In Touch

How to Find Longitude and Latitude in Google Maps

2012-01-27T16:02:00.001-05:00

A conversation started earlier today where one of my co-workers asked about resources to help students find and figure out how to determine Latitude and Longitude. It made me think back about some conversations that I had with some Kindergarten teachers regarding Google Earth and it dawned on me. You can set Google Maps to show your Latitude and Longitude with just a few simple clicks on the screen.

I had forgotten all about the ability for Google Maps to display this information and it is very simple to do. Once you have opened up a Map and moved into the location that you would like to find the Latitude and Longitude for you will Right Mouse click to see the menu. In the Menu Click on What's Here? When you do this you will see a Green Arrow pop up on the Map. When you hover over the green arrow the Latitude and Longitude will display for the location. You then can perform any of the normal options that Google Maps offers you users.

Here is a quick video that shows you how to determine the Latitude and Longitude on the Map.

video created using Google Maps and

ActivInspire Recorder tool

The Connected Administrator

2012-01-27T08:29:00.001-05:00

Most schools and districts spend lot of time and effort trying to get their teachers up to speed on technology and its use/place in the classroom. And honestly that is where a majority of effort should be spent; working with those on the frontlines of instruction. However, rarely, if ever, is much time spent with administrators, working with them on ways they use technology to enhance what they are doing. What can administrators do?

I have put together what I have called The Administrators Technology Toolkit. There are some simple, easy to use tools that Administrators can be using right now to, just like teachers, integrate technology into what they do daily. And many of these tools help admin connect to other admin and get their schools connected. Remember it that sharing of learning all starts with getting connected!

I have created a presentation and some additional information that either you, as an administrator can use to jump start your digital self or you can pass long to your administrator and help them start or finish their

journey.

Here is the presentation:

And here is the site with loads more information.

So if you are an Administrator, check it out. If you know an Administrator, pass it long, help them out and get them started on their own Digital Journey.

Great news from Symbaloo ...

2012-01-25T16:05:00.005-05:00

... at least in my opinion!

I have written a couple of blog posts about Symbaloo in the past couple of months. One of the last things I wrote about was that you could now embed a Symbaloo into a wiki or web page. I thought that was a great feature, but I wanted to be able to add a Symbaloo into a blog post. At the time of the post on embedding Symbaloo into a wiki or web page, there was no way of changing the height or width of the Symbaloo. Now there is! Yea! I am so excited about that. You will still have to use the scroll bar to see all of the Symbaloo, but they are working on fixing that.

Here is a my webmix for IWB (Interactive White Boards):

Here is a link to tutorials in School Tube on Symbaloo. There is a video tutorial for adding a webmix to your blog. I also like the Intro to Symbaloo video on Symbaloo's login page.

Who is Lily? (part 2)

2012-01-25T10:25:00.001-05:00

Do you know who Lily is?

You can read the blog post on my WonderFamilyEdwards blog to find out more about how I found out who Lily is (I guess that would be part 1).

By the way, Lily is a bear that my daughter's Kindergarten class at Caleb's Creek Elementary has been watching on a web cam ...

I think the idea of viewing various animals web cams is interesting, so I asked her teacher if she would mind sharing some of the things they are doing with this in class.

Here is her response:

Well...the bears...it all began just because it was cool! I was hooked two years ago when Lily had her first cub. Then last year, Lily had two cubs. One of last years cubs is denning with Lily this winter...but it seems that they have been having difficulty with Lily's camera. So...we discovered Honey and Lucky as well as Jewel.

We often pull up all the den cams and leave them up as we work. Then we can see (& hear) them..and stop to watch and discuss what we see. We have read books about bears (fiction and non-fiction) and discussed why bears hibernate. We have researched (online and in books) different kinds of bears and compared them. We have compared bears to humans (food, water, needs, habits, living things). We have discussed how bears move, hunt, etc. We have compared the different bears we watch (bigger/smaller, activity levels, etc.). We are getting ready to learn about other animals that hibernate...so we can compare them! We have looked on the globe to see where these bears live...as well as other bears we read about. We occasionally watch Freja (in Sweden)...not nearly as good! We talked about camouflage...and why polar bears don't live in the woods and black/brown bears don't live in the arctic! When we discuss our daily weather...we check the top of the bear.org webpage to see what the weather is in Ely,MN. The discussion was interesting when we saw -12 the other morning!!!! We use a large thermometer to show the temps. We go on a bear hunt for fun and/or exercise. Yesterday, we had the kids "design" a cave by tearing paper...and then draw a bear and cut it out to glue in the cave. We imagined we were bears...and wrote about what we would dream about ...this will go with the cave. I am sure we have done other things...but nothing else comes to mind right now.

Look at all the multidisciplinary things this teacher is addressing with her class based on what they are watching on the animal webcam. Love it! And this is just a Kindergarten class! Think about all the reading and writing activities that could be done with students at older grade levels.

Holly Dubois shared some other related links with me too:

Another link you can look at (more in the spring) that I sometimes show the kids is this one of an eagle nest in VA. http://www.norfolkbotanicalgarden.org/e-community/eagle-cam I love the bear one too but have not looked at it yet this year. This also has fun winter wildlife pics. http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/photos/winter-wildlife/ (takes a while to load!)

I also want to point out KB...Konnected's LiveBinder full of Amazing Animal Webcams.

I should also mention Steven W. Anderson's previous post: A Window to the World with Webcams.

So...You Wanna Be A Blogger

2012-01-20T10:31:00.000-05:00

So this is a blog.

Yep. It really is, or at least I want it to be.

This is a space for me to reflect, share, learn and grow with anyone who stops by. It has been a wonderful experience for me and I really do enjoy working on this.

Besides the professional growth, blogs can be a wonderful addition to any classroom too.

So you are thinking? I wanna start blogging? But I don't know anything about it?

Fear not kind reader! I have several resources for you to read and consult as you begin this wonderful journey.

First, you are going to need a space. There are lots of them out there:

Schoolwires-There is a great and super easy to use blog app that you can add to any Schoolwires page. There are not too many options to get in the way of actually using the app so it is great for beginners.
Blogger-This is my platform of choice. If you use anything Google you can set up a blog, for free and start. It's as easy as picking a name and writing your first post. There are lots of customization options too that allows a lot of flexibility to personalize your space.
Posterous-Again, free. Posterous is unique in that you can submit posts via email. When you create your space you get an unique email address that you can send your posts too and poof! they appear on your blog. Its great too because you can add collaborators via their email address and they can post too. (Great for classroom blogging.)

And there are apps for all these so you can blog on the go.

Still confused with all the options and how to get the most of of what you choose? My friend Richard has created a great page with lots of tutorials on how to use Blogger, and Posterous.

Ok. Now that you have a space. What exactly are blogs all about?

So you have your space all set up and you have a working knowledge of how things work. What do you post about? Well that's what's great about blogs. They are your personal space on the Internets. Post whatever you think you need to or want to. Decide on a focus but don't get married to it. This blog has gone through lots of changes and I post about all sorts of things. Sure its about Web 2.0 but I touch on Leadership, Education Reform and some personal stuff too. Your blog is what you make of it.

Maybe you are thinking about staying away from the personal reflection stuff (although I really, really encourage it) and you want to do just a Class Blog or have your students blogging. If its a class blog, what do you want to communicate? Maybe its just keeping parents updated on happenings in class. Or you want to spur conversation with your students. There are lots of ideas. The key is to find something to get your started but realize that the focus will change over time and that's ok.

So how about some more resources?

Lets look at the stuff for using your blog as a professional space:
Blogs By Discipline- I think its helpful to see how other educators are using their blogs. This site has a boat load of them listed out by discipline. Find yours and see what others are doing.
7 Reasons Teachers Should Blog-Still not convinced? Check out this excellent post from my friend Steve on why teachers, especially should blog. (His post on the reasons teachers don't blog is worth a read too.)
Blogging Secrets-Richard has a very, very popular blog. People ask him all the time on how to get their blog as popular as his. He gives great advice. While we disagree in some areas the advice is still solid and worth a read.
Getting To Know Your Blog-This is a wonderful post that lays it all out there. Everything you need to know to get started and do more with your blog, no matter the platform you use.
Using Blogs As A Part Of Your Personal Learning Network-Blogs are a great way to keep your finger on the pulse in your area or in education in general. Find out how by reading this post.

On to the Blogging In The Classroom resources:
The Best Sources For Advice On Classroom Blogging-This is my go-to source for everything classroom blogging related because it is updated constantly. Lots of great links to other sites and good information too.
Student Blogging Guidelines-If/When you get started with blogs with students you are gonna want some ground rules. This post goes through some simple guidelines you can use with your students.
Student Blogging Resources-There is more to consider than just the rules in your classroom. Your district might also have rules that you have to follow or forms you will need to send home. This site has sample permission forms, and examples of how blogs are used in the classroom.
Teaching Commenting Skills-One of the powerful parts of blogs are the comments. But kids might need help in getting theirs just right. This page, from an experienced classroom blogger walks you and your student through the process of learning how to comment, the right way.
Comments4Kids-Kids commenting on each other posts are great. But when they get those comments from people they dont know from another part of the world, thats just awesome. Comments4Kids is a great way to make that happen.
15 Topics For Your School Blog-Just some ideas to get you started.

This is just a handful of everything I have collected about blogs and blogging. I have tons more in my Diigo so be sure to head over there and check out everything there.

Like I mentioned before, I really do find blogging rewarding. So if you aren't a blogger and you want to be or you just need some help getting yours off the ground I hope you can use the resources found here.

What advice do you have for beginning bloggers or teachers that want to use blogs in the classroom? Leave some comments below.

Image under CC License from [martin]

Crazy Adventures ....

2012-01-19T21:34:00.000-05:00

Last week my daughter brought home a picture she drew after her class read a Curious George book in the media center. While she was telling me all about her picture, I realized she was giving me a pretty good summary of the story. (She also told me the list of words on the side of the picture are words you are supposed to find in the picture on the other side of the picture .. but that is a topic for another post). I later found out from the teacher that they were focusing on setting and characters when they completed this activity.

I wondered if I could find other things related to Curious George that might interest her. I went to one of my favorite resources, Thinkfinity.org, to do a search and found a great k-2 lesson from ReadWriteThink:

Taking Photos of Curious George: Exploring Character Through Images:

What would Curious George do if he visited your school? What crazy adventures would he have? These and many other questions provide the framework for students to create a digital class book about Curious George’s adventures in their school. In this lesson, students begin by exploring a familiar character (Curious George) by using books, a website, and a graphic organizer. Students extend what they have learned by imagining what George would do if he visited their school. Students work in pairs to discuss locations in the school George might visit and what he might do in each location. Next, students take George on a trip to each location and take a photo of him posed in a humorous way. After taking pictures of the funny monkey in a variety of poses and locations, students work together to create a storyboard and then a digital "book" that tells their story.

I see ways the ideas in the lesson could be used with other storybook characters besides just Curious George. Have students think about the main character in the book he or she just read and consider some of the questions listed in the description above ... and then build off of that.

The ReadWriteThink lesson plan pulls in the possibility for using many technology tools (adapt this lesson to use the idea with the tools you have):

digital camera
computer with internet access
digital storytelling sites
presentation resources/sites
websites

Many of the ideas in this lesson go along with the Information and Technology Essential Standards as well as the ISTE NETS for Students, while also meeting various reading and writing standards.

Think about all the creative thinking this would encourage ... and even require. In my mind, creative thinking is a form of critical thinking as well.

Just because this lesson is designated as a k-2 lesson, that does not mean that it would not also have wonderful results with older children. This could be used as a great prompt for the creation of a story and some digital media.

Imagine all the crazy adventures that story character could have with students ...

You Have Their Attention When This Happens...

2012-01-18T09:00:00.000-05:00

The other day I was having a training session with middle school teachers who are moving into their new building in a couple of days on the equipment they now have access to in their classrooms. We were talking about all of the new interactive tools they have in their classrooms that they can use with their students when I had a teacher speak up and say what is that? I was not sure what they were referring to so I asked them to show me what they were talking about by using the Interactive Tablet to click on the Icon in question.

We were looking at ActivOffice, which is an add-on productivity pack for MS PowerPoint 2007, when the teacher noticed in the floating toolbox an Icon that said READ. I said for them to go ahead and click on it to see what it would do. The Icon opened up the Ticker Tape Tool which started the scrolling text across the top of the page. I looked back at the teachers in the room and more than half of them were looking up intently at the tool they had discovered and were all asking questions about how it worked. So in the midst of one training we went turned in a completely different direction to what a co-worker calls a "Teachable Moment."

I went into a quick discussion on how the Ticker Tape can be used in conjunction with ActivOffice and a PowerPoint to share even more information with the students. The teachers can setup the ticker tape with any type of information from Science terms, Social Studies dates and places to Math and English terms. The Art teacher spoke up with a "What about me?" I responded with enthusiasm that all kind of information can be shared from the names of different artists, sculptors and painters to go along with the images of their works displayed on the PowerPoint. Music teachers can also benefit from the use of the ticker tape with Lyrics to songs, famous musicians and terminology. All which can be shared with the students right over the current displayed information.

We even got into a discussion on how they could put their Subject area Essential Questions, morning work, homework assignments, upcoming school information, project information and a myriad of other general announcements. All which could then be used over and over again because they have the ability to save those ticker tapes to their local drives, staff share, media or even personal thumb or external hard drives for future use.

All of the teachers were talking and whispering of different ways they could use the Ticker Tape and even though we had gone in a different direction from the planned training I felt that they had gotten more out of that 5 minutes and would be able to use that information immediately to share information with their students on the first day in their new classrooms.

As a final thought don't forget that if you have ActivInspire and an ActivBoard you can also use the Ticker Tape tool to share information with your students as well.