Migrating Blogger to Another Google Account

This is a test of sorts. According to the Google help page found here, I will attempt to migrate my blogger from my school's Google Apps for Education account to my personal account. I am using my personal account to write this post and then check the blog to see if it works. A few keys:  first, photos uploaded to posts from original account will be broken when using the new account, this is a bummer. Second, make sure you don't close out the original account (speak to your school's Google Apps Admin team), before migrating to the new account or else everything will be lost!

Model Post: Reflection Writing

Over time I would say my writing has improved. Currently, I am happy with my writing but not satisfied. There is much work to be done. I enjoy writing and feel like I get a little better each time I put pen to paper, or in this case, fingers to keyboard! I feel most comfortable when writing about things I've researched for other classes. I am able to clearly state what I researched but I can also add my own thoughts and analysis to the writing, which is what my teacher is always asking me to do.  I think my creative writing can improve, my imagination is alive and well but I struggle at times with writing something that is wildly creative. So, overall, I feel like I'm progressing with my writing and I'm proud of this! 

A Trip to Awesometown with Google Forms and a Classroom Twitter Feed

If you use Google Forms and you think Twitter could be a useful learning tool for you, keep reading. John Calvert came up with a work around that allows teachers to moderate Google Form submissions and have them auto post to a classroom Twitter feed.

This workaround is immediately useful for me because:

1. The student tweets demonstrate avenues for more exploration and discussion.
2. Feedback is meaningful, almost immediate and helpful to my students.
3. I can manage the feed by approving worthy student responses.
4. The form challenges my students be ultra focussed with their feedback.
5. Introduces Twitter to students who would not otherwise be using it. 
6. Students don't need a Twitter account.
7. Fun and accessible to anyone who can submit a Google Form! 

Other applications:

1. Intra school, department feeds.
2. PD feed.
3. Cross curricular, cross team feeds.
4. ?

What you need:

1. Google Form
2. Add on: Form Mule
3. Gmail account (used only for this integration)
4. Twitter account 
5. IFTTT recipe

The New Goobric, Tiny Tips

I am redefining my workflow with the Goobric and Doctopus integration. This integration allows me to grade assignments electronically and more efficiently. For me, a clean solution to provide timely and useful student feedback in a paperless environment had been missing until Goobric and Doctopus got together!

The new Goobric Web app is a tool you need if you are interested in or are already grading electronically. Here's a summary of the screen cast above.

1. Expand or collapse the Goobric view and comment box.
2. Get rid of your tool bar in Google Docs by going full screen to give you more space in your doc.
3. Click on the 'Doctopus Sheet' to return to all of your ingested documents without Goobric closing.
4. Audio comments render in the student doc, below the rubric.
5. An audio folder is created in your Google Drive for those audio comments.

Just Do It With Blogger!

Blogging with Blogger this year has been a success for me and I'm looking forward to what's next. Currently, 63 seventh and eighth grade students are using blogger on a regular basis (I'm not modeling this very well ;) to write personal and academic reflections and respond to writing prompts, in my English classes.  We started with navigating the blogger settings; privacy, layout, adding authors (me) and readers (their peers), eventually arriving at authoring posts.

Google docs and google forms to log student writing wasn't working for me. I found entries weren't organized to my liking, I couldn't comment as readily nor could the students. And eventually, I wanted a platform that could be shared easily to our school community at large. Blogger made sense.  In a 100 words the students are challenged to stay focused while attending to crafting a tight post with minimal grammar mistakes and use vivid, detailed language. They have a bank of 75 writing prompts, which they created.

Here is what I found:

• There is true interaction-they are interested in what their peers are writing. Though I require positive, critical commenting on peer posts, in many cases they comment freely on another student's post. Additionally, during our 'blog times' I can hear the interaction: "It's spelled this way, not like that!" or "Is that an appropriate comment?" 
• The entries are organized and easier for me to access, though I'm looking improve this further
• Posts are evolving, they are more engaging, detailed and smoother ranging from playful to profound
• Choice in prompt has helped to keep interest
• Sharing via G+ to our domain adds another level of accountability compared to when the post is shared only with their peers

What started as a means to organize journal entries, evolved into a consistent practice which is showing results. 

Engagement & Honesty: Peer Editing With GAFE in One Class with Multiple Sections

For some reason it never crossed my mind until now. Usually, for me, peer editing happens with students in the same class. I've been thinking about partnering with the 10th grade English students so they can review 7th and 8th grade writing samples but it hasn't happened yet. I find that the MS students are always a bit uncomfortable in front of a new peer audience. This is useful for them and in the end, they are responsive to another set of eyes reviewing their writing.

This week, instead of pairing students in the same class, I connected them with their peers in a different section of the same class. I chose the pairings for the students in the morning section. They used a google form to 'assess' the essay using only two standards measuring organization and focus. Students were allowed to make comments and suggestions in the doc based on content and conventions but their task was to stick to the standards, which some found challenging. Here's what I found:

1. ENGAGEMENT: When the students in the first section found out they could check out submissions from the 'other' class, they attacked. This surprised me. When the afternoon section arrived after lunch and realized their friends had made comments in their essays, the afternoon students couldn't wait to return the favor! I rolled with this allowing the afternoon students to choose which paper they were going to review. I approved only IF the pairing was going to be effective. The enjoyed the task and approached it with a seriousness I didn't expect.

2. HONESTY: The feedback was more honest than I've seen in past editing sessions. Because there was 'distance' between peer reviewers, they felt comfortable letting loose...with purpose. Overall, I'm happy with the improvement I've seen in how these 8th graders deliver feedback, it's becoming more concise.

The takeaway for me? I'll peer edit with as many different eyeballs, whenever possible!

Snagit For Chrome and Why I Should Use it More

If you know of a better way to block out certain parts of a video,
please do share! 

It happened quickly. I needed a solution fast. Our school's gradebook was acting a fool and I couldn't figure out why. To get to the bottom of it I needed to call for backup. In this case it would mean a trip to IT to get it sorted.  Time was an issue and I couldn't make the journey but I could make make a screencast explaining my problem, so I did!

Making a screencast is nothing new. It's what we do with the screencast that drives us to find new applications for a tool that you may have previously underutilized.  For me, Snagit, the Chrome extension,  is one of those tools. I use it, I love it, I should use it more.

Today, I used Snagit to make a screencast to quickly communicate my problem to IT.  I took 34 seconds to explain the hang up. The extension launched quickly from Chrome, the screencast was easy and quick to produce, the sync to my Google Drive was smooth and I shared the 'viewable link' via G+ to the IT team. From start to finish, it took maybe 3 minutes to get my message out and saved loads of time. Oh yea, props to Mr. Berm for responding right away and helping me get to the bottom my gradebook issue!