Google Documents

Google documents are so cool! We are in the process of choosing our Link Crew leaders for next year. We have to post the names of our applicants (over a hundred names) so they can sign up for an interview, but we keep all this information for next year as well. Anyway--my colleague Megan and I have to type in the data so we did it at the same time on the same spreadsheet on google docs. We could see what the other person was doing instantly and where we need to fill in information. It was fun and fast. Additionally, our colleague Annette can access the information as well so she can do some last minute tracking of a few students who will then be referred to Megan tomorrow so she can finalize the list to be posted tomorrow. Google documents have allowed us to streamline this process. When we go through the interview process, we will be able to take notes online and be able to see what we all thought even thought the interviews will take place in four different rooms. How great is that! Honestly, I love google docs!

Another new thing

I created a new wiki using wetpaint, which is supposedly more popular with users than pb.wiki. It is not as easy to use, but it is isn't that different from pb.wiki. It has more templates that make it more aesthetically pleasing, but it does use ads which is a negative--although, if it is for educational use, you can ask wetpaint to remove the ads so it is just one additional step. My wiki is to plan my dad's retirement party with my sister and mom so the educational part doesn't apply for this one. It has our to do list, our invite list, invite ideas, and our menu. It also automatically adds the pages to the side table of contents so you don't have to link the pages like one has to on the sidebar with pb.wiki.

It has been great fun using the wiki with my mom and sister. My sister and I were at Paper Source in Uptown buying paper for the invites. I created three different invites that were very different on wetpaint based on preliminary discussions with my mom and sister. Each has a different theme, so I was a little unsure of what paper to buy for our invitations. Courtnay, my twin, and I had pulled out about thirty different color combinations trying to figure out which would go with each idea. We each had our arms filled with beautiful different packages of papers from linen vellum to margarita inspired stationary with ribbons to match. My mom calls me while we were at the store. She had shown the wiki to my dad and they were able to tell me which idea they liked the best for the invites, which really helped in choosing the correct paper. How fun is that!

Google Documents

I taught my students about Google documents this week, sharing my story about the computer not working and having my power point presentation inaccessible then and how Google documents helped me. I also created a few more power point presentations on Google documents and had a lot of fun doing it. I have a presentation for my grad class on Tuesday all ready on Google documents.

Anyway, on Thursday, seemingly out of the blue, one of my students said that she really appreciated all the information about wikis and blogs and google documents. She said it was really helpful and she thought it would really help her in college next year. Other students then chimed in and agreed that they really thought it would help them in college as well. It is pretty amazing to actually have students thank you because they see the value of the lesson--and not only for today, but how it will affect them in the future. Pretty awesome!

Happy Spring Break everyone!

Collaboration

Technology is fun! I worked with another English teacher for an hour this week teaching her how to set up a blog, a wiki, and how to attach a site meter to her blog. We also talked about google documents. She was really excited and it was fun for me to share this information about technology that I have learned.

Also, I brought my projector and laptop with me to our annual Link Crew planning session that occurred on Thursday. It was really great to be able to use this technology instead of writing things out on pieces of paper scattered around the room only to have to type it up later. We could all work together on the same document and the planning session went smoothly and efficiently--and of course, it was fun too! We were able to download the school calendar and attach to the icalendar as well, which made planning next year's events that much easier.

Lastly, does anyone know how to download data from a jvc digital camcorder onto imovies? This has been the latest link crew frustration so if anyone knows anything about this particular camcorder, I would love your advice.

Overdue library book

I love this story by Anna Brones
"If you have a tendency to rack up late fees at your local library, you might want to consider moving to Finland. In the southern town of Vaanta, a library-goer recently returned a book that had been checked out for over 100 years. The person who returned it chose to remain anonymous -- possibly deterred by the note on the book which stated there was a 10 penny per week charge for late returns. The library did not state whether it would have charged a fine or not. The book was a bound copy of a 1902 volume of Vartija, a religious monthly periodical" (http://www.gadling.com/2008/03/12/you-want-to-return-what-finnish-library-book-checked-out-over-1/)

Video Streaming

I thought this was an interesting article about using video streaming in the classroom. The article is called "Streaming Technology Improves Student Achievement." http://thejournal.com/articles/16269

Research Papers

I introduced the research paper process to my ninth graders this week. They really liked the research paper calculator! I hope they use it. It was great to walk them through the different features of the databases using my laptop and projector so they could all ask questions at one time and then could directly use the instruction on their own in the library. I love that when I watched them on their individual computers that they all knew how to access the databases and knew how to start their research. I felt like this is the a victory in itself. I know their information will be so much better because of this. The process of them choosing their topics is also better informed since they all have to find initial articles before they make the decision and their research on the databases have encouraged many of them to choose one topic over another.

On a side note, I got so sick of telling my students over and over that wikipedia is not a reliable source that I wrote it on the board a couple of weeks ago. This has created conversation in all my classes so I know they have all really heard it this time...I am not saying that I'll never see wikipedia on a works cited again, of course; I am not that naive. It even got my advisory students talking and I was really proud of the students that could, and willingly did, explain it to the other students who didn't understand this.