Another Shout Out for Google Forms

Truth be told, I wasn't planning on posting a blog this week. Too much going on meant little time for me to post and little time for you to read.

Then I stepped into a class this morning to lead a Classroom Library Inventory Challenge with at Del Rey. Even though my Nov. 25 post is all about using a Google Form to create a Classroom Library Inventory, I'm dedicating this post to the same - it's just that good.

If you ever want to see kids genuinely working together toward a common goal, be actively engaged for over an hour, and thoroughly enjoy themselves in the process, throw the Classroom Library Inventory Project Challenge at them. You'll be amazed.

As a 5th grade teacher at Del Rey, Robyn Arthur has quite an extensive classroom library. Eager to try to organize her books using the Google Form (shared on the Nov. 25 post), we planned to tackle the Classroom Library Challenge in two sessions and carved out two hours for each session. Well, to make a long story short (after all, it's still a really busy week), we were done in one hour, a quarter of the time we expected it to take. Her students submitted a Google form for each book, placed each book according to her three designated book nook areas and were practicing TTL4 - all in one hour.

Enjoy this short movie trailer providing you with a peek of what a Classroom Library Inventory Challenge looks like (and to find out how many books are in Robyn's class). If you're interested in creating your own classroom library, feel free to contact me for more information.

                                 

Have a great rest of the week and a delightful Winter Break.

Patsy Templeton


ptempleton@orinda.k12.ca.us
Technology Coach
Orinda Union School District

Awesome Animation News

FableVision Fans - Get Ready to Flip Out

                                   

                                   
It's probably not a huge surprise that my all-time "wish-I-was-back-in-the-classroom-again" favorite computer applications is Animation Ish by Peter H. Reynolds. I love that it can be used by students of all ages and in all areas of curriculum.

Since it's "time that of year", I'm happy to share that FableVision (home to Animation Ish) is giving a 20% discount on a copy of Animation Ish as well as any other FableVision product. All you need to provide is the promotional code: FABFALL20. Even parents can get in on this deal.

Here's a letter to parents - email me (or leave a comment below) if you'd like an electronic copy.

                              

Another Awesome Animation Idea 

Stickman by Patsy

I was recently introduced to an oh-so-cool website called Draw a Stickman. Talk about fun with animation - take some time for a Stickman Adventure (about a five minute commitment). 

Good for ALL ages.

Enjoy!

Patsy Templeton
ptempleton@orinda.k12.ca.us
925-258-6317

Creating an Inventory for Your Classroom Library -- in Minutes

Image from Notebook

I am easily impressed with Google Apps for Education but this idea could be my
Number One Reason Why I Love Google. For any teacher who has a classroom full of tubs housing a bazillion books, you will love, love, LOVE this idea too.

Here's the scoop:
Using a Google Form, a stack of books and some students, an inventory can be created in about 45 minutes. In less than an hour, you'll have access to a spreadsheet with ALL of your book titles.
I was anxious to see this in real time so with Therese Long's 5th grade class, we asked them to participate and complete a survey for each book title.

Students submitted a form for each title

Nothing for Therese to do but sit and relax...                       

Here's a snap shot of the working document, changing each time a form was submitted.

Interested?? 

You can do this too and here's how...

Create your own Google Form 

OR click on the link below for a generic template:

Classroom Library Survey

Make a copy (once you've opened the spreadsheet, go to File > Make a copy. Tweak as you see fit and then place the survey link so students can easily access it. 

For Therese's class, we placed it on her Student Bookmark section on her ed1stop account.

That's all there is to it. As soon as a survey is submitted, it records the results on a spreadsheet. Part of the fun was displaying the spreadsheet for the class to see. While the kids were working, the numbers increased with each submitted form. Talk about immediate feedback. Her class was able to inventory 218 titles in 30 minutes. The best part? Kids were so excited to have played a huge role in the creating of the data. They all agreed that having a reference like this will make it easier to find books.

Have younger students? No access to laptops? Not a problem...
Students too young? Ask your Big Buddy class to help.
No access laptops? Bring the tubs of books to your computer lab instead.
Big Buddies too young? Ask a few eager parent helpers.

If you like this idea but are unsure about how to start, don't hesitate to contact me. I'll be happy to join you for any portion of this endeavor.

Enjoy your eduTech Tuesday,



Patsy Templeton
OUSD Technology Coach
ptempleton@orinda.k12.ca.us
925-258-6317

Time to Talk Turkey, I mean Tech -- I mean TURKEY!

Image created with SMART Notebook

From history.com - video about the First Thanksgiving

This fun time of year comes with an age-old problem - 

so much to do, so little time.

And so it goes with websites -- after taking a close look, here are my "top 10 interactive websites" that might prove helpful this week.

1)  Silly Turkey

     (Grades K - 1)

     From Starfall - a super cute story emphasizing letter sounds.

2)  Turkey Surprise

     (Grades K - 2)

     Another sweet, interactive story 

3) Turkey On Strike and Native Americans Giving Corn to Pilgrim

     (Grades 1 - 5)

     Two really cute puzzles that animate when solved - sure to put
     a smile on the faces of all. The Native American puzzle has three levels of
        difficulty, providing a healthy challenge at every grade level.


4)  The Thanksgiving Quiz

     (Grades 3 - 5) 

     Students read a story (online) and take a quiz to test their 
     knowledge about Thanksgiving.

5)  Quiz Your Noodle
     (Grades 3-5)
     Fun interactive site to see how much students know about 
     Thanksgiving.

6)  Turkey Anagrams (a personal favorite)
     (Grades 3 - 8)
     Students solve Thanksgiving phrases out of anagrams. 

7)  Talk Like a Pilgrim 

     (Grades 4 - 5)

     This site showcases the differences between 17th century

     English language and now.

8)  Thanksgiving Timeline
     (Grades 4 - 8)
     Loads of information about Thanksgiving celebrations 
     from 1541 - 2001.

And don't forget...

9)  Teacher Cadre Projects can be found on the ed1stop website. 

10) SMART Exchange - Thanksgiving - you'll find quite a few

       ready-to-use Notebook lessons.

Hope these are useful - here's to a fantastic Conference Week, followed by Thanksgiving!

Patsy Templeton

Patsy Templeton

OUSD Technology Coach

ptempleton@orinda.k12.ca.us

258-6317

Getting the Most Out of Your Mac

Photo from DiscoveryEducation
Edited using Notebook

When working on a Mac, there are quite a few built-in features worth knowing about so here's a set of super short videos explaining the answers to five frequently asked questions. 

1. How do you zoom in? 

(41 seconds)

Zoom Feature from Patsy Templeton on Vimeo.

2. How do you change the size of the cursor? 

(47 seconds)

3. How do you get text to speech? 

(1:02)

4. Why does my computer go to sleep so fast? 

(46 seconds)

5. How do you take a screen shot? 

(57 seconds)

I hope these videos are helpful. Feel free to add a comment below.

Patsy Templeton

Patsy Templeton

OUSD Technology Coach
ptempleton@orinda.k12.ca.us

Light Bulb Moment

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zetson/3036254720/

At best, I consider myself an inconsistent blogger. I love the idea of blogging and am a voracious reader of other blogs but I've always had a hard time keeping mine up to date. I started a blog like this one over a year ago without a real purpose (other than to practice using a cool tech tool) and posted sporadically -- very sporadically.

While blogging may have ended up on the back burner, finding an efficient way to share information with teachers was not. In addition to the standard email, I started to share video tutorials (via Dropbox) for those who ask for help with a particular task (i.e. How do I use Google Forms?) and I've also created wikis for resources from our August staff day, general tech tips, how to use the SMART Board and Math. These are great places to go but I still wanted to be able to share current info. with everyone.

After attending the fall CUE conference this weekend, my daydream of effectively communicating with teachers became a nagging can't-think-of-much-else sensation. How do I get great pieces of info. out to teachers without committing them to an afternoon after school, taking them out of the classroom and/or bombarding them with long emails...??

Insert "Light Bulb Moment" here -- how about using a blog and posting bite-size tech ideas on a weekly basis? This idea has been percolating over the last few months and now it's crystal clear - I have found the purpose to this blog. You won't have to write sub plans to get here. You won't have to rearrange your after school plans either. You won't even have to read through detailed emails.
It will be here whenever you're ready.

Having started this blog idea over a year ago, I'm excited to think about its future.

A sneak peek at the first few posts will include (in no particular order):

Ways to Manage Our Electronic Stuff
Getting the Most Out of Your Mac
Going Ga Ga for Google
Copyright -- the CASE Principle

So get ready for 

Templeton's eduTech Tuesdays,

coming to you each week, starting today -

Tuesday, November 1, 2011.

-Patsy

Patsy Templeton
OUSD Technology Coach
ptempleton@orinda.k12.ca.us