Class Dojo

Sarah Kile is our first guest blogger of the year!  She wrote this article on Class Dojo.

Class Dojo is a fairly new app that allows teachers to recognize both positive and negative behaviors in real time during class.  Good behavior, such as working hard, helping others, or participating, earns points and a high-pitched game-show chime for all to hear.  Behavior that “needs work”, like disrupting others, being off task or wasting time, results in a loss of points and a sad, out-of-tune bass sound.  I have been using this app as positive reinforcement.  Every time the high-pitched chime sounds, each student is looking at the board eager to see if it is them that earned points.  I have noticed that the amount of hard work and on task behavior has heightened since using the app.

There’s several great features of this app.  One is obviously acknowledging those students who do the right thing and behave accordingly.  Another fun feature is that the kids can choose their avatar.  They can choose a purple bear with yellow lips and a horn, a one-eyed furry gray creature, a blue fluid octopus, and many more.  This allows them to take ownership of not only their avatar, but also their behavior.

Another great feature is that parents can log into the site at any time during the day and see how their child is behaving at school.  They are able to view what challenges their child is having, as well as what they are consistently doing that is viewed as positive.  When teachers reward points and take away points, there is a comment box where teachers can get more specific in case the parent does log in and looks at their child’s behavior.  It’s a great communication tool and could come in handy during parent/teacher conferences.

So to summarize:

What I LOVE about Class Dojo:

1.  Students pay attention and try to earn points!  They are excited!

2.  Just by rewarding positive points, students exhibiting poor behaviors will usually stop them without me having to recognize the negative behaviors.

3.  I can keep track of a point system electronically!

4.  There is even an app for your iPad or phone so that you can use Class Dojo everywhere!

5.  When you award or take away points, there is a space each day to write a note about the behaviors.  This is great to keep track of behavior management records or parent conferences.

6. It's FREE! www.classdojo.com 

Year THREE of MCG/RJE Tech Superheroes!

It's time to kick off year three of Technology Superheroes! The purpose of this program is to encourage the integration of technology in your classroom, to introduce you to new tools and ideas and to encourage you to problem solve and help each other with technology-related issues. For anyone who is new to McGowen or RJE, here is a brief explanation of this blog and our program:

1. Email Laura Bates (RJE) or Melanie Burford (McGowen) to let them know you want to participate. We will put a sign by your classroom door on which stars for your superhero cape will be displayed.
2. Watch for an email with a update to our Technology Superhero blog. If you try a tech tool mentioned in our blog, email Melanie or Laura with evidence that you used that tech tool. It could be a picture of a student product, a screen shot on your computer, etc. (McGowen is also implementing another way to "turn in" projects this year via a Google Form. More information about that later and in a separate post or email.) Once you have submitted your evidence, you just earned a star for your cape! Laura or Melanie will come by to add it to your Technology Superhero sign.
3. If you help a staff member with troubleshooting a technology issue (that would have been a potential Technology Help Request), have the staff member you helped send a brief email to Melanie or Laura telling us how you were at Technology Superhero Problem Solver! You just earned another star for your cape!
4. You will earn your first star just by accepting the challenge to participate!
5. You may use the blog archive to look at posts from last year and use those ideas. (Example: I LOVE Thinglink and strongly encourage you to try that tool, but I won't write a new blog post about it...yet.) If you read an old post and implement one of those ideas, it will count for a star on your cape.

Prizes: 
5 Stars- Jeans pass!
10 Stars- Fuzzy Fingers to clean your laptop/iPad screen, or a decal for your laptop (We will have several for you to choose from.) 
15 stars - choice of a Hub Man (has flexible arms and legs with a USB port at each to allow you to use more tech gadgets with your laptop or Mac Mini) or a USB memory stick. **  

For each 5 stars collected, a raffle ticket will be earned toward a chance to win an iPad Mini*. Drawing will be held on the staff workday, June 5th. 

*The iPad will be checked out to you and it is intended for professional and classroom use. In the event of your transfer away from McGowen or RJE, the iPad must be returned.

And, have no fear, because your Technology Committee is here! Please let your Technology Committee know how we can support you. 

“If the prospect of living in a world where trying to respect the basic rights of those around you–and valuing each other simply because we exist–are such daunting, impossible tasks that only a super-hero born of royalty can address them…then what sort of world are we left with? And what sort of world do you want to live in?” ~Wonder Woman

**Prizes for 10 stars or 15 stars are subject to change without notice, depending on what cool techy goodies we can find at WalMart:)

iTunes U and McKinney ISD

The Media Resource Specialist group has spent time this year creating courses in iTunesU. If you've never explored iTunesU before, you will be AMAZED at the amount of free resources available. iTunesU is the perfect example of the "learn anywhere, anytime" mentality. All you have to do is log in to iTunes with your Apple ID and explore the iTunesU library. You can do this from an iPad or your MacBook. You can download courses or e-books to your device and read them whenever and wherever you want. I specifically remember downloading a course onto my iPad, then reading it and watching videos within the course while I waited for a doctor's appointment. That's right - it's all about time management! HA!

Here are a few more tips to get you started with iTunesU.
When you're in iTunes, look for the iTunes U link:

Once you're in iTunes U, search for McKinney ISD and you should find our courses. There are only a few courses right now, but check back often! As courses are completed OR added to, they will be added to the McKinney ISD library!

One of my favorite things about iTunesU courses (especially as a creator of some), you don't ever have to be "finished" with your course. You can add materials, lessons or activities at any time, so even if a course is published, more materials are likely to be added to it.

With summer quickly approaching, I thought this was the perfect time to introduce this amazing resource. Don't forget - it's multi-platform, so you can access iTunesU via your macbook or an iPad. If you're on an iPad, find your iTunesU app (it is an Apple app that should be on all iPads.)

If you have any questions about iTunes U and how to get going, let me know! I'd be happy to show you:)

GoNoodle-Brain Breaks

Guest blogger Jan Sullivan shared this site with us.  

It is a super cool way to give your students a brain break when they are fidgety or lethargic!  

Check out this link to the site to watch a short video intro that will help get you started!

Here's another link to a tutorial that you might find helpful.  And, did I mention that it is FREE?!?

What GoNoodle Brain Break does your class love?  

Share it in the comments below for an extra star for your cape! :)))

Vine Videos

Many of you have probably heard of the iPhone app called "Vine." Here's a little description of Vine from their website: "Vine is the best way to see and share life in motion. Create short, beautiful, looping videos in a simple and fun way for your friends and family to see."

With Vine, you create 6 second videos that loop over and over until you make it stop:) I got the idea of using Vine with Vocabulary from Twitter (surprise, surprise.) A word of caution: Vine is frequently used as a social media site, for silly, fun videos and comments that could be inappropriate for children. When I suggested that my teachers try Vine with Vocabulary, I told them to only let the students use Vine with the teacher's iPad and monitor them closely (i.e. only let them create Vines, don't let them browse the gallery.) 

Once the students' vines are created under the teacher's account, the teacher can go to Vine's website and embed their vines into their own teacher websites or wikis for student viewing and sharing. 

Using Vines for  Vocabulary is a great way for students to demonstrate their mastery of a word through words and visual representation. Also, when students view other vocabulary vines, they get another person's examples, explanations... and on top of that they get the repetition of that 6 second video looping over and over again.

Amber Evans and Marley Goodwin had their 3rd grade students make Vocabulary Vines when they were learning about geometry. Check Amber's out here and find Marley's vines here. Way to go 3rd grade!

Angela Stallbaumer, Sarah Feeney and their 2nd graders created Vines to show their understanding of suffixes. Check them out here.  Way to go 2nd grade!

There are many, many ways that Vines could be used in education. One of the greatest things about it is the time limit on the videos. If you need a quick activity and you want your students to publish something, but you don't have time to spend days on a project, Vine is great option!! I sometimes create vines just to "show off" what students are doing. Here's an example:






Hope you enjoy using Vine!! If you have any questions about it, or would like some support using it in your classroom, please let me know:)

**Please note: The Vine app is NOT downloaded onto the school iPads because of the reasons mentioned above. We don't want our students visiting the gallery and viewing public videos and comments. You can, however, download Vine onto your teacher iPad or your phone - doing it this way allows you to monitor more closely:)

More Google Chrome Awesomeness - URL shortener

A couple of weeks ago, Laura wrote a post about Google Chrome's Incredible Start page. I tried to think of a topic that was NOT related to Chrome, but gave up and decided to share my new favorite time-saving tip. One of the coolest tricks I learned at TCEA (or after TCEA really, when I took a few moments to digest all I learned), is the Google URL shortener.

If you are using Chrome, look at your menu bar on the far left and click on the "Apps" button.

Search for "URL shortener." You are looking for an extension. Once you install it, an icon for it will appear just to the right of your URL window.

There it is! I have a URL shortener icon and when I click it, I get a shortened URL (http://goo.gl.....). My favorite thing about it is the QR code! I click on the QR code and I can copy it and paste it into a word document to print, into a Keynote presentation, etc. 

This is such a time saver! With one click, I get a shortened URL (that is super easy to cut and paste into an email, for example) AND a QR code for any webpage I visit. Love, love, love this!

If you give this Google Chrome awesomeness a try, or discover another Chrome extension that you love, please share it with us:)

Incredible StartPage

Wouldn't you like an "Incredible Start" every time you opened up a browser?

I attended a couple of sessions at my technology conference last week by a gal that is a professional presenter.  She raved about Google Chrome and all of the great plug ins that it has.  So...needless to say, I am now a believer.  You will need to create a google account if you don't already have one.  After that, you can go to the Chrome Web Store and find all kinds of goodies.  A quick and easy plug in with high impact to me is Incredible StartPage.  After installing the plug in, this is what my home page looks like:

I was given the option to import all of my bookmarks from Safari, customize my theme, and write on the sticky note!  A neat feature is that it keeps a list of my recently closed sites, so I can revisit something that I may have accidentally closed or forgot to bookmark!  And, if you are on a different computer, after you log into Google, your Incredible StartPage should follow you!

You will probably need to install Google Chrome on your laptop.  After you install it, visit the Chrome Webstore to search for and download the Incredible StartPage plugin.  The sleek format of this plug in makes me happy each time I launch Chrome!