Mouse Mischief

Here is a fun and intersting technology tool to use in the classroom ~~Mouse Mischief.

This nifty idea comes from Microsoft. This is a gadget that is added to PowerPoint and allows the teacher to create interactive slides for the students.  In my classroom, I have ten wireless mice that I hook up to my computer.  Then as I am lecturing or utilizing PowerPoint I can have interactive slides where the students can answer true/false questions or multiple choice questions this is great for formative assessments as we are moving through the material.  Students can also use the mouse to 'draw' right on the slide.  It keeps the students engaged because the activity puts the learning in their own hands.  The students love the competition that this brings to the activity and I make sure that each student has a turn with a mouse.  I can turn their mice off at my computer so the students can only use them when it is time -- this is a great feature as students don't want to take their hands off of the mice.  But once I put a few rules in place - like asking them to move the mouse to the right hand corner of their desk until it was time to use them --- the lesson moves along great.

As you can see - each mouse is represented by a different graphic, that way the students know which one is theirs.  The teachers mouse is the big orange arrow.  Once all of the students chose an answer a box pops up showing the results and which mouse answered the correct answer fasted.  FUN!

There are a few drawbacks to this application.  When you create a PowerPoint presentation with Mouse Mischief it will not allow you to use all of the fun transitions.  And the multiple choice is 1,2,3,4 not A,B,C,D - seems like a little thing but I would prefer the traditional testing language with my students.

The download from Microsoft is FREE!  Love that word!  Of course there is a bit of an investment for the extra mice and a Port ~ the port is used to plug in all of mice to your computer.  The mice can easily be shared between classes, that is what we do on my team, so the cost is minimal.  The website for Mouse Mischief has demos and lesson plans to help anyone get started using this technology tool.

I have only used it a couple of times this year and my students love it.  Looking forward to creating more 'mischief' next year!

Twitter + PLN = Fantastic Ideas

A couple of weeks ago I became twitterized!  Best thing ever.  Using Twitter to create a Professional Learning Network has been such a wonderful, yet overwhelming, experience.  There are so many brilliant web tools and lesson plan ideas that educators all over the world are sharing.  I have actually had a hard time processing all of the information that I have gained.  So I figured the best thing to do was to pick one idea and try it!

As every one knows, Japan experienced a double natural disaster in March.  Thousands of people have died, thousand more are homeless and all of Japan has had their lives turned upside down.  While I was watching my twitter feed I noticed an intriguing tweet about a way for school children to help those in Japan.  Students Rebuild has teamed up with dosomething.org and architecture for humanity, these non profit organizations have pledge money to send to Japan in exchange for Japanese Paper Cranes - origami.  My geography class is studying East Asia, so this was a natural addition to my lessons for the week.  I taught the students the cultural implications of the Japanese Crane and the Art of Origami last Thursday and on Friday we worked to create paper cranes.  My initial goal was to send 50.  But imagine my surprise when a few students arrived Friday with working knowledge of how to create these origami cranes - they had researched it the night before.  As we worked through the day several more students wanted to work on them through the weekend to give to me on Monday.  Overall, I mailed 232 cranes - I definitely exceeded my original goal.  This real world service project struck a chord with my students - they felt empowered to help others - and all because of a tweet that I read that led me to the Paper Cranes for Japan site.

I have truly entered into the world of Twitter - and can't wait to learn more from my powerful PLN.

Open Mind at Work Here!

PowerPoint to Web 2.0

This last week my cohort and I put together and fun lesson for the students.  We are currently studying East Asia and he had found a kid friendly website that showcases Japan's Culture. Students were given different 'virtual cultures' to study and then they created a PowerPoint slide.  Their slide needed a summary and picture.  Students also peer edited other students work to help create more powerful examples of learning. 

Overall, this lesson was interesting and engaging.  It allowed students to explore a culture that is very different from their own. My question is....how can I take this assignment and utilize a Web 2.0 tool or application.  I think this would be a fantastic lesson to take to the next level.  I have only been exploring these emerging technologies for a couple of weeks and find myself overwhelmed with the possibilities.  One option I considered was Prezi.  I also considered using wikispaces. Even though I looked at these applications I felt that my knowledge was lacking to adequately teach these to the students.  I strongly believe that I need to be knowledgeable about these applications before I use them!

One unforeseen obstacle occurred during this activity.  In our school students have access to their own private drive on the network system.  Students and staff also have access to a common drive.  So to share their work for the peer editing portion of this assignment students saved their PPT to the common drive.  It was in this drive that I planned on using to grade their work.  Well....the worst possible thing happened.  All of the files disappeared <<POOF>>.  My heart sank.  Luckily most students had saved their work in their personal folder so I was able to recover 90% of the assignments easily.  The other 10% will have to recreate their work.  It was a lesson learned for all of us.  Students need to ALWAYS save to their personal drive and I ALWAYS need to move student work from the common drive into my personal drive.  Of course, this got me thinking - there is probably a better way that I could have had students submit their work to me.  So another question... what is a better solution for students to submit digital work to me for grading purposes.  I am just new enough that I don't have all of the answers.

I welcome all of your ideas and comments!  :)
Open mind at work here!

Vocabulary Activity

So I was looking for an engaging activity to have the students do the Friday before Spring Break.  We have been studying East Asia and they had already completed an initial Vocabulary Activity.  I had heard about Quizlet -- this is a website where students can create flashcards and play vocabulary games. 

I had to do a bit of setup to have it ready for my students.  A couple days before the activity I created an account with quizlet and then created my set of vocabulary words.  I could have had the students use my log in and use the set directly from there - but since I work with mischievous 7th graders I figured that someone would figure out how to edit the set and mess things up for the other students.  So I created a link from my web page - I designed my web page earlier this year and would like the students to access it on a regular basis.

The thing I liked the best about this website was that the student has a variety of activities that they can do.
They can flip through the set like flashcards, take a test, and play games using the words.

This activity kept the students engaged for about 25-30 minutes - which is a perfect Friday activity at our school.  We have have a slightly shortened schedule for teacher collaboration.  There were only a couple of students that got bored (one of them was my daughter!) but I would challenge them to beat their previous scores on the games - most students are pretty competitive and want to keep trying to see if they can improve their time or score.

There were a couple of features to this site that I did not utilize but I think would be useful.

• print the cards
• listen to the pronunciation of the words
• link to facebook

One of the best things about this activity was that one student asked me how to create their own account so that he could use it for his PreAlgebra words that he had just received in the previous class. 

I will definitely use this site again!  :)

Education and Technology Adventure

I am a bad teacher! Yes I said it!  I recently discovered twitter and have begun developing my PLN.  And this is what I have learned --- I am a bad teacher...okay maybe bad is the wrong word.  How about old? No that's not right either, I have not yet seen 40 (of course I am awfully close).  How about antiquated? All I know for sure is that I have not embraced all of the wonderful web 2.0 tools that are available to teachers to help students achieve to their highest potential.  Well that is about to change.  Now that I have been educated in many of the available emerging technologies that are out there I am on a journey to become a better teacher.

A bit about myself ---I teach 7th grade geography at Jerome Middle School in Southern Idaho.  I teach 5 core classes a day and a projects class. I have about 115 students.  In my classroom, I have two student computers, but I also have access to two 7th grade computer labs. 

I also teach history online for Idaho Digital Learning Academy. I generally have one class each session consisting of approximately 25 students.  The class comes ready to go so my main role is to facilitate the course and help students as needed.

I recently completed a blended learning course which has really got me thinking about the potential of taking my class into that blended environment. I truly see the value of utilizing the web for learning and want to move my teaching in that direction.

My goal in starting this blog is to catalogue my experience as the teacher trying new things.  I will share what worked and what didn't work and hope for some constructive comments along the way.

Okay....Here Goes!