Big Huge Labs

This is another FREE source to do fun and creative things with pictures.

When you get to the website http://bighugelabs.com/ you have a number of options. Many of the options do not require joining any other site, but some do (i.e. flikr). So, do some experimenting before you ask students to try it out.

You can

• make a motivational poster

• Magazine cover

• Movie poster

• Trading card

• Captioner

• Billboard

These allow you to take an image and then through their simple step by step process you add additional text.

There also are some fun picture related tools including

• color palette generator

• bead art

To create the image you simply select which thing you want to do. I am going to show the picture captioner.

First select where the picture is. If it is saved on your computer, select browse and upload the picture.

You then can type in what will be in your speech bubble or thought bubble. Then when you click create, you are able to move all the bubbles around to create your image. You then can save it, edit it, or print it.

Google Images

Did you know that Google Image can do great advance searching options to help you more quickly find a picture or image that you need?
How to get there- 1. Go to Google. 2. Click on the images link. 3. Click on Advanced Searching Options.

You can type in your search words. In your search you could specify color or size.
You can also specify the content type: any content, news content, faces, photo content, clip art, and line drawings.

You can determine the size or aspect ratio. You can also determine the type of files (jpg, gif, png, bmp). You can also determine if an image is black and white or color.

You can also filter pictures by the use/copyright that is allowed with them. If you encourage students to use “labeled for commercial use with modification” you are able to use it and could sell it and change the image if you wanted to.
In all the three picture examples, I searched for "yellow bird" and did so with photo, clip art, and line drawing. If you have a very specific image in mind, this can be an easy way to filter what you are looking at to more quickly get what you want.

Calendar Sign Up short tutorial

We will now use our "Google Apps" calendar to sign up for Moblie Labs, LCD and more.

Where are the Calendars located:  
The calendars are on the left hand side of the page. You should find them under "Other Calendar". You should only find calendar's appropiate to what you teach, for example elementary teachers will not see the HS mobile lab.
* If you think you should be able to view/use a calendar that you are not currently able to view, please email me @ rburrow@ecsdcards.com to request to view a calendar. Since I am individually adding teachers to the calendar, I may have unintentionally neglected to add you to the list of people I am sharing the calendar with.

To View a Calendar:
Make sure the calendar is darkened in the color. If it is white with the name of the calendar in the color, you are not currently viewing the calendar.
* This is an advantage over the Outlook Calendar. You can easily only look at the LCD calendars and not have to look at the library and computers.
To Hide a Caledar:  Click on the caledar so that it goes pale/white. You will still be able to see the name of the calendars you are a part of, but it is live and you can view it when it is dark.

Signing up for/Create an Event: 

To get to the "add an event screen":
1. Click on "Create an event" in the upper left hand corner of the page.
2. You can double click on the calendar in the spot you want to add an event.
* This is set up to do events on 30 minute intervals. It also only automaticall gives you the "what" box. You will need to choose which calendar to sign up on through the drop down box. If you are wanting to add additional information, you can click on "edit details" and will see the regular " create an event sign up screen"

What: Please enter your Name, Class and period.
For example- Peterson US History 5th per. [For next year, having similar periods for MS and HS will make this especiall helpful].
When: You will need to select/enter the correct date. By clicking once in the date a drop down calendar will appear. You can eiter type the date or click on the date on the caledar.
* for the "when" please do not select the "all day" even if you are using it all day. This will appear at the top of the day, and is not as clear to see and with how the features of the calendar work could lead to double booking as google does not apper to to have a pop up to prevent you from signing up at the same time as someone else.
Where: At this time I would like to use this part of the calendar to put number of students (especially for computers) or identifying that you are only planning to use something for the 2nd half of the period. Also for the library this would be the appropiate place to note if you are planning to use tables or computers or both.
Calendar:  This is probably the MOST important part of the signup. You will need to select which calendar you are signing up on. Due to how the calendars are set up, the calendar is which item you are signing up for. Please be careful in checking what items you are signing up for.

Reminder: We will have to see how all of this works, but you can send an email reminder or choose pop up. Since I created the calendar, I am not sure if I will get all of the reminders or if the creator of the events will. This part may be a work in progress.

To view more details on an event:

If you click once on the dark "time bar" at the top of an event, it will bring up a details box with all of the information given on an event. It will show the where, and who added the event. This is an easy way to find out how many laptops someone else is using or if there are extra computers in the library.


WARNINGS:
1. It is easy to delete items that are not yours. Please be careful. We have not had malicious deleting of items in the notebook or on the online calendar, but it will be easy to accedently delete items that are not your own.

AEA's Webisite

For those of you who have not been to the AEA website recently, it looks very different than the last time you most likely saw it. The thinking was to have a more “user friendly” site to the public.

Things you might be looking for:

Online Resources and the Databases:

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select, “media library.” This will take you to a number of different links. “ComCat”- this is a way to do interlibrary loan through the school library. If you are interested in this we will need to work to set up a school account, so please talk to me. “Media Net” is the AEA catalog of books, DVD and other resources. “Online Databases” are the databases that I have been highlighting over the last year. “World of Media” is the newsletter article and blog that AEA puts out about using technology and resources in the content areas.

 

Online Databases: I am in the process of revamping the main library page, the elementary library page, and the MS/HS library page. I will have all of these databases linked from the library page. If these are databases you frequently want students to use, you also could link them from your own web pages or have a link to the library page.

World of Media

Did you know that World of Media that comes from the AEA each month is now available online?
http://wom.aea11.k12.ia.us/

World of Media is set up into curriculum areas and offers tips of online resoruces and using these resources in your content area. While many of the tools that are out there are great for all areas, this does explore all areas that people may teach. This is also a great way to see what others are doing that is innovative with technology, creative use of technology, and is also student centered.

This is currently set up as a blog. It has older "world of media" going back to 2008. At this point you can not search for topics, but all of the posts are in the "in this issue" and by clicking on the arrows you can easily browse the titles of articles in that month's issue. Many of the short articles include links for the sites they are suggesting.

Discovery Science- DE Streaming

Also part of Discovery Education is Discovery Science. This is only currently available through Heartland (www.aea11.k12.ia.us) under the “resources and research tools”.[You can access it through Iowa AEA online (http://www.iowaaeaonline.org/) but since you have a Heartland AEA online you will be directed to Heartland's extra features, i.e. DE Science.  After you log in, you will have the option of going to DE Streaming (which I featured in the previous blog post) or DE Science. After clicking on DE Science, you will have the option of “elementary” or “middle school”.

Under the Elementary Science you can search: earth science, life science, and physical science. These are broken down into smaller topics with tabs and pictures. In the elementary section when you start to get information there are four levels “learn, explore, demonstrate, and extend.” There are also is a glossary of terms off to the right hand side of the page.

Under the Middle School Science you can search: physical science, life science, earth and space science. In the middle school there are virtual labs, explorations, interactive videos, integrated science simulations and more under the “Interact” tab. Under the “watch” tab are video clips and under the “read” tab are articles. Many of these could be teacher directed or student explored. * For those of you that teach the elements - chemistry or physical science- under the middle school section there is a "feature" with an interactive periodic table.

Discovery Education Streaming- DE Streaming

Discovery Education Streaming [also called DE Streaming or United Streaming]
Many of you are already using DE Streaming to show video clips on particular topics. For those of you that may not be familiar with DE Streaming, this is one of the many resources through Iowa AEA and Heartland AEA (www.aea11.k12.ia.us). Video clips are available on numerous topics. Besides showing the videos in class, these videos can also be a dynamic way for students to research about topics in your class. It is VERY easy to search topics. You can also download videos that you want to use over and over and save them to your computer. If you want a video clip at the last minute, this could be helpful. (There are clips for library and using the library, so you should be able to find almost anything that you want).
The videos that are available range from short (less than 1:00) to full length programs being 30 minutes to 45 minutes and some are even an hour. Many of the full length videos are divided into segments so you can watch a 5-10 minute part instead of the entire full length vide. Some of the videos that are in the 2 minute- 4 minute range are great for giving brief explanations on topics. One of the advantages of DE streaming is that you can pause and restart the video. If you are asking students to take notes from the video clip, if all students have a laptop, or are working in one of the computer labs, all students can work at their own pace. When they need to pause to take notes, or write something down, they can. [On a side note, having all students trying to access the same video can really slow down the down loading/ buffering of the video. If you have multiple videos that students are supposed to watch and have students start with different videos, it helps with the speed of downloading of videos].

Using the bookmark feature in Google Docs

If you are using Google docs and would like the option to have multiple assignments in one Google doc you can. You can create bookmarks. By clicking on the link, it will take you directly to that part of the document.
How to create the bookmark:
1. Insert your cursor where you would like to create the book mark or highlight the text where the bookmark will start.
2. On the menu bar of the document go to “Insert” and go down to “Bookmark”
3. A new window will pop up in the doc. It will ask you about naming the book mark link. After you have named the bookmark (or used the name of what you have highlighted), you simply click insert.
4. To add this to the beginning of the document, you will create a link.
5. On the menu bar click on link. Make sure you click for the circle “bookmark”.
6. You will have a drop down menu of the bookmarks you have created with their names. (Point out to students their bookmarks if they use this should have different names).
7. Then in the “Text Display” box type what you want to appear for the document.
If you are using Google docs as a way for students to turn in assignments, using the “bookmark” tool could be a good tool to use for assignments that are reoccurring. Instead of getting 25 new documents shared with you every week, 25 documents will be updated that are already in your Google docs each week. For example if you ask students to turn in an article every week with a reflection, they can keep adding to the same Google doc and add the bookmark where this week’s article starts. You also could use this for journaling and reflections on a literature reading. When we do go to 1-to1 you also could encourage students when taking notes to book mark notes by date, or by subject at the top. It then is easy to add to the notes, or to find something you may be looking for.

SIRS Researcher

In a previous post, I did highlight the use of SIRS researcher as a tool for major research topics, in particular research papers. I compared this to the new “Point of View” that was added to EBSCOhost this year. This can be accessed through AEA11 www.aea11.k12.ia.us under the resources area. It also can be accessed through Iowa AEA online www.iowaaeaonline.org.

Last time I blogged about this resource I mentioned that SIRS can help in the development of a thesis topic in addition to providing pro/con articles to give both sides of an argument.

When you first get to the information on a specific topic there is a Yes/No box. There are links to articles showing support and opposition of this controversial topic. There are also research tools to the side including: Timeline, Global impact, Statistics, Research guides and note taker. The Timeline, Global impact, and Statistics tools can be helpful in gathering information for the information, project, or report. The research guides and note taking tools are helpful in the organization of material. Below these aids are the list of articles and additional information.

Additionally, SIRS like EBSCO and Worldbook allow students to email any articles. SIRS also has the read aloud feature that many of the other AEA resources also have.

Task feature on the Google Apps Calendar

This is a great way to keep a running to do list for your self. It is easy to add to the list items to do. There are no sticky notes stuck to your monitor that might fall off. Besides the basic “Task” List, you can create an unlimited amount of to do lists. (Like everything else with Google Apps this can be accessed at home or here at school).

To create the to do list (if you have not opened up “Tasks” or if you have closed it previously) click on “Tasks”. This will add a task box to the right of the calendar. Under you default list you can simply click and start typing. If you are wanting to add additional information or a due date so that your task will appear on the calendar, you can go into “edit details”. To edit details in a task click on the task, and you can go down to “Actions” or click on the small “>” arrow to the right of the task. You can enter a due date. By doing this it will appear on your calendar. It will appear different than other calendar items. It will appear in the all day area and will have a check box by it. Also you can enter notes to give your self additional information or reminder about the task.

If you want to create multiple Task lists and you are wanting items to appear on the calendar, note that they will not appear on the calendar unless you have selected that task list.
At this point I do not see a way to share task lists, so if you are wanting students who are working on a project to share a list, or for coaches or departments to share lists of things to do, at this time, other than to have everyone enter it into their own calendar, I don’t see a way to do this.

Using the calendar feture in google apps

As teacher’s many of us wish that students would write down assignment, tests, project and other events in a planner or a calendar. You can use the calendar feature to do this with the students in your class. When you go to the “Calendar” feature on the left hand side it list the calendars that you can view. To create a calendar click on the “create” link below the calendars you are currently viewing. All you then have to do is create a calendar for each class. Those of you that are coaches or group sponsors could also make calendars for your groups. You can then share the calendar with all of the school district or specific people (like just the students in a class- or grade or part of a group). Like google docs and the email, all you have to do is start tying names of students and it will add them. You can manage if they can view the calendar or if they can also edit the calendar. This is a great way to communicate assignments, especially long term assignments and tests. For groups and sports teams it is a great way to easily have them have the calendar of games or other events. If you are consistent about adding or updating the calendar, it can be a great communication tool. Even if you don’t use this for your classes, it is a great feature to point out to students to teach them to use to be more organized.

** FYI** For a future note, I am probably planning to use the google calendar feature next year, especially if we will be moving to this as our main or only email. While I still need to play around with things, what will most likely happen- each item that can be signed up on the current calendar, will be a separate calendar (i.e. LCD 1, Mobile Lab, multimedia cart). So for those of you that are a little unsure of technology, this is the time to ask questions, learn, and try things. Please don’t freak out about this yet, I will give trainings not this at the beginning of next school year.

Taking notes from an article in a google doc

If you decide not to email an article you also can copy and paste an article into a Google document. This can allow you are students to use a highlighter and comment feature. This can be an additional way to take notes, practice study techniques and note taking- students can share articles they are looking at and their comments can be what use to be “note cards”

Using this highlighter technique can be a great way to demonstrate, use and check for understanding for learning strategies like selective highlighting. By doing this in a document, students have the option to do multiple colors in their highlighting. For example they can do big topic in once color and supporting details in a second or third color.  

Additionally, instead of handing in current event article in print as an email attachment they can copy and paste and have it all in the shared google doc and write their summary at the top. You also could ask them to high light important information from the article that would help them write their summary. The teacher can then use the comment feature when grading.

I copied and pasted an article in from EBSCO. I have highlighted information and added a comment to demonstrate this. This type of document could also be shared with students from teachers. Teachers could add comments about pictures or additional items in an article that could help supplement a lecture or activity.

Emailing articles to google apps email

After learning about Google Apps during our all day professional development, I thought it would be helpful to remind everyone that you can email many articles that you read to an email account. Now that all students 6-12 will have an email account, this is a great way for them to have access to articles that they are using for research. It is a great way for them to have access to them regardless if they print it off or send it as an email.

If you are able to email through the resource there will be an icon. Typically this is on the top of the screen or at the top or bottom of the article. For many of the databases, this simply involves clicking on the icon or the link. This will bring students to a screen asking them to type in the email address, subject and message. Some of the databases will have additional options with regards to how you send it and the format in which you send it.

EBSCO host 2

 EBSCO is a great resource compiling mostly periodicals (newspapers and magazines).

When logging in to EBSCO from AEA’s website (www.aea11.k12.ia.us) and after you log into EBSCO using our school’s user name and password, you will have a number of different databases that are a part of EBSCO. one option that you have is EBSCO 6-12 search history. When you click on this link, there are a number of options and different types of searches you can do. Some of these I have already highlighted or discussed briefly. Some of these other searches I will identify how they might be helpful in what you may be doing in the classroom. The more specialized searches include:

Professional Development Collection, ERIC, MAS Ultra: School Edition, Newspaper Source, Middle Search Plus, Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, Primary Search, Academic Search Elite, Business Source Elite, Master File Premier, Topic Search, Health Source: Nursing/ Academic Edition, Vocational and Career Edition, Health Source: Consumer Edition, Regional Business Edition, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts, Teacher Reference Center, Advanced Placement Source, Literary Reference Center, Newspaper Source Plus, History Reference Center, Science Reference Center.

Below each of these links for a search is a brief description about each search and item that are included as part of the search.

EBSCO host

EBSCO is a great resource compiling mostly periodicals (newspapers and magazines). Other resources I have highlighted that are part of Ebsco are: Kids Search, Student Research Center, Searchasaurus, Literary Reference and Points of View.
Besides the general Ebsco search, there are more specialized searching for certain topics and content areas, targeted especially for high school students. Some of these more specialized searches include: “Advance Placement Source,” “ History Reference Center,” “Newspaper Source Plus,” “Science Reference Center,” and plain “EBSCO”. There are links for each of theses through AEA 11 http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/ under the “Resources and Research Tools.”
All of these searches (General EBSCO and all specialized searches) are also available through Iowa AEA online http://www.iowaaeaonline.org/ and selecting EBSCO as well. After logging in with the user name and password scroll down and you will see links for these specialized resources that are a part of EBSCO. While you can search the general EBSCO and get the same articles, it helps in providing an ease in the search for a particular topic in the subject area.
In searching any of these you can type in a key word in the search box or use some of the advanced search option to include multiple words or the type of article you might be looking for.
Ebsco, can be effective if you are including current events or news articles as a part of your classes. Additionally if you are requiring students to do research on a topic, this can be a place for them to get information from reliable sources.

Kid’s Search, Student Research Center and Searchasaurus

This resource is also available through AEA 11 http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/ under the “Resources and Research Tools.” You will need to go through EBSCO to access them. While you can get to this through AEA you also can use EBSCO to get to this as well which is linked through Iowa AEA online http://www.iowaaeaonline.org/ and selecting EBSCO as well.
What is it: This helps to find articles and information on topics students might be researching. This searches current newspapers, magazines, books and encyclopedias, animals, biographies, radio and news transcripts, state and province reports, primary source documents, and photos.
A student can search and have all the results or limit the results by clicking on the type of information they want (i.e. just magazines or newspapers). Additionally when students get their list of results on the left they also can narrow their topic down. For example with “Volcanoes” it gave options for “United States” and “Volcanic eruptions.”
One advantage of the magazines is the inclusion of the Lexile scores which helps to give the reading level and difficulty of the text. This way if students do know their lexile range, they can look at an article and know it’s difficulty prior to even opening the article. Reading level is also sometimes included for the state reports. The photo option when selected individually, will give a thumbnail of the photo if it is available. Lastly there is an additional encyclopedia and dictionary that students can search for information. This can be a great addition to Encyclopedia articles that students might find through Worldbook. Searchasaurus - K-5 (left)
Kids Search 6-8 (pictured above) Student reseach center 6-12 (right)

Novelist k-8 plus and Novelist plus

This resource is also available through AEA 11 http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/ under the “Resources and Research Tools.” While you can get to this through AEA you also can use EBSCO to get to this as well which is linked through Iowa AEA online http://www.iowaaeaonline.org/
What is it: This is a great source when looking for titles of books. It searches both fiction and nonfiction. It additionally provides information on the books. Novelist k-8 is for elementary and middle school while Novelist plus is for middle and high school.
At the top you can do a basic search typing in the title, author, or subject. If it is something that it recognizes, it may prompt you underneath trying to finish what you are typing. On the left hand side there are other searches you can do. These are some of the topics under Browse: Award winners, author biographies, book talks, recommended books, book discussion guides, and curricular connections.
It also allows you to do more advanced searches and search for “alike” books by reading level or genre. Additionally it also allows you to focus on a target audience. You also can focus on fiction or nonfiction.
You can also get additional information on a particular book result that you get in a search including subjects/themes that are covered, a short summary, awards the book has won, book reviews, author websites, and other recommended reads.

Teen Health and Wellness

This resource is also available through AEA 11 http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/ under the “Resources and Research Tools.”
What is it: as it sounds topics are related to teen health and wellness. Topics are listed and then are narrowed down into smaller topics (tree search). Also some article have related topics listed on the left part of the page.
The major topics include: Body basics; Developmental disabilities and disorders; diseases, infections and conditions; diversity; drugs and alcohol; eating disorders; family life; friendship and dating; green living; grief and loss; mind, mood, and emotions; nutrition, fitness, and appearance; safety; sexuality and sexual health; skills for school, work and life.
There also is a glossary that students can use and refer to. Lastly if you are reading an article, resources (both fiction and nonfiction) are included. If you want to incorporate fiction titles in with units, this could be one possible way to do this. This resource is also great in that it gives the “how to cite this article” at the bottom of each page. Additionally there is a link for how to cite this article that will bring up a new window with just the citation.