Web Tools 2.0 -- What Web Tools?

This past Wednesday I was lucky enough to join a few colleagues for an in-service hosted by John Kuglin in Monticello, Indiana.  This will mark about the 10th different time that I have participated in one of John's presentations.  It all started back in the fall of 2011 when I joined a fellow teacher of mine for the "Indiana Educators 10 Days Project".  Instantly I was engaged!  I felt I could see a way to make my subject of high school math not so boring and monotonous.  Since that first day I have been in contact with John through email and through other presentations that he has presented.  Each time I participate and then leave one of his programs I always feel invigorated and ready to take the education technology world by storm!  That is...until I get to my school computer.

As an example, after one of John's in-services last year I learned how to incorporate YouTube videos (blocked at my school) through multiple different outlets.  However, here were my results:

• TedEd (website is not blocked, but one cannot view the YouTube videos = Blocked)
• Popcorn Maker (same as above)

This year I have enjoyed losing the filter battle to these wonderful web sites:

• Thinglink (Blocked)
• EdCanvas (Blocked)
• Weebly (Blocked)
• Cover-It-Live (Blocked)
• Google Docs (Blocked)
• Anything Google except "Search" and "Images" (Blocked)

Who really blocks all of the GREAT things that Google has to offer?  I was hoping to use Google Forms this year with my Flipped Lessons so I could get a quick survey of how the students felt they understood the lesson's material.  Yeah...not so much.  I have since moved on past this unfortunate non-use of Forms.  I figured I wouldn't miss it.  That is, until I read this article by Kevin Brookhouser.  It was titled, "10 Sentences Google Apps Teachers Never Hear".  Man did that make me even more frustrated.  I felt (and still feel) like I am missing a boat here.  But then I realized, it isn't me that is getting hurt.  I'm not the one that has to learn to collaborate, create, and share knowledge with strangers all around the globe.  Nope, the ones that will be hurt are my students.

I guess I'll just have to keep teaching mathematics the same way, each day, every year, because math never changes.  It was dry and boring when I was in high school and it is still dry and boring as I teach it now.  I'll keep sticking with the teacher-led direct instruction from the front of the class.  My classes will still learn math the same way as their mother and father, or older sister and brother.  By the wonderful method of "drill-and-kill" worksheets and 20-25 problems from their book.  And then I will assess them through a standardized test at the end of each chapter.  Yeah...that's the ticket!  

At this moment, I feel very disenchanted and held back because of our school's filter.  There have been numerous times throughout this year that I have spent a couple hours at night creating something "engaging" and "exciting" for my students so we can get away from the drill-and-kill worksheets and book work during class.  I'll double-check that I can open it on my computer first.  If it opens (50% of the time), then I will pass it along to my students and they will try the activity on their student laptops.  Success rate = 25-40% of the time.  Therefore, my overall efficiency rating is about 25%.  Awesome!  Excellent!  I'm so glad I can take time away from my kids at home to create something for my kids at school only to have it blocked.  Ugh......

I guess I wouldn't be so frustrated if this was an issue with other area high schools.  There in lies the problem.  Plenty of other schools have the ability to pull these resources from the web.  However, we are not.  Why is that?  Even more upsetting is I never get a full fledged answer from any of my administration.  

Frustrating...

Nonetheless, I will keep forging ahead in education technology.  I will keep looking for new and innovative ways to engage my students.  Not because I have to, but because I want to.  I want to find that resource(s) that makes the kids want to come to my math class.  I want math to be as exciting as an elective class to attend.  Therefore, I WILL continue looking and creating and trying, and looking and creating and trying, and so on.  I'm sure there will be more failures along the way and more battles to fight against the dark tyranny of school networks and filters.  But not because I  have to... but because I want to.

An Introduction to Edmodo

I was first introduced to Edmodo at a conference that I attended back in November 2012.  I was attending the "Best, New Strategies for Using iPads, Phones, Mobile Devices and Other Cutting-Edge Technology to Strengthen Classroom Content Learning" conference hosted by Mr. Zachary Walker.  It was during this conference that he showed the attendees how Edmodo could be used in a large-group setting or in a classroom setting.  I thought it was a pretty neat platform but unfortunately I "thought" I did not have enough time to implement it into my classrooms until the next school year.  After a little more dabbling in the Edmodo world over the next couple weeks I decided that next year was too late!  I needed to do it now!  So I implemented it in 3 of my 6 classes for 2nd semester.  I use it for my Algebra 1 class and both of my Algebra 2 classes.  I decided to wait to use it for my 3 PreCalculus classes until next year.  (We already use Webassign for PreCalculus that has an online homework platform built into it.)  

So far, my students seem to "love" Edmodo.  They appreciate the fact that I post daily assignments, written notes, videos of example problems (when I get to them), and practice quizzes for them to view at their leisure.  A few of them have started using the cameras on their smartphones to send me a picture of the problem they are working on, but may be at a stopping point.  This helps me because I can view their work and then reply to them from my laptop, my iPad, or my iPhone by using the FREE app.  I really enjoy the accessibility that the Edmodo app provides to me so I can answer students questions in a relatively quick manner.

During the last week of January, I attended the FETC (Florida Education Technology Consortium) Conference in Orlando, FL.  Edmodo was the social networking platform that provided links to each concurrent session, workshop, or keynote session that would be presented at the conference.  Since a person's schedule did not afford them the luxury of being able to attend all of the sessions they may have wanted, Edmodo provided a central hub where all participants could join using a group code and still be able to access any resources or links that were provided by that session's speaker.  This opened my eyes even bigger!  People had to know about this wonderful website and app!  

Therefore, my dear friend Scot and I have embarked on a new journey to get the news of Edmodo out to our teaching peers in our school corporation.  So far, we have recorded 3 video tutorials for teachers to view as a quick means to get them introduced to Edmodo and its highest regarded features.  We are going to use Edmodo as our "central hub" to share new and exciting technology web tools with our corporation.  Yes, this could be done without Edmodo, but with it's simple interface (similar to Facebook) and its multitude of tools to be able to share items with one another is priceless!  So "Thank You" Edmodo!  You have now added one more thing to my teaching career that has made it even more enjoyable.

Long Time Reader, First Time Blogger

For the past few years I have really gotten into reading other people's ideas and strategies of how things work and/or should work.  After attending the FETC conference two weeks ago, I realized it is about time that I start using my wonderful AP English skills, that I learned from Mr. Beymer back at Blackford High School, and start my own blog.  (I still think I won the most races to lunch coming from his room.)  The original idea for this blog is share my insights and thoughts on education technology, happenings in my classroom at Twin Lakes High School, and to use a source of reflection for my own professional development.  I am sure it will take many different forks in the road before I find its final destination, but isn't that how life is anyway?!  Therefore, I can only promise you that I will maintain that this blog as a sharing space concerning only educational issues and I will not be promoting other events, such as how I am coming along on my ongoing project in the garage (4 months and counting), my daughter Alyse's super reading abilities as a kindergartner, or Keegan's latest super hero that he saved from drowning in the dogs' water bowl.  My focus will be on education, as it always seems to be according to my wife Terra, and I hope that it will be entertaining and maybe even enlightening for some.

So PLEASE, feel free to add any constructive criticism in the "Comments" section as this will help me along in my new adventure.  Also, if you have any great ideas that you would like shared with others, I would be happy to include them on here as well.  If you would like to follow me at any time on Twitter, my handle is:  @MrKline_TL  Or you can feel free to email me as well.  I look forward to this adventure and thanks for joining me in it!