Multi Media Text Set

I have been working on the training for Google Certification and came across this pretty cool tool: 

Tammy Heck's Multi Media Text Set
1. The goal with this tool is to let the student go to one area for all of his assignments for the unit. All of them are right on the same page. It is using technology in many different ways.

2. The set-up to get the students to use the assignment would be to have them log on to Google, and then get into Google Classroom.  After that they would have to click on the assignment and start doing their assigned work.

3. The skills that I would expect them to already know are:

• how to access YouTube
• how to read an online article and summarize it
• how to open up a Google Document

4. The skills that I will have to teach them are:

• how to create a Google Form and fill out the answers
• how to send an email properly

5. I will know that the students have learned the assignment when they are finished with the assignment, they are expected to send it to me in the proper email format. Also, I will reply to them and they will reply back to me. The proper way to email.

I think this Multi Media Text Set is a cool and new way to have the student complete their assignment. They are looking for new ways to get their work, instead of on worksheets. I'm going to try this with my 7th graders next year and see how it goes. 

Social Studies Resource: Beyond the Bubble

The Standford History Education Group used the Library of Congress to create over 80 HATs (History Assessments of Thinking) as part of the Library of Congress’s Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Educational Consortium.

Their list of HATs are organized by the following eras:

• 12th-14th Centuries
• 15th-17th Centuries
• 18th Century
• 1800-1864
• 1865-1897
• 1898-1929
• 1930-1945
• 1946-2000

How it works:

Sign up for a free account, they will send you a link to create your password and get started. While  you don't need an account to initially see the assessments. You do need the account to see the benchmarks and the assessment tools. While they share these as PDFs it would be easy to make it into a Google Form (fill out a Mojo to get trainer/coaching help if you aren't sure how to do this)

Best yet, this is just one part of the website. There are 2 additional areas: "Reading Like a Historian" and "Civic Online Reasoning" at a glance these two areas also had some amazing resources on how to use Primary Sources.

As we are modifying our curriculum for the Trimester/6 period day model. This is a great resource that I think anyone teaching primary sources or social studies could benefit from.

Google AI Projects

One thing that I have been super amazed by are Google's AI projects. You can find all of the experiments here. Honestly, I love all things Google. I adore their 80/20 philosophy where you spend 80% of your time on your work and 20% on a passion project. Kind of like when  you give yourself a "cheat" day, you have put in all of this work, now explore something that invigorates you.

There are a ton of resources for those that want to learn how to do it themselves but also you get to see the playground of what has been created.

Here are some of my favorite projects:

1)AutoDraw
How it works: All you have to do is start drawing and it will give you suggestions for what it thinks you want to draw.
Why I like it: I'm no Picasso, but this allows me to quickly draw something other than a stick person.
Why to use it with kids: At any age they can create their own drawing using their device.

The fish to the right is the one that I drew originally, the left is the one suggested.

2)Talk to Books
How it works: Type in any question, then the code will look through Google Books and find quotes that relate to/answer your question.
Why I like it: It allows you to find interesting quotes to jazz up your lessons or writing. From there it may also inspire you to read more of the book.
Why to use it with kids: Since this pulls information from various books, I would really only suggest having students use it if you feel they are mature enough to handle it.

I tried the question "Why is school fun?"

3)QuickDraw
How it works:This one is a game built with machine learning. It will tell you what to draw and then will guess what you are drawing. As stated in it's description, it doesn't always work, but the more you play the better it will get.
Why I like it: It's a quick filler. The kids are amazed, you will be amazed. It makes you think about what you are drawing so that it guesses it quickly.
Why to use it with kids: Some of the things it asks for may be in that grey area of appropriateness. For instance, I've had it ask for a wine bottle before.

AI predicted this to be a TV.

Have you checked this out? What were some of your favorites?

HyperDocs

I learned about HyperDocs at a  TEACH Grant conference called: Developing a Future Ready Classroom. I chose this Web 2.0 tool because I was very impressed with how visually appealing they were and how many HyperDocs were already out there to use. 

I have only used HyperDocs as an instructional tool at this point. I have used a HyperDoc for multiplication facts as a minilesson visual with the students. It was very successful and kids were interested and engaged. 

I would like to further explore HyperDocs and organize them for instructional use by skill, and student use in Google Classroom. 

Google +

Before GIG I have mainly had experience with Facebook. I tried Twitter on and off twice but never stayed with it. Instagram is something I have begun a few months ago but I do not keep up with it as much as I do Facebook. I have joined educational groups on each site but Facebook seems to be the easiest for me to keep up with.



I chose to try Google +. I joined GEGTri-State, Connected Classroom Workshop, Fun Math for Kids, Teachers helping teachers, Technology In The Classroom. I read a great deal of helpful information but did not get any comments to my questions.

Google +

Hello, 
I have been part of Google + for about 5 years, but just added myself to 6 communities:
1. Career and Technical Education
2. Education Quotes & Inspiration
3. Google Apps Educators
4. Teachers Helping Teachers
5. Technology & Innovation in Education
6. WI DPI Business & IT Education / FBLA / WEBIT

I have posted on WI DPI Business & IT Education about my new Computers class and asked for input for the class.
I received an answer from a teacher in Okaloosa schools. He has shared some ideas with me for my new class.

I have commented on many posts about how to help others with their classes or with FBLA. 

One thing that I do enjoy is getting emails about people that need help. I like to respond if I can.

I'm glad that I am connected to these communities. It is a great resource. 

Twitter and PLN

As an avid user of Twitter for the last 6 years, I figured this would integrate well for my PLN. Mostly I use twitter to follow celebrities and all of their drama. I have many other social media accounts that give me access to variety of different educational resources so I wasn't sure what to expect when using Twitter for the same purpose.

I created a new account and began searching for common educational accounts. I actually googled a list because I really didn't know what I was looking for. I tried to follow a variety of people, everyone from authors to news sites that I thought would be relevant. All in all I followed 17 different accounts. I tried to scroll all of their last 10 or so tweets to see if there was anything that sparked my eye, no such luck. I felt like a lot of what I was seeing was information geared toward elementary school teachers, but not much for high school and even less on Science. I tweeted out that I was looking for sources that would help me incorporate data analysis into my classes to help my students prepare for the ACT. I used some of the common hashtags I was seeing in hopes of getting a response or two. Unfortunately, I did not receive any feedback from the Twitterverse. I did search the hashtags #Scichat #APBio #APBiology #Biology #ScienceTeacher. Again, I really came up short. Most of the things under the Bio hashtags were memes or students complaining about it ruining their lives or they were links to new sites. Nothing was really education related. So that was a bummer.

However, I really needed some sources to create these data questions for class, so I went to another social media site, Reddit. Once there, I joined r/Scienceteachers and posted looking for the same information and within 3 hours, I had a link to a website (datanuggets.org) which is a website that takes scientific journal articles and makes them accessible to students. It was literally exactly what I was looking for. Not only that, but it's FREE. So in the future, I think I will keep my twitter account for trashy celebrity gossip and stick to Reddit for educational resources.