Who'd a thought.....

Who'd a thought a year ago I would be spending halloween night passing out treats to tricksters AND blogging.  Tonight I've multitasked on various levels via the wonders of wifi.  My grades are done, my facebook is updated, emails are read and/or ignored, comments made, bills paid, and replies sent.  I'm also proud to say I did all of this without eating any of the candy I was passing out...obviously I wasn't passing out chocolate. :-)

Happy Halloween everyone!

Google Docs

I've become a fan of google docs and am promoting it to my kids....in this case I'm referring to my own children, but think that I am doing a dis-service to my classroom students if I don't also share the benefits of this internet-based tool with them.  I have promoted the use of collaborating with my children and peers via google docs recently in two very different scenario.  

Scenario 1: A daughter has to write a science lab report for school.  Using google docs, allows her document to be waiting for her at school if there are a few spare moments to jump on a computer during class, and it doesn't matter if she has the latest version on a flash drive.  We also use google docs so that I can proofread her writings from anywhere...a week ago we collaborated in this way while I was in a Fargo, ND hotel room....we chatted via gmail, collaborated via google docs, and spoke on the cell phone when we needed to discuss something in depth.  It was wonderful.  This afternoon (a Sunday) she just yells up the stairs and tells me things are ready to be reviewed and I open the document between other computer tasks, give my feedback, save & share, and she's back at it.  Very cool!!

Scenario 2: Grant writing.  The Washburn Robotics team is applying for a grant from NASA and I was collaborating on the writing of the grant with the other advisor.  I wrote up my responses in google docs while sitting at a Caribou one Saturday morning and then he could open it at his leisure and add too it.  The only hiccup we had was that google docs did not let him edit our document if he used firefox, but internet explorer and safari seemed fine.  Not sure why that happened....  But, overall I love that we're not constantly wondering who has the latest version or when it was last updated.  Google docs keep track of it for us.

Now, I'm still not comfortable putting ALL of my files on Google docs, but for the times I have, its been great.  Try it, you might like it.  :-)

promethean vs. smart boards

20+ electronic white boards have been installed at Washburn over the past few weeks.  It has been funny to listen to the students talk  about them and compare their features.  Some think the smart board is better because of its tangible eraser and colored pens....others love the promethean board and its stylus.  So far, I like my promethean board.  I like that if my hand drags as I write it doesn't affect the message on the board.  I've played with the handwriting recognition program, and think that it has merit.  I'm still trying to figure out how to use my visualizer/document camera and promethean board simultaneously....I think I have to reconfigure the wiring.  Training next Wednesday should cover this.  

As for my MILI training last Wednesday...(sigh).  By mid-week I was already tired and rushing to make it to Ramsey on time.....I was late (sorry Karen).  It took me a bit to settle into the assignment of checking out advanced google features and de.lic.ious.  I think it will be awhile before I think de.lic.ious is yummy.  :0   

I'm feeling inundated with "new" things to do.  There have been so many meetings (plc, ilt, pbis, mili, site, conferences, robotics, staff development, etc...).  Add to that family commitments, grading for end of quarter, staying late to help kids in my computer lab and the days are a blur.  My year has been great to date....but I could use a little down time.   

Working my way through THING 2

Well, I've read through the blogs of my peers and was discouraged when I saw some are already working on THING 6 & 7.  I spent MEA duty days having a promethean board and software installed in my classroom.  I'm very excited, and can't wait for the formal training on Wednesday afternoon, right before I go to the October MILI meeting.  

As a result of these events I chose to google blog search on promethean boards and found a teacher post that had 11 students raving about the use of this bit of technology in their classroom.  I hope that my students are equally excited as I learn how to incorporate all of the "bells & whistles" into my teaching.  I do admit that I was very excited to see both orthographic and isometric graph paper templates already pre-loaded within its software.  I also like that with a promethean board if your hand drags while you write, it doesn't leave a mark.

I must admit after two long days of grading, grant writing, and working in my classroom I'm a bit tired tonight, but for some reason I find myself typing away on this awesome new Mac laptop, and trying to get caught up on my MILI responsibilities.  :-)

Well, back to the Metronet Wiki to continue my homework for THING 2.

I met Dean Kamen...woo hoo!

Yesterday was a great day!!  I met Dean Kamen founder of F.I.R.S.T. (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) the non-profit organization that is the basis for the Washburn Robotics team, Segway inventor, and innovator of the 21st century.  His energy is contagious when he talks about prepping K-12 students for life in the 21st century and the engineering skill sets they will require to succeed and keep America strong in the marketplace.  My robotics students tell me I'm a nerd.....oh well, it was still a great day!!

Where do the days go?

Where do the days go?  It seems only yesterday it was Monday, and now its Friday night.  I see that I am not alone in choosing this wind down time to post a few comments.  

1. More technology has been added to my classroom.  Today a Promethean board was mounted and should be operational soon.  I'm very excited about this addition to my classroom and the new presentation styles it will open up for me.  I was originally slotted to get a "smart board", but the dimensions would not work and it was thought that the accuracy of the Promethean board would be beneficial to the curriculum I have in engineering classes.  I'm especially excited about the stylus that came with it as it seems a more accurate, pen like tool than those I've seen with the smart boards.

2. Teaching new software to kids...ouch!  Its been a painful two weeks as I work through an Autodesk Revit tutorial with my civil engineering students.  I found myself testing many different strategies to minimize the need for me to work one-on-one with each student when they encountered problems.  I even surveyed them via "survey monkey" to get their feedback on how things were going.  My greatest challenge has been literacy.  The students just don't want to read the step-by-step manual and "do" what it requests.  Some are ELL students, some are below grade level readers, some aren't motivated, some are distracted....I find that most questions can be solved by reading the step aloud to the student, pointing out the details in picture provided, or just asking them to open the book to the page they believe they are on. With the limitation of 55 minute class periods it has been difficult to be available equally to all students.  One strategy that was fairly successful was to engage those students who were completing the tutorial more quickly to become peer mentors for the day.  This allowed us to answer 4 times the number of questions at a time than if I performed this task alone.  I can't wait to get beyond this point in the curriculum so that each of my classes can reflect on the process and determine a better way to do it in the future.    I am happy to report that even with these delays the students seem quite amazed at the houses they are building in the 3-D software.  I think they will really like it when they are building homes of their own design.

3.Blogging.  Unfortunately it seems that Thing 2 is about Thing 50 on my to do list.  I will be traveling to Fargo, ND for a conference on Sunday/Monday/Tuesday and hope to use the wifi connection in my hotel room to catch up on my MILI obligations.

4. Wondering if anyone in the MILI group has gotten one of the clicker  "poll your students" classroom technology devices yet.  I don't know the name of it, but I thought I heard that teachers could get one if they promised to go to the training and use it regularly as a part of their curriculum.  Please let me know if you have any knowledge of this MPS technology offering.  Thanks.