Don't Delete Files/Music Making Web-App/Summer Ideas

NO NEED TO DELETE FILES or FOLDERS in GOOGLE DRIVE

This year, students created a lot of work they have saved on Google Drive. Students might like to clean-up their files as the year ends. Please remind them that there is no reason for students to delete or Trash their work. As Google Apps for Education (GAFE) users, students and teachers have unlimited storage in the @unionsd.org domain. This account (along with the username and password) will follow the student until they leave our Union School District. For most students, this will be when they are promoted to high school. 

Many students may enjoy being able to see how they have grown over the years. My daughter was one of those kids. Even now, she'll nostalgically peruse grade school notebooks. You might like to have students consolidate their work into one folder. Here's how to do it:

Remind your students that, while they have primarily used the same Chromebook for the entire year, their account and files are accessible on any device that has an internet connection. All they need to do is go to google.com and sign in.

Returning students will have access to their GAFE accounts over the summer. This means that all those budding authors and movie makers who continue to create over the summer, and will have a place to save it.

Just Plain Fun Music Making

Looking for one last fun online activity for your students? If you still have the SBAC earbuds or have headphones available, you may want to turn your students loose on Incredibox. Incredibox is a music creation website where students drag and drop an icon onto one of "the guys," and mix and mash until they are happy with the sound. While there are a limited number of choices, students will get a sense of how different musical sounds come together to create a piece of music. There are a few additional features found under the Settings gear. One will mute a sound. Why not challenge students to create a musical theme the wraps up their feelings about this year or ask the to create a theme song for their favorite book or story they read this year?

Summer Fun

As you wrap up the school year with one last communication with parents, you might like to let them know about some online resources to keep their students engaged over the summer.

Wonderopolis is a great website that starts with a Wonder of the Day, and offers highly engaging non-fiction reading, videos, and pictures. Students can also browse the topics or search the site for information on questions they have. 

This summer, Camp Wonderopolis will give participants the opportunity to explore STEM-based units through topics like sports, tech, and health. The free online learning camp, which launches on June 15th,  is geared to students in grades 2 through 8. Students will need to pre-register and a parent or guardian e-mail is required to verify participation.

Many elementary teachers have enjoyed using GoNoodle this year in class. Having students take a brain break to get that blood flowing is fun, and, as research shows, helps to refocus students.

Camp GoNoodle will keep students moving this summer. Beginning June 29th, it will offer different activities each week and students can earn badges for participation.

Parents will need to register their students for this free activity. There is a printable letter on the GoNoodle website that makes it easy to let parents know about this great, free summer program. 

Students who like to tinker and build will enjoy participating in Maker Camp. Another free, mostly online, resource for keeping students engaged and busy over the summer. Last year, some San Jose Public Library branches offered meet-ups for students participating in Maker Camp. This year's Maker Camp begins on July 6th, however, local affiliates and hosts have not yet been announced.

There are different themes over the six week camp. Participants watch by Google Hangout and are treated to a new activity each day. This year's first week's theme is Fantasy. Maker Camp is geared toward students middle school and up, parents will need to sign a release for students under the age of 18 to participate.

EduWinners/the amazing USD Educators

Last post of the school year! I can't believe how quickly this year has flown by. 

As I reflect on the year, I am honored to have been able to get to know and work with the incredible and talented educators in the Union School District. 

We began the year with Chromebook carts being pushed into classrooms and introducing most staff and students to Google Apps for Education and the power of web app tools made possible by student access to devices. Thank you for your flexibility in integrating technology into your curriculum and for your dedication to bringing the best pedagogy to increase student engagement and outcomes for your students.

Enjoy your well-earned summer break. I look forward to seeing many of you at the EdTech Innovation Summit on August 14th. Don't forget to register now.

Digital Portfolios for Students in Google Drive/EduWins

I got an e-mail from a teacher early this week. Her student had opened up her Google Drive and documents the teacher had seen in Drive on Friday had disappeared. "What happened to them?" A little of investigation of the Revision History showed that the student, in her zeal to clear out her third grade work, had put the documents in the trash, and then emptied the trash.

While I completely understand wanting to clean out files from time to time, there has long been discussion in educational circles about the value of a digital portfolio. Digital portfolios, unlike paper notebooks, give the student and parents an opportunity to watch the growth of a student's skills through the school year and over the school years. How many of you have enjoyed coming across something you or your child wrote years ago? These gems give such a wonderful glimpse back into what the author was interested in and what might have been happening at the time.

At Alta Vista, fifth grade teachers have included a file of K-5th grade District writing assessments with a student's final elementary school report card. Now, think of including projects and other student created work in a folder that follows them through eighth grade. Students have been assigned a username that begins with the year they will leave middle school. The implication is that they will have access to their work throughout the years. As I have visited third grade classes over the past month, students have created a 2014-15 folder to store their work in. My hope is that they will keep file of their best work, kind of like a learning diary.

Lucky for us, Google Drive not only stores files created in Google, it is also a great depository for photos students take as part of a project, or photos of student art work. Videos, audio files, PDFs, MS Office documents - these are just a few of the kinds of files a student can store in Google Drive. Some apps even give you the opportunity to upload directly to Google Drive.

And this week, Google announced virtually unlimited storage for Google Apps for Education accounts coming this fall. Teaching a student to organize their files gives them a valuable skill. Helping them to appreciate where they've come from and how far is also a great gift. My hope is that with storing learning in Google Drive, that your students will have both.

EduWin
This week's EduWin goes to all the teachers who have helped make the MacBook Air distribution go so smoothy. A big thank you from the Tech Department to all of you who have used the Welcome to MacBook Air website and been able to do things you didn't realize you could. I love getting e-mails from teachers who are so excited that they have figured out how to (for example) connect their printer. Well done!

A second EduWin has come to USD middle schools in the form of an article about Project Lead the Way which appeared in this week's news. Read it here. 

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.

Get it Done Faster/Lisa Mata's EduWin

Whenever I'm working in Google Drive, there are a few actions I do over and over again. Luckily, there are a few shortcuts that I have learned over the years that help make me more efficient. While I love shortcuts, there are a lot of them. So many, that I can't possibly remember them all. But over the years, I have a few that I have come to make so much a part of my work flow, that they come automatically. I thought I'd share of few of them with you. And once you are comfortable with them, you can share them with your students.

You'll start most shortcuts by first, highlighting the text you would like to perform the task on. When pasting, place your cursor where you would like the pasted text or image to appear.

Action	On your Mac	On your Chromebook
Copy	command + c	ctrl + c
Paste	command + v	ctrl + v
Select All	command + a	ctrl + a
Undo	command + z	ctrl + z
Print	command + p	ctrl + p
Find on a Page	command + f	ctrl + f
Cut Link	command + x command + k	ctrl + x ctrl + k

Many of these actions can also be accessed by right clicking. To right click, on a Mac, hold down the control key and  the mouse/mouse pad. To right click on a Chromebook, press the alt key and click the mouse.

A full list of Keyboard shortcuts can be found in the drop down menu under Help.

This Week's EduWin

Formative assessment can take many forms. In Lisa Mata's class, one of the tools she uses is Kahoot! a game-based response system that can be accessed from the web. Lisa is a Tech 1, with a full set of Chromebooks. I have also seen Kahoot used with just a few devices and shared in groups, with students taking turns responding.

Kahoot! awards points based on the correct answer and the speed with which the answer was entered. The leading scorers are shown at the end of each question, and the player gets personalized feedback informing them of their standing.

In some classes, students may not want their scores to be public. That is why Lisa allows students to make up a user name when they sign into her Kahoot!. This way, individual students are able to remain anonymous while playing but still get their personal feedback.

Lisa recently used Kahoot! to review the unit on California regions that students had just finished. It can be found at http://goo.gl/TC1z3W  (only available if you are signed in). 

Here's one I made just for fun. You should be able to take it for a test drive in single player mode. You will, however, need to open up two screens, one that will show you teacher /presenter mode, and the other for student/participant mode.

Kahoot! is free. It is simple to create a quiz, and you can add pictures and video to the questions. Students quickly sign in using a "game pin," no sign ups or accounts are needed. The data you receive can help you tailor your lessons to target those areas your students need more instruction in. 

Be warned, this is not a quiet class activity. The excitement Kahoot! generates will convince you the students are engaged and having fun, while reinforcing content.

Watch this video tutorial to learn about how to set up Kahoot! to use in your class.

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.