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New MacServer Address

February 13, 2012 in Growing, Teachers, Understanding

Teachers: Along with access to Google Docs, all of your students also have a username and password for logging in to the macs that enable them to store files in their folders. This will give them virtual access from nearly any Mac in the school. Now when students log in, they will automatically connect to folders that they share with teachers. (Thanks Chery!… and to Courtney for the new address.)

A shared folder for each grade level enables you to quickly distribute or collect files. Students have the right to delete any file in the folder, so be sure to save files in a safe place after students submit their work. Otherwise, you may have students accidentally deleting files that belong others. In other words, the shared folder shouldn’t be used to archive work.

Unlike students, teachers have to connect to the server in order to access this shared folder. Here’s how to access this shared folder.

  • Click on your desktop.
  • Click on “Go.”
  • Click on “Connect to Server…”
  • Type in “afp://macserver/UserData” and click on “connect”
  • Select the year folder that your students graduate. 4th=2020, 5th=2019, 6th=2018.
  • Select the year folder + group.

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Have your secretary type it up!

January 18, 2012 in Growing, Laboratory, Teachers

Secretary

You’ve always wanted a DRaT Center, you just didn’t really know what to call it.

If you’ve ever wished that you had a secretary or dedicated parent who could record and transcribe student stories and content, there’s a free service available to you that will do just that, Google Voice. It gives you a local phone number that students (or anyone) can call and leave a message. The message is then transcribed and emailed to you. Now you have two useful items, a typed copy of what the student said and an mp3 file. You can use this service to create your very own, easy to use, DRaT Center (Digital Recording and Transcription Center). Photo Credit

Google VoiceThe transcription feature of Google Voice alone is a huge classroom assistance. I’m sure you’ve had students with amazing storytelling abilities that were so challenged by writing that they avoided telling their stories. With this service they can easily tell their story and spend more time editing and revising than typing. This is also a great tool for English language learners. You can use it to capture quarterly snapshots of their oral language development. Image Credit


 Digital Storytelling using Google VoiceThe instant recording to mp3 is incredible! If you don’t have netbooks or microphones for your desktop computer, no worries, go old-school with a telephone. You can easily use it to capture quarterly snapshots of reading fluency. Students can record their stories and reports for podcasting or digital storytelling. They can use Audacity to edit the audio and even add background music. Image Credit

There are even more astonishing features available with Google Voice. Check out this video for more information.

Here’s how to get started.

  1. Login in or sign-up for a Google account (www.google.com/voice)
  2. Choose a phone number
  3. Create a sign to put near the classroom phone with directions. Like this one. DRaT Center.doc

These are just a few ideas of how to use Google Voice in the classroom. How would you use it?

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Leopard Server

November 3, 2011 in Growing, Laboratory, Teachers

Teachers: Along with access to Google Docs, all of your students also have a username and password for logging in to the macs that enable them to store files in their folders. This will give them virtual access from nearly any Mac in the school. Now when students log in, they will automatically connect to folders that they share with teachers. (Thanks Chery!)

A shared folder for each grade level enables you to quickly distribute or collect files. Students have the right to delete any file in the folder, so be sure to save files in a safe place after students submit their work. Otherwise, you may have students accidentally deleting files that belong others. In other words, the shared folder shouldn’t be used to archive work.

Unlike students, teachers have to connect to the server in order to access this shared folder. Here’s how to access this shared folder.

  • Click on your desktop.
  • Click on “Go.”
  • Click on “Connect to Server…”
  • Type in “afp://leopardserver.tellurideschool.local/UserData” and click on “connect”
  • Select the year folder that your students graduate. 4th=2020, 5th=2019, 6th=2018.
  • Select the year folder + group.

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Javits Grant Courses

September 19, 2011 in Growing, Teachers

Javits Courses

The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) has been awarded the federal Jacob K. Javits Grant. This grant enables them to offer some fantastic courses at a super rate of $35 a credit (+$55 for Adam’s State Credit). The courses are aimed at enhancing teachers’ ability to serve their gifted and talented students. This is a great offer! I just signed up for a class that starts in October. The schedule is attached. You can also find more information at the CDE’s website.

Thanks to Chery Bradley and Wendy Bolane for passing this information on.

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Thinkfinity Course

September 12, 2011 in Growing, Teachers

Slide into this great opportunity to learn more about how to use Thinkfinity in the classroom and to earn some extra credits as well. Thanks to Tava Smathers for sharing this.

Slide into Thinkfinity

A lot of you probably know the Thinkfinity site (used to be Marco Polo Education, then it was adopted by Verizon). They still have the Read/Write/Think site, the National Math site, Sciences, etc.

They are offering online classes for $50, and you can pay the additional $110 for two grad credits at Adams State. For those of you who would prefer to work at your own pace and not have school meetings, it’s a great way to get real college credit from your home computer.

Note special introductory registration fees for the following courses

Intel Teach Project-Based Approaches – Online Course (Course starts SEPT 21) -

Register now…http://www.coloradothinkfinity.org/register-for-courses.html

Time Requirement: 6 weeks / approximately 30 clock hours – This “blended-learning” course will include at least 6 hours of face-to-face and/or on-line web conferencing components and an on-line facilitated course that will include interactive tutorials, exercises, individual work, and facilitated discussions.

Audience: This course is intended for all PreK-12 classroom teachers interested in improving their understanding and application of project-based approaches in the 21st century classroom.

Pre-requisites: none

Cost: $50 registration fee ($40 if registration is prior to June 11) – 2 hours graduate credit available from Adams State ($110)

Course Description: Using specific classroom scenarios, teachers explore characteristics and benefits of Project-Based Learning (PBL). Throughout the course, teachers consider their own teaching practice as they follow a teacher new to project-based learning who discusses strategies with a mentor teacher. Planning and project design modules guide teachers through organizing the curriculum, the classroom, and students for successful 21st century projects. The assessment module demonstrates strategies for assessing students’ 21st century skills throughout an open-ended project. The course offers opportunities to apply the PBL concepts with action planning exercises.

Location: Online – delivered via eNetColorado Moodle – http://moodle.enetcolorado.org/

Register online at: http://www.coloradothinkfinity.org/register-for-courses.html.

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