My Beauty Best Teacher

The White House has announced the 85 names of Outstanding Math and Science Teachers! Yes! This is wonderful.

No it isn't.

What it really is -- a missed opportunity to truly improve STEM education by networking. By letting you SEE what they are doing.

What they should have included? 

1. A twitter list of those who twitter. Already made for you.
2. Every name should be hyperlinked. Every name. We should be able to find their school and information and even their classroom without having to search.
3. Links to their application and portfolio.
4. An RSS feed that allows you to follow all of them with a click whether through a reader or something like Flipboard.

Dead Links Kill Progress
As it is, this lovely press release which is making the rounds is dead.

It is a list of names of living breathing teachers doing amazing work but dead because it has no living hyperlinks to enrich us.

I should think better coming from an administration that is so tech savvy.

And yes, I teach my students about dead text. Dead text where it should have useful, contextual links is irritating and rude. This list BEGS for more. As a matter of practice, all lists of people should include hyperlinks.

That is, of course, a person doesn't want to have a link and chooses to opt out.

Awards should be intended to reward best practice and disseminate it further.

• YapTime Goes to School « YapTime Blog

  Another private communication website for younger kids and teachers to link as well as parents. Looks like a cool tool.

  tags: education learning digitalcitizenship

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Image by Terry Freedman via Flickr

Julie with our dear friend Terry Freedman from the UK.

Just up on the ISTE website, my dear friend and Flat Classroom co-founder, Julie Lindsay, is now an ISTE board member. Thank you to everyone who supported her run.

And most of all, thank you to Julie who let herself run again. This was her third run. Most people give up after the first time. This is certainly one thing that characterizes Julie - she never gives up and persists.

How would your life be different if you just did something ONE MORE TIME?

Thank you to the network of Tweeters, bloggers, and teachers. Although this means I'll see less of Julie, I think that she will do great work on the ISTE board.

• ifttt / Coming Soon

  Toni Olivieri-Barton talked about this cool website in our Flat Classroom certified teacher last night.

  tags: education learning planning lessons teachers

• Mobl21 - Multiple Mobile Devices, One Solution

  Mobile devices are an important part of deploying knowledge and content delivery. This system is relatively inexpensive and not only uses an app but can link to sms and interactive voice response in countries without a lot of access. Exciting potential for this one.

  tags: education fcbook communication lower_school upper_school middle_school post_secondary

• Brooks Service Center (1)

  One of my students is using what he learned in marketing to market his dad's service station on Facebook and now through a blog. He already has 79 likes! This student gets it. It is great when they take knowledge and internalize and use it. This page is starting to get quite a bit of attention and talk in our community.

  tags: education learning facebook

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Scriblink is a virtual whiteboard. With all the other tools we have these days, I'm still trying to come up with a great use for this, but I'm sure there's something! If you think of an idea on how to use Scriblink while you're reading this, I'd love to hear about it in the comment box. :) Here's what I came up with:

If you were giving a presentation in, say, a library or something, and you didn't have a chalkboard or whiteboard to write on, you could write on this. Instead of purchasing individual whiteboards and markers (which get expensive!) for each student, you could save paper if students use Scriblink to do their work, instead. (You would either need computer lab access for your students, or you'd need each student to have his or her individual laptop in class for this to work...)

This reminds me of a popular app for iPhone (of course, I can't think of the name at the moment). I wasn't sure why, but it was wildly popular with the younger folks (and by this, I mean younger than me!). Maybe it was popular simply because it was something different. If that's the case, then Scriblink would fit that bill -- it's definitely different. You could use it to "spice things up" in your classroom.

Up to 6 people can "share" a Scriblink whiteboard. With this in mind, I suddenly had the image of multiple classes in the same school connecting on a few different Scriblink whiteboards and collaborating that way! Educators are always talking about "cross-curricular learning," where English teachers throw in a dab of history, or math teachers preach a little science. At the moment, I'm picturing some school-wide assignment that incorporates several different subjects, and I'm seeing the kids collaborate across classrooms using something like Scriblink. I don't know if that would ever actually work, but it just popped into my brain, so I thought I'd write about it before I forgot!

I particularly like the math capabilities in Scriblink, though. Although the "math board" is currently disabled (not sure why or when it will be available again...?), I like that it has a pi symbol, which I take to mean that more complex math symbols are available for use on a normal day. You don't find a lot of programs that have complex math symbols readily available like that. I also like the fact that you can place a grid (coordinate plane, anyone?) onto the board. So, math teachers, if you wanted to avoid getting out the ol' coordinate plane overhead transparency (does anyone use transparencies anymore?!), you could just project Scriblink onto your whiteboard and put the grid in place. Plot coordinates, make hyperbolas (uh, right? I'm an English teacher, so I don't claim to know anything past the first month of Algebra I anymore!), etc.

If you're a fan of Weebly (like I am), you know that it's free to use the basic version. However, there are a couple of components that users can only access if they upgrade to the pro version....which requires the user to fork over some cash.

If you know me, you know I'm not into that. I prefer to spend my money on shoes. ;) But I love my students and want the best possible things for them. That's why I'm going to discuss a really great -- and FREE -- potential podcasting tool on this post.

Because of the podcast problem I ran into earlier this year (discussed more in my podcast post), I became a little discouraged with Weebly, because the ability to post audio was the only thing it lacked. That was part of the reason I decided to host next year's website at Wix (that, and it looks a little bit fancier and has a little bit more storage, I think). But I just found AudioPal and am reconsidering my efforts to ditch my Weebly site.

AudioPal is a free component that allows users to record messages, use the text-to-speech function, or upload mp3s (MUCH like Voki, minus the avatar). Afterwards, the user can get a code for an audio player that can be posted on his/her website! So...hello! That means audio (for free) on Weebly (that's also for free)! It doesn't get much better than this, people! :)

While perusing some Live Binders, I noticed this link for Voxopop. I've never heard of it before, so I clicked on it. What I'm reading sounds cool, but I haven't set up an account (yet).

Hmm. I'm having trouble figuring out how to describe this site because it seems to incorporate a lot of different things. To me, Voxopop seems like a mixture between a chat room and a podcast...

 The way I understand it, you sign in and create a discussion called a "talkgroup." Your students could be your contributors, and you can make your "talkgroup" public to all, private to all, or open to only a select group of people. Everyone contributes something to the conversation with their voice. Obviously, students would need to have access to computers that have microphones in order to do this!



I'm also thinking of the voicemail feature on my cell phone. Would Voxopop be like using internet-based voicemail, where you could leave messages in the talkgroup, even when no one is there, and it would record the messages for later playback? OR is it like an internet calling system (like Skype), where others would only hear your message if they were logged in and listening to the system when you speak it? I'm confused. I'm going to have to learn more about this Voxopop and report back.

But there could be some cool uses for this tool. For one thing, if you're out of school because of weather, students who had internet access could still have school, and you wouldn't lose that glorious April snow day! :) On a similar note, you could also use this to begin pushing for "eSchool Days." With the budget for education as tight as it is right now, schools are doing everything in their power to cut down on expenses. Some schools have been changing schedules in an effort to conserve money. For instance, some schools are only going to school 4 days a week, and they're doing so between the hours of 7:30 am and 4:00 or 4:30 pm. Part of the rationalization on this is that the buses don't have to run on that extra day. Well, if gas is that big of a deal, then why not have "eSchool Days" and maybe use this Voxopop tool to help with that? Kids could stay home and log into a computer at a specified time. Maybe they could use Voxopop or some other education-friendly service to conduct live discussions over materials from the comfort and privacy of their own homes. You know, I read about this Mountain Brook school that did just that (minus the Voxopop). You can read about the story in more detail here, but the point is, they saved some moo-lah by conducing class from home.  What if Voxopop would help schools like mine copy Mountain Brook's idea? Just food for thought.

...On a side note, I now am a member of 259209523059 different educational websites. I actually have to keep a folder in my teaching e-mail system that's labeled "Website Registrations," just so I don't forget everything I've signed up for and what my usernames are! It's a little sad! But I try to explore everything I discuss on this blog in as great of detail as possible. I want to know if it's something I can use in my class! ....On another side note, please know that I don't use ALL of these technological tools in my classroom. That would definitely be overkill. I don't want anyone to think that technology will do the teaching for you. Technology is just a tool with which to reach and/or communicate with our students. We still have to be teachers and do work! Besides, technology might lose its appeal with both my students AND me if I used it with every single thing in my classroom. Anyway. Just wanted to clear that up. :) I'll try Voxopop and hopefully remember to get back to you with more details....

I thought I'd already talked about this, but apparently I was wrong. So...here we go! Let's learn about one of my favorite things to do in the classroom: podcasting.

Source

What are podcasts?

Podcasts are downloadable audio broadcasts. If you have iTunes on your computer, you've probably seen the "podcast" tab. Those podcasts can come with video, too, but my podcasts are audio-only.

Benefits to podcasting in the classroom

1. Kids who are absent (for whatever reason) can still listen to your presentation in the comfort and convenience of their own home. 
2. Kids who are slower readers or thinkers can not only listen to your lecture/whatever multiple times, but they can pause your speaking so they can comprehend. 
3. Kids who left their book or notes at school can still get SOME information by listening to your podcasts, so they're not completely in the dark about an assignment or text. 

My history with podcasting in the classroom
I used podcasting quite regularly at my old school. A fellow teacher (she taught history) was using them, and I followed suite. She set me up with an account at mypodcast.com, gave me a set of headphones (like these) with a microphone attached, and I was rockin' and rollin' before she could say "go."

Unfortunately, I dropped the ball when I moved to my southwest OK school. First, mypodcast.com pretty much shut down. I mean, I think you can still access it, but it's no longer accepting new members, and it won't let its existing users post anything! So it's pretty much useless. In fact, I let my account expire because it was so useless to me. I was pretty discouraged by this, so I gave up on podcasting for awhile. I tried to get back into it around November, when we started reading our first classic novel of the year, Of Mice and Men. I was using a program on my Mac laptop called GarageBand to record podcasts (it specifically has an option labeled "podcasts"). I was able to record and post seamlessly using mypodcast.com the year before, so I figured I could do the same thing with a similar podcast-hosting website this year. ...No such luck. Turns out, GarageBand records in a funky format (.band, I think?), and very few podcast hosting websites can interpret that format. So no hosting site I was seeing (that was free) was working. I got so frustrated that I just burned my podcasts onto CDs and was done with it.

(By the way, burning your podcasts onto CDs is a good way to not only preserve your podcasts in case something happens to your files, but it's also a good way to allow students with no internet access to listen, as well. But I digress.)

The CD-thing wasn't nearly as helpful as the actual podcasting, though, so I kept looking for a way. I finally figured out how to convert the .band files to mp3s on my laptop...but it takes awhile. I started creating a different classroom website, using Wix, and that hosting site actually supports audio files! So I uploaded a few of my podcast-mp3 files to Wix's audio player and was super-excited! (To see the podcasting page of my Wix English website, click here.) My principal approached me about doing a presentation to my coworkers over technology in the classroom, and suddenly, I was fired up again about podcasting. There had to be another, easier way. I didn't want to go to the trouble of explaining all those steps to people who probably wanted the simplistic version. So I did some Googling. 

I know how to record on Macs, but I don't know how to record on PCs, since Mac computers come with a recording program. So I found this free program called Audacity that is compatible with both Mac and PC (rare!), AND it's free. Jackpot! My laptop memory is running low so I'm not privileged enough to be able to download anything right now...and downloads are blocked at my school computer, so I haven't tried Audacity for myself yet. However, this instruction blog over Audacity, complete with screenshots, makes it seem like a pretty easy program to use! So I'm excited for someone to download Audacity and let me know how it goes! Of course, you'll still need a microphone, but if your computer didn't come with one, you can purchase one quickly and easily at Walmart, Best Buy, Radio Shack, etc. You might even be able to ask your on-campus IT guy -- maybe there's an old one, lurking in a closet of the school somewhere! :) The external microphone I had looked like a headset with an attached microphone -- I felt like a pilot when I used it. :) You just plugged it into the computer, pressed the record button of the recording program, and began speaking. Simple as that.

Eventually, I'd like to get a battery pack that attaches to the back of my pants, and an omnidirectional microphone for my shirt, so that I could broadcast live during class. I think it would be so neat for students (or parents!) at home to be able to hear EXACTLY what is going on in my classroom...and since the microphone is omnidirectional, listeners could hear the students' questions and comments, too. That'd be great, because the Q&A section of a lecture or lesson is the most important part! I saw an advertisement for this portable recording system with multiple microphones. If it records in a .mp3 format, I'm totally buying this!

What to post on your podcast

1. Lectures, notes, or project explanations
2. Reading material
3. "Radio shows"
4. Book reviews
5. Student projects/presentations

The "project explanations" thing is pretty self-explanatory, but for the lectures/notes, I upload the presentation to the class website. In the podcast, I instruct the student to first obtain a copy of such-and-such notes from the extra handouts folder in the classroom or the so-and-so page of the class website. Then I tell them to view the such-and-such presentation while they're listening to my podcast. If they're viewing a Prezi, I can tell the student exactly when to click the "next" arrow button, so that they're seeing on their screen EXACTLY what the other students in class were seeing, and hearing the exact same words to go with it. This is really helpful for those kids who are involved in everything and have to miss a lot of school, kids who are absent for another reason, kids who need extra help/reminders at home (because they forgot everything between class time and now), or kids who forgot their materials at home, but needed those notes to do an assignment. Oh, yeah, and it can help kids on an IEP, but we'll discuss that in the next paragraph.

The "reading material" category might sound a little ambiguous, so let me explain. As an English teacher, we read lots of short stories and novels. Some of these contain large vocabulary words and/or are very long in length. My slower readers have a hard time staying caught up with us AND understanding what's going on. Kids who are struggling readers oftentimes prefer to listen and learn that way. A friend I have is dyslexic. Even though he wasn't the best reader in school, he adapted by being an excellent listener. His memory is amazing when he gets to listen to things! Maybe you have students like this. Podcasts can help them. A friend of mine, who is a copyright guru at OSU, told me last year that I could only post about 15-20% of a text before it became plagiarism. Last year, I figured that 15-20% of the our current class novel was about 3 chapters. So I would post myself reading chapters 1-3, wait until we were completely done with those sections, take those chapters down, and then post chapters 4-6. You have to be careful, and it can be mildly time-consuming, but it's worth it to 1) make it available for your students and 2) set a good example by avoiding plagiarism! Of course, another alternative to avoiding plagiarism is to write to the publisher/author and request permission to post the entire thing for educational purposes. As long as you don't post the whole book and you're not selling the portion you've posted, you're in the clear, according to my friend. I just like to tread lightly around plagiarism issues, especially since I'm an English teacher!

As for items #3-5, those are some student-centered ways to use podcasting in the classroom. When I taught an applied communications class, my students and I talked about various mediums with which humans communicate. The radio naturally came up on our list. My students ended up creating their own radio show to communicate headlines in various topics (weather, news, etc.) while I recorded it via my laptop. But you could create a classroom radio show that "airs" on your class website once a week...or whatever works for you!

I love the idea of students doing book reviews via podcast. While I push, push, push reading in my classroom, I know that it is a dirty chore for most students. Reading is just not the "cool" thing to do, unfortunately, and many secondary students are not interested in it. So while I love the idea of using Shelfari, blogging, or some other web-writing tool in order to post book reviews, I know the majority of classmates are more likely to pay attention if they don't have to read the review. Therefore, doing book reviews as a podcast and allowing the students to listen to the recommendations might be a good idea.

As for projects and presentations, I'm sure you can think of more ideas, but what about using them in a speech class? Or for an oral report that must be given? You could record the student as he/she speaks. Then you could either post the recording online for others to hear, or you could even let the student listen to his/her speech and critique the presentation!

I've also heard of elementary classrooms allowing their students to create their own podcasts.  It's mostly the elem. student reading, and then being able to listen to him/herself and see where the mistakes are. I really wanted my communications students to make a podcast whenever we were studying media communication, and I'd assigned them the task of making their own radio show! So there are some interactive ways students can use podcasting, as well -- it doesn't just have to be the teacher's voice on the broadcast.

I think that's all the info I have about podcasting for now. When I get more, I'll update this post. Until then, happy podcasting!

::Edit:: I found an extensive list of ways to use podcasting in this 11 page PDF document. Check it out.

After browsing some fellow educators' LiveBinders, I stumbled onto Vocaroo. Vocaroo is still in its BETA stage, so there may be a few bugs, but it looks like a temporary and easy solution to podcasting!

According to the FAQ section of the Vocaroo website, the podcasts will be available for 5-6 months if you have an account (if you record anonymously, the messages will last 1-2 months). This might get a little annoying, since you'd have to keep recording virtually the same podcasts year after year, but...I've changed the details of projects I've assigned before, so maybe that automatic deletion thing is really a blessing in disguise. :)

You still need a microphone (either built-in or external) to record, but it's SUPER SIMPLE. Seriously, this is a screen shot of pretty much the only page on the website:



If you're easily scared off my technology, TRUST ME! You can do this! :) You just press the big "record" button that pops up automatically on the screen, and start speaking! I've never seen anything easier (in the way of podcasting) in my life! The FAQ section also says that podcasts can be as long as you want! That's amazing. I mean, normally, you can record a podcast for as long as you want, but most free hosting sites put a limit as to a maximum of how big individual files can be. So it's pretty cool that you REALLY can create and share podcasts of unlimited lengths.

Besides the automatic deletion thing, another downside to Vocaroo is that, although users can download your podcasts, they'll download in a funky format. Supposedly, it's kind-of like an mp3 file, but you'd have to download another program to get it work properly. ...Seems like an unnecessary step to me, but I guess I can't fault a completely free and simple program like this one!

Once you record a podcast, you have two options: share it on the web, or share it in an e-mail. I opted for the "share in an e-mail" function and sent it to myself. It appears as a link in the e-mail message, and you have to click on it (thus, going to another web page) in order to hear the message. The message starts playing automatically. And then it gives THAT user a choice for sharing: e-mail or website? So that's pretty handy. You could post it on your classroom website...or e-mail yourself the link and then post that link on your classroom blog, on the blackboard, etc.

You'd have to be careful not to record podcasts TOO much in advance. And your kids probably wouldn't be able to put the podcasts on their iPods, but...there are probably only a few kids who do that, anyway. ;)

All in all, I believe Vocaroo is a plausible option for classroom podcasting. Let me know what you think!

Today my school district asked to see my college transcripts. I've been working at the district for several years, but we have a new human resource director, and he wants to make sure that I indeed meet the required qualifications for the job. When he asked me to give him evidence of my qualifications, I did so. My main college transcript said that I had received several credits from transfer classes, so my HR director asked for more evidence to further elaborate on these transfer classes. So I gave him the longer version of my college transcripts- he's my boss and I have nothing to hide about being qualified for the job. It is silly to play games with this sort of thing- if you have nothing to hide, you shouldn't hide anything. I gave him the originals, and asked him to make copies from that, figuring that was a lot more transparent way of doing things than producing a copy or pdf or something of my transcript. No reason to create any smoke if there isn't any fire, I always say.

I sort of think that there is a lesson or something in here, but what do I know- I'm only a lowly teacher and not the President of the United States.

Google Docs is increasingly becoming a powerful file management tool with many new ways of uploading. It is very important as you upload more files to use tags and folders (color coding is great) to keep things organized.

1. Folder Upload lets you upload whole folders to Google Docs.
   
2. Optical Character Recognition option for images. This means that the text in your images will become searchable but also editable. So, that old letter your school uses from 10 years a go doesn't have to be retyped. Tip: Always check OCR converted docs. Sometimes text doesn't convert properly.
   
3. Drag and Drop Upload using Chrome, Safari, and Firefox on the PC or Mac.

What Happens if I run out of Space?
Of course, Google is selling additional space for $.25 a GB should you run out of your 1GB of free storage that comes with Google Docs. This still isn't as easy as dropbox but for most purposes for my students it is helpful.

If you use Google Docs or support it, you must follow the Google Doc blog. 

Recommended Uses
Set up folders of commonly used files at school. But remember, once they are there, if you use Google Apps for domains you can turn them into templates that you share with your school. Templates are very useful and keep people from editing the original.

Teach students to keep a copy of their term paper or other important document backed up in a backup folder on Google Docs.

Google Doc Upload Step by Step Instructions

• How to Upload Files
• How to Upload Folders
• Google Docs Storage

• Flat classroom conference on vineme

  Playing with Flat Classroom conference on Vineme. Recommended by Angela Maiers - I'm still learning about it. It is using regular tagging AND time tagging.

  tags: education

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

I gave a presentation at school today about tech in the classroom, and I gave a stack of handouts to the teachers who came. In that stack was a list of other websites they might find useful in their classroom, and that list included Rubistar. I confidently told the teachers at the presentation that all links listed on their handouts would appear on my teacher blog. ...Then, when I visited my blog to make a new post a few minutes ago, I happened to notice that I had yet to create a post over one of my most-used resources: Rubistar. 

If you are a rubric-user at all, you really should join the Rubistar bandwagon!

What is a Rubric?
A rubric is, above all, a fair and easy way to grade otherwise subjective projects, activities, and/or assignments. A rubric looks like a large grid of boxes with words in it. Running across the top, you'll have the point values. Running across the left-hand side will be the categories. In the middle, you'll see descriptions of each category, in varying stages of completion. The top half might look like this:


This particular rubric happens to be for a speech (and it's incomplete), but you can make rubrics for virtually anything that has some "gray area" to it.

I say the rubric you see above is incomplete because I still see some ambiguous descriptions in those middle boxes. For instance, what is "appropriate clothing"? And what is that, vs. the "mostly appropriate clothing"? Before I would hand this one out, I would definitely edit these boxes to make sure they're as clear as possible. There can't be any doubt left in my students' minds as to what I expect. If I were to edit this for student-use, I'd put numerical values to the descriptions in the middle boxes. For instance, I might say "appropriate clothing: dressed 'business casually,' with no holes, wrinkles, or dirt. Hair and face are well-groomed, and students appears clean." or something like that. I'd be as specific as possible. For the body posture descriptions, I might use percentages. For instance, "student maintained correct body posture (standing up straight with no slouching, slumping, or curving of the shoulders) 100% of the time" might be in the 10 point description box. (See what I mean about being specific? That's sometimes the hard part: nailing down EXACTLY what it is I want students to do.)

What's in a Rubric?
Keep in mind that this entire thing is completely customizable. No only can you change the title, categories, and middle-box descriptions, but you can also change the point values. I've seen some teachers grade on a "1, 2, 3, 4" scale, and others grade on a "10, 20, 30, 40" scale. It's really up to you. In the end, all my assignments are worth 100%, anyway; it's just a matter of deciding how much of a "point gap" you want between levels.

Why Use Rubrics?

I use rubrics for all my projects because I feel it's the most fair way to grade. Right up front, the students know a) what elements I'm looking for, b) what I consider "worth 5 points" vs what I consider "worth 10 points," and c) EXACTLY what they should do to get an "A."

I give rubrics to my students at the beginning of projects and ask that they not only keep up with these until the end of the project, but they must review them, as well. Early in the year, I taught my students how to skim the rubric's highest point-value column, looking for specifics as to what would get them a perfect grade on the assignment. I also taught them how to read the different levels. For instance, we made a board game over Romeo and Juliet. In this board game, students had to include at least 15 questions and answers about the play, the Elizabethan times, and/or Shakespeare himself. On that rubric, in the "quantity of questions and answers" category, I made sure to stair-step the point values (all 15 Q&A's earns 9 points. 10-14 Q&A's earns 6 points. 5-9 Q&A's earns 3 points. 0-4 Q&A's earns 0 points). So, when I was talking about time-management with my students, and about how to get the best "bang for your buck," I was trying to reason with them... If you're OK with only getting 6 points on your question and answer quantity section, and you have a very limited amount of time (because you've procrastinated), then how about only doing 10 Q&A's, since you'll earn the same amount of points, whether you do 10 of them or 14? It was examples like that that, I think, really nailed the point of the rubric home. Most of my students have actually expressed that they enjoy and appreciate the rubrics because it sets clear boundaries for them.

This also keeps me fair when I grade creative projects. Otherwise, how would I be able to distinguish between a 90% and an 80%? I can't trust my judgment to be fair and consistent every time (particularly if I'm in a bad mood when I'm grading! Yikes!). This allows me to be very stable with my grading. More than once, I've been in the middle of grading and wanted to dock points for something that I felt was sub-par, compared to others, but when I looked at the rubric, I had no choice but to NOT dock points. So I guess you could say that the rubric has helped some of my kids' grades! :)

Another thing I really like about the rubric is something that really just has to do with me. I feel like I'm a better teacher after I've made a rubric. In order to make one, you have to know EXACTLY what criteria you're looking for in the project, and you have to be able to communicate that very well in a short amount of space on paper. I feel that creating rubrics has made me a more clear and concise speaker, and that I am better at communicating objectives when I use rubrics.

Back to Rubistar

OK, now that all THAT is said and done, let's move back to Rubistar. Rubistar is a free, online rubric maker, designed especially for teachers. (By the way, 4teachers.org has tons of other useful teacher-websites, too, if you wanna check it out!) You can either choose one of the [many] free ones that Rubistar has already made for you, OR you can create your own. You can edit one of the [many] templates, or you can start from scratch. It's really up to you. Once you have a Rubistar account, you can save your rubrics until a certain time, or you can save them indefinitely. (I always save mine indefinitely.)

One you're finished, you have the option to print directly from the Rubistar website, but I usually copy and paste it all onto a Word document, just so I can add a few more features. I add a header (usually the name of the project and/or the class) and adjust the spacing of the boxes and words. I sometimes add a "student comments" section, where students can explain themselves in a few sentences before they turn the project in. I always add a "points earned" and "total grade" section at the very end; this way, students know EXACTLY what his or her grade is when they get the paper back. (To grade on a rubric, just make lines in or circle the boxes that describe the student's performance in each category.)

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Students may be a little confused about rubrics at first, but I know they'll love 'em once the year is over, and so will you! Grading goes a lot more smoothly and quickly, and everyone is on "the same page" as to what you're actually expecting on an assignment. Check it out!!

This reminds me a little of Dropbox and eBackpack, but it's a little bit more show-y...I LOVE it!!

Live Binders is a site that allows the user to upload information to their "binder." (And when I say "binder," I mean it literally looks like a virtual 3-ring binder.) It allows users to insert "tab dividers" into their "binders," too, so there is an element of organization to it all. It looks like users can create as many binders as they want, so long as your total storage doesn't equal more than 100 MB.  I realize that's not as much information as the free version of Dropbox allows, but it doesn't appear that a user would really NEED that much storage...

I haven't been using Live Binder very long (I'm going on 15 minutes at the moment...), so I may need to edit this post later. But it appears that a user wouldn't really NEED that much storage, since all you'd really be posting is web links. It doesn't appear that users can upload files (Word docs, Excel, PowerPoints, etc.) to the binders -- just URLs. The tutorial suggests that, once downloaded, you place the "LiveBinder It" button on your search bar. When you find a website you'd like to add to the binder, you just click that button, and it automatically is added for you.

I was hoping this might be an alternative to the English binders I have my students keep in class (which consist of the syllabus, agendas, notes, handouts, and graded papers), but...no such luck. However, this would be great for a teacher to use on his/her classroom website. Instead of cluttering your webpage with lots of links, you could just post the Live Binder, instead. Much less clutter on your website, and the links would display beautifully when the "binder" is opened.

This might be beneficial for students if they were creating a lot of web documents throughout the school year. THEN this Live Binder might be useful as a type of portfolio. For instance, if Bobby does a Glog over the Great Depression, a Prezi over the life and times of William Shakespeare, a Voki character summary over his favorite person from Lord of the Flies, a Fake Wall over Edgar Allan Poe, AND has a full Shelfari bookshelf by the end of the semester, he could create a Live Binder to display all 6 assignments he'd done. He could even include particularly compelling blog posts in his Live Binder portfolio... All Bobby would have to do is retrieve the URLs from those projects and post them in his Live Binder. From there, all he'd have to do is e-mail his teacher the link to the Live Binder, and his semester portfolio is done.

On a simpler note: maybe Live Binder is an alternative to having students e-mail their teacher the link to their online project(s). Maybe each student should have a Live Binder and keep links to all online projects in that binder. Then, when it's time to grade, the teacher just opens the binders and begins to grade....

Hmm. I'm imagining the possibilities riiiiight nowwwww.....

::Edit:: I just made my first Live Binder, and it's full of English links. I typically have an "English links" page on my classroom website, as well as a "Resources" page. The English links are, obviously, all links that are related to English. The "resources" are more "life-related" links: medical disorders or disabilities, hotlines (such as for abuse, bullying, etc.), info on college and scholarships, and some encouraging quotes for those hard times.  If I make Live Binders of each, I can condense everything to one "Links" page, and save myself some time and space on my classroom website! Plus, I can update all the time without messing up the entire layout of the site. Whoo-hoo! Here's the link to my English Links Live Binder. It still needs some tweaking, but I'll get it figured out soon. Also, I found out that you CAN upload documents. I tried it with just a picture, and it worked perfectly. I assume it also works with Microsoft Word docs, too, but I guess I'll have to find out next time I play with it.

Oh, and I just realized that I don't have to give you the actual link to my English binder because...oh, look at that...it can be embedded onto your own personal website! Ahh! Can't this get any better?!


   


   

My Fake Wall is a spin-off of Facebook but has educational purposes in mind. ...OK, maybe it wasn't exactly created FOR education, but we can use it for educational reasons!

 My Fake Wall allows users to create a fake facebook-look-alike account. This may sound like a play-only tool, but what if our students were to step into someone else's shoes and make a facebook account for them? ...Say, Albert Einstein? Michael Jordan? Thomas Edison? Queen Elizabeth? George from Of Mice and Men? William Shakespeare? The list goes on and on. This is a way for our students to really dig into someone else's life while utilizing the tool they love so much: Facebook.

If you're going to study a particular piece of literature, maybe you could have the students do research over the author and create a fake wall profile as part of the anticipatory set. Or, after the novel is over, you could have the students pick their favorite character and create a fake Facebook over that character.

History folks, what about impersonating a famous historical figure? Science people could ask students to research and write about a famous scientist. Math folks...you know where I'm going with this, right?


It's a biographical study that allows students to present their information in a way they enjoy: mock Facebook. Furthermore, the website says users can actually share their fake Facebook walls on their own personal Facebook accounts. So...what if you created a class Facebook page and allowed every student to post his/her fake account information onto the class Facebook wall?

Ben Franklin's fake wall. Source

...Just throwing out ideas.

I like this for a few reasons:

1. In order to create a Facebook account for another person, the creator has to know a LOT of information about that person! (Have you ever noticed how much stinkin' information Facebook wants from you?!) This encourages some research, but it probably won't FEEL like research to the students, since it's for something "fun," like Facebook. 
2. This is a more creative assignment than a regular ol' report over someone's life!
3. You could "go green" by asking students to post to the class Facebook wall, print copies of their fake accounts, or even take screen shots and e-mail them to you.

I think I'll try to use this next year!

Andrew Malcolm at the Los Angeles Times has I believe the signature column on the recent release of Obama's birth certificate- it perfectly sums up the game that we are all a sad witness to. I have to copy the whole thing below, because it is that good in its entirety- Obama birth certificate released by the president: What's really behind his inevitable decision:

Obama birth certificate. Topic A of the day. And yesterday. And last week.

In an obvious attempt to keep the goofy issue alive a bit longer, President Obama finally released the long-form version of his birth certificate today.

Rather than simply post it on the White House website, Obama took six minutes of presidential time to visit the White House briefing room, where all the important media folks hang out waiting for their next important broadcast messenger assignment. Such a visit to such an important place by such an important person is guaranteed to attract maximum attention.

Of course, it worked. Would we be writing about this again without the president's appearance?

The president (full text below, as usual) said: "Now, normally I would not comment on....

...something like this, because obviously there’s a lot of stuff swirling in the press on at any given day and I've got other things to do."
President Obama said he knows the release will not put this issue six-feet under for some birther diehards, who probably haven't a clue where their own is. With a sigh, the Democrat from Chicago says he doesn't know why this issue just won't go away. Thank goodness, this fellow is patient with his people.

The reason for all the interest in something that's been locked away by Hawaii state officials, of course, is simple. Obama ignored, disregarded, violated and/or cleverly played with one of the primary rules of politics, as if, golly, he just couldn't understand all the interest.

If you've got something you want the media to desperately want, tell them they can't have it. High school cheerleaders know this law of human behavior instinctively.

The president says he really, really wants to be talking instead about the crucial, pressing and also the really important real issues facing this nation in the 21st century: national security, the budget, debt limit, energy (but not gas prices).

However, sigh, there's this bunch of, well, you know, different kind of fixated people distracted by something as trivial as whether he's legally qualified to be president of the United States, as he has been for the past 827 days.

And so, as most politicians or appointees claim when forced to do something, he's going to release this long-form birth certificate -- just to end the distraction, mind you.

Which, of course, he could have done 34 months ago when the distraction first began. But the release will keep it going for one more day. And make him look good, a key bipartisan goal of any politician. And keep people busy on that while he does something else.

So, here you go. Talk amongst yourselves about this birth certificate thing. While the president and his wife fly Air Force One all the way out to Chicago for the singular purpose of repaying a syndicated television show host who helped them in the crucial early campaign days of 2007.

And then, while you're still poring over the certificate and the silliness of the entire issue, the president will be flying Air Force One all the way back to New York City tonight for not one, not two, but three Democratic fundraisers. Including one that costing attendees more than 35G's.

To demonstrate his equanimity, Obama will also likely make a joke during those remarks about the silly birther issue, which will make him seem like a good-natured victim of these superficial clowns who've been chasing him to do what he well knew all along they would want him to do lo these many months.

Tah-dah!

At the risk of sounding crazy, I'd like to direct you all to my post from November 15, 2008 titled Obama's Draft Registration Raises Serious Questions:

On Obama's draft registration cards, there is evidence to suggest that Obama didn't register for the draft when he should have, and based on the form that was used, the numbers on the form, and the stamp that was used, it looks like he just recently registered for the draft, forging federal documents to do so. And, fueling this conspiracy along with the birth certificate one, is the fact that Obama attempted to cover up, stonewall, and bury all information on this issue.

Check out the post for more details.

Home Screen of my Flipboard

Flipboard is a phenomenal reading app for the ipad and was the big reason I begged my family to give me one for my birthday.

However, because so little content is really produced FOR the flipboard, you have to know how to add it. You only get two screens of content (for now) so use it well.

To get Started...
To follow these instructions, you'll need to download Flipboard onto your iPad.

A look at what is on my flipboard....
Before we begin, let's take a look at screenshots of my two Flipboard screens. The sources of information are printed in the top left corner of each board.


 Sharing from Flipboard
Before we get to the reading part, you can share content within Flipboard.  

What you can do depends upon the content source. If you're reading from Facebook, your like and comment buttons show. If you're reading from Twitter, you have retweet, retweet with comment and favorite. Google reader gives the sharing features available in reader.

But, Flipboard's "Button of power" is always in the top right hand corner of any screen. This "share" button lets you send the link to any of the social media sites you have set up. (For me, it is Twitter, Blogger, and Google Reader.)



Adding Content

The Add a section button is shown beside the arrow.

To add content, you just click on the blank gray square on your starting screen that says Add content. Admittedly, I've deleted over half of what I've added as I've played with Flipboard. If the content isn't updated or not quite right, it isn't usable.

For educators, I'll recommend the educator link or item. For non-educators, I'll give pointers on how you can find something similar in your professional arena.


15 Fantastic Use of Flipboard.

1 - Twitter Feed
Subscribe to your own twitter timeline. Flipboard will make the tweets and turn it into a lovely magazine. It is interesting to see the different nature of your twitterstream depending on the time of day. I find more teachers tweet after school hours (understandably so) and admins seem to tweet DURING school hours. (Interesting study waiting to happen on that one.)  

Flipboard from @coolcatteacher Twitter stream (what those I have friended are writing.)

There are many now who are unfollowing on Twitter en masse as they try to improve their "Klout" score, however, I want to follow just about anyone in education and especially teachers. There is a certain random beauty that emerges from this and I "drill down" to my friends by using lists. It is all about why you Twitter but Flipboard makes it easy to read whatever your motivations or reasons. 

 How to add: Click Add and add an account and set up your Twitter Account.

2 -  Twitter Lists
So, if you follow a LOT of people, you can also slice this down to a smaller group by making a twitter list. You'll have to publish it and then subscribe. If it is public, you'll need to know the name of the list but if it is private you can make a list of your closest friends and follow that way.

This is also a great way for those who hate twitter and will not use it to harness the power by finding a list of people from a credible source to follow. (I kind of like chalkstars.)

How to add: Search for the name of the twitter list (it must be public) and then scroll down to the "Twitter Lists" section if it is for someone else. Otherwise, after you've added Twitter, just click on Add Section and click Twitter and then you can add your own lists.

3- Twitter Hashtag - #edchat
My favorite Twitter based flipboard magazine for educators is from #edchat. Just type #edchat in the search and scroll down to follow the hashtag. If you are in another field, you should look at the common hashtags in your field. When you attend conferences, you may want to have a temporary Flipboard "magazine" for that hashtag. (like #iste11).

#edchat hashtag on Twitter is one of the best feeds to compile on Flipboard.

How to add: Type #edchat (or any other hashtag) Scroll down to the Twitter Search Section and subscribe to "tweets mentioning #edchat"

4 - Other Twitter Features
You can follow tweets mentioning you, saved searches, your lists, lists you follow, lists following you, people you follow, and people following you! So many things. My advice is to be strategic. Your Flipboard should meet a need and should evolve.

How to add: After you've added Twitter, click on Twitter after you add a section and then select what you'd like to add.

5 - Google Reader
Subscribing to all of your google reader will bring everything mixed together. It makes for interesting reading and customized magazine of sorts.

How to Add: Click Add Section and then add the network and subscribe to it.

6 - Google Reader Folder
I have a folder called @hotlist that includes the blogs I want to make sure that I read almost every day. This is on my flipboard. I also follow a folder labeled @freecoolstuff that includes some RSS feeds that scrape information about free things for educators and my classroom.

How to add: Click Add section and then click Google Reader (if you added it for #4 above) and then click Subscriptions. You can then pick a folder in your google reader. If you don't have a folder, you'll need to go to http://reader.google.com on your web browser and set them up.

7 - Public Nings
I subscribe to the Flat Classrooms ning to pull out current content. I'm still working on this as I'm not sure how the RSS is coming out of the Ning - sometimes it has older things.

How to add: Click Add Section and then type in the URL - this one is http://flatclassrooms.ning.com - Again, I'm working on this one. You could also use the specific RSS feed for what you want to follow on that topic.

8 - My own Blog
I am learning about how things deploy into Flipboard, so I follow my own blog. If you blog, you follow yours.

How to Add: The fastest way to add this is to type the url in flipboard. Mine is http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com



9 - Any school or classroom blog that is published publicly.
I subscribe to my school's blog at http://westwoodschools.blogspot.com to follow the content and to show parents how it is done. I plan to write a blog post to show them how as it is so easy to read school news that way. I also have http://digiteendreamteam.blogspot.com a blog run by some of my ninth graders.

This is a great tip for administrators who are nervous about their students producing public content as it is easy to read and respond.

How to Add: Type the URL in flipboard and subscribe.

10 - Best of a Diigo Group
The educators group on Diigo is one of my favorite go-to places for information. (See instructions for how to join properly or you will be delayed in the approval process. spammers beware.)

How to Add: To subscribe, I typed in educators and diigo and then it found the diigo group. The group must be public.

11- Education AllTop
The alltop education resource is one of the best. Founded by Guy Kawasaki, if you are in education, this is a must add to your flipboard. There are alltops in many subjects - go to www.alltop.com. Great flipboard content.

How to Add: Type education alltop and find it or http://education.alltop.com

12 - Resource Sharing Blogs (OL Daily)
Frequently updated resource sharing blogs make excellent flipboards. Stephen Downes is in this category for me. I want to read pretty much everything he links to because it is a wide variety and "he can't be bought." I typically don't subscribe to advertising-type blogs in this category because I've found it gets cluttery.

How to Add: Type in the URL or search for the person's name.

13- Your Facebook News Feed
Add Facebook and Follow everything that comes through your network.

How to Add: Add a network and then subscribe.

14  Photos that Tag You
You can subscribe to all photos on Facebook that tag you in them. (Honestly, if you had the userid and password for a person you could subscribe to the photos they are tagged in - like your younger children. You'd just have to promise not to comment. ;-))

How to Add: Add a network and then click Facebook and choose "Photos of You"

15 - Other Important Things in Facebook 
(Groups, Your Wall, Friend Lists, Pages, Friends, News Feed Links, News Feed Photos)
You can drill down facebook in many ways. This is great for school who want to have a Facebook page but need to keep an "eye" on things.

How to Add: Click Facebook and drill through the menus. There is more there than can be added to a flipboard.

Let it Flow and Evolve
You are a human being bounded by finite time and attention spans. You are not infinite so you must focus your energy in ways that pay powerful dividends.

If a Flipboard isn't useful, delete it. It is better to have 3 useful boards than 2 screens of things that distract you.

Delete What Doesn't Work
For that matter, if you hate Flipboard, delete it. Any device no matter how useful can be a productivity killer if it becomes the master and not the servant.

This is your life. It is your job to have the self discipline to focus your time and energy on what is important to you.

This is Your Life!
When I turned 42 this past Monday, I was running on the track and saw the sprinkler system come on the football practice field. Instead of staying on the track, every time I came close to the sprinkler - I ran through it. It felt great! As I listened to my ipod I heard the words:

"It's my life. Now or never. I ain't gonna live forever. I just gotta live while I'm alive."

Life is changing rapidly as we replace desktops with tablet  and mobile devices faster than most can comprehend.

Look for the tools and things that add to your life. If it doesn't add to it, delete it. This is your life! I think Flipboard adds to mine! Enjoy!