Building a Classroom Site

This week we looked at Google Sites and using it to build a classroom site. I enjoyed this project and it made me think about how I will want to use this in my classroom. I already know I want to have a site for my classroom, so Google Sites is an option for me to use.

Here is the link to my site I did for a 4th grade class:

https://sites.google.com/site/msvagotts4thgradeclass/

I didn't have any issues building the site, except with the calendar. I did the calendar in Google Calendar and then imported it to the site. I had issues with viewing the calendar. One time I had it as a widget but didn't care for the look. I wanted the items to be viewed on the calendar directly. It was easy to import images, change font size and color, format the layout, etc. I made many revisions so I won't list them in detail. I can sites being used for a classroom project or for teams. I hope you enjoy in site. There is a home page, subjects we will study page, a calendar page, and a page of helpful links.

Google Drawing

 The last Google Doc we are looking at is Google Drawing. I was excited to use this app, but was disappointed that it didn't have a way to draw free form. With a name like drawing, I was expecting to draw. One can only use the available shapes and draw a line. It did challenge me by doing a drawing with just the limited amount of shapes. I can see how this app would be great for charts, graphs, make math "posters," charts for science, and other similar less creative activities. It can challenge a student to break objects down into their simplest form, which is something you do when you are trying to teach someone to draw. Some of the tutorials were good and helpful. Below is a link to my attempt at a drawing. I was able to save it as a JPEG and then post it here.

https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1qGVRJSMweW3S0cbD8ASMJRHPQPfYkHEGxm-DDAUErxA/edit?usp=sharing


The handout discussed how Google Drawing could be used in a class project setting to work together in a group to develop a chart, graph, or drawing. The handout related the app to how it can be used to aid in meeting CCSS in math and writing, as well as speech and listening by have the students present their drawings to the class. They can also work together outside of school by being able to share and work on a drawing together. The handout mentioned how a teacher could use the app to create an outline of a book or the students could do this themselves as a "graphic organizer" for a project. Google Drawing could be a great way to help students understand geometry by being able to rotate items and manipulate the shapes. Sometimes if you can draw the angle and then manipulate it in a certain way it can help with certain mathematical equations.

Apps For The Classroom

  This week we are looking at preparation, presentation, and story apps.

The preparation applications I looked at were My Spelling Test and Merriam-Webster Dictionary. My Spelling Test is an app that a parent/guardian, teacher, or tutor o help improve a students spelling ability, but I can also see a ESL teacher using this to help a student with basic words. The app can be used for all levels.

How it works is you type a word, then you record you saying the word plus you can say a sentence that uses the word. When the student is ready to take the test they tap the "My Tests" button and they can chose which test to take. This enables the student to move at his or her own pace, and they are given a score at the end of the test. Additionally, when they misspell a word they are shown how to correctly spell the word. This immediate feedback enables the learner to see the correct way to spell the word as they are studying. I know as a student and now as a parent, by the time you get feedback/score on your spelling test it is the end of the week or the next week and the class has already moved on to the next chapter.

The days of needing a huge, heavy dictionary are gone, thank goodness. Now you can have a dictionary on your mobile device. The next app I look at is Merriam-Webster Dictionary, which I already use on my iPad on a regular bases, plus I have a dictionary app on my iPhone. I confess that I am not the best speller so it is nice to have a dictionary handy. My daughters also enjoy the dictionary apps when they are doing homework.  Many times at work someone will ask me how to spell a word and I had them my phone to use the dictionary app. The app has where you can search by word, either typing it or saying it, and it has tabs on the side of the screen just like a paper dictionary.

The entrees' look just like a paper dictionary with the word and the break down of the word; the part(s) of speech; definitions; also it may the word used in a sentence, the origin of the word, when first used, and synonyms. Something that is also nice about this app is you can tap the sound button and hear the word being said.

Now lets look at the presentation app Show Me, this is a whiteboard app. This application is a portable whiteboard. You can search presentations that have already been done, or create one of your own. To create a presentation you see a plan screen (a whiteboard), the tool bar across the top has a variety of colors, a way to insert a picture, eraser, and a record button so you can record your presentation. (Here is a picture of a drawing I did in Show Me.) The tutorials were helpful and informative. The one said there are about 1 million presentations already stored in Show Me, which can ad a teacher in not having to do a new presentation. You can follow a topic so you can know when new presentations are posts to this topic. 

Here is a simple whiteboard "page" I did.

Comic Life is a fun why for a class to create a story. I can see using this app to have a class do a history report, book report, or any type of visual presentation. This is a fun and creative app. There are templates or blank pages, speech bubbles, shapes, change colors or size, everything one would need to do a comic book. When typing a title or captions/bubbles, there is an auto correct feature. You can change the size and location of the pictures, captions, title, and bubbles.There is the ability to email the comic book as a PDF or a photo. I had fun creating a page about my dog. I used one of the templates to create the comic page below. 

Below are some apps we were asked to review and how we would use them in our classroom, my focus of study is K-6.

Social Studies:

I looked at the Lincoln Telegrams and History Tools. Both are something that I hope to use in my class. I can see using the Lincoln Telegrams app when discussing the Civil War. The students can see telegrams that Lincoln wrote during the year of 1864 of the Civil War. (My father calls the Civil War the War of Northern Aggression.) As a person who grew up with a history buff, especially the Civil War, this app is very interesting to me. I like how they "translate" the telegram, tell the you a little history (the summary/context), and they give you a page of what may have been going on at the time (inferences). My youngest daughter is fascinated with Lincoln and will enjoy this app; she would have loved to have had this when she did her Wax Museum presentation on Lincoln.

The History Tools app is a fun way to engage the students in what happened on a certain day. It would be fun to do this on the day of a students birthday, when studying a certain person in history, or a certain event in history. When you pick a day you see a calendar with the date, a summary of historical events, who was born today, who died today, today's events, feast day of saint, holidays, (I won't use these is the classroom unless appropriate), and then my events. The my events area is where I would be able to add a students' birthday.

Science:

3D Sun is an app that lets students look at the sun and see solar flares. This is a great app to us when studying the solar system and/or the sun. There are news updates, and you can even sign up for news alerts when there are big flares, geomagnetic storms and auroras. There is a Solar Dynamics Observatory Gallery, this has a variety of pictures for the students to see the sun in different stages, plus you can zoom in and see specific areas. Some of the images are movies, like the mothers' day flare. There is a description of each picture at the bottom of the picture. Then there is the 3D sun that shows the sun spinning on its axis's. You can see the earth-side and the far side of the sun.

Google Earth is another great app to use when studying science or social studies. I won't discuss this app since I have already done a presentation on this one. I just thought it was worth mentioning in this particular area of apps for the classroom.

Math:

I wish I would have had Math Drills Lite when my daughters were learning their multiplication tables and learning division. The app also has addition and subtraction. There are preset problems for drills or you can customize to the student. There is a place to label a different drill for a different student. (This appears to only be on the full version, which is $1.99.) The problem is presented, then at the bottom is a number line that will help the student with the problem. On the timed section if the student doesn't put an answer in then the number line will slowly start to automatically help the student until the correct answer is entered. At the end of the drill and questions that have been missed are reviewed so the student will immediately know how to figure out the correct answer. If I was going to use this in the classroom, I would purchase the full version in order to put pictures of the students with their drills and to have the other personalization options. I feel that these extras will make it fun and more engaging for the students.

Language Arts:

Vocabulary – I looked at the Jumbo Word Search app. I liked how the word search can be customized to a certain subject matter, like animals, astronomy, geography, etc. There are three settings: easy, medium, and hard. I can see this as something to use when a student finishes their work and needs a distraction so as not to disturb the rest of the students. It could also be a fun thing to do when on a trip to pass the time. I like how once you find a word the word disappears from the list. The words can go in all directions, just like a paper crossword puzzle. Once you find all the words a little window pops up and says, "congratulations you found all the words." 

Different Options for Using the iPad like a Laptop

We have been learning about different apps to use on the iPad and some of them are ways to use the iPad like a laptop. There are different apps that preform word processing, spreadsheet, photo, and more, just like one would have on their laptop.

This week we were to compare and contrast different apps available for the iPad. I chose to look at Pages, a word processing app for the iPad. I liked how Pages was very similar to Word, the program I used on my laptop. With the iPad being app driven I have looked at several word processing apps. I liked Pages so much I ended up purchasing it for my iPad for the low cost of $9.99.

Pages works just like Word when it comes to: changing font size, typeface, etc.; setting margins and simply entering text. Where I really like Pages is how easy it is to insert an image, add a border to the image, how to create a chart and insert it into the document, and how easy it is to save and with the document on iCloud I can pull it up on my iPhone, iPad, and my laptop.

In a classroom setting this would make it easy for a student to enter an essay and the teacher could pull it up using iCloud to read and grade. Pages can also be simply used to take notes, share a group report, or any other way a word processing program is used. Pages saves automatically, like Google Documents, so the document will be there in iCloud.

I created a Box.net account and moved a picture to the account. It was easy to use.

This is the photo I used

Since I have an iPad I have and use iBooks. It keeps all the books in one place so they are not on a "screen" like the apps. This makes it easy to find a book. I find iBooks easy to use and I haven't encounter not finding a book I need, if it isn't in iBooks I can find it as an app. When comparing iBooks with the Kindle app, I like the easy of use of iBooks. I don't like how you have to go to the Amazon website to find the book, purchase the book, then download the book. Then go back to the Kindle app to read the book. iBooks came on my iPad so I was already to go and it takes less time to find the book, so I can spend more time reading the book.

Since I have Apple products I have Safari, since that is their browser of choice. I however don't care for Safari. I have Foxfire on my laptop and have installed Google on my iPad and iPhone. Safari is fine, its just I find other browsers return more relevant searches and more detailed searches. For instance Google is more than just text there are always graphics and more information. Additionally, I encounter more delays and lag time with Safari than other web browsers.

I knew there were ways that one could run education software/apps that used Flash on the iPad I just wasn't sure how. Rover isn't ideal for running a website, but it is a way get around Flash. As the video said, this is fine for home use but not for a school. The lack of Flash on the iPad continues to be a problem. Rover is an app that "pretends" to be a browser.

Using Google Forms to Create Self-grading Test

This week we looked at how to use Google Forms to create self-grading tests. Plus how Google Forms can be used to help schools meet some of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS.)

I found it most helpful to have a sample to refer to help me with figuring out the formulas. Additionally, I really like the link to "Self-Grading Multiple Choice Tests with Google Docs." I found it very helpful to have a step-by-step guide with had a link to a video, plus had visuals embedded in the article. Once I figured out my test questions, which I think was the hardest part, it was easy to set up the test and just follow along with Google. The program will guide you along in setting up the test and the test response spreadsheet.

Here is a link to my test:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1uydH_Jv8QCxBQ0OYQvgTHOEw9sgWhYmIWyIs4n1wRXk/viewform

And a link to my response sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmgfiCUYrsGfdDBjV3kxaWxjTG01UHd2bjE4ZE5aVVE#gid=0

I can see how a teacher can use Google Forms to collect student information at the beginning of the school year. As a parent it would be easier to fill out a form for the teacher and e-mail it in, and as a teacher it would be easier to collect information from parents in one e-mail plus easier to store an e-mail instead of a piece of paper.

The students could use Google Forms to conduct research and have an easy way to organize and analyze the data they collected. This could be used for science, psychology, or any type of class project. The students can then use the app to create graphs of the results. It was very user friendly. All of these activities will fulfill CCSS.

How do you Decide which Tablet to Purchase?

There are so many options when purchasing a tablet. So, how do you pick the correct one for you?

-->

In previous posts I have mentioned, when choosing a tablet you need to look at how you are going to use it. If you just want to just read books on the tablet then an e-Reader would be a good choice, but be conscious of licensing agreements if using them in a school setting. Some of the e-Readers can run a few apps, but they are mostly just for books. (See post on Article Reviews I did. These articles discuss the e-Readers as an option, additionally what some schools/libraries encountered with the Kindle.)

Amazon continues to work on making the Kindle, especially the Kindle Fire, more and more like a tablet instead of an e-Reader. The article, "The Kindle Fire will enable the next generation of 1:1 education apps" discusses how Amazon developed the Silk browser to have their own version of a cloud computing which is always connected to the backbone of the Internet. This provides fast connecting speed that will be a huge benefit to textbooks that embed links in the text. 

Some schools don't consider how they are going to use the tablets and just jump to buy the iPad, when all they intended to do is use them for students to read books. If a school only intends to use tablets for reading books, then an e-Reader would be the best choice. Because of licensing agreements associated with using the Kindle, schools might be better off with the Nook. But if schools have the financial and personnel resources the Kindle Fire will offer them more options to expand beyond just reading textbooks on a tablet. Students can also access a variety of newspapers and magazines, through a subscription the school would need. With schools being over crowded and the lack of school funds for expansions, I can see some smaller schools using their library spaces for classrooms and having the library become a smaller space or a cart to take to the classrooms. I don't recommend this idea, I just can see the potential of this happening. 

We have looked at the e-Readers now lets move on to the iPad. We all know that Apple has been a leader in education software and apps, and the e-Reader market that has the Android base can access some of the same ones or same type of apps, but Apple offers better security which is important when purchasing apps for a school. Where the iPad really separates itself from the Android based tablets is in the ability to create. For example, iMovie offers the opportunity for teachers to have the students create a movie on a certain subject in a short period of time. Students could quickly take a novel they are reading in class and make their own movie. When I was in elementary school we had to create and act out plays to tell a history lesson. This took up many class sessions to provide time for the students to write and plan, plus the days to perform all the plays. A teacher could have students make a short film one day and then view them the next day. With all the CCS that teachers need to meet, this assignment would be a great way to meet certain core standards and not take away from valuable teaching time. 

In looking at some of the apps that are available for education, the article "Interesting Ways to Use an iPad in the Classroom" suggests over 100 different apps to use in the classroom. I like the math education apps. My oldest daughter is very visual and when she was in third grade we got her a tutor to help her with math. The teacher/tutor looked for a math software game for her to play on the computer. This helped her, but because it was a school program Madelyn could only use it a school. The apps offer a way for the student to use the math education app at school and then they could potentially be able to access it a home on a laptop, tablet or other mobile device to continue to re-enforce what they are learning. As we all know, repetition is the best way to learn something. 

I use more of the productivity apps, my calendar, clock, calculator, notes, Safari/Google, e-mail, etc. I really like having my NIV study Bible on my iPad for my other class but also it is easier to carry the iPad instead of my heavy Bible. I also use iPhoto and iBooks extensively. There are many free or very low cost apps of all types. Some would say they like the smaller size of the e-Reader, but the smaller size also means smaller or no virtual keyboard. The iPad has a large sized virtual keyboard that can make typing easier. Also the Apple provides more GB to run the larger apps. My daughters were telling me their father has an Android tablet. I asked them how they would compare it to the iPad. They said they liked the bigger screen of the iPad and some of the apps they like they couldn't play on the Android. 

This all goes back to when deciding to purchase a tablet for personal use or for use in a school, one must look at how it will be used. I would recommend reading the article, "What do Students Think of Using iPads in Class? Pilot Survey Results" for ideas of how to use tablets in the classroom: reference tool, documents/presentations, e-Books, projects and distributing documents. This article discusses how students and teachers responded to using iPads in their class setting. The students liked using the iPads, but they would have preferred having one of their own. Also they felt typing is easier on a laptop than the iPad, plus they liked being able to keep multiple windows open on the laptop versus not being able to do this on the iPad. (It is my understanding that the Android does offer this feature.)

 I would pick the apps/software one needs/wants then look at which tablet will be able to run those in the most efficient and cost effective manner. The hardware might be cheaper but it is the software that makes the machine.

Grade Books In Google Spreadsheet

Here is a grade book I did in Google spreadsheets. I did use one of the templates as a starting place, and then modified it for this grade book.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmgfiCUYrsGfdGNqRnRQWlQ3UUNpeVBBTHg3WDU1UGc#gid=0

I have used Excel in the past for lists, like VBS registration and employee testing, but this is the first time I had to figure out formulas in a spreadsheet. I had issues with the final grades and ended up calculating by hand. I tried to use atomiclearning.com to help with some of the more complex formulas, but couldn't get the videos to play. I tried using the Google help, but I couldn't figure it out. This is something I will just have to practice with more, but I can see the benefits to doing a grade book in a spreadsheet.

The article we read just continued on the benefits of technology in the classroom. I can see how spreadsheets can be used to help students understand certain complex equations (as long as they know the equation) and how this program can be used by students to conduct scientific research. This is an important part of the Common Core Standards. Spreadsheets are used in many professions and it is important that students understand and know how to use spreadsheets. The more we can do as teachers to prepare our students for the future/the world the better off the student will be and in the long run the benefit for our country.