April 2004 - Posts
Today I observed another teacher in her classroom as part of my new teacher mentoring requirements, and toted along my Tablet. I knew that I was going to need to take some notes, so I figured what better way than with my tablet!
While I was taking notes, part of the teacher/student discussion sparked my attention, so I decided to record it. I hadn't used this feature before, so I was very interested to see how it worked.
I noticed that when I stopped taking notes, and clicked for it to begin to record, a time/date stamp appeared where I stopped taking my notes. I remember hearing or reading about that feature at some point. I think that's a nice feature because then when I listen to the playback, I will know where I left off One thing that was a little difficult for me, and maybe someone knows how to fix this, is that when I wanted to record I had to choose “Tools“ and then “Audio Video Recording“. The recording feature was not docked already in my toolbar. Is this because I haven't used it before? Once I did this the first time, I double clicked on it to move it to the toolbar, and that's where it has remained so far.
Later, when I listened to what I recorded, I noticed that the recording was really more clear than I had expected. I was able to understand what the students and the teacher were saying, and even pick up on some notes that I had missed.
Using OneNote to take notes and record has made writing my observation a breeze! I am excited about using my Tablet in my class tonight, Reading in the Secondary Content area. I want to try taking more notes and using the audio recorder some more too. Also, anybody know of a quick way to insert more space? I'm still going to “Tools”. I would think that a icon would appear on the toolbar?
The last couple of days have been insane. I have been working on my high school's website for the last 2 months or so. It's honestly been slow going. I really don't know how to code all that well. I'm learning, but most things that I've picked up on have been from when I was actually in high school and we made Angelfire pages (remember those, anyone?) or when I've dabbled with pages myself and used various programs to do so. I've finally finished most of the pages for the school, and it looks a lot better, if I do say so myself! :) (I know, patting myself on the back, lol)
However, I can't get into the FTP server from home for some reason, one that no one can figure out right now, so all of my work on the web page, plus my teaching work, is being crammed into my planning time. You can probably guess what that results in, something being dropped for now. Unfortunately, that has been my grading. I have graded absolutely nothing since last week. :(
Well, now that the page is up, as of yesterday afternoon, I'm not touching it for at least today, so I can get myself caught up with my kids, they are the most important thing to me. However, with administrative pressures, ahh, anyone out there in education or that knows someone in, can probably figure out what I mean. Bosses are bosses in no matter what field you work, they always want something yesterday. Ok, there was my vent.
I wonder if anyone out there has any experience with using any type of student grading software with a tablet. My school currently has a site license for Misty City's Grade Machine and that is what I have been using on my Dell laptop that the district provided. However, before I jump in headfirst by putting the software on my tablet, I want to make sure there isn't a better software that maybe I should be using.
Anyone ever use any grading software on a tablet?
Today I had an interview and decided to tote my tablet with me. Primarily because this is the interview for which I had submitted a inked on application via a PDF e-mail and wanted to be able to show it to them in case that came up.
In fact, my tablet has become my newest favorite interview prop. One of the questions had something to do with how would I like to increase technology use in the classroom. I sure had a lot to say about that! Most of it centered on how I would like to use a tablet in my room as well. Fortunately the interviewers seemed to be excited about technology as well, so that way I didn't look to much like a rambling fool (at least I hope I didn't!) while I gushed praises about the many uses of a Tablet PC.
I absolutely love my SPOT watch, the Abacus model by Fossil. But, it wasn't always that way. In fact, I was quite resistant to the adoption of my watch.
In the beginning, when Peter suggested that I wear his watch, I wanted to shout "No, No, No!". For a number of somewhat superficial reasons, now that I think about it: First, it's huge compared to the types of watches that I typically wear. Second, in my somewhat fashionable opinion (at least I like to think so), it's very ugly. But those were my only two reasons. I started out wearing it mostly as an experiment, to see if I would use it. I honestly didn't think that I would be wearing it for more than a week. That was almost 3 months ago, and I'm still wearing it.
My SPOT watch has a lot of nifty features. However, I really don't use a lot of them. I mainly use the News and Weather channels, messaging, and now I'm using the Calendar feature because Peter helped set up my synching between Tablet, SPOT, phone, and PDA (wow am I techie). I'm not sure how I like that yet, so I'll form my opinion on that later. My News channel receives local and national headlines, business news, and entertainment news (not to thrilled with the last one, never very entertaining to me). Although I could put the watch on Glance and see through the various channels, I have found that I prefer to keep it on time and then change it to the News channel when I want to read it.
Although I never thought of myself as a weather fan, I really like the weather channel. I always check it out in the mornings before getting ready for school (I teach high school), and pick out my clothing accordingly. My watch is set up to receive the current weather, the wind chill, sunrise/sunset times, and the weather forecast. I also have it set up to receive weather information from my favorite cities, Seattle and Prague.
I can't say enough about how much I love the Messaging feature. But at the same time, as the messaging is only one-way, there really isn't too much to say about it! However, I love being able to get messages from Peter throughout the day. I'm also excited to hear my watch beep and check my message. (Even if it is just reminding me about something I should pick up on the way home from work).
Another feature I have found to be very useful is the Timer. I use this ALL the time with my students. We do activities called warm-ups in the beginning of class and I'll give them 5-10 minutes to complete the activity and it beeps just loud enough for a class full of quiet (yeah right!) high school students to hear and finish up their work. I also use it throughout my classes because we do a lot of timed group work as well.
I don't have too many complaints about my watch. Style, well, I've actually gotten used to it. In fact, I'm such a geek girl, I'd probably wear it out dressed up at this point. The problem is, once you've gotten a SPOT watch, you're hooked. At least I have been. Why wear a normal watch, when this one receives news, entertainment, weather, messages, and holds my appointments? It makes all other watches seem so overrated. Take that Rolex!!
More to follow on using the Calendar.
Yesterday, I used Journal for the first time. I opened up a PDF application and then printed it to Journal so I could fill it out with the pen. It was much easier than I thought it would be! Once it was printed into Journal, I could fill out the application as if I was filling one out on paper with an actual pen. Except unlike real, paper applications, it was easy to fix any mistakes. No more copying an application several times in case of mistakes! (Mom's advice, of course).
After completing the application, I saved it as a PDF file, and e-mailed it to the person I have an interview with tomorrow. That way, she has a chance to review it before meeting me, and the entire thing is filled out, even including my signature at the end.
My cat, Jasmine, AKA "Miss Kitty", loves to do a lot of things. Namely eat and sleep. However, another one of her favorite things is to follow my pen or pencil with her paws her mouth as I write. I had never thought that writing on the Tablet would produce the same kitty joy/owner problems as when I write with a normal pen or pencil. While using the pen to chatting with Lora, Jasmine leaped across our living room with great bounds and jumped onto the couch. I thought she was just coming to claim her spot in my lap, but no such luck! Jasmine had seen the pen, and was on a mission. A chewing mission. Lets just say that kitty teeth did not make contact with the pen, and a slightly stunned kitty (but unharmed and in one piece for all you animal-activists out there) ended up on the carpet and not on the couch. Poor Miss Kitty.
Today I used OneNote for the first time. I started to use Journal, but then Peter reminded me that I have OneNote as well, so I decided to give that a go. I was reading a book about Seattle and looking at the various school districts (hmm...wonder why I might be doing that?!) and decided that I wanted to write down some of the school district websites. I opened up OneNote and made a new category that I labeled "Job Stuff" and started writing the districts and their websites down. OneNote seems to be fairly easy to use so far. Unlike using the traditional pen and paper method, if I decide I need to enter notes above where I just wrote, I can actually insert additional writing space. That's cool. Anyone remember when they were in school and would take notes, and then last minute, the teacher would decide to tell you something additional to what you just wrote about? That seemed to happen to me all of the time. OneNote seems perfect for situations just like that.
Oh, and OneNote allows you to be creative too....I topped off my notes by highlighting in bright pink! (I know, I know, I'm girly)
Once we have arrived back in Delaware on Tuesday, and caught up on sleep!, I have several things that I would like to do with my Tablet to get ready for going back to teaching on the 16th. First, I'd like to import my Grade Machine files and program on to my computer so I can start working on student grades with my Tablet. I'm very curious as to how, and if, I will be able to use inking with the program. Then, I plan on working on my lesson plans for next week. As a new teacher in my state, I am required to submit lesson plans on a weekly basis, which honestly, isn't a big deal. In fact, it makes me stay focused because that way I'm well-planned for the week ahead. Someone said, I don't remember who, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail". That is totally true. Especially in some of my teaching classes. I'm in a block schedule, and have a class that lasts almost 2 and a half hours. If you don't jam pack those hours with appropriate lessons and transitions (moving from topic to topic), the kids get understandably restless, and things unravel from there.
In the past I have typed in my lesson plans in a Word file that I created. I'm going to try inking in the file and see how that works. Then I would like to work on devising several lessons that utilize the tablet in teaching. I have a type of software called Vision in my classroom, and I feel I will be using that with it. Vision is a software that allows a master computer (which ever one you set) to control the other computers. It has a lot of useful features, from blocking out all screens to a blank screen, so demoing something from the master computer to all of the others (very helpful in demonstration instruction), to a couple of other features. My district recently added a internet-blocking plug-in, which hasn't worked so well for me yet. I'm still tweaking that. Soon I will be writing a review of using Vision on a Tablet, because I plan on having it installed on my Tablet.
Also, since I see one of the many great things about the Tablet being the increased mobility options, I'm going to persuade Peter to part with an access point, so I can install wireless in my room. We already have Ethernet, with numerous jacks, so I don't see it as being to much of a problem. I honestly don't know too much about wireless, just that I love it in our home, and in our home-away-from home right now at the Hyatt, and think it would be great to walk around on the internet in my classroom. I picture using my Tablet, over wireless, with the Vision software, and being able to control all of the computers in my classroom as I walk around and monitor my room.
I just thought of a neat idea...(at least I think it's neat, LOL), I told Peter that I would love to have a bumper sticker (or window cling for that matter) that said something along the lines of "I love my Tablet PC" written in handwriting style, or maybe one that said "Look Ma, I inked it!, Proud Owner of a Tablet PC". As corney as these might sound, I've only been a tablet owner for about 24 hours, and I'm already bursting with pride like a proud parent. So I'd love to share that joy with anyone who happened to look at my car, a.k.a. BumbleB.
Earlier in the morning I was working on sending out e-cards from Hallmark's online site, and I realized when I woke up this morning, how much easier it would have been if the cards supported inking. Once you have previewed a card design, you get the option to "Personalize" it by typing in text. What if you were able to do this by inking? This thought came about because last night I also sent my Mom a handwriting e-mail, which she announced that she loved because it felt more personal. I think that it would be great if companies like Hallmark, and other online e-card providers, would support tablet inking technology. Just my 2 cents. What do you think?
Today is the end of Day 1 in Seattle with my SPOT watch, a Abacus model, by Fossil. Before leaving, I posted on SPOTStop.com to find out if there was anything I needed to know about traveling with my watch before I left. The people at SPOTstop were very helpful, and I was able to set up via the MSN Direct site the cities I was traveling through. I set up Philadelphia, Chicago, and Seattle, because I was leaving out of Philly, had a scheduled layover in Chicago, and my end destination for my vacation was in Seattle. However, because of weather, I just barely met my connecting plane in Chicago (in fact, I sprinted to my Seattle flight just in time), and didn't notice that I didn't check out whether or not I had received local content from Chicago.
But I have noticed today in Seattle that I received local news and weather. The weather feature really is handy where ever I go because it really does help me get dressed in the morning. According to my Abacus it was scheduled to get up into the high 60s today, so I dressed appropriately,and was comfortable all day. SPOT saves the day!! Heehee. The news features were informative, and at times funny, as well. I was able to learn a little more about a city that I had never been to before.
I just had a thought...I wonder if someday there will be a channel for local reviews of hot spots, like restaraunts, things to do, etc... I sure could have used that today!
So I found out by way of our techie that our Media Specialist (I believe that is the P.C. term for Librarians these days, at least according to my Mom who is one!) had a tablet! I found this out through a discussion about how our district had purchased several wireless projection systems along with something called a starboard. Upon checking out this starboard, I was really wondering why they simply hadn't purchased tablets. This starboard thing is in the neighborhood of $10,000. You can get a decent tablet these days in the $1800 to $2200 range, so it didn't make too much sense to me.
I raced up to the library to chat with our Specialist and discovered that he had one of the new HPs. Awesome! So far, I like the HP tablets the best. Peter has, I believe, a first gen one, and that is the one that I have had the most experience with. I babbled on about some of the benefits with him, and shared that I plan on using one in my classroom in the near future if I get the opportunity to do so.
And here I thought that I would be the first person in the school to sport a tablet....ahhh...That's life!
How corney do I sound? But seriously, I'm really starting to get hooked on
SpotStop.com and the forums. The people there offer some great advice, and are willing to put up with a newbie SPOT watch fan like myself.
And so I'm counting down. Spring break for me begins this Friday, and I don't have to head back to work until the 19th. I will so enjoy this break. As much as I love my students, I really won't mind having a break from teenagers for a little while.