"Thing 14 - Productivity Tools":

Microsoft Word Doc - Dynamic Round Character Transformation Chart

PDF - Dynamic Round Character Transformation Chart

In the aforementioned, I tried to provide the snapshot of the Word Doc converted into the PDF format; however, I do not know that you can see the difference by looking at these two images.  At any rate, as dumb as I feel about the following statement, I need to admit it - I never realized the need to have a PDF file.  I guess that if a student's home computer does not have Microsoft Word, they may be able to open the PDF formatted document.  I think back to attachments I have received in e-mails . . . there have been Word and PDF formatted attachments.  I do not use PDF files other than when I download them from websites.  I am not familiar with them; however, I guess now is the time to navigate the document I just converted . . . 

Next, I chose a Word doc and found that on Zamzar I could convert it to a plethora of formats.  The top five that I recognize the most are:  pdf, gif, html, txt, jpg.  I am curious about thumbnail and when I would need to use that.  However, in my efforts to try it, I received an error messge five different times; I pasted a snapshot of the error message below:

 

In relation to the difficulty of file conversion, the aforementioned made it difficult; however, that is all I know about the actual converting process using Zamzar.  If I can get it to work properly another time, I will know the pros and cons. 

I would not use this tool very much if at all in my job unless I had to post a lesson or document of some kind to my web page or a link to something in my on-line lesson plans.  I would need to convert from Microsoft Word to a pdf or txt for the systems in some students' homes.  Converting a document to a thumbnail might be useful when I am using my projector and need to access different documnets during a lesson in class.  Instead of having to stop to open up Word or PowerPoint, Excel, Publisher, or whatever program, I can create a thumbnail to have available on my desktop for easy and quick access.   

<iframe src="http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=lkriegl%40kingsford.org&ctz=America/Chicago" style="border: 0" width="800" height="600" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Just a cool note prior to finishing this "thing."  I added an attachment to my calendar as a review page for my students or added information for parents/guardians.  When I clickeded on the link in my blog, the attachment showed up as a doc. with low quality aesthetics.  I went back to my original document in my computer and saved it as a pdf, then attached it to my calendar link to put on my blog.  Much to my chagrin . . . there it opened just like I want it to look.  :)  Cool stuff to know. 

I find this very useful for parents to know when my quizzes, assessments, and projects are taking place, and I can attach any review pages, guides, and rubrics to the calendar for student or parent usage.  It would be great to have all collegues utilize this option, because we will know what assessments are coming up and be able to help students out by planning around eachother if possible.  When things change in our lessons, we can make changes right in our calendar and not worry about opening up our lessons and saving a new draft then resending it to the server to appear on our KMS webpage.  Having a calendar like this will make change easier and getting that information to people in our school or community more effective. 

"Thing" 15 - Staying Informed

I love this class!   :)   This iGoogle "thing" is fabulous.  I have such a difficult time finding time to check e-mail and other "stuff" that requires logging in and counting on the web pages loading between classes during the day.  With this, I can have this iGoogle as my homepage with e-mail, our school/district calendar, my to-do list, word of the day for the heck of it in L.A., YouTube for use with my lessons, and weather.com at my disposal all of the time.  I am not sure how it will be useful for student learning yet.  I will have to check in with some of my 21 things classmates and see what their ideas are.  For me, it is going to be awesome; I can have as many of the sites I will need to enhance instruction on one page and change it up whenever I need to.  This will save so much time rather than switching from screen to screen and minimizing and maximizing screens; what a snappy little app!   The fact that creating all of the "things" for this class is so time consuming is not much of an issue anymore.  The hour  &* 1/2 it took me to figure this one out and search for the feeds I needed was time well spent and saves me a ton of time in class and in my weekly planning. 

Thing 13 - Online Interactive Learning Tools

My Language students will be using Quizlet this week to review the elements of the plot diagram for the narrative text format.  I love the options for the five/six different interactive choices for practice.  The spelling option is a good one for auditory, kinesthetic, and visual memory processing and output.  Moreover, they can have small group or two person team competitions with the spelling and/or the definitions of terms using a timer to increase fluency and automaticity of responses.  A little friendly competition without being in front of the whole class is good for them and hooks them into the a study mode without really thinking about it.  If they think about studying and "having" to do so, many of them are apt to jump on their phones or facebook and push the studying off.  They love the interactive and technology aspect of life in the year 2012, so allowing them to study and challenge themselves and others opens a new door and learning opportunity for so many of them.  Plus, we get to monitor and smile at the fun they can have learning and studying!

Thing 9 - Copyright quiz

What You Copied . . .

                        Was it Right?

The following items will clarify your understanding of copyright laws for use of any materials borrowed from authors of various domains. 

1.       True or False              A copyright protects a creator’s expressions and ideas.

2.       True or False                 Any expressions created by you on the Internet are                                           automatically copyright protected.

3.       Who would you contact if you wanted to sue someone for using your creations on the Internet?

          a)  The State Police

          b)  United States Copyright Office in Washington D.C.

          c)  The creator of the search engine where your created expressions and                     ideas are

          d)  The Department of Justice

4.       True or False              Any work published in the U.S. prior to 1923 is now in                                     the public domain; its copyright has expired.

5.       True or False                 Any work(s) published by the United States                                                      government along with any government information                                        needs Washington’s approval for use by the public                                           under the U.S. copyright laws.

6.       What is the name of the policy that entitles educators to use copyrighted   materials with in specified guidelines without getting permission from the originator of the piece? 

                                                          _________________________________

7.       What does it mean if you see this symbol on the page of an Internet document,           image, piece of audio, etc. that you intend to use in your classroom?              ______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

Using a Creative Commons notice, creators specify the rights conveyed to users such as to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work, provided attribution is given. Watch for the Creative Commons logo.

You can learn more about Creative Commons at http://creativecommons.org/

8.       What correlation exists between the terms attribution  and copyright? 

          __________________________________________________________________

          __________________________________________________________________

9.       True or False                  All student work falls under the copyright law as soon                                                 as it is turned into a final product for publishing or                                                presenting.

10.      True or False             Under the copyright laws, a teacher has to obtain                                             student permission to share or use anything created by                                             a student.

 I typed this quiz in Word; however, after copy and pasting it into this blog, the spacing would as unalterable and I could not line up my wording.  This looks better in its original format.  

I really do think that it is essential for all students to know and all teachers to be reminded or taught that all of this copyright information is attainable and very helpful.  I have been introducing it to my 7th grade L.A. students, as we are creating PowerPoints of their life metaphor.   They have begun to utilize the Flickr.com site to gather a library of images to use.  Moreover, if a Google image search is needed, they are learning how to find the copyright information for the images and sound clips and identify the creator/author on each slide or in a cited sources/credits slide at the end.   They really thought it was neat that their original works are considered theirs and copyrighted once it is produced and published.    

Thing 12 - Rubistar

This rubric will be used in a couple weeks as a post novel activity.  Students will be creating a map of Cape Flattery, Neah Bay, Tatoosh Island - mainly the most northwest point on the Continental United States and just off the coast of WA and into the Pacific Ocean.  I have approximately 20 required locations including land, water, and structures that they will need to add to their map.  Students will be interviewing other students from the middle school on/near the Makah Native American reservation in WA.  From this interview, they will be required to add at least one landmark, body of water, or site of a shipwreck or whale hunt to their maps. 

Even though, this evaluation tool exists, I would rather create my own using Microsoft charts or Publisher.  I like to add graphics that pertain to a topic or location in the setting of a particular chapter we are reading.  We do quite a bit of written response to literature, and I use rubrics to evaluate all projects including writing.  I believe rubrics allow the students to see every requirement and have a copy to work from.  It becomes a choice they make; they need to learn to evaluate their progress or performance and know that there are consequences for their choices on school projects or writing pieces as well.  They know what to do to get an 'A' and they know what not to do to receive a failing or unexceptable score.  

Thing 12 - Google Docs Survey/Quiz

This was a great tool for using to survey my students on their prior knowledge of the vocabulary from Chapter 14 in our novel, Ghost Canoe.   They were supposed to be using the context to help them identify with the denotative meaning of each vocabulary word.  By using this form, I was able to identify how many students actually did take the time to use the context of the novel and identify with the meaning of the words and the elements of narrative in the process.  130 students took the survey/quiz along with two adults.  The first of the charts/diagrams below are the results for the first attempt as the survey and the second is after they actually studied using the context of the plot to assist in understanding of the vocabulary. 

 

Thing 11 - Prezi

http://prezi.com/h4qxcbamswoh/edit/#19_2558484

Prezi . . . PowerPoint . . . hmmmmm . . .

Prezi seems like a lot of fun provided I have time to tutor myself and make it work for to meet my needs.  I am partial to PowerPoint.  Without penning what would appear to be an invitation to a pity party, I will be concise . . . it is in my comfort zone.  I have used PowerPoint in my class for years, it is user-friendly, I get updated versions of it via school and my computer system at home, and it is in my comfort zone!  As with anything that fits in a busy/hectic life, it is easy to stay on the path of familiarity - the path of least resistance.  With a schedule like mine and my family's, it is easy to say that there is just not any time to sit and figure out how to use another presentation program when the one I use now works for me.   PowerPoint is what works for me, and 95% of my students have been introduced to P.P. at some point in the past two years.

 However, despite all of the aforementioned, I will admit that Prezi does have character and a whole different dimension that many of my students will be drawn to and love.  Prezi seems more "hip" if that makes any sense.  From what I have played around with for this assignment, I think they will like how the presentation looks when it is progress.  If it was up to me, I would stick with P.P. presentations, but some students may work better with the Prezi presentation format.  Therefore, I now have a plan B for  the presentation my students will do to demonstrate and show what knowledge they have gained over the past few months in relation to the narrative we are 3/4 of the way through.  This novel has been our text book that we use to discuss many facets of the L.A. curriculum.  The first portion of the assignment will be to create a presentation for Figurative Language in the form of simile,metaphor, and personification from our text.  The will also develop two-three slides to share their life metaphor through song, poem, or format of choice.