Blendspace.com

Looking for a new way to present information to your students or for a new platform for students to share their projects? If so, then take a look at Blendspace.com. Meghan Carey, Differentiation Specialist at CHMS, saw Blendspace in use at a conference and knew this was a tool she wanted to use in the classroom and introduce to her students.

Blendspace is a place to compile electronic media and resources together in one lesson. It’s free and very user-friendly! Each customizable “canvas” is composed of individual spaces/boxes that allow you or your students to drag and drop videos, images, documents and websites in one place and then share your lesson or projects with others.

As a teacher you can compile a lesson for students to go through step-by-step, you can post tutorial videos on a topic, and you can link your Blendspace project to your website. You can post multiple documents and images for a specific lesson in one place. Megan Hoff, sixth grade social studies teacher at CHMS, is using Blendspace in just that way right now for the World Religions unit. Take a look https://www.blendspace.com/lessons/UpSowSL53KHD8w/

Students can use Blendspace to gather multiple resources for research and then create projects. Since all the information is stored in one place, it is easy for them to find a certain resource they used to get more information or to check some facts. According to Meghan Carey, "Using Blendspace keeps research fluid, evolving as it should. As students evaluate different resources they can discard and replace resources." The teacher can look at the canvas to see the progress of the student, to verify sources and to check for plagiarism. The canvas is a visual representation of sources. Below are two examples from 8th grade students doing research on World War II.

https://www.blendspace.com/lessons/cPB7zVDupAszWA/the-concentration-camps

https://www.blendspace.com/lessons/jerXjZU5eY6nkw/how-did-switzerland-stay-neutral-throughout-the-war

So, how do you begin to use Blendspace? First, you need to create an account. Don't forget, it really is FREE. Once you get into your account, Blendspace provides a 30 second tutorial on how to begin a lesson. It’s amazing and very encouraging. Then just begin! You can search with a panel on the right for videos on the web from You Tube, Teacher Tube or any web format. You can upload your own videos or other digital files and find or upload images on Flickr or Google. It’s pretty amazing.

The site says you can create a digital project in five minutes. You can! I encourage you to check it out.

Apple TV Tips

New to Apple TV? 
Check out Apple TV Tips from Pike School.

Is your classroom not showing up on the Apple TV list? There's a quick fix.

• Make sure your Apple TV is turned on.
  
• Click on Menu on the remote control.
• Make sure the little white status light is on.
• Your classroom still doesn't show up?
• Click on Menu on the remote.
• Navigate to Settings by pressing the right dot on the navigating circle. Press the center button to select it.
• Navigate to General>>Software Update.
• It takes a few minutes to update, but it should not require a restart.
• You might need to tell it to update even if you have it set to update automatically.

Do you keep getting kicked off Apple TV?

• Change the screen saver to Never.
• Menu>>Settings>>General>>Screen Saver>>Start After  
• Press the center button until you get to Never. See the diagram of the remote control below.

Does everything get tiny when you switch to Apple TV?

• Click on the AirPlay icon on the top toolbar.
• Click on Open Display Preferences, the bottom item.
• Select 720. 
• Miraculously everything will get bigger and easier to read!

How do I switch from Apple TV to my document camera?

• Use the projector remote control and press the Seek Source button.
• Select Computer 1.
• You might need to toggle to the document camera on the document camera itself the same way you switch from projecting from your computer to the document camera.

Tired to seeing movie covers? Turn on Restrictions.

• Menu>>Settings>>General>>Restrictions>>Turn On Restrictions
• You will need to set a 4-digit passcode. Check with your MRC Director to see if there is a recommended passcode for your building.
• Next go down to Purchase and Rental and select it.
• Change the words from "ask" to "hide."

How to use the Apple TV remote:

1, 2, 3, 6 move the cursor around

5, the center button, will select the highlighted option

4 is the menu button

7 is the play/pause button if showing a movie

• Use the dots on the circle to move left, right, up, or down.
• Use the center circle to select what is highlighted.
• Use Menu to make sure the Apple TV is on and to access the menu choices.

Thanks to Matt Haeger for his Apple TV tips and explaining how to use the remote control.

Image credits:

http://blogs.pikeschool.org/allthingstech/2014/10/28/apple-tv-tips/

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT3176 

PARCC Readiness Activities - Trackpad / Mouse Practice

Using the trackpad on a Mac is not always easy for young children to get used to, especially if they are used to touch screens. Below are some sites and activities for students K-5 to use to become familiar with the trackpad / mouse. 
This is the fourth post in a series of suggestions for tech skills to help all K-5 students be prepared for computerized testing like PARCC. Make sure to check out the original post here, since that also contains a list of websites with a variety of activities, including mouse practice.

Drag and Drop Activities:

• Introductory practice dragging and dropping: http://www.seniornet.org/howto/mouseexercises/dragpractice1.html (K-2)
• Practice using the trackpad with a wide variety of educational games at ABCya. Many of them include dragging and dropping: http://www.abcya.com/
• Create a Kidspiration template in which students need to drag and drop labels onto images. For example, drag and drop onomatopoeia words onto pictures; sort fiction and nonfiction; drag words onto pictures of that word (K-2), drag genre onto book cover, or continent/state name onto map (3-5)
• Quizlet - “Scatter” activity https://quizlet.com/ (Remember we have a district Quizlet account to share activities) (3-5)
• The Mathematics Common Core Toolbox. Includes dragging and dropping items and making selections. http://ccsstoolbox.agilemind.com/parcc/PARCCPrototype_elementary.html  (2-5)

• 

  From Code.org

  Code.Org: Practice using the mouse and dragging and dropping. K-2 students could start with Course 1, Stage 3: Jigsaw. http://studio.code.org/ (K-5)

Hot Spots:

Hot spot items contain "hot spot zones" which represent student answer options. Hot spot zones are answer options that may be part of a graphic, art, numbers, or text that are selected in response to a question. Practice with State Capital activity, “Locate It” option: http://www.coolmath-games.com/0-geography-venture-capital/  (4-5)

Other General Mouse/Trackpad Skills:

• Practice using the trackpad with activities from Minimouse. Includes clicking, scrolling, cursor control, drag and drop: http://www.minimouse.us/ (K-3)
• Practice using the trackpad with a wide variety of educational games at ABCya. Includes math, language arts, mouse manipulation, keyboarding, and more: http://www.abcya.com/  (K-5)

PARCC Readiness Activities - Keyboarding

From TypingTraining.com

Being an efficient typist is an important skill and students should be comfortable composing responses on the computer. Here are some activities that can help prepare our students.

Keyboarding:

• Keyboarding prep: Use space bar with thumbs, Use shift key for capital letters, include end punctuation (K-1)
• Begin keyboard familiarity using ABCya Keyboarding http://www.abcya.com/keyboarding_practice.htm (K-1)
• Begin keyboard familiarity using Dance Mat Typing http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z3c6tfr (1-2)
• Practice keyboarding letters through games: at Slime Kids Typing: http://www.slimekids.com/games/typing-games/ (2-5)
• Use Typing Training http://www.typingtraining.com/login/  (3-5)
• Produce and publish grade-level appropriate writing pieces using keyboarding skills (1-5) (Note: CCSS Writing 4.6: “Demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of one page in a single sitting;” CCSS Writing 5.6: “Demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of two pages in a single sitting.”)
• Student often do not transfer punctuation and capitalization in constructed responses on the computer. They will need to practice doing so. Additionally, they will need opportunities to practice using the text editing tools available to them on the text (Bold, italicize, underline, bullets, numbered lists, cut, copy, paste, undo, redo). (2-5)
• Compose at the keyboard rather than writing rough draft first (3-5).
• Blogging on Kidblog.org (1-5)
• Short answer questions in Edmodo or other learning management system (3-5)
• Journal activities in Google Docs, etc. (3-5)
• Use Google Classroom to have students compose and type responses to prompts or questions (3-5)
• Use Google forms to have students compose and answer “long answer” questions with “paragraph” type questions
• Use Discovery Education to assign students a video and a writing prompt to go along with the video (2-5)