ScreenLeap - Share your computer screen with others

On the occasion when you are teaching in a room that does not have a projector unit, you can still share your computer screen with your students. There are many sites that can do this but today I am going to talk about using a website called Screenleap.  Screenleap requires no downloads, no installs and best of all is that it is FREE! You can share your screen with any device that has a browser. That means this can work with students who are using an iPod, iPad, netbook, laptop, desktop or smartphone. 


To use this site, the teacher goes to www.screenleap.com. Once there, you click on the large green button that says, "Share your screen now!". Your first time in the site, you will have to click on the yellow button the appears at the top of the screen that says, "Always run on this site". Then a box will appear and you have to click the Run button. This is only for the first usage of the day. After that the program will launch automatically. 


To get students to see your screen, they have two options. You can email them the link that screenleap provides you with or students themselves can go to www.screenleap.com and type in the numeric code that is on your site. 


To control what students see from your screen, you have a small controller on your desktop. You can select students to see your entire screen or the area inside of a rectangle that you can drag around your screen. You can pause the sharing or completely stop the sharing. 


Reasons to use screen sharing in your classroom?

• Tutorials/demonstrations
• How-To's
• Digital Storytelling

Free, simple and easy to use. 

Creating Google Forms

Google Forms is a great educational tool!  It's an easy way to create surveys, quizzes, and forms to collect information.  To get started you have to have a free google account (which all Menasha employees do), and then the forms are created under Google Docs.  Once you have created a form, the responses collected are put into a spreadsheet format.  These responses can also be viewed as piecharts and graphs.  The video will show you just how easy it is to create a Google Form.

Blabberize Your Photos

Blabberize.com is a fun and extremely easy way for your students to create talking photos. The software automatically creates a simple talking animation while you are talking that I love, it reminds me of cheesy commercials I saw during cartoons as a kid. Check out the video below if you are interested in learning how to create your own Blabberized photos.

Socrative - As Easy As Raising Your Hand

Socrative is a free website that teachers can use with their students for immediate feedback.

Teachers use the page t.socrative.com
Students use the page m.socrative.com

Every teacher has a distinct room number that students type in on their page. They will then be redirected to the multiple choice/true false/quiz or exit slip that the teacher sends out their their students. From the anonymous multiple choice and true/false questions results can be displayed life on the screen. Exit slips and quizzes require students to type in their first and last name. Once the exit slips and quizzes are taken, the teacher can end those activities and download or email the results to themselves to review.

You can make quizes ahead of time and save them as well as share them with other teachers.
50 students can be in a room at a time. At the end of each class session, you can clear the room and start fresh with 0 users.

Any student with a device that provides access to the Internet (smartphone, iPad, iPod Touch, netbook, laptop or desktop computer) can use this site with their teacher.


Socrative introduction video (new) from Socrative Inc. on Vimeo.

Using Technology to Stay Current with Students Who Cannot be Physically in Your Class

We've all experienced students missing class for one reason or another.  Sometimes students are too sick to come to school, but other times students are unable to attend school for other reasons.  How can these students to stay current with their education?  In the past a parent might stop by the school and pick up their homework.  Schools may send teachers to students houses for in house instruction.  Current technology allows students to stay in touch with their classes anywhere they may have internet access.  There are a lot of ways that students and teachers can stay connected and here are just a few suggestions:

• If teacher and student both have access to iPad, Macs, iPhones, or iPod Touches they can connect via Facetime.  At the start of the class the teacher can call the student and through video chat the student and the class can interact with each other.
• If you have a Smartboard and a microphone, teachers can record everything they do and say on their smartboard using Smart Record.  They can then post these videos on YouTube, Vimeo, Safari Montage, inside Moodle, etc for students to watch on their own time.
• Our district has the google education apps.  Through Google Video Chat teachers and students can connect and interact with each other much like the FaceTime app already mentioned.
• Using join.me teacher's can share everything they are doing on their computer screen with a student who has a computer or mobile device.  Right now they even offer free audio and chat features along with screen sharing.  This is also a great tool for a student who may be visually impaired, as they could use their own device to enlarge what the teacher was doing on their computer.  There is no registration or sign in required, you simply go to the website and it will give you website to share with your students.

ThinkTank

Project Base Learning (PBL) and the importance of teaching Higher Order Thinking Skills.( HOTS).

Many times students will not know where to start or even know how to put their ideas together. Students will truly need some modeling before feeling comfortable with developing a topic for a report or project. ThinkTank will help give support to the students that will give them a feeling of accomplishment. NoteStar will help the students stay organized.

You Tube

I have gotten lots of questions from teachers lately about to use You Tube to communicate with students. Check out this week’s video to see how to subscribe, create lists, upload, edit privacy and share videos that you create with your students.