Inquiry Group: Blogging

So far the big questions in my group is about parent permission and school permission. All four of us in the blog inquiry group wanted our classrooms to jump in and start a classroom blog and do a quad blog (I just learned what a quad blog is, pretty much four classrooms blog together read each others blogs and provide comments etc.). Problem is not all of our principals feel comfortable having students on a classroom blogging site. My purpose for wanting to have a classroom blog is to give my students a new audience to share their work with and to get them excited to show their work. I want them to start with bi-weekly book reports and take off from there. I know this wouldn't be ideal for all my 2nd graders but I can think of 12 of them that would be in love with this. All four of us teachers work in the same school district so you would think we all would have the same policy on classroom blogs but some are more conservative then others.

My principal seemed to like the idea I promised no student pictures that could identify them and no last names and I wouldn't use any city or state information. She wanted me to send her the link to our blogs when they were up and running so she could stay up to date. Additionally, she asked for some example blogs so she knew what to expect. I thought this was a good supportive response from her.

I have been learning so much about blogging. I just learned how to add my twitter post to a live feed on the side panel of my blog. I learned how to do a blog roll. I created two different blog accounts one on blogger and one on Wordpress. It has been nice to compare them both. I like looking at other peoples blogs to get ideas on how to lay my blog out.

I like finding bloggers who have similar interest as me to follow. I use feedly to add my favorite bloggers and stay up to date. Although I am having a very hard time keeping up to date with them I feel like this summer will be a good time to get updated on all my wonderful blogging colleagues.
#inquiryblog #bloglife

Book Filming

My first time creating a youtube video well uploading a video on youtube. It took me 30 minutes to figure it out but I feel so accomplished. Check out my groups awesome AMPLIFY video. It is a lesson in the text we all thought was useful and we all want to bring to our classrooms. Additionally we added a quick summary so you can get an idea of what the book was about. Enjoy! #amplify #teched

Kindle Fire in the classroom

Ahhhh what a nightmare. I see why some people give up on technology too soon sometimes it can be very difficult and overwhelming. Thankfully, I wasn't in it alone my students had my back. I just received my first two Kindle Fires. My co-worker uses them in her classroom. I didn't realize she just uses the apps they come with until after I received mine. I thought they would be perfect for surfing the web and downloading apps like Padlet, Blogger, and QR codes. It actually didn't have a lot of the apps that I just assumed all tablets could receive all apps (my bad). I downloaded QR code readers on them and I borrowed 6 more from my Math coach. I thought I was all set for my Earth Day lesson. But the QR code reader only worked on one of the QR codes but my iPad could read all the QR codes no problem. The Kindles would crash every 5 minutes or so and would ask for my password again every 10 minutes like it kept forgetting it. So I decided only to do the Kindle Fires with the student apps that came with it on one of mine they were working at a steady speed but on the other one it could never open the app that came standard with the reader. They were so slow. It wasn't very user friendly.
I think I will use my Kindle Fires for downloading books for the Kiddos and hopefully they will be able to do their Scholastic New on it. I haven't tried that yet. I always wondered why more classrooms didn't use Kindle Fires in the classroom they are so affordable. But I need to come at it again and keep on uncovering the best way to utilize them. I don't want to give up on them but next time I will be requesting more iPads.
#tabletclassroom #teched

Book Circle: Amplify read

Students as specialists: Page 71. I used this today in my classroom my kiddos loved it!! First the expert loved teaching his peers and second of all the students loved a peer teaching them. The student I chose is very smart and very hyper he loved working hard when he is engaged and can easily interfere with other students learning if he isn't engaged. This was the perfect thing for him he was so clear and concise with his peers. So glad I read about this strategy and sad I didn't think about it early!

Safeguarding our intellectual property: page 73. I really want to implement this within my classroom we have a talk about respecting books and caring for them but we don't really get into respecting technology. They know they get in trouble every time they break one of my headphones but I don't think I ever taught them how to use them properly so that is my bad! Glad I have this lesson plan to carry out.

I do think it is important for all my students to know they are an expert at something.

I love the idea of taking pictures of students that are using their devices appropriately to really award the good behavior.

I like the idea of having a listening signal when using a device but this doesn't apply to my 3 device classroom yet. Hopefully some day!

#BCAmplify #teched

Ed Tech: Inequalities

In the Ed Tech Inequalities article it discusses how a school in Tennessee is under the public eye debating whether or not it is legal for staff members to be able to search students phones at any time and regulate their social media if it is on school grounds. I do not think that should be legal and I don't see why they feel that would be beneficial. I often wonder about this stuff. At the beginning of each school year I have to sign a paper for my district saying my phone can be searched if there is probable cause and if a warrant is filled I have to give up all of my emails and text.

We had a staff meeting where our principal showed us some items that students at our school posted on their social media. My principal often checks her staffs social media but there is no way she can keep up with checking 700 students social media accounts as well. These post were brought to her attention by a parent. The post were extremely aggressive. She shared with us that she was having a meeting with the parents and the students would face a one day suspension and a social media training course. Pretty sure it was a one day suspension. I was wondering if students were even allowed to get in trouble at school for something they did at home? I feel like home and school should be supportive of each other and in frequent contact but getting punished at school for something you did at home just didn't sit well with me and it didn't really make sense to me. I feel like there are laws against this? #techprivacy

going electronic with my business

I was leaving class last week and had this thought of ways I can get rid of using paper and make things more electronic. I thought about when I use paper the most and I was thinking for taking notes and written responses with my students in the classroom. Then, it hit me I was thinking only of me and my classroom for my coffee stands I go through a ton of paper. Every night at each stand my employees write their inventory on a piece of paper and send it to me. I hate this method.. .but it works. When it is time for me to do inventory I have to go through all my previous text to see what each employee recorded because the AM girl might have written something the PM girl didn't or maybe the PM girl found an item that the AM girl recorded so I am going through 6 text of inventory a day and comparing what they need then writing it down on my own final list. I wanted a way where the inventory could be interactive at any time they can delete something or add something immediately and it would be live to me and the other employees so we can all see what the other barista needs. How could I do this? Is there an app for it? Then it hit me GOOGLE DOCS!! I was beyond excited I went home and created an inventory document and send a mass message out to my baristas to download the app. Some of them were very excited others were like I don't use technology I won't be able to figure it out without even downloading the app one was frustrated to create a google account. About 60% of them have been doing an amazing job with it. One girl her phone is too old so it won't let her download the app because she needs a newer software so I am having her use it through the email link but it takes her phone awhile to upload it. Not sure there is anything I can do about that. I want to try it for another week and if it is going well I am going to force all the girls to use this. I am wondering if they are expected to do this online if I need to provide like an iPad for the stand?  I don't think I can require the girls to use their phones for business? It takes me a bit longer to type inventory on a phone instead of writing it on paper but it is so much faster for us to look at the inventory list I feel like I have saved about 20 minutes a day so far and I am greatly enjoying it and so is my manager! So glad I could bring this tech class to my business to make our lives easier and save trees! #techbusiness #googledocs

Music Video

My staff makes an annual music video for the kiddos. Here is this years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inWNc_cc3ZU&feature=youtu.be

Book Circle: Amplify

Have you all had any big take aways that you are implementing in your classroom? I am wondering what I should use to get the shower curtain to hang up because I don't have a shower rod? I am thinking of getting a huge red and green light to display so classmates can see when a recording is happening. I love page 70 where it list all the troubleshooting. Normally though with my 2nd graders it isn't troubleshooting it is them not remembering how to get to the website or they don't know how to type it in. I put cheat sheets on the computers but they still need me or somebody else to type in the web address. I am wondering if for things like Moby Max and Tumblebooks can we put an app for those on the desktop so students can just click on those? I am not sure how apps on a desktop work? I have a classroom website where students can access all of their webpages but it is kind of hard to get to a multi step process. It is a district issued page that every teacher has. I am thinking it might be better to purchase a website that is easier for them to spell like CarlsonB20.com? I want to ask my principal about this or if they want everything on the district page. Do you all have a webpage that your students use to access information and webpages?
I love the idea on page 62 of partnering up with other class rooms and having them be an audience for the blogs. My students would really enjoy this. I am worried that the other class or my class won't be able to keep up with the blog comment demands?

Social Media Sales

For my "book circle" I started following the author on Twitter. I was amazed by how long it took me to find content on her page that was from her (the author) I scrolled forever from people referencing her in a post or people putting up pictures of her. She seems like she has been doing a lot of Skype conferences with schools and hosting events. Whenever people post things that include her name she seems to respond to every one of them.

My book circle group and I created the hashtag BCAmplify thinking it would be creative and unique Book Circle Amplify (the book title) I was writing a post to my group specifically not including the authors name and used our hashtag and within 2 minutes she had started following me on twitter and answered my questions about the reading. I don't even know how she found my hashtag like was she specifically looking for it? It is crazy how much social media can be used to market yourself. Instantly I felt a connection with her and wanted to learn more from her. I was proud of how actively involved she was on helping educators understand her information. I feel like just keeping up with social media could be a full time job. I am wondering if she is on spring break as well or she is having her students run her Twitter account. I doubt the students are running her personal account tho.

I want to be more involved with the coffee community around the world on social media. I feel like I do a good job with my local customer base posting pictures and updates but not the greater population of answering peoples coffee or business questions. I feel like it would be a good way for me to give back.

Book Circle #Amplify

I read this book just in time for my Service Learning project. I used a lot of ideas out of it for my Service Learning.
This book is pretty user friendly but it doesn't seem to be based around much data. I am wondering how their students do academically and if they are noticing a huge academic difference benefit?

A lot of their practices are on students helping each other. I keep trying this in my class but my students are so intoned to what they are doing it is hard for them to stop and help their neighbor get logged in I started to feel guilty always relying on my students to help so I try to fix most technology issues myself. I think I need to do what they did and have a discussion about how there is only one teacher so they need to help each other.

I love following the author's twitter accounts they have some really need stuff. I stole some of it for my classroom :).

I noticed their kids have ear buds for headphones I am wondering if each student has their own set and how they store them? I am debating if I should go that route. My students break headphones weekly.

iPad vs. Kindle Fire

I have been working really hard in getting more technology resources in my 2nd grade classroom for my students and I to explore and grow with. I posted a donors choose and received my first iPad. Then I received two Kindle Fires for my classroom. The Kindle Fires cost $50 each and the iPad mini cost $250 each so for the price of one iPad I could have 5 Kindle Fires. I kind of regretted getting the iPad instead of 5 Kindle Fires once I realized the Kindle Fire has pretty much every app I will be using them for besides iMovie. I will be using chatterbox, QR codes, Star Fall, and Sushi Monster. If I find any more beneficial apps for my students I will access their value and possibly add those as well. So all of you iPad lovers out there I want to know why people spend so much more money to get the iPad? Is there some big benefit I am not seeing correctly? Before I get more Kindle Fires I want to make sure I am not missing a bigger picture with the iPad.

Additionally, if you are an educator and you use your iPad or Kindle Fire for beneficial activities with your students please feel free to share them I am looking for engaging, creative, beneficial ways to incorporate them into the classroom more regularly.

Thank you
#beduc566 #kindlefire #teched