Resources and Ideas from SDCUE 2013

Saturday was this year's San Diego CUE conference at CSU San Marcos. This year SDUHSD had more than 20 teachers and administrators attending; last year I think we had five. Samantha Greenstein and Tracy McCabe presented about the Computational Thinking activities that they are incorporating in their science classes; Chris Faist and Tracy McCabe presented on their experiences last year flipping their classes; and I presented about using Google+ and Google Hangouts for professional learning.

When I wasn't presenting, I attended some great sessions, and would like to share some of the resources and ideas from those.

Subtext

Holly Clark (formerly of Carmel Valley Middle School) has been presenting about Subtext at the last several conferences and workshops that I have attended, and now I understand why. She absolutely loves this collaborative reading tool; after listening to her, I feel the same way. Subtext is a game changer for supporting students as they read complex texts.

Subtext (www.subtext.com) is a free iPad app and Edmodo plugin; they will soon be adding a web-based client so teachers and students with any device can use their service. Teachers set up a class account and add their students. Then teachers can import books or articles for their students to read. Along the way, the teacher can add annotations (including images, videos, or web links), checks for understandings, or surveys. Students can use Subtext to highlight and annotate, taking notes as they read. Those notes are then searchable later on, so students can actually go back and find all instances of foreshadowing, for example. Teachers can see where a student is in the reading, so you can keep an eye on students who might be falling behind. Teachers can see students' notes, and students can share them with each other as well. Additionally, Subtext includes a feature that can read text out loud to students.

As we implement more and more Common Core-aligned lessons in all subject area classes, Subtext is going to become a more and more useful tool to help scaffold reading skills and differentiate for readers of all abilities.

Infographics: Telling a Story with Data

Renea Jaeger from Horace Mann Middle School in San Diego presented about her experience having students create infographics about biomes. She shared tools that students used as well as some best practices, including giving students multiple examples of infographics, having students evaluate each others' work early in the process, being explicit with students about how to reference sources, and providing students with sources of copyright-free graphics. Her students typically thought that doing an infographic would be easy, until they actually started working on it. She found that it forced students to use multiple sources for information (not just Wikipedia and one other site), and that it made them think very hard about the best way to present information. She also found that during the final presentations, students clearly demonstrated greater knowledge of their topic than if they had done a report or traditional presentation.

This website has information and links to tools that you could use with your students to have them create their own infographics.

Science Apps

This presentation by Kathy Hayden and Stacey Campo of CSUSM focused on work done in the iQuest and CyberQuest programs. They shared a collection of iPad apps designed for inquiry-based science lessons, primarily in elementary and middle school. Additionally, there are other lessons that include all the resources that a teacher would need to have students complete an inquiry about some topic in science.  (Many of the iPad apps that they shared have equivalents for Android or for web browsers; as I research those, I will add them to this post or in the comments below.)

In the Good Ol' Summertime

What to do, what to do?  Summer approaches, and teachers' thoughts turn to... well, nothing, actually.  It's enough just to get past June 14th.  But once summer gets underway, and you get all your nothing accomplished in the first few weeks, you might wonder how you could catch up on all the things you were interested in doing during the school year but just didn't have time.  So here are some ideas for things you might try out this summer:

• Read a book: I've mentioned books that you could borrow here, here, and here.  I also have three more copies of Flip Your Classroom to lend out.  Let me know if you'd like any of them.
• Make new friends: Build your personal learning network by joining Twitter.  You don't have to say anything at first, just read what others have to say.  You can try it out on Sunday nights at 8:00 for California Education Chat, using the hashtag #caedchat.  Or you can review some of the resources I've posted with the hashtag #SDUHSDtech.  (Here's a good list of other hashtags, some for education in general, some for subject-matter specific discussions.)
• Share your thoughts: Write a blog, reflecting on your experiences this year.  Or contribute to someone else's blog, by writing comments or by writing guest posts.  Contact me if you'd like to be able to post to sduhsdtech.blogspot.com.  I'd love to hear what you have to say.
• Review resources: My weekly emails are posted here. This blog is not going away.  Handouts and recordings from the fall's Web 2.0 sessions are posted here.  Slides from the spring's EdTech workshops are posted here.  Videos highlighting district teachers' innovative strategies are posted here.  Lists of useful websites are available in Diigo for math, science, ELA, social science, world languages, and general edtech.  Help files for Google Forms, Blackboard, Google Sites, Turnitin, and other programs are available from the district start page.
• Talk to yourself: Take some time to record screencasts or powerpoints.  I have two microphones available to borrow.
• Revise your website: If you're still using Expressions/FrontPage to maintain your website on teachers.sduhsd.net, give some serious thought to switching to Google Sites or to Blackboard.  You will thank yourself later.
• Do something different: Doing something outside of education makes you a better person and therefore a better teacher.

Have fun!

3 Lists Every Teacher Should Read

Maybe more people would read this blog if we did catchy list-based articles like Cracked or BuzzFeed.  In that spirit, here are three (3) lists that you MUST read, absolutely, if you want to save money on insurance*, lose weight quickly*, or have more energy*!

• 6 Learning Methods Every 21st-Century Teacher Should Know
• 14 Technology Concepts Every Teacher Should Know About
• 33 Digital Skills Every 21st-Century Teacher Should Have

*Results not guaranteed; offer not valid in California; your mileage may vary; past returns do not guarantee future results; not to be taken internally; not intended to diagnose or treat any disease; stunt driver on closed track; do not attempt at home.

What Educators Need to Know about Tech, and Vice-Versa

Audrey Watters has put together a collection of resources to help educators and developers understand each other.  She has two pages, one titled "What Technologists Need to Know about Education", the other "What Educators Need to Know about Technology".  Both include links to many other articles and book reviews.

I don't particularly agree that most educators need to know about the software industry (as in the second link).  On the other hand, the first link ("What Technologists Need to Know about Education") is extremely valuable for everyone, especially educators who are just starting to dip their toes into blended and/or online learning models.  If you're interested in expanding your understanding of ed-tech, start with that page.

Here's the address for the main page:  guide.hackeducation.com.  It's a welcome resource, and I hope Ms. Watters can maintain and update it in the future.

Problem Attic - New York Regents Questions Online

I got a marketing email today that seemed too good to be true, from Problem Attic (www.problem-attic.com).  They advertised more than 45000 questions from the New York State Regents Exams from the last 30 years, in an online database that allows teachers to select, arrange, and print questions.  I created an account and played around for a little, and the site seems to be on the level and as advertised.  There are questions from Science, Mathematics, Social Science, and English Language Arts.  The selection interface is slick and easy; you can arrange the questions however you like on a page, either for tests, overheads, or flashcards; you can modify the look of the pages somewhat; and then you download a PDF.  I did not find a way to automatically make different versions of a test, but it is pretty easy to manually scramble the questions and print out a different test.

For years, I've used ExamGen, which is a test bank that is largely (if not completely) based on the Regents Exam questions for science.  The questions are quite good, but the test generator program is terrible.  I put up with it for the sake of the questions.  Problem Attic seems to have solved this, creating a ridiculously easy interface for the same good questions.  I cannot figure out why this site is free; it's worth paying for.  I guess once in a while, marketing emails are actually true.

Set up your account at www.problem-attic.com today.

More New Diigo Lists

• English Language Arts: www.diigo.com/list/kfairchild/english-language-arts
• World Languages: www.diigo.com/list/kfairchild/world-languages

There aren't a lot of resources on these lists yet, but I'll keep adding them as I find them.

Brokers of Expertise

Brokers of Expertise is a CDE-sponsored resource and professional network for teachers and administrators throughout the state.  It's kind of like LinkedIn, but specifically for California educators.  When you sign up (at myboe.org), you will be automatically connected to groups for your school and your district.  There are also other groups that you could join, either for your content area, or for special education, or for educational technology, or any other specific interest.  When you join a group, you have access to all the resources (links, files, lesson plans) submitted to that group from teachers all around the state.  If you don't find a particular group, you can create your own group and invite others.

This kind of online community is a great way to build your professional learning network, especially if you are the only teacher for a class at your site (or in the district).  You can get help and suggestions and resources from teachers across the state.  Try it out, at myboe.org.

Free Science and Math Online Simulators

This week I have encouraged my 8th grade physical science students to play around with the Density and Buoyancy simulators through this website:

http://phet.colorado.edu/

Students have been engaged and the simulators have helped students ask some great questions. Most of the simulators also have worksheets uploaded by other teachers, so your students can take part in more of a guided inquiry assignment.

New Diigo Lists for Math, Science, Social Science

I've added three subject-specific lists on Diigo, to share resources that I find that are relevant only to certain teachers.

• Math:  www.diigo.com/list/kfairchild/math
• Science:  www.diigo.com/list/kfairchild/science
• Social Science:  www.diigo.com/list/kfairchild/social-science

I'll add to these lists throughout the year; I'll continue to add to the general EdTech list (www.diigo.com/list/kfairchild/ed_tech); and I'll add other discipline-specific lists in the near future.

Resource List

Here's a collection of web resources for teachers.  Many of these I found out about at ISTE 2012; others I have discovered during the Leading Edge Coalition class that I'm currently taking.  If you've used any of these and have thoughts about them, please leave them in the comments.

LMS (Learning Management Systems)

• Schoology

Other Resource Collections

• An App for That
• CLRN (California Learning Resource Network)
• Cool Tools for Schools 
• EdTech Toolbox
• Online Study Tools

Presentation Tools

• Timetoast
• Empressr
• Museum Box
• Prezi
• Wordle
• bubbl.us
• Creately 

Organization Tools

• Diigo
• Evernote

 Classroom Management

• ClassEApps
• Remind 101

 Screen Sharing

• join.me

Resource Collection for K-12 Classes

Torrey Trust is a PhD student in Education at UC Santa Barbara and has put together a great collection of free education technology resources for K-12 teachers.  It is available at edutechdatabase.wikispaces.com.  There's definitely something there that you can use in your classroom; check it out!

(P.S.  Torrey's dad, Jerry, taught Biology and Environmental Science at San Dieguito and LCC before retiring in 2011.  Torrey graduated from LCC in 2003.)