Pilkerriffic!Musings, ideas, and juicy links from a DEN STAR and MD LC member…

So, on Wednesdays I usually talk about a website I use, and on Thursdays I discuss tech integration ideas.  So today here’s both:

Microsoft Office has a website with lesson plans on various subjects, from Geography to Phys.Ed!  Since I teach students the Office Suite, these lessons come in very handy.

I check with the classroom teachers to find out what subjects are coming up in the general classroom, and hand-pick lessons from the Microsoft website to go along with those topics.  Why reinvent the wheel when you don’t have to!

I have been wanting to write about this one for a while, but I wanted to take the time to include screenshots, so here we go:

I have found very little information on the internet about file management in computer lab classes.  So here is what I do to keep things organized.  My Lab has 1 teacher workstation, 29 student workstations, and two servers.

One of the servers runs the grading and student record system, and the other one runs the lunch ordering program and holds all the shared student and teacher file storage.

On the file server is where I keep a folder called “Students.”  On every computer in the lab, I mapped a network drive to this folder.  Then I put a link to it on the desktop.

Here are the steps if you have never mapped a drive before-

1. Go to Start-My Computer.  Click Tools-Map Network Drive.

2.  Set the letter you want your drive to be (I chose “S” for Students), then browse through the network list to find your shared drive.  Click “Ok” then “Finish.”

3. Back in the My Computer window, right click the new network drive you just created and click “Create Shortcut.”  It will ask if you want this shortcut on the desktop, click OK.

So now you can access this shared folder from each of your lab computers.  In it, I made a folder for each grade, and then subfolders for each teacher.When I have a file for the students to work on, I place that file in the appropriate folder and then make 29 copies of it (one for every computer in my lab).  Each monitor has a number sticker on it, and the students open the copy number that matches that sticker.  This works especially well for the kindergarteners who don’t have the skills yet to browse the network to find the right place to save their files.  Eventually, throughout the year, I teach the students how to find the “Student Drive” on their own, but this strategy saves me a lot of time and heartache at the beginning of the year.

How do you organize your files?

1. Show them how YOU use it to make your life easier!  Do you have a tech tool that cuts down your prep time, grading time, searching time?  Share it with others!

2.  Share something FUN!  I went geocaching for the first time in my life this summer.  I had so much fun I wanted to go right out and buy my own GPS unit!

3. Focus on the teaching aspect, not the technology.  That is to say- don’t make it all about the technology tools.  Yes, insertcoolwebsitehere.com might be a great website, but what are students going to LEARN by using that site?

4. Take it S..L..O..W… I try to follow the 1-1-1 Rule.  1 new thing, with 1 class (or subject area) for 1 week.  That way you are not overwhelmed.

5. Let the STUDENTS teach!  Assign each student a web 2.0 website and have them demonstrate learning of a subject by creating a project with that site.  Then have them share with the class not just what they learned, but how they created their project.

Here is a great website I just learned about from someone in my PLN - Braingle.It is packed full of brain teasers (great for class warm-ups) logic games and puzzles, trivia, brain exercises, and educational games.I found myself particularly addicted to Hang Glider, a hangman-style game which builds vocabulary skills.I would consider this an appropriate center time activity- fun and educational!

This is a very simple lesson that I tried for the first time this year – the ABC Quilt.  I made a simple table template in Microsoft Word, with 7 columns and 4 rows.  In each of the cells, I typed a letter of the alphabet (or you can have the students do this).The students then have the job of finding Clip Art pictures that start with each letter of the alphabet.  This was very effective for teaching the students the skill of inserting a picture and then formatting the text-wrapping.  (After you insert the picture, click Format-Text Wrapping-In Front Of Text.)  Since they had to do it over and over, it really drove the point home, and hopefully they will remember that skill throughout the year as we insert clip art.

If you haven’t tried it yet, Glogster EDU is a website worth checking out.  Glogster is a web tool that lets you create interactive posters which can contain backgrounds, pictures, videos, links, animated and interactive images, and so much more!  Many users have embraced Glogster as a way to express themselves just for fun, but teachers can leverage Glogster in a whole new way.  With the opportunity to create classes and users, teachers can not only use Glogster EDU for their own educational purposes (check out just two cool examples here and here- and there are tons more in their sample gallery), but they can also assign projects to students, or at least train students how to use it so they can choose Glogster as a way to demonstrate their understanding of a subject.   I am a Premium Glogster EDU User, and working towards “Certification” as a Glogster EDU Ambassador.  For a limited time, the team at Glogster has asked me to share this survey with you, and here’s what they said:

We would like to ask you to recommend this survey to any non Glogster EDU educator who is familiar with online education. Its aim is to find out their views on the topic of online education applications, their usage and further development.Please provide the following link to anyone that may be interested in helping us create a better Glogster EDU product:http://edu.glogster.com/?page=isurvey&i=njrnovi_fd_gnhklnrlv_b_kitThe survey is anonymous. The first 1500 respondents will receive Glogster Premium Trial licenses. The winners will be contacted after the interview via e-mail.

So click the link, take the survey, and try Glogster EDU! You will be glad you did!

iGoogle.  IMHO, one of the simplest and easiest-to-set-up aggregators available.

Basically, you either sign in to your Google account, or create one, and you can set up little “widgets,” or boxes on your page, which hold things you use frequently, such as a calendar, weather forecast, news feed, your various emails (yes, Google can import ALL of your email accounts into one place- no more checking 5 different sites to read your email), links to your favorite websites, and so much more!

This is an easy one for me.  I am a HUGE proponent of gaming in education.  That puts a lot of teachers on edge.  ”How can you let the kids play games and call it learning?”

Well, the short answer is that you can’t.  You can’t just set kids loose on miniclip.com and call it a day.  You have to carefully select and assign games for a purpose.  For example, my Kindergarteners came to my class for their first official lesson the other day.  They played games.  But here’s how it went:

Beforehand, I set up a page on my class website with links to three games: Bees and Honey(on TVO Kids), Dress The Bear(on Northumberland Grid For Learning), and Gopher(on the Palm Beach County Library website).  After the students came in and sat down on the floor in front of the big screen, I explained to them two things: how to access and navigate my website(I have a link on the desktop with a tiny picture of me!), and a quick version of how to play the games.

Then I sent them to their computers.  I wanted to see:

• Who could remember/follow the directions on how to get to the games
• Who obviously had prior experience using computers (you can tell, trust me)
• What their mouse skill level was (I had a few students holding the mouse with their right hand and clicking the button with their left hand)

This was a simple activity that left me free to assess their baseline skill and comfort levels.  Each year, each class is different, and knowing your class is important.  You don’t want to push them too hard, or they will frustrate easily.  You don’t want to give them work that is too easy, or they will soon be off task.

So, as you can see, this class full of “game playing” was VERY important to the rest of the year with this class.  And they learned mouse skills while, surprise!, having fun!

Dear Classroom Teachers:I know you are busy.  I know Tech may not be your thing.  However (why does however sound nicer than “but?”), there are very easy ways to integrate technology into your everyday curriculum!  You may even find that some of these ideas make things easier for you!

Here’s today’s idea: Wordle!  Have you tried it yet?  If not, you are missing out!  Wordle is a website that lets you input text and then print out (or display via your projector) a customizable graphic with that text arranged artfully on it.

Here’s a cool website that explores the poetry of Jack Prelutsky, which you could preface with a Wordle of one or some of his poems:http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/poetry/jack_home.htm

And a sample Wordle, using the poem “Be Glad Your Nose Is On Your Face:”

There are thousands of ways to use Wordle: try entering the text from a famous Martin Luther King, Jr. speech, or the Gettysburg Address, or your favorite blog. Have fun! Words make great art!

Catching up… here is one of my favorite websites: Delicious!

Delicious is a social bookmarking website.  It allows you to save bookmarks to sites you want to remember, and tag them with keywords.  This is helpful for many reasons:

• Your bookmarks are stored online in one central location.  Instead of having them saved on your own computer, you can access them from any computer you use.
• You can “tag” your bookmarks with keywords.  Later, you can search by keyword and find all of the websites you tagged with that keyword.
• You can search for sites that other people have tagged with keywords that match your keywords.
• You can check the Delicious home page for the most popular sites that other people are saving.  You may find something interesting there!

Overall, I find Delicious to be VERY helpful.  I frequently come across websites that I want to use in the future, and I like being able to bookmark them all in one place.  If you want to check out my bookmarks, go to www.delicious.com/lpilker!