Nibbling the Apple

    I have given up and given in. I am now the proud owner of an ipad2. I even took a day off from school to be home when it was delivered. And I don't take days off easily so you can tell it was quite an event.

     As usual when I over-plan something, things went awry. Scheduled for a Thursday delivery (remember that day off?), the pad came on Wednesday. With a little scrambling my darling daughter was there to accept the handoff. But I still stayed home the next day to meet my new little friend.

    Getting set up was not too hard since I have had an iphone for some time. Get it on the network, set up mail, and GO! I figured I would sync everything and see what turned up. The first thing I noticed was that the phone apps do go to the pad, but start out small, centered in the pad screen the same size as the phone screen. There is a 2x button to the bottom of the pad and you can expand the app to fit the larger screen. But it is a fuzzy resolution when you do. Most of the time this won't bother me. I watched a 17 year old behemoth TV in the bedroom until last week when it died. I thought the DirectTV guide screen was supposed to be soft focus. What a surprise on the new TV!

     Then began the process of filtering what I wanted to keep on the pad vs the phone, along with sorting and grouping into files. I highly suggest that if you haven't filed your apps on your iphone or ipad you do it quickly. It's very simple: hold your finger on an app until all of them wiggle. Then drag to move one type of app, such as a game, over the top of another game. They will blend together into a file and suggest a name for the file based on the two apps. You can, of course, give the file your own custom name. You can also drag from screen to screen. For those of you as OCD as I am, you can even alphabetize your files. Once finished, you can easily locate even the most obscure apps, especially if you have a file marked "Obscure Apps."

     After filing, I started looking through itunes to download some must haves and to upgrade some of my old phone favs. I spent most of my bucks on Pages, the mac word processing app. At $10 it was a bit pricy, but I know I will want to do some real work occasionally. It's also easy to use. Even printing was a dream. Because I have a wireless printer on my network the pad automatically found it and printed happily away.

     Next up was Garage Band. My daughter, an existing Mac snob, tsked me and said it wasn't that great. But I think it's really cool to be able to play virtual instruments since I can't play any real ones. Air Guitar or Air Drums just won't cut it anymore. And I've almost figured out Heart and Soul!
     I also felt the need to get the newer ipad apps to replace some of the iphone ones. Those Angry Birds just look soooo much angrier in HD. Same with Yoga. Well, actually, they looked more peaceful.

     Then I went off grid. One of my big issues (along with the rest of the non-Apple world) is that the istuff doesn't do flash. No facebook games! But there are some apps which allow a parallel version to run. The ones I hear most about are Skyfire and Cloud Browse. But both are pay as you go and can get pricy. I had also heard about iSwifter and decided to give it a shot. It is free, and although it asks for a purchase, for now at least, you can keep it free if you choose.  There is a good video on it at : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVIy6XeapkM.



It does work, but just as the video says, it's clunky. I won't be playing any of my timed FB games on it, but it works just great for things like slots. Another plus: Hulu movies look great on it. No problems at all.

     BFF Patti, an old hand on the ipad, also weighed in on apps for me. She had already been the final tipping point for my joining Words with Friends earlier that morning, challenging me to a game at 5:45 AM. Several friends had tried to get me interested but I had declined. But that early in the morning when the caffeine had not kicked in I foolishly gave in. Now I face a number of challengers wanting to take me down. And it's only been ten hours! Too much pressure!

     She also showed me iBooks, Scramble, and iFarkle. I showed her Mummy's Treasure and Cat Physics. You'd think we had better things to do, huh? But summer's coming. And teachers will have a life once more. There'll be time for a much bigger bite from that apple.

Spring Tech Me Up

     I attended the Region X/XI Texas Computer Educators Association conference this weekend and came back with a new attitude. Actually, I went there with a bit of a spring in my step due to some small (but not minor) changes in our district as of late. For some time now I have been up to my knees in Web 2.0 and many of the highways and bi-ways of the internet. But I have been unable to use many (most) of these apps in the cloud with my elementary students due to filters. However, in the past few weeks our district is giving new filters a try and letting us open up areas of the world previously hidden to us on campus. Teachers can use YouTube now!  Ring the bells!

     Don't get me wrong. I am very much a proponent of internet safety for my students. But there is a difference in teaching the proper use of technology and playing ostrich. We are not doing our students any service by saying, "Sorry, don't go there...no, not while at school...I know you go there at home, but not here." Some of my peers and I were quite shocked recently when we asked our 5th graders how many had personal e-mail accounts of their own. We expected maybe 40-50 percent. Easily 85-90 percent raised their hands with no hesitation. The students are already there. We are only playing catch up right now. But we can catch up. First and foremost: more in-depth lessons on appropriate use of the web.  I'd rather work with the children and guide them instead of having them learn about tech on a street corner the way I did.

     At the conference I shadowed Randy Rodgers, a teacher from Birdville ISD  who I had met in previous years. I went to all of the sessions he led and was not disappointed. He has a huge amount of ideas, connections, and experience. Even better- he's willing to share. His blog, The Moss-Free Stone, will give me many hours of reading pleasure as I mine it for quirky uses of tech.

     I also attended a session on ipads. I have a second generation pad on order and can't wait until it comes. In the session I learned about a number of apps I can use not only for myself but also in the classroom with my students. The instructor was using it under a document camera and I had wondered if that would work should I need to demonstrate something. I am pleased to say it did, although video/movement still has that doc cam drag.

     I am a baby with apple products (in spite of my iphone) so I was happy to get a heads  up on the device. I had heard about the issues with apple and flash products but didn't know there were work-arounds such as Skyfire and Cloud Browse (app store) to let you see flash sites on the pads and phones.  Maybe I need a vacation day when the new pad arrives so I can become proficient? Shhhhh, don't tell my boss.

     I also learned about LiveBinders, yet another take on the cloud work/storage genre. It was very interesting and may have fewer limitations than Skydrive, which I just started using with my students.  I love the concept in general ("Seeing Sense in the Clouds" February, 2011) and this is one of the main reasons I wanted e-mail for my class. I will be doing more research on LiveBinders over the summer and may move the kiddos into the format this fall.

     We wrapped up the day with prizes and I snagged an itunes gift card and USB hand massager. Score! As usual, a good time was had by all.

And They Said it Wouldn't Last...

    It has been twenty-seven years since my father walked me down the aisle to stand beside the man I was to marry. It's been twenty-seven years since we loaded two separate lives into one small yellow car and left for Texas. I look at my wedding photos and think, "Dang I was skinny."

Wait, of course I mean, "Oh, how young and in love we look." Because we do.

     It's been twenty-eight plus years since he walked into my Basic and Fortran computer class at Middle Tennessee State University, sat on the front row, turned to scope out the room, and promptly relocated to sit next to me and another boy on the back row. He leaned over and informed me he was quite fond of  my legs and hoped I planned to wear skirts often. Strangely, he is surprised to this day that line did not work and I did not fall swooning into his arms. I thought he was a jerk.

     We didn't exchange another word until the end of the semester when I was attempting to debug a program by using a shoe on the side of the computer (technology is great...when it works). I guess I was making a bit of noise and he leaned over from the adjacent carrel and offered to help. I said, "Thanks, Dan" (I thought his name was Dan for the first 8 months I knew him), and realized there was more to this jerk than arrogance if he would offer assistance to a damsel in distress.

     We met again the next semester in Horror and Gothic Literature (yes, I had a very stressful, depth-filled college schedule), and went on our first date right around spring break. It was to Stone's River Battlefield. We were searching for the cold spot where civil war ghosts were supposed to walk. How could I not fall head over heels in love?

     A year later came the romantic proposal, "How long will it take you to get ready for a wedding and move to Dallas?" He gave me a month. I chose March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, thinking that for the rest of his life he could go into any Irish Pub in the world and get a countdown to his wedding anniversary. He has never forgotten when it is.

     Here we are, twenty-seven years later. We've been richer and poorer, we've been better and worse, we've been sicker and healthier. I have loved him, I have honored him, but rarely obeyed him. I had that one removed from the vows. I knew he wouldn't notice until it was too late. We've raised kids, dogs, cats, rabbits, and the occasional rodent. We've been back to other colleges to further our educations. (It was too hard to find a job in Horror Lit.) We're to the age where we have stopped shredding the AARP letters and started reading them. We looked so young and in love back then. In our eyes we still do.

     Happy Anniversary Doug. You are still the love of my life.

P.S. I guess that darn line about my legs actually did work after all.

Here a Tech, There a Tech...

 A fellow teacher asked me this week what a classroom looked liked when it's fully integrated with technology. Then, before I could answer, she said, "Like yours - aren't your students on the computer all day?" That question brought me to a stop for a moment. Is that what people think is really happening in my classroom?

     I love technology. Both for the fun it brings to my life and also for the doors it can open into areas of the world which I will never see any other way. Not coincidentally, I also love reading. And it is by comparing tech to reading that some teachers might see what makes a tech-integrated classroom.

     Reading gets a lot of attention in schools and rightly so. Without it adults are the openers of the doors for children, but the ultimate goal is for the students to seek out and open their own passages. Reading enables the mastery of all other subjects, including math.

     Teachers have many ways of teaching reading. Immersion, whole-language, phonics, sight words; and all are necessary because all people do not learn to their personal BEST in all the same manner. Much time is spent in the early grades making sure to reach each and every student, trying all tips and tricks in teachers' goody bags. The learning of reading goes on for many years, and sometimes never stops, as the acquisition of vocabulary is a never ending pursuit.

     Now look at technology. It's a quirky little thing. It too can be used to promote reading skills in students. But it needs the partnership of reading to be used at its best. As reading abilities soar, so can technology use. Just like in reading, there are some things which need to be studied in isolation: sounds, letters, blends, etc… compare to: keyboarding, "click," menus, etc…  A few basics in reading and technology and students have the world at their fingertips.

     But are books used every minute of every day in a classroom? Of course not. Children are found all over the school coloring, cutting, moving around, using manipulatives, and discussing. And when books are used, it is always the same book? The same genre? The same topic? It's the same with technology, just substitute "tech" for "reading" in the paragraphs above.

     In my class we have a techie's dream. We are 1-1, have an interactive whiteboard, projector, CPS units, doc cam, cameras, software, and apps. I'm sure there are a few things we could use, but we're pretty much covered. Believe it or not, there are pieces of tech we don't use every day. I know, a real shocker. And to make things more horrifying, we don't even use tech AT ALL some days. Why? Because sometimes we don't NEED to.

     Despite accumulating massive amounts of tech in the class there are still some subjects which need a different method of teaching to best be mastered by the students. Shoving tech into a lesson just to say you used tech in the lesson is inappropriate. Tech should be used in order to best help the students learn, help them demonstrate mastery, and (in a distant third place) help present material to them. If it ain't broke, don't fix it with tech. You could actually hinder learning by making lessons too complex. Put the complexity into the content, not the format.

     Technology is very engaging to all of our students and I know that most, if not all, job choices for them will involve tech to some end. Using no technology at all would be a true disservice to our children. You cannot justify never using tech just because that's the way you've always done it anymore than you can justify tossing in technology where it is not relevant. So, don't break the teaching, enhance it. Things do change and disruption happens.
     I will continue using technology in my lessons to bring in relevance, heighten engagement, foster an ease for learning, and bring a sense of pride into finished products. I will also allow my students to make some of the choices on their learning by themselves, including adding or omitting the use of technology tools where that use is not an integral part of their understanding. My students will learn how to be fluent and flexible with the tools of learning. That my friends, is what a classroom looks like when it is integrated with technology.

     Oh yeah, we'll also have a lot of fun.

Oscar-Smoscar

     I'm not sure if I'm just socially inept or if I'm the little kid at the end of the story who says the king has no clothes. But I really don't care a whit about the Oscars. Besides, he's really NOT wearing any clothes.

     Everywhere I turn this weekend, there it is...on the news shows, in the paper, at the grocery store shilling snacks and soda. There's even an iphone app for crying out loud. I get the feeling that I'm alone in the world because I should be focusing on who is nominated and who will win, but I don't remember ever caring and I'm getting more crotchety about it as I age.

     You see, I don't usually like the shows the Oscars pick. I have seen exactly two of the shows up for this year- Inception and Toy Story 3- and only one of those was seen at a theater. Inception was meh. (Spoiler alert) I think he was in reality at the end. If not, it could only mean a sequel is coming and that's almost always a bad thing for movies.

     Toy Story 3 is one of the exceptions to that rule. I liked this sequel. I'm not sure what it says that the only movie I support for an Oscar is an animated kid's movie. Maybe that's why I'm an elementary school teacher.

     I might watch The Social Network sometime in the future. But I fear it will be like the time we got Pirates of Silicon Valley from Netflix then mistakenly sent it back without watching it because we couldn't remember if we had seen it or not. We really need to have that sent again, I guess.

     I like hearing about movies from friends with similar views as mine. But my friends must not be as sophisticated as the Oscar judges. Like me, few of them agree with the picks. Even with friendly recommendations we don't go to see very many movies. We just live the plot lines vicariously through what we get told.

    It's expensive to go to the movies. We pretty much only go for the popcorn, but now we have one of the fancy poppers and our own coconut oil. Before that, we were known to have bought popcorn from a mall movie theater to take home without seeing a movie. It tastes the same with the lights on or off.

     I haven't seen anything in years worth ponying up the cash to go see a movie immediately on release. We have DirectTV, but haven't rented anything in about a year. We also have the aforementioned Netflix, where we have some trouble picking out one movie a week to watch. We don't even care that we have to wait 28 days to see it.

     Back to the Oscars, I can't say I care or even know who half of the people are who are up for an award. I've heard of a few, but don't think most are that great at their craft.  A couple of them, Nicole Kidman and Natalie Portman are pretty good, but I won't give up three plus hours of my life to see if they win.

     I suppose there was a time I watched to see who was wearing what. But now, you can just look at the internet the next day. I know I will never wear anything like their red carpet attire. But, it used to be fun to see what some of the nominees came up with. Now, after Lady GaGa's meat dress at the MTV awards, all other award day fashion will just pale in comparison. Where can you go from there Oscar? Oh yeah, right. You're not wearing any clothes.

Seeing Sense in the Clouds

     Some of my classes began participating last week in a bit of a technology trial run which allows them to have their own e-mail accounts though Windows Live. I agreed to work with this program, not for the e-mail, but as a means to take my students to the clouds.

     I don't think anyone can argue that we are past the tipping point where so much of our interaction with computers is stored somewhere in the ether-world of the internet, and doesn't actually live on a hard drive in our homes or workplace. This enables us to access our files and folders where ever we go, sharing them with others, and working on them at will. Personally, I have been a Google docs girl for a few years and thoroughly enjoy the flexibility it affords.

     I have many lesson plans, meeting notes, and collaborative projects in Google. I have had no problems with the apps there and highly recommend it to other adults. But for my students, it was a no go. The district I work for does not allow the children to use Google docs, nor many other programs within Google. In fact, they are currently filtering out Google images due to inappropriate content. I don't fault them for this, but always wished I could find some ways to get to some great apps in a safe, secure way for my classes.

     The best thing my district said to make me excited about getting e-mail for my students...the use of SkyDrive! Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and OneNote in the clouds! My students can now work both at home and at school, sharing files with me and/or with others. This has meant a radical change for the kids in the way they work. They have access in my class or in other classes if they need to get into their projects. I can see the files anytime I need to check on progress. They can get help anytime, anywhere, from nearly anyone, even parents, by just sharing out the file. It's Nirvana for homework! Well, maybe not for them. It's now impossible to say they forgot it or their dog ate it. Things have definitely changed for the better.

 

     Over the past couple of years I have tried having students bring in flash drives to use for transportation of their work. But kids are kids, and flash drives were never where they needed to be at work time. What to do?

     We do use Moodle within our district and my classes have made use of up/downloading documents through it. But it tends to be multiple-step and therefore clunky, so few of them liked it.

     The biggest stumbling block for taking my students to work in the cloud was that most apps require an e-mail account to register. Since I work with elementary age students, e-mail accounts were few and far between until I was offered the trial program. There is Gaggle, but rumors persisted that they are lean in service unless you use the paid subscription. I also did not feel that there would be enough support from my district if I used it, so I held off, looking for alternatives.

     I have found some work-arounds that do very well, and will continue to use them. One of the best is PrimaryPad, a free app we began using when old favorite Etherpad was purchased by Google. PrimaryPad uses the open source code from Etherpad and works great. I continue to use it with my younger students because it's so very easy. 

    

   The main downside is that PrimaryPad is completely open to the internet. This is how my kids can use it for free, but is also how anyone in the world could find their project and edit within it. In comparison, SkyDrive is locked. I explain this to the students and caution them to never use their real names or any other personal information. I also make sure to tell them to contact me if it appears that someone else might have used their pad.

     I'm able to keep a watch on their pads too, by simply going to the name they assign it. Like SkyDrive, PrimaryPad is a wonderful way to keep an eye on their work at any time and work with them to guide their way rather than just assigning a grade at the end. There is also a feature which allows for collaboration by up to five students at a time. All can edit at once, rather than one person doing most of the writing work. If you can't get access to Office Live in your school, PrimaryPad is a wonderful substitute.

     Having the e-mail accounts for my kids will also help my students access other great apps such as Voki (avatar creator), Prezi (non-linear graphic organizer), and Delicious (bookmarking app). These are oldies but goodies to some, but will be very new and welcome for my students.

     Some people see elephants, cotton candy, or flowers in the clouds. But I see the future for my students.

Sugar coated Mondays always get me down

     As a teacher I'm asking for all fellow teachers to rise up and beg their congress-people to never allow any holiday associated with sugar to be on a Monday. There are a number of holidays with which we have taken liberties and moved to more convenient days to better serve businesses. Why can't we move days with potential sugar blockades in order to better serve schools?

     We are at the mercy of the calendar on many holidays. This includes but is not limited to: Valentine's day, Halloween, 100th day, Winter party, and a multitude of Birthdays for students or teachers. Each and every one of these days sends shivers of delight, followed by spasms of sugar highs, down the backs of elementary students.  When a day like these fall on a Monday, or even worse, a Tuesday, teachers pay for it for days on end.

     First, there is the anticipation of sugar gorging. All morning long students watch the clock, fearful that some how, some way, they will miss the party. Considering the parties are in the classrooms where the students are sitting, that is not likely, but just try telling them that. There is also the constant peeking at the area in the room where party material is being stored. I think we should cover these materials with brown paper the way store owners hide their adult magazines. Candy is candy, whatever form it's in.

     Lunch is a chaotic free for all, with students all talking at once about how much sugar they will be eating in just a little while. Meanwhile, most of the nutritious foods on their trays go uneaten. Recess- oh Lord. They know they're getting close by then. There is no containing them.  They have so much energy you'd think they'd already consumed a 5lb bag of sugar. The lines of students coming back into the school actually vibrate with excitement.

    Stopping at the bathroom on the way back? Good luck.  No one has to go...they think it takes too much time...they're in a hurry...they just aim close to the porcelain and move on.  Maybe their hands were waved in the vicinity of the faucet, maybe not.  But children seem to think candy can't be contaminated by dirty hands.

     Back to the door of the classroom. It's like the front of a shoe store on BOGO day. Release the hounds! And the feeding frenzy begins.

   Now, I have read studies that say sugar gives people a quick high, followed by a rapid bottom-out low. It's Thursday. Where's the low? I don't think these researchers studied the right demographic. Maybe adults bottom out quickly, but children don't seem to. There's some around here I don't think have slept since Monday.

     I think sugar holidays should float like Thanksgiving. Have them on Fridays closest to the original holiday. Then, all the sugar goes home with the students. Which makes me wonder...don't these kids ever see candy on other days of the year? Is this just a clever move on the part of parents? Bring the candy to school and have the kids eat it there. Leave the leftovers. Hmm?

     If a congressional act won't do it, then how about just making it a site-based decision on the campuses? Anyone voting against the proposal, gets lunch and recess duty all week.