MACUL Space

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Sharing Tips and Tricks of Using Technology in the Classroom Part 2

In your courses you have been asked to share your tips and tricks of using technology in the classroom.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sally Savasky on April 27, 2009 at 3:10pm

The district I work for uses RFB&D as a resource for audio books. They now allow you to upload books which can be played from the computer or transferred onto an MP3 player. This is so much easier-- not to mention faster. They also have a cool promotion for parents:
“Beginning on January 26, 2009, through January 25, 2010, any student with a qualified learning or print disability in the U.S. can sign up for 12 months of free access to RFB&D's CV Starr Learning Through Listening® Library of more than 46,000 textbooks and literature, via Internet download.”
http://www.rfbd.org/promotions.htm

Permalink Reply by Jillian Moran on June 6, 2009 at 7:40pm

One of the most creative things I have found lately is: thisissand.com Here you just click and sand drops from your mouse to create drawings. If you click on the gray box in the upper left and corner, it gives you information about how to get different colors of sand and erase your drawing. I thought it could be great for some of my really creative kids during indoor recess. I think it would be great to use it with the SMART Board also because you just use your finger and sand will drop from it. One thing I was warned about was not to open the gallery in front of kids because apparently there are some pictures that were created that are not kid appropriate.

Permalink Reply by Salamah Sulaiman on June 8, 2009 at 8:13pm

WOW!! There is so much useful information here. I feel like I have nothing to offer. I will start smaill. If you are using Microsoft Word, here are a few shortcuts:

Ctrl + X = Cut
Ctrl + C = Copy
Ctrl + V = Paste

If your computer freezes, never forget the old trusty: Ctrl + Alt + Del = Shutdown

Permalink Reply by Alexis C. Pollock on May 26, 2011 at 2:18pm

These are my go-to key commands; however, I began using a Mac at home (PC at school), so here are the equivalents for the Mac:

Ctrl becomes the "Command" key:

Command + X = cut

Command + C = copy

Command + V = paste

And I have a hard time remembering the key names on the Mac, so here they are (from the Apple Support Website, since I'm posting this from a PC):

Permalink Reply by Kate Heydlauff on June 9, 2009 at 8:59pm

I'm working on a group project. We created a group account at www.delicious.com. By using this website, we can bookmark different online journals and articles to share with eachother. We are creating a group PowerPoint and sharing our slides on slideshare.net. Check out these sites... they're great!

Permalink Reply by Susan Bylsma on June 9, 2009 at 10:39pm

Hello Everyone,
I'm rather new to the tech game. There is a lot that I do not know about computer technology. I am learning about it in a fun course as MSU where I am a student. One goal I had was to learn about Excel. I found a quick reference card on Microsoft Office Online that explains Excel 2007. It has a demo, a reference guide, and key board short cuts:

http://office.microsoft.com/training/Training.aspx?AssetID=RP100620...

Thanks...

Permalink Reply by Carolyn McCarthy on June 9, 2009 at 11:21pm

Thanks Susan, that's a really neat find.

Permalink Reply by Erin Hansen on June 10, 2009 at 6:41pm

I would like to share how I use Excel as a Progress Monitoring Tool in my classroom.

I currently use Excel to monitor my students' reading fluency progress. Each week I give each student a 1-minute fluency timing using a Curriculum Based Measurement (CBM) at their independent reading level (ranging from 3rd-6th grade in my class!). I enter each student's scores into their own excel spreadsheet page, and I can create a graph to visually see the progress they are making (great for showing parents at conferences!).

I can make a "goal line" so we can see if the student is making enough progress to hit their final goal, or if they are making faster (above the goal line) or slower (below the goal line) progress.

I can also average a student's fluency scores for a particular month, which can help highlight their growth, even if their fluency graph is up and down (for example, a student's average fluency in October might be 68 correct words per minute, but by February their average is 84 correct words per minute).

I can use Excel to compute average fluency growth per week, which is useful for comparing to national averages (for example, a 3rd grader reading at the 50th percentile might be expected to gain .8 correct words per minute during the spring semester... is my student above or below this score?).

My school district is making a move towards Response to Intervention (RTI), which requires lots of data to prove that interventions ARE or AREN'T working for a student. I have found that Excel is a valuable tool for keeping track of this data!

Permalink Reply by Carolyn McCarthy on June 12, 2009 at 7:10am

That's cool Erin! Thanks for sharing. If you think about .8 correct words per minute - that would be approximately 4 per 5 minutes. That doesn't seem right or possible.

Permalink Reply by Jessica McLean on June 11, 2009 at 9:47pm

While exploring googles wide range of applications that they offer I came across- google groups. I decided to give it a whirl and set up a group /web page,blog for my AP students to keep in contact with me over the summer. What I like about it is that you can keep everything private. I selected my self as the mediator and then invited students. They will be able to post comments and images but not with out permission first. I also posted up links to websites I felt would be helpful. I like the mediation part because it forces me to keep up on the postings/discussions as well as make sure that inappropriate content does not get posted. I'm hoping it will continue to work out as well as it has so far. http://groups.google.com/grphp?hl=en&tab=wg

Permalink Reply by Carolyn McCarthy on June 12, 2009 at 7:11am

Google groups are really neat. If the students aren't blocked from the groups or Google you should be fine.

Permalink Reply by Jason Skeels on June 12, 2009 at 11:35am

I have discussed this in my course but I'll add it here, the use of Microsoft Templates (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/default.aspx), where you can use these templates for Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, etc to get started on a document or project. I have used this not only in my classroom to help me come up with new ways to present material but also in my personal life for writing letters, creating brochures, or for other purposes. It is a great tool that I heard about during my undergrad work and have used it throughout the past 2 years in my classroom a few times a week normally. Try it! There are some fun things to do with the templates.