Week+of+April+20,+2009

toc =Interesting Web Sites= [|Similar Images] : Everyone Searches for pictures on the Internet, but often it's hard to find the right picture and you sometimes get hits on things don't make sense. Similar Pictures is a Google tool that lets you find pictures you need. Go to the site, type in your search, and then you'll notice a link, "similar pictures." This will narrow down your search dramatically with useful pictures.

[|Google Timeline] : A great tool for research. Type in a topic, add a date, and links to primary sources show up. For example:

[|FairSpin] : FairSpin is a site that aggregates current news stories and then posts them under headings of pro-right, neutral, or pro-left. As a reader, you can also vote on whether you think the story has a bias. Great way to teach bias and have students find neutral stories.

=Teaching Tips= Today, more than ever, it's important for students to have access to online videos they can use in creating work. I created this list to help students find sites they can use for their projects that aren't blocked in school. Here is the list, it gives the name of the site, the URL, the types of videos on the site, whether students can embed the videos in a website or not, whether they can share the site, and if it requires a password.

media type="custom" key="3694639"

=Student Work= Pam Galloway had her students read Oedipus Rex recently and to grasp the main idea of the story they created "tableauxs" which are still pictures of a particular scene of the story. They then uploaded their pictures to Voicethread and narrated the scene with lines from the play.

Here's an example: media type="custom" key="3694109"

We used Voicethread because it was the easiest program available that would allow the students to upload pictures, narrate the picture, and allow everyone to view it.

Discovered these from an English class, but this would work in any class: [] [] []
 * Non-HHS Student Work**

Here, each student creates a personal philosophy, and then uses that philosophy to analyze books they've read for English class. I can see students in a Social Studies class comparing their personal philosophy to events in history, Science students can compare their personal philosophy to the application of science in our society. It's endless and engaging.

=General Notes= The New Laptop Lamont Bagby just replied to me on his Facebook page that we're going with Dell again for the next 4 years. I believe it's the Latitude, but there are about 12 different Latitudes, so I'm not sure of the exact one. As I learn more, I'll give more information. I'm not sure when we'll see them in our hands.

Staff Development for 2009-2010 The general idea behind next year's Staff Development is to increase the effective use of technology in our instruction. I'm still working out the exact plan, but basically the staff development will take place in study groups and on Staff Development days. The focus will be on 3 instructional outcomes in your classroom, and then investigate the technology tools to reach that goal. Some goal ideas currently: student created work, quality questioning, collaboration, published work, problem solving, sharing.

=School Space= With SOLs looming, there are plenty of opportunities to tutor students to help them pass this test. However, this doesn't have to be at school. In School Space, you can create **Live Office Hours** or just a regular **Chat Room** to discuss or review SOL material. The best part is that you can save the chat so others can read it later. Under the Communicate Tab, you should have a nugget called, **Live Chat**. From there, you can set up your chat room time and set it up for recording http://www.wikispaces.com/_/2009041501/i/c.gifthe chat. See me if you need help setting it up.

=Reminders=
 * ePats** is a testing tool students can use on their laptops which will simulate the SOL test. Please have your students use this tool for practice. It can be found @ Start>HCPS Software>NCS Pearson>ePat Launcher>Choose the Test.


 * Exam View:** If you have a student who cannot find the X:Drive when trying to take your test, first make sure they are clicking on the Black and White Icon for Exam View. I've had many students come to me because they cannot take the test only for me to tell them to click on the different icon.  So save everyone some time, and check that first. If they can find your folder in the X:/Drive but cannot get into the test, make sure their name is written correctly in your Exam View Manager.  If it is, make sure they are logging in correctly, that is, on the log in screen, where it asks for their name, they write their real name, NOT the hcps-name.  The hcps-name goes in the ID box.  Then they find the test and last, type in the password.


 * Another Exam View Warning:** Many teachers are finding that they getting zeros when importing Exam View grades instead of real grades.  There's no reason for this and no way to fix it.  All I can do is offer two ways to make the situation better.  1) Make sure all your students are recording their answers on a separate sheet of paper.  2) Only import scores when everyone is done.  That seems to work better.  If you have access to a scanner, you can print scan sheets from Exam View, have every student take their test on the scanned sheet, and then you can scan in everyone's grade.  You get the data and no laptop troubles.