Compass Problems??

I have the great privilege of teaching high school geometry to special education students this year. As we were doing some preliminary learning about radius and diameter we began to draw circles with a compass. There were many of my students who struggled using these tools because of their weak fine motor skills. I think we are all familiar with the average hand writing of a special education student. Needless to say holding a sharp point down while trying to swing a pencil around without having a paper move or tear is not an easy task for them. I began searching the internet to find an alternative for them and stumbled across a tool I had not seen before. As an extra bonus it was very affordable at only $1.49 each. I ordered about 15 of them and many of my students love them, and best of all I don't have to hear them complaining about the compasses "not working".  Here is the link to buy them on Amazon.  I also found a great deal on these nice metal rulers for only a $1.50.

Class Moodle Photo Banner

One of my first posts on this blog was how to create a custom banner for your Moodle classes. The main reason doing this is that sets your class apart and helps students know for sure that they are in the correct class. The instructions can be found on this post. I created one today  for my World History class and wanted to share it on here to give an example of what can be done.

Back To School Inspiration

Well that summer went by fast! Between my DJ business and watching my boys all summer I didn't have much time to blog. Thought I would get back into the swing of things since tomorrow is the first day teachers report in my district. This is a very powerful and thought provoking video.  I plan on showing this to my students, but I may need to do some translating for them because of the heavy English accent.  I am also going to post a link to the Ashton Kutcher video that came out a few weeks ago that was very inspirational.

Teach Me How To Moodle

Will Teach Me How to Moodle become as big as Teach Me How To Dougie??  Probably not, but Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Moodle continue to become more popular in education. This may be hard for some to believe but there are those that are not drawn to technology and are not that adept when it comes to using it. With this in mind I am trying to create a resource where fellow teachers can slowly and incrementally learn how to use Moodle in my district or any other school. I know similar videos are all over the internet but I have not seen them put in a simple and sequential order to follow. I did a few trainings last week on each of these Moodle skills, but I wanted to create a resource for them to refer back to and inform those who could not make it. More videos will follow ,but I wanted to get these out there to get people started. Click here to be taken to the page.

PowToon: Put Some Swag In Your Presentation

PowToon is a very unique and interesting new way to present information to an audience. As the name suggests there are many cartoon animation options to put into your presentation. You have the option of making your presentation act like a regular PowerPoint where you click along for animations or new pages as you present, or you can set it up like a movie where you just click play. It took me about 10 minutes to catch on and understand how to best use the application. There is a bit of a learning curve with timing transitions and words appearing on the screen. Below is an example of a movie I made using PowToon to advertise the Intro to Moodle presentation I led at my school.

Scan Class Notes With Your Smart Phone

     Yesterday I had a teacher stop me in the hall and ask me about the best way to supply students with notes from class that were not typed already. Often times a special education student will have "notes supplied" as an accommodation on their IEP. Or perhaps a student missed class and wants the notes of a fellow student. With permission you could scan the notes of a top student with good penmanship.  This would allow you to keep a copy for other classes or even for the next year.  This can be done easily using any smart phone. Any Apple iOS device (iPhone, iPad, iPod) can use a free app called Genius Scan to get a very clear PDF of hand written notes. For some reason Genius Scan costs money on Android devices, but I have used and recommend the free app Cam Scanner for Android devices.  Once you have a PDF of your notes it can either be emailed or uploaded to your Google Drive, Evernote, or any number of cloud storage apps. 

3 Ways to Record Classroom Tests and Publish to Moodle

When a special education student needs a test read in a general education or co-taught classroom there is not a perfect way to handle it. If students leave the classroom to have it read, some students will turn down the accommodation because they don't want to stand out. Many teachers will give up their prep or stay after school to read it to them but that is not always possible or optimal. I think one of the best solutions is to have that teacher record it and then upload it to their Moodle site. This works best if you have a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) program at your school. If that is not possible some sort of mp3 or iPods in the classroom may be an alternative. I made this video for a PD I did at my school but hope others may find it beneficial. In this video I give a tutorial on how to record your tests on an 1. iPhone  2. An Apple Computer 3. An iPod nano. (Apple isn't paying me, but they should:) 

School Tube: The Best Way To Share Video at School

I had a colleague ask me today about the best way to share video book reviews done by his students. I know in the real world when you want to share a video the obvious choice is YouTube.  However, when you are a school teacher this may not be an option. I know many school districts that have YouTube blocked by their filter. I don't see the point of posting something at school that students can't view at school. It my mind it defeats the purpose. The best alternative I have found is to use SchoolTube.  There is a fairly easy review process when you sign up to make sure you are a real educator at a real school, but it is not that intrusive. The positive side of this process is that it filters out most of the junk your students may be exposed to on YouTube. Here is a link to my SchoolTube channel if you want to check it out.  In the past I have used SchoolTube to post videos from a project based assessment we did on the novel Night by Elie Wiesel. I am still so impressed and proud of the video I am posting below that one of the students made in that class, enjoy!

SimpleBooklet: Finished Project Example

I finally completed my first BPA (project based assessment) using SimpleBooklet.  The site performed great and it was even better than I had hoped it would be. There were no issues with pages deleting, websites not loading, or any other technical problems. I love the design of the teacher controls because it makes it very easy to grade each project and navigate between them. (This was a nightmare in Glogster and Lino). I am giving an example of some student work which I think is amazing given the disabilities in my class. I teach high school special education students  so this assignment is probably at the general education level of upper elementary or middle school.  I am including the instructions I gave my students on my Moodle page because I think that is often where teachers are unsure of how to create a PBA. Hopefully this will give you an idea of how I structure my BPA's.

You are going to create a digital book that covers all the important parts of chapter 1. Go to SimpleBooklet here. When you use pictures to show an idea please make sure they make sense to use. Use the following list as a guideline of what to include in your digitital book. EACH NUMBER BELOW WILL BE IT'S OWN PAGE, THIS MEANS YOU WILL HAVE 5 PAGES IN YOUR BOOK. I AM INCLUDING THE TITLE FOR EACH PAGE SO PUT THAT ON TOP OF EACH PAGE. 

1. TYPES OF GOVERNMENT : Give a simple defintion for each of the following: democracy, monarchy, and a republic. Include a picture to represent each. 6 points
2. BRITISH TYRANNY: List 4 things the British government did that caused the colonists to want to form their own country. Include a picture for each one.  8 points
3. 6 PRINCIPLES OF THE CONSTITION   List the 6 principles of the Constitution and give at least 4 pictures to represent at least 4 of them.  10 points

4. SEPARATION OF POWERS: List the 3 branches of government and have a picture that represents each. Tell me what the role is of each one. 9 points
5. MAIN EVENT TIMELINE: Using an arrow between each event put the following events in chronological order. (Earliest to latest) AND INCLUDE THE YEAR IT HAPPENED. 10 points
The Constitution
The Articles of Confederation
Declaration of Indepedence
Marbury V. Madision
The Bill of Rights
Extra Points
6. LEGISLATIVE BRANCH: Explain the difference between the House of Representatives and the Senate.
a. How many members does each body have? (How is that decided)
b. Which states have more power in each body.
c. Give a picture to represent each.

43 points total + 6 bonus points. 

simplebooklet.com

Problem Attic: "Standarized Bell Ringer"

Problem Attic is a website/test generator that houses a collection of over 80,000 of the best questions from NY Regents, state assessments, and academic competitions. The website is free and fairly easy to navigate and use. You can browse almost an endless supply of questions and narrow them down by type of question (NY Regents, State Assessments)  subject matter, (ELA, Math, S.S., Science), class (Algebra, Geometry) and even strand (Rational & Irrational Numbers).  My initial thought is that these would make great bell ringers or reviews for students. As a special education teacher I am constantly running out of sample problems for my students to practice completing. I think exposing students to standardized questions will help get them prepared for the high stakes testing they are required to complete in this day and age.

Send Hub: Instant & Direct Communication With Your Group

Would you like to be able to communicate with multiple groups of people with one click on your phone (Android & iOS) or computer and have them actually see your message right away? Don't want to give out your phone number to students, players, or participants in a club or group?  The Send Hub app solves all of these problems. I have been using Send Hub this year to communicate to my basketball team that I coach. It has been a life and time saver!  The best part is that it can operate as an opt in service. Where people subscribe with just your Send Hub phone number (which is in your own area code) and a code word. The app can also make and receive phone calls on your extra line. Many teachers are just starting to email a list of parents for class updates. That is a good start but most emails are briefly read and deleted and many are never read at all. In this digital age people pay attention and are more likely to take action when they get a text message sent right to their phone. I have used this service for almost a year now and would recommend it to anyone who needs to communicate and disseminate information to a group of people. 

Simple Booklet: Digital Book Perfect For Project Based Assessments

Over the years I have experimented with multiple websites and avenues for students to be able to show what they have learned on a given subject or topic. Two years ago I was using Glogster EDU as a way for my students to complete project based assessments. For the last year I had been using Lino, which is basically a glorified bulletin board. Both of the sites can serve a purpose but I still felt as if there had to be something better out there for students displaying content they had learned over a period of time. At first glance, it appears Simple Booklet might just be that diamond in the rough I have been looking for all these years. They have a regular version and an educational version. The educational is the most affordable service I have seen, only $10 a year for 30 students. Perfect for a special education or elementary teacher.  The site basically allows students to build digital flip books and then share them via almost every way imaginable. A teacher can even upload a PDF or PowerPoint and the site will automatically turn it into a book that can be shared anywhere. Content created can even be viewed on tablets and smart phones.  The site appears to be very solid with quick loading, automatic saving, and easy navigation for students. I used the down time after students completed their mid-term exams this week to get them all signed up and experimenting with the site. I will be posting assignment and student examples in the weeks to come. In the mean time, I highly suggest you give SimpleBooklet a try.