technology conference fun

I had the pleasure of attending a three day workshop with 900 of my local (and some not so local) colleges. Several of us from my school attended eRevolution, a technology workshop featuring some of the newest education tech resources and educational implementations.   This photo was at the closing of day three- several had to take off early and missed the photo proof of their attendance. 

My sweet friend Nicci and I presented a three hour workshop on differentiation instruction.  When she called me months ago and asked if I wanted to join her, I thought I might throw up- but said yes before I could change my mind!   I'm so glad it I did.  It was an excellent opportunity to collaborate and share something that I love talking about anyway. 

We presented on the first day and then were free to take in all the other workshops. Each time slot offered 25 or so to choose from.  So much experience and knowledge in one place all from educators wanting to share with their peers.  What a great opportunity!  I got so many new ideas for using technology in my classroom, pieces I can use to organize as a teacher, and just plain old motivation, refreshment, and validation as an educator.  

The library was set up as a technology creative laboratory.  Here, a boy on the host school's robotics team showed a banana piano!   Below, the robotics team was showing off these remote control spheres.  They built a maze to try to navigate the sphere through.  The gym was set up as a maker space with materials for open ended creative projects.   

I have lots of new apps to play with and lots to share.  I'm going to try to do two weeks of posts featuring some of the new material I learned.  I'd also like to write about my presentation, but three hours in one posts is going to be a time commitment to put together... We'll see if I an get it together. 

Bee's Blog!

That little Bee of mine has decided to start a blog.  My dad mentioned it to me on father's day and I mentioned it to Bee. She got right on it.  You can find her at her new blog, Little Bee.  I'm sure there'll be a bunch of overlap from stuff here, but she will put her own spin on it.

Xtra math- a technology reccomendation

It's all about a balance, right?  So, yesterday was about my kids, today we're back talking about school.  Here an awesome new-to-me website that I used at school the last quarter and am now using at home over the summer. 

I'm loving this website that's for parents, teachers, and students.  It's the best way I've used recently to help my students and my own kids really cement those math facts into their brains!  The kids are motivated by it, it teacher friendly, and it's free.  That always helps!

Have you heard of Xtra Math?  It's a free website that runs kids through math facts.  The 'teacher' creates a class list in just a few minutes and sets the kids up to start on addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division facts.  The kids run through the facts at their own pace.  If they speed through addition, they move on to subtraction, etc.  There is a 'race the teacher' game that the kids seems to really like. 

They can work on it at home with a special log-in and then the parents and the teachers get update information as to their progress.  They also get printable certificates sent to them when they've completed a level.  I linked it up to my class website and had the kids work at school and at home for the most practice.  Parents liked it as much as I did. 

The kids can also work on it in the classroom.  There is a classroom log-in tab that the kids work under that tells the student's (when they are done) who to go get for the next turn.  If that student is busy, they can click onto the next person as well. 

I had several devices going on at once in the morning at school and got at least  half the  class through in the morning arrival time and the rest during extra time throughout the day. It's mobile friendly too, so they can work on it at their desk (we have a bring your own device policy) or in the car or wherever. 

This particular day, I took the whole class into the computer lab and had everyone run through a session before moving on to the next task.  They can use the keypad to type in the answers or pull up a on-screen keypad.

The kids first are given a placement test and then the programs gives them facts based on what they need to know.  Then, they are given facts based on how they do on those facts. 

They are timed as well and problems are sorted into one they know in under 3 seconds and those that they needed longer to solve. They kids don't really know about the timing part, so there is no added stress for them there, but it does let the teacher know what problems are immediate and what is taking them longer.

Another thing I like about this program, is if they miss the problem, or can't answer it in a certain amount of time, the answer appears lightly.  They still have to type it in move on.  They are then given that problem again almost immediately to train them to memorize, not try to re-solve in their head each time. 

This program has really helped my students memorize their facts during the last quarter.  I have left my class 'open' until August and many of them have been working this summer.  Bee and Lou are doing the same.  The plan is for them to go into next year, knowing their facts cold- with out any time needed to review to get back to where they were at the end of the year. 

the big screen

For hubby's birthday back in April, we got him an outdoor movie setup. It got it's first public showing the last day of school.  It was also Lou's last baseball game.  We hosted the end of season celebration at our house since Hubby coached the team.   We had 12 baseball boys and their families over. 

 

 

Perfect time to bring out the theater.  And, another good use for the hill in the backyard- built in stadium seating. 

 

 

 Here's how we did it.  The projector and speakers sit on a cart that connects with the dvd player through a stereo system.  There is the option to hook up the laptop if we want to stream Netflix or iTunes movies.  That's the simplified version of that cart part.  Hubby was in charge of the cart, I was in charge of the screen.  I can tell you more about the cart if you're interested.

I bought a piece of "black out tenting" material from a tent company in southern Indiana.  Here's the company, I happened to be driving by and they have an outlet shop open to the public and were able to cut just what I needed.  I've seen people use white tarp, drop cloth, or even a sheet.  Ours is 8ft x5 ft.  The ratio from the projector is 19:6, so I wanted something that could be similar in ratio.    I screwed the top and bottom onto 1x3.   I think they boards were 12 foot boards and we cut off 6-8 inches on each side.  The additional bottom piece was really just to weight it down a bit.  We wanted it portable and it does roll up for storage and transport. 

Hubby added another board to the side of the swing set that we added a few brackets to.  The top of the screen simply slides down into the brackets.  The screen can be set up and taken down in just a few minutes.   The first instillation of screen to frame boards had to be redone once.  The screen had a shiny side and a matte side.  The sales woman told me she thought the shiny side made more sense, turns out the matte is a better viewing side.  Also, I did the first time myself and hubby did the second himself.  He's more a precision guy... I eyeball everything. 

The speakers get turned towards us and I've asked the neighbors, and they said they could hear much, even with their windows open.  We really had it loud so I was a little concerned.  We can start it as soon as the sun starts setting, but don't have to wait for dark. 

But, it's totally better after dark.  Our guests watched a bit, ran around, watched a little more, ran around some more, and then crashed on the blankets for the last bit of movie.

We also discovered that Lou and Bee both have a perfect view from their windows.  Take note!  Hubby and I were getting ready to watch "I am Legend" after the kids went to bed one evening and discovered this.  Good catch!

I have about $35.00 in the screen system.  Hubby had most of the items needed for the cart already on hand.  He did buy a new projector using two years worth of Best Buy gift cards. We discovered, the thing to look for in the projector is the luminosity (bulb brightness) and bulb life.  I think it's a pay for what you get sort of thing. 

Lou has asked for his birthday party to be a swimming moving party.  I think we can do that!

airstream and me being a techie

Do you know about airstream?  It's changed things for my classroom. If you're a teacher reading this, I'll assume you have the greatest new technology and this is nothing. However.  I don't.  I'm one step away from an overhead projector.   I don't have a smart board.  I have a projector though and a desktop computer and my own ipad.  That's all you need.   Airstream is an app but there is some kind of activation that has to be done on the computer to connect it.  Insert building technology person.  My provided technology may be just a tad dated but they'll pay the 12 dollars or something that it cost a year for me to make it work. 

So it basically turns my ipad into the screen that is projected.   In the above picture, I have overdrive loaded (an app that lets me check out library books from my local library for free and have a digital copy loaned to me) so the kids could all follow along and see the illustrations as I read Mr. Poppers Penguins.

 If I have a picture or text up via educreations (another app that I sing praises for- and free!) then whatever manipulation we do to it shows up for all to see.  I had the kids draw hands on the face of a clock and sometimes mark sentences up for editing. 

They can draw or write or circle things in pictures, whatever.  Here I had them circle and label parts of the picture that showed us what kind of community it was.  This was rural, they found the farm land, houses far apart, few roads, etc.

Below, I've used educreate to write out some sentences that we are finding the plural and singular possessive nouns in.  I just ended my sentence with a preposition, but I can't figure out how to reword it.  I would not have pointed it out except this was a sentence about teaching English. 

I think I fixed it.  "I've used educreate to write out some sentences in which we were finding the plural and singular possessive nouns."  Lets go with that.

It totally motivates the kids!  Everybody wants a turns, everybody pays attention so they know what to do on their turn, especially since everyone will see what they answer.  I had rigged up a way to use the ipad and the document camera but I was stuck at the desk and that's really far away from the other side of the room and my mere presence of walking around can't keep one of my friends from folding a paper football and that other kiddo from reading a book hidden under his desk.   I secretly love when they read under their desk.  They love a book so much that they can't put it down.   You can't teach that.   Pretty sure that's more important than at least 60% of the other stuff I can teach.  I do not secretly love paper footballs.  Those, I strongly dislike.

*I apologize, the app I called educreate is actually named 'educreations'.  Thank you to the commenter who mentioned having trouble finding it.