Zooming Settings on Chromebook Deconstructed

Has your Chromebook screen magnified to the point where you no longer see the menu in the lower right hand corner? And it is difficult to use the computer?

No fear! The accessibility settings are probably set to Zoom the screen. This CAN be fixed.  

NOTE: The zoom setting will be enabled wherever the account is logged in (on a chromebook). Therefore, if a student has the zoom setting turned on in their Google account, the zoom setting will be enabled wherever they sign on (Chromebook with the same Google account). Therefore, the student will need to log in and turn off the zoom setting. 

1. Using the Chromebook track pad, scroll the screen contents down and to the right until you see the menu in the lower right corner of the screen. Warning: this will be the most frustrating part about the process as it's difficult to maneuver. It may take you a few tries to do this.
   
   
2. Then, click on the profile picture or icon in the lower menu. Click on the Accessibility label/arrow.  It will have a little hand next to it.
   
   
3. Uncheck the Zoom setting and any other setting you do not wish to have turned on.
   
   
4. The computer should no longer have the zoomed screen at this point.

How To Make Google Mail Your Default Mail Program (or How To Stop Mac Mail From Opening When You Click an Email Address)

Many of the high school staff at our district have switched from using the Mac Mail.app program on their computers to using their web browsers to access their district email. In fact, the BASD ISD Department is urging all staff to move to this way of accessing their school email.

However, I ran into a couple of teachers this morning that said it was really inconvenient when they click on an email address to email someone and it opens up the Mac Mail program instead (when they are using Google Mail in the browser). Does that sound familiar?

Here is how to change it so that your email opens up in the browser instead!

1) Open up the Mail.app program on your computer.
2) Click on the Mail Menu > Preferences. You should go right to the General tab in Preferences.
3) Where it says, Default Email Reader, it probably shows Mail. See below.

4) Click on the drop down and select Google Chrome in the drop down (or Firefox, although Chrome is recommended) to be the new Default Email Reader.
5) NOTE: if Google Chrome does not appear as a choice, click on the Select... choice at the bottom and search for Google Chrome in the next window. Then click on the Select button.

6) Now, Google Chrome (or Firefox) should appear as the Default email reader.

7) Quit the Mail.app program. When you click on a link like this: ezundel@basdschools.org, it should open up your Google Mail in the browser you chose.

Hope this helps!

Becoming Connected Is Personal and a Challenge. Please Make It FUN!

Wow. We just finished our first Twitter Challenge (#BASDChallenge) in my district and all I have to say is: gamification in professional learning can motivate teachers!

Connecting is Personal

Becoming a Connected Educator is a highly personal journey. Over the past year, I have been trying to gather interest in creating PLNs and PLCs in the high schools that I support. I have had a few die hard teachers attend my trainings and participate in Connected Educator Month. Connecting teachers together can transform your school. But until they experience it for themselves, it is a really abstract concept and frightening. When I tried to help teacher "set goals" about how PLNs to could help them grow professionally I got mixed stares. It was as if they were thinking, "Ok, this WAS fun! Please don't ruin it with goals!" I've heard PLN spelled out as Personal Learning Network or Professional Learning Network. After working with teachers, I am going to stick with Personal Learning Network.

Teachers Have to Be Learners First

Like Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach has often said, teachers have to be learners first in order to recharge and evolve as educators. I have found there is an a-ha moment with Twitter once the person understands the parameters of the tool and THEN connects with other educators. But until then, baby steps. We need to walk (tweet) before we can run (a Twitter chat).

Make It Fun!

My training is normally well received by teachers at my district. I make all of my trainings to be available online (synchronously or asynchronously) or in person. I'd say most of the teachers opt for the online training as their lives are so full and busy. The last training was completely online as teachers took part in a 15 Day Twitter Challenge. It was a hit! While we had roughly 40 teachers participate across the district, I would receive inquiries on joining it due to an excited colleague that was participating. Before we started, I informed teachers they would be recognized and have a chance at a prize if they participated in each of the tasks. Some teachers asked if they were still receiving recognition because they couldn't complete one of the tasks on time. And some teachers even taunted each other on Twitter because THEY wanted to win the prize at the end. I wondered if the gamification would turn teachers off. Well, it looks like the pilot was a success so I am investigating how to gamify my other trainings for next school year.

I didn't invent the Twitter Challenge - read about how do your own here!

Thanks for making the #BASDchallenge so enjoyable! #FF @ezundel @therealgnolf @LisaGilliard22 @KathyCorpora @MrsGreenGifted

— Carole Schachter (@cschachter) March 18, 2016

Our Goals, Your Goals

I never planned on fostering so Connected Educator activities at once. But it's timely as we are seeing the flowers bloom and the temperatures rise.  Being connected using social media makes it so apparent that we have many teachers blooming with ideas in our district.

The first ever Twitter Challenge (#BASDChallenge) is in full swing.  It's only Day 8 out of 15 so you have time to get started and get in on the awesome collaboration taking place!  Each participant who completes the 15 tasks (daily) will be recognized in both a digital and analog format AND will be entered to win a prize!

Some example tweets on the #BASDChallenge so far from the high schools:

@ezundel Read it. Loved it. #BASDChallenge is definitely the right kind of step to help promote self efficacy in our teachers.

— Anthony Markovich (@LHSMarkovich) March 13, 2016

#BASDChallenge My students use Google docs frequently, and I love new features. Check it out. https://t.co/E4Oo1AaijM

— Linda Jolly (@LjollyLinda) March 13, 2016

Check out the Twitter Challenge list on bit.ly/basdchallenge if you want to join in the fun!


In the Connected Educator Book Club, we are reading is The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Lani Ritter Hall. We laid the ground rules (and future dates) and talked about goals at our first meeting last week.


Some of the stated goal from our first meeting were:

To help students to understand how making the right connections will benefit them.
To make connections with other teachers/thought leaders to grow professionally.
To connect with other teachers in the same discipline across the district and the world to curate resources and wisdom.
To connect with others to position myself better as an educator.

Do any of these goals resonate with you? Check us out - connect with me and I'll fill you in. It's not too late to join the club!


Future Meeting Dates for the LHS Connected Educator Book Club:

• March 29 - 3:30-5:30 - LHS Library or online via Google Hangout
• April 26 - 3:30-5:30  - LHS Library or online via Google Hangout
• May 31 - 3:30-5:30 - LHS Library or online via Google Hangout

The FHS chapter will have their first meeting this Wednesday at 3:45-4:45PM in the FHS Library.

True Confessions of a Connected (Math) Teacher

I had the opportunity to connect with another Connected Educator, Mark James (@mdjames67), at the Pennsylvania Educational Technology Expo & Conference in  2015. He gave a session on using Google Apps with Math. What struck me the most about Mark was not the math instruction techniques or cool tools. I was impressed and extremely interested in the other math teachers he mentioned during the presentation.  One that figured prominently was Dan Meir. Look him up if you don't follow him. He was a Math teacher, now the Chief Academic Officer of Desmos.

Educators are trying their best to do one main thing: Help Kids Learn™. We each take a different role whether it be that of a classroom teacher, an administrator that keeps the school running smoothly or an educational coach that helps teachers get better at this one thing. We are part of a team.

Connecting to other educators that are doing things differently or better is one of the most important thing a teacher can do. While their classroom is their domain, it is a challenge to maintain the stamina of Help(ing) Kids Learn™ in a vacuum.

Yesterday, Mark came to one of my high schools to talk about how he has made connections through Twitter to help him through discouragement and this amazing time where there is so much to play with but so little time.

Using Angela Watson's blog post to guide the presentation (and a really cool demo of Pear Deck!), he walked us through the top 4 reasons why educators do not connect (but how they can overcome them).

1. I don’t want to spend my free time thinking about school. (But do you have time to think about what made you excited about teaching in the first place?)
2. I don’t think it’s necessary/I didn’t know I needed a PLC. (The way to breathe new life into your teaching is to tap into your inner motivation and connect with the things, people, and ideas that matter to you). Yeah, I quoted that from Angela Watson but it was so good that I had to include it.
3. I don’t have time. (How much time do we spend on things that are time wasters? Why not make your job easier by connecting for a few minutes instead?)
4. I don’t know how. (No worries, the Twitter Educator community has your back.  If not, Jerry Blumengarten, self-appointed Cybrarian).

Interested in Mark's talk? 

We have a recording of the first session here. Please check it out but please pardon our sweatshirts and sweatpants as we had PD from home on a snow day!

Interested in getting Connected or learning more about it? 

Well, we can help you with this! 

• On March 1 (Liberty High School) and 2 (Freedom High School) I will be hosting Growing Professionally with Twitter workshops. These can be completed online as well.
• On March 7, we will begin a 15 Day Twitter Challenge (including our own #BASDChallenge Twitter Chat)! 
• On March 8, we will have our first Connected Educator Book Club Meeting. Our first book will be Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach's The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age. We'll set the parameters for the club and the first 8 lucky people will get a book on loan to use during the book club.

For Bethlehem Area School District teachers, please sign up on CPE Tracker for these sessions. If you are from outside the district but are interested, please contact me if any of these topics interest you! 

GAFE (weekly)

• Music - Technology Resources for Teachers

  tags: music gafe

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Snowy Day Professional Development

If you live or were visiting the East Coast of the United States on January 23, 2016, you were caught in a historic snow storm that crippled transportation, closed schools and provided enough snow for kids to play with for days and days.

I had planned a special Connected Educator event at one of the schools where I work entitled, "True Confessions of a Connected Educator". I asked Mark James, a Broughal Math teacher, to share his experiences of being a connected teacher as has been featured on the Connected Educator website in the past (www.connectededucators.org) . We were scheduled to have the event in person at Liberty High School and online three days after the storm. Since our district's schools were closed on the day Mark was to speak, it was evident that we'd have to cancel the in person event.

However, meeting online from the comfort of our own homes was still possible so we decided to hold the event online.  We used Google Hangouts -- it was a blast! Five Bethlehem Area School District staff gathered online to learn on a snow day!  Two classroom teachers, one counselor, one administrator and one Tech Integration Specialist were in attendance.

In many ways this was not remarkable at all. Thousands of teachers have access to PD anytime and anywhere each day as they use social media tools to connect to one another. However, it was noteworthy in that our school district has not had many professional development events occur on a snow day!

We have rescheduled Mark to come to Liberty High School in person on February 24, 2016 from 3:45-4:45PM.   I'm crossing my fingers that we do not have any more snow, but know that we can always meet again online if the circumstance allows!

GAFE (weekly)

• Google Classroom Cheat Sheet - Google Slides

  Google Classroom Cheat Sheet #hyperdoc #tosachat #gafe #gafesummit #cuerockstar @TsGiveTs https://t.co/szEJmRJTZQ https://t.co/HKJQuhTgLp

  tags: hyperdoc tosachat gafe gafesummit cuerockstar

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Formative Assessment with Socrative

There are numerous free, online formative assessment tools available to teachers to use today. Most of them require each student to have a device, some require students to download an app and some work better with Google Apps. Through a few blog posts here, I hope to both give you the good, the bad and the reality. Hearing how other teachers are using tools in their classroom provides some "realism" to the hype about a tool.

Mr. Michael Gori, an English teacher at Liberty High School, has been using Socrative since the 2014-2015 school year. Teachers can create a free class account where they can create online quizzes (multiple choice, short answer, true/false) exit-ticket and more. The quizzes can be saved for reuse or even shared with other teachers who are also using Socrative.

The tool can be used in various ways. It can be teacher-paced for the purposes of a large group review, student-based where students receive immediate feedback (but they must answer questions in order) or student-based where students can skip to the next question and return later. The latter scenario is great when using the tool to give small quizzes.  Student names and feedback can be turned off while question and answer order can be randomized.

According to Mike Gori, the reporting features are one of the reasons he finds the tool useful for his classroom. When giving a student-based activity, the teacher has access to a live dashboard to review student answers. The color coded look helps teachers scan correct and wrong answers. In addition, the class percentages help the teacher spot problem questions or areas where reteaching is needed.

Sample Live Results Dashboard during a Quiz

Specifically, Gori says that using a tool like Socrative can help teachers give feedback to students to help them know what it is that they don't know so they can focus attention those problem areas. Earlier this school year, he used Socrative to assess their knowledge about characters of a play. Students received feedback on whether they needed to reread some of the material in order to be ready for the rest of the subsequent lessons.

Features that make Socrative stand out

• Integration with Google Apps. Students can use Google to sign in. Teachers can link their Google Drive to the Socrative site so they can export class reports directly to their Google Drive. 
• Report options. Teachers have the ability to create PDF reports for individual student progress, whole classroom results to Excel or Google Drive, and PDF report of each question's statistics.
• Space Race game. Teachers can gamify their quizzes to use with the Space Race tool to make a competition within their classroom.

The details

• Is there an app? There is a teacher app and a student app for both Android and iPhone.
• Does every student need a device?  All students should use their own device. Teams could be formed if you do not have devices for each student. Mobile devices work with the website. 
• Do the students need to create an account to use it? No. But they may sign in with Google. When students sign in, you can keep track of student past performances.
• Can content be shared with other teachers? Yes!  No need to reinvent the wheel if you want to share an activity with a colleague also using Socrative.

Common Sense Graphite has a detailed review of Socrative as well. Check it out here!

By Any Means Necessary

I participated in Connected Educator Month pretty heavily in 2015 since it spoke to one of my central missions/visions as a Technology Integration Specialist: I want to empower educators to take charge of their professional learning by using social media (really, any means necessary...).

After Connected Educator Month was over, I met with teachers who participated from one of my high schools to do a debriefing session.  Here is the agenda from that meeting.

The level of participation varied among attendees at this session. Some came to learn more about what a Connected Educator is. Others were rock-stars rocking the PLN world with social media (such as @therealgnolf ) What participants had in common was the desire to learn how others were using social media to find educational resources and make connections with other educators.

Here were some of their a-ha moments from the session:

Created with Padlet

What I found interesting during this session was the emphasis on the visual tools that teachers were looking at (instead of the usual tools such as Twitter). While I would highly recommend Twitter for teachers getting started, it's important to note that there million tools that could be used to connect with other teachers that venture outside the format of a 140 character message.

Pinterest was discussed at length.  While I used Pinterest to plan my wedding two years ago and currently use it to store great recipes or pictures of cute hair cuts for my stylist, I could definitely see why it was popular among the teachers at my school. Pinterest and flickr are great tools for creating digital portfolios.

One of the Connected Educator activities in the Starter Kit was to use Digital Storytelling to express a point of view. This also drew a bit of interest and is made easy with our access to Google Apps (and Youtube.com Editor tool).

Did you participate? What were your big a-ha moments? Please share on this #ce15 padlet wall.