See Our 'Ocean Stories'

This is the link to my ESL General Science classes' podcasts of their stories about the ocean. I had the students watch a Bill Nye video on ocean life, make a bubble map for the story, write the story on a Dana handheld, and then read it into Garageband for the podcast. It was a lot of fun.

http://eslstudentsspeakout.info OR the same link 'in-District':

http://cmweb.pvschools.net/pvhsweb/pvhspodcasters/pvhspodcastergerdin/ESSO


Enjoy.

Distribution List from pDAT My Roster

Karl from PHS asked the question,

"Is it possible to import student emails from pDAT into pvlearners.net?"

Answer: Not directly.  But, here's what I would do.

In pDAT under My Roster, select all the information, copy it and paste it into a spreadsheet.  Then, select the email addresses from the column in the spreadsheet, go into pvlearners, add a new distribution list from the Contacts area of the eMail application, and paste all the email addresses into a new list.  Presto, you have one distribution list for all the students in all of your classes.

Now, for MS and HS application, where you probably want a distribution list by class period, it's a little bit trickier (we really need to get a class list roster by period in pDAT - I'll work on that).  For this type of application, well, I would have each of your first period students email a GenYes student (nice little project), their email address.  The GenYes student compiles a spreadsheet for you of each period with the student's email accounts.  Once completed, the GenYes student emails the teacher the spreadsheet, and you can compile the distribution lists.  You might want to make a shared doc with the email addresses, for your students to also use the distribution lists - just make the shared doc only viewable to students of pvlearners.net, not the entire world.  Make sense?  Not perfect, but a nice GenYes project to help the integration of technology into the learning environment.

In the meantime, I'll work on getting the class period as one of the fields in pDAT, so that when you copy and paste from My Roster, things are already broken up by period.

Google Notebooks

I followed the thread in the blog for Google for educators and began playing with Google notebooks. You have to download the app. using a gmail account. It looks like a REALLY cool way to have kids collaborate on line.

I ran into a couple of issues. If anyone knows the answers please post here or email me at kjohnson@pvlearners.net.

#1 To get the app for Google Notebook I had to use a gmail account. My pvlearners.net didn't seem to work. Was I using the wrong password?
#2 Using my personal gmail account I can access the Google Notebook app just fine, but I certainly don't want to be using that account to communicate with students, so that puts me back at issue #1. Is my pvlearners.net usuable in the same way as my gmail account?

Anyone else out there playing with Google Notebook?

Do kids using pvlearners.net have to have a separate gmail account to use the Google Apps and Docs or can they do it through pvlearners?

Google for Educators

Might want to join their forum discussions, or investigate some of the lesson plans.

Google for Educators (http://www.google.com/educators).

Homepage Idea

This is what I was proposing. This Google calendar opens big when clicked on to schedule events....however...now it doesn't. I can no longer get my calendar to do that because I think the default calendar is now on the mail page menu. Hmm.... just wondering about this...Teacher says 'Test on Friday" kids have to breeze into email to schedule it. Will they? Or stay in mail and read that and then forget about scheduling altogether?

The day planner is a big deal to the teachers.... at least that's what I am hearing so far....

What are you guys hearing from teachers? How do they envision students using this ?

As I play around with it I am wondering... hmmm there is no way to default to the above sample pictured homepage. I think its fluid for a reason...to customize the way you want it. It is your home page after all and I bet most kids would rather see the joke of the day or some lava lamp than a calendar. All the stuff in Blue (right 2 columns) are customizable to the user. So my thoughts on an "easy to access" whole day planner thing might be moot....

COULD we put this calendar/day planner on the left default under email?

Sharing a Calendar

You can share your calendar (or make a new classroom calendar) with your students and they can share with you, and/or with other students. After you click on mail, and have the calendar link (upper left hand corner), access the calendar tools on the left side. It's pretty intuitive, lots of options and capabilities. When you share the calendar with someone in pvlearners.net, such as jbillings@pvlearners.net, said person gets an invite to their email account (they can accept at that time and presto it's now part of their calendar list). Try it out with a colleague, a student, and you'll get the idea, if you haven't already.

Calendars and Docs/Sheets

To access your calendar and docs/sheets, after you log in, click on your email icon. You will be taken to a window and in the upper left hand corner is where you (students) can toggle between mail, sheets, calendar, etc.....

WELCOME!

Welcome on board to new PV Learners bloggers!

This month several new admins, teachers and movers/shakers have been added to this happening blog!

As we move forward developing this collaborative environment with our students please feel free to post your thoughts on how we can improve this adventure.

Ideas, problems, solutions, help tips, and future visions... this is the place to share!

PS Put the blogger widget on your dashboard!
Google: Blogger Widget and download! Way cool!



Also check out: Blogthis!*

*Which are the instructions on how to put PV Learners Blogger notification on your browser bar that Jeff mentions in his post.


http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=41469&useful=1&show_useful=1

The Impoverishment of American Culture

This article is "must read" .....

The Impoverishment of American Culture
http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110010352

Project Based Learning

I thought this article might interest you all....
"The Story-Centered Curriculum" -
looks to me like project based learning.
anyway - it's just preaching to the choir here,
but a good article to share with anyone who
might need to be introduced to such an approach.

Leanne