Alice 3 and Java Institute

I'm guessing that a lot of educators share my thought process when looking for new curriculum or materials to use in classes. I want to keep my classes fresh and new, so what I use has to be engaging, but it also has to be quality and reflect the goals and objectives I want students to achieve. I was excited to have the opportunity to attend the Alice 3 and Java Institute for Community College Faculty a couple weeks ago, and am even more excited to start using Alice 3 in classes after attending! In case anyone reading teaches anything Computer Science related, I thought I'd share a little about what Alice is and what we learned over this 4 day institute.

First of all, let me explain a little about what Alice is. Straight from the Alice website, www.alice.org, 

"Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a freely available teaching tool designed to be a student's first exposure to object-oriented programming. It allows students to learn fundamental programming concepts in the context of creating animated movies and simple video games." http://www.alice.org/index.php?page=what_is_alice/what_is_alice

So in short, Alice is a programming environment you can use to introduce logic and programming in a fun, exciting, engaging, non-scary way. I've only taught our CIS-115 Introduction to Programming and Logic class a couple of times, but I distinctly remember one thing about teaching it- the look of fear on some of my student's faces after reading terms like algorithm, variables, and strings on the syllabus. Last fall when teaching the class, I used a program similar to Alice, but found that it didn't have the direct correlation to Java or C++ that I was looking for. Enter Alice. 

First of all, how could you not have fun with something like this, where our first assignment was to create an animation scene from Finding Nemo? Throughout our 4 days, we learned all about problem solving using Alice, how to set up scenes, how to create motion, design algorithm, procedures and parameters, built-in functions, creating our own functions, variables, strings, and how to transition to Java using NetBeans. 

One of the hardest things to get the hang of when writing code (for students and for me) is syntax! I remember back when I took my first programming class staying up all night writing code and running, writing code and running, to realize after tons of time spent searching that my issue was usually one little punctuation mark out of place or error in spelling keeping everything from working. Of course, just using something like NetBeans or Eclipse helps with that immensely, Alice takes it a step further.

Imagine being able to teach logic, and introduce students to the concepts of programming by letting them actually program without worrying about syntax. That's exactly what Alice will allow you to do. I really like how easy it is to create in Alice, but also how seamless the transition to Java is. Below you can see how this simple scene is written in Alice, then the same scene looks in Java. So you can teach the concepts, the language, the terminology all in Alice, and have students build much more complex programs than they could in Java or another language. Using a plug-in for NetBeans, you can import your Alice program straight into NetBeans so that you can see how it looks in Java, then make any modifications you want.

Nemo scene in Alice

Nemo scene in NetBeans, using Java

I think looking at the above, you can see what a great teaching tool Alice would be for anyone teaching Java or C++. Even if you're not a computer science teacher, I can see Alice being a great tool to teach about story and creative writing. To set up a scene, you really have to plan things out, think about markers, view point, and more. 

One of the best parts, is that you can download Alice and supporting materials and resources for free from the Alice website at www.alice.org. If you're looking for a new way to introduce computer programming, be sure to check it out! I'm even planning on including an Alice project into my CIS 110, Introduction to Computers classes. I'll be using it primarily with college students, but I can see Alice being a great tool for middle school and high school students as well.

I think the Alice Team did a great job not only teaching us about Alice, but also in constantly supporting and updating the program to make it better and easier for teachers to use! 

Feedly or Bloglovin'?

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Well, for as long as I tried to deny it would actually happen- Google Reader really is going away. In fact, after this weekend, it's gone for good! There are tons of blog posts out there offering suggestions for replacement RSS Readers, and after trying out a couple options I've narrowed it down to two I like. I thought I'd just offer up my opinion of both Feedly and Bloglovin.

So here are a couple observations about each of these services:

Ease of Setup
Both Feedly and Bloglovin make it super easy to import all of your feeds from Google Reader with just one click of a button. If you're a Reader user anyway, this is a huge plus! However, I did notice that when I did this, Feedly kept the blogs that I had in different folders or labels separate  while I'm having to put all my blogs into categories again on Bloglovin.

Feedly categories capture

Bloglovin Screen Capture

Layout

As far as layout goes, I am leaning towards Bloglovin at this point. They both have a simple, organized layout, but I am enjoying the way unread posts display in Bloglovin a bit more. I also like seeing the categories on the right so I can quickly gauge how many unread posts I have.

Adding Content

For me, Bloglovin wins this one. I have really enjoyed being able to add new content, or just test out reading new posts or blogs by glancing through the Popular Posts and Top Blogs sections that are listed at the top of the screen. These are also available on the app, which is great since (during the summer at least) that's where I spend most of blog time. Of course you can also add content by typing in a blog name, keyword, or URL. While I do prefer Bloglovin for this, Feedly makes it easy to add content as well! I've had success adding to both readers using # searches. Here's an example of the results when I searched #education. I would love to see an education category added to both services...maybe with Reader leaving us that will eventually happen?

Feedly #education search

Bloglovin #education search

 So, those are a couple of the things I looked for when deciding on a replacement for Google Reader. For me, Bloglovin wins for now. (And it should be noted that their app is pretty awesome too!) You can follow this blog on Bloglovin using the link at the top of the post!

What are you using to replace Google Reader?

Seeing Google Drive in a New Light

Today I’d like to share with you two apps that make my job as a teacher infinitely easier and more manageable. These are not new, and aren’t even new to me, but I’ve seen them in a new light this year, and want to jot my thoughts down.

When it comes to technology, there are two companies I love. I am a total fan girl of both Google and Apple. I own many Apple devices- a MacBook Air, an iPad, and I’m now on my 3rd iPhone. I love Google mostly for their suite of collaboration  tools- Google Drive, which is what I really want to talk about today. As a tech facilitator, using Google Drive (then Docs) was a part of my daily work flow. Whether I was creating checklists and spreadsheets for my own use or working with my colleagues, Google Docs was the go-to. Docs was used to write rough drafts of papers in grade school, used to keep collaborative agendas and meeting notes at work, and to create and share presentations with teachers and students. I used to constantly tell teachers how much I loved Docs, and tried to demonstrate many many ways in which they could use it as well. I believed in the product, and loved how much easier it made my life as a tech facilitator.

Now that I’m teaching again, I have discovered even more ways to use Google Drive. I’m now using Drive in the ways I tried to convince my teachers to use it in the past, and I’ve got to say- I love it! I guess it’s just reaffirming to me to be back in a teaching position and realize that all of the things I used to spend time trying to convince my teachers to do actually do work! Here are a few ways I’ve used Drive (so far) this semester:

1. All course syllabi are created in Drive. This means I can embed or link them in my courses- and when I make changes or updates I don’t have to worry about re-uploading the Word file.
2. All course schedules are created in Drive. Again, I can embed on the home page of my course and any changes are automatically updated. Here’s an example.
3. At the beginning of the semester, students create blogs on Blogger. Throughout the semester, they need to be able to read each other’s blog posts and comment. To make it easy to keep up with everyone’s URLs, I create a table on a Google Document for them to fill in their name, class section, and URL. Since they haven’t been introduced to Drive yet, I make it viewable and editable by the public. So far, no one has erased anyone else’s work (but if they did, I could just restore using Revision History).
4. For each chapter, I have a listening guide students fill out. I created all the listening guides in Drive, and set the Sharing settings so that anyone who has the link can view. On the guide itself, there are directions for making a copy for themselves and turning it back into me…which they can do through Drive. Here’s an example of that. The best part of that is, the lecture guides can serve as a study guide for them at the end of the semester.
5. Students use Google Presentations to create collaborative projects. This means they all have access to work whenever and wherever, and it is also super simple for them to share with me.

There are many other ways I’m using Drive this year, but those are probably the ways that have the most direct student impact. None of these ideas are earth-shattering in their innovativeness or newness, they sure do make my (and my students’ lives easier)!

How do you use Google Drive?

Doing Learning

This semester I'm teaching several sections of an Introduction to Computers course, which is an interesting class to teach for many reasons. One of the most interesting things to me is the range of students that take the class. Even though the course is an introductory one, the ability level and background content knowledge level of students is all over the place. This can make for an interesting classroom culture. One of my teaching philosophies, if you will, is that students have to "do" in order to learn. I think this is particularly true in the case of technology courses. I can lecture and "book talk" all day long, but if students don't take ownership of their learning, it doesn't really stick with them.

For this reason, I incorporate quite a few collaborative and self-guided individual and group projects in the course. In my previous job as an Instructional Technology Facilitator, I spent my days working with teachers and trying to convince them to do the same thing in their classes. Being back in the classroom (and for this, I don't think there's much difference in being in a K-12 classroom or in higher ed as I am now) has given me an opportunity to practice what I was previously preaching, and to reflect on whether or not it really works.

Yesterday, in the fourth week of the semester, I gave one of my seated classes their 2nd project assignment. Their 1st project was a group effort and they created a Google Presentation. It was more directed from me. For this assignment, I gave them the option to work alone or form small groups. I also gave them a choice of topic (we were focusing on Digital Communications, and they had 5 topics in that area to choose from). I also gave them a choice of tools to use to create their presentation. I spent about 2-3 minutes quickly demonstrating about 6 different web tools, which included Prezi, Glogster, Mixbook, Voicethread, Slide Rocket, and a few others. I made sure to point out that my goal wasn't to teach them how to use the tools, but just to show them a few different options. I also made sure they realized that part of the project was to spend time playing and learning the web tool they chose to use. They had the rest of class to get started, and they'll have part of tomorrow's class as well. Once they finish creating their project, they will post it to their blog and then spend time reading and commenting on each other's posts.

So yesterday, after I gave the assignment and made sure each knew how to get started, I gave students the option to either stay and work or put in their lab time elsewhere. And you know what happened? They all stayed. Even knowing the project wasn't due until after next class, in which they have more time, and even though they had the option to go home, they stayed and worked. And not all, but most went ahead and finished the project so they can come in Thursday and write their blog post. They asked questions when they couldn't figure something out or just to make sure they were doing something such as saving or submitting a link correctly. But they figured out how to create.

And you know what the best part is? I saw some really awesome projects. So these students who had never used these web tools before taught themselves to create some really great things. And was the objective of the assignment that they learn how to use Prezi, or Glogster, or Mixbook, or whatever? Absolutely not. But what they accomplished that I am most happy with is that those students who walked into class afraid to try  anything new or touch a key that I didn't ask them to touch learned that they don't have to be afraid of computers.

I think that's one of the most important life and school lessons- not to be afraid to try. And I guess that's what makes me sad about what I'm hearing from some of my K-12 teacher friends. Common Core or old SCS, there isn't time to let students try. And fail. And do. Which is how we learn.

App Icon Alphabet for Word Wall

So I've made some major changes in the job department in the last month, but I'll be back later to give an update on that! First, I want to share something that I think is a super cute idea.

As I was doing my morning ritual of scrolling through Pinterest before I got up this morning (that's addiction y'all), I saw a super cute idea from one of my favorite Pinners for teacher resources, Jennifer Jones.

Source: snowbadger.com via Leslie on Pinterest

The idea was to use the App icons as headers for a Word Wall. Totally cute, right? So I repinned and tweeted the pin. After doing so, I realized that the link to icons was not to the individual icons, but to 1 image of all of them compiled. So of course, being the super geek that I am, I spent a little bit of time this afternoon finding icons and compiling them so they'd be simple for my teacher friends to print out. After a bit of searching, I was able to find all the letters...and even found multiple choices for a couple. I hope these are useful to some of you! You can see a preview of these letters to the right...but you can download the whole thing using the link below!

App Icon Alphabet for Word Wall

So what do you think- can you guess the apps these icons represent? Any changes I should make? Let me know if you have other apps that would make for better letters!

3 Easy Integration Ideas for Your Blog

I talked in an earlier post about the evolution of the use of blogging in my classroom. Whenever I mention starting a classroom blog to teachers, or do professional development sessions that involve blogs, there are a few ways to use blogs in the classroom that I seem to always mention. Here's a list of a few ways you can use a classroom or student blogs in the classroom.

1. Blogging is writing, so it's pretty obvious that the go-to use of blogs is to have students write. A blog is a perfect place for students to keep a learning journal, reflection log, or writing notebook! For this, a service such as Kidblog is perfect for creating and managing blogs for younger students. Older students or adult learners could use Google's Blogger easily for this. This is a blogger blog !
2. When I was in the elementary classroom, I loved using my class blog as a center activity. Students rotated through the blogging station through-out the week. Each week there was a discussion question for them to answer or reply to. I posted the topic or question, and they replied back through comments. There were quite a few reasons that I loved using blogging as a center. Let's be honest- as a teacher time is the one thing you never have enough of! Each week, the only setup I had to worry about for this center was posting a question or topic. Also, depending on the need, the question or topic could be from any content area or subject! Finally, it was great seeing students answer the question and then be excited to reply back to others in the class!
3. Another thing that my students always loved was looking at the stats from our class blog. In blogger, you can view your page views broken down by country. It didn't take too long to get page views from countries around the world...and students were so excited about that! So not only were students motivated to make sure their writing was up to par with being seen around the world, but I could also use the stats as a way to engage students in learning about other cultures, countries, geography, and more. We could even pull mathematics in by using the measurement tools in Google Earth to measure distances between different places, or in upper grades by using the page view numbers and converting them into the fractional or decimal parts.

So those are 3 pretty simple ways to use a classroom blog. How do you use yours?

New URL and Domain!

Good morning! I'm still finding ways to procrastinate from working on my dissertation proposal, I've FINALLY starting setting up the domain that my brother and sister-in-law gifted me for CHRISTMAS.  That's taken long enough, huh? Anyway...for now at least this blog will still redirect, so it should be okay if you leave your reader feed set as it is. However, you can actually set your reader to the new URL at http://blog.leslienoggle.com if you'd like!  Once I actually make some progress on the dissertation front, I'll be working on my site more!

Happy Friday!

Social Studies Fun with QR Codes

I don't know about any of you, but it has been a whirlwind summer so far! This week our county has started summer hours for 12 month employees, which are Monday - Thursday 7am - 6pm. It makes for long days, but I am really looking forward to having Fridays off for the next few weeks!

I'm just now getting the chance to sit down and reflect on a few things from the school year, and I wanted to share one of the fun things I had the opportunity to do during the last couple weeks of school. I got spend some time doing one of my favorite things- working with 3rd graders! Mrs. Bare at Carr Elementary contacted me about collaborating on a social studies lesson focusing on inventors. We had the best time!

Once Mrs. Bare told me which inventors to focus on, I created a QR code for each inventor that took students to a biography page, video, or other resource for that inventor. I printed each QR code out on a single sheet of paper and posted them around the school (making sure to post in places where there was a wireless signal). Students were paired up, and each pair was given an i-Pod touch. To complete the activity, students searched for the QR codes, scanned them using i-nigma, and filled in the requested information on their handout. The QR codes were also on the handout, since I wasn't sure they would be able to travel around the school that day. The activity took over an hour- and it was great to see students intent on reading the information on each site! They even asked for more time so they could watch the accompanying videos on each site. After the research portion was done, students could then take their information and use it to create presentations to share with each other. I loved doing this activity with this great group of 3rd graders!


If you'd like the QR code printouts, student handouts, and lesson plan for this lesson just leave a comment and I'll be glad to send it out or post it!


Below you can enjoy some pictures of students hard at work.

Our Responsibility to Keep on Learning

I took the time today to do something I haven't done in a long time- browse through a few of the latest posts form the Elementary Ed folder on my Google Reader. You don't think it's really been that long? Oh trust me, I have evidence! Those numbers (which indicate the number of unread items in each folder) aren't pretty are they? While these numbers are true, they don't tell you that I've still kept up with Twitter through Hootsuite and Flipboard, and have done a little blog browsing on Flipboard, but obviously I've fallen way behind in the last few weeks. And yes, this is a crazy busy time of year, not just at work but also personally. But is that an excuse to fall behind or just stop reading the feeds I've subscribed to? While we all need a break sometimes, I don't think it would be okay at all for me to just stop reading what other teachers and educators are doing, seeing their ideas, and keeping up with the latest issues and never pick back up with it. Within 10 minutes of looking through a couple posts in my Elementary Education folder, I had found several pretty awesome lesson ideas and teaching reflections.

Here's the thing- as an educator, I've pretty much signed up and agreed to be a life-long learner, right? Furthermore, in my current position, I also provide lesson ideas and have the responsibility of training other teachers. If I don't keep up with what is going on in classrooms both in my county and globally, am I not doing a disservice to the teachers I serve? I think so. And by keeping up- I don't mean by just knowing what vendors or other people in my position are doing. Neither of those are necessarily bad resources, but if I'm going to truly help teachers, isn't it going to help me to get first-hand reports and ideas from people who are doing great things in the classroom right now? I think so!

So, as we are immersed in the world of assessment next week and start to feel summer fever, just remember that there are other teachers just like us out there who are still publishing their great ideas. You may just find something that rejuvenates you for the rest of this year or excites you for the next!

You can check out a couple of my folders by clicking on the bundles I've linked below (you may even see the blogs of a couple of our rock-star GCS Pinnacle Leaders):

Elementary Education

Educational Technology

My Favorite Apps: Top Three for Keeping Up

This post is Part 2 in a series of My Favorite Apps. Here's what you might have missed:

My Favorite Apps: Top Two for Notes.

There are thousands of apps out there that will allow the iPad to be used in many, many ways. I have to say that in my house, unless I'm going to be formatting a research paper or something of that nature, it is the device I pick up the most. At work, it is my go-to device for when I'm traveling from school to school and want something quick and light-weight to carry around to take notes, check emails, do web browsing, and more. As I mentioned before, right now in my district administrators can purchase iPads for their use and we are now accepting applications for a student pilot of iPads in the classroom. Since administrators are the ones who have iPads in hand right now, I'm still keeping my focus on apps for them and teachers.

Don't judge me for the US Weekly and Disney feeds!

So today, I'd like to share my favorite apps for taking in content. By content, I mean the apps I use to keep up with the blogs I read, news, current trends, and a little social media. My first love for this is Flipboard. The first great thing about Flipboard? It's free. So what does it do? Well according to the makers of the app, it's a social magazine. Great, but what does that mean? Basically, you tell it what content you are interested in, and it pulls that specific content into a visually appealing magazine like format. All in one place. So no more going to twitter to read tweets, google reader to reed feeds, specific news sites to read the news. Everything is all there in one place. For those of you who are thinking, well I do that already with RSS feeds in a reader, well I did too! The reason I like Flipboard so much for this is because it displays the content in a more visual format, kind of like a magazine. You can see in the screenshot of a page of my Flipboard screen, I have a mixture of blogs, bundled folders from my Google Reader, magazines, and twitter hashtag searches all feeding into Flipboard. And I can turn the pages by swiping my finger. Also, I can easily share anything I find interesting by tweeting or Facebook-ing it, or I can send links via email. Pretty cool right? I think so too.

A second app that I really like is Zite. Instead of pulling your specific feeds into the app, you pick out sections from categories such as Technology, Education, Social Media, Pets, and more. You can also enter your own keywords to create sections. You can also connect to your accounts such as Google Reader, Facebook, and more. Zite pulls in stories, and you can "like" them, kind of like you like songs on Pandora or rate movies on Netflix. The app uses your preferences to send you more stories. It's a great way to get information and see articles you know you'll be interested in. And of course you can also share what you're reading with the click of a button finger. Be careful...this app by default does make a whistle noise when it shares...it drives my dogs crazy every time!

And finally, even though I do love Flipboard for getting my read fixes in a visual way, I can't not give props (is that still a saying?) to the Hootsuite App. I first started using this one more than Tweetdeck at the urging of Jason Mammano over at Have Technology Will Travel, all because he loved the little owl that pops up when you send a tweet. Seriously though, I think it is great for many reasons. You can add multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts, add hashtag searches to your streams, see all your direct messages, mentions, retweets, and more. You can also view analytics from this app, and follow people straight from the app. The other clincher for me is that if I'm not using my iPad, I can log-in from the web and everything is all synched together. For some reason there were times when my Tweetdeck columns weren't synched between devices, which gave Hootsuite the advantage for me. Also great was the one time last summer when I tweeted a question to @hootsuite about an issue I was having, they replied back in less than 5 minutes. The free Hootsuite app and site both have a few ads, but I barely notice them.

So those are the apps I use to keep up with content- what are your favorites?

My Advice About Teaching with Technology

I spent a little time tonight looking back at the classroom blog that I started back during my first full year as a teacher, before I was even accepted in the Pinnacle Technology Leader program that we have in my county. In fact, I had forgotten that I even HAD a blog way back then, but the proof is there! What's interesting to me is comparing the blog I had then to the blog that I had the next year. One reason I love having a personal blog is because it's like a diary of sorts that reminds of those sometimes mundane turned awesome life happenings when memory fails. As is turns out, my classroom and professional blogs work the same way.

In looking back at my first classroom blog, it was totally there to distribute information. It wasn't to provide collaboration or spur discussion, but simply used as a tool to get information out to parents and students.

1st Class Blog

2nd Class Blog

But then I took a look at the classroom blog that I used the next year, and it had obviously evolved into something more than simply information distribution. By this time, I was not only using the blog to post assignments and communicate with parents, but was also using our classroom blog as a weekly literacy/content center, and as a place to get student feedback on many activities we did in the classroom. 

But thinking back on this time in my classroom, not only had my use of blogging changed, but my use of technology in general had changed as well. When I first started teaching, whatever technology I used was mostly just that- me using technology. I was lucky enough to have a school laptop that I could use to write lesson plans on, and had easy enough access to a projector when I wanted to show a video or a website for use in my lessons. And I think that was natural, especially when I take into account that I started teaching in my own classroom half-way through a school year. It was more about survival and figuring out where to pick up than making things my own.

But...just like my blog evolved in my 2nd year, so did my other use of technology. I started focusing on letting my students use whatever technology was available, not just me. And it wasn't just about using the technology... I figured out that what was most important was what students were DOING with technology. So using the technology wasn't important, but learning was. And learning new technologies wasn't even important, but learning about the moon, or other countries, or about the life cycles of plants, or about how to work together even with people you aren't best friends with was the important stuff. And if through doing that, students learned new technology or got to use the newest "it" site great. 

And you know what? Teaching with technology, and integrating it in a way that was seamless and flowed wasn't always easy. BUT. It was possible. I know it was, because I did it. But that doesn't mean that it is going to happen overnight.

So my advice to all those trying to figure out ways to teach with all this new technology? Whether you're a veteran teacher trying to update your teaching practices or a novice teacher already in love with all things tech...take it step by step. Baby steps are okay. The same methods don't work for everyone, and that's okay. If this year or this semester, you want to try using a class blog or give a site like Edmodo a try and just focus on communication, that's okay. Don't feel like you have to do everything at once, and don't feel like you have to try every single new thing out there. Because you know what? Technology and all the cool new stuff shouldn't really the focus. Your content should be. All that cool stuff may be a great way to engage your students in your content...but that's what your Instructional Technology Facilitator can help you with too! 

So if you're scared, it's okay! Take small steps, and don't be afraid to ask for help!

What's your advice for integrating technology into teaching?

Have you looked at Thinkfinity lately?

A site that has been around for a while, but kind of fell off the radar for me is Thinkfinity. After hearing a couple of colleagues talk up Thinkfinity based on a session they attended at TCEA, I decided to give the site another look. Well, it turns out that I have really done myself a disservice by not using Thinkfinity in the past! So, what is it? Powered by the Verizon Foundation, Thinkfinity is a great website that houses K-12 lesson plans as well as other interactive lesson materials. Not only are lessons linked to state and common core standards, but there is great content available from Thinkfinity partners such as National Geographic, Read Write Think, NCTM's Illumimations, Wonderopolis, and more. Part of the power of Thinkfinity for me though is not just that there are thousands of resources that are already available, but that you can also join the Thinkfinity Community, which gives you access to resources that other educators are finding and using as well. Once you've joined the community, you can save and organize your favorite resources and join in on discussions about those resources. It turns Thinkfinity into a PLN of its own, which I love. Since the majority of my time is spent planning and providing professional development for teachers on different technology tools and how to integrate those tools, one of my favorite finds in the Thinkfinity Community has been the Integration Framework for Educators, which is a 5 step process for successful integration of technology into an instructional activity. I like that it asks specific questions and really takes teachers through the thought process of implementing technology tools while keeping instructional content the focus.

Have you checked out Thinkfinity? What did you think?

My Favorite Apps: Top Two for Notes

You can't go anywhere without hearing about iPads...they're all the rage at conferences, in some school districts, and more. Even when I go out to eat, you see kids (and adults) playing with their iPads at the table. Now I'm not here to judge whether or not that's okay (especially since I may have been guilty of pulling mine out once or twice), but what I would like to do is share some of my favorite apps. There are apps for everything it seems, and app lists aren't hard to come by at all. Sometimes it can even be a little overwhelming because there are SO MANY great apps out there. In our district, right now it is approved for administrators to purchase iPads, and we are in the beginning stages of running an iPad Pilot for students. I can't wait to share my favorite apps for student use, but in this post I'm going to stick with top 2 apps that have been invaluable to me at work and as a doctoral student for note-taking and organization.

PaperPort Notes (formerly Noterize)

An app that I first fell in love with last year when I first purchased my iPad (thank you Uncle Sam for that tax refund!) was Noterize. It was described as a "digital note taking tool," which doesn't even begin to tell you about the magic you could make happen with this app. Unfortunately, my favorite app became unavailable for a while, but now you can grab it by it's new name- PaperPort Notes. So what's so magical about this app? Well- you can create notes, obviously. And on those notes, you can add "sticky notes" or annotate using a pen and highlighter tool. Pair this app with a stylus and it's like having that legal pad to carry around with you everywhere. But what I use it for the most is annotating over pdf files. I can import my pdf files from several services such as Dropbox and Google. I could also choose to use Paperport to open the pdf when I first open it on the iPad. Then, I can use the same sticky note, pen, or highlighter tool to annotate on that pdf. When I'm done, I can choose to share it by email, or export it out to Evernote, Google, or Dropbox. And have I mentioned that it also uses Dragon Dictation's voice recording technology so I can talk instead of text if needed? Amazing. My favorite organizational, I need to do work App. I use it to store and annotate over research articles, mark up pdf checklists when I don't have access to wireless, and more.


Evernote

An app that is coming in to a very close 2nd place for me is Evernote. I admit that when I first tried it a couple of years ago, I was not impressed and I just didn't "get it." But a colleague recently shared some conference swag with me- and in that swag was a free premium month at Evernote. I rarely turn down free, so I of course went through the pain of remembering my login and vowed to give it another shot. Wow. That was my first thought, and my second, and my third...Before we even talk about the many features of the app, a big plus for me is that not only is the App great, but everything synchs to the Evernote website, meaning that even if I don't have my iPad with me (blasphemy!) I have access to my content. From this app, which you can see in the App Store here, I can view and create Notebooks, and then create Notes inside of those. Here's a pic of my Notebooks. On the left side, you can see a list of the notes that I have saved in this notebook. On the right, a larger preview of the Note I was looking at. Those notes with the nice bulleted list and the link you see there? All typed straight from the iPad. Oh, and that audio player you see? Did I mention that you can also record from the app as you are taking notes? Yep. Magical. And I can also add images, either using the iPad camera or from my Camera Roll directly into the Note.
Once I've created a note, if I wish to share it, Evernote will let me add specific people to the note (or Notebook) or give me a public link. Awesomeness. And honestly...the free version is just as good, you just don't have quite as big of an upload limit.

So although there are many many more apps I'd love to share, i'm going to save those for later posts as I think I've rambled enough for today!

What are your favorite note-taking or organization apps? Let me know in the comments.

MLK Day Resources

We just got back from Christmas break, and soon we will be celebrating the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday. If you're looking for a way to incorporate a Social Studies lesson on this topic before break, hopefully you will find something of use in one of these resources!

I'm sure a lot of you have tons of MLK resources, but just in case, here are a few:

Scholastic's MLK Day Resources page includes lots of info, links, and a Notebook lesson: http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/collection.jsp?id=149

Remember you can get the full "I Have a Dream" speech transcript (print and audio) on American Rhetoric: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm or on Discovery Education

This school system has compiled a plethora (I just love that word) of resources, including background info, blackline masters, lesson plans, technology links, and a list of Discovery Education clips: http://www.vrml.k12.la.us/holidays/mlk/mlk.htm

Larry Ferlazzo is an ESL teacher who compiles list of website resources for different topics- this one is 2 years old, but has some good ones that would be great for EC, ESL, or lower level students. For example, the first site listed is a biography of MLK created by students that is text, but can be read to students. http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/12/21/the-best-websites-about-martin-luther-king/

Here are some resources from different government agencies http://www.free.ed.gov/keywords.cfm?keyword_id=954

And finally, if you search for MLK lessons on the SMART Exchange, this is what you'll get: http://exchange.smarttech.com/search.html?m=01&&q=martin+luther+king&tab=resources&sf=d

http://exchange.smarttech.com/search.html?tab=resources&q=MLK&sbj=

Hope there's something in here you can use in the next couple weeks! What's your favorite MLK Day resource?

Cool things in Anson County

Back in October I had a chance to visit Anson County Schools.....way down there on 74 from Gaston County. Although the purpose of the meeting was to sit in on a planning meeting between Anson County and Discovery Education, I ended up getting so much more than just that out of the meeting. After the meeting (at which very neat plans were made for implementation and training of Discovery Education's resources in the county) concluded, those of us visiting were given the opportunity to tour Anson County School's very own planetarium and science center.

All I could think was...wow! Not only does this school system have their own planetarium, but the connected science center is home to live animals, materials for every science experiment you can imagine, learning stations for a variety of units and topics, and awesome technology including 3 SMART Tables. Check out the pictures! Wouldn't you love to be a student (or teacher) who gets to be a scientist in this amazing lab? 

Check out this amazing center all about trees and soil!

Wouldn't you love to be student using all these supplies to do amazing science experiments?

And even get to wear a lab coat like a real scientist!

They didn't forget about technology...check out the SMART Tables

They have snakes....

And hissing cockroaches...

And iguanas oh my!

The Polar Express and Holiday Ideas

Every year as the holidays draw near, it seems like I see more and more great ideas to use in the classroom. Keep reading to see a few of this year's favorites!

My (P)Interesting Obsession with Pinterest

Have you checked out Pinterest yet? Pinterest is a site that basically lets users create virtual pinboards. You can create different boards to keep your pins organized, and you can also browse the boards of other users. So what is a pin? According to the Pinterest site, a pin is an image you add to Pinterest. It is super easy to install the Pin It button to your toolbar in any browser by following the directions here.

Pin It button

Once you've installed the Pin It button, you'll see this in your bookmark bar 

Yours most likely won't have a pink background...but that's how I roll in my browser themes :)

Once you have the Pin It button installed, you're ready to start pinning! Basically, anytime you see something you like on the web and want to remember for later, just click the Pin It button. As long as there are images on the page, Pinterest will pull all of those images and ask which you'd like to Pin. For example, the last page I pinned consisted of these images

I was able to click Pin This on the image I wanted to add to my board. The next step is choosing which board to add your pin to.

From here, I can simply choose the board I want to add to (or choose create a new one). You can see in the picture above that I chose to add this pin to the board called SMART Activities and Sites. You can also choose to add a description to your pins, and if you have your account connected to Facebook and/or Twitter, share your new pin with those followers as well.

Even if you're not into pinning, I have observed Pinterest quickly becoming my go-to place for finding great ideas and resources for the classroom. You can look through pins without having accounts- so you can search for a keyword you're looking for, or just look at pins in a certain category. The list below only show about half the categories available, but I wanted to make sure you saw that Education is there!

Here's a link to the education category on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/all/?category=education, and check out a small shot of what I saw when I clicked it a few minutes ago:

Right now, there may be a wait list for Pinterest accounts. If you'd like me to send you an invite, just post a comment with your email address.

So what are some of my favorite resources I've found so far on Pinterest? Check them out below!

Source: mrsnielson-2ndgrade.blogspot.com via Leslie on Pinterest

Source: our-cool-school.blogspot.com via Leslie on Pinterest

Source: whattheteacherwants.blogspot.com via Leslie on Pinterest

Source: makinglearningfun.com via Leslie on Pinterest

So, what are the best pins you've found?

SMART, SMART, SMART

We all remember last year's initiative that pledged to place a SMART Board in every classroom in Gaston County. As we enter the second year of this initiative for most teachers (and the first for others), I wanted to take a few minutes to remind everyone of a few resources that are available to you. Click through to read more!

How do I keep up?

Last fall, I wrote this post for the now defunct and re-purposed Gaston Digital blog. As I was thinking about what tools help me quickly find resources, especially as we get ready for a new school year, Google Reader is the what came to mind. So I'm stealing (from myself) this to share with you here! At the end of this post, I'll share some of the ideas I've seen for back to school and some of my favorite blogs to follow!

As I was collaborating with a few of my teachers earlier this week, one of them asked me a question I thought was quite interesting. The teachers were 1st grade teachers from one of my schools and we were meeting to discuss, find, and create lessons and activities for them to use on the SMART Boards they will all soon have in their classrooms (Yay for generosity from private donors!) I was teaching them about Diigo so that they could begin compiling all the interactive sites they were finding, and after everyone signed up for Diigo I shared with them one of my Diigo lists for SMART Resources. Of course since there was a SMART Board in the room, I had to spend lots of time playing, so I was showcasing some of my favorite activities to use for teaching math using SMART Boards (and why do they all have to be from the UK? come on, US we need to get on the ball!). So getting back to my point- the question that was asked as we were looking at all these resources was 

“Gosh Leslie, do you go home and sit with your computer all night to find all this stuff?”

 Okay, well honestly I used to practically have my laptop attached as an extra appendage all the time. These days I’m not quite as bad when I get home, and I’ve realized that sometimes I just need to power off (the laptop anyway, I seriously would have trouble breathing without the iPhone…or I at least couldn’t sleep, thanks to Sleep Cycle).  But really and truly, since I’ve figured out what the heck a PLN is, I haven’t HAD to spend hours and hours searching for the things I used to have to. It comes to me- kind of like magic!

Now, one huge component to my PLN is Twitter. But, since Twitter is blocked in our county right now, I won’t say a whole lot about it. What I will talk a little about is using Google Reader. Way back when I started reading blogs, I remember saving them to my favorites list and taking time to check them every once in a while to see what people were saying. I admit that in those days I was also following blogs of my friends to keep up with what their families were doing or blogs where people would post new recipes and things like that. These days though, following great blogs are a great way to keep up and find new resources without having to put hours and hours into searching for things (which is good to still do sometimes).  Once you have found educators or instructional leaders that you can learn from, one of the easiest ways to keep up is to subscribe to new posts in a reader- such as Google Reader. All you have to have is a Google Account, and it is super simple to set up. Once you have your reader set up, all you have to do is make time to read new posts that flow in! For teachers who want new ideas, teaching strategies, and ways to integrate technology but don’t have much time- finding good blogs to follow can be a great way to get started! So as you are at home relaxing this summer, take a few minutes to set up your Google Reader and subscribe to a few blogs. You may be surprised at what you find!

Once you’ve set up your reader, here are 5 great educational technology blogs to get you started:

Free Tech For Teachers

Technology Tidbits

Langwitches

The Nerdy Teacher

iLearn Technology

And here are a few of my favorite elementary blogs:

If you want to subscribe to several great elementary blogs, click here!