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