Reserving Chromebook Carts using Google Calendar

There is a quick and easy way to reserve the Chromebook carts in the schools using your Google Calendar. Watch the quick video below to learn how to reserve the cart for your classroom.



You can also check the Chromebook calendar to see when the cart is available at your school. From the MJSD homepage, click on Staff Links. The second option down is District Rooms/Calendars. Find your building and click on the CBCart link for your building to see when the cart is already reserved and when it is available.

Mapping through History with What Was There

Have you ever looked at a building or a city and wondered what it looked like years ago?  Well with the site What Was There you have the ability to do just that.  You can enter a city, state, or country name into the search and various pictures from the past will show up.  If the picture has a little yellow man in left hand corner, you will be able to see the current street view of that picture also.  Click on the picture, then click on street view, and you can slowly fade the picture to present day.  It's like time traveling through pictures.

Example:
Here is a 1910 picture of Hotel Gilpatrick in Milwaukee, WI.  Theodore Roosevelt was shot in front of this hotel in 1912 while campaigning.

1910 picture of Hotel Gilpatrick

Slowly fading to current day

Current Google street view, you can see that the hotel no longer exists.

Free Langauge Education Site

Learn or brush up on 6 languages for FREE!

The site Duolingo allows you to practice your language skills for free. It takes an approach similar to Khan Academy and puts you on a path where you start with easier skills and vocabulary and slowly moves you toward more advanced skills and vocabulary.

To sign up - Pick the language you want to learn and provide your email address and create a password.

*If you are having students use this site, they need to be 13 years of age or older. That is because students under 13 are not supposed to sign up for accounts that require identifying information (their email address is considered identifying information). Websites are not supposed to collect that sort of information from people under the age of 13.

Search Engine for Apps

Looking for an app? Want to specifically find one for your mobile device or tablet? Here is a easy to use free search engine to help you.

Quixey is a website you can use to search. Drag your cursor over top of the word Mobile and you can click on one category to search in. You can search for apps appropriate for Android device, Blackberry, iPad, iPhone or Windows Phone. Then type your search in the search box and press Enter or click the small magnifying glass.

Your search results come up in a list with a few lines of a description, the number of stars they are reviewed with and the price for the app. Click on the name of app to get screen shots and a longer description.

You will see the price button on this screen.

Drag your cursor over the button and it will now say Download. Click to download the app.



Enjoy your app searching!

 

 

 



Alternatives to Google Reader

If you are a Google Reader user you will soon be looking for another site.  Google has announced that Google Reader will no longer exist as of July 1st this year.  For those of you who have never used Google Reader, it was a site where you could read all your blogs and newsfeeds in one place.

Instructions for exporting your current feeds from Google Reader.

Here are some alternatives to Google Reader:

• If you have a apple mobile device or a android device you can use Flipboard.  You can import your Google Reader feeds into the flipboard app.  Flipboard puts all your feeds into a magazine like format where you can flip through pages.
• Feedly is probably the most popular alternative.  It is also an app, but can be loaded on mobile devices and the web through Chrome, Firefox, and Safari extensions.
• Newsblur  Newsblur is available through the web without an extension.  It can also be used as an app on a mobile device.
• The Old Reader very similar to Google Reader.  Can be used through the web.  No mobile apps are available.

Another alternative that I use is Google Alerts.  It's not an RSS feed, but a search for keywords.  You can search kewords in blogs, news stories, discussions, videos, and/or books.  You set up the search you want such as "school library", where you would like it to search, how often you would like to receive an email with links that fit your keyword, and what email to deliver the information.

 

Your email from Google Alerts will look like this:





Infinite Campus Mobile Portal App

There is an app that can be downloaded for SmartPhones and tablets that allows parents and guardians to be connected with our student information system Infinite Campus.
 
Infinite Campus Mobile Portal *FREE*
iTunes: http://goo.gl/mYWKa
Google Play: http://goo.gl/iGcyq
 
This app gives you the most mobile access to the data you most commonly access from the Campus Portal.
 
Notifications
Want to know if an assignment has been scored or it a new grade was submitted: Simply subscribe to notifications regarding changes to grades, assignment scores, and attendance events to receive instant alerts as changes happen.
 
Daily Planner
Use the Daily Planner to know exactly when and where you need to be today and get a quick view at your next due assignment for each of your classes. Want to see more? Simply dig in deeper by selecting the class you want more information about. Or switch dates and look ahead at tomorrow's schedule or any other date on the calendar.
 
Schedule
Whether your school uses twelve terms or two, with five day rotations or one, your schedule will always be up-to-date with what your administration has created in the district's calendar.

Attendance
Want to know how many time you've been absent? Or which days your child is still marked unexcused? Use the attendance views to see summary and detail information regarding your attendance record. 

Assignments
The days of constantly logging in to check if your teacher corrected your assignment are over. Sign up for notifications to get immediate notification of your score right away. Or feel free to browse your assignments (past and future). Assignments are organized by due date and can be filtered for all classes or a specific class.

Grades
Get instant one-touch access to your grades and dig deeper to see how your grade was calculated by reviewing the assignments which make up your grade. Forget waiting for report card season to know exactly where your grade stands. In-progress grades display until a final grade is given by the teacher.

iOS Devices


Android Devices

The Flipped Classroom

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media