Custom Search Engines in Google

This week I learned about creating custom search engines within Google.

Custom search engines can be very useful to teachers, like myself. Many teachers assign research projects to their students. The Internet is a vast combination of websites, videos, and pictures that are not always appropriate for student eyes. Custom search engines allow teachers to filter out unwanted websites, while still allowing their students to gather the research information they need.

To learn more about custom search engines, check out this video:

Every year, my kindergarten students are assigned the task of choosing an animal to research and write a book about. I expect my students to use both books and the Internet to gather their research on their animal. I believe it is important for even my young students to be knowledgeable about the Internet and be allowed to use it in a way that will better their education. Google can be a great tool to search for facts, but as everyone knows, it doesn't always kick back the most accurate sites.

To address this issue, I created a custom search engine for my students to use during their animal research.

Let's use a scenario to show how helpful a custom search engine could be.

5-year old Miles wants to do his animal research report on "cougars." The student goes to google.com and types in "cougar." These are some of the results that Miles might see:

Miles's idea of what a cougar is, and Google's idea is not always the same thing. "How to Know if a Woman is a Cougar-10 Steps" is not a website I would want my students visiting. With a few clicks, I can create a custom search engine for my students to facts about their animals on appropriate websites. Try it out yourself with my custom search engine below:

(Note: Google Ads appear at the top of the search engine because it is a free edition. This would need to be addressed with your students so they don't click any of the ads that may not be appropriate. For example, when typing "cougar" in the custom search engine, dating ads appear at the top of the engine. It is always an option to upgrade your account for a fee).

Google Chrome

This week I learned a lot about Google Chrome. Google is an Internet browser with many more features available than most browsers. To install Google Chrome on your computer, click here and follow the instructions listed.

Google Chrome has many great features. Below are a couple of my favorites:

• Apps- Google Chrome allows users to have apps listed on their home page within Chrome. These apps are similar to the apps on the App Store on Apple products. These apps range from education apps to business apps. These apps can be found in the Web Store. You can find the Web Store here.  

• Google Drive- Google Drive is one of my favorite things about Google! It is such an easy way to store files on your computer, and easily retrieve them on other devices. Not familiar with Google Drive? Watch this introduction video to learn more:

Check out 100 more tips and tricks in Google Chrome here. 

Google has also developed a great feature called Gone Google Story Builder. 

Gone Google Story Builder is a publishing tool that will digitally publish your writing using characters and even music! It is very user-friendly to get started. The great think about Story Builder is that it puts the whole presentation together for you when your writing is completed! 

I love this demo video they put together to show how it works:

I even made my own story! 

http://goo.gl/wtfAlj

Gone Google Story Builder creates so many possible lesson ideas for the classroom. It is a great tool to show students the writing process. It demonstrates a great lesson about editing and adding dialogue  to stories.

This is also a great tool for digitally publishing. As a kindergarten teacher, one of the standards that I am responsible for teaching in the Common Core is listed as K.W.6. The standard states:

• With guidance and support from adults, explore a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers. 

There are many other grade levels that require students to digitally publish their writing.

Gone Google Story Builder is a great way for students to publish their writing that uses characters. I would recommend this tool for older grades simply because it may be too complex for younger grades because it does not include pictures and/or speech.

I plan on demonstrating this tool for the other teachers in my school. I think it has great potential in the classroom. I also love how easy it is to share stories with others! A simple link and your story can be shared with anyone in the world.

These are just a few reasons why I continue to love Google as much as I do.


Happy publishing! :)

Looking Back..

It's hard to believe that my Issues and Ethics in Technology course is almost complete. I have learned a lot over the course about new technology and tools that I can utilize in my classroom. I have tried to implement some of these tools over the past few weeks. During week 1, I posted about the ISTE NETs and my goals around these standards. You can find that post here.

1. My first goal was Standard 1d which states: Teacher will model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments.
   
   My goal that I wrote to go with this standard included using Skype to connect with authors, researchers, other classes, etc. This will allow my students to construct new knowledge with others in a face-to-face virtual environment.
   
   Today was the first day I tried this. I must say, it was AWESOME! I couldn't believe how engaged my kindergarten students were. We are working on doing some animal research and we are also learning about fish. I found a shark researcher on Skype that gave my class information about how he researches  sharks, and also general information about sharks. It was so neat to pull in lots of curriculum in a different way. My students loved getting to ask a real shark researcher questions they had been asking me (who doesn't always know the answers)! I am planning to do this again with my class before the end of the year is over. If you are interested in Skype for Educators. The link to sign up is: https://education.skype.com

I feel that I am now meeting this standard of using face-to-face environments to allow my students to collaborate new knowledge with others.

 2. My second goal was to address standard 2b: develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress. My goal was to get more technology in my classrooms for students to use. I have been slowly trying to make this goal happen. I have not yet written the grant to get an iPad for my classroom, but I have been trying allow my students to use other types of technology in more meaningful ways. This week I will be bringing in the small laptops on a cart (from our EMINTS room) to use for our animal research. Typically we go to the computer lab to do this research, but I want to try something new. This will allow us to research in the comfort of our classroom and not have to haul all of our stuff that we will need to do research. I also want my students to have exposure to different types of computers that they will come in contact with in the future. I am curious to see how they do with computers that do not have a mouse! 

I feel that I am still approaching this standard, but will be meeting it by the end of the school year.

3. My third goal was to address standard 2d: provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching. My goal was to begin using technology to help assess my students. I have been doing this using a tool that my students already use. The software my students already use includes: Raz-Kids, Reading Eggs, and Xtramath. These programs all have assessments at the end of each "unit." I have been using these tools to collect data on what skills students are still struggling math. The data is graphed and organized in a simple way for me to use. This definitely helps save me time on organizing my data! 

This is a standard that I feel I am now meeting.

4. My fourth goal was to address standard 3b: collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.

 My goal was to create a teacher blog and post at least once a week. Well, I have been writing this blog once every week so I feel that I am on my way to meeting this goal. I hope to continue this blog after this class and continue to post information for other teachers, as well as promote some of my products on TeachersPayTeachers. 

5. Finally, my last goal was written to address standard 5d: develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools. To meet this standard, my goal was to do a research project once a year with another classroom. This goal is still in progress. I plan to do a plant research project with a classroom located in Florida for later this year, but we are still working out all of the details. I will keep you posted on this blog about it! 

This class has opened my eyes up to the world of technology in the classroom. Kindergarten and technology do not always go hand in hand, so it was nice to learn some new ideas and tools in this class that are kindergarten-friendly. This class has given me a confidence to allow my kindergarteners to at least try something related to technology, and most of the time they succeeded. For example, I had never taught my class about using the @ sign on a computer before today. This symbol was used in one of our log-ins today. In the past, I have gone around and typed in the user name for everyone. Today I hesitantly taught them how to type it and viola! It was amazing! It made my life so much easier. This class has reconfirmed that we are in a digital era, and technology should be used to enhance lessons. It is not something that should be avoided. 

Thanks for reading! 

Copyright Laws

This week I learned a lot of information about copyright laws in regards to education. After reading up on copyright laws, I felt shocked and slightly embarrassed at just how many copyright laws I was in violation of. For those of you that need a brief review of copyright laws, check out the video below.

Luckily, copyright isn't as strictly enforced in education. Copyright can be a friend to education. I also found the following charts to be very helpful to reference in regards to using material in my classroom.
Cick on the following links to review the documents and print a copy for easy reference in your classroom.

Copyright Laws for Teachers

Administrator Copyright Scenario Checklist

Among these copyright laws, I was quite surprised at a few things I discovered. The most surprising thing I found was that showing a movie to students for entertainment or a reward is considered to be a violation. This surprised me because we use movies a lot for entertainment in my school. We use them for indoor recess in the cafeteria, as well as occasionally during popcorn parties. I had no idea this was a violation! I also found it very interesting  that no copyright characters may be used for nay school purpose unless it is relevant to instructional use, and there aren't many situations where that applies. One of the articles stated that "permission is a virtual impossibility." 

I have three tips for teachers in regards to copyright and fair use laws. I think many teachers are unaware or misinformed about copyright and fair use, so I hope my tips are helpful to some teachers. 

1. Be sure to monitor software installed on student computers. Teachers must NOT install the software on more than one computer unless multiple licenses are purchased. The software must legitimately be purchased before installing. 

2. Teachers may post copyrighted material on the internet IF the material is instructional AND behind a password protected site that is managed. Managed implies that the site is only active during the unit of study-- it can not be archived! Be sure to take down the site when the unit is no longer being studied. 

3. If you are going to show a movie during reward time, you have two options. Your first option is to secure a license. These can be obtained through companies like Disney, usually for a price. In the case of Disney, you can pay $25 per tape use. The second option is to show more educational videos, such as Reading Rainbow, with a permit. These are the better option in my opinion because they are more educational and certainly cheaper. 

I think the biggest mistake teachers run into is simply being unaware and uneducated in regards to copyright laws. Many teachers aren't informed about all of the regulations that revolve around copyright. I think every school district is responsible for educating their employees on copyright and fair use. Unfortunately, many teachers break these laws every day. I believe that many teachers aren't even aware they are doing it. I have printed these documents and have posted them in my classroom to use as a quick reference and to avoid any potential problems in the future. I hope that you do the same. 

On a personal note, I got engaged this weekend! :) 

Have a great week!

Google Drive

This week I learned more about Google Drive and all that it has to offer. Within Google Drive you can create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, and drawings. You do not need any special software, just a Google account. Don't have a Google account? Just click here to sign up for one.

My favorite feature about Google Drive is the accessibility of documents from any location. You can download Google Drive to your computer. After downloading, simply save any documents to your drive. When you need to access your documents, you can simply go to https://drive.google.com . The other option is to download Drive onto your phone, tablet, or another computer. You can sign in to your account and you will see all of your documents that you have saved to your Drive.

Here is a introduction to Drive:

Another feature of Drive is the ability to allow others editing rights to your documents. This is great for collaboration with others. Below is a quick tutorial on how to share and collaborate with others using Drive. 

Sharing and collaborating using Drive can be a great way for students to complete assignments together in or outside of the classroom.

Another feature of Drive that I enjoyed was the ability to create forms. This gives the user the ability to quickly gather information in an organized way. For example, I created a form that I can use in my classroom on Back to School Night to collect contact information from the families. You can see my example here. This would be set up on the student computers in my classroom, so parents can type their information in. After submitting, the information goes to an organized spreadsheet. 

To make a form, simply click "create" and then click "form."

Next, you choose a template and complete your form. Be sure to click "send" when you are finished. After submitting you will see a link that you can copy to use with as you please. 

After reviewing Drive and using the different features, I would highly recommend Drive to everyone. It is very simple to use and very accessible from anywhere. It is helpful to me both personally and professionally. 

What do you think of Drive? 

#Twitter #Addme@LauraBennaka

This week in PLH 5015 we learned about developing Professional Learning Communities (PLNs). PLNs are a collection of resources that you can go to when you want to learn something. For teachers, this means a place you can go to share resources with other educators. There are many different types of PLNs for educators. This week I learned about one major PLN that has become very popular among educators: Twitter. 

The following video describes PLNs, and Twitter, in a very simple way:

This week I signed up for a twitter. You can follow me @LauraBennaka. I haven't really gotten into Twitter as much as many of my friends and family. Recently, I had the privilege of demonstrating a lesson with my kindergarteners regarding 3-D shapes. I taught my lesson in front of 10 fellow teachers, and our district curriculum coordinator. Later in the afternoon my phone made the infamous "tweet" sound. When I looked, I realized someone had tweeted me. I was so excited that I didn't even care what it was about! Fortunately, our curriculum coordinator had tweeted a great compliment about my lesson, and included a photo of my kids doing their math work. 

Here is the tweet:

Getting started on Twitter may be overwhelming for teachers. I read a document with some tips and tricks on using Twitter that I found to be very helpful. You can read that here at Powerful Learning Practice, another educator PLN. The most important tip that I took from this article was not to use too many hashtags. There is nothing more obnoxious than seeing 15 hashtags on one post. Every time I think of this, I think of the skit Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake did about hashtags. If you need a good laugh, you can watch that here. 

I also learned this week that there are hashtag chats that occur frequently on Twitter. Cybrary Man has a list of Twitter chat schedules posted to his site which you can find at: http://cybraryman.com/chats.html. 

I observed two educational chats on Twitter. The first chat I observed was #kinderchat. I found this chat to be so interesting. I found so many new ideas that were strictly geared for kindergarten. I learned about one app on the App Store that I’m so excited to try. It is called DoInk and it allows kids to produce digital stories using animation. They can even be in the movies using a green screen! Someone tweeted a video their kindergarteners produced using this app, and used the hashtag #kinderchat. After reading this educational chat, I realized I really enjoy learning about new technology that I can use in my classroom. 

I also observed the chat #iPadchat. I found some really good articles that people had tweeted about. Some of these gave me good iPad apps that are very appropriate for students. You can find that article at http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/12/20-ipad-apps-to-showcase-students.html.   I am excited to participate in some of these chats later on when I find great tools to add to the conversation. I found the experience of educational chats to be simple and easy to follow. I enjoyed that you can type in the hashtag and easily see previous posts regarding that chat.

Do you recommend any apps for your students to use in the classroom?

Have a great week!

Word Clouds, Prezi, and Glogster…Oh My!

This week I learned about some Web 2.0 Tools to use in my classroom.

Word Clouds 

The first thing I learned this week was about word clouds. Word clouds are visual representations for text data, typically used to depict keyword tags on websites and to visualize free form text. I had heard of wordle.com before. However, I hadn't had much experience with Tagxedo or ABCya. For my assignment this week I was asked to make a mini lesson using one of these programs. The more I used the sites, the more I enjoyed them. I liked the simplicity of the sites, as well as the variety of layouts and colors you can choose from. The lesson I came up with was a simple lesson that any teacher could use at the beginning of the year. The lesson involves having students come up with a list of adjectives that describe a friend. This list can be turned into a word cloud, and hung up for the class to see and refer to throughout the year. Here is a sample word cloud that I made for this activity using Tagxedo.

I enjoyed using Tagxedo the most because I liked that you could make your word cloud into a variety of shapes. For those of you that have not used Tagxedo before, here is a slideshow that gives you a tutorial on how to use it, and a few ideas on how to use it: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1IvQMR9LpT9sSOEOTIpsCLxYpfuPrKZrL3_JZ651HTho/edit#slide=id.i0. . 

Prezi 

Prezi is an tool for web-based presentations, similar to Powerpoint. Prezi take a little bit of time to get used to, as it can be a little harder to use if you are used to Powerpoint. This video gives a tutorial on how to use Prezi. 

Here is a link to the Prezi that I made this week for a kindergarten unit on 3-D shapes:

http://prezi.com/df0ujt0lokr3/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share 

In my opinion, Prezi is a much more engaging way to present information, rather than Powerpoint. I liked that when you create a Prezi it is all on one canvas, rather than individual slides. I think this gives the reader a good visual of what they will be learning about upfront, rather than individual slides. 

Glogster 

Glogster is a tool that I had not heard of before.  Glogs are online, multimedia posters. Students and teachers can make online posters that include text, photos, videos, graphics, sounds , drawings, etc. Since I am the Elementary Technology Specialist at my school, I was pleasantly surprised to experiment with a site that I haven't heard of before. I had high hopes for Glogster when I watched a tutorial video on it. You can watch the tutorial here:

The first thing that turned me off about Glogster was the pricing. I was able to try it out using a 30 day trial. However, after the 30 days is up you have to sign up for a $39 subscription (elementary) or a $95 subscription (secondary). Now, if my school district purchased this, I think I would be more apt to do it. I just didn't see myself using this site very often enough to pay for a subscription on my own. I also think I would be more apt to use the site if I taught in an older grade that my students could create glogs on their own. The site was fairly easy use, and I saw some pretty neat ideas on how to use it here. 

Out of all of these tools, I can see myself using word clouds the most. I found this tool to be the most simple for the grade level I teach, while still being visually appealing. 

Have you tried out these tools before? What ways have you used it with your students?