February 2012
Lake Orion Community Schools
LOCS Technology and Media Newsletter Check out the LOCS Instructional Technology Website! Numerous resources are provided to help teachers with technology integration. One section you may find extra helpful is the Classroom Resources section that includes links to: • Productivity Tasks • Video Resources • Lesson Plans • Video Conferencing & Presentation Tools
February’s Featured Websites and Resources • Top 13 Web 2.0 Tools for Classroom • 5 Tools to Help You Schedule Meetings • How to Turn Words into Graphic Communication using Wordle • Show Me Great Lessons • LOCS IT Website
Just Say NO to Streaming
Greetings! Thank you for taking time to read the inaugural edition of the LOCS District Technology Newsletter. It is our hope that this newsletter will be a helpful resource to you! We know that you are extremely busy, and recognize the need to have useful information that is easily accessible at your fingertips. Our goal with the newsletter is to provide you information about technology initiatives, instructional technology integration and resources, useful tips and tricks for managing technology tools and devices, and professional development support. We also want to encourage you to be an active contributor to the newsletter. We will be reaching out to you to showcase the great things you are doing in your buildings with technology integration, as well as asking you to share resources that you think might be beneficial to others. Thank you for all that you do each and every day for the students of Lake Orion Community Schools! Sophia Lafayette, Director of Technology and Media Services
Technology Initiatives Update Netbook carts were purchased for all of the elementary and middle schools and will be a very helpful resource for our students and staff to help implement the new Type to Learn program and teach the Michigan Educational Technology Standards curriculum. With the new wireless network in place at all schools, we look forward to helping our students and staff maximize this resource by allowing them to bring their own technology. A subcommittee of teachers, technology staff, and administrators hav been working on drafting guidelines and procedures for the “Bring Your Own Technology” (BYOT) initiative. Our goal is to have BYOT fully implemented by the end of February. More info to come! Thanks to DDCC, new projectors will be coming to many classrooms throughout the district this spring!
Please remember that live streaming of video, music, radio streaming etc. within the district causes the speed of the internet to slow down for everyone. Just Say NO to Streaming!
CERC Lab to get new computers. The CERC lab will soon get new computers, that will provide a great opportunity to have a lab for conducting professional development sessions on instructional technology for staff and the community.
Middle School Battle of the Books Congratulations to all participants of the Lake Orion Middle School Battle of the Books. Everyone did a fantastic job! 24 teams of enthusiastic readers became experts on 7 great books and competed for the title of 2012 Battle of the Books Champions. These 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students worked very hard and had a great competition to see who knew the books best! Students also enjoyed a pizza party hosted by the Orion Township Public Library. The library also donated Barnes and Noble gift cards as prizes to the winning team This year, Waldons dynasty continued with another champion team! 1st place goes to Waldon’s Liberologists II which consisted of Fee C., Owen W., Hannah M., Courtney K., Raven K., and Sky C. 2nd place goes to Oakview’s Cracked Bindings which included Kyle M., Max G., Anthony H. Mark S., Amy A., and Grace I 3rd place goes to Scripps Rubber Duckies of Doom which consisted of Tiernan M., Michaela C., Nicole B., Gabrielle D. 4th place went to Waldons team Six Pack including Grace S., Rachel K., Chloee I., Eldon P., Megan D., and Lilly N. Great work to all who participated!
1st place: From left to right Courtney K., Fee C., Sky C, Hannah M, Owen W., Raven K.
Redefining Instruction with Technology: Five Essential Steps EDUCATION WEEK Published Online: January 25, 2012 By Jennie Magiera
One teacher learned the hard way that just bringing iPads into the classroom won’t truly change things—you also have to redefine your practice. In the fall of 2010, I was awarded a grant that brought 32 iPads to my classroom. I had high hopes that this would revolutionize teaching and learning in my class. These devices would help me to create a magical, collaborative learning environment that met all my students’ individual needs. These seemed like lofty goals—but they all came true. Eventually. First, I had to learn a hard lesson: Just bringing new technology in your classroom and working it into dayto-day routines isn’t enough. Read more
Windows 7 Tips and Tricks
Mac Tips & Tricks For eMac users—The cooling fan on eMacs uses a lot of energy and makes a lot of noise. To help save energy, there is an easy way to put your eMac to sleep when you are finished using it. Simply hold down the Apple and Option key, then press the CD eject key (top right on the keyboard). This will automatically put your eMac to sleep. Show this to your students and they can put all eMacs in your classroom or Tech Lab to sleep when they are not being used. There is also an easy way to shut down the eMacs. Hold down the Apple, Option and Control key, then press the CD Eject key. The eMac will automatically shut down.
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Printing Your W-2 • Ctrl+Shift+N to Create a New Folder • Ctrl+Shift+Left Click to Open a Program As Administrator • Windows Key+Space or Mouse Over Bar to Show Desktop • Win+P for Quickly Connecting Your Laptop to a Projector • Ctrl+Win+Tab for Flip 3D • Press and Hold F5 to Have Windows Automatically Rearrange Your Desktop Icons • Right Click and Select “Pin to Taskbar” for a One-Click Launch of a Frequently Used Program Detailed instructions for the tips above • Hold down Windows key + L to lock the computer
When accessing your W-2 online you have 4 choices:
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2011 W-2 Display 2011 W-2 Print W-2 Instructions Employee Notice
The display option is just what it says, it will give you a screen display of your W-2. DO NOT PRINT from this screen. If you want to print another copy of your W-2, select the “2011 W-2 Print” and follow the directions on the screen. If you have any problems with this, your building tech will be happy to assist.
Lake Orion Community Schools • Technology & Media Newsletter • February 2012
iOS Fun
(iPads, iPhones, iTouches)
5 Free iPhone Apps for the Classroom Here are 5 FREE iPhone apps you won’t want to live without in your classroom. These apps will help you with classroom management and serve as learning tools for your students. Of course, the iPhone is not the only mobile device with apps – so check to see if your device has compatible apps! The following 5 FREE apps can help bring a little 21st century excitement to your classroom. 1. WordPress for iPhone WordPress is a great app that can benefit teachers in several ways. Perhaps one of the most widely used apps for mobile blogging, teachers can use WordPress to send out periodic updates to students via the blog, post assignments to be done, suggest reading material, and overall, just stay connected to your blog audience while on the move! Do you have students that have iPhones? You could also encourage your students to submit comments via their phone. Don’t forget, you can always put students in groups to work together since not everyone will have an iPhone. 2. iFlashCards iFlashCards is an app that sounds exactly like it is –flashcards that can be carried around in a convenient digital format! The great thing about this app is that everything can be shared online. Using the very customizable options, teachers can dictate what material should be focused on, allowing students to create and edit the cards, as well as set 5 different study modes: preview, skim, medium, thorough, and test. This could be a great homework assignment or bonus opportunity to give to students. It could also be a fun way for students to spend part of the class –let them study their new cards! It also gives students a means to create their own digital content. 3. Fluent News Reader Help your students stay aware of what's going on in the world -using the Fluent News Reader app! This app aggregates the top stories from different major news services such as CNN, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, FOX News, etc. Once downloaded, these stories are available for offline viewing. This could be a great way to start off your class each day, allowing you to get the day’s biggest headlines in a glance. Of course, be careful! As with any news content, you can’t always be sure that all headlines and stories are appropriate for the little ones. With younger students, you can filter and select the headlines yourself with older students, let them browse through selecting their favorites and reporting back to the class. Current events don’t get much more current than this! 4. Dropbox 1.2.5. Dropbox is a really cool app that lets teachers access their personal files. This app gives you 2GB of file storage that can be accessed from any computer, at any time. On iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, the app allows you to view documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and some videos and photos that you've put into your personal file space. Have something on your home computer that you want to share with your students? Save it in the Dropbox and you’re good to go! 5. Dragon Dictation 2.0.0 Tired of typing out a lengthy assignment or email? Ever wanted to dictate a long series of notes and then e-mail or text them? Dragon Dictation can do that for you! Just load up the app, tap the red button, and dictate for one minute at a time. The latest version even has multilingual support and allows you to paste text directly. This is a great administrative tool for teachers, but also a great learning app to use with students. In a language class? This app can make a “traditional” speech drill much more fun! Or, ask your students to recite their original creative poem into the phone. The possibilities are endless. Source: http://blog.simplek12.com/education/5-free-iphone-apps-for-the-classroom/
Lake Orion Community Schools • Technology & Media Newsletter • February 2012
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iOS Fun This Month’s Featured iPad App Toontastic - FREE Creating cartoons with Toontastic is as easy as putting on a puppet show simply press the record button and tell your stories through play! Once you’re done, share your cartoons with friends & family around the world.
All the Awesome Things You Can Do with a Long Press on Your iPhone, iPad, or iPad touch Long pressing—that is, tapping and holding down on a part of your screen—provides a lot of handy shortcuts on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Here’s a look at practically everything you can do with this technique to save you a bunch of time typing and navigating your device. The video in the link at the end of this article will give you a demo of everything, but here’s the text version for reference.
• • • Toontastic Website Designed in partnership with Stanford’s Graduate School of Education and Zeum: San Francisco’s Children’s Museum, Toontastic inspires the artist and writer in every child while teaching key storytelling principles that help to promote creativity at a young age. Toontastic’s drawing tools bring kids’ wildest ideas to life alongside virtual playsets chock full of pirates, princesses, far away galaxies, and many other characters and settings to spark the imagination. Cartoons can be shared online via ToonTube, Toontastic’s Global Storytelling Network, to help children connect to friends and family and learn about other cultures, customs, and lifestyles through stories created by their peers around the world.
Exclusive Savings from
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15%
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Discount
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for LOCS Employees Phone Pricing Plans How to Register for Discounts 4
(iPads, iPhones, iTouches)
Tapping and holding a letter on your keyboard will provide you with accented versions of that letter. Tapping and holding a symbol will provide you with alternate symbols. For example, the dollar sign will offer up a handful of other currency markers. Tapping the “123” numbers key and sliding your finger to the number you want will type the number and immediately return you to the letter-based keyboard. Tapping and holding the delete key will delete text faster. In some instances, the speed will increase incrementally with the amount of time you are holding the key. Tapping and holding anywhere there’s editable text will engage the magnifying glass mode so you can move the text cursor around. Tapping and holding the .com button in Safari will offer up shortcuts for .org, .net, .edu, and more. Tapping and holding the back button in some web browsers (and the iPad version of Safari) will let you view your browsing history. Tapping and holding a link in your browser, an email, or anywhere else, will provide you with additional options other than just navigating to that link. The same goes for email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, and other linked information. Tapping and holding on a photo, other media, or static text will allow you to quickly copy that media. This works in most apps. Tapping and holding a phone number or address in the contacts app will allow you to quickly copy that information as well. In most cases, if you want to copy something, a long press will do the trick. Tapping and holding an icon on your home screen will allow you to move or delete the app. If you double-tap your home button to bring up the multitasking drawer, you can also use tap and hold to allow you to quickly quit apps that are currently running. Tapping and holding a location in the maps application will drop a pin on that location. Tapping and holding that pin will allow you to move it, although you can just tap and hold a new location and that pin will move there automatically. Pressing and holding your home button will activate voice control or Siri, depending on which feature your device supports. Pressing and holding the power button will allow you to turn your phone off. Pressing and holding both the power button and home button for several seconds will force-restart your phone. A quick press of each will take a screenshot.
Source: http://lifehacker.com/5879239/all-the-awesome-things-you-can-dowith-a-long-press-on-your-iphone-ipad-or-ipad-touch Lake Orion Community Schools • Technology & Media Newsletter • February 2012
101 Ways K-12 Teachers Use Document Cameras •
The most important use is to demonstrate new material.
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Use in staff meetings to explain forms.
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Show students how to do assigned work. Things are more easily explained when they can see the problems worked out in front of them.
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I do the grades and the daily points on the wall projected from the document camera everyday to show missing assignments, absences.
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Demonstrating 3 dimensional items. Resulting in less time spent passing an item around to view.
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Immediate feedback by displaying student work.
I use it to display lessons, literature books, group activities, group lessons, speeches, demonstrations, hands on teaching etc.
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Displaying entry tasks.
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Enlarging text for students with vision impairments.
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Showing and scoring student or sample work.
I do daily writing instruction, math lessons, and science activities.
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Great to look at all the objects with Food Chemistry, MicroWorlds, Ecosystems. Almost like having a projection microscope!
Showing student work. They love to show off their work.
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In Kindergarten, storybooks are projected on an entire wall. Students love reading words they know.
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Extemporaneous demonstrations.
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We have used the document camera to zoom in on parts of a thermometer, and ruler, showing the smallest units and degrees.
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Demonstrate activities so all the children can see.
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Reading picture books to the class has been so much better when the students can see/discuss illustrations.
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Increased effectiveness in communicating to a large group information from a commonly held document. Example: a page from a book can be viewed by entire group to ensure that all students are on the correct page in the correct place. Model what is expected in the steps included in a math concept. Allows up-close and detailed observations of objects, mechanics of movement, manipulatives, etc. by the entire class. I had a scientist lead 42 students in fish dissection. He was able to clearly demonstrate what the students should do, and point out the organs students needed to locate in their own fish. This would not have been possible with an overhead projector. Enlarge all math workbook pages, and worksheets. It is invaluable when reading directions, teaching math games and sharing student work. I will save pictures of a student's work that is not created in electronic form and add it to the student's portfolio. In this way, I save time in scanning!
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Looking over drawings and examples in the book, not having to recreate complicated problems.
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Decreases prep time (don't have to make overheads, etc.) Has quality imagery.
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On all the lessons, it focuses the students on what I'm pointing out because they can all see it well, whether it's words, letter combinations, coins and their details, or items from our science liquids and solids kit.
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Music books, sheet music and other teaching materials are used on the document camera. This is a great tool to help teach music reading skills and literacy too.
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Math tools (rulers, compasses, calculators) show well on the document camera and the fact that it shows color makes colorcoding and maps much more significant.
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Kindergarten children learn the direction of reading, sight words, and many other important things.
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Have students use it as they teach the class.
Recently we have been able to zoom in the document camera to show the ingredients on packs of gum we were comparing, as the students did a scientific investigation on the mass of gum after it had been chewed.
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We share the student's published books daily. The children's illustrations improve greatly when they know their peers are going to look at their work.
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Tremendous asset to enhance group discussion and help challenged learners "keep up with the pack."
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It enables me to show real assignments and objects so that the assignments and lessons are extremely clear.
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Ease of displaying: an object, a written paper, a handout, a text..... No more burning transparencies and erasing the writing on them in order to use them again.
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Placing newspaper articles, magazine topics, student work on the document camera to share with the whole class.
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I use the document camera to display samples of maps, workbook pages, art projects, etc., so that the kids can follow along. In a class where English is not spoken as the native language this reduces the confusion for the children. They are able to successfully attempt the assignment because the document camera provides an effective filter to the barriers presented by giving oral directions.
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To display graphs and charts or visual performances of student work.
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To work with "at risk" students who require a significant amount of direct instruction.
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Show pictures in color. I used it extensively for my housing project.
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Provide full class immediate feedback about answers to questions.
One of the most important things is for phonics instruction. I use the draw feature to focus on specific things. As math students are working on problems I have them share their work with the class. This immediate feedback enables other students to understand how one student solved a problem and allows a class to review a student's work for accuracy and completeness. This really encourages writing detailed solutions to math problems.
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Showing while we are doing....it's much better than trying to hold something up for them to see.
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Display pictures of historical events that we are discussing. I also use it for political cartoons in Current World Problems discussions.
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Critique student work for Six-Trait Writing.
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I have taken still shots with the document camera of isopods, crickets, cloud fish eating snail eggs on the walls of a student-built ecocolumn, and other live creatures.
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We've looked closely at fish scales, pennies, salmon eggs (and have seen the embryos moving inside!) since the document camera has a nice "zoom" feature.
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Interactive lessons with students.
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Students bring objects for "sharing" and place them on the document camera, zooming in where needed.
Lake Orion Community Schools • Technology & Media Newsletter • February 2012
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101 Ways K-12 Teachers Use Document Cameras •
To show 3-D objects: pattern blocks in math from all sides and science experiments.
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I have used it to demonstrate how to fold a paper crane.
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Display a variety of examples, shorten lesson planning time, and display student examples.
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Show documents immediately and appropriately sized for students to see, read and discuss.
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Show slides.
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Display, analyze, and edit student work.
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The most beneficial thing with the document camera has been the ease of placing examples from the book up on the board or graphs that are needed for solving different problems.
Displaying relevant pictures from many sources.
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Use for School Board presentation to share assessment data.
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Demonstrate how to do hands-on projects in science (constructing objects).
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For writing: being able to edit much easier during instruction.
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Visuals to enhance the lecture.
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I put problems on the white board using the document camera. I also use it to put coordinate planes on the white board for students to use.
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Students are able to visually see what is written - no messy overhead markers.
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Zoom in on units of measurement to enlarge and demo how to use 1/16, 1/8, 1/4 etc.
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Having the visual of student work put up immediately is a huge impact for students and the teacher.
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Demonstrate how to properly and easily use the compass to make circles of all sizes (4th grade Everyday Math).
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I use the document camera so all students can see examples, pictures in books, zoomed in pictures of objects, etc. from anywhere in the classroom. Visual learners really benefit from the document camera!
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Walking students through the steps of an assignment.
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Put text books on the screen so I can read them while moving around the room.
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Use as a microscope.
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Gives all students a bird's eye view.
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Math problem solving. I freeze the pane and can take the book or materials with me as I walk around the room.
I am able to demonstrate how to fill out forms that are specific to my program; this would be very difficult without this equipment.
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Just being able to display and discuss student work is very powerful.
Reviewing pages out of the book or previewing questionnaires for videos.
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Instead of having to redraw Geometry sketches I project them onto the white board and then work out the problem. Some of our Geometry sketches can take a lot of time to draw so this is a real time saver. I also put my notes up every day for the students to follow and copy.
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I can use examples of student work on the spot instead of having to make a transparency. It eliminates the time and expense of making overhead transparencies.
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As a Library teacher, sharing a story with the students so that they can see more details in the artwork.
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Show students how to work a math problem, share 3 x 5 cards of WASL examples, and the use of colors when explaining various games or manipulatives.
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As a science teacher it allows me to show lab set ups, make electronic boards and components more visible.
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It's probably the best way to teach how to use context clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words. The book goes on the camera and the teacher and student can together look at the words around the subject word to determine meaning. The teacher can wander the room to check that every student is learning context skills.
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Go over tests with students to show correct answers. The document camera enables me to bring a lesson to life with the fact that all students are able to see what is being explained or modeled. Before I would have students gather around me in tiers so students could see the demonstration of math, reading, or science.
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The most important daily use is for instruction and letting students come to the document camera and "be the teacher."
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Being able to show student solutions and discoveries to the rest of the class or allow students to show how they got their answers.
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I use it almost every day for math. It really lends itself to our math lessons because we use so many different types of "math manipulatives."
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Modeling note-taking.
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I can easily show how to do a lesson. It also shows what I need them to do and how. I use it when ever they need direction in a subject. It makes it easy for them to follow along during the lesson.
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It is important to me to be able to display pictures and maps from texts. This camera gives me the ability to show these maps and pictures in color and I can zoom in to show specific areas of interest. I use this everyday in some form to give my students a visual description.
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I have shown students different graphs which they were able to read and compare, zooming in on fine print such as the "source" of the graph data, using the document camera.
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Show small pictures for all to see.
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I put reading and writing samples on the screen for discussion. It allows me to use the classroom textbook and student work on short notice.
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Display books for reading, when class sets are not available.
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The whole class can do an assignment together when I may not have had time to make individual copies.
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Displaying student work as they relate to WASL rubrics and individual performance.
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Showing the illustrations when I read books out loud.
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Display, analyze and interpret student work with the whole class IMMEDIATELY!
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Displaying emerging work from students as exemplars raises the standard for production for that group.
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Use as a reward for students. They are excited to write for the class and participate more enthusiastically when I allow them to take part in the instruction (first grade).
Source: See back page Lake Orion Community Schools • Technology & Media Newsletter • February 2012
Resources for Newsletter In addition to websites referenced throughout the newsletter, information was also curated and quoted from the following resources: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Emerging Ed Tech – www.emergingedtech.com iTunes App Store – http://itunes.apple.com Simple K12 – www.simplek12.com The Big Deal Book of Technology Newsletter – www.bigdealbook.com/newsletter 101 Ways K‐12 Teachers Use Document Cameras‐Pages 5‐6 Source: https://www.cusd201.org/blog/media/3/20090828‐ 101%20Ways%20Teachers%20Use%20Document%20Cameras.pdf