Challenge 13: Instagram

Challenge 13: Instagram

I started working with Instagram tonight. It was a lot more fun than the work I was doing with Google. I created an account, and posted a picture of my daughters on it. (Who can resist kid pictures?) It can be found at instagram.com/msannayork. 

I think a back-to-school prompt for my social studies class would be something where students have do document at least 3 different places they went over the summer via pictures (hopefully ones they took themselves), and then link them to the physical places. They would then have to link those experiences to something social studies related, such as a map of how they got there, roads they took to get there, how it had to do with their community, etc. (I want to leave it vague so students have some choice and freedom to do something they feel comfortable with.)

I also think a great back-to-school activity for math class is to take pictures of how math relates to them in their lives--fractions, shapes, music, etc. 

Finally, for those students that are working on transition goals related to transportation/taking the bus, they could take pictures of locations of where they get off/on the bus.

Challenge 7: Chrome

Challenge 7: Chrome

Okay, so I started this challenge and I really don't think I did the right thing. I started working through the "fundamentals training" and then working on some of the "advanced training" (especially as part of the advanced google apps for education training class. 

I got way too into this. There is a lot of information in the fundamentals and advanced training! I am currently done with 7/13 of the fundamental units, and 2/9 of the advanced units. 

On reflection, I am way overwhelmed with what I have learned. I think that it is something that is going to come out over the course of the school year. I really like the way that forms can provide differentiation--I see this working very well for my classes, as my students are all over the place skill-wise. I can help students work on the skills they need to work on individually, and can create a "choose your own adventure" task in both my social studies, math, support classes, and working with student as they work on their transition goals.

To do this, I will need to spend some time finding some good content that works well for my students--that isn't too belittling, but also gets at their skill sets.

These lessons also made me think about my task working with juniors and seniors as they work through their transition goals. I want to create some sort of file for each student that provides them a space online to create a portfolio of work--getting information on work goals, educational goals, and independent living goals. It would also have a copy of their resume, cover letter, essays and applications to help them get on their way. I would need to differentiate these files to help students work at their own levels.

I also am starting to think about resources that I can use based on what I learned with staff. We (the sped staff) are going to do a professional development in August. I would love to use some of the things that I learned to help with the PD.

• I started working on a google doc with links in it for our department to use to prepare for the PD.
• Creating a form to test their knowledge at the end.
• A questionnaire to see what the whole staff would like more training about.
• Creating a google doc with resources for staff to use through the year. 

Again, this wasn't what challenge 7 was supposed to be. I don't know if this should be one of the "Arts and Crafts" challenges?

Challenge 10: Google Forms

Challenge 10: Google Forms

I have used Google Forms before. I have used them to do things both in and out of school. I have used them for surveys for both students and other staff, as well as tracking for behavior. 

What I learned during this challenge was about add-ons that can enhance my form and some of the advanced options we can use. I spent a lot of time watching the related videos about the advanced options and add-ons that we can use to make the forms more efficient and give me more flexibility in how to use them. Some that seemed to be really helpful and have a lot of potential for use later:

• form notifications-I can have emails sent to me when a certain number of responses are submitted (in the form that I made, since I want to know when parents have sent this into me, I made the number 1, but it can be higher)
• choice eliminator-This add on allows respondents to pick options that haven't already been picked. The example that was given was when students are asked to submit their preferences via forms for a project topic, and you don't want duplicate topics to be picked. This app will eliminate the option once it has been selected.
• form values-you create a spreadsheet that has been filed out with whatever things you want--a list of all of your 6th period students, for example--and then allows you to put those values into a multiple choice list in the form, for example, as many times as you want. 

I think I still struggle how to have these forms output info. I would love it if I could get data to come out in someway that isn't a spread sheet, but that is okay. I can figure that out later.

I am planning on using forms for the following: getting data from parents and students. I have converted a questionnaire that I was going to send to parents before school started into a google form (if parents would rather submit it that way), and another that I was going to send to get information about when we could have student meetings. 

There is another add-on that I need to play with that would also allow forms to become a quiz. I have to play with that a little.

Challenge 15: Twitter

Challenge 15: Twitter

So I decided to start with Twitter. I created my account and set up my profile. It was very shocking that as soon as I did this, two of my former students popped up as people to follow. 

I then started playing. I have have started following a colleague, and a bunch of teachers/teaching topics, such as @educationweek, @mysteryskype, @ncte and more. 

It was really easy to set everything up--I set up my account easily. I was shocked by the groups that were on the web (NCTE, NCSS, etc.), but as a special education teacher, I couldn't find any national organization that works in this area. I wonder why?

I found some really cool things that I want to use in the next year. The most awesome thing I found while searching on twitter was Mystery Skype. I basically find another classroom or teacher via twitter or skype and my class asks questions to find out an answer the other class has. The big example was finding out where the other class is located by asking questions of the other class. I found this to be really exciting. But I am having problem getting more information about it. I am taking a break right now from this and writing this post. 

I would use twitter in a variety of ways based on what I have read so far: I can see this as a reminder tool for parents and teachers to let them know about upcoming due dates or events, a communication tool with parents--especially as we work on helping the students get ready for post-secondary goals and sending out resources to parents, and having students sending me info or short homework assignments. Some assignments that I might have students do in the future with twitter:

• pictures/descriptions of real life math examples
• when watching events (like a debate), students have to tweet their questions/reactions.
• haiku poems. I don't know if that would fit into 140 characters...
• I was thinking about having the students create advocacy campaigns related to things they see that need to be fixed, and it would be great to get this information out there and possibly as a way to contact their senator, representative, or other elected officials who are on twitter.