Social Injustice Project. Fight It. End It.

In my opinion, there are few things in life that can have an impact like reading a book. Recently, my students and I read social injustice novels. Being aware of our world and the injustices that are happening is important because we need that awareness before we can take action. But what is that action? It's a daunting question. It's an overwhelming problem. How do we stop human trafficking? How do we stop genocide? It's almost a feeling of impossibility. Like, no matter what we do, we can't stop it or even help! So what do we do? I don't' know. I guess we can start by getting educated. By becoming aware and spreading that awareness. I think reading about social injustice and learning about it and spreading the awareness of it helps us become more compassionate. It helps us take less for granted and be more appreciative of what we have. If we talk about it enough and read about it enough, perhaps a student will go out into the teeth of the injustice and do something to stop it.  Maybe we all will. 

A good chuckle, sometimes, is all you need

You may find yourself down and out or depressed or bloated or scared or nervous or anxious or bored or frustrated or trapped or fearful or cowardly or dejected or morose or brooding or vengeful or spiteful or any number of other negative feelings. So if you do find yourself in that emotional and mental state, perhaps all you need to do is watch a couple of Philippino high divers. Despite their efforts, they still get applause. So, too, can you still get an applause, no matter how bad it gets.

Eagle Vs. The Goat

Sometimes, you might feel like there is this giant burden on your back, like the talon's of life have sunk into your shoulders so far that there is no chance for escape. You might face seemingly never-ending obstacles, insurmountable challenges. The struggle might be real. You may have lost hope that there will ever be a way to shake your plight. But like the goat, if you keep fighting and fighting and running and running and rolling and rolling and battling and battling, eventually you will free yourself and defeat those demons.

So Long Owner's Manual!

I recently had a problem. The drain to my sink broke. Though I installed the sink to begin with, it had been a while so I had forgotten exactly how to do it. So, I found a tutorial on Youtube. Three minutes and thirty-five seconds later, I knew how to install a new drain. I had another problem. My dryer was not drying clothes properly. It would either run through the sensor dry cycle and still have wet clothes, or it would quit a few minutes after I started the cycle, thinking the clothes were dry (they were not). Manual dry worked and dried the clothes, but whenever I used the sensor setting, it didn't dry, so I figured that was the problem. So I called Sears (where I bought the dryer five years ago). Sears said they could send out a guy to look at it. It would cost $80, plus whatever he had to do to fix the problem (parts + labor). Or, as the polite phone operator informed me, I could pay $400 to get all my appliances covered for the next year. So I did some thinking and decided that both options seemed rather pricey and that there had to be a better way. A cheaper way. So, I checked YouTube. I had a pretty good idea the sensor setting was the problem so I "youtubed" Samsung sensor problems. Sure enough, I found a video showing how to replace the sensor bars. Piece of cake. I then looked up online how much sensor bars cost. $1.50 per sensor bars. Perfect. I ordered the sensor bars and eventually fixed the problem. All it cost me was $3 and 4 minutes of time watching YouTube. I was driving down the road and I had another problem. I wanted to customize the control panel on my dashboard. Did I pull out the thick owner's manual, locate the correct 'chapter' and figure it out? Nope. I went straight to Youtube and found what I needed. 

In our world, technology and in these examples YouTube specifically, creates a more efficient way of doing things. It saves time and money. If you have a problem or want to know how to do something, sifting through a big owner's manual or waiting for someone to show you in person is a thing of the past. You have a gazillion tutorials at your fingertips on YouTube, just waiting to be watched. Just waiting to teach you how to do something or help solve a problem. 

We want our students to have this mindset and equip them with the skills and knowledge to know HOW to find the best way to solve a problem. YouTube creates active problem solvers. They have a problem-they seek out the solution via Youtube-and problem solved. New thing learned. They do not just sit back and wait for someone to show them how or just give up because it's "too hard." 

Feel free to leave a comment on this blog post of how YouTube has helped you solve a problem. If you do not know how to leave a comment on blog posts, then look up a tutorial on Youtube! :) 

Ramp up your "Timer" game

Using a timer in class is certainly nothing new. There is a wide variety of timers out there: egg timers, kitchen timers, Smartboard timers, iPhone timers, etc.... Those all work and are just fine, but perhaps it's time to level up your Timer game. Perhaps it's time to use something different. When you use your Smartboard timer, kids can see the number as it counts down. Which is fine. But they are looking at a number which is kinda boring. If you use your iPhone, kids can't see the time going down, which is okay because it adds a little mystery, but maybe you want the kids to see how much time they have remaining. So, we have a problem: We want the students to see the timer, but not just watch numbers tick by. Solution! Use the sun as your timer! With this awesome thing called "YouTube," we can use sunsets as our time. So if you are doing a challenge or activity that is timed, use the sunset as your timer. Once the sun sets, times up! Kids get jacked about trying to "beat the sun" and complete the challenge before the sunsets on them and their hopes of completing the challenge. Not all activities warrants a timer, but if you do something that is timed, think about using the sunset! The sunset I have attached to this post is for roughly 30 minutes. This would be a long challenge, so if you want a shorter timer, find a shorter sunset or just start the above video further into it.
Watch the sun set but motivation soar with Sundown Timers!

Other ideas: Find a slow motion video of a balloon being inflated then popped, or the tide coming in, or a tree burning down. If you can't find a video of a balloon popping or a tree burning down, then make your own video of that happening! 

Clip YouTube videos

YouTube is loaded with videos. Perhaps you find a video, but only want to use a certain clip from it. Well, that's easy, just get the video qued to the spot you want to watch and then pause it when the clip is over. But what about if you want to make that clip available for your students to watch on their own? For this, you need another tool. Enter Tubechop.com  This website allows you to grab the clip you want and then share it anyway you want: URL, embed code, etc. 

Get more out of YouTube Videos

YouTube is an immense collection of videos, we know that. We also know that YouTube is a wonderland for educators to find quality, interesting videos to help teach a concept or illustrate a topic. But, what we may not know is EDpuzzle. Edpuzzle is a tool that lets us get more out of youtube videos. It beefs them up, it gives us options, it gives us the ability customize the video viewing experience. Instead of simply watching the video, or watching the video and answering questions, Edpuzzle allows you to orchestrate a dynamic viewing experience. Free of charge, Edpuzzle allows you to set up a class with a "class code" so your students can join with their Google account. With your students joined in, you can assign videos for them to complete--whether for reinforcement, learning, review, etc. 

As mentioned, Edpuzzle allows you to create a more dynamic viewing experience. It helps you get more out of the video. Here's the deal: Get a Youtube video that you want to show. "Upload" it into Edpuzzle and from there, you can choose what the students do while watching. You can ask them MC questions, open ended questions, or have them comment. You can add a "voice track" which is a audio recording of yourself explaining the video the student is watching. You can also trim the clip to focus on just the part you want.
You assign these to your class so you can see how your students did on the questions, comments, etc. so it is a quality formative assessment piece. You can also share it with the world with the link, though you do not get individual results unless they are part of your Edpuzzle class.
Not only can  you use YouTube videos, but you can search for other videos from Khan Academy, TED, Vimeo, National Geographic, and many more. You can search these other video sites from within Edpuzzle.
Check it out! I think it could be a great piece to add to your classroom puzzle.

You should probably listen to this.

Relationships. Video Worth Watching #TED

Teachem: A tool to make YouTube videos more dynamic

YouTube is a great learning tool, especially as we move to self-paced, mastery learning and hopefully 1:1 sometime in the next five years. YouTube allows students to watch videos on their own and go at their own pace. It is especially helpful for the visual learner. It is something they can pause, rewind and re-watch to make sure they understand the content. Simply posting a video for your students to watch is a good thing, but we can make it even better with "Teachem." 
Teachem is a free tool that allows you to incorporate flashcards into a Youtube video. As the student watches the YouTube video, flashcards will be visible on the side of the video for students to think about and respond to as they watch. When creating a teachem project, you first find a youtube video. It can be one that you made or one that already exsists. After selecting the video you want, you can set flashcards to certain times of the video. If the student clicks the flashcard, the video automatically goes to that spot in the video. This is a way we be more focused with our videos and help our students narrow in on what we want them to get out of it. 
To share your Teachem Youtube video, you can provide a link or embed the HTML code so no clicking is required. (except "play" of course.)

Awesome time-lapse of Medieval Castle on Minecraft

Garden of your Mind

Mr. Rogers may have worn corny cardigans and taken a pain-stakingly long time to change his shoes but behind all that, he was a very wise, insightful man. He was able to make it feel like he was your favorite grandpa or the friendly old-guy neighbor. He made it seem like he was talking directly to you. Now days, if kids watched more of Mr. Rogers and less of Family Guy, perhaps we would have more quality kids, nicer kids, more respectful kids. Perhaps if both kids and adults alike watched the above video, there would be more creativity and less zombie-like staring at screens or less neediness/helplessness. I love the name of this video: "Garden of Your Mind" because it is just that. Things don't just grow automatically in a soil garden and neither do they in a brain matter garden. A real garden in the dirt needs sun, it needs the weeds to be picked, it needs water and it needs care. Your mind is your garden. It needs things to grow as well, like learning, exploring, thinking, and creating. In our mind gardens, we do not grow sweet corn or green peppers, we grow ideas. One of our greatest responsibilities as teachers is to help and teach our students grow ideas in the "garden" of their minds. If we aren't growing anything in the garden of our minds, how can we expect our students to? Do things that put your mind in a position to grow ideas. That can be different for everybody. Maybe that's reading non-fiction, maybe that's reading Game of Thrones, maybe that's doing projects off Pinterest. Maybe that's building something with your hands or exercising. Whatever it is that you do to help you grow the garden of your mind, make sure you make time for it. Share it with your students and talk about things that they can do to help their mind grow and flourish. So, what ideas have you been growing in your mind lately? I suggest picking up a rake and tending to your garden.

How are we treating kids?

How are we treating kids? It is a question we need to ask ourselves from time to time to make sure our answer is what it should be: with care, respect, and compassion. In the video, Rutgers coach Mike Rice, who has since been fired, shows us how NOT to treat kids. Though this is an extreme case, is it that rare? Though we may not chuck basketballs at kids' heads or yell the F word at them, kids can be just as hurt with the way they are treated and talked to. In a position like ours, as teachers, we are around kids constantly. Everyone is human and it is only natural to get frustrated at times. How do we deal with our frustration? Do we take it out on the kid? Do we respond with sarcasm? Do we belittle kids? Talk down to them? Act superior to them? We can hurt a kid just as bad as Mike Rice did without ever throwing one basketball or yelling one curse word. Sometimes we can get so frustrated with a kid but we need to make sure we check ourselves before saying something that will hurt the situation, not help it. We need to remember that kids have home lives and some are really bad. We need to be conscious of their feelings and make sure they feel better after talking to us, not worse. Even in cases where you're just sick of the bad attitude or the lack of effort, sarcasm in a volatile situation is still not the answer. I'm not saying you can't get after a kid sometimes and get firm with them because there is a time and place for that and some kids need that. Still, that firmness and "tough love" can come without sarcasm. I watched the video and was appalled at what I saw this guy doing. Though I have never even come close to doing something like that, it still made me reflect on how I treat kids. It reminded me of the position we are in and the awesome power we have to make kids feel better about themselves and build them up. So, the next time you are about to throw an imaginary basketball at a kids head and rip them with sarcasm, stop and instead throw some words of encouragement and compassion. 

(Note: Mike Rice got fired, as did his assistant coach and the AD of Rutgers University)

An Inspirational Video for your Friday

Creating a Youtube Interactive Review

Looking for a unique/different way to review? Try making a Silent Video. I started making these last year and the kids have really liked both making them and watching them. With YouTube now open, the Silent Video is even better because students can watch them during the school day! 
How to make a Silent Video: After studying a unit or topic, compile a list of questions. You need to have at least one different question for each student. Pass out the list of questions and have your students each pick one question. Give them a piece of cardstock. Have the student write the question on the front of the cardstock and the answer on the back. I tell my students to use block/bubble lettering so it stands out more for the video. After each student has made their card, tell them to find a spot in the room to hide their card, but stay by it. Walk around the room with the video camera, going from student to student, video taping them showing the card, then flipping it to reveal the answer. Really emphasize with your students to think of a creative way to hide the card before showing the camera. Add a cool song for the students to listen to as they watch. Publish the video on YouTube and share! 
A Silent Review video becomes an interactive reviewing experience. As the students watch their video, along with the videos from the other classes, they can look at a question, think about the answer, then see if they are right when the card is flipped. This is more interesting/engaging then basic flash cards so the students are more likely to use this review tool. With YouTube open in school, they are now capable of watching it during study hall.

Inserting YouTube videos into PowerPoint and Prezi

Now that YouTube is open, let's start using it! The two most popular presentation tools for students to use are PowerPoint and Prezi. With YouTube opening, this adds a whole new dynamic to student presentations. It gives the student more creativity and possibilities in making a quality product. Let's take a look at how to insert YouTube videos into PPT and Prezi. 

1. PowerPoint: In order to insert a video into powerpoint, it needs to be in the .wmv file format. To convert a youtube video into a wmv file is not smooth. Therefore, we are going to avoid any type of conversion and instead add a "plug-in" right to our powerpoint software. With this plug-in, all you need is the youtube url (the www.youtube.com/slkdoielskjlkfjlkjd  part) and it will be inserted. 
**Use this link to get the plug-in: http://skp.mvps.org/youtube.htm 
**You want to select the "For PowerPoint 2007/2010" click the "click here"  This will download a zip file. Simply open the zip file and double click on the icon "youtubevideo2k7" This will open and start installing the plug-in. You must select "Enable macros." You do not need Curt to download anything for this step. Once it finishes, go to your powerpoint project and in the "insert" tab, there should be a "youtube video" option at the end of the row. 
**Once you have the youtube plug in, simply click it and it will walk you through the insertion process. Again, all you need is the YouTube URL and it will be inserted directly into your slide. 
*The plug-in does go away if you close powerpoint, so until this issue is resolved, put the zip file somewhere easy to find. 

2. Prezi: Prezi is much easier than powerpoint. When you are working on your prezi project, simply click the "insert" option at the top, middle. One of the options is "youtube video" so select that and then simply copy and paste the YouTube URL that you want to use. That's it!

Any questions, let me know!

YouTube is open, now what?

(Here is an example of using YouTube. I post these quick animations to relay a message, announement, or piece of information.)

YouTube is open. So now what do we do? The question is one that we must now ask and answer since the school board ordered YouTube and other streaming sites to be open. I was surprised, a little shocked, and very happy to hear about this new development. The school board is scoring some major points in my book lately with the building copy limit raised to 1,500 copies per month, and now opening YouTube. I don't know who to thank for this, surely it's not me because I'm simply a lowly teacher and what do I know? When I do find out who is responsible for opening YouTube, I shall give them a big hug. I have always thought YouTube should be open. So now that it is, what do we do? Here is a list of things to think about with the opening of YouTube: 

1. It's open, use it! It's a great resource for teaching. It is loaded with interesting, engaging, thought-provoking, meaningful videos. Remember when we had discovery education? For the most part, that was a real bore-fest. With Youtube, you can find all sorts of interesting, helpful video clips to help your kids learn. (Afterall, isn't that the point?) Type in your subject matter, content, or topic and see what you can find.

2. Strengthening the case for teacher websites. Now that Youtube is open, it is even more important to have your own website for school that is used for more than just lesson plans. With Youtube, find some good videos for what you are teaching about and post them on your website. This can be done with any website. Most of the teachers at BVMS use frontpage or blogger. With any website host, you can either provide a link or embed the video player right on the page. Students could watch these videos in school, study hall, etc. 

3. Significant increase in monitoring your students. We all know students are sneaky and clever. Whether its bullying when there's no teacher around or texting in their pocket, students are good at getting away with stuff. You must not let your students be roaming the internet freely. You must be walking around watching what they are doing. Check to see how many browsers they have open at the bottom of the screen. Check to see what tabs they have open. Constantly be watching, especially early on as the students will no doubt be excited Youtube is open and wanting to use it. In my class, whenever my students are using my netbooks, I have them turn their desk around so I can see the screens from my podium. 

4. YouTube video settings. When you find a video you like and want to use/post to your website, customize the settings to your liking. I would recommend NOT clicking the "show suggested videos when the video finishes."  When a YouTube video finishes, it always gives suggested videos related to what you just finished watching. Sometimes, this produces some videos that you wouldn't want your students to watch. Not checking the box will NOT provide the suggested videos, thus keeping the video player to only the video you want viewed. 

5. Internet Citizenship. Talk to the students about using the Internet in a safe way, appropriate way. Explain to them the risks of inappropriate use and consequences they might face. Talk to them about not taking advantage of the privilege we now all have. We wouldn't want to lose it. Make sure your students log in with their profile so if something bad is used, we can track it. Do not allow them to use "media" for the username and password. 

6. Video Projects. Are your students making a video? Are they doing a presentation you want to record? Student projects are a great thing to put on YouTube because it allows you to watch and share them easily. However, when doing this, I would recommend listing the video as "private to only those with the link." This keeps them off the public search, which I feel more comfortable with. Check to make sure students are not listed on the "no media" list and/or get permission. More about uploading and settings could be discussed at a later time. 

7. Flipped Classroom. Perhaps this is a good time to try "flipping" your classroom. Flipping the Classroom is a big undertaking but you can start small and just give a basic flip a try. Record yourself explaining a concept or teaching about a topic and post it to your website for students to view on their own. That way, they are ready to do the work when they get to your classroom. Flip: School work at home, homework at school. (It's flipped.) Having YouTube open would help this be a easy process because once again your students can now watch it at school with ease.

Final Thoughts: Enjoy having YouTube open. Think creatively and come up with ways to use it to help your students learn. It's got a lot out there, start sifting through the videos and find some stuff to help your curriculum. 

True Inspiration-Amazing Story

I came across this video on Facebook the other day and thought I would share it. It's the story of Conner and Cayden, two brothers that compete in triathlons together. However, Cayden has Cerebral Palsy, so Conner, his brother (9 years old) pulls him with his bike and then pushes him while running. They finish last in every event, but they finish, together, as brothers. It's a amazing story and truly inspiring. Every kid with a younger sibling should watch this to see what it's like to watch out for and take care of younger siblings.

A Pep Talk from Kid President

Here's a little encouragement for you from Kid President. Not sure if you have seen any of this kids' videos, but they are worth watching. Again, YouTube is blocked at school, I know, so please take the time to watch it at home. I don't post stuff not worth watching or looking at.

Another Argument for Opening the Internet

Open the Internet. I do not think the internet should be 100% open at school, however, some sites should be open. YouTube and Vimeo are two sites that need to be open and left open. The arguement for keeping YouTube closed is that kids mess around too often on YouTube. My question is: why are the kids messing around at all? Put them to work. If they want to go watch YouTube videos, find ones that help them learn about your subject. Another arguement from the anti-Youtuber's is that there are other sites like it, such as SchoolTube and TeacherTube that can be used and are open. My response: those sites are terrible. We don't want them. Give us the top dog! Give us YouTube! 
WatchKnowLearn.org is another example of a great teaching tool we are unable to use. This site provides the ability to search for videos on youtube based on subject, grade, etc. Unfortunately, we can't use it because most of the videos on this site are hosted on YouTube or Vimeo. There are ways to get YouTube videos downloaded so we can watch them in school, but that requires a lot more steps than just simply hitting  "play" on the video player.