Tech Tools - Shared by Teachers - Google Slides and SlideCarnival

I just so happened to see this FaceBook group called 2ndaryELA while I was getting a pedicure on a summer afternoon in July. I requested to become a member, and then - wa-la, this new world was opened to me! It's a group consisting of thousands (10,763 as of Augusts 19th, to be exact) of ELA teachers - middle and high - sharing ideas in a positive way! What? Yes - sharing lesson plans, ideas, websites, technology... If it's happened or can happen in an ELA classroom, there is an answer, a solution, a great idea, a cheat, an anything, to help out a fellow teacher. What a great group. If you're not a member, join now. (As long as you're a positive educator).

So one thing that frequently comes up in discussions with teachers (from any discipline) is technology in the classroom. So I am going to start to compile a list of shares and then use it in the classroom and see where it goes.

Basic Tech Tools: Google Slides and SlideCarnival

I consider a basic tech tool to be one that is not entirely interactive: perhaps a presentation tool like Google Slides (or PowerPoint). I use Google Slides for every unit because I link it to my website and the students can access it from their phones, group laptops, home... anywhere. All the updates are live. On my Weebly classroom website, I include a unit page with standards, objectives, and always a link to my Google Slide. The key to making it useful is the sharing option. I will attempt to explain this using screen shots.

Google has a plethora of slide options to use... plain, templates, various colors and fonts. However, I just learned of a new (fun) slide option that links to Google: SlideCarnival.

Once in SlideCarnival, choose a template and then make a copy to your Google Drive.

Name your slide how you'd like. If using SlideCarnival, there are numerous slides in your presentation that offer suggestions for editing and fonts, etc. If you stick with the traditional Google Slide, it's pretty basic. 

Now for a truly useful tool for you and your students, you'll want to embed this slide into your Learning Management System (LMS) or your classroom website. It's super easy and you can  make it as fancy as your LMS allows. The important thing is to ensure that your permissions allow "anyone with the link can view."

Click on share. It's that blue button on the top right.

Next you will select the permissions. Ensure it looks as such:

Copy the link and you can paste it simply into your LMS or you can get a bit more fancy and attach it to an image on your website like I have done below.

Every update that you make to that Google Slide (from wherever it is that you are at) is saved to your site or LMS. I have literally updated spelling errors from my iPhone in the classroom. Sure, you have to refresh your SmartBoard or students need to refresh from their end, but the updates happen immediately.

Why is this THE BEST? Well, I literally have a live schedule of our class recorded and updated real-time. Absent students can see what they missed that day. You can embed videos and tutorials into your slides. Any worksheets can be uploaded into your drive (as a Google Doc or PDF) and you can link the assignment to your slide by simply using the "get shareable link" as well. I basically maintain everything in my slides and my students (and the parents) have access to all our tools.

One word of caution. If you are using a website in lieu of a private LMS, you may want to password protect your weebly (or website) page. Otherwise your unit (and those copyrighted docs from Teachers Pay Teachers) are out there for all.

Unwind - by Neal Shusterman

This summer, I joined a FB page named 2ndaryELA and it has truly been professional development every moment that I am perusing the page. I have never seen a group of such supportive and sharing people! These ELA teachers are constantly sharing whatever is asked and frequently teachers ask for reading pairing. I believe this book recommendation came from a response to what to pair with The Giver for those who have already read Lois Lowry's masterpiece. Multiple teachers suggested this, so naturally, I looked it up on Amazon.

When I read the synopsis, I got the chills!!!!! Just the back of the book will send a shiver down your spine: "Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives. The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until the age of thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different recipients, so life doesn't technically end." Did that give you the creeps? I really thought that I couldn't read it,  but since it was suggested as a book that even reluctant readers can't put down, I ordered two. (I have since ordered more for my classroom).

As mentioned on the rear cover, the three main characters are Connor, Risa, and Lev. The book is great for teens as the action immediately begins on page one with Connor plotting his escape after discovering that his parents secretly signed the irreversible government contract to have him unwound.  The three characters' stories quickly intertwine. While all did not begin as rebels, their fight to survive requires them to rebel against all the laws of their warped society and the characters come in and out of each other's lives on this perilous journey.

The eeriness doesn't just stop at the sheer idea that teens are dissected and placed in other beings... the levels continue to grow! Like does that brain taken from an "Unwound" have thoughts that drive the recipient to act in ways that he'd never expect? How do parents deal with the guilt of having their child unwound? Would they ever try to put their child back together again? And oh my, at the end, when the reader is present while a character is unwound while alive???? I mean, the action just doesn't stop.

Is this a disturbing 335 pages? You betcha! But it's the kind of disturbing that makes the reader think... what would I do? Why would society think this is okay? What is the value of a human? Should children and teens be ultimately judged by their actions while a minor in society? Would I be an "Unwind?"

Check this book out! You will not want to put it down!

FRIES... read on

Many of my "blog buddies" from UMUC are feeling overwhelmed and I am right beside them. I'm struggling to stay above water in my classroom, but on top of that I have two extra duties at school: ELA Department Chair and the FRIES club.

Let me explain FRIES... For CSI (Continuous School Improvement) we have to come up with a common problem and an intervention and two years ago, the school rightfully agreed that our students struggle with including supporting details.  I knew of the acronym FRIES (Facts/Figures, Reasons, Incidents, Examples/Expert Testimony, Sensory details) and we chose that as our intervention and it became "my baby." You know how sometimes your suggestion becomes your burden, I mean baby?  Well, that was me with FRIES.  My principal wanted me to roll out this in a BIG way. Please watch this embarrassing video... I say writing about 4 times in 20 seconds. I HATE this video, but it does explain things... And it was a successful roll-out after 40+ hours of me and my ISS writing lessons for every discipline.

Now, I will say that FRIES has been a successful intervention. Even the Naval Base McDonalds has contributed 600 free fries coupons to our school and teachers give them as rewards for showing support (FRIES) in their writing. Students are showing improvement. But, I was tasked by my new Principal to host a FRIES club SY2014, of sorts, to ensure that every student is understanding our intervention.  I have put this on the back burner and then suddenly I had an idea!  In our 620 grad school class, we wrote projects for for our students and I planned to do this one with my 6th graders: a teen's guide to Yokosuka.  But then (Thursday)  I thought: what if every ELA teacher did this and our ENTIRE school wrote a review for a website.  The students would be writing a meaningful project and my FRIES "club" students could put together the website.  I'm going to attempt to sell this idea at my Department meeting on Thursday. Here's my page with the rubric and the instructions I wrote for my 6th graders.  It's password protected: yms . What do you think?  I am super excited!

So you know how I value my social life, I am going to get out in town this weekend to create some examples as models.  I hope I have teacher buy-in.  I finally feel like I'm climbing out of my hiding spot under this extra duty.

In other news: some super typhoon is headed this way.  America is making it seem worse than Japan is letting on. Is it bad that I'm hoping for a Tuesday hit so we have a 4-day weekend?

Paint Strips in ELA

I've been borrowing Pinterest ideas for two years now. However, I don't always have access to the supplies needed to copy the pin. Yet, I pin away and hope I'll remember when I stumbled upon it.

This summer I created a reminder on my phone. I was in the States for 6 weeks so I needed to accomplish the task of getting supplies for this certain pin: paint strip writing. My sister, a kindergarten teacher, and I walked confidently into HomeDepot and gathered about 300 paint strip samples. I kept asking my sister, Christie, if it were illegal and she assured me it wasn't. When we walked out, paint strips in hand, without so much as purchasing a paintbrush, alarms did not sound. I guess HomeDepot doesn't know that paint strip are high demand for teachers, or maybe it's their silent contribution to the education system.

Nevertheless, I smuggled paint strips to Japan. Why? Well, mine (if even an option) would be in kanji. And the ones in America have such creative names.

I chose a variety of strips to, umm, take. I'm only highlighting one activity using one type of paint strip. Believe me, there's many more.

This is the activity I used for setting. All these colors sounded like someplace, meaning it could be a prompt for creating a setting.

Here's my example that I modeled for students: silent fog





My hope is that students can introduce a setting, using descriptive details. They must use the paint strip title.

Yes, I know I have a spelling error. I'll post my kids progress soon!!!

AG

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

New to Blogger

I am new to blogger, but not new to blogging.  I have used blogs via weebly in my classroom and I blog my adventures on a weebly as well.  I've always been sad (ok that's too dramatic) that no one seems to use my weebly blog, so I'm hoping that blogger is better received.  When I created this site for UMUC, I went ahead and created a personal one, too.  I'm already noticing that there are a lot of apps that go with blogger, so I can post from anywhere.  I love that.  I'm excited, however I am already frustrated.  One: I can't figure out the pages.  I have created a few pages, but everything posts to the home page.  I also am struggling with adding the RSS feed.  I think our instructions are outdated.  I'm not following my groupmates and they have no way to follow me.  I found weebly to be much, much easier.  (However, I'm still excited that blogger is connected to Pinterest).  Anyhow, I sent a shout out to my group, so hopefully we'll be in business soon.  Another frustration is that the YouTube videos seem to be outdated leading me to believe that there have been recent changes with blogger.  So again, frustration.