Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Live Healthy Iowa and Grammar in a 7th grade Classroom

activity cards
Students waiting their turns

It may seem like an impossible challenge to combine Chromebooks, grammar, and exercise, but that is exactly what Beth Fiordelise's 7th graders did today!  It was a grammar relay race in the student center.

Four teams sent one student to the lunch table with a slip of paper. On the paper was a question correlating to a Google questionnaire on the Chromebook. The student answered the quiz question and picked up an activity card.  Each card listed a different active way to return to their group or an exercise       to be completed before returning.  

Based on the both the quiz answers and the activity level in the Student Center - I would say it was a great success. 


Special thanks to Learning Center teacher Wendy Berry, for the idea and the ground work.

Mrs. Fiordelise explaining

all the tools needed - cards, Chromebook and textbook
hard at work





Monday, January 26, 2015

Connection Tools

I am always looking for new ways to connect device to one another.

Here are a two that connect you iPad to your computer for different reasons.

Chrome Remote Desktop

I introduced to a simple tool to connect your iPad to your chrome browser on your computer by Educational Technology and Mobile Learning.  This works great in a classroom setting where you want to move around the room with your iPad, but use the projector capabilities of our laptop or desktop.

In order to make this work there are a couple of preparation steps.

  1. install the Chrome Remote Desktop app on your iPad.
  2. install the Chrome Remote Desktop Google app found in the Google Play store
  3. Once it is installed you will need to launch the app by clicking on the multicolored Apps button in the bookmark bar of Chrome.
  4. Find the Chrome Remote Desktop app and launch it 
  5. Click on "Enable remote connections"
  6. Create a pin you will not forget.
  7. Enable your computer by adding the pin to this window.
  8. Open the Chrome Remote Desktop app on your iPad.
    1. if you have more than one google account you will need to choose the one you want my clicking on the three lines in the top left corner
  9. Click on the computer name on your iPad.
  10. Add the pin that you created and connect.

And here is the desktop of my computer!
From here I can move to different tabs, and do whatever I need to in Chrome.

I love it!










Simple Transfer

This is an iPad app that connects devices.  I wish I could remember where I first heard about this app  - I'd love to give credit. But, sadly I don't remember.
Here is how it works.
  1. Download Simple Transfer from the app store on your iPad.
  2. Open the app on your computer.  
  3. Click on the type of transfer  at the bottom of the screen.
  4. For iPad to computer transfer - open a new tab in your browser - type in the ip address listed on the screen
  5. Check out the limitations listed - 50 photos per album. If you want to transfer more than 50 pics, create another album.
This works so well between devices!  A great tool to have!


Friday, January 9, 2015

New Activities for the New Year!

Over Christmas vacation I was introduced to several new sites that grow student learning in a variety of ways.  These sites were highlighted on one of the Diigo lists I follow - so I didn't discover them...I am just passing them along.

GeoGuesser



What:  Geography game to encourage visual understanding and guessing with students.
How:  The premise is a street view scene somewhere in the world - you have to make a guess where the location is.  There are five rounds in the game.  You are scored on the nearness of the actual point and the amount of time it takes to figure out your location.  The lower the score the better you are at figuring out your place in the world.
Variables:  You can decide if you want the game to be about the whole world or a specific country.  You are able to 'drive' around and look for clues to help decide where you are. Googling the answer is always an option - but it takes time.
Draw Backs:  Some of the photography isn't as sharp as others - so it's really hard to read street signs.  I was smack dab on the right place one time and it said I was FAR away!   So take that into account.
Classroom Use:  This is be a great way to culminate a study of a country.  'Set' the students down in that place and try to figure out where they are.  It is also a great way to really hone observation and google search skills.  Geography is clear, but general knowledge of the world is such an overlooked skill!
Additional Info:  This  is a great blog post on questioning techniques and using GeoGuesser in your classroom
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Physics Toolbox

Matt Miller, in his Ditch That Textbook blog, highlighted a very powerful suite of tools in his January 1st blog post.  
He interviewed Rebecca Vieyra who has created a suite of free tools that can be used on Android devices.  They are all sorts of ___ometers.   Apps have been developed for many of these for Mac OS.

I wanted to include this for a couple of reasons...
  • Vieyra is "now on leave with NASA Aeronautics as an Albert Einstein Fellow teacher." What a great way to introduce your students to scientist teachers using the apps she has created! 
  • these are using the tools that many students have in their pockets 
  • the post includes suggestions for using these tools in the classroom as well as on a field trip
  • I don't know anything about Physics and this is fascinating to me!
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This is a rather unique website that pulls words from popular movies and creates a movie montage of your phrase.
Click here to experience what I am talking about.

Educational uses:  interesting way to kick off a classroom lesson!  
Draw backs:  There is no way to choose the clip image - and some may not be as appropriate as others.  Also, this is not creating a video - so you can only share the link.  To create the video that I shared I used a screen capture program and copied it to the blog.  That is why it is so tiny.



Have fun with these apps!