Split Screen on a Mac

So whenever I go to the mall (which is not often), I like to stop by the Apple store and play with the new gadgets.  While I prefer a Mac, I have never been able to easily (yes you can drag the windows and re-shape them) split the screen in half the way you can on a Windows based computer (go here if you don't know how).  Well (and I am getting no $ for saying this), but you can try new software (for a temp fix) or pay $7 to be able to easily snap (as you can on Windows 7) the screens in half on your Mac.  It comes from PC World, so I think you can trust it.

Split Screen for your Digital Educational Backpack

Well, if you are going to use all of my ideas for your digital backpack this year, you will also need to know how to split your screen.  This is essential when you want to read your e-textbook and work on an assignment (or have your students do the work with their e-book).  It will stop you from printing out e-mails that you have to read while doing work and generally get you 100% onto the cloud. Above is a short video telling you how to do it. You could also download Air Display if you wanted to have two of your devices connected together virtually (ie, no cords).  

Google Chrome Split Screen Extension

I am slowly gearing up for having Chromebooks in my classroom this fall and will also be testing (since I haven't felt it was good enough until now) Google Classroom.  In that endeavor I found Alice Keeler's Chrome extension (her blog is also very helpful) to let you split your window so you can have your gradebook on one side and the student work on the other.  Of course if you don't want her extension, just watch my video video below on how to do it by opening up two windows.  

Split Screen

We have a paper shortage in my school!  Yes I know that sounds funny from me, but we also have a laptop shortage as not every teacher has as many as we want for our students.   So one of my jobs has been to try to figure out how to conserve paper so this video is one thing I have shared with my department as it allows you to copy one browser to another without printing! 

Tweeting the Republican Debate - How to do it

I am teaming with several other teachers in my county on September 16th to have our students Tweet the Republican debate at 8 pm on CNN.  Here is how we do it:

• We pick a hashtag which our students include in every post.  It can be as simple as #schoolnamegovclass.  Here is what we used last year (but aren't using Wednesday). 
• We require the students to make three comments during the debate and tell them that school rules apply (ie language, etc.).   Our kids like to see that we are trending so they do far more comments (20-30) and stick around the entire debate.  Our kids then have to take screenshots of their 3 comments and share in a Google Drive document.
• The teachers teach!  This means you might say that some candidates (Rick Perry, for ex.) are already running very low on funds or that the polls are great, but the goal is to win delegates. Having more than one teacher in on the debate makes for a richer discussion.  
• I use TweetChat (which can be synced to your Twitter account) so I can see the comments from the other students and easily enter in my own. Assume the kids can see all of the comments and know how to follow the discussion.  I also usually watch the debate/State of the Union on my laptop as well and split my screen as you can see from the video above.  
• What about the kids who don't have Twitter!  I generally use an editable Google Drive document, but one option I am considering for next week is TodaysMeet which lets you set up a Twitter like screen that does not require a login/password.  

We find that the kids have a dynamic discussion during the debates (or the State of the Union) and can't pull themselves away from the screen (big or small).  

Split Screen to See Multiple Items at Once

This is one of the more popular videos that I have made.  If you want to see two items on your computer at the same time, this one minute video tells you how.  If you have an Apple product and don't mind paying $7, you can do the same thing as it mentioned above (otherwise you can just drag the corners until the windows are the size you want). 

Tweeting the Democratic Debate

I am teaming with several other teachers in my county on October 14th to have our students Tweet the Democratic debate at 9 pm on CNN.  Here is how we do it:

• We pick a hashtag which our students include in every post.  It can be as simple as #schoolnamegovclass.  Here is what we used last year (but aren't using Tuesday). 
• We require the students to make three comments during the debate and tell them that school rules apply (ie language, etc.).   Our kids like to see that we are trending so they do far more comments (20-30) and stick around the entire debate.  Our kids then have to take screenshots of their 3 comments and share in a Google Drive document.
• The teachers teach!  This means you might say that some candidates are already running very low on funds or that the polls are great, but the goal is to win delegates. Having more than one teacher in on the debate makes for a richer discussion.  
• I use TweetChat (which can be synced to your Twitter account) so I can see the comments from the other students and easily enter in my own. Assume the kids can see all of the comments and know how to follow the discussion.  I also usually watch the debate/State of the Union on my laptop as well and split my screen as you can see from the video above.  
• What about the kids who don't have Twitter!  I generally use an editable Google Drive document, but one option I am using TodaysMeet which lets you set up a Twitter like screen that does not require a login/password.  We used it for the Republican debate and it was awesome and much better than using an editable document from Google Drive. 

We find that the kids have a dynamic discussion during the debates (or the State of the Union) and can't pull themselves away from the screen (big or small).  

100 Chromebook Tips

Okay, so perhaps not all of you are jumping to get the Chromebook by Google, but I just got mine in the mail yesterday.  If you are into "the cloud," it is a cheap ($500 for the version that gives you 100 mgs of free access a month and it obviously has wifi).  It turns on in less than 10 seconds, and I quickly found an app that lets me split my windows so I can see two screens (which is big with me).  It is a bit slow occasionally and you can't get Netflix (which my kids will care about) yet although that is coming, but if live on the cloud as I do it is 1/3rd the price of the Macbook Air (although you can't manipulate the screen as you will be able to do when it comes out in a few weeks).  For my money it is also forcing me to do the few things I wasn't doing online (screen capture of pics and how to movies) on the Internet.  Yes, I know I am ahead of people who still like to put their files on their computers, but the Chromebook is where we will all be in a few years.  FINALLY, if you do purchase it, I found this lengthy document explaining how it works.  

A Search Engine WIthin A Google Doc

I split my screen a great deal so I can look at websites and complete my project ideas for my students (or have a grade book on one side and student work on the other).  Well now Google is making it easier to avoid having to do this.  When you open a document in Google Docs and the go to "tools" and "research," a new screen will open up on the right (see above).  If you run your cursor over the bottom of each link, you will see three choices (preview, insert link and cite).  Now the preview will set up a new column (again look above at the one in the middle) and that column will give you a smaller version of the page including videos.  The "insert link" will, if you drag the cursor over the chosen words), add in the link from the webpage.  Finally the "cite" will put a citation at the bottom of each page.

If you care, the picture above is from my final project for my government students which is here. 

Splitting the Screen on a Mac

I have put several posts up about the importance of being able to split a screen especially in my county where all 6 - 12th grade students have e-books in social studies.  Here is how I do it in Explorer and Firefox (you can't do it in Chrome without their insert) and here is how you can do it easily by dragging it to a corner on a Mac (as opposed to taking the time to resize it.  I will tell you that it does cost $7 and I get nothing from Cinch (who makes it) by telling you about it. 

Videonot.es for Note Taking in a Flipped Classroom

Normally I ask my students to split their screen, but this relatively (it came out last April) new app called Videonot.es that does that for you, putting the video on the left and the notes on the right.  It is then synced with Google Drive so it automatically (if you approve it to do so) puts the notes in your Google  Drive folder.  You will also note that whenever you begin taking notes, it shows where you are in the video and if you click on that line of  the notes, it will take you back to the relevant place in the video.  

It is also available for Google Apps so your students can get it in the free or paid Google Drive.

Above is a video showing you how to use it. 

New Google Changes

Google has been making a lot of changes recently to streamline all of its offerings into one area (part of CEO Larry Page's design) and in turn get people to join Google+.  I've read that it is up to 100 million, but my sense (and it is just that) is that people are using it as a souped up Twitter.  That, of course, is not a bad thing.  I, for example, get a lot of items from others that I follow in Google+ that I use in the classroom.  But recent inventions also allow you to have video chats with 9 others and be working on a shared Google Docs item.  Think about the fact that you can have a virtual meeting with other educators (for free) and work on common documents.  G+ is now also connected to the new Google Play that synchs your Internet devices (assuming you have an Android smartphone).  So when I have my free periods at school I turn on my Google music (where I have my entire collection uploaded for free), pony up my Google Docs and get to work.  When my students come in they share their assignments with me and I split my screen so I can record the grades in my gradebook (which unfortunately is NOT on the cloud - yet!). 

Flipping the Classroom Presentation

Tomorrow I am doing a presentation for my county on flipping the classroom.  If you can make it it will be at the Leis Center at 1-3:30.  For those of you who can't here is what we will be doing.

1. What will be taught:  We will learn how to record lectures for students to watch at home, how students can be accountable for that information and how to flip one’s classroom to do the “problem sets” in the classroom.
2. Tutorial steps that will be finished in the class (each underlined item is linked to a tutorial)
1. will learn  how to use Screencastomatic to learn how to record a ten minute lecture
2. will discuss what can be done in the classroom
3. will learn how class activities can be put on a Google Drive document and linked into Blackboard
4. How to create a question sheet with embedded video. 
5. learn how to split the laptop screen so students can see the video and their notes or you could use VideoNot.es (tutorial)
6. If you accumulate lots of videos, here is how you create a youTube Playlist 

How to Use Magruder's US Government e-book

Today Kevin O'Keefe will be presenting to our county social studies teachers on how to use our e-book for Magruder's US Government which most of the country uses.  Perhaps you can find someone of value here.

The in-service goes through how one should start teaching with an e-book from using a scavenger hunt (just as you might do with a paper textbook), to how to split the screen of your computer (so students can see both the e-book and the work they are doing) and finally some lessons using the e-book.  We use Magruder's for our standard government book (as does about 90% of the country) so hopefully this should help a lot of you.  

VideoNot.es for Flipped Video Notetaking

Normally I ask my students to split their screen, but this relatively (it came out last April) new app called Videonot.es that does that for you, putting the video on the left and the notes on the right.  It is then synced with Google Drive so it automatically (if you approve it to do so) puts the notes in your Google  Drive folder.  You will also note that whenever you begin taking notes, it shows where you are in the video and if you click on that line of  the notes, it will take you back to the relevant place in the video.  

It is also available for Google Apps so your students can get it in the free or paid Google Drive.

Above is a video showing you how to use it.

Magruder's e-book In-Service

Tomorrow Meghann Jones is doing an in-service in my county on using Magruder's US government e-book (and here is an ancillary site for the e-book) which is used by 90% of our nation's government students.

• Above is a video by Kevin O'Keefe on how to use the e-book.
• Here is a very short video on how to split one's computer screen so the student can look at the e-book and an assignment.
• Here is a scavenger hunt by Kevin O'Keefe and Laura Wolf which is important to give students before starting to use the e-book. It is always a good idea to start by introducing one's students to the e-book to save on problems later.
• Here is a lesson on gerrymandering using Magruder's by Kevin O'Keefe and Laura Wolf.
• For Meghan's in-service she has come up with a number of items including a warm-up, a webquest, flashcards and two student worksheets all of which you can find here. 

Watch us Tweet the State of the Union

A number of teachers have asked me about how we use Twitter to conduct a class.  First off you can see our discussion LIVE by going to Twitter and putting "#hayfieldgovclass" into the search engine.  To conduct the class, as you can see in the video above, I split my screen to watch the president and use TweetChat to put in comments as well as see what our (three teachers involved) students are saying.   For the students who do not have a Twitter account, we created an editable Google Drive document where they wrote their comments.

Above is a short video showing what our Tweeting sessions look like. Kids actually behave themselves since the teachers are Tweeting as well and we have very productive sessions.  We only require three Tweets, but the kids like to do 20-30 as we almost always trend nationally and they like to see that.  That being said I would ask that you do not send your students to our hashtag since they don't know us.

Flipping the Classroom Presentation

I helped organize a technology 1/2 day at our school today.  I am doing a presentation on Flipping the Classroom.  Here is what we are going over today:

1. What will be taught:  We will learn how to record lectures for students to watch at home, how students can be accountable for that information and how to flip one’s classroom to do the “problem sets” in the classroom.
2. Tutorial steps that will be finished in the class (each underlined item is linked to a tutorial)
1. will learn  how to use Screencastomatic to learn how to record a ten minute lecture
2. will discuss what can be done in the classroom
3. will learn how class activities can be put on a Google Drive document and linked into Blackboard
4. learn how to split the laptop screen so students can see the video and their notes or you could use VideoNot.es (tutorial)
5. If you accumulate lots of videos, here is how you create a youTube Playlist 

Hashtagging Obama's Speech

A number of teachers have asked me about how we use Twitter to conduct a class.  First off you can see our discussion by going to Twitter and putting "#hayfieldgovclass" into the search engine.  To conduct the class, as you can see in the video above, I split my screen to watch the president and use TweetChat to put in comments as well as see what our (three teachers involved) students are saying.   For the students who do not have a Twitter account, we created an editable Google Drive document where they wrote their comments.

By the way we trended for the third straight time.   Wouldn't it be great if some of the readers of this blog copied our idea and during the State of the Union we ended up seeing 3-4 classes trending at once!  Remember we did it with just 150 or so students.  Each student was required to give three comments, but most wrote a great deal more.

While we are at it, below is a video I will show my students tomorrow on the powers of the president relating to war.