GAIN - sites

So far in my life I have had very few reasons to create my own website. The only time I created a website for myself was when I was creating a website for my fiancé and myself to put various pieces of information on so our guests can have heir questions answered. This was incredibly helpful since a lot of my family lives in Georgia and don't know much about our area. However, we didn't want to pay for this because we weren't going to have it for long. At the time the only option I knew of was through a wedding website where I was limited to certain formats and designs and they all look the same as everyone else's wedding websites.

Exploring Google Sites was a lot of fun and I feel like I had more options than with a pre-organized website created by some "wedding experts." I liked that I could create my own tab names and had choices as to where I wanted them located. I believe I moved the tabs all over the page before I finally settled on just a little higher than they were originally. I also liked all the different widgets that were available. While I didn't find any that fit what I wanted with my website, I played around with these as well. I liked the idea of the calendar widget especially for a website that would be for a classroom. I think I would like to have a website for my students to go to and have the calendar on the front page so parents and students can be in the loop on what is going on and when.

While my textbook doesn't go into great length about Sites, Google Sites is a great tool that can be used by schools or classrooms. There are so many possibilities for what someone can do with their website to create a great place for students and parents to stay informed and get any information, even if the teacher is not directly available at that particular time.

To see my site I created, click here

GAIN - Google Forms

Google Forms...an unknown mystery to me. I have never heard of Google Forms, or any other device like this. So to start out I had to engulf myself with many different videos because I always have this fear that I am going to do something wrong and accidentally share something publically that is beyond embarrassing. So thanks to some very helpful tutorials, I began my time with Google Forms. I had a hard time figuring some things out, despite my time with the tutorials. But once I got the hang of it, it was quite fascinating. I like that there is the ability to use several different test types like test, check boxes, multiple choice, or a grid ( I couldn't find this one, but my Graham book says it is there, so I will have to search a little more for this one). But this software is really helpful for not just teachers to create self-grading quizzes, which, what teacher would turn that down?? But students can use Forms to make their own surveys. In college Psych classes, students had to make surveys all the time for projects, and they took forever on only device the school provided. Had they had Google Forms, it would have been a lot easier for them, as well as the students taking the survey. This type of project also would meet some of the requirements of the Common Core State Standards such as "Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience." (Graham p. 117).

The Graham book gave more ideas about how Forms can be used that I did not think of. One of which was that it can be used by teachers to hold information about a certain student's grades, behavior, and attendance. This is beneficial since we live in a world that needs to have information at their fingertips and since Forms is in the cloud, that is the best way that teachers can do this. Graham also says that the information can be emailed to parents directly, so the parents can know what their child needs to work on and have all the information they need to help their child succeed.

So while I still feel like I need to devote more time to really understand all aspect of Google Forms, I think this is a great way for students and teachers to keep information, share information, and create quizzes and surveys that would be beneficial for not just the teacher, but the student and the student's parents as well.

TECH - iPad Literacy & Disciplines

When starting out in a classroom with iPads can be intimidating, especially if you have never used an iPad. There are so many apps in the Apple store, that it is hard to know where to begin or what apps are even good for your students and age appropriate. Hopefully your school will have a list of apps they approve of or recommend. But if not, I have found that submerging yourself in the app to find out about it is the best way to really learn what you like best, and what would be best for the children. So here are six apps that I have been exploring this week.

1. My Spelling Test - The app My Spelling Test is an app that is useful for children who are having to take spelling tests. The teacher can upload that words by recording the word and maybe a sentence along with it and the child can type in the word. After the child has entered in the word, it will show whether it is correct or not. At the end of the test, it will show how the child spelled the words and whether it was right or wrong. This would be a great practice tool for parents as well as teachers. I remember my mom sitting with me and testing me on my spelling words every week. If she was not available, then it made studying hard. It would be so nice to have this app, so even if the parent is busy the child can study any time or anywhere.

2. Show Me - Show me is an interactive whiteboard app that allows users to create and upload videos of demonstrations that were done on their "whiteboard." When you record your Show Me, it will record what is on your screen and what you are saying. So you can talk about a subject and draw on the board or use pictures, just like you would in class. There is also an option to search for specific topics so you can pull up any Show Me presentations that other users have made public. You can "like" a video, subscribe to a user, or even friend them and you will be able to see their Show Me presentations much like your Newsfeed on Facebook.

3. Strip Designer - Strip designer is an app that lets students create their own comic strips. I remember being in English class as a kid and we had to draw our own comic strips to show the order of a story. Now, for the artistically challenged, this was one of the most traumatic days of class, the only this worse was if they made us show it to the class...or worse, post it in the wall with my name in big letters on the front. To save kids from the trauma and embarrassment of being incapable of drawing anything more than a stick figure, this app would be great to let kids build their own comics to learn how to organize a story. Not only is this less embarrassing, it is more time efficient because the children are not just focusing on what their picture looks like, but what the actual point of the project is, and that is to learn the beginning, middle and end.

4. iMathematics - iMathematics is more of a text book app than some of the others I tried out. The book is in front of you and you can flip through pages. With this app, you have the ability to write notes to go along with your studies. There is also a tab with different equations as well as a calculator. While this app was interesting for me as a prospective teacher who has an interest in math, this app would be limited when it comes to a homework aid. It has helpful hints that would be great for a quick reference, but there wasn't as much practice included as some other apps.

5. MathBoard - MathBoard reminded me of an old handheld game that I used to play with as a kid. I would sit for hours and do math problem after math problem. Granted, mine was a "computer" game that was about as big a modern laptop, and only had 10 other buttons aside from the keypad. But it was a lot of fun and I became great at math through repetition of doing problems over and over in my head. This app is very similar. The appearance of it is as if you are looking at a chalkboard, and are doing problems in front of the class, just without the pressure of all your peers staring at the back of your head. But there are several different games that come with the free installation, all testing different subjects. I played through the one asking greater than or less than, and one where I had to select the correct answer from multiple choice. It was also timed, which would encourage kids to work harder and to learn the material without having to use a calculator.

6. Sketchpad - Sketchpad is an app that would be used for geometry or other higher mathematics classes. When I found this out my brain wanted to immediately turn off because I would rather work with equations and algebra than shapes. But I continued to explore because it is a math class, and I do have at least a tiny bit of interest in it. This app would be perfect for a classroom where each student had their own iPad. In this app, the teacher can set up the different pages that include an equation and what it would look like on the x,y axis. The students can manipulate the plane and move the object around to change the equation, or change the equation to change the picture on the plane. While this app would be a little too advanced for my middle schoolers, it would be an amazing app for a high school teacher if they have the access to the iPads.

TECH - iPad Basics

I am very new to the iPad world and all the apps and devices that are contained in it. However, my first experience has been in my class, and so far I am learning so much through being submersed in the device twice a week. The device is so much easier to use than other tablets, and has so many possibilities for the classroom. I do have to say I am loving using a touch screen and not having to rely on a mouse. This aspect is one of the main reasons that I am loving using certain apps on the tablet as opposed to the regular computer.

I played around on an app called Keynote for a while, which is like the Apple version of Powerpoint. While I have recently posted that I liked Powerpoint better than Google slides, I have to say this will not be the case for Powerpoint vs Keynote. I'm not sure if it was because I was using the tablet and could easily move the slides where I wanted them, or if it was the sheer "newness" of it for me that captured my attention. Either way, I highly enjoyed my time using keynote.

Keynote is basically like Powerpoint. When compared to Powerpoint, there are many similarities. Keynote and Powerpoint both have an array of choices, whereas this is the area that Google Slides fell short. Keynote had many different background options, just like Powerpoint. It also had a number of layouts. Some of which were better than the ones on Powerpoint.

One of the main differences that made me like using Keynote more than Powerpoint, came from the fact that I was using the app on a touchscreen device. I found that switching the order of the slides was incredibly easy. Almost too easy at times, because I accidentally moved some all over the place while I was trying to play around with different options. But I like that I could grab a slide and move it around and move everything back and forth. This will make it a lot easier if I change my train of thought multiple times throughout the course of making the slideshow, which I usually do.

Another new app that has been introduced to me is the iThought app. This app is for mind mapping, and honestly, this does not even sound the slightest bit appealing to me. I have never been the type of learner that needed to start with a map to "get my thoughts together" and I HATED when I was made to do this in school. In high school, I would actually write out most of my paper if I had to then map out what I had already written. Maybe I could never get the hang of it because I never gave myself enough room to write out what I needed to and I always ended up rewriting everything 100 times. I suppose this is where iThought comes in. It is editable and you can move around each of the bubbles as you come up with more things to say. I think this would be a great way to get students in to mind mapping, so they can see what they are wanting to say, so they won't end up rambling on like I usually do. I think students would enjoy getting to move information around and really focusing on the information they are putting on the page, as opposed to the amount of space they have left.

My last app I discovered this week is Rover. When I first saw it on my iPad I thought it was a game that was going to start blaring music at me when I clicked on it, so I always refused to click on it while in class. Now I know it is actually another browser that is available. The little time I had on the app I realized that it was an education based browser. I did some research on the app and found out that it can block content. This is great for kids and students, so they can be working on what they need to, and not be playing around and getting in to other sites that are not age appropriate. The only thing about this app, is that it is limited to Apple products because of Flash and other techy issues, but it would really be great to see on other devices, so parents can have this on their phones as well, even if they don't have an Apple.

GAIN - Sheets

While most people find any kind of spreadsheet as intimidating and scary, I hit them head on, despite how much I hate them. For the past year and a half I have been working as an accounting assistant and the main thing I have learned in my time as an accountant is that there is a spreadsheet for anything, and accountants will find any reason to make a spreadsheet....and I really do mean ANY reason. I once made a spreadsheet to analyze a spreadsheet I made. Now that we have all simultaneously cringed together at THAT thought, I can move on.

Using Google Sheets is a lot like using its Microsoft counterpart, Microsoft Excel. The basic appearance of the spreadsheet is very similar to that of Excel. There are options at the top of the page, for editing, and the columns and rows are numbered and lettered. The part that I like the best about Sheets is the simplicity of it. While I have been using Excel for quite a while, I will admit that I used shortcuts that probably aren't the best to get the results that I needed, especially if I was printing and no one would see my formulas. However, after a few short tutorial videos, I was able to make formulas on Sheets that I was never able to do with Excel. To me, I think this is the best way to enter students, and even adults who have never used Excel, into the spreadsheet world.

Being a teacher, the best reason to use this application is for the grade book. Teachers are expected to pull up their student's grades at any given moment for where they are at that given time. There are ways that we can build spreadsheets that will automatically update the grade as you enter in grades. I built a hypothetical grade book that you can see by clicking here. As you can see, I have created a tab for the average, the weighted average, and what letter grade that average would translate out to. My grade book is completed for the semester, so I have already entered in the letter grade. However, if I wanted to use this grade book throughout the whole semester, I could create the formulas at the beginning and they would update as assignments were completed. This way, if a parent calls at any time demanding their child's grade, I can pull it up from any computer since it is on the cloud and be able to discuss the grade. There is also a way to add comments to a single particular cell, which would be incredibly helpful, especially for when there is a zero on an assignment, you can put a little reminder to yourself about the situation, or even for attendance.

Aside from teacher use, this app has many possibilities for students to use as well. There is a lot of math involved in spreadsheets, and with Google Sheets, there is the possibility of manipulating the data to make charts and graphs. According to Graham in Google Apps Meets Common Core, "Using Google Spreadsheets to integrate mathematics into other classes is important for learning about decision making." (p. 92). While some might say that spreadsheets is doing the math for the students, it is actually helping them to expand on their already acquired math skills, to manipulate and create ways of explaining their math. These functions meet many common core standards, while giving them the knowledge they need to be successful in their college and career life.

TECH - Tablets in Education

Tablets are a great resource for teachers. They have so many options, available apps for teachers, and are completely versatile. On the surface, it seems logical to have a tablet that the children can bring back and forth with them, so they can have all their textbooks in one place. This eliminates the possibility of them forgetting the books at school and making them unable to do their homework, but also it removes the extra weight that they are having to carry in their book bag. When I was a student in school, we had to do scoliosis tests regularly because kids were hurting their backs so much because of the weight they were putting on their backs. Granted, having a tablet that goes back and forth with students is probably best suited for the older students, but kids at a younger age don't have as big of books as the older kids do, anyways.

But aside from what we can see being the obvious pros that can be assessed before even getting to know the device, there are so many options that are beneficial to using a tablet in the classroom that teachers can take advantage of. My personal pick for a tablet device would be the iPad, but there are some great options that are available on most tablets that are not just for ebooks. First off, with the tablet, the students have the ability to take notes using Google docs, or any typewriting software. Children these days type faster than they write, and if they are anything like me, they have the attention span of a fish and get bored of writing very quickly. But with typing, it pulls in more senses than staring at a blank piece of paper, and getting a sore wrist. Children live for technology so handing them something they are used to using will give them more of an incentive to actually take notes and focus on their notes.

Teachers can also distribute tests via the iPad or tablet, which will send an automatic grade to the teachers. The only problem here is the potential for cheating. Students know how to move through the internet faster than I could ever imagine being able to, so they know the ins and outs of how to get away with cheating. However, if a teacher is going into the situation knowing that they are at risk of having cheaters, then the cheating can be handled before it even becomes a problem. But there are so many different ways that a teacher can include students on different documents and presentations that will make the learning interactive; from showing notes on their page as they are talking about it to creating projects that they can work on together from their own tablet.

Tablets are becoming the "norm" in schools around the world. Most public school sin America have yet to adapt the 1:1 ratio for students and tablets, but a lot of private schools are already taking the step to make the tablets available to their student. The tablet in education is on the rise as more and more families start to see the possibilities of the tablet and as more homes own tablets and other devices. Also, according to an article found in my class' site, Apple has a configuration app that makes it easy to configure a large amount of iPads, iPods, or iPhones. This could make the preparing tablets for the classroom so much easier, and further push schools to have tablets in every classroom.

GAIN - Drawing

For anyone who knows me, they know that I am a Disney nerd. Not just, "Hey. Frozen was pretty good, and I loved Belle as a kid." But the kind of Disney nerd that took the "Impossible Disney quiz" on Facebook that everyone was complaining about only getting 9 out of the 20 correct and only missed one. It is kind of a problem, but I am working on it...I think. So when I pulled up today's lesson on Google Draw and watched through the videos my professor posted, the one that stuck out to me was "How to Draw Goofy" So as I pondered what I should draw to gain practice with Google Draw, I decided on what I thought would be an easier alternative to the Goofy drawing, and make the iconic Mickey Mouse.

You can see my image above. I was right about it being easy until I got to the mouth. After 30 minutes of trying to align his mouth just so, I finally remembered that God didn't grant me with the ability to draw faces, so the fact I made it this far, I should be pretty proud. My main problem with the mouth was that I had a hard time getting used to the Scribble tool, which is similar to the plain "pencil tool" that can be found in the art program that comes on all computers.

What I thought was the most fun about this, was using shapes to make this picture. Everything in this picture is made up of layered shapes (Aside from my unimpressive mouth), much like how the illustrator in the Goofy video made their image. As I used this I saw so many ideas of how this could be used to teach math and geometry to kids. Younger kids can use this to learn shapes while the older kids can build something, much like my Mickey. The grid format that appears behind the picture during editing was incredibly helpful and when aligning the shapes, red lines to guide showed up to make sure I was aligning things correctly.

When watching the videos I found it very interesting that I could have chatted with someone online about my picture and we could have worked together, which I probably needed, but that is besides the point. I see this being a useful tool in the classroom and for doing homework as groups. In today's world children are coming home to an empty house due to parents working. If they needed to finish a group project and aren't old enough to drive, this would help them work together, and also finish their homework on time without having to worry about how they are going to get to their friend's house.

My textbook for this course gives different examples of how Google Drawings can be used in the class while meeting Common Core Standards. One way that I hadn't thought of while creating my misshapen Mickey was that students can make graphic organizers and other charts for class. It also talks about using this program for math, and how this exposes the children to great math vocabulary like "horizontal" and "vertical." When shapes are turned, the degrees are listed, which adds to what the children are exposed to and can work with to practice their skills they are learning in the classroom.

Overall, Google Drawing is the one program that I have found so far that I am most excited about using in my classroom, especially if I end up teaching math. I can already envision so many lesson plans that will not only be on the computer, which is what kids are most interested in these days, but will capture their attention and will be hands on so they are learning and having fun while doing their homework.