Boomerang (Google Tip)

If you are anything like me...and I am so sorry if you are...work is really a 24/7 experience.  Great ideas come to me once my kids are in bed sleeping peacefully, dishes are put away, lunches made for the next day,  sports gear stowed and my body (and mind) has time to wind down.

The ballpark is 11pm.

Now...as much as I love to share my brilliant and well-conceived ideas (you're reading this blog, right?), I am not a believer in making everyone 24/7 workers.  Truth be told, people who send emails at midnight or 3am or even 5am about work should really seek therapy...or at least seek a wonderful new trick I found.

Boomerang.

Boomerang is a Google extension that allows you to schedule an email to be sent at a later date and time.  For instance, when I am inspired in the middle of the night with yet another awe-inspiring lesson or idea, I can quickly compose an email, BUT use Boomerang to send it at an appropriate time...say 8am.  If it's a weekend, send it on Monday morning.

This way my wonderful idea is saved and sent but I don't appear to be work-psychotic.  While saved, I can always go back, edit and add to my email.

The Boomerang extension adds a button to your Google Mail composition screen and a folder to your list (left side of screen).

Just a quick tutorial:

Let's Chill and Hangout! (Google Tip)

As a mobile employee--being in 5 different school districts as well as having an office not located at a central location, I learned quickly the value of mobile technologies for communication beyond the simple phone call. One of my favorites is Google Hangouts.

Hangouts is part of Google+, Google Apps and allows for videoconferencing/chatting with up to 10 different people for FREE.  Hangouts opens up a new world of face-to-face contact with groups of people/collaborators.  Think Skype (limited to person to person contact) on steroids.

Additionally, since most school districts are moving to Google Apps in one form or another (including student accounts), Hangouts is included with the package, browser-based--no software downloads necessary, and runs on virtually any browser or platform.  There's even a Chrome app/extension for it!  IPad/IPhone users are also able to "hangout" and Google is putting more effort into their iOS apps even as we speak.

Professionally, I use Hangouts to collaborate and coordinate with my colleagues.  I am not a phone person and prefer email (or blogs!) and face-to-face conversations.  Hangouts suits me needs expertly...FREE, no software needed, multi-platform.  There is also a "share" feature with Hangouts that allows for quick sharing of documents, YouTube videos, links, screen shots, etc...for collaborative efforts.

Two Examples for Personal Experience

1.  I had a grant meeting scheduled for one afternoon.  In the morning, I need to be in-district and after school I was running a seminar in the same district.  The meeting was taking place over Distance Education equipment across the state.  Instead of driving from the district I was in, to my office, then back to my district...about 2.5 hours of driving, I used a Hangout with my tech "buddy", aimed a laptop at the DE TV, adjusted the microphone to the laptop speakers (at the office) and was able to view and converse with everyone else.  I used my Chromebook in district. 

2.  We regularly chat via Hangouts while working on Google docs and sites.  This is really the best of all worlds when it comes to working in a mobile environment.

What Can I Do With Hangouts In School?

The options are limited to your imagination...and I work with a large sampling of creative teachers.

1.  Use a Hangout to connect with students in other parts of the U.S. or world.  Global communications and connections are important.  Hangouts gives an entire new level to "pen pals."

2.  Collaborate with local schools on Science, Social Studies, Math or English projects.  For example, communities surrounding marsh areas can take water samples, air quality data, etc...and share with students in other surrounding communities.  They can compare data, make inferences and possible develop community-based plans to help the environment.

Google with Chat and Sharing

3.  Connect with experts.  If authors can't come to your school (i.e. location or funding), contact the authors via Hangouts.  Most authors, for examples, are more than willing to chat this way.  The same holds true to local business people.  Free, easy connections.

4.  Readers Theater

5.  Student-led conferences (not like parent-teacher) in which students from all over can lend expertise, interest and passion to discussions.

6.  As a teacher, the day before a big test, I would be tempted to offer virtual "office hours".  Connect with students via Hangouts to discuss problems, issues, etc...

7.  Take a class offered somewhere else.  Fancy software is not really needed any more.

8.  So many others.

If you want to test it out, let me know.

FB Post I Like

This is just a Facebook post I like from my absolutely favorite author...

That's why I stick with Chrome.

Cool Google Trick (Tip of the Week)

Google is "big brother"...I understand this to be true.

BUT, at least they can poke fun at themselves...nerd humor.

1.  Search for anagram and check the "Did You Mean" results.  (Image Below)

2.  Search for "find Chuck Norris" and click I'm Feeling Lucky (Image Below)

3.  Search for "Google Gravity" and click I'm Feeling Lucky...this one you just have to do!

"Create"-ivity

The more I become immersed in technology...as if I wasn't already...the more I am understanding the importance and depth of the ability to "create".  I am latching on to this magical word as my mantra when working with classes, teachers and my own children.

It's easy to consume and regurgitate...information, rote skills, memorized facts...but it is not necessarily easy to "create" from what we learn or know.  I am not an artist or painter like my dad is (and he's gifted), but I can create some pretty wonderful things with a computer, an iPad, my Razr Maxx phone and some simple software.  

During my CESA 6 coordinator's meeting yesterday, the "boss" shared this video by DeWitt Jones with us.

Powerful.  Powerful concepts for educators.  Powerful ideas for students.  Powerful motivation for everyone, involving simple skills and ideas:

Fall in love with the world

Bring out your passions

Use your creativity everday to make your life extraordinary

How can we be creative everyday?  How can we encourage our students to be creative everyday?

• Use iPads or iPhones with iMovie and create a video log/documentary of the year
• Blog...my "creative" outlet
• Create digital photostories
• Use ePortfolios in class instead of assignments
• Use what you love, your passion in the classroom
• Let your students design the day's agenda
• Find time, even short periods, to encourage students to follow their interests

Sir Ken Robinson speaks to me in this video and I am curious what you have to say about it.

And then we release them to...what?

Being a librarian by heart, a techno-nut by choice and an information specialist by profession, I look critically at every library I enter.  Can't help it, part of the DNA.  Here's my story... (Law and Order theme song, please)

After "working" this summer for the first time in a long time..."working" meaning attending conferences, giving presentations, networking and all sorts of other things I have not ever been able to do before...I truly appreciate the hard work and effort that you all have put into your own knowledge and practice.  Times, they are a-changing fast, and we need to keep up.  Be proud of yourself.  Pat yourself on the back.  Pat a co-worker on the back in the most non-threatening, non-harassment, anti-bullying, celebratory manner you can.

We work hard to prepare our students for future educational endeavors, the workplace and successful life experiences in a time of rapidly changing...everything.  Huge responsibility in a world of no perfect answers.

Last week, while working in my office at UW-Oshkosh I decided to peruse the stacks at the library looking to see how universities are adapting to the changing needs of our students and society.  The Polk Library, if you haven't been, really is a nice university library.  Doesn't compare to UW-Madison libraries, but not much does.  (Go Badgers!)



My trip through the stacks began in the education section as a teaching profession is wont to do.  (Yes, I just used the word "wont".)  Here's what I found.  The Spurs to Creative Teaching.  Inspired for more creative approaches to my practice, I picked it up.

Being an avid admirer of the work of Ken Robinson, the first chapter starts out promising:

I quickly checked the copyright date and headed back to Chapter 1.  Several pages in, I returned to the copyright...1964.  What?  1964!  I slammed the book back onto the shelf in disgust.  The poor, studying UW students looked at me shushing my tirade like old school marms.  You have got to be kidding me...1964.

I felt let down, like when you eat anise candy thinking it's a rootbeer barrel.  There were more of the same all up and down the shelves.  Mumbling some 3-letter text-pletives and dejected, I returned to the CMC.

To be honest, the Polk is steadily remaking itself by changing how it operates in a digital world...robust wireless, awesome cafe style study areas, coffee IN the library, BYOD, and more digital librarians.  I still find this unacceptable, however.  From speaking with professors and attending classes, it seems to be characteristic of universities, however.

The students we send out into the world are tech-savvy, high-end brokers of information and technology.  The post-secondary education they receive needs to reflect their future needs as workers and professionals...doctors, lawyers, business people...TEACHERS.  Leaders.  

Here's for the "trickle up" theory.  Keep up the great work.

The F&P of Searching (Tip)

I generally take searching online for granted.

• Keyword "strings"... the old-school Boolean
• Google makes life pretty easy on spelling, Boolean operators (+,-), etc...
• Results are fast and ranked reliably

The one consideration I overlook much of the time is reading level.  The question I need to ask myself when working with students on research or searching behavior is "can you read this?"  Are the results, as awesome as I think they might be, understandable to a second grader, fourth grader, even a high school student?

As an example, I search for "evaporation".  The first site listed as a result is the first one listed under almost every search...Wikipedia.

Just skimming the test, I can grasp the idea...my fourth grader (way above average reader, btw) is stifled.

There are certainly some good search engines for kids (listed below), but we can still use my favorite tool...Google...to modify the results with some extra clicks.

Using the advanced search tool, I can limit the results by reading level (basic, intermediate, advanced) and find sites that are much more suitable to the level of my students.  In the case of "evaporation", the first site listed using the "basic reading level" is Chem4Kids.

Amazing difference.

DIY Searching

1. Enter your search term in Google
2. On the results page, click on the "cog" on the right side of the screen.
3. Select "Advanced Search".
4. There are LOTS of options on the advanced search screen.  For reading level, scroll down to "Reading Level" and select what looks appropriate for your students.  Since this is not straight Fountas and Pinnell levels, you might have to experiment.

Search Engines for Kids

• KidRex is a Google search tool for kids.
• YahooKids
• KidsClick, by Kent State University School of Library and Information Science
• Boolify is a fun, visual way to teach Boolean searching to kids.

A HUGE thanks to Marsha Primeau at Oakfield Elementary for this tip.

Googlize Your Newsletter (Tip of the Week)

Funny thing happened on the way to school this morning.  I received an email update from my children's school.

Since they haven't emailed me before, I thought the worst might have happened...school bus accident, fire...something that would involve me rushing to get my kids.

It was the school newsletter.  I read it on my phone.  Thank you!

Using Blogger and about 15 minutes to set up your very own blog, it is possible to create a whole new dynamic for your personal, classroom newsletter that can include pictures/slideshows, videos, attachments, notes and other thoughts.

Blogger is a Google product included with your school district (or personal) Google account.  You can find it along the black bar on top of your Google mail under "More" and then "Even More".

WWIB...Why Would I Blog?

• Posting (adding an entry) takes only as long as it takes you to write the post.
• It's an awesome and timely way to share assignments, send homework reminders, attach worksheets or forms, etc... Here's a sample.
• You can Post multiple times, as events happen...you don't need to do a once a month blog, printed out and put in a students take-home folder.
• Immediate connection with parents through email or RSS feeds (I get feeds sent to my iPad for reading)...MY FAVORITE
• Think of the multimedia power of field trips, school events, etc...when you can add slideshows, actual videos and real-time results.
• If you're adventurous, you can blog on-site.
• Blogging gives you more control than other social media (i.e. Facebook)
• Save trees
• Professionally cathartic

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