTING. Kahoot! is just another example of how technology can help make learning fun but yet reinforce material at the same time.  Guarenteed, if you have not tried Kahoot! you will love it as well as your students. I look forward to hearing how teachers at BHS decide to use Kahoot! in their own classroom.

Of course, if you have any questions, you know where to find me! 

Using Keynote to Create 'Animated' Videos

Each year, the Biology department at BHS has students explain the mitosis process in a unique way.  Over the years, the idea as to how students would complete the task has evolved.  Mrs. Morrissey explained to her students how students used to create physical flip books, demonstrating the mitosis process, many years ago.  Then, students used PowerPoint to have an 'animation' of the mitosis process through replicating slides and 'flipping' through them quickly to get the movement effect.  At times, students finished product would turn into 300 slides to make this happen.  Fast forward to the year 2014, and students are now using Keynote to help make actual animations on slides.  

It is important to note that in many instances, students had actually never used Keynote prior to this project.  PowerPoint, yes, but Keynote, no.  I am a firm believer that it is always good for students to be aware of different software and tools so that they are exposed and knowledgable in different situations.  This project most certainly helped students understand Keynote.  In order to help make sure that the technology did not get in the way of learning, a couple of resources were created for the students to help them in their adventure of explaining the mitosis process.

Introduction to Keynote:

The project was explained to the students as well as a quick introduction to Keynote - how to add 'animations' to slides on the first day.  Students referred to the Keynote Hints Documentation.  Students were also reminded that if their questions were not answered in this documentation that Google was another great resource to ask the question.  (It is amazing sometimes that students forget that they could do this even though they use Google to help answer content questions they might have).

Recording, Exporting and Uploading Keynote Presentation:

After day 1 of introducing Keynote, I began to think about the submission process that the teachers used in past years and wanted to come up with a more efficient way.  Thus, we came up with a process for students to actually record their Keynote presentation and make a true animated video.  Several benefits result in this new process: 

• Students could choose to speak as the presentation was being recorded.
• Students would export a .mov file, which would allow them to upload that file to their Google Drive account (a keynote presentation cannot be viewed online even if it is uploaded to Google Drive)
• Students could easily change permissions of video to anyone with link and provide the teacher with the link to the video (Teachers no longer needed to rely on the Community Folder - Teacher Drop Box that we have at school on our network)
• Teacher could watch and grade the animated videos anywhere that teachers had internet access (best to use Chrome)

Students were given several additional days to work on the project.  During this time, students were told that they could actually record their presentation to make it an animated video.  The documentation, linked below, walks students through the process of recording, exporting and uploading their file to their Google Drive account.  Recording and Exporting a Keynote Presentation Documentation

* Students used Chrome to upload the non-Google file online to their Google Drive account.

Receiving Files:

Teachers created a Google Form for students to submit their link to their project so that they could easily grade their project.  This link below walks teachers through how to treat a Google Form as a 'Dropbox'. Creating Teacher Dropbox with Google Forms.

Student Examples:

Now the most important part - actually seeing some student work.  They created some great animation videos! (click on the student name to actually view the animated video)

Katharine Cusack

Emerson Desmarais

Will Ebert

If you have questions regarding using Keynote in your own curriculum, just stop by and we can chat!
Happy Learning!

Update: Teacher Google Site Transition

Earlier this school year, I wrote a blog post explaining how all BHS teachers over the course of this school year are making the transition to move over their teacher websites to a Google site.  With a new semester that began not too long ago, even more teachers have taken it upon themselves to make the transition.

I thought that it would be a great idea to highlight some teacher websites so that others can see what people are doing.  It is great to see how teachers are using this tool to provide important information for their students.

Layout of Site

Mr. Cannon's Website - Mr. Cannon (@Cannonland) has taken his site to the next level by adding a background image to his site.  This image happens to be his advisory logo that he made with his advisory a couple of years ago.  Great way to add character to a site.

Posting Homework

Mrs. Nutting's Website - Mrs. Nutting has decided to post homework through a Google calendar.  Here students are able to see what is assigned as well as when assessments will be happening.  An advantage to the Google calendar feature is that students can click on the button at the bottom right of the calendar to have Mrs. Nutting's homework calendar be imported to their own student Google calendar account.

Mrs. Kenney's Website - Mrs. Kenney thinks more linearly and wanted to keep things simple for her.  She decided to post homework for her classes in a live Google Spreadsheet.  It is simple and organized.  A benefit in showcasing homework in this fashion is that Mrs. Kenney will see what was assigned during the entire school year in one Google Spreadsheet. (You will notice that she adds homework to the top of the spreadsheet so that the most recent information shows at the top)

Ms. Poirier's Website - Ms. Poirier includes an explanation as to what is done in class each day through an announcement page for each of her classes.  This announcement page acts like a blog.  So that people will see a quick line or two regarding each day when they first get to her website, she decided to include what is called an announcement gadget on her homepage of her website.

Providing Documentation

Mrs. Brooks' Website - Mrs. Brooks is very new to Google Sites as she just made the switch.  She has decided to use the File Cabinet page that Google provides in Google Sites in providing information to her students.  Here you will see that she is able to organize all of the important Google Documents, links, and files that students need to access through different folders.

Root's Team Website - Here you will find that the Root's team is providing important documentation through public Google Folders.  This way, when a document is added to a folder, it is automatically updated on the website.  To see what I am talking about, hover over Ancient Greece and click on the sub pages.  Public Google Folders will show up. Students can then decide if they would like these public folders to be added to their own Google Drive account.  

Online Classroom

Mrs. Baney's Website - Mrs. Baney has really taken this on (even before this was a requirement to switching over to Google sites).  She has been creating her very own course sites with the help of knowing some code.  Here students will see modules that they have to complete, post work, etc.  Her students have to register for the course to gain access to course content.  Mrs. Baney has far exceeded the expectations.

Sport Website

I have also seen sport coaches, like Mr. Stank and his Track and Field team, starting to create a Google Site to showcase important information and pictures of the team in action.

The possibilities are endless.  Of course, if you would like to discuss how you can better mange your Google Site, feel free to stop by room 222 and I can assist.  And in case you have yet to take a look at some short Google Site how to videos, click HERE.  They just might answer your question.

Happy Siting!

Making Short Animated Videos that are Engaging!

Hands down, my favorite web 2.0 tool for the 2013-2014 school year is PowToon.  PowToon gets it.  This free web 2.0 tool allows a user to create a seamless, professional looking, animated video with very little effort.

These videos are not videos that you record and then upload to PowToon to edit, crop and add transitions.  Instead, you start off with a template where you add content, images and text, to a slide and animate it.  When I was first introduced to this tool (BIG thanks to Mr. Zeller, @monsiuerzeller), I immediately thought to the '______ in Plain English' videos by the common craft.  To me, these videos were engaging due to the fact that they were different and creative.  The amount it must have taken to cut out all of those pictures!  To see a sample of what I am talking about, watch the Twitter in Plain English Video:

Powtoon has created a quick video explaining what they are all about. As you will see, it is very easy to to use:

• PowToon has a great selection of pre-made images right in their program.  You also have the ability to add your own images as well.
• With each image/text you are able to decide how you want it to appear on the slide.
• You are able to add background music
• You can even record your own voice to be played throughout the PowToon
• You can add as many slides as you want (but remember if you want to keep your audience - don't make a video that is too long! A good rule of thumb for me is not to show something that is longer than 3 minutes)
• Each slide can be as long or as short as you want

It is important to note that PowToon allows you 30 free exports to YouTube under the free account.  But don't worry, you do not have to export your PowToon to YouTube.  Once you are done with your PowToon, you can just share the link to your newly created animated video without exporting it outside of PowToon itself.  I also like the fact that you are able to grab an embed code to have your PowToon embedded on another website or blog.  Lastly, I have to admit, I rather enjoy the ending of each PowToon when it says....'Created Using PowToon'.

Examples of PowToons

This tool can be used in many different ways:

• Pitching a product
• Explaining a Concept
• Teaching a Lesson

Below, you will find three different ways we have integrated this web 2.0 tool at BHS over the past 7 months.

Instructing Students

When introducing what a backchannel was to Mrs. Pearson's IB Film Studies class, I showed this PowToon.  While I have given the backchannel presentation to Mrs. Pearson's class before in past years, I thought that this video enhanced the discussion/conversation.

Informing Staff

We are currently in the process of having our school become an accredited school.  The NEASC committee at BHS decided that it would be a great way to inform the staff about the different standards that we will be assessed on through the means of PowToons.  I thought that this was a great way to get people engaged rather than a couple teachers standing in front of the entire staff at a staff meeting spitting out words about their committees.  The best part is that the NEASC committee came up with this idea all on their own! So Proud!  The following link will bring you to the PowToon regarding NEASC Committee #3 - Instruction, made by Mr. Cannon (@Cannonland).

NEASC Committee #3 - Instruction

While Cannon's PowToon is listed here, I give the entire NEASC committee props for taking the time to make videos for their staff as it sure was a lot more work to do that than to just list verbally what each standard committee would be in charge of!

Student Work

A couple of teachers this year have decided to incorporate PowToons in their curriculum.  One teacher in particular is Mrs. O'Connell.  Mrs. O'Connell teaches the Canterbury Tales in her AP Literature and Composition.  She decided that during the reading of this book, she would have students be responsible for sharing out to the class different tales through the means of a PowToon, instead of a typical presentation to the class or written paper.  Students were broken up into groups and were given a tale.  Then, the students were tasked with finding a way to portray what happened in the tale.  Below are two examples of student work from the class:

The Prioress's Tale by Jonathan Greiner and Abby Kokkinos

The Wife of Bath's Prologue by Kelly Gibbons, Annie McEwen, and Mary Spencer

So there you have it, three different ways PowToon has already been used at Bedford High School.  I look forward to seeing how it will be integrated into our bulldog family in the future.  As always, if you have any questions regarding how to use this tool or you just want to bounce ideas, just stop by room 222!

WeVideo - A New Way of Video Creation

Over the past couple of months, I have been investigating new tools that students and teachers can use that 'live' online.  One tool that has started to be incorporated into curriculum is WeVideo.  WeVideo is a free web 2.0 tool that allows students and teachers to create videos online.  While this tool may not be as advanced as iMovie, it is almost there.

A user can:

• Upload videos
• Upload images
• Insert VoiceOvers
• Insert Tile slides and Credit Slides
• Insert transitions
• Upload/insert background music

All of this can be done for free with a basic account.  It is important to know that with this account, users are only allowed to export their videos for free up to 15 minutes each month.  This means three 5 minute videos can be exported or one 15 minute video can be exported.

Seeing as though this is a new tool for everyone, I have created a WeVideo instruction document.   To view step by step instructions on the above bulleted list, click on the image below. 

I also like the fact that students can create their account using their Schoogle Account.  The advantage to this is that they can connect their drive with WeVideo.  By doing this, their videos are saved in their Drive.  In addition, there is a quick way of accessing WeVideo if a student is logged into Drive. To see how to make this happen, click on the image below.

Currently, Madame Noble and Madame Brown are having their French 2 students create a video highlight a French providence.  Mrs. Colburn is also having her students in Forensics class create a crime scene movie using this tool.  I look forward to seeing final products from both courses.

If you would like to learn more about how to use this tool or if you have any questions, just stop on by room 222!

Happy Videoing!