Symbaloo is a way to bookmark resources for another group of people, such as a class, or for your own use.  For the most part, I really like it as a class resource organizer.  The biggest advantage Symbaloo may have over my other favorite site for curating resources, Livebinder, is that it has the familiar, at-a-glance appearance of a screen full of apps.  I, like most folks, am now very used to scanning a page and looking for a particular app, whether I am on an ipad, an android, or just the Google chrome home page.  I also like that you can customize the images on the tiles, the number of tiles and the background.  If you look below at the webmix of KET arts resources that I made today, you can see that I was able to upload images for each tile or I could just choose one of the standard icons.  Finally, I like that you can have several tabbed webmixes on the screen.

I do have one problem with Symbaloo – I really don’t like the big square in the middle of the screen.  I’d like to be able to delete it, move it, or at least use it as a title for the page, but those aren’t options.  All you seem to be able to do is choose whether it is a Google search box, another kind of widget, or, in my case, a “newsfeed,” which turned it into a big blank box.

Perhaps Symbaloo will get rid of the big box soon.  In the meantime, I do really like the concept and will enjoy using this page during my presentation next week!

I’ll start today with Edmodo (http://www.edmodo.com), which is a free online classroom management system that allows teachers and students to safely interact online either synchronously or asynchronously.

Edmodo is a very useful tool for blended learning because it can be used as a framework for class assignments and instructional resources whether they are accessed in class or outside of class, in a group or individually, as a class presentation, on a desktop, or on a smart phone. The main page consists of facebook style postings, but teachers can embed video or other files, make assignments and quizzes, and conduct polls within the posts. Because teachers can make, accept, and in some cases, grade assignments through Edmodo, it is a great time saver. It also allows for students to communicate with the class, an assigned group, or with just the teacher as part of an assignment. There are a number of apps that can be added to Edmodo to add even more content and functionality, though many of these are not free.

A class in Edmodo is referred to as a group. An Edmodo group is a very secure, closed environment and the teacher has total control of communication and membership. There are no private chats between students, only with a group or with the teacher. Students must be invited to a group with a code or a URL and moderation of all posts is an option if a teacher feels it is necessary. Teachers can edit and delete accounts and reset passwords as needed and students do not need email to sign up. All communication is archived and can be accessed for review.

In addition to providing a secure framework for media rich, blended learning, Edmodo allows educators from around the world to share resources and ideas with other educators and content specialists. Teachers can set up “connections” directly with other teachers. They can also join established “communities,” which are essentially professional learning networks or go to the “Discover” section and search for resources and instructional materials that have been posted by other teachers. At the FETC, Edmodo was used as both a place for back channeling during sessions and as a place for presenters to store files. Every session was given an Edmodo code, which could be entered in advance of the session, or even two weeks later when an attendee realized they had missed a great session and wanted to look over the presentation materials. An attendee might also choose to connect with presenters and other attendees to build a new professional learning community.

Edmodo is an very powerful, well designed tool that can help you communicate and share content with students and well as other educators. If you would like to learn more about Edmodo, check out the archived webinars available here.

Here are the resources I shared during my session:

Literacy Central This collection includes our new Literacy Plan for Kentucky Interactive and a collection of other videos that illustrate high quality literacy instruction.

Literacy Plan for Kentucky Interactive This interactive is designed to provide, in one location, guidance to educators on the development, implementation and monitoring of literacy plans.

Blue Ribbon Readers The reading strategies used in the Blue Ribbon Readers lesson plans and interactive materials are adapted from the book, 7 Keys to Comprehension: How to Help Your Kids Read It and Get It!, by Susan Zimmerman and Chryse Hutchins.

Between the Lions These segments were selected from Between the Lions, the series that helps kids “Get Wild About Reading!”

Inspiring Middle School Literacy These self-paced online lessons are designed to enhance the literacy skills of struggling readers in grades 5–8. Each uses videos, interactive activities, note taking, reading, and writing to present students with an engaging science, social studies, mathematics, or English language arts topic. Each lesson addresses a range of literacy strategies, which are listed in the accompanying teacher’s guide.

Inspiring Middle School Literacy Video In this professional development video from WGBH, teachers, students, and a literacy expert present their perspectives on the use of the self-paced lessons in the Walmart Middle School Literacy Initiative.

PBS LearningMedia PBS LearningMediabrings together the best of public media, produced specifically for educators, from PBS, WGBH, and over 55 public media partners. High-quality content tied to Common Core and national curriculum standards is freely available to all educators as a basic service. There are over 11,000 resources in PBS Learning Media, including many that are literacy related.

The 2013 KET Young Writers Contest Our annual Young Writers Contest  is great opportunity to inspire creative writing in children in kindergarten through the fifth grade. Each year the winning entry  from each grade is showcased on our website. You can actually view thirty-six of last year’s entries as ibooks. You must first download them from here to an idevice.

Mission US is a growing collection of free interactive games designed to help students (or anyone else) learn about American History.  Currently, there are two games: For Crown or Colony, which is about the build up to the American Revolution, and Flight to Freedom, which is about the underground railroad and the fugitive slave law.  In each case, the game is played from a first person perspective, helping the students develop historic empathy.  The decisions made by students during play affect the outcome, which provides a context for  classroom discussion.  There are also content related vocabulary words and primary source documents embedded in the game.

Each game is also accompanied by a large collection of teaching materials, including an overview, background information, activities, and resources.  To make it easier to integrate the classroom activities into the course of the play, the games are divided into 15 to 20 minute sections and can be saved at any point as needed.

Given the above facts, I found it strange how little noise is being made about this important bicentennial anniversary. I brought this up to an acquaintance with a good understanding of military history and he pointed out that it is easy for Americans to look at our ultimate success and our final victory at New Orleans and see ourselves as the victors, but the war was really won by the British military, if it was won by anyone at all.

Curious, I decided to do some reading on my own and watch this awesome PBS special on the War of 1812. I learned that the war ended primarily because the British government was content to end it. They were done fighting with the French for the time being and no longer had any need to impress American sailors and control entry into U.S. ports, two of the stated causes of the war. The British did not feel the need to grant the U.S. more territory, another major goal, and the Treaty of Ghent declared that all land should be retained by its prewar owners. So, in focusing attention on the War of 1812, we would have to acknowledge a failure to achieve the desired outcome of annexing at least part of Canada and a number of U.S. military failures, for instance leaving Washington D.C. open to attack which led to the burning of almost all the government buildings. We would also be reminded that many Native Americans fought for the British because of their understandable frustration with the government of the United States, and, subsequently, that the U.S. government went on to marginalize and mistreat Native Americans in ways that most all of us find shameful today.

So, perhaps the War of 1812 doesn’t warrant celebrating like the American Revolution or D-Day, but I think it is a mistake to let the opportunity to learn about the conflict pass us by. There are several great stories of heroic acts by Americans, such as Dolly Madison’s last minute decision to save a famous portrait of George Washington as the British were entering Washington D.C. and an epic victory at sea despite the disadvantages suffered by the American navy, but there is a more important reason to study the War of 1812. What we learn from our past informs our future, so we should want to understand this conflict as much as those few in which we all agree we were the victors and were clearly fighting on the right side.  Most importantly, we need to make sure the leaders of tomorrow have the chance to understand it, too.

Here are a few great places to find information and teaching resources for the War of 1812:

PBS’s special on the War of 1812

PBS’s War of 1812 classroom site

An American Experience lesson plan for high school: Dolley Madison: Were there two wars for American independence?

The National Guard History Museum

The Library of Congress War of 1812 Web Guide

The National Archives Digitized resources for the War of 1812

The Kentucky Historical Society

Here is something else for you to add to your to do list – become more digitally literate and have fun doing it! It is often impossible to find time to explore any of the exciting web tools and software you hear about during the school year, but summer is a great time to try new things.  So go ahead and step out of your comfort zone and try that new site that your tech savvy coworker keeps talking about.  Experimenting with technology on your own will make you more comfortable teaching in a digital world. You’ll find authentic uses that apply to your own life and that will help you see ways to use technology authentically in your classroom or your school.

If you don’t have any ideas leftover from the school year.  Here are three suggestions:

1. Start using Twitter to learn more about your favorite things in life.  If you like gardening, golf, music cars, cats, following celebrities, mystery novels, watching Downton Abby or anything else you can think of, there is a group of Tweeters for you.  Twitter can be overwhelming, but it is also an incredibly useful tool for keeping informed on just about any subject – you just have to learn to be ok with not reading every tweet you receive. You also have to learn to use Twitter search and hashtags to find great information and resources and new people to “follow.”  You will need to know a few things to take full advantage of Twitter, including how to use tools like TweetDeck to organize your Twitter feed, what a hashtag is and how to direct message, mention, or retweet something awesome.

I recently went to TeachMeet Nashville and one of the coordinators, Adam Taylor (@2footgiraffe), explained that Twitter is like a waterfall and you just stick your glass in a take a drink.  Give it a try this summer, but seriously, stick to things you love outside of your work.  You can worry about how to use it in education in August.

Here are a couple of videos to help you get started:

 2. Create a video about something you care about. So you have been wanting to use video production in your instruction for years, but can’t figure out where to start.  Start by making a video about something you care about just for fun.  Choose a subject, storyboard your ideas, write a script if you need one, shoot your footage, choose your music (royalty free of course) and then use an editor to make it into a masterpiece.  Once you are finished, you can upload it to YouTube, Facebook, Google Drive or some other hosting site and share it with your friends and family.  I did this not too long ago and ended up making the video below about Sadie, my little brown dog.

This awesome module from Teacher’s Domain will help you get started! Also, feel free to email me if you need any help!

3. Create a LiveBinder of some of the resources you use on the web or would like to if you could find them again.  Into shopping for bargains? Create a LiveBinder of your favorite stores so you can flip through it quickly to see what is on sale.  Like hiking? Create a LiveBinder of state parks, nature reserves, sites that sell gear, equipment reviewers and hiking blogs.  You can make your binder private or share it with others.  It is easy REALLY easy to do.  Here are 3 samples LiveBinders:

Whatever you do this summer, have some fun!  You deserve it!!!

Helen

PDFs of the first place entries can be found here.  Take a look at these delightful stories and consider encouraging the children in your life to enter next year.  It is a great way to cultivate creativity! 

Here is the full list of 2012 winners:

Kindergarten
First place: Julia M., Prospect, “The Fairy’s Gloves”
Second place: Joseph F., Whitesburg, “The Hungry Dinosaur Named Fred”
Third place: Abby S., Mayfield, “My Dog Sparky”

First Grade
First place: Eleanor W., Glasgow, “The Elephant Named Elly”
Second place: Nicholas A., Versailles, “Ben and Zink’s Treasure Hunt”
Third place: Jenna H., Independence, “Alliteration”

Second Grade
First place: Becca G., Villa Hills, “My Ruff Life”
Second place: Katherine O., Paducah, “The Artist in Miami”
Third place: Corianna C., Langley, “The Search for Wings”

Third Grade
First place: Jinju S., Lexington, “Once”
Second place: Sarah P., Hillsboro, “Kitty Finds a New Home”
Third place: Natalie M., Louisville, “Marllo the Moose”

Fourth Grade
First place: William D., Lexington, “The Heir of Lion King”
Second place: Graciela G., Villa Hills, “My Transformer Brother”
Third place: Joe G., Taylorsville, “A Vacation to Remember”

Fifth Grade
First place: Alisabeth C., Paducah, “Buddy, the Shelter Dog”
Second place: John P., Louisville, “The Girl”
Third place: Jessica S., Owensboro, “Bob the Alien”

KET has been chosen as one of 500 finalists in Toyota’s “100 Cars For Good” contest.  A new vehicle will help us reach even more students, teachers, and schools.  We are up against only four other nonprofits to win!

How to vote:

You will need a facebook account to vote.  If you have one, go to www.100carsforgood.com TODAY,  and you will see five nonprofits to choose from. Vote for KET! It is just that easy!

Thanks for your help!!!

Helen

The steps below are simply adapted from the LiveBinder referred to above:

Step 1: You must record the podcast. Garage Band is free and already loaded onto Macs (see the Garage Band tab in my LiveBinder for tutorials).  PC users can download Audacity, but you will also need to download something called the lame encoder to convert your file to an MP3 player.  This can be done from the Audacity site.

Step 2: You need to upload the podcast to a host on the web somewhere.  If it were a video, you would have numerous choices including schooltube, youtube, teachertube, and google docs. For some reason, there are fewer choices for audio files.  Kiwi6 is free and seems to work well.  You can easily set up an account and then upload the file.

Step 3: Once your mp3 file is on the web, you will need to find and copy the URL for it.  This is generally located in the “share” menu along with the embed code.

Step 4:  Use a free service like Google URL Shortener or Tiny URL to create a QR code.  They both do this automatically when you shorten the URL and they both track how many times the URL has been clicked.

Step 5: Copy and paste the QR code into a word doc and print!