Preserving Empty Spaces

It's the end of the school year.

You've made it through another marathon of changing curriculum, new tools and programs, unpredictable challenges, and an exhausting job. But unlike most marathon runners who expend their last drops of energy to get across the finish line to celebrate their accomplishment, you're being pressured to make decisions and plans for your next race.

Where will you teach next year? What's your schedule going to be like? Which students will you have?

This is a very difficult time for many educators. Our routines are coming to an end, and the promise of next year's assignments feel unclear. The shift from predictability to uncertainty is shocking. How can we prepare for the next year while still reflecting on this one? Stress begins to seep in as the finish line approaches and instead of elation we feel deflated.  Not a good way to start a summer vacation or break.

Typically, when faced with these decisions and uncertain plans we take out our iPads, computers, phones, and other devices to start filling in the blank white squares that make up our schedule. We count the few weeks off we've been looking forward to, start putting in important dates like the first day of school, PD sessions, team meetings, and before you know it - that day is here. We start our next marathon before we've finished the last one driving ourselves into a deeper state of exhaustion and disillusionment.  Where did the time go?

Technology, although a great tool for preparation and planning, might actually be a catalyst in this reaction.  Some psychologist actually see technology as one source in our perception of time speeding up (see "How Technology Speeds Up Time" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/06/technology-time-perception_n_4378010.html).

All hope is not lost - you can use your devices and computers to plan without rushing the time away. Using a little proactive planning and positive thinking you can take advantage of technology to help you slow down the "race", set time aside for yourself in the future, and learn how to stay calm in the present.

STEP 1: Think carefully about those little blank boxes on your Microsoft Outlook Calendar.  They may look like 30 minute increments and you may think you know how much you can teach in 30 minutes, but how much time will you need to rest in between?  What about travel or planning? When will you realistically start and end your day? Did you remember to block time for lunch? And what about all those emails, drop ins, and other requests from students and fellow staff members that you didn't plan for?

STEP 2: Use your calendar to make to-do lists.  Set up a recurring event every Friday for the last 30 minutes of your work day where you can collect a list of things you need to do so you're prepared for Monday.

As a teacher you know there's nothing worse than the SNBs (Sunday Night Blues).  You've had a great weekend and want to relax with friends and family, but instead you're looking over your plans for next week and thinking of all the things you need to do first thing Monday morning.  Fail!  Get it all done on Friday before you leave school.  Enjoy your weekend without worrying about work, and then return on Monday ready to go.  Use that to-do list to work efficiently and get it all done.

Step 3: Relax! And use your phone to do it.

Check out the app "buddhify2" for the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.  Select your feelings and situation from a color wheel spectrum of emotions to hear a meditative guide walk you through how simple steps to relax, motivate, or even help you get to sleep.

If stress takes up a lot of your time, check out these other 10 Apps to help you relax - http://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2013/10/02/10-apps-to-relax-your-body-and-mind/

Be mindful with your time. Preserve the empty spaces. Allow yourself the time to reflect, rejuvenate, and refresh. Even if you fill every second of every day with valuable teaching time, you're no good to your students burned out in the first few days of school.

And most importantly, enjoy the end of the school year.

Apps for Apes

iPads aren't just being used by people anymore!  Over 13 zoos across the nation have started using iPads with their Orangutans as part of the Orangutan Outreach program. Utah's Hogle Zoo is one of these participants!  The iPads are used to draw pictures, play music, listen to animal noises, and even Skype with other orangutans who have been transferred to another zoo as a method for easing separation anxiety.   The iPad itself is kept outside the cage as a safety precaution.  If you visit Hogle Zoo this summer, make sure you stop by the ape exhibit!

Summer... How to back-up your Canvas course!

"How do I export my Canvas course?"  "Do I need to export my Canvas course?" These questions have been asked a lot lately with the end of the school year coming.  The answer is simple, with technology it is always a good idea to back up your documents, pictures, etc.  While you may never need to use your backup, having it just incase provides peace of mind!  Exporting your Canvas course will allow you to share it with other teachers or, if the unthinkable happens and a server fails, you will have a backup of your course.  Below are the steps for exporting:

1. Navigate to your course in Canvas.

2. Click the Settings link in the left navigation menu.

3. Click the Export Course Content button.

4. Click the Course export type option. Click the Create Export button to begin the export.

NOTE: Exporting a course in Canvas may take a few minutes, depending on its size. You will receive an email when the export is complete.

5. Click on the Click here to download link to download the new export.

Note: The export will be in .imscc format. You can also change the extension from .imscc to .zip and treat it as any other zip file.  Files in .imscc format can ONLY be opened by Canvas or other online Learning Management Systems.

Source: Instructure Guides

Teachers, What Will You Learn This Summer?

Well here it is, the year is winding down. That summer vacation for teachers is around the corner. You know that break the teachers get so that they enjoy all that money that they've made over the past year. Imagine it, the whole summer to yourself. Although, we know that's not what really happens. As a teacher you will spend your summer getting ready for the next school year, in fact you've probably been doing that for the past month. Sure, you'll take some time off relax but more than likely you'll spend a lot of your summer getting ready for your next class or classes of students. Many of you will take some sort of professional development. You will learn about new programs, new ways to teach, etc. Some of the PD you take maybe what you want some may be what you're expected to take, but let me talk about a way that you can get PD on what you want at any time.

I have used Twitter for my professional learning for about eight years now. Twitter allows me to ask questions of other teachers, share what I'm learning with other teachers, and make acquaintances all over the world in the field of education. You may say that's easy for you, you're a technology guy, but really twitter is a pretty easy tool. If I could get you to learn one thing this summer it would be how to use Twitter to get timely information that you can use.

There are a lot of using Twitter guides out there, so I am not going to create my own. I will however in this post share some of the better guides that I think are out there. One of the most important things you can learn about Twitter is the use of the hashtag. The hashtag is a way to keep similar information together on Twitter. For example, if you follow or you search for the hashtag #edchat, all through the week you will find teachers and others from around the country and around the world talking about educational matters.

We even have a local edchat using the hashtag #utedchat. This chat primarily takes place on Wednesday evening between 9 and 10 PM, although you can post items using that hashtag at anytime. So feel free to join with other educators across the state on Wednesdays and about what is going on in other areas of the state.

Now here are those Twitter guides I promised.

KQED Guide to Using Twitter in Your Teaching Practice

Twitter for Educators, A Beginner's Guide  This is a PDF that will download and you can read it offline.

The Complete Guide to Twitter Hashtags for Education

Have a great summer, and I look forward to seeing you next school year.

Who Needs a Document Camera? Breaking the Tether!

Not too long ago, there were overhead projectors.  There was a natural consequence for lecturing too long with the overhead.  This was for me, temporary blindness from staring at an incredibly bright lamp for longer than I should.  I remember how important it was to be taught to never look directly at a solar eclipse, why in my teacher preparation courses did they not cover overhead projector induced blindness?

As technology moved forward, the document camera emerged.  These have become a classroom staple for many teacher, especially in our district.
However, as technology changes (often improves) so rapidly, there came about in my view, a better way.

When I was given an iPad to use for teaching a few years ago, I learned how to wirelessly project.  This enabled me to do with the iPad what I used to do with the document camera.  Instead of writing on a paper, however, I was annotating a PDF.  When I used my iPad to project my PDF annotation, I was not tethered to a document camera and could elicit the participation of my students in a real and organic way.  Moving around the room, maintaining proximity to my students allowed for authentic teaching and discussion.  Writing on a tablet is still kind of novel and cool, so the kids would behave as instructed to earn the privilege.  The cost of this configuration is often much less than that of a document camera!

The implications of this are expanding.  When attempting to apply the flipped or blended classroom models, the annotated PDF can be published or have the process recorded as a video to be posted on a website or LMS, like Canvas!  Many textbooks have their resources available online as blacklines that can be uploaded to a PDF annotation app through Dropbox or Google Drive.  Buildings in our district are all equipped with copy machines that will scan papers into a PDF format using email or a flash drive.  If you don't know how to use this function on your copy machine, call your Ed Tech right away!  

The easiest way to get the PDF file to these apps is to upload it to a cloud service- Google Drive is a great one!  This is how I transfer files from my computer to my iPad.  Here are a list of PDF annotation apps that I have used in the classroom and for my own productivity. 

• PDF Notes
• Notability
• Adobe Reader  

Why I Choose Pages

You're going to write a blog post about Pages? It's just a word processor, right? How boring!

Not so! Pages is one of my most frequently used computer applications. It's more than just word processing... it's beautifully-designed reports, newsletters, résumés, cards, posters, and more. It's easy-to-use graphic design and publishing capability.

Pages is, "...simple to use, easy to learn and has sharing features that should finally put an end to [your] complaints about friends who are unable to open the documents [you] send them... [Apple] has rethought its approach to the most boring of computer applications — the word processor — with some impressive results. It particularly shines in three areas: appearance, compatibility and sharing." (Shear)

Some features that make Pages my word processing software of choice are:

• The Pages template chooser offers great designs that are easy to tailor to your own tastes and needs.
• Menus and options are visual and easy to access using the formatting window (formerly the inspector).

Pages has, "...a contextual panel that slides out from the right. Editing text? Out pops the buttons for bold, font size and justification. Inserting a table? The panel switches to let you modify the rows and columns. Add a picture and you automatically get options for borders and shadows." (Shear)

• Multimedia is readily available, tied to iPhoto and iTunes.
• Automatic centering guidelines make arranging the components of projects easy.
• Sharing and exporting options allow sharing of documents in various file formats so that you can share projects with people who use other word processing programs.
• iCloud sharing options make your files easily accessible on various computer operating systems as well as iOS devices.

"The new version of Pages introduces an all-new sharing option, powered by the company’s iCloud service, that works remarkably well. Type in a person’s email address, click send, and that person receives a link to your document. When the link is clicked, the document opens in a web browser that looks like a fully functioning Pages application.... The recipient doesn’t have to have Pages installed or have an iCloud account. It even makes Mac-PC sharing easy. The new version runs just fine in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome or Safari on a Windows PC." (Shear)

In case the templates and tools that come with Pages aren't enough, there are many online tools and apps available to enhance Pages even more:

• The Toolbox for Pages app is available in the Mac App Store and the iOS App Store for free. Toolbox provides extra templates and graphics, some paid and some free, for creating even more Pages projects.
• Templates Box for Pages is also available on the Mac App Store. It is a bit pricey, but also provides new templates for use in Pages, including Calendar templates.
• There are a limited amount of free template downloads available from StockLayouts as well as paid membership options. I have found these a little more difficult to use, but it's still nice to have some freebees available.
• iWork Community is an online community built for sharing free templates created by Mac users who love Pages.
• And for those of you who can't live without them, here is the link to a template for Avery Labels with Address Book Merge!

For those of you who are less familiar with how to use Pages, following are several resources for learning more about the application:

• Apple.com - Pages
• Mac Apps Support - Pages
• Pages '09 Tutorial on the CSD Ed Tech Prolearning website, for those who haven't upgraded yet

Not only is Pages great for all the teacher projects you need to complete, it is also great for student projects. Check out these great examples:

• Posters 

• Brochures

• Reading Responses, Notes, Storyboards

• Reports

• Newsletters

• Memory Books

Pages isn't so boring after all, is it? There are many amazing things you can do in Pages, from word processing, to project creation. If you haven't ever given it a try, maybe it's time you do!

Citations:
Shear, Michael D.. "Apple’s Pages, Going the Distance With Word." The New York Times 27 Nov. 2013, U.S. ed., sec. State of the Art: 1-2. Web.

An Interactive Way to Learn History

Mission US is a multimedia project designed in a way where students can experience three different eras in U.S history in a fun and interactive way. The students’ experiences may differ slightly based on the choices they make and their behavior as the character they take on in the different missions.  There are currently three different missions available:

• Mission1: For Crown or Glory is a mission where students take on the role of Nat Wheeler, a printer’s apprentice, in Boston 1770. Through different activities, students will experience the events leading up to the American Revolution. Students will encounter both Patriots and Loyalists, and after the Boston Massacre they will have to choose where their loyalties lie.

• Mission2: Flight to Freedom is a mission about slavery and the Underground Railroad.  Students take on the role of Lucy, a 14-year-old slave in Kentucky. Students will navigate her escape and travel to Ohio. They will discover that life in the “free” North isn’t safe and easy.

•  Mission 3: A Cheyenne Odyssey is a mission that teaches students about westward expansion and how it affected Native American tribes.  Students take on the role of Little Fox, a northern Cheyenne boy.  They help Little Fox and the rest of the tribe survive as white settlers, railroads, and U.S. military expeditions start to threaten their survival. 

Mission US provides many helpful educator guides to make each mission a successful learning experience for the students. The different guides contain:

• In-depth information about how to play the games
• Classroom implementation
• Essential questions and goals
• Alignment with learning standards
• Information about characters, situations, events and historical period presented in the game
• Classroom activities to use with students before, during and after the missions
• Additional information to enhance and extend students’ learning about the time periods 

To get started with Mission US, you and your students need to register and create an account.  Creating an account allows students to save their progress.  They will be able to stop a mission at any point and be able to pick up where they left off the next time the log in.