Tag: technology in the classroom

A response to “What’s Up With That?”

Patrick CauleyLeave a comment

whats-up-with-that.jpg

IT Babble Response

This is a response to a post that Matt LaBarge wrote on his blog that was later reposted on Free Tech for Teachers. In the post Matt expresses some frustration on teachers and how they use technology in their lives, but not in their teaching. I tried to post this on Matt’s blog but was met with an error (no fault of his own, I think Blogger is still working out some problems). You can find his blog and all his fine writing here and to find the post in question click on here on its title What’s Up With That. I give a possible deeper reason why teachers are resistant to integration. I maybe right or I maybe wrong, but the only way to know for sure is to read my reply past the break and find out. Oh yeah, leave a comment while you’re at it. Omar and I love those things!

PS. That is not Matt in the picture-I don’t know what Matt looks like, but I’m sure he is a handsome fella.

Continue reading “A response to “What’s Up With That?”” →

Dipity – The review

Patrick Cauley7 Comments

In the words of Gru “Now that’s what I’m talkin a-bout.” This is easily one of the best timeline creators out there. While there are a few areas I’m iffy on, I can fully recommend this website to create timelines for your class. It is well thought out, very easy to use and gives you options on top of options that most others do not, or if they do, it is not done as well. I implore you to eagerly read on past the break to get all the Dipity goodness.

Timelines – THE REVIEWS BEGIN!

Patrick CauleyLeave a comment

So you’ve seen our new rating system that Omar and I created. If not click here. Pretty straight forward really. We are so eager to try it out that we decided to review five popular timeline creators. We know there maybe more, but these seem to be the most popular and if you think we’re missing one, leave us a comment saying which one we should add and Omar and myself will make it so. Here are the five with respective links.

Here are some things that Omar and I are looking for. Does it create an effective, easy to view timeline? Is it easy to do this? What kind of options does it offer, and just overall performance. There maybe some other items that grab our attention, but for the most part that’s what we’re looking for.

We hope our reviews will help steer teachers to the program that best helps them with their class(es) and to avoid programs that don’t work for them. Happy reading and as always, comments of all sorts are welcome.

Edmodo and WOW!

Patrick Cauley5 Comments

UPDATED: As with all good things, Edmodo has taken my guide down. Not in a malicious way mind you, it was just time to move on. I’ll be updating this guide soon, so stay tuned!

This is a short one. I recently created a guide for my Edmodo workshop that I held for teachers at my school in March. One person at the workshop was impressed with it and told me I should send it to the people of Edmodo. Well, that is what I did and low and behold I found it on the front page of their help page (help.edmodo.com). Go ahead and check out the document below. While I am a bit proud of it, the point of this document is to get more people to try Edmodo.

Creating a reusable template in Word (PC)

Patrick CauleyLeave a comment

Grading may not be the most pleasurable act involved in our honorary profession, but at least we can streamline the process and make it a little easier on you. This works for Word 2003, 2007, and most probably 2010. It will help you create a reusable rubric or check list to help you speed through those piles of projects, papers, or presentations. If you have a Mac and would like to know how to do it, click on this link for the article and this link for the video.

Blogger-How to set up your class blog – THE VIDEO!

Patrick Cauley2 Comments

Yet another video that will help you get your class blog off the ground. This video will show you exactly how easy it is to set up your blog with blogger.com. Just follow these quick steps and your class blog will be up and running. Hope you have as much fun blogging with your class that I do. Happy blogging.

Creating a reusuable rubric in Word (Mac) – THE VIDEO!

Patrick Cauley3 Comments

It’s like Christmas a little huh? Everyone was probably having difficulties sleeping and wonder when, oh when, will Patrick unveil this video. Will put away the milk and cookies because here it is kiddies. This will walk you through how to make a template in Microsoft Word 2011 (Mac). These steps will also work with Microsoft Word 2008 (Mac). The PC version is coming soon.

Creating a reusable rubric in Word 2011 (Mac)

Patrick Cauley5 Comments

Hello blog readers. If you’re a teacher who has a large number of students you probably use rubrics or checklists to assess students from time to time. Rubrics are a great way to assess students. A good rubric is not vague, concise, and gives clear expectations. However, grading with paper rubrics can be a bit tedious and wasteful. Microsoft Word (in fact just about any word processing program) has the answer. You can turn your rubric into a template. This will allow you to open up each time and it will be blank and ready to fill in. Still, I yearned for more, such as fields to enter text into, drop down menus for scores, and with Microsoft Word I can do that! Read on past the break to learn how you can make easy, effective rubrics to help you speed through grading those projects.

Continue reading “Creating a reusable rubric in Word 2011 (Mac)” →

WordPress – How to set up your class blog

Patrick Cauley14 Comments

665-wordpress-logo.jpg

OK folks, as promised here is the guide to how to set up your class blog. I won’t be hitting all the ins and outs of WordPress.com, just the basics on how to create a blog, add your students, and how to allow them or others to comment on the blog. It’ll be quick with loads of pictures, and if I have the energy (and I think I will) I’ll add a quick video. So read on past the break to get all the goodness.

Continue reading “WordPress – How to set up your class blog” →

Blogs AWAY!

Patrick Cauley1 Comment

blogs-away.jpg

Blogs are great ways for students to express themselves, share their ideas easily with the class, and students can do it anywhere at anytime (provided they have an Internet connection). On top of that, it is a great way to integrate a little English into any subject. This semester was the first time Omar and I tried it with our students and it worked pretty well. While it seems like a no brainer of why creating a class blog is beneficial; there were a lot of details that Omar and I needed to consider before creating our class blogs. Read on past the break to find out what those details were and what we discovered.

Continue reading “Blogs AWAY!” →