So, I download their work.  I comment on essays.  We conference.  And… inevitably, at least one student loses the comment draft.  In an effort to have digital copies of comments and not carry around extra paper, I downloaded the iAnnotate app for the iPad.  It’s a bit pricey at $9.99, but I LOVE it.  It’s a bit choppy – I’m still trying to figure out the best stylus (adonit’s jot is pretty cool – but sticks to my screen protector – and I’ve just started using one by iFaraday… but writing with my finger works as well!) – but I’ll get better at the handwriting thing.

Emailing the files back is simple – one click and the outgoing email is ready to go!  I’ve still got a bit of practicing to do, but I think this could be pretty cool!

And I’ve been converted to Dropbox (www.dropbox.com).  I’ve uploaded the handouts for the current unit and shared them with Chris – allowing both of us to work on them on our separate computers without having to attach things and email them back and forth.  Today I created a “copies” folder in our shared folder – which allowed Chris to open up the files I had worked on and zip the documents through the copier.  It’s incredible!

Otherwise, I’m pretty excited to switch the Europe trip site back to WordPress. I got lured in by some fancy stuff in iWeb, but since I’ll probably bring the iPad with me instead of a computer, I’m excited to be able to update using the WordPress app.

When I find cool apps, I’ll post screen shots of them in action! Pretty psyched.

Having the SMARTnotebook software on the laptop hasbeen great – it allows me to type agendas OUT of the room (as I share a classroom) and work on lesson plans from home.

A great link to check out if you have access to the SMARTboard and software: http://exchange.smarttech.com/. Teachers have shared lesson plans there – sorted by category and grade level. I’ve found a few fun things, including a fun way to take attendance:

It’s silly, but each student has a balloon – and as the student comes into class, he pops his balloon.  Other templates have each balloon or item linked to a question, say, for a test review – students can throw bean bags at the board and that’s how questions are selected.  I’m not at the point where I am excited for such projectiles in class, but I could see something “random” like that being useful for going through debriefing/processing questions as a group after an activity.

There are tons of SMARTnotebook files on the sharing site that walk you through some of the cool things the board can do.  Many of those tricks are like a fancier PowerPoint – hiding the answer to a question behind a box, dragging and dropping information into the appropriate categories, etc.  As I continue to play around with the notebook software, I’ll post more!

I’ve continued to use Noodletools with my classes as we progress with research skills. Noodletools is a great resource to keep track of works cited information, notes, and organize thoughts for an essay. After discussions with my Humanities colleagues, I’ve worked to spend more time with my students on the components of a works cited entry, focusing on the details that are so critical to proper citations.

I’ve developed some handouts to walk students through the process of signing up for Noodletools and get them started on the citations.

This year, I’ve asked my students to do more with their notecards. Chris Dussault and I have been focusing on use of evidence in student essays, using the terminology “paraphrase, quotation, analysis.” The notecard feature of Noodletools lines up well with this – there is a spot for a quotation from the text, a paraphrase of that quotation, and another box labeled “my ideas”, which our students use for analysis of the quotation. It’s a bit time consuming for some of the students, depending on internet connections, but they have been happy with the results. When they complete notecards, they can drag and drop them into an outline, making the actual essay writing a bit easier. The notecards can be tagged, flagged, color coded, etc. When the students share their projects with me as the teacher, I can comment on the project as a whole and individual note cards.

The hope is that we can have our students more familiar with Noodletools and its options for organizing research BEFORE they hit their AOIs and Capstones!

I’ll post more later as we work on other projects!

I’d love to have a better system for keeping track of drafts of essays… barring making comments on student work on Google docs. We’ll see what I can find while exploring!

SMARTboard

Katie Crowley and I have been using the SMARTboard in our classes on a routine basis. It may appear to be intimidating at first, but it is unbelievably user friendly! The SMARTboard is a combination of your computer’s desktop and a white board – anything that you open on the computer is projected onto the board. You can write on images, movies, websites, word documents, powerpoint presentations… and then save and print everything! Useful when a student has missed an important lecture or even when you run out of time at the end of class… just open up the document and everything is there.

It is particularly useful to discuss documents and images. We have used the board with our students to analyze paintings, political cartoons, and other primary sources. The students have a real sense of ownership as they are the ones taking apart the documents and teaching their classmates the material. Students that do not usually take notes on activities like these take notes with the SMARTboard. Standard level students love this technology.

One of our favorite things: when studying the age of Absolutism, visiting interactive websites like this one. When Katie showed this to her students, one of her standard level students who is not normally enthusiastic about history got very excited. He is interested in woodworking and told his classmates about how much time and money the inlaid floors would have cost.

stjlabs.com blog

I have been using the blog (www.dscavitto.stjlabs.com!) to post assignments. I will be sending the address to parents as well so they have a chance to check on assignments and what we are doing in class. This has been great for some of my absentminded kids who tend to lose their syllabi…

gmail.stjlabs email and Google Docs

I am in love with Google Docs and knowing that my students can communicate with me over email. I have cleared up many questions about assignments – especially our research project! Having email lists has been handy as I find websites that will be helpful for their project. I’ve also chatted with a few of my students using the chat feature in Gmail when we are both online and the kids love it.

I’m also collecting papers over Google Docs and grading them and sending them back to my students that way. We’ll be using it more as we start writing our musicals in small groups (Oh yes! Musicals on the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire, and the French Revolution!!) and the students can collaborate that way.

We’ll post more later as we try new things!  Thanks Josh for all of your help with everything!