Self-Paced Google Skills Training/C-SPAN Classroom/YouTube Privacy Settings/More PD Opportunities

After the Future Ready Learning Summit, you may be ready to venture further into Google Tools. One way to hone your skills is by using the Synergyse Training modules available for the following tools:

• Calendar
  
• Classroom
• Drive
• Docs
• Sheets
• Slides
• Forms
• Gmail
• Google Plus
• Sites

The Synergize Training for Google Apps is available to students too! From any of the tools listed above, all you and your students need to do it click on the Training icon, and accept their Permission to view your @unionsd.org email address since this is a paid app available through USD.  While the training icon should be found on each of the apps, however, if it is missing, more information on launching the app can be found here.

Once Synergyse Training is launched, it can be used as a complete tutorial, following each lesson in order, which takes you deeper into the app as you go through the lessons, or you can scan the topics and get information on a feature you are interested in.  As we all know, Google pushes out updates without warning. Synergyse is committed to keeping their content current, updating their tutorials within 14 days of any Google revisions.

The lessons are short and focused. They include audio, so provide your students with headphones/earbuds if they are going to do a lesson, and guide you to click around the screen. One down side if you are using it with students, there are no review questions at the end, but if you get to the end of a module and need review, you can always go back and repeat a session.

Building confidence and expertise in your classroom has only up sides, so we encourage you to use Synergyse in your classroom. Have a "power user" student who is looking for the next thing to do? Make him/her the tool expert. Have them go through the module, and then share a tip or trick to their classmates. 

C-SPAN Classroom

Created as a primary source resource for Middle and High School Social Studies teachers, C-SPAN Classroom provides a wealth of resources on historical as well as current issues. Each topic includes a brief summary, an introduction to key vocabulary, and a video. There are questions that can be used to begin class discussions on a topic. The Bell Ringers are designed to be used at the start of the day, or as as fill-ins.


Classroom Deliberations has video clips and newspaper articles that will help engage your students in debates about current issues.

While some information, including "On This Day in History," is available to members only, the website is free. Endorsed by the National Council for the Social Studies, the site is actively maintained by teachers in the field, making this a great website for both Social Studies and Language Arts teachers (think opinion writing) to check out.

Privacy Settings on YouTube

With the end of the school year and Open House on the horizon, you may be thinking of creating and sharing video with parents. An easy way to share video is through YouTube. Video you upload to YouTube has a default share setting of Public, and making a video Unlisted or Private is easy. An Unlisted video can be viewed by anyone with the URL, while you will need to invite (using an e-mail address) specific viewers to a Private video. Viewers are then required to sign in to view. Here is a video that show you how to do it:

EduWin

I think we can all agree that this week's EduWin should go to Andrew, Ingrid, the IT Crew, and UDEA for planning the wonderful staff development day on Friday, April 3rd. The speakers were amazing, the internet worked, and the food and end-of-day give-aways were an added treat. Let's keep the #learnusd Twitter hashtag going. Please use it when tweeting some awesome thing you and your students are doing.

There are  two PD events planned for UMS. The first one is the EdCamp on April 25th. There are nearly 250 participants signed up for this free event. You can still register here. The second event is planned for August 14th. This event is being offered in conjunction with SCCOE and educators from around the county will be in attendance. Keep your eye open for registration, since there will be a limited number of spots open to USD teachers.

If you or one of your colleagues is doing something in your class that uses edtech tools, please let me know. I'd love to share it with other teachers.

Images, Chromebooks, and Google Drive/EduWin for Megan Mullaly/EdCamp coming to UMS

Images, Chromebooks, and Google Drive

A change has just been made to your students' Chromebooks. Now, when they go to download an image or a file, it will automatically be saved to their Google Drive. This will help students manage the limited amount of storage available on their devices, and provide a easy way for your students to manage their resources when they are doing research on a large project.

Students should first, set up folders in their Google Drive account where they would like to file their resources. For this example, I created a folder called Abraham Lincoln Project. Now, I'm going to use Google Image Search as an example. After doing an image search, and filtering images by license, choose the image by clicking on it. Select View image. This will open the page in a separate window. I want to cite the image, so I copy the URL for the image. Then, right click (alt + click the mouse pad) to open a menu of choices. Choose to Save image as...



In the window that opens, choose the folder. Find as a sub-folder of My Drive. On the bottom of the page, give it a name in File Name. Then click on Save.

While the image is downloaded, it will automatically be saved to the chosen folder in Google Drive. Go to Google Drive, open the folder, and find the image. If you want to keep the citation, open the image, and find the information icon (circle icon in the upper right with an "i"). Open it, and choose to edit the description. Here is where to paste the URL for the photo.

When it is time to use the photo, choose to Insert image from My Drive. Open the folder, choose the file and Select. When it is time to create the bibliography, open the information on the photo and there it is.




Have you noticed the new Photo Search bar in the right hand corner of the blog? Photos for Class is a site that students can use to find photo images. All images have been passed through Flick's safe search filter so you shouldn't have to worry about even the youngest students finding something you'd rather they didn't. All photos are Creative Commons licensed for school use and come with an automatic citation when the image is downloaded. Note: while images can be automatically saved to Google Drive, (pretty much) following the steps above, the citation is only included on Downloaded images.

Use Photos for Class to search for a photo. Choose a photo and select Download. If students want to use the photo immediately, they will go to their Doc or Presentation and choose Insert, Image, Upload, Choose Image to Upload. When the window opens, open the Downloads folder. Choose the image and Open.

You'll notice the black text bar at the bottom of the photo. It cites all the required attributions.

Downloaded images and text, as well as photos and screencasts sent to storage on Chromebooks can easily be stored in Google Drive.

First, open your Google Chrome menu (hot dogs) in the upper right hand corner. Scroll down to Downloads and click. When Downloads opens, go to the upper right hand corner of the window and choose Open downloads folder.

When you open the Downloads folder, you will see your Google Drive on the left. Open My Drive and find the subfolder you want to store the downloads in. Click on a file in Downloads. A tiny screen shot will open at the bottom. When you have identified it, click and drag it into the folder. When you return to your folder in Google Drive, your file will be there.

When it is time to remove the download from your Chromebook, Remove from list.

EduWin Megan Mullaly/Zaption

Kids love to watch videos, but how can you tell if they are actively watching and learning from the screen time they're spending? Zaption is great tool you can use to assess this. With Zaption, you can create a "video tour" using YouTube, Vimeo, National Geographic, PBS, and other video sources on the web. You'll be able to embed questions along the way, then have access to great analytics to see how students responded, and how long they spent watching the video.

Zaption is one of Megan Mullay's favorite tools, "I've used it mainly with the whole group to re-teach or to introduce a lesson. Most recently I found a great TedEd video about the over-use of the words "good" and "bad" and I used Zaption to make it more interactive. The kids LOVED it--it took the video much farther. I posted it on my website and the kids have gone back to it on their own :)  For those who flip, it is the perfect tool.

Megan has passesd along a 2 month pro code for anyone in the District (activate by 3/25) for Zaption:​  https://www.zaption.com/reg/unionsd 

Here is a link to short presentation to familiarize you with one of her favorite tools. And a Zaption YouTube video below. Thanks, Megan, for sharing this wonderful tool.

If you or one of your colleagues are doing something in your class that uses edtech tools, please let me know. I'd love to share it with other teachers.

EdCamp San Jose

After jumping into the pool of edtech, you may find that, even with all the amazing PD offered at and through USD, you are ready to step outside the District and meet other local educators who are equally passionate about bringing lessons and tools to their classroom that integrate into their curricular lessons.

EdCamp is a concept developed by teachers as an "unconference" for educators. There is no cost and no pre-planned agenda. Since its inception in 2010, the movement has grown world-wide, and now one is coming to Union Middle School on Saturday, April 25th.

An EdCamp is unlike any other PD Day you may have attended. Organizers get a space with internet and morning coffee donated. Participants sign up and then show up. They write topics they are interested in discussing with other educators on a sticky note and post them to a board. Other participants can +1 a post. Organizers then group interests together and create a schedule for the day. Participants show up to a session, join in the discussion, hang-back and listen, or "vote with their feet" and find another discussion that more suits their interests.

While Todd, the UMS principal, Andrew, the guy making sure we all have internet, and I are on the planning committee, this is not a UMS sponsored event. Teachers from all over the area who are faithful followers of EdCamps have already begun to sign up. If you are interested, hop on the EventBrite website and reserve your space asap. Registration is being capped, and we are approaching capacity! Follow us on Twitter or check out the Google Site for the day (still in progress of being built).

Hope to see you there!

Next Week: The Hour of Code/EduWin for Regina Smith/EdCamp SJ

Don't miss having your students spend a fun hour learning the basics of coding next week. It is super easy to sign up and you don't need to know the first thing about coding or programming to get your kids involved. Just this week, I was in Regina Smith's Third Grade class at Oster, helping her to enroll her students.

Regina had gone to http://learn.code.org/ , clicked the Teacher Sign Up button and then signed up using her Google Account, using her @unionsd.org email address. By signing up, her class was added to the list of over 33,500 events, and Oster was put on the map!

Here, I've signed up for a class just to show you how easy it is.

When you get to the Teacher Home Page, choose Student Accounts and Progress. It's the choice in the upper left-hand corner.

Name your class, choose to have your students use an email to log in. Don't worry, elementary school teachers, what they are looking for is the format. Since your students already know their Google account log-ins, it'll be easy for them to remember.

Choose your grade, and pick the course. I chose "Hour of Code" because it starts off fairly easy and takes students through a number of progressively more difficult lessons. It is a great differentiating activity.

Once you do press Save, you'll get a Section Code. Your students will use this code to sign into your class.

Your students will also start at the http://learn.code.org/ webpage, but they will choose Student Sign Up. They will be required to enter a name, e-mail address, password, and age. I created a student with only my daughter's first name and a fake e-mail address and was successful in creating an account.





Once signed up, your students click Sign Up, and are taken to the Welcome page, they will need to scroll to the bottom of the page to Add a Teacher. Here, they will add the Section Code for your class. As students click on Add teacher, you'll see the number students increase. Students will then be able to start the activities, and you'll be able to watch their progress.

UPDATE for USD teachers: Trent has added it and it makes it really easy for your students to sign in. When the students click on Hour of Code, their name and Google account name will automatically populate. Students will need to enter an age to sign up. That will take them to the Hour of Code. They will still need to scroll down to "Add a teacher."

Next time they go to Hour of Code from the Symbaloo page, it will automatically sign them in and take them to the page where they can get started! Couldn't get much easier than that!

Thank you, Kathy, for suggesting it, and Trent, for putting it all in place.

Regina's class just dug right in, even before we were able to walk them through the directions. In fact, when one boy was having difficulty getting started, we just asked for a volunteer to explain what to do and 3/4s of the hands went up.

Here's a video you might like to show your students to help them understand what to do:

While the event is called "Hour of Code," students can sign in whenever and from wherever they like, and there are other activities they can try.

We hope you'll give Hour of Code a try. We can see by the map that someone from most of our schools has signed up. If you are one of those teachers, let us know. We'll throw everyone's name into a hat and choose one for a (small) appreciation prize.

If you'd like to have more information about The Hour of Code, you can find it here.

EdCamp SJ

Ever go to a Professional Development Conference and wish you had more control over the sessions offered? If so. EdCamp is for you.

EdCamps started about three years ago, and have been spreading all over the world. It is a free event where teachers suggest topics they'd like to talk about and learn more about. The event organizers then group topics together and create an agenda. The sessions are assigned a room and time, and the participants are off. 

When you enter the room, there is no presenter, just a bunch of "like-minded" and "like-interested" educators willing to contribute to rich conversation, or just listen and learn.

EdCamp is coming to San Jose, and will be hosted at Union Middle School on April 25th. While April might seem like a long way off, people are already signing up, so you might want to check your calendar and consider reserving your spot on EventBrite.