Jumping Aboard

Happy Earth Day 2013

Brent Fullerton — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:44:40 +0000

Save gas burn fat. For Earth Day, 22 April 2013, we tried to do just that by heading outside to plant a tree at school.

Click to watch the video, Our Story on Earth (Day):

Our Story on Earth (Day) from b_fullerton on Vimeo.

Working out my ninja moves in the Google Apps For Education Course

Brent Fullerton — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:18:32 +0000

Image taken from http://3.bp.blogspot.com

Finding my inner Ninja warrior has been rewarding. I just completed a seven week Google Apps For Education (GAFE) online course offered by Jeff Utecht. The course teaches you about simple to advanced features and functions of Google Apps: Gmail, Search, Sites, Calendar, Documents, Forms, Spreadsheets, Drive, and Google+.

For a while, I have been using Gmail, Search, Docs and Drive; however, I learned a ton of new tricks and tips particularly in Advanced Search, Sites and Calendar. Google Apps for Education is free, fully integrated and a powerful tool to add to the teacher toolbox. And being able to share and demonstrate immediately with students and teachers made this learning in the GAFE course highly resourceful and more fun. I hope to continue to develop my skills each and everyday.

To encourage participation in the course badges are awarded when certain tasks are accomplished. I earned the ’risk taker,’ ‘contributor,’ ‘favorites’ and ‘inbox zero’ badges. The risk taker badge was given for an activity that I shared with the GAFE gang – Flipping to teach Google Forms to create authentic learning. As modules were completed and web based tests are passed, Ninja belts are earned — starting with white, then green, then black and finally master belt. I have to admit my level satisfaction of earning the belts was rather high, especially since I haven’t ever entered a proper dojo or taken a martial arts class (there’s still time). Another big bonus was being able to earn three college credits from SUNY Buffalo State University of New York.

Here is our GAFE Project. Caution: The stunts in this video were performed by highly untrained teachers, please do not try these at home.

GAFE Final Project from ben sheridan on Vimeo.

Favorite ninja scenes:

Be the Ninja – 46 seconds
Karate chop – minute 2:29
Flying kick – minute 4:26
Ninja stealth assassin – minute 5:05
Crouching Ninja crane kick- minute 5:43
Ninjas give thanks – minute 6:38
Apprentice Ninja in training – minute 6:58

I can see the motivation power of the badge system could be very effective in the classroom. I think it’s time to tinker with designing badges for my student bloggers. Does anyone know of a good badge builder?

Once all the modules were completed, my comments shared and tests were passed, a final project was required which was shared with the GAFE group. For my final project, I joined forces with my Ninja brethren, Linc Jackson and Ben Sheridan. We, the Blogging Bros, have been a cohort since our COETAIL days and have been collaborating on projects ever since.

Balance: Spinning Wheels Does a Body and Mind Good

Brent Fullerton — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 02:51:11 +0000

Some rights reserved by Paul Watson

Balance. We all need balance in our lives. Taking kids outdoors to experience and interact with the local environment brings an unquantifiable value to their educational experience – particularly these days as the students are 1:1 in my classroom.

Recently, I organized and led the annual Salok Api bike trip for grade 5 through grade 8 students. The ride meanders through an agricultural countryside where students get to meet local farmers, search and plant geocaches, eat chili peppers (for the daring), and bike alongside a crab farm which eventually lands them at the beach for a well deserved lunch.

For some students this might be the only time on their bike (another reason why I plan this trip). At the beginning of the year, I give parents plenty of notice that they should have a proper bicycle for their child and keep it maintained. Before the trip, I lead students through a series of bike safety lessons and exercises at school. This year I started flipping these lessons by asking the students to watch the videos at home, then back at school I can spend more time interacting and fine tuning them. In the post Geocaching the Salok Api Ride, I share more details of the UbD lesson plan.

The video series led by competitive cyclist and mechanic Pancho Herrera is very helpful for beginners:

There are a number of challenges the riders must overcome before deemed bike ready. One of my first checks is saddle height. For many beginners, their seats are set too low usually because their nervous about balance. A low saddle height quickly leads to inefficient pedal stroke and muscle fatigue — not good when taking 11 year olds for a three hour ride under the tropic sun. Understanding which is the front and back brakes and how to properly change gears are also important checks covered before students attempt to ride around the school grounds. Communication is also essential in trail riding, so students learn how to communicate about obstacles like small bridges and low hanging branches during the ride. Additionally, I caution students to keep their vision forward by three meters and not look directly down at the front tire. Lastly, I demonstrate how to change a flat tire. Again for many kids, this is their first exposure to getting hands grimy. They love this (and so do I).

Here is this year’s trip with the students, Spinning Wheels On The Salok Api Ride:

Spinning Wheels On The Salok Api Ride from b_fullerton on Vimeo.

Connecting students learning outside is a good way to develop a positive outlook for nature, the forest and creates lasting school memories.

If you have a favorite field trip experience, I would love to hear about them.

Using Re.vu Infographic for Student-led Conferences

Brent Fullerton — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 12:29:39 +0000

Deciding to shake things up a bit for the annual student-led conferences by incorporating an infographic story builder. Students are using ru.vu to reflect their work in a visually stimulating representation of their work and skills. They’ll use the infographic in conjunction with the class blog to highlight their work with parents.

By building this online resume, students will be able to track and reflect on skills, accomplishments and honors as they progress through school. Also, I think there’s good math value in this exercise by measuring and quantifying data as well as converting fractions to percentages.

I wonder if students start documenting their school performance and achievements this early then by the time they apply for university or their first job this sort of tool could serve as a very substantial digital footprint. I trick is to keep their self evaluation genuine and not inflate values.

Here are a couple grade 5 student examples:

To prepare students I first shared with them step by step instructions (via Google Docs) that follow the prompts in re.vu for creating a online portfolio. See directions below.

http://laughingsquid.com/wp-content/uploads/revu-obama.jpg

Here is the lesson plan:

To download the activity, click lesson.

If you have any ideas or comments, I would greatly appreciate your feedback.

How to install a Script “Formemailer” into a Google Form (survey)

Brent Fullerton — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 09:31:12 +0000

A full shout out and credit to Jeff Utecht and the Google Apps For Educators GAFE course for teaching me how to do this super cool Google Apps operation, which I am sure I will be using a lot in schools now and well into the future. Utecht is a Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer and creator of the Google Ninja for Schools program.

Here’s the tutorial How to install a Script Formemailer into a Google Form:

How to install the script Formemailer into a Google Form from b_fullerton on Vimeo.

Flipping to teach Google Forms to create authentic learning

Brent Fullerton — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 11:54:14 +0000

Some rights reserved by jeff_golden

Flipping lessons aren’t always easy especially when teaching elementary school. However, when the students are keen to learn and the timing is right, flipping can be a fun spin to add to your curriculum war chest.

Lately, parents have been asking for tutorials on how to operate the new MacBook Pro that kids are using everyday at school. Our tech director has been offering Friday classes teaching the basic operations. Parents have also been asking for other “how to” sessions on Gmail, Drive, iPhoto and iMovie that their children know how to do but they do not (yet). Perfect timing for an authentic project.

I have been teaching students how to use Google Forms to create a three question online quiz for their renewable energy science Google presentation. To teach the content I flipped this lesson. Students watch the video (lecture/content) at home – practice the skill — replay as needed — then back at school I can spend more time interacting with students and addressing specific questions.

Here’s the screencast:

How to use Google Forms to create an online quiz. from b_fullerton on Vimeo.

Learning Google Forms will serve the kids two-fold because now they will be creating a survey to send to their parents asking for feedback on what computer operations and/or web tools they want to learn about. This feedback will be used to drive the students’ own learning and refinement on these particular functionalities. Authentic and purposeful.

After students spend more under the hood learning the functions, they will then create their own screen-recording tutorials teaching these skills to their folks. Mastery. Kids teaching adults. Flipping. Cool, cool.

If you have a lesson you like flipping, please share.

How to embed Google Docs using an “iframe”

Brent Fullerton — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 09:54:34 +0000

Here is a brief tutorial on how to embed a Google Doc into your post or webpage using the “iframe” function.

How to embed a Google document using “iframe” from b_fullerton on Vimeo.

Import PowerPoints into Prezi’s

Brent Fullerton — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 13:51:22 +0000

Move those slideshows to the cloud. Prezi now has the capability to quickly turn those tired bullet ridden Microsoft PowerPoint presentations into zoomable Prezi presentations. Finally, they’ve added audio and voice over as a functionality.

Check out the tutorial – Prezi Tutorial: How to Prezify Your PowerPoint Slides.

Here’s an example of a 16 Habits of Mind slide show that I converted to Prezi in an less than 30 minutes.

Marketing themselves with TedTalks, Prezi has created the Ideas Matter Contest, where users can create a Prezi of their favorite TedTalks and explain the presentation in a unique way.

Watch Syria: The Basics by Lara Setrakian:

I look forward to seeing more of these PreziTeds in the coming months.

Building Students’ Learning Network with RSS Feeds

Brent Fullerton — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 12:21:35 +0000

Building up students’ stamina for reading blogs takes time and patience. I am careful not to create too much of a fuss about having to read blogs regularly; however, I think students can find great examples from out in the blogosphere and get inspired. My hope is for students to share and comment more regularly (and intrinsically).

Recently, Edublogs announced their Best Student Blogs of 2012. Below that list, I have also included some of the best classroom blogs. Please feel free to subscribe to at least three of these blogs. Their posts will be sent directly to your Google RSS reader. Remember to bookmark your RSS reader so you may check it regularly. Click here for the tutorial on how to load your RSS reader. Enjoy!

Best Student Blogs:

Best Classroom Blog:

Using Gliffy to Create Schematic Diagram

Brent Fullerton — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 11:52:16 +0000

I like using Gliffy for creating diagrams and infographic material. The free version allows you to create five diagrams. So this year in science class, I asked students to create a schematic of an series circuit.

Watch this screencast tutorial on how to create a circuit schematic using the free online diagram tool Gliffy.

Click here for another example diagram from the post Infographic Experiential Model.

I am curious to know what other people are using Gliffy for?