Learning in the Lou

I buy tons of notebooks and Post-It notes every year. Sometimes I keep notes and other times it is a to-do list. My issue is many of my thoughts and ideas happen when my paper products are far away. At the gym, no notebook. Driving in the car, no notebook on hand. There are times when things get missed and ideas float out the window which is pretty unfortunate. I have used Google Keep but it just wasn't right to track my tasks. There is a new app that might just solve these issue and it can be used by the students too! What I am most excited for is the integration into the new version of Gmail. There isn't a release date for the educational version but you can check it out with your personal Gmail account. Google Tasks have been around for about ten years but never as an app until now. Getting Started Start by installing the Android or iOS app. You should see this screen when you open the app. 1. Click the hamburger icon to switch between your accoun...

There was a time in my life where I was required to get my haircut every single week. During that time I was forced out of bed at 5:30, which I used to think was early, to run. I made a silent promise every single day that I would never cut my hair or run ever again. I kept that promise for two solid years. I now cut my hair every few weeks. I also started running again in the wee hours of the morning when it is wicked dark. There are times when I need to text the family how much longer I would be out so they wouldn't worry. I know you really shouldn't text and drive, but texting and running leads to crashing into cars, trash cans and bushes. Check out what I started doing using the Google Assistant app on my phone. The great thing is the app will even work on those lesser-known Apple devices! This is one of those apps that is underutilized and could play a huge part in your classroom tomorrow. This post describes how I use it personally and I'm sure once you star...

This post is to support the LHS FACS students creating their Tasty final.   We stumbled upon this app a while ago and it just keeps getting better. We thought it would be a great time to update the post to help you hone your video creation skills. This post was used in LHS FACS to help guide the video creation process.  Why did we pick FilmoraGo? We needed to find an app that was free and worked on both iOS and Android. WARNINGS We would advise you to have a  minimum  of one gig of free storage on your device before you start creating your project. Trust us, we learned the hard way. Use  Google Photos  to back all your images and videos which can help free up space quickly. It is also the easiest way to back up all your FACS videos. Do not delete any files off your device  until the project has been uploaded YouTube and submitted for a final grade. WARNINGS Sugar Cookie Pizza The first time we just watched th...

Design Thinking Differently One of the most exciting things I saw when I went to EdCamp this past February was a new-to-me product with the annoyingly benign name of The Extraordinaires ’ Design Studio Pro (DSP) by Hub Games . As soon as I saw this system, splayed out on a table at EdCamp’s Makerspace, my brain started firing on all cylinders. It’s a very simple system that takes what I’ve started to call a Problem Solving Process (which also goes by Engineering Process, Design Process, etc.), but rather than applying it in an environment where students create something physical, they are encouraged to do all the creation in their heads and on paper where there are far less restrictions. You see, the Extraordinaires are clients who have “hired” students to complete various projects. In the DSP, there are 24 Extraordinaires (enough for each student to have one in most classes or, better yet, for students to pair up and have a choice of two Extraordinaires). Each Extraordinaire is an o...

How big is your Drive? You should see a number on the far left side of your screen. Click that to see what is taking up space. I have seen our Google Drives grow in size every year. I would assume in the next two years these Drives will be massive. So if you have a billion files can you really find what you need quickly? I know you can just use the search at the top but did you know there is a better way? Search Within Doing a basic search yields too many results. Most of the time I have to scroll a lot to find what I need no matter how I search for it. Did you know with one right click you can narrow down your search in a snap? Open your Drive. 1. Find the folder you think the file is in, right click on it. 2. Click Search within ( should see your folder name right here ) The screen doesn't look all that different once your right click.  Start typing in the usual search area at the top of Drive. The search results are only things in the folde...

All the 5th grade classrooms and everyone at Dressel have an attachment on their projector called Miracast. This is a tiny little device that allows for total wireless projection from the laptop. You can cast anything, including video, to your projector from anywhere in the classroom. It is like you are living in the future. There is one other great feature, it will cast Android phones! Today Kim Scronce had an issue, her ELMO would not work. We tried everything but no luck. You know exactly what it is like, a whole room of kids looking at you when things don't go right. Yikes! Kim just took out her phone, connected it to the projector and moved on. It was amazing. In the image above you will see the picture I took of the screen. She is using Snapchat's camera as a portable ELMO. Why Snapchat? The screen stayed on, when using the regular camera the phone screen kept going dark. Kim was in the back of the classroom showing something on a student's desk and everyone ...

Have you ever used a hashtag to find something quickly? What if you used the power of #hashtags in your classroom, do you think would make a difference? Using hashtags on all the socials are the same, they help direct users and organize ideas. Check out these ideas to help harness these tools for learning and development. Student Ideas We found a few ideas while researching this topic to help spark you into what tags could do.      1. #booktitle214 - Use the title of the book you are reading with your room number. Why room number? It makes the hashtag unique to your conversation. Whatever they post could follow the BHH framework .      2. #cellmutation214 - Take the topic of the day and turn it into a tag. This makes for a super easy backchannel discussion that runs while the lesson unfolds. It would be a similar idea to using Todaysmeet to get the kids talking and sharing.      3. #amhis214 - A simple tag, American History R...

What is Padlet ?  Padlet is an easy-to-use virtual board for posting ideas, images, video, and more.  Sharing and collaborating opportunities abound! How could my students use Padlet to get ready for final exams? Ask questions Answer student questions Share study resources they are using How could the teacher help students get ready for finals using Padlet? Post review questions and resources Answer student questions Sort student questions into categories to support making connections Identify patterns and misconceptions in understanding in order to modify upcoming review sessions Here is another fantastic idea for using Padlet for learning that empowers students.  Check out our blog post for information on how to get started with Padlet.

I know you have heard of chat and hangouts but did you know they took these two things and made them one? What is it? It is like Google took the best of Hangouts and mashed it with a chat room. You can still chat like you did before but adding a Room can help elevate and focus your conversations. Getting Started Start by visiting this page to download the mobile and desktop app. Once it is installed, you must use your district Google account as your login. It appears Hangouts Chat is currently only available to G Suite users and not for personal accounts. Chatting The following screenshots are from the desktop app. You will find this on the far left side of the screen. 1. Click plus to start chatting with a person, create a room or use a bot. 2. These are the people I have chatted with in the past day. The green dot means someone is online. I clicked Doug and our conversation appeared. You can find these tools in the bottom right ...