Ode to My College-aged Daughter

It can't be that time.
I'm not ready yet.
I thought the years
Would pass slower than that.

It seems I just held you
In my arms the first time.
Beaming with joy
And a tear in my eye.

Now you've grown into
The fine young woman you are.
I certainly couldn't be
More prouder by far.

In the blink of an eye
Those years have passed.
Cherished memories now
That will always last.

It's hard to let go
And watch you take flight
On a path all your own
On this journey called life.

Godspeed
God bless
Love you lots
& P.S. --- text your mom!

Testing Out Apps for School

I am in the process of trying to find high quality apps for school that are useful yet inexpensive. I'm going to post a little review of each app and a sample product if possible/applicable.

TypeDrawing ($2.99): This app lets you draw with words. You can type in your own words or use symbols from a menu. You can change font colors and font, or you can make them random. You can adjust the size of the font manually or you can set the size to be determined by drawing speed. I like that you can import a photo and draw over it and then make the photo transparent, so you don't see that it was ever there. That's what I did for this sample self-portrait...

Wordfoto ($1.99): This app lets you upload a photo and then recreate it using words. You can choose from a preselected list of words or you can enter in words of your own choosing. Here's a sample...

Colorsplash ($1.99): This app lets you upload a photo which is then changed to black and white. Then you get to paint the color back into just the parts that you want colorful. Here's a sample:

Halftone ($0.99): This app lets you upload a photo and turn it into a comic/cartoon type photo. Here's a couple of samples:

Handfont ($3.99): This app lets you write on the screen to set up a font with your very own handwriting. Here's a sample:

If you have suggestions for other free or inexpensive Apps, please leave a comment to tell me about it. Thanks!

A New Venture Into Mobile Learning

I'm in the middle of a new venture at school. We are the proud new owners of an iPad cart with 30 iPads for students to use. It has been a process setting them up. Before beginning the process of setting up the iPads, I did some research online and came across some helpful resources including: iPad deployment: Backup/restore deployment strategy and steps and http://help.apple.com/configurator/mac/1.0/.

Here are some things that I have learned are important.

1. Set up an email account dedicated to the maintenance of the iPads. You will need this to create an Apple ID to sync the ipads with iTunes. 
2. Set up an email account dedicated to the maintenance of the volume purchase plan if you intend to purchase apps from the iTunes store. In order to apply to purchase apps through the volume purchase plan, you'll need this email address to create yet another Apple ID.
3. Download Configurator on an Apple machine that can be dedicated to syncing the iPads. This doesn't mean that the machine can't be used for other purposes.
4. Wait to label each iPad/iPad case until AFTER you set them up initially. When syncing the first time, the iPads are NOT numbered according to the slot they are in on the cart. I didn't know this until after I had already labeled each iPad and wrote the corresponding number on the case. This meant that, after the initial setup, I had to take all of the covers off, put them on the correct iPad, and put them back in numerical order.

I'm sure there are other things that I will be learning as I keep working through this process. I'll update this post with other tips and ideas that seem important as I come across them.

Communication 101

***Here is my entry for the 100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups, Week 56. If you want to know more about this visit Julia's Place.***

I was foolishly underthe impression that there are some basic fundamentals of good communication. Ifyou wish to get your message across, you must simply follow these steps:

Use eye contact.

Be direct and to thepoint.

Speak clearly.

Being clear is essentialto good communication.

Ha! No one told me thesebasic fundamentals don’t apply to communication with a spouse or a teenager. Nomatter how clear my thoughts seems to me, the messages leaving my lips getcompletely jumbled up before they reach the ears of the intended recipient. Isthere a Communication (with family members) 101 course? Sign me up!

Summer Camp

The campers sat together. The flames, casting eery shadows, jumped and crackled in the breeze. All of them were on edge after the terrible news they had received. Every little noise caused their hearts to race. Tracy was really missing. Everyone thought she had gone to her cabin to be alone, but when she didn't show up for dinner they began to worry. There was no sign of her anywhere around camp. She was the fifth camper to go missing in just over a week. The campers looked around the fire at each other wondering who would be next.

Relief at Long Last

One look around the neighborhood was all it took to see the toll high temperatures and lack of rain had taken on the landscape. Despite best efforts, the lush green grass had become dry and brittle. Beautiful gardens dried up. So when the first rumble was heard in the distance, people started to emerge from their air-conditioned sanctuaries to witness the first drops of rain in weeks. The drops quickly turned into sheets of rain. Puddles began to form and in the blink of an eye the rain turned the road into a river. Young and old alike danced in the rain and squealed with delight. Relief!

This is my second attempt at the 100 word challenge for grown-ups. If you'd like to give it a try, check it out here...100WCGU.

Unfortunate Timing

Prince William was missing his wife terribly. He hated it when they were apart for any length of time and decided to give her a call to see what she was doing. As he dialed her number, he flipped on the television to see how Murray was doing at Wimbledon. He was horrified to see that Murray was just about to serve for the championship when a cell phone rang loudly in the crowd causing him to fault. He was even more horrified to see the camera pan over to the Royal Box where everyone was watching as Katherine tried frantically to silence her phone.

Creative Writing Fun

If you are looking for a way to get your students excited about creative writing, you should check out the 100 Word Challenge (for older students--grade 4 and up) or the 5 sentence challenge (grade 3 and under). Both of these projects were started by Julia Skinner, a former Headteacher of a primary school in England. How does it work? Students find out what the weekly prompt is and then write in their blog either 100 words in response or 5 sentences depending upon their age and ability. The great part is that students get feedback on their writing through comments on their blog post from other students and teachers around the world. Some students are also chosen to be featured in the showcase the next week.Another great aspect of these projects is that your students will also be able to read the work of other students and comment on it. I found this was a bit challenging for some of my students. They wanted to just write generic statements that didn't really offer any useful information. It took some practice to learn how to write good, useful comments.I also think that not only does the 100 Word Challenge and the 5 Sentence Challenge give all students a chance to practice their creative writing, it gives those students who already have a passion for writing a forum to shine.I give the 100WC and the 5SC two thumbs up and a 5 star rating. Check it out for yourself!

PowerPoint - Just One Tool in the Toolbox

Five years ago, I was teaching students all the ins and outs of creating a PowerPoint presentation. We talked about how to use a PowerPoint as a visual aid without having it take over the show. We also talked in great detail about how much text should go on a slide. Much of what they learned seemed to be a bit pointless at the time because they rarely got a chance to use it outside of the Computer Lab. Over the last five years, the students have become PowerPoint experts. They can almost create a slideshow with their eyes closed and their hands tied behind their back!

Five years ago, many of the teachers these same students worked with had little experience with or knowledge of PowerPoint yet and didn't include it in their lessons very often. It took these teachers some time to learn more about the program and to become comfortable with its use. I am noticing that now these teachers are using PowerPoint a lot. It has become their tool of choice. Ironically, the students they are using these PowerPoints with now are already at the "been there, done that" stage. They are ready to move on and add some new tools to their toolbox. The challenge is going to be moving the teachers forward along with the students.

PowerPoint is a great piece of software and has its pros and cons. It can be an effective tool if used correctly and if not over-used. There are so many other tools out there that students could be using to create a final project or to display their knowledge of a particular topic. The number of tools grows every day. It isn't going to be possible for me to teach the ins and outs of all these different sites and programs. My goal at this point is to teach students how to analyze a website, how to problem solve, and how to teach themselves to use new sites and programs. Many students already do these things: i.e. when they are trying to figure out how to play a new video game or how to use the latest social networking website. It's second nature to them. It's not second nature for a large number of teachers.

It may require teachers to get outside their comfort zone, but I think it is crucial that we all start adding some new tools to our toolbox. Teachers often think they need to be an expert at something before they feel comfortable asking students to try it. We've got to see that as an outdated way of thinking. We can share all that we know about our area of expertise (math, science, social studies, reading, etc...) and then give students the option to show you what they've learned about that topic using whatever tool works best for them. Provide the class with the list of things on which you will be assessing them, and then give them the freedom to choose a way of demonstrating those things.

Students, because they have become experts at creating PowerPoints, may need to be nudged out of their comfort zone as well. Perhaps on some assessments, students will have to be told that they need to use a new tool - something other than PowerPoint. It might be helpful to talk with students about some of the different tools available and how they can be used in different subject areas. Create signs to post around the room as a reference.

The benefits of this approach are two-fold. The students will take more ownership of their learning if they are given some choice in how they can present it. The teacher and the rest of the class will have a variety of projects to see/listen to instead of sitting through 30 PowerPoints all on the same exact topic which can be a bit boring!

How many tools do you have in your toolbox?

Get Your Head in the Cloud...

...or at least get your bookmarks, documents, photos, videos, and so on... in the Cloud. It was the BEST thing I did starting back in 2005 when I signed up for a Delicious account. (I won't be telling my fellow tech gurus anything new in this post, but I hope to share some useful information here with those who are just starting to explore the potential that the web holds.)

What is "the Cloud", you ask? The phrase refers to resources and applications that are Internet-based and are accessible from basically any device that can go online. So, putting your bookmarks, documents, videos and such in the Cloud means that you have stored them in a place that allows you to gain access to them from any computer or other device that has Internet access.

Saving things online is simple, gives you flexibility, helps with organization, and can even provide opportunities for collaboration.

SIMPLE - Getting started is as simple as finding a site that meets your needs and signing up for an account. Many sites offer free accounts which sometimes offer limited options. Once you have an account, you can begin uploading items to it. This is also usually a very simple process. If you know how to download pictures from your digital camera or how to add an attachment to an email, you should be able to figure out how to upload items to the Cloud.

FLEXIBLE - Having your items in the Cloud offers you the flexibility of going almost anywhere and still having access to them. When you get to work and realize that you've left your removable drive at home, you don't have to worry if you have everything saved online too.

ORGANIZED - Many of the storage sites also let you tag your resources. Tagging provides a way of organizing similar to a database. When you are searching for a particular topic, you can search through your resources by the tags you've created. For example, I have tagged all of my online bookmarks by grade level and by subject among other things. If I am looking for a third grade math site, I just have to select those tags.

COLLABORATION - Once you have your resources in the Cloud, you are sometimes able to grant others access to them so that you can collaborate. Several people can be working simultaneously on a document, slide show, or spreadsheet and don't even have to be in the same room, same city, or even the same continent for that matter! Check out this Google Doc for an example. Add a "Hello" while you're there, so you can see how easy it is to collaborate.

Check some of these sites out:

Some online bookmarking/collection sites are Delicious, Diigo, Reddit, Clipmarks, Digg, Livebinders.

Store your videos online at Vimeo, YouTube, Viddler, Dailymotion.

Places to keep your documents online include GoogleDocs, Dropbox, Box.Net, FilesAnywhere, 4Shared.

Some online photo albums are Photobucket, Shutterfly, Snapfish, Flickr, Picasa.