Each year teachers are being asked to develop a portfolio to demonstrate their successful completion of the four domains related to being a highly qualified teacher. Teachers must demonstrate proficiency in the areas of Planning/Preparation, Classroom Environment, Instructional Delivery and Professionalism. The most common practice is to divide a binder into several sections, one for each domain plus an introduction section. With the encouragement to move to 21st century teaching and learning practices, teachers are encouraged to do the same with their portfolios. Rather than fill a binder with “stuff”, create your portfolio digitally with one of the following methods.
Power Point – use the beginning slide as a table of contents that links to other slides preset with links based the four domains. Then each of the following slides will contain one of 2 options: they can have links to other slides that have the document or text describing your artifact with a reflection or you can simply paste links to the word document, image, spreadsheet, etc. Just remember to include your reflection about that artifact and why it is being included in your portfolio. Example: eportfolio-using-powerpoint-template-9703
Google Site – all you need is a google account and you can freely create a google site (simply a free webpage where all you need to do is add pages and choose a background.) Using the google site you would create a home page that could include your introduction or you can create your own separate page for that. Then make 4 additional pages, one for each domain. Then all you need to do is upload and link attachments to each page, such as: word documents, scanned images of student work, or link documents, spreadsheets, presentations from a google docs account. Last you would type in your reflections about each artifact that you have attached to that page.
Wikispace – create a wikispace in wikispaces.com or pbwiki.com and use different pages to represent each part of your portfolio. This is very similar to using a google site, however you have more flexibility in the types of objects that you link to your wiki than you do to your google site. But the idea and steps are the same.
These are just a few ideas of how you could create a digital portfolio rather than stuffing a binder full of copied documents that ultimately gets thrown on a shelf and seen by very few people. A digital portfolio (eportfolio) has the opportunity to be shared with many people depending on your wishes.
Using the web 2.0 tool called Glogster, you can turn your marker and crayon poster into a digital poster that includes images, videos, sound, and graphics. It allows you or your topic to come to life. This poster can be embedded onto other pages such as wikis, blogs, or your favorite social site – myspace, facebook, linked in, etc.
Images:
Upload images that you have found or that you have taken with a digital camera or scanned in to a file. Once you add the images, you can add frames around them and add text to that image to define the image. Images can also be hyperlinked to other sites or places within a wiki showing your research about a particular topic.
Next add text to explain or illustrate information on the poster. You can add various images that then allow you to type into the explanation or description that you want to add. These too can be hyperlinked to other locations.
Videos:
Upload a video you created or link to a video on teachertube or youtube. It will play directly on your poster rather than taking you to another location. You can also add a “player” to your video so that it looks like your video is playing inside a TV box.
Sound:
You can upload your own sound files to play when clicked on or to play in the background of your entire glog (poster). You can change the settings to have this song play right away without having to click on the sound. This sound file could also be a recording of yourself telling a story or speech.
If you are familiar with Sudoku, then you should have no problem completing this new puzzle – KENKEN. It was developed by a math teacher in Japan. It operates in the same fashion as Sudoku however you use math operations to determine the number you place in a box. The puzzle can be 4×4 or as large as 9×9. The size of the box determines the numbers that are used however you may have larger numbers based on the math operations that are used. This is a great thinking activity that requires students to practice their math facts for grade levels from elementary to high school.
Rules:
1. No number can be repeated in the same row or column.
2. If you see a number in the corner with a math operation next to it, then the boxes that are heavily outlined together must use that operation to equal the number shown.
3. If a number is in the corner but only a single box outlined, then that is the number that gets placed in the box.
Can’t get organized….Can’t think of what to write…..Not enough details…..Where do I start…. These are all questions or problems students face when trying to write. They need assistance organizing thier thoughts, adding details, or coming up with the topics that they wish to address.
This is a mind mapping software that is free on the CFF laptops but also has a 30 day free trial online. You can download the software and use the entire version for 30 days. There is also an online version at www.mywebspiration.com that allows you to create mindmaps but may be missing a few bells and whistles that you would see in the regular version. However with the online version, you can allow for students to collaborate as they can work together on the same mindmap at the same time.
Students can brainstorm ideas and then group them into sub-topics to fit with a main topic. They can start with a main topic and sub-topic and then simply add details. Once their information as been placed on the “map”, with a simple click their diagram changes into an outline preparing them for writing. There is also the feature to export to word, powerpoint, or website for further use.
Lesson Ideas
Compare/contrast topics; analyze a story and/or its structure; character analysis; historical biography creation; concept mapping; plan a science experiment; organize a math prompt or process. Anything you can describe in a lecture can be mapped out for a student to see visually or have the student create a map to explain their understanding of a lesson.
This is a similar software program available for grades K-3. (Note – Northern Bedford has already purchased a school wide license available for use.) The main difference with this program compared to its counter part is that it allows for more pictures to represent ideas rather than using typed text. Students can still map out thier writing ideas and see an outline to help them complete a task.
Lesson Ideas
Compare 2 Topics; Story Map; Brainstorm Ideas; Favorite Things; Goals in School; Describe Themself; Biography of a Famous Historian; Life Cycle of Plant/Animal; Water Cycle
Visit the website of Inspiration/Kidspiration for more sample ideas and lesson plans to use in your class.
As the internet grows and grows in size and use, it is harder and harder to keep track of our “favorite” sites. It is quite upsetting when you’re at home trying to remember an address where all those great math games are located but that site is bookmarked at work. Or the other happens; you’re at work and trying to show a colleague a new resource you just found but can’t remember it’s site address.
Solution – Online Bookmarking
The solution is to use an online bookmarking site. Yes it requires a username and password (as it seems for so many sites) but you will then have access to these resources from any computer no matter where you are located. There are several different locations where you can create such an account but the two I recommend are del.icio.us and diigo.
Recommended Sites
Del.cio.us – allows you to install a toolbar that will work with internet explorer or firefox. You simply click one button to post this bookmark to your account; a menu pops up allowing you to enter tags to help you find it later; and then you click save. You can then sort your bookmarks into lists or groups within your account to help you stay organized. Within the del.cio.us site, you can search for friends bookmarks or other groups to see what sites they are saving. This is also useful when you are trying to find several sites around a specific topic rather than simply completing a google search. The one drawback to this site is that the toolbar only keeps you signed in to your account for two weeks. Then you must log in again before you can bookmark a site.
Diigo – also allows you to install a toolbar that will work with both internet explorer or firefox. When using this toolbar, you bookmark a site the same as mentioned above; click the “bookmark” button, provide your tags, and hit save. Again, you can create lists or groups and search for friends to find the bookmarks being saved by others. Some advantages in diigo that are not in del.cio.us is that you can also “highlight” material within a site so it can be seen by others who have a diigo account. You can also insert a “sticky note” onto this site that can be read by others and/or commented on. This allows you to provide others your thoughts about the particular article being read. Diigo also allows for teacher accounts so that students can create accounts within a teacher monitored network.
Social Bookmarking in Plain English by the Common Craft:
As you begin to use the internet more and more on a daily basis it will benefit you to create a personalized start page. What it is??? A personalized start page is simply a website that you create through a few clicks in order to bring the pages you look at most right to you rather than constantly having to go out to these various sites to read the changes and updates. You will be given direct notification when a blog that you read has been updated; get the latest news reports through FOX News, CNN, or MSNBC; recieve local weather updates for a given area through weather bug or weather.com; access your gmail or yahoo mail right on your chosen start page; update your twitter status (a micro blog) to let friends now exactly what you are doing. Again this all occurs without you having to go to multiple websites – everything is right there on you main page.
Below are a few of the popular choices for a personalized start page.
Pageflakes: begin by creating a account so that you can login and see the page that you design. Choose a theme to customize the screen to your likes and then provide the RSS feeds or simply the URL’s of the sites you like to visit. After creating an account and loggin in, click on large, blue snowflake to add more stuff to your page. Visit my pageflakes site for a specific example: http://www.pageflakes.com/bdilling/
iGoogle: this page begins by visiting the main google site and in the top right corner clicking on the igoogle link. If you don’t already have a google account that would include a gmail account, it will ask you to create one. Next you click on the themes to customize the view. Last click on add stuff to choose various widgets to display on your screen or add RSS feeds by clicking down in the left corner of that add stuff page and providing the desired URL.
Protopage: allows you to create several start pages within the same tab. The first start tab begins as the others – create an account so the page can be set to your specifications. You have some choices to make in colors and settings for this page. Next provide the RSS feeds of the blogs or websites that you wish to follow. This start page only allows you to add a certain widgets from their provided list; it doesn’t have the large quantity and variety of different widgets to choose from as the previous two start pages. The other tabs that appear are for bookmarks and a notes. You can add sticky notes to keep track of information.
Netvibes: this is another page that allows you to personalize the page to provide links to the websites that you visit often. You begin by providing your location and top interests so that the page can be geared to your interests. Next you create an account so that the page can be personalized for you and allow you to provide more specific widgets of your liking. Next you provide the links and RSS feeds to the pages that you follow; again these can be blogs, news sites, weather, bookmarking sites, social network sites, etc.
After you create this personal start page, set it as your home page. If using internet explorer, click on the house and choose “set as home page”; or go to the internet options and set this page as your home page. Now whenever you open your internet, this personal start page will begin to provide you the sites you desire to visit.
Northern Bedford County SD has enrolled in Google Apps for Education and begin rolling out this new feature last week. This means that all students in grades 6-12 now have a free email account for school purposes, access to a google documents account, an online calendar, and a google site.
The email will begin with their school_username@nbpanthers.org. Their password is also the same as what they use school. The students will be able to communicate both in and out of school with their teachers and their classmates. They will be able to email files and classwork between each other as they work collaboratively on many activities throughout their different classes. It will also benefit students who are absent as they will be able to submit work and gain access to the notes or information they missed in class a lot easier.
The google documents account will allow students to create an online document, spreadsheet, or presentation similar to what they would create in MS Word, MS Excel, and MS PowerPoint without having these actual programs. The online, simplified versions of these software programs have most of the functions needed by the students. Also because they are creating the files online and saving them online, students will be able to access the files from any location – not just school. Students will also be able to share the files they are creating with their classmates so that they can work on the document together rather each person doing separate work. No longer will it be a problem when a group member is absent the rest of the group will still be able to work.
These new school features are a privilege and a needed resource for the students to be successful in the learning of the 21st century. It is also the student’s responsibility to use these resources appropriately and for the purpose of education.
Please note – teachers can also create a free google account which will provide them the same resources that are available to the students. The difference is that their account will work directly from gmail.com rather than the @npanthers.org domain.
See the videos below for some further explanation as to how google mail and google documents works.
Feel free to create a google account and check it out yourself.
Last week I attended a training session in Harrisburg, PA provided by CDW-G, the company responsible for our new CFF equipment in our high school. One of our two days was mostly devoted to Google Earth. I was completely unaware of all the cool things you could do with this free program from google. First you must download and install this from google, but it is free and only takes a few minutes to install. After you install this, you can travel around the world virtually as if you are actually going there. You can zoom down to a place from up in the sky or simply type the address in the search bar and google will take you there. You can also type a landmark in the search box and it will direct to that point.
Students can see landmarks around the world as if they are actually there in real life. Some places can be turned into a 3D feature and you can pretend you are walking around as a tourist. Once you find a place of interest, you can place a “push pin” on that spot to help you remember that spot for later. Hooked to this pushpin is a description box that pops up. The user is able to add a description of the place, a picture, and even a movie file if they so choose. This can be personal information (if you have actually been there) or you can add research that you have found on the Internet. If you create these push pins at several locations, you then are creating a google Earth trip, that one can follow from place to place.
Students could research how much it would cost to get there, where they would stay, what they would do and overall how much they would spend on this trip. There are many standards being addressed as students research a location or locations, calculate expenses, describe & compare/contrast potential activities in a place, and use their geography skills to tell how to get to one place from another.
Dream up a place or two you would like to visit and create your next trip virtually with Google Earth.
