Make a Teacher Website
I did a tutorial on how to make a website using the program Dreamweaver for some other teachers at my school. Even if you don’t have Dreamweaver, most of the ideas are the same, and there are several good alternative website building programs (I recommend the free program KompoZer).
Here are videos of my tutorial:
If you want to do it this way, you will also need someplace to put your website so that your students, their parents, and others can view it. If your school has a web server, you can talk to whoever is in charge of it to see if they will host your website. If not, you will have to find another web host. Most of them you do have to pay for, but some are free.
If all of this seems just too overwhelming for you, give Google Sites a try. It’s free, very easy to create and edit, and you don’t even have to know how to do any of the (HTML) stuff I mention in my tutorial or even need an extra program.
Twitter for Professional Development
Twitter is a “microblogging” platform, meaning that it’s users post brief messages for all to see. The advantage is that you can “follow” all of your friends and you get all of their posted messages listed on one page. Because the messages are all short (less than 140 characters), the message page is a way to get a quick overview of a lot of information without it becoming overwhelming.
In addition to your friends, a lot of companies and organizations post information on twitter, and that is where we as teachers can take advantage of it. If you “follow” the appropriate organizations, Twitter can serve as a nice personalized professional development newspaper. You can use the things that you read to give you ideas for your classroom, or just to keep up with current events in education. Here are some examples of some organizations that you can follow:
- Microsoft Education Labs (http://twitter.com/Microsoft_EDU)
- National Science Teacher’s Association (http://twitter.com/NSTA)
- NIH Office of Science Education (http://twitter.com/NIHSciEd)
- Free Federal Education Resources (http://twitter.com/FreeResources)
- National Science Foundation (http://twitter.com/NSF)
- Education Development Center (http://twitter.com/EDCtweets)
- Education Week (http://twitter.com/educationweek)
For more ideas, see which people your favorite twitters follow, and follow them, too! Or check out this site: WeFollow. If you want to take it to the next level, you could even use Twitter to post your homework, facilitate out-of-class discussions, and more.
Save YouTube Videos and Website Screenshots
At our school, as it probably is at many schools, YouTube is blocked. So what do you do if you want to show a video that you found on YouTube in class? Well, there are lots of options, but the most straighforward is to save that video to a file on your computer so you can watch it any time (or anywhere) you want. Even more generally, what if you want to show a webpage that you can’t access at school, or embed a picture of that webpage into a Powerpoint? Again, you can save a screenshot of that webpage to a file on your computer. But how?
This is where my handy dandy bookmarklets come into play. A bookmarklet is like a regular web bookmark, except that it has a little program written into it (in the web programming language called JavaScript) to do various tasks. You don’t need to install anything. Here are the two bookmarklets:
Don’t just click them! Remember, these are not ordinary bookmarks, they are little programs written in a language that your web browser understands. Here’s how to use them:
- Use your mouse to drag the above bookmarklet links to your web browser’s bookmarks.
- Go to the YouTube page that has the video you want.
- Click on the “Download YouTube Video” bookmarklet in your browser’s bookmarks.
- A box should pop up asking you to save the video!
The “Save Webpage Screenshot” is similar, except it takes you to another website (called Aviary) that captures a screenshot of the website you’re currently on and allows you to do some simple editing before you save it to your desktop computer.
By the way, the YouTube video that you save will be in a particular video format (called H.264 MP4). This is pretty much the standard computer video format these days. It’s compatible with iPods, PSPs, and more. If you’re on a Mac, Quicktime should be able to play these video files. If you’re on a PC, either install Quicktime or the awesome VLC video player in order to play them.
Grading Concurrent Classes Efficiency Tip
Grading sucks. I would much rather be teaching than grading, but it is a necessary part of the assessment part of our practice.
This tip is very specific, but I suppose the idea could be used in other grading programs. Our school uses PowerSchool for a student information system, and the teachers use PowerTeacher Gradebook for their grades. In addition, I have some concurrent-enrollment classes in which the students are technically in different classes, but all together with me during the same period. For example, Chemistry and Honors Chemistry are a combined class with me during period 3. They both have the same base curriculum and assignments, but the honors kids have some more honors-specific assignments, too.
There are certainly pedagogical concerns with this setup, which in my opinion are outweighed by the benefit of diversity in the classroom, but that’s where differentiated instruction techniques come into play (which is not what this post is about, btw).
The less-interesting, but equally-frustrating issue with concurrent enrollment and overlapping assignments is grading efficiency. Since they are different classes in the gradebook, but the homework assignments overlap, the manual process of entering in grades to the gradebook (in my case PowerTeacher gradebook) for one of those overlapping assignments is very time consuming. You have to constantly switch back and forth between classes in the grading program as you’re also flipping through the paper homework assignments.
One thing that I’ve found to ease the process is to actually have two gradebook windows open at the same time (in PowerTeacher Gradebook, type Ctrl-N to open up a new window). Close all other non-gradebook windows. Then, right-click in the Windows taskbar, choose “Tile Windows Vertically” so you can see both at the same time (you can also tile horizontally if you prefer) . Set one to Chemistry and the other to Honors Chemistry, for example. Finally, minimize any parts of the windows that you are not using at the time (like groups, assignment details, and etc.) This makes entering your grades for a given assignment much faster.
For you Easy Grade Pro users, you should also get to know your keyboard shortcuts. There’s a shortcut to quickly change between classes (can’t remember exactly, but I think it was something like Ctrl-F9 and Ctrl-F10). Taking a few moments to learn these keyboard shortcuts can save your hours of time in the long run.
Finally, yes, I know there are low-tech solutions to this problem. For example, have the honors and regular students turn in their assignments to separate bins, even if it’s the same assignment. However, that solution makes the class seem more apparently “tracked” to the students. So, I personally decided to avoid it.
Lock Your Computer Screen Quickly
You don’t want random students sneaking up to your computer and changing their grades, playing computer practical jokes on you, or even worse: accidentally seeing confidential information about another student. So, you really should lock your computer screen anytime you walk away from it, even if it’s just for a few seconds. Let’s face it, though, if it’s too much effort, you’re not going to do it. So here’s how to do it quickly:
- Windows: hold down the windows key + L
- Mac OSX: not quite as easy, but still doable. See these instructions.
Embed Frequently-Accessed Info on Your Wallpaper
All of the useful things that people do with their real desktops are still useful on your computer’s desktop. For example, some people use a desk calendar so they can quickly check dates. Personally, I’m always checking my calendar to plan due dates for student projects or to adjust my unit plans for re-teaching of concepts. Also, teachers often post the bell schedule on their classroom walls (I also kept a copy taped to my desk), but you’re not always in your classroom. Something that you use so frequently should really be easily and quickly accessible.
So, why not add the calendar and bell schedule to your computer’s desktop wallpaper? There are a lot of programs that you can download (desktop widgets) that will embed calendars on your desktop, but they use up computer memory and are often not as customizable as you’d like.
Let’s make this a lot simpler. Just use an image editor and overlay text on top of your favorite wallpaper with the bell schedule. Save the file and set it as your background.
For the calendar (which changes every month), you want to be able to update it monthly. I found this website, Big Huge Labs, that will add a calendar to your image and let you save the resulting image.
After you’ve set the image as your desktop wallpaper, whenever you want to quickly check the calendar or bell schedule, just show your desktop (on Windows, use the keyboard shortcut: Windows-key + D) and there it is! Here’s my current wallpaper:
My desktop wallpaper on my school computer has the schedule and calendar embedded
Organize and Access Your Lesson Plans Anywhere
Have you ever written and taught a great lesson plan, only to lose it by the following year? Or perhaps you wrote it in a Word document on your home computer and forgot to bring the file to school with you on the day of the lesson? Or maybe you’re stuck at the in-laws for the weekend, but you need to update your lessons for next week and you forgot your laptop?
One possible solution is to sync your written lesson plans to the “cloud”, which is the cool kids’ way of saying the Internet. That way, you can access your lesson plans from anywhere you have Internet access. A big plus is that this doubles as online backup of your files, too. So how can we do this? Well, there are quite a few options, but I’ll mention a few here.
Taskstream ($49/yr or cheaper for multi-year subscriptions)
Taskstream is a web service that is designed specifically for educators to solve our exact dilemma. You can develop lessons, insert standards into those lessons, organize the lessons into cohesive units, share and copy lessons from others, attach files, develop rubrics, and even download an archive of all your work as a local backup. The interface is simple and intuitive. It’s not free, but for what it does it’s a very nice solution. I’m guessing you could use the teacher tax deduction and claim this as a classroom software expense, though. My teacher intern program provided a free license for me to taskstream, and I found it to be such a useful tool that I was really sad when I had completed the intern program and that license expired.
Dropbox or Skydrive (free)
If you prefer to write your lesson plans in Microsoft Word or something similar, then you can still make those files web-accessible. Skydrive is 25Gb of free online storage. So you just upload your lesson plan files to Skydrive and you can download them from anywhere. Dropbox only offers 2Gb, but has the added benefit of automatic syncing. In other words, if you change one of your lesson plans on your home computer, that change is automatically synced to the cloud (the Internet) as well as any other computers that you have Dropbox installed on (like your school computer). Both services allow you to share any of those files with others. For example, if you need to send your sub the day’s lesson plans, you can just email them the link you the appropriate file in Dropbox or Skydrive. Really, unless you’re including videos, 2Gb is plenty of storage for both lesson plans and associated files for most people; so, Dropbox is my preferred choice.
Evernote (free, with paid upgrades for more storage)
Evernote is a web service that also has desktop and mobile clients (Windows, Mac, iPhone, Blackberry, etc). It is meant to be a universal receptacle for all of your notes, including pictures, web links, and even files. However, we teachers can turn this around to make it be our universal receptacle for our lesson plans. You can organize these notes (lesson plans) into virtual folders, give them searchable tags, embed images and files, and much more. The best part is that Evernote indexes all of your notes so that they are easily searchable (it even searches text contained in images and does handwriting recognition)! If you have handwritten lesson plans, you can scan them in and Evernote will allow you to search for words in your handwriting. You can share notes with others (like a sub), too. I’ve just started using Evernote, but so far I really like the features. The desktop and mobile program versions sync with the cloud so your notes are accessible from anywhere. Rather than a total storage limit, the free version of Evernote limits you to 40 Mb of uploads per month.
Screenshot of the Windows Evernote program.
Zoom!
Intellimouse software zooming
A lot of students don’t like to admit that they can’t see the board. Some don’t want to look dorky by wearing their glasses, while others just don’t care enough about seeing the board to bother. Eventually you can figure out who is who and seat them accordingly (not to mention mandatory school vision testing).
On the board, you can also just write bigger (which is what most teachers learn to do, anyway), but what if you’re using a computer and projector? Zoom the screen! This is particularly useful when you want to show the class how to do something on the computer or just zoom in on a particular sentence on a website.
- On Windows, there is a built-in magnifier (under Programs -> Accessories -> Accessibility) which will work just fine, but I prefer to use the zoom feature of Microsoft’s free Intellipoint mouse software. The latter acts more like an actual magnifying glass, and allows you to easily change the size and dimensions of the magnifier.
- On Macs, hold command-option-8 to activate the built-in magnifier, then command-option-+ and – to zoom in and out. I haven’t actually tried this because I don’t use a Mac, but I’ve seen it and it looks pretty good.
- For any computer (including Windows and Mac), you can give the free & open-source program Virtual Magnifying Glass a try.
Do Everything Online
As we know, teachers are not the most highly-paid professionals. So, getting stuff for free is good. Teachers also don’t have a lot of time to install and try out every computer program they might need. So, using stuff you don’t have to set up yourself is even better. The good: Free programs have been around for a long time, and the Internet has made them easy to get. The better: In the last few years, a lot of alternatives have been popping up online. You don’t even have to install them, they run right from your web browser. This means you can use these on school computers, where the installation of random programs is usually restricted (and you often have to go through a lot of red tape to get something you want installed). You can also recommend these to students who otherwise would pirate software because they can’t afford it either. Here are a few suggestions:
Instead of Photoshop
- Sumo Paint. Sumo Paint looks almost exactly like Photoshop, and requires no sign-up.
- Photoshop Express. Photoshop Express is also by Adobe, and offers all of the basic photo-fixing features that most users need, including 2Gb of free online storage.
Instead of Word, Excel, Powerpoint
- Google Docs has most of the basic features of Word, Powerpoint, and Excel, plus even more, including collaboration. You can save your docs online, pull them up on any computer, and even publish them as web pages… all for free. I’m planning on a whole post on Google Docs, but let’s just say it’s awesome for now and leave it at that.
Instead of Inspiration
- Mindmeister. Mind mapping software Inspiration is awesome, but in addition to being free and install-less, these online versions have one big advantage: online collaboration.
- Mind42. This is of course the answer to everything (42).
Instead of Adobe Premiere, FinalCut, Movie Maker, iMovie
- JayCut. Believe it or not, you can even edit and create videos online. JayCut has all the basics of full video editing.
- Animoto. Animoto can turn a bunch of photos into a 30-second music video. Its not a full video editor, but is a cool way to document a school event if you only have pictures.
Instead of a Thumbdrive
- SkyDrive. Are you always e-mailing your files to yourself just so you can have a copy that you can access from anywhere? There are now a lot of online storage alternatives. Microsoft’s own Windows Live SkyDrive allows you to store 25Gb of you files, photos, and etc., online for free. You can then access them from anywhere and even share them with others. This is also great for students who don’t have thumbdrives.
- DropBox is super easy to use, but is limited to 2Gb online storage and has an installed utility (for Windows, Mac, and Linux). I’ll describe DropBox in a future post because it’s just that good.
Instead of Paperbacks
- Project Gutenberg. Many times in English class, you’re reading the classics, which have long since been out of copyright. That means they are free, as in free speech. Project Gutenberg and Google have also made these works free, as in free beer. You can download electronic copies of Huckleberry Finn, Hamlet, the Odyssey, and many, many more. Even if you don’t want to use these to replace physical novels for your students, it saves you the trouble of transcribing or scanning if you want to include a passage on a test or quiz.
- Google Book Search. Similar to Project Gutenberg, but also allows online viewing directly in your web browser, and has the original scanned pages.
Instead of Textbooks
- Wikibooks, These may not really replace actual textbooks completely, but they do provide great supplemental references that are easily searchable. You can link topics on a web page and assign it as homework reading, for example. In addition, some publishers provide online-accessible versions of some of their out-of-print books; check the publisher’s website.
- Wikiversity. Similar to WikiBooks, but presented in a different manner.
Easy Scheduling
You want to collaborate with your fellow teachers, but it’s sometimes a pain in the butt to coordinate a meeting time. Or maybe you’re trying to decide on when to have that Spring Extravaganza. Rather than sending 5000 emails back and forth between all of the participants to make the decision (Can everyone meet at this time? No? How about this time? etc.), Doodle.com makes it easy. It’s free, and there are no sign-ups.
- Go to Doodle.com and create a poll for the meeting.
- Email the poll link to the participants.
- Participants click on the link, enter their names, and check off which days/times they are available.
- You pick the best time.
I did this recently to schedule a collaboration meeting with the other Sophomore teachers, and it worked out very well. As you can see, we picked May 1 for the meeting time.
