Creating Digital Book Reviews Using Photo Peach

Photo Peach is an easy way to have your students create book reviews and share them online with classmates. Book trailers made with Photo Peach can seamlessly link to other social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Book trailers can be peer reviewed by posting comments. Check out this video about Marcello in the Real World by Francisco X Stork, an Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee for 2013-2014.

Marcello in the Real World on PhotoPeach

Tech Tues: Cyber bullying Prevention

Did you know that 43% of high school teens have been victims of cyber bullying in the last year? This information is provided by Enough is Enough,  Internet Safety 101. 

Bullying no longer thrives in our unguarded hallways but online via cell phones, internet, or gaming systems. Don't become another statistic.Here are four ways you can protect yourself from online abuse:

• Never give out personal information online including your name, address, phone number, school’s name or credit card numbers
• Don’t share photos of yourself online that you wouldn't share with your parents. Know that everything you share online is permanent including Aps as “Snap Chat” 
• Never arrange face-to-face meetings with someone you met online
• Block any unfriendly person from contacting you on your phone, email, and from all social media accounts, Twitter, FB, You Tube, etc.

Keep yourself informed and prevent yourself from becoming a statistic: Go to Wired Safety or Stop Cyber Bullying for more information on staying safe online

Celebrate Library Month by Checking out a Book from Your LRC

Every student is welcome to check out 3 books (it’s free) for a period of two weeks using your WCCHS student ID card.  If you need a book a little longer than two weeks feel free to renew it on line using your student library account. Not sure you set up a student library account?  View this short video to get started: Your student library account only needs creating once, if you can’t remember your login and password ask a librarian to help.

Using Destiny Quest our online digital catalog you can: Find books, create a personal reading or research list, and print, email or save this list. Here’s how: 

Fiction books are located around the perimeter and are in alphabetical order by author’s last name.  Nonfiction books are located in the between shelves by the Dewey Decimal System.

Need to find a book in your Lexile range?  Our online card catalog can search for books you are interested in while matching your Lexile score. Here’s another video to get you started.

If you haven’t been to the LRC lately, please stop by and set up a student or staff account, browse our book displays for our latest additions,  or stop in to read and relax!

 

MLA Citations: Tweets, eBooks and More

Occasionally, students will ask the LRC staff for help citing some sources that are not always cited in most citation style guides. These include status updates on Facebook or Twitter, E-Mail,  eBooks, Wikipedia, and YouTube videos. This week I will show you some examples just in case you have to cite them in your own research.

Our citation building program, NoodleTools, can handle these type of citations for you or use the models below for a guide. I have included notes about NoodleTools for each one.

Remember: Make sure to put in the proper spacing and other formatting for the citations (double spaced and indented)

E-mail

Maier, Paul L. "Washington's Crossing of the Deleware." 7 May 2012. E-mail. 

NoodleTools: Choose E-Mail.

eBook

 McCullough, David. 1776. New York: Simon, 2005. EPUB file. 

NoodleTools: Choose Book. Then choose the eBook file tab. 

Twitter

 PocketHistory. "Minutemen. American Revolution soldiers." 4 Nov. 2012, 3:30 AM. Tweet. .

NoodleTools: Choose Microblog. Choose the name of the network under the Name of Microblog option.

YouTube

Green, John, prod. Tea, Taxes, and the American Revolution: Crash Course World History #28. YouTube. YouTube, 2 Aug. 2012. Web. 16 Apr. 2013. .

NoodleTools: Choose Video Clip (Online). 

Wikipedia

"Intelligence in the American Revolutionary War." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Mar. 2013. Web. 14 Apr. 2013. . 

NoodleTools: Choose Reference Source. Then choose the Web Site tab. Finally, choose the E-publication (born digital) option.

Tech Tuesday: Discovery Streaming Videos for your Students

Discovery Streaming an encyclopedia of educational videos. Find everything from biographies to career information.

Getting Started:
The getting started menu provides information on search/play, downloading and sharing videos.

• The teacher center provides over 200 lesson plans designed to be used with Discovery Streaming videos.
• Build and store assignments for your students using curriculum content from Discovery Education. 
• Give students writing practice with these images that include composition prompts. 
• There's even a Quiz Builder to incorporate video clips into interactive quizzes.

Do your students have access to this great resource?  You can set up a classroom by using the Classroom Manager and add students individually by typing in their first and last names a unique login and a 6 digit password from the Classroom Manager tab. Need help? Ask your friendly librarians, we are more than happy to help you.

Schoolwork on a Flexible Schedule: 3 tools for creating online assignments

One of the great things about technology in the classroom is that it can free you and your students up and give you more flexibility in how to deliver instruction as a teacher. As a student, there is the possibility of being to deal with your schoolwork when and how you want (as long as you complete it on tine).

For today's tech tip, I wan to introduce three tools teachers can use to deliver online lessons to students that also allow the teacher to customize, deliver and collect assignments through the web.

Mentormob is a relatively new website on the educational technology scene. The site allows you to create a learning playlist.A teacher (or student). For each step of the playlist, you add a site, file, YouTube video for the learner to view or read. You can also add a pop quiz for each step with multiple choice or true/false questions. I don't believe you can collect the results from learners (at least for free), but learners can get instant feedback on their progress. Once you create a playlist, you can also embed it on a blog or website for others to find and use it.

 Most WEGO  teachers who use Discovery Education Streaming use it to share video content with their own class. But you might not have known that you can also build assignments around specific video clips. You can add assignment directions and questions, quizzes and other content. Once you create the assignment, you can assign it to your a whole class or individual members. You generate a code that students can use to login to the site and complete the assignment. All the work is collected through the site and dropped into your account for grading.

We introduced My Big Campus this year as a tool for creating a virtual classroom for teachers to post announcements, post class materials, etc. But you can also the Schoolwork feature to  create an assignment or a quiz for students. There are a lot of features for customizing the assignment, such as attaching YouTube videos and other content to questions. If the questions are multiple choice, short answer or true/false, you can even have the the program grade the assignment for you. All results are collected and added to your teacher account.

Questions? Let us know.

Tech Tues: Keeping Time

Sometimes we need a timer whether were keeping a class on task or creating interactive presentations requiring the audience to interact with each other such as “Think, Pair and Share”.  Online Stop watch.com offers a variety of timers such as the classic stop watch, egg timers and even a quirky bomb.

Timers can be embedded into a Power Point slide by first saving the picture of the timer you would like to use and insert it into your Power Point presentation. Next link the picture to the online timer you have chosen, make sure to insert the full screen link this way during your presentation it will only take a second to set the time interval. Try this Egg timer by Online Stop Watch.com.

Many of you are creating Google sites, Blogs & My Big Campus sites to communicate with your students, parents and organizations . Time and Date.com offers a plethora of free clocks and timers to embed on your webpage. After selecting the best clock for your purpose, it can be custom made as the Summer Vacation count down  below. Once your clock is selected and custom designed to fit your website Time and Date.com  provides  the free html code to copy and paste into your website.

                             
 Staying on time and making each day count!

A More Accessible Internet

As everyone knows, the Internet is a great resource for finding a ton of information for academic or personal purposes. But such a great resource has its problems too. Use a search engine and what gets returned? A fire hose blast of information comes your way. And information you do find can be too difficult for some of us to read. There are no controls on reading levels or quality of the information (you know, like books have!).

So this week, I thought I would share some tools for helping to tame information overload and help make web content more accessible.

Sound Gecko
If a website is too difficult to read, or if you just don't have time, there are plenty of sites that will read you the content of a site, but this one is pretty user friendly. Sign up for a Sound Gecko account with your e-mail address. Then copy and paste the URL of a page you want read out loud into your account. You will get a link in your e-mail to an mp3 file that has an audio version of the text. You can also get extensions for your web browser or a mobile app to use with the account so you can skip the whole copying and pasting thing.

Readibility
Most websites have too much clutter that gets in your way (e.g. ads), or a complicated layout or small or unreadable font or other issue. Readibility does two things well. So you find a website you like. You don't have time to read it now and it is to hard to read for one of the reasons mentioned above. Just click the readability bookmarklet that you put in your favorites bar. Readibility reformats the page with a white background, and readable black type and not ads or other clutter..You can adjust the layout, font properties and background. Even better, if you don't have time to read it now, you can click the read it later button and store it in your Readibility account and access it later.

Wiki Summarizer
Wikipedia articles are great timesaver if you want a quick overview of a topic. But if your are not a great reader, the amount of text can be overwhelming and out of your reach.  Instead, type your keywords into Wiki Summarizer. The program distills the article into a summary of the main points and gives you several options for presenting the summaries.

Instagrok
Starting a research project can be daunting. You might not know anything about your topic. That is where Instagrok comes in. If you type your initial topic into the search box and you get a visual breakdown of related keywords on the left. Click on any keywords and get a new set. On the right, results are broken down into categories starting with fast facts about your topic. Use a slider at the top to change the difficulty level of the results  There are a lot of features here, and the interface can be difficult to navigate at first, but this is a powerful tool.

Tech Tuesday: Google Sites

Today's Tech Tuesday brings to you valuable information on setting up a Google Site for your classroom or project. The video below will show you how to find Google Sites and how to create your own website using Google Sites. Students and staff at CHS have been set up with a Google Account. Your account can be accessed from the school's Home Page under Staff or Student tabs. You will need to sign in using your school login and password + 94. Once you have access to your Google Account you can follow this short (4 min.) video and create your own website for your class or project.

Building a Google Site (web page) for student projects can be an innovative and creative format for presenting research projects.  Visit the project on Henry Wadworth Longfellow a website designed for a Sophomore Research Project on poets using Google sites to present information. Students use this digital portfolio to include their research, writing process, works cited and audio visual gallery created by Jeff Pisauro.

Please visit the LRC if you would like individual help setting up your Google Site.

Awesome Interactives for Your Class

Okay, you have to teach or reinforce that a concept. Or you want to find an engaging and fun way to use technology in the classroom. Interactives and other multimedia can help. An interactive is a web based activity that might be a game or a tool for helping your students explore or analyze an idea. Here are some sites that have some great interactives and other multimedia that you can adapt and use for lessons.

Annenberg Learner
Annenberg has a ton of educational videos that they sell for different grade levels. Their website has a ton of great supplemental tools, including interactives. The disciplines included are Arts, Foreign Language, Literature and Language Arts, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies/History. Check out other parts of the site for more lesson plans and video clips.

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives
Most of the math interactives on this site are java applets. The selection is small than some of the other sites here, but there are some useful tools to explore here.

Thesis Builder
There are just a few tools on this page, but they are gold for writing and research. One tool helps you build a thesis for a persuasive essay. Another suggest topics for papers. A third helps students build a structure for a cause and effect essay.

Thinkfinity
Thinkfinity is online community created by the Verizon foundation. the site's content partners are a number of discipline specific portals that have lesson plans, interactives, multimedia and links to other resources. Direct links to the individual content partners are below.

ArtsEdge (Arts)
Econedlink (Economics and Personal Finance)
EDSITEment (Humanities)
Illuminations (Math)
National Geographic (Geograpjy)
Read Write Think (English)
ScienceNetLinks (Science)
Smithsonian's History Explorer (American History)

Utah Education Network
The Utah Education Network has a number of interactive activities for a range of grades and disciplines.

Glog-ternatives, Or Try These Alternatives to Glogster

If you had a chance to use Glogster in the past, you know how much fun it is to create web based posters with images, video, funky pictures (and what not). If you are a teacher, you probably thought it was the best thing since iPods. There were tons of free features for educators, but then the company started to scale back on the free stuff. You can still make Glogs, but it is not as easy to use in a classroom situation.

So, here are a few alternatives. Some of them offer features just for educators. Make sure to look for the educator information (if offered).

Biteslide
http://www.biteslide.com/
Biteslide looks a lot like Glogster. You can create what the site calls Slidebooks with images, video and text. Like the original education edition of Glogster, teachers can choose a free plan that allows them to have 30 student accounts and 1 project. The site promises that this option is free forever.

New Hive
http://newhive.com/
New Hive is also similar to Glogster in that it gives you a canvas to create a multimedia poster with embedded video, images and mp3 files. It doesn’t have the pizazz and cutesy backgrounds and graphics that Glogster had, but it does the trick. You have to request an invite to create an account, but when I did it, it was not big deal. It just sent the invite to my email account within a few minutes.

Uturn
http://www.uturn.com
The cool kid on the block is clearly Uturn. The site allows to add pictures, video, text, etc. to simple “expressions” that you can embed on social media sites, blogs, other websites, etc. This tool doesn’t allow you to do the anything as complicated or extensive as Glogster or the first two tools, but it’s kind of addictive nonetheless.

Smore
http://www.smore.com/
Smore allows you to create simple web based flyers. In other words, you can create a simple web page that has as much information as a printed flyer you post on the wall at school would have. You can add videos, text, images, etc. There are few basic flyer templates you can use and the drag and drop interface is pretty darn easy to use.

Big Huge Labs
http://bighugelabs.com/
Big Huge Labs is a little bit different than the other tools. You can pick a particular photo editing tool, add a photo and then do some cool stuff with it. Create a jigsaw puzzle, a movie poster or magazine cover. You can even create one of those infamous motivational posters that have a picture with an inspirational saying underneath. I would blame you if you put something funny there instead. Check out the Education link to find out how to create an educator account.

What is a QR Code?

Today's tech tip is brought to you by Mr. Bodwell's student teacher, Ms. Hauser. Please leave your feedback in the comments.

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A QR code is a barcode that can be scanned by multiple devices such as Smart Phones, Tablets and E-Readers with Internet Access.  The barcodes work just like the ones that you see on merchandise in stores.  Someone creates the code and you can access it with your iPhone.  The best part is that you can create a QR code too!

Why would you use a QR code?

• To share an online blog or website that you have created.
• To provide access to a Google Document, Presentation or Form.
• To share resources in order to provide more information about your presentation or project.
• To show off your mad tech skills.

How do you make a QR code?

1. Go to http://qrcode.kaywa.com
2. Fill in the website or information that you would like to share.
3. Click on Generate Free.
4. Save the QR code picture to print out a paper copy or embed the QR code into your online presentation.

Tech Tues: Cat Fishing?

Today's post isn't really about fishing but about not getting caught in the net of an internet hoax. "Catfish hoax" and the term "cat fishing" are used to label social media deceptions. See the Catfish Hoax trailer from this You Tube video below.

"Cat fishing" has made headlines this week largely because of the latest catfish hoax  involving Notre Dame's linebacker Manti T'eo. He has been involved in a widely publicized Catfishing hoax. The verdict is still out on whether or not T'eo took part in the hoax. Was he looking to gain publicity for the NFL football draft? If so, it worked since many first learned of Manti T'eo when the news media announced he lost both his grandmother and his girlfriend on the same day while leading Nortre Dame's football team to victory.  Or was he simply a boy involved in school, studying, and sports with little time for a social life and fell in love using, Twitter, Face book and texting without ever meeting his girlfriend face to face?

Our Teen Health and Wellness database offers helpful information on "How much sharing and showing is too much?

Staying safe of social network sites by US-CERT

Keep yourself safe by using Skype to meet someone you don't know face to face. Remember if you're not comfortable talking to someone face to face it's probably not wise to add that person as a friend to a social media site where they can access your photo's and personal information.

My Big Campus: Setting Up Your Profile & Notifications

If you are using My Big Campus for class, either as a student or a teacher, you will want to take a few minutes and set up your account information, including notifications and a little bit to personalize your profile.

Notification Preferences

If you want to receive a message by e-mail or text message whenever there is activity on your My Big Campus account (or you don't), you need to set your notifications preferences.

Note: You will always get notifications for all of these items at the top of your My Big Campus page.  But if you are not on your account every day, or if you don't want to miss anything, you might set these up.

1. Click the account settings link.
2. Click the Edit Notification Preferences link.

3. Check the items you want to receive notifications about by e-mail.
4. Check the items you want to receive notifications about by text message (SMS). You might want to think twice if you don't have unlimited text messages on your account.

Click Save.

Account Settings

5. Click the account settings link.
6. Click the Edit Account Information link.

7. Type a few sentences about yourself to personalize your profile. Remember that this is a school account profile. Only include classroom appropriate information.

8. If you checked e-mail notification preferences in the notification preferences section, make sure to include   an e-mail address that you check often. If you don't you won't receive any e-mail notifications.

9. If you checked text message notifications, make sure to include your mobile number. Don't worry, your e-mail and phone number won't be visible to others.

10. If you add your phone number, make sure to choose your cell phone company too.

11. If you want to add a profile picture, you can upload it here. Make sure it is school appropriate.

12. If you don't want a photo, you can also choose from multiple versions of the My Big Campus icon.

Tuesday Tech Tip: Getting Organized

Happy New Year CHS!

Did you include a New Year’s Resolution to get organized? Today’s tech tip will help you organize your Desk Top, by creating new folders in My Documents. Toward the end of every semester student files begin to pile up on the Desk Top and My Documents areas. By following the steps below, you can quickly organize your computer. This will leave you feeling great and your computer running more effieciently without breaking into a sweat! (Sweating is for another New Years resolution)

Open My Documents and right click anywhere on the white space and you will see a pop up window, scroll down to New and select Folder. Name your new folder by class or assignment.  Be sure to label your new folders with enough information so it's easy to find later.

Create folders within folders and move your desk top files into your My Documents folder to really clean up!  Here's a short You Tube video with tips to help clean up your My Documents Folder.

 

My Big Campus for Students: An Overivew

Our school recently signed up for a service called My Big Campus. It is kind of like Facebook for schools. In other words, it is a social network that you can use to communicate with other students or teachers, including writing on their wall or message them, create a photo album and other cool features. There is also a calendar where you can keep track of assignments and where teachers can share important dates with you.

But there are a few features that are unique to schools. Teachers can create lessons online, send them to students and grade them all online. There is also a virtual classroom that My Big Campus refers to as a group. Club sponsors and coaches could also use these as places to share information, have discussions, post a class syllabus or upload class handouts. These groups are private by default, so no one outside of your class can see them.

How Can My Big Campus help me here at school?

If your teacher has decided to use the program in your class,, then you probably know some of the benefits. You can send a message to your teachers any time Your teacher can post class notes, important dates, resources you can download if you lose them, just to name a few of the features. If none of your teachers, coaches or club sponsors use the program yet, please let them know about it. 

Here is a quick tour of the menu.

1. Activity Wall: Write on your wall or on the walls of other WEGO students or staff. Please remember that all posts are public to everyone at school.

2. Conversations: Private messaging to other students or staff. Note: Nothing is really private, so please be appropriate.

3. Schoolwork: This is where you will find or submit lessons from teachers.

4. Your Stuff: This is your virtual storage locker. Upload files less than 100 megabytes, but there is unlimited storage space.

5. MBC Documents: Create documents and share with others so they can edit them as well.

6. Calendar: Keep track of important dates or see events sent to your by your teachers.

7. Blog: Create a blog. Others can follow it or you can follow theirs.

8. Profile: Access your profile, create photo albums, see who is following your wall or who your are following.

9. Groups/People: Click on Groups to see groups you belong to. Click on People to see people in your class or to see other people associated with you.

10: My Big Campus Logo / Home: Click on the logo or Home button to get back to your home screen.

11. Search Box: Search through all My Big Campus materials you have access to as a student. Look up school topics, people, groups, etc.

12. Notifications: Anytime someone writes on your wall, send you a message or assigns schoolwork, you will get a notification here.

13. Quick Links: Create links to commonly accessed pages that are not already on the menus.

14. Account Settings: Click here to access your settings and account information.

Getting Started

To get started, go to the My Big Campus website.

Click on the Login link. 

Use the same username and password you use for the school network.

Click on the school field and type in Community High School 94 and select it in the options.

Tech Tuesday: Hanging Indents

Tis the season for research papers and along with them work cited entries. If you rather not use Noodle Tools to create your bibliography, you may need today's tech tip to help in formating a work cited page.

The second line of an MLA citation needs to indent but when the tab key is used the entire citation moves to the right, causing many students anquish and frustration.

Use a "hanging indent" not the tab key when using MS Word 2010 to indent the second line of your citation entry. Watch this short video and save yourself valuable time with this simple how to video.

Courtesy of DeIong Science and You Tube



You're only a few clicks away from formating the perfect citation!

Tech Tip: Never Lose A Web Page Or PDF During Research Again (by Using Noodle Tools)

All of us have probably had the experience of having a web page disappear after we visited it. If this happens with a source you need for your research, it can cause an outright panic. Noodle Tools has a new feature that will prevent this problem Through a partnership with iCyte.com,  you can archive, highlight and annotate any web page or pdf file. That way, even if the original disappears, you have your own stored copy.

You will need a Noodle Tools account and a citation to work with if you want to use the iCyte tool. If you need help with the Noodle Tools basics, check with Mr. Bodwell or Mrs. Leahy for more information.

Using iCyte in you Noodle Tools account

1. Find the citation in your Noodle Tools project list that you want to use to create your archived and annotated page. Click the Archive & annotate page link.You may be required to your sign in using your Noodle Tools credentials again.

2. The first time you use this feature, you will have to add the iCyte button to your Favorites Bar.(If you don't know how to use your Favorites bar, check out our video on the subject). The iCyte Install Bookmarklet page will pop up on the screen . 

3. Drag the Cyte This button on to your Favorites bar. Then close the window using the blue CLOSE button.

4. If you want, highlight an important text passage on the page. 

5. Click the Cyte This button in your Favorites bar. A Create Cyte box will pop up on the page. Notice that the Title, Project and associated citation are all automatically added. You can also add notes to the page capture as well. Save the Cyte and then close the page.
















6. In your Noodle Tools account, you will see that the citation says View archived page.Click on the link and you will see a saved copy of the page.

7. The archived page will have the iCyte bar across the top of the page and the section you highlighted.





8. The toolbar on the right side of the bar allows you to hide the highlight, expand the toolbar (so you can see your added notes), or see the original page.

Using Common Sense When Posting to Social Media

What is proper etiquette when using social media?
The days are gone when most people consult Emily Post's book of etiquette before attending a special celebration or sending a thank you letter. Today we have the unrestrained freedom to log in to our favorite social media sites and post comments and pictures of others without thinking about the consequences of our actions.

Use common sense when using social media sites such as Face Book or My Big Campus (MBC) which is being introduced this week at Community High School.
Here are a few do's and don'ts to help make using social media sites a positive experience:

• Don't edit or delete the work of another student without their permission
• Don't posts pictures or information that could compromise the safety or be disrespectful of fellow students
• Be respectful of others, use common sense and don't use profanity, threatening or  discriminatory remarks
• Don't share your login information with anyone, if you feel your login has been compromised see your teacher
• All of you have signed an Internet Agreement Policy, please adhere to this policy and report misuses to your teacher

Tamar Weinberg a social media enthusiast owns a website called Techipedia that offers helpful information on posting etiquette to social media sites. Social media is a great way to stay connected, using a little common sense will make it a positive experience for all.

Three New Specialized Search Tools to Check Out

Google is great for doing most searches, but sometimes you need a specialized search tool to get the job done right. Here are three promising and interesting new tools that you might want to try out for yourself. 

Symbolab 
http://symbolab.com/
Symbolab is a search engine that searches for math and science content. Sure, you say, Google does that. But Symbolab searches for equations, formulas and expressions using mathematical symbols and scientific notations. And it can do full text searches as well. In other words, you can look for solutions, exercises and contextual information about a specific formula or you can look up information about, for example, quantum mechanics. Check out their home page for some sample searches.

Kitchen PC
http://www.kitchenpc.com/
KitchenPC is recipe search engine. Yep, there are other specialized tools out there that search for recipes (including Google's recipe search tool). KitchenPC not only searches a bunch of  recipe sites to get the results, but you can also put in ingredients you already have and get matching recipes. Or tell it what ingredients to avoid. Narrow your search using a number of other options, such as skill level, diet, taste and time. Build menus and get a shopping list.

 Art.sy 
http://art.sy/
Ok, you are looking for some art, but you don't quite know who or what to look for. After all, you're not an Art History professor, right? You can search for specific artists, works, movements, techniques, or regions. Or if you don't have something specific in mind, you can use the browse feature. From your search results or when looking at specific works, Art.sy gives you tools and suggestions for narrowing the search or finding related works. They may not have all the works by specific artists, but you can also follow specific artists and get notified when new works are added to their database.