Tech Tutorials

I hope everyone is rested for the rest of the school year. I took all of the information from the people that filled out the form and I put together a schedule that I hope will meet the needs of all of the teachers in the building. If these times do not work for you, please email me and we can try and set something up 1:1 so I can help you.

These sessions are designed for teachers that have little to no experience with the tools or those looking for my information on how to incorporate these into the class. If you are a more advanced user and want to stop by and offer some help, you are welcome as well.

The only thing you need to do is send me an email the day before to let me know you will be stopping by and I will be waiting in my room to help you. Even it is one person, these tech tutorials will be happening.

If you have any questions, please drop me a note or send me an email and I will be happy to answer them for you.

All sessions will be in room 292.

Livescribe Pens 

Tuesday April 9 - Thursday April 11

Mornings 7:00 - 7:45
Both Lunches
After School 3:30 - 4:15

I will show you how I have used the Livescribe pen and how they can be used in class. Here is some information you can use before we meet if you have some questions on what a Livescribe Pen is and how to use it.

Evernote 

Tuesday April 16 - Thursday April 18

Mornings 7:00 - 7:45
Both Lunches
After School 3:30 - 4:15

This tutorial will be about the different ways that Evernote can be used in the classroom for students or for teachers as a lesson planner. This is also a free app that can be downloaded on your personal devices if you want to get a head start. We will be using the iPads for this tutorial, so everyone will have access to Evernote. Here is some more information on Evernote to get you started.

Google Docs

Wednesday April 24 and Thursday April 25

Mornings 7:00 - 7:45
Both Lunches
After School 3:30 - 4:15

This tutorial will be the basics of how to use Google Docs. I will show you the different ways you can use it as a teacher and how you can share documents quickly with other teachers and students. Here is some more information on all of Google Apps.

Blogger

Tuesday April 30 - Thursday May 2

Mornings 7:00 - 7:45
Both Lunches
After School 3:30 - 4:15

This tutorial will show teachers how they can have students set up Blogs using Blogger and how they can be used to cut down on the paper in their classroom. This blog uses blogger and many other sites use Blogger and their blogging platform. Here is some more information on using Blogger.

I'm really excited to share these great tools with you and hopefully see you integrate them into your classroom. My students have really responded positively to these additions to my classroom and they have made my days much easier.

I hope to see many of you in 292!

Nick

Annotating with Livescribe Pens

I had the time over break to try out a new way to use my Livescribe pen for annotations. Here is a post I put together on my other site. 

I'm helping a student with their new book club they started at South. I really wanted to make sure I did a good job reading and annotating this story so I could share with the group. I feel I have a high bar to meet since I'm an English teacher. I didn't want to just download a book and annotate that way and I didn't want to just buy a book and highlight it. I wanted to do a little bit more with the notes, but wasn't sure what to do.

Well, Livescribe was the perfect solution to my problem. I have the Livescribe Sky pen and I recently purchased Livescribe Sticky Notes. By using these two items, I can take notes on the Sticky Notes and not only save them in the book, but they are saved in Evernote.

Here is my note on the book. 

Here is what the note looks like in Evernote. 

I can take the Sticky Notes with me and leave them in the book as I read. With my pen by my side, I can just add the notes as they come up and annotate the book as well. This book club idea has me thinking though.

What if I took the books we read in class and did my own annotations using the Sticky Notes? After the notes were saved, I could then post a public link on my website or drop those notes in another shared notebook with my students and they could have my notes while they read. Maybe note specific notes, but perhaps I add guiding questions. The Livescribe pen and the Sticky Notes can change the way I teach annotation with my students and can add a layer of class discussion that I haven't been able to have.

If I allow the students to edit the notes I share with them, the students could actually add their thoughts and ideas to the annotated notes I left. This could create a crowdsourced collection of annotations for the entire class to see. This could have a serious impact on how my students study and share. It can also really help some of my struggling readers to see what others are thinking why they read and can also add their thoughts.

I think I am going to try this for Gatsby or Catcher this semester. I know that it will be some work on my end upfront, but once I do it the first time, I will have the annotated notes in Evernote and in my book for years to come.

For those of you looking at different ways to use their Livescribe pen, I think this is a fun and exciting way to use annotations in the classroom. Stay tuned as I explore Livescribe Pens in my classroom.

Happy Tech Tuesday February 5th

Happy Tech Tuesday everyone. I apologize for the long lay off, but I have some news I wanted to share with you.

I have had a great time getting into your classrooms and working with you on technology in your lessons plans. I wanted to see if there were those of you that are interested in doing more with those tools in a workshop format before or after school. Also, I wanted to see if there were any tools not on my list that you are interested in using in your classroom.

Please take a moment fill out this form and will email people back with possible meeting dates and times to talk tech.

Thanks