This week we focused on the Finder. There was some overlap/repeated information from last weeks session but also covered some new material. We looked at the sidebar, toolbar, sorting items, finding the pathway to a folder/file, airdrop, connecting to the server, Finder preferences, and customizing your Finder.  Below is the handout that went with the session and under this a color or black and white copy of the file to download.

Staying organized on your laptop allows you to work more efficiently. There are many tricks that the Mac has to offer to allow you to create an organization system that can work for you. In this short session, we look at the the finder and ways you can modify what you see. We created folders, added colors, arranged them in different ways and looked at the variety of viewing options. We added items to the sidebar for quick access and used the spacebar to quickly view a document or folder. For those teachers who love to use their desktop we learned how to create an alias on our desktop as a shortcut. See the attached document for a description of the tips and tricks that were offered in this session.

On March 15, we are presenting at CEESA on how teachers can use Evernote to document student learning. This post is a summary of what we are doing and a collection of the documents we are using.

Description
Learn how to use Evernote to create digital student portfolios. See how you can use this powerful tool to document and organise evidence of student learning for each of your students. You will learn Evernote basics, how to organise notebooks for individual students, how to add different types of media to notes, and how Evernote works seamlessly with Skitch and other iPad apps. After this session, you will be prepared to implement a system for student portfolios.

Agenda

• Introduction and Overview
  
• What is Evernote?
  
• Basic information and resources
  
• Evernote environment - notebooks and notes
  
• Look at sample class
  
• Demonstration on adding various types of evidence

Resources

Evernote Website: http://evernote.com

Free download for computer and tablets: http://evernote.com/evernote/#

Evernote Getting Started (Mac) -- drop down menu for other options: 
http://evernote.com/evernote/guide/mac/

Our first Parent Tech Meeting of the year was held on October 29th. The focus of our discussion was Internet Safety with Elementary Aged Children. There was a brief overview of what we are doing at ASW to teach the students ways to be safe online and then we discussed ways parents can keep this conversation going at home with their children. 

We looked at some tips for keeping children safe online and how important it is to talk with their children about their expectations for online use at home. We then walked the parents through two excellent online resources, Common Sense Media and NetSmartz. These two sites provide a great deal of information about online safety as well as reviews for movies, apps, web sites, and TV shows. 

A great discussion was sparked when parents began sharing their fears, concerns, and situations they are experiencing with their own children. They began to see that they are not alone and they all struggle with similar issues. But they also began to realize that it is important to take an active roll at home when it comes to monitoring their children's computer and internet use outside of school. And that first steps include sitting down and having discussions with their kids about what they do technology and what is appropriate and not appropriate at their age and why.

Below is the handout presented at the meeting. You can click to download the document below.

Back in November we held our second Parent Tech Meeting. The topic of discussion was how the parents could use their iPads to promote creativity and critical thinking in their children and not just as a device to plug them into to consume videos and play games. 

We provided iPads  for the parents and also encouraged parents to bring their own iPads to the meeting so we could introduce them to a number of different creativity and critical thinking Apps and give them time to play and experiment with the apps. 

For Creativity we introduced Drawing Pad, Pic Collage, and Book Creator and for Design/Critical Thinking Apps we pointed them towards Bubble Ball, Cargo Bot, Hopscotch, and Minecraft. 

Lots of good discussion and ideas were generated by parents surrounded by these apps. You could see the lightbulbs going off in their heads and smiles come to their faces as they realized how their iPads could be used to get their children to create and think critically as opposed to just consuming content.

Below is the handout presenting different creativity and critical thinking apps we use at ASW that would be useful to parents to have on their personal iPads. At the bottom you can click the link to download the document.

Our Grade 2 students are using VoiceThread to build Reading Portfolio and a Writing Portfolio to document their progress throughout the year. Students used the iPad to create and add to their Voicethread Portfolios. However, they could also use the laptops.

Writing Portolio
At the end of each writing unit the students prepare a final writing piece and draw a picture to represent the piece. Students then add a slide to the writing portfolio voicethread, take a picture of their drawing then add a voice comment to the slide where they narrate their writing piece.  At the end of the year each student will have a nice portfolio of all their final writing pieces. The teachers have also embedded each student writing portfolio into their blog/weebly so parents can then view and listen to each of the writing pieces created by their child. 

Reading Portfolio
At the beginning of the year each student picked a book for the reading level at that time. They took a picture of the cover of the book and added it as a slide to their reading portfolio voicethread. The students then record a voice comment on the slide where they read the book or a sample from the book, usually about two minutes of reading. Whenever a student moves up a reading level they choose a book from the level they are leaving and creates a new slide on the reading portfolio once again taking a picture of the cover and recording a 2 min reading sample from the book. This is an excellent way to document the students reading progress and can be continued from one year to the next. The teachers have also embedded each student reading portfolio into their blog/weebly so parents can then listen to the progress their child has made from one reading level to the next and so on. 


Below are samples of a writing and a reading portfolio.

This week's Tech Tips focused on Google Calendar basics. Google Calendars super easy to use and a great way to organize your work and personal live. As a Google Apps EDU school google calendars are being used more and more through out the school and its important to know how to view, navigate, create and use Google Calendars effectively and efficiently.

We started by distinguishing the difference between calendars in "My Calendars" and "Other Calendars", how to actively view/hide, and color code calendars. We looked at calendar settings such as notifications, reminders, and sharing. And we also looked at creating an event and highlighted the need to specify the time and the calendar the event is to go on as well as how to invite guests to attend the event.

Some ways you can use Google Calendar are:
     • Team Calendar
     • Class Events Calendar that can be embedded into your Weebly/Blog
     • Homework Calendar that can be embedded into your Weebly/Blog
     • Sign-up/Reserve shared resources.

Below are some useful shared calendars you should be able to view. If you cannot see these calendars, copy/paste the address provided into the Other Calendars area and press enter. The calendar will pop up on your calendar space and be added to your list.

ASW Elementary 2014-14 (other calendars) aswarsaw.org_aadas0hiiqe64ddd9oe5le283o@group.calendar.google.com
All School (other calendars) - aswarsaw.org_t48qd1tnu9f057mgeqgp627sg8@group.calendar.google.com
Craig Belshe (other calendars) - CBelshe@aswarsaw.org
ES Tech Tips (other calendars) - aswarsaw.org_7f5p1338j1k9388d55a4jbn8ko@group.calendar.google.com
Bruce Roadside (other calendars) - broadside@aswarsaw.org
Kris Sheehan (other calendars) - ksheehan@aswarsaw.org
iPad Cart (22) (my calendars) - contact Kris or Bruce to share this calendar with you
ES Computer lab (my calendars) - contact Kris or Bruce to share this calendar with you

Below is a copy of the hand out to view or download.