My System for Task Management

Lying in bed with my computer and a box of tissues, I had a chance to reflect on some of my best practices for managing tasks. I would consider myself excellent at multitasking. I often manage multiple tasks at once and don't feel flinch when I am interrupted by someone or something else. Come to find out, many people think they are excellent at multitasking and according to a study done for PBS Frontline's Special: Digital Nation most are not good at multitasking and that their rate of response actually slows when they are doing multiple things at once. However, there is this entire group of digital natives who believe that they are good at multitasking, so what gives? 

I started thinking about what systems I have put into place that make me a good multitasker, in my mind.

For one, I hardly ever let email sit and pile up. I deal with email immediately and move on. If it is something that needs thought or time, I let it sit in my inbox for a day or two and then, deal with it, move it out. I have less than six emails in my three email accounts on any given day. I think that the Inbox Zero approach is dead on. Deal with it and move on.

Secondly, I keep a todo list. Actually, I keep two todo lists, one for work and one for personal stuff. For the sake of my sanity, I try not to blend the two. It also helps keep my life balanced. I believe balance is healthy and although much of my personal life revolves around bettering myself professionally, they are still two separate things in my mind. Oddly enough, my work todo list is on paper and my personal todo list is on my iGoogle page. I can also access my personal todos from my phone, which makes it handy when I'm in the grocery store wondering if I need bread.

Third, I try to condense "stuff" into one place. I live off my iGoogle page. If you don't have one, you should try it. My email, news, feeds, calendar, weather, important links, everything comes right to my homepage. I can quickly scan each widget and prioritize from there. I don't like running all over the web to get access to the stuff that is most important to me and since everything is in the same place, I don't go running around wasting time.

Fourth, I prioritize. With so much happening all around me, I need to decide what is most important and work backwards from there. If I have a deadline, I can turn everything off and focus or I guess, that would be not-multitask. I have the ability to shut off email, my phone, iGoogle, and focus on what is important. I don't feel the need to be connected all the time and maybe knowing my priorities allows me to be the most productive self I can be, multitasking or not.

Finally, I enjoy the ride. I love switching gears, exploring multiple avenues, and communicating with others. Because of this passion, I find myself do many of these things at once. I may be in a meeting listening to the speaker, scrolling through and posting to Twitter, and looking up references from the speaker. By simulating my mind, I don't feel like I am ignoring any one of these things, I am merely making connections between them that help concrete my learning.

Although I don't consider myself a true digital native, I didn't own a computer until I was a junior in high school, I believe that I have adapted to the world around me. Perhaps not being a true digital native has given me the power to stop and smell the roses sometimes...

Google Groups

Google Groups is one of my favorite ways to communicate with my Professional Learning Networks. It is easy to use and getting a daily email means that I can stay connected without having to click to multiple websites.

Today, I discovered that I can add a widget to my iGoogle page and get updates on new discussions and it provides a quick link to the different groups I am a part of.

My personal learning networks are a large part of my professional learning, so today, I thank those who have answered my questions, made me think, and inspired me to be the best at what I do.

Tech4Learning Innovative Educator

Last week, I was recognized as a Tech4Learning Innovative Educator. My work with Tech4Learning products, including Frames and Pixie, has made me a better teacher. I am not sure who likes using Tech4Learning products more, me or the kids. Whether I am working on a project for my graduate class, a classroom teacher, or with students, I find that Tech4Learning products are a great solution for almost any project. I am honored to be recognized and I am excited about sharing my knowledge and experiences with other educators.

Tech4Learning

Thinkfinity Resource

Last week I started a Thinkfinity Certified Trainer Course as a part of the Master Digital Educator Program at the University of South Florida. After finishing up my last graduate course, I couldn't help but to sign up for an additional course to continue to learning.

Although I have used Thinkfinity in the past, they have really revamped their site. Working with a top list of partners, they have created an easy to search database of high quality resources. Many of their lessons are already tied to national content and technology standards. I was really impressed with how easy it was to locate resources for any keyword I entered.

Check it out and please share any outstanding resources you find.

What I Have Learned from Using Twitter

As skeptical as people are about Twitter, I have found the social networking site to be a valuable resource and my favorite professional learning community. As an educator, Twitter allows me to connect and share with educators all over the world. I have been using Twitter for over a year and now and this is what I have learned.

1. Use a Twitter client to follow tweets. I don't believe you can fully utilize Twitter without the aid of a Twitter client. I suggest Tweetdeck because you can follow tweets, get the TwitScoop of what people are talking about, follow your favorite hashmarks, AND keep up with your Facebook updates all from one place.

2. Figure out how to follow people with your interests. The people you follow are important to your Twitter experience. Try using Twubble, TwitterLocal, and Twellow to find people with the same interests you do. Follow them.

3. Make meaningful posts. This one is super important. Do a Google search for yourself and you will quickly find out why meaningful posts are important. With Google and Twitter joining forces, your Twitter page AND all your updates rise to the top of the search. Employers, friends, and family can read your Tweets without being on Twitter (unless you lock your account which kind of defeats the purpose). Before you tweet, ask yourself...is this meaningful and valuable to others? The fact that you are eating a PB&J or just finished grading 100 essays isn't going to help other teachers.

4. Join a Twitter community. People use hashmarks or keywords in order to make it easy to search posts related to a particular topic. I like hashmark #educhat because each Monday they hold Twitter meetings and share great insights and resources.

5. Read about Twitter. With millions of users, there are plenty of sites out there for you. Spend some time exploring the Twitterverse and use it. Below are some great sites to get you started:

How Twitter Works

Using Twitter in your Classroom

Twouble with Twitter (Hilarious YouTube Video)

ESL Resource for Online Teachers

Today, I was lucky enough to come across a great site with some really useful tools for teachers using Moodle, Blackboard, or have their own website. The Center for Language Education And Research (CLEAR) at Michigan State University is a Language Resource Center that has been funded since 1996 by the U.S. Department of Education. After signing up for an account, you will have access to a wealth of great resources, most of which are free.

One resource I was really interested in was the audio dropboxes. These dropboxes allow students to record audio directly from its location and automatically "drops" the audio in the teacher's inbox. My mind immediately started thinking about what a great tool this would be for homework, ESL practice, elementary reading practice, etc. For districts with strict Internet policies, ask your district tech person to set up a space for you on your school server.

Below is an active dropbox. Free free to try it out.

Attending Conferences

With the current state of the economy, it is getting more and more difficult to find funds to pay for teacher travel. As a result, less teachers may be attending great local and national conferences. However, many teachers may still be able to attend these conferences in a virtual setting.

I am glad to see that many conferences are starting to hold virtual sessions for teachers who may not be able to travel to the location site, but still want to share, learn, and collaborate with other educators.

One conference I am really excited about is FETC's Virtual Conference and Online Expo set for April 23rd, 2009. This free event will feature online sessions, a chat feature, and engaging speakers. To register, visit FETC Virtual Conference.

See you there!

Spring Cleaning My Web2.0 Applications

Spring is here and it is the perfect time to get my online life organized....

The introduction of web2.0 tools such as social networking sites have allowed educators to share, collaborate, and reflect. I think these practices are important to improve our individual teaching practices and there is not always time at school to do this. The only problem I have is tending to each of my social networking groups.

Right now, I am keeping up with educational blogs via Google Reader.

I check twitter via cell and web access.

I attempt to keep up with classroom20.com, but have made very few contributions.

I post to my blog, classroom homepage, and school wide book study on various websites.

There has got to be a way to keep them all together. I know programs are being developed to mix these web2.0 application, but I haven't found one that I am super fond of. What is everyone else using to keep track of all these groups and sites?

RealeBooks: Virtual Books

In order to review the parts of speech, I had students create virtual books using free RealeWriter software. Since you must install the free software, your IT department can help you and your students to create virtual books at any age. Once the software is installed, I highly recommend having your students create a storyboard. Once complete, students can start adding text and images into RealeWriter. Their finished products can be printed, emailed, or shared virtually with others.

There are tons of examples on Realebooks website, but you can also view my favorite Parts of Speech Realebook here.

Twitter

If you haven't been introduced to the world of twittering, you are missing out! Twitter is basically a micro-blog used to create and maintain a network of friends. In less than 140 characters, you can sound off, reflect, question, complain, or get it off your chest.

I am obsessed with twitter, hear what I have to say by following me at cgasell.

Google Does it Again...Google Docs Survey!

Absolutely the best new tool from Google, google docs survey feature is awesome. Online surveys are fun to make and an easy way to gather data. Now, Google has unleashed a survey feature in Google docs. Creating questions is easy to do and Google gives you several different question formats to choose from. Once you create your survey, you can either email it or link to a unique URL. The survey results go right into your Google Doc spreadsheet for you to analyze. A great tool for teachers with endless possibilities!

Check out Google's Blog for more information.

Super Bowl Lesson Plans

The Monday morning after the Superbowl, students are always chatting about the big game, TV ads, and how late they stayed up the night before. Instead of fighting these off task conversations, I am going to use the opportunity to teach a lesson about advertisement and persuasion. Thanks to Frank Baker, I have a few tricks up my sleeve to use the Super Bowl to teach!

If you would like to use the Super Bowl to teach a lesson in your classroom, visit...

http://www.frankwbaker.com/super_bowl.htm

FETC 2008 (Friday)

The first session of the day was Using Technology with English Language Learners. The presenter discussed statistics regarding the United States and directed us to the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition. The National Clearinghouse provides statistics, lesson plans, and web links to assist teachers with ELL students.

InternetTutorials.net (search lesson plans)

Colorincolorado.org (lots of resources for parents and teachers)

jason.org (National Geographic Society Adventure Site)

During the second session, I attended a presentation by the University of Central Florida on Digital Storytelling. The presenters discussed ideas for getting students interested in reading by creating digital booktalks. By showing book trailers, suggest-a-book quiz, and interactive booktalking activities. Their site they are working on Digital BookTalks. It is also worth your time to take a look at the UB the Director link which offers teachers and students directions on how to make their own book trailers. It is important to teach students how to critically analyze and tell a story. You could start..."Once upon a time, there was a man." Is this a story? What is missing?

After a short lunch break, I sat in on another featured speaker, Stevan Kalmon. Mr. Kalmon works for the Council on 21st Century Learning and was addressing 21st century assessment.
As he spoke, he passionately explained how we need to make students...learners. He gave many examples of assessment for learning... rubric, assessment cards, conferences, thumbs up, logs or journals, and student led progress monitoring chart.

During the last session of the day, I enjoyed another one of Hall Davidson's presentations, Revenge of the Digital Immigrants. His great sense of humor, entertaining style, and wealth of information made me want to sit back and soak up more information from this dynamic speaker. Information from his presentation can be found Discovery Education Speakers Bureau.

FETC 2008 (After Lunch)

The first session I attended after lunch was Story Mapping with Google Maps and More by Terence Cavanaugh from the University of North Florida. By addressing state standards and new literacies, Google Maps can be used to engage and enrich learning. Many of Google Books show the map of places mentioned in the book. In addition, you can read some of the classics online and they link locations to maps by using Gutenkarte.

EditGrid (www.editgrid.com) is an online spreadsheet tool that can plot longitude and latitude data onto maps.

Classroom Literature Mapping Activities:

Story Map (actual locations)
Effect Story Map (all places mentioned)
Comparison Map (visually compares location)
Virtual Map Pins (add quotes, images, facts about a location)
Area Reading Map (collection of books from a location)

Mr. Cavanaugh's website can be fount at www.drscavanaugh.org or www.unf.edu/~tcavanau.

After a tour of the exhibit hall, I am looking forward to finding out more about copyright. Featured speaker, Gary Becker, helped clear up copyright issues for educators. Below are a few sites worth exploring:

US Copyright Office

TeachAct

Becker's Website

Creative Commons Licensing

The last session of the day was titled Beyond Searching- Guerrilla Tactics to Get the Information You Want and Know What You're Getting. A complete guide is online at www.moadore.net/searching. He gave lots of valuable information to help tackle searches.

FETC 2008

Palm trees, sunshine, and humidity all welcomed me when I returned yesterday to Florida to attend the Florida Educational Technology Conference in Orlando, Florida.

During the first morning session, I attended a differentiated instruction presentation from Orange City School District in Ohio. Referencing Differentiating Instruction with Technology in K-5 Classrooms by Grace Smith and Stephanie Throne, the presenters provided a framework for differentiating instruction while using technology. They provided several interesting links to help teachers to meet the needs of all students:


www.kidsclick.com (use the advanced search feature to search readability levels)

www.easytestmaker.com (username and password needed, print only)

http://www.berghuis.co.nz/abiator/lsi/lsiframe.html (Math virtual manipulatives)

http://voicethread.com (create, comment, and share online voice)

http://classblogmeister.com/ (safe blogging for students/teachers)

http://bubbl.us/ (Free Brainstorming Online Application)

magwiki.pbwiki.com (resources from presentation)



The second session of the day was presented by featured speaker, Hall Davidson. Mr. Davidson is the Director of the Discovery Educator Network and offered a room full of eager participants magic technology tricks using html. Here are some of the best links:

http://www.google.com/language_tools (Using Google to translate text or websites)

www.blackle.com (search google in black to save energy)

Mr. Davidson spent quite a bit of time showing how to use iPods effectively in the classroom. Changing the menu, setting up quizzes, and adding directions make iPods an effective learning tool for students. All the amazing tips and tricks can be found on the DEN blog at http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/media_matters.

He also gave us tons of information about make the most of GoogleEarth. Those handouts can also be found on the DEN blog. Also, you can get a Google Earth Pro license just because you are a educator! Email GEEC@google.com and tell them you want it because you are an educator! Finally, he reminded me of GoogleLitTrips which includes GoogleEarth trips that follow famous literature.

The PowerPoint is located at http://discoveryedspeakersbureau.com.

More Animation Fun

As I continue to search for fun ways to use technology in my classroom, I ran across StickPivot. StickPivot is an easy to use animation program, but unfortunately, for Windows only. At first, I wasn't sure how to create my own stick movie or add new stick characters, but after I played around with it for a few minutes, I got the hang of it.

You have to be creative to use stickpivot. If you need ideas, go to YouTube and type in stick pivot. You will find tons of animations, some that are graphic and violent, but it will give you some ideas for how to use it.

Below is the first stick pivot I created. You will have to click on the picture to see the animation. It was just to get the feel of the program. I feel confident that my students can write their own short stories and animate them using stick pivot. Students could also create stick pivots to reenact historical events, science experiments, and create visual math problems. I will post links to more stick pivot ideas and examples from my students on my teacher website.

Tech4Learning Software

As my holiday break comes to an end, I must admit that I have had fun. Not only relaxing and enjoying the blistering winter weather, but learning some new software. I have fallen for Tech4Learning's great line of products! For less than a nice dinner for two, you can own some powerful software that is kid friendly. After speaking with the Tech4Learning rep, prices drop significantly for site licenses and bundle packages, so make sure to speak to a rep once you get your administration on board.

Although I have played with all the Tech4Learning software products, I have to admit that my favorite is Frames. Frames is an easy to use stop motion animation program. Using photographs, computer generated images, or clay, students can make their own creations. The Tech4Learning website has tons of support for teachers including examples, lesson plans, student worksheets, and curriculum standards. Below is a clamation I created in several hours with a four dollar pack of modeling clay, a digital camera, Frames, and Garageband.

Enjoy!

Student Research

Before winter break, my students began a huge research project. Each student was assigned a science topic and they were to provide me with 100 notecards of information. Although I considered my background with technology, I decided to complete this project the old fashion way. I know it is shocking, but there are some valuable lessons to be learned from creating notecards instead of just copying and pasting text.

So, after teaching copyright and plagiarism and evaluating website skills, my students were ready to complete their notecards. There is tons of information out on the web if you are planning to teach these skills with your students, but I used Oregon School Library for an overview of research skills, Cyberbee and my own knowledge for copyright, and Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators for evaluating websites.

Now, I didn't just throw my students out onto the Internet and expect them to "google it." I gave students some direction and it started with our local library. Currently, my school does not have access to any online databases. And I know, my school is not the only one. So, I sent my kids to our local library site where, with a library card number, they had access to dozens of online databases including Facts on File and FirstSearch. Most students found articles, videos, and pictures related to their topic and were thrilled at how easy it was. I explained to my students that tax dollars and grant money pay for these resources and we should use them!

If students needed more information about their topic, I sent them to Kidspace at the Internet Public Library. Many of them found credible information on the site.

By putting an hour of work up front, I had bookmarked a dozen sites for my students to use to find information. It made the research process less stressful and safer for them. Sometimes, students had a hard time finding information, so if all else failed, I admit, we googled it, but we did it safely using a google safe search.

In the end, I think that many of my students will be returning to their local library website to locate information in the future. It is a great free resources that we need to be promoting in our classrooms!

Fun Learning for All

Happy Holidays!

There are so many fun games out there, but I can think of two that your students will love. I find that friends and family enjoy these games as well. After showing my mom, she constantly gives me updates on her latest scores. My grandmother, mother, and I sat around the computer after dinner and played for hours.

Free Rice is my favorite. Not only because I am an English teacher, but because the site donates rice to developing nations. For every vocabulary word you can define correctly, the site donates rice. I was skeptical at first, so I looked into the site further and couldn't find any complaints.

Another great site to test your geography knowledge is from TravelPod.com. Travelpod hosts travel blogs, but it is also the home of a great geography test. You can test your traveler IQ by seeing how close and how fast you can locate national locations on a map. Visit the Traveler IQ Challenger to test your knowledge of our world. There are also picture challenges and USA location challengers.

My Favorite Things...

I figure if Oprah can have a "favorite things" list then so can I. And just like Oprah, I am going to give all my favorite things away for free to my loyal audience. Now, I don't want to stall the excitement, so here are my favorite things (on the web)...

1. Thinkquest.org (Sign a team up to compete in this worldwide competition. Students build a website and have a chance to win great prizes!)

2. Portaportal.com (Compile a list of your favorite websites to view on any computer. Share your portal with friends, students, and teachers)

3. Teacher's Domain (A new gem brought to us by PBS. Free videos, lesson plans, and professional development for science teachers)

4. Google for Educators (Who doesn't google? Now, google has created a great site with free posters, lesson plans, and tools to make your life easier as a teacher)

5. Read Write Think (The student resources has easy and fun to use interactive activities. Just check to make sure shockware is installed on the computers. Also, site has lessons and web resources)

6. Einstein Chalkboard (Add your own text to Einstein's chalkboard. Have fun and print them! While you are there, try the magic 8 ball and newscaster chick)

7. FCIT (Tons of educator friendly things including clip art, 3D images, LIT2Go, Holocaust resources, and more)

8. Way Back Machine (Find information that may no longer be available on a site. Check out your teacher homepage and see how far you have come)

9. Teachertube.com (Find teachers doing crazy things and a few educational videos too!)

10. eschool news (Get a weekly recap on everything great with educational technology)

So on a lazy afternoon this holiday break, slip into your warmest PJs, make a cup of coffee, curl up with your computer and explore these fantastic websites.

Enjoy!