2nd graders and Chromebooks By Viviane Kraus, Franklin Fine Arts Academy

The second grade teacher and I decided to collaborate on an adjective lesson.  The teacher wanted to have students create a portrait surrounded  with adjectives describing themselves.   

The students learned about adjectives in the classroom and brainstormed adjectives that described themselves and wrote their adjectives on paper. When students came to the weekly library period, the students brought their adjective lists.

Second graders were already taught  how to access their Google Drives and how to check email in technology class.  This, however,  was their first time using Google Docs.  

I made sure that I had a copy of usernames and passwords just in case some students forgot theirs.  

First, I gave the students a quick tutorial about how to open a Chromebook and access the internet using the Browse as Guest tab and then searching for the Google CPS website in the search bar.  

Once the students were all logged on, I modeled how to create a Google Doc and how to change text font, text size and text color.  I also asked the students to help each other at their tables since we are learning something brand new.  

I then went through each step one at a time again and walked around to support students when they got stuck.  This seemed to help.  Once the students were on their Google Doc they started typing and manipulating the text by changing the font, text size and color.  By this time, the 40 minute period was almost over.  I explained how Google Drive saves their documents automatically and taught them how to name their new Google Doc.  

For the next library lesson, students had to be reminded to access their document, but seemed to be able to get started pretty quickly.  I made sure to be available to troubleshoot, but most of the students were able to finish during that library class period.  I was impressed with the enthusiasm and work ethic of the second grade students.

“We learned how to change the font.” Sophie S.

“I love using the Chromebooks, it makes me feel smart.”  Mekhi K.

Sometimes It’s the Little Things By Connie Amon, Galileo Scholastic Academy

On Monday I crossed an item off my never-ending, always changing, list of things to do: how to get chatterpix to glog. (It looks like this now: how to get chatterpix to glog; and I’m so happy!) A few months ago, when I suggested to a fifth grade teacher that we add a ChatterPix video to the glogs the students were creating on an explorer they were studying, I had no idea if it would really work or not. Sometimes things don’t work. Preparing the ChatterPix video on the iPad worked fine, for the most part. The question, then, was how to get that video off the iPad and into Glogster (which, by the way, still does not function as well as I would like). The biggest obstacle? simply finding the time to figure it out. I knew I could do it on a computer, but how exactly would it work on a Chromebook?

About a month ago I attended a PD session at the ICE conference called “Chrome-ology: Getting the Most Out of Your Chromebook”, presented by Gregory Regalado and Neil Charlet of Maine West High School. Spending a few hours with my Chromebook was exactly what I needed. Did I embrace and “learn” every detail that was presented? Of course not, but every time I login on a Chromebook now, I see the 1-Click Timer and beautiful spring theme that I added during that session (not critical to learning or teaching, but a sign of my personal accomplishment). And I learned lots of “little things” that make me feel that much smarter. Did you know that the Address Bar that you can search from in the Chrome browser is called the Omnibox? Or that those bars in the upper righthand corner of a Chrome page are called “the Hamburger”? (Where have I been?!) Check out this site: Maine West’s ChromeDepot. Containing tons of information for any user, this site is a great model for other schools.

On Friday, a student using a Chromebook asked how to copy an image into his infographic (we are using Piktochart). I was in a hurry, as usual, since a number of other groups needed help. There is more than one way to copy an image on the Chromebook. Pieces of incomplete information flashed through my brain, students nearby offered suggestions. I took a deep breath and tried two fingers. Success! Maybe I have learned a few things...

So how do you move a ChatterPix video from the iPad to a glog? Here’s what we did:

• from the camera roll, students mailed their videos to me (why not to themselves? we tried that, but then realized that students can’t receive mail from outside the CPS domain, and the generic accounts on the iPads are gmail…);
• from my CPS mail, students forwarded their video to their own email (I set up a station with my email open during class; a bit of a risk, but turned out ok);
• from their mail, they downloaded the video on the Chromebook;
• in Glogster, they uploaded the video from the downloads folder (we had to refresh to get it to be use-able).

Ta-da! The kids were so excited about this “little thing”! See for yourself:

http://cdominguez21.edu.glogster.com/explorer-8578/

http://amartinez404.edu.glogster.com/explorer/

Using Chromebooks and Bitstrips, Janice Wellborn, Hernandez Middle School

Testing time is usually a very trying time for me, as well as for the students. During PARCC testing, I am required to be out of my library but fortunately I have Chromebooks to carry with me as I travel from class to class. Our testing schedule is the entire duration of the four weeks I am seeing the current students. Grateful I am that I have these devices!

This past week we have been doing research and creating comic strips using Chromebooks and Bitstrips.  With most students working in pairs, the students were told to review the Database and Bitstrips assignment found on my wiki and answer the questions on the wiki. The topic of research was Ebola.  I created accounts for all students on Bitstrips.  When the students had completed their research they began creating one comic strip per pair to show the information they had learned.  

For the most part, this project went smoothly.  I have used Bitstrips several times and knew that one advantage of this comic strip project was that students love to create their own avatars and settings and absolutely love to share their creations with each other.  I guessed, correctly, that they would enjoy working together on these creations. I did have a few students that were reluctantly paired together and those very few who were unhappy were able to work alone.

At the end of the project, after all students have shared their work with me, I then allow the entire class to see the work of all the students.  The students are told to review twelve comic strips and give the comic strip creators feedback.  They did this with great respect and sincerity, for the most part.  

One problem I ran into with only one rambunctious class had to do with online feedback and flagging.  I had allowed students to make comments online and to use the flagging option in the settings.  With one class, this turned into a mistake.  A handful of students began to flag everyone’s comics or comments.  Before I knew it, the program started hiding the flagged students’ work.  Our classroom gallery went from 15 to six in a matter of minutes!  I had them resubmit the comics to  me and I then instructed all to stop flagging.  From this point on, I will be turning off that option and the comment option in settings.  It was a little too tempting for a few people.