Instruction across 2 schools

Today I could not get back to my base school in time for the 4th period research class. The librarian at the second school was informed and she allowed the students to work in the library. The students knew what was expected and were moving ahead with their projects using Chrome on the library desktops.

When I got a break between assessments in the first school, I jumped into my Google Drive and went to their work. One was working on notes for his project. I gave him some database assistance and asked him to remind the other student to Share his work with me. A moment later, the other student's work appeared in my Share Drive. I made my comments and moved on to other work.

Both students were surprised, but I'll bet money they were pleased they were doing what they should have been since I 'appeared' like magic.

iamaceltic.it

it's in the small details

Today the students began thinking about the presentations for their research. Because they want their displays to be innovative, several all already trying to figure out how to get images and music on their Chrome Books. We are blocked from Youtube so one student is downloading the Stevie Wonder song Superstition to his thumbdrive and will be using the Chrome Book as a speaker.

Images are proving to be a different animal. SketchUp (for planning the display) and Picasa (for editing pictures) seem to be other apps we were led to believe would be part of the Chrome Book purchase, but apparently were not 'part of the basic package'. So, along with EasyBib, Diigo, and Teacher Dashboard....extra money should have been built into the grant. The absence of EasyBib, in particular, became apparent today when two of the students who have taken this course before said she'd rather have been using the index cards all along because now that it's time to write the paper, she cannot sort her notes into the outline (something EasyBib does). We figured she would have to print out her spreadsheet and cut it up to sort.  Going through a multitude of clicks and copy/paste maneuvers just takes too much time.

nickagin.bigcartel.com

Now I know. I should have investigated the apps myself instead of relying on advice so I knew what to include in the grant. Live and learn!

Surveys and Spreadsheets

A couple observations about surveys and spreadsheets that I must share:

First, all my students produce some authentic data to prove or disprove their essential question: interviews, surveys, and experiments. It is the first-hand knowledge that makes the difference between a research project and a retrieval project. There are handouts guiding the procedure for writing a survey, interview, or experiment...and then there's the struggle of interpreting data.

That's the snag with students who want to do surveys. The rule of thumb is more is better, but the tabulating of 'more' drive many students crazy because of the time involved. A student may want to survey 6th, 7th, and 8th graders for information and then be able to see a pattern of change as they get older, but the numbers have be calculated first...and sometimes the calculating becomes too large a hurdle to overcome.

peopleperformancellc.com

With a survey done as a Google Form, the answers drop into a spreadsheet immediately which can then be added, or averaged, or whatever. It makes the statistical end of a survey so much easier!

This only work with people who have Chrome, or will copy and paste the link address into the URL box, but overall it IS thrilling to come back from whatever sports practice here is and get answers!

teacher commentary...

I find I make more pointed, on-the-spot, comments to my students' work with the Chrome Book technology and the Cloud. It seems that jumping in when the time is right is working better than trying to make a blanket lesson for all. Perhaps because it is subtle and private -- I make them on papers and in blogs. It could be because learning is deeper when the information arrives when the need appears, or perhaps it's because the teaching becomes individualized and not intimidating. One student I'm thinking of in particular would not normally ask for help, but eagerly leaves comments for me and takes advice readily.

From this standpoint, the semester is going smoother.

Cloud-y Days

Yesterday, none of the students could access their Drives. They were able to navigate through back doors to their blogs, but only to view them as a guest would who had stumbled on them. They did not do work other than do online searching for information. Unfortunately, many are now at the survey stage, or writing stage. Being able to access their work is important. Although my office is IN the library, most of the research work has been done so being able to make interpretations of survey data and write the research papers is the next step...a step not easily buttressed with manual labor (writing).

feroniaproject.org

We later learned this was a national blip, so it was not our equipment or server. We reviewed a backup plan in case this were to happen again. All students have been told to print out their survey data so they can make interpretations off-line. Research papers are saved on a thumbdrive in addition to the cloud so it can be worked in spite of no Cloud services.

A back-up plan is vital!

Wordle and Java

One of the resources I like to use is Wordle -- a word-cloud generating website that allows students to copy and paste their text into a box and get back a montage of words that sizes each word based on the number of times it was used. It is a visual presentation students can use to check their writing for word over-use.

Unfortunately, our Chrome Books cannot access Wordle because it involves Java Script. The same thing happens with TestNav, the Pearson tests Virginia uses for the SOL assessments. So, Chrome Books will be useless for the end-of-year SOLs.

learning new things everyday

We are learning new things to do with the Chrome Books everyday. Yesterday we learned that Sharing a link to a Form does not guarantee the potential respondents will necessarily be able to open it. They need to be in the FCPS Google domain. Also, traveling into and out of the domain can cause issues.

Today students learned how to screen shoot information to include as a blog post. Along with that is the process for bringing up the keyword short cuts available on Chrome Books. Another reason it would have been nice to have gotten some training beforehand.

Discovery.