19 Pencils ls Looking for Help #ElemChat

I'm helping out some friends at 19Pencils.com who are looking for Elementary Teachers. Please read below. 

Are you a K-6 teacher that enjoys exposing your students great web sites when you can find them? 19Pencils would love to get your feedback on what helps you make the most of the web. 19Pencils strives to make content for you and your students easy to discover and easy to manage but it's your input that can help make it even better.

Do you want to be able to assign specific activities to your students? Do you want to be able to provide easy access for parent's to your web resources? We want to know your thoughts.

Follow this link for more information. 

Thank a Collaborator

As the year winds down, I always try and take the time and think about what I was able to accomplish. This year, more than others it seems, was all about collaboration. I have had a chance to work with some of the most amazing people and I thought it would be crazy for me to keep my praise and thanks all to myself. I worked with some awesome people and here are just a few, in no particular order, that I want to show some love. If we worked together and I do not have you listed here, please do not feel sad. I love working with everyone I collaborate, but have to limit the post as best as I can.

Kelly Tenkely -Project PLN

I know I have written more than my fair share of posts about her awesomeness over the past couple of years, but that is because she is constantly awesome. Even though she has started a school (Yes, you read that right. STARTED A FREAKING SCHOOL.), she has still helped me co-edit Project PLN. It has been a tough year filled with deadlines and extension, but we couldn't be prouder of what we have shared with all of you. Project PLN has always been about sharing and we have loved what people have sent in. As we get ready for the December/January Issue, I know that I would not be able to pull this off without her. Kelly, thank you for being a great collaborator and an amazing friend. I would work on any project with you. Just ask.

Shannon M Miller and Shawn Hyer - The Epic Romeo and Juliet Project

I can't even believe we were able to pull it off. Seriously, it still seems like a blur. Without their help, I never would have been able to put together the most amazing plan I have ever conceived and will ever implement. Shannon brought Shawn and I together and we were able to create a project that will stand the test of time. Students will talk about this project at reunions and I have the DVD to share with them. I am so proud of that DVD, I have a copy in my Firebox that I use to store birth certificates, passports and other important documents. That is how much that project means to me. Thank you Shannon and Shawn for your dedication to a crazy idea that inspired students to take Shakespeare and make it their own.

Kelli Fimbinger and Jeff Nardone - The Tower and TheTowerPulse.net

Two years ago, Jeff asked me if I would be interested in helping him start an online version of the schools national award winning weekly newspaper. He assured me that I would take care of the tech end and he would handle the journalism end. Since Jeff is a fun guy to work with, I said yes with little hesitation. Due to some scheduling issues, I was not able to run the class and this new teacher to the district came in and was given the class. It was the best decision the district has made in a long time. Kelli is an amazing person to work with on The Pulse. She is a great English teacher who has pushed me to be creative and fun in my lessons and an amazing sounding board for class issues. Jeff invited me into the world of journalism and showed me how a paper is made. It can be tough to fit into a well oiled machine like The Tower, but The Pulse was able to win an award in our first year and we are going for the top award in online journalism this year. This would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of Jeff and Kelli. I couldn't think of working with anyone else on these projects.

19Pencils.com

I have had the chance to work with 19Pencils.com on a consulting basis. I do this from time to time to help sites with what teachers want or need. I've worked with a handful of groups, but these guys have been amazing. They have taken criticism well and want to know what teachers and students really want, not what can we sell them. In a world where there are many "educational" business, these guys are dedicated to making a good product for teachers and students. I do not speak for groups that I do not support whole heartily, so believe me when I say 19Pencils is legit and with your time.

Tim Gwynn - #EduBro

Tim is my brother from another brother and my chief source of comic relief when things get lame. We put together the best event at ISTE11 and will be planning an even more epic event for ISTE12. I plan to keep it classy in San Diego and I wouldn't do it without my #EduBro.

Edutopia.org

I love writing for these guys and gals. I have had the chance to hang out with the workers of Edutopia and they are some of the coolest people in the world. I love getting a chance to write for them and share my thoughts on tech integration. Writing for Edutopia is exciting because it forces me to write a bit differently than I do for this site and I think it is important to do that for a writer. Also, I get to tell people I write for George Lucas. That's never a bad thing to share with Star Wars geeks.

Edcamp Detroit 

Michael, Karen, Linda, Chris, Melanie, Mary and company all played a major part in bringing Edcamp to Detroit. I never thought it was going to happen until that Saturday rolled around and things got started. I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. People showed up, filled out the board and shared. Edcamp fell the same week and the end of my Epic Romeo and Juliet Project, so my brain was all over the place. The Edcamp crew came together and made sure that everything went smoothly. As we start to gear up for Edcamp Detroit 2012, I know that my crew can accomplish anything we set our minds to. Bonus, I will not be expecting a child next May either. That actually leads me to my last collaborator.

Jennifer Provenzano - Wife and Chief Collaborator

I know I said that this was not in a particular order, but that is kind of a lie. My wife has been my best and most important collaborator this year. Any idea I have had has run through her first. Her views are invaluable to me. I can't imagine having accomplished any of the above without her support. Most of all, we collaborated on the most beautiful baby in the world. As collaborations go, he by far is the best finished product.

Thanks to everyone that has risked working with me this past year. I encourage everyone to take a moment and thank the people you loved working with this year.

- @TheNerdyTeacher

19 Pencils - A Review #EdChat #ElemChat

I first heard of 19 Pencils from Kelly Tenkely's amazing site iLearnTechnology.com. It intrigued me and I signed up to see everything it had to offer and was impressed. That was months ago and I got caught up in other tech endeavors and let it sit for a while. The creators of 19 Pencils asked if I would come back to the site and take a look at their new features and share the site with my readers if I liked what I saw. I went back, liked what I saw and am here to share it with all of you.

19 Pencils is a customizable site for teachers that allows them to share websites, quizzes and videos in one location. The best part is that the links are shared visually on 19 Pencils. Instead of a page filled with URLs, 19 Pencils presents the uploaded links as icons students can click.

Once a student clicks on one of the links, they are not taken from the site, a separate box opens on the page that opens the link.

I love this feature because young kids can quickly get lost on the web if they are constantly taken from one page to the other. This allows all of the students to stay on the teacher site and freely and easily move from one resource to the other.

19 Pencils also allows for teachers to upload assignments for students to follow and provide links to the sites they want students to access to complete the assignment. I posted a question for my students on Transcendentalism and provided 8 sites for them to reference. After their research, students can post their responses on their blog. It was very easy to quickly create the assignment and upload the site links I wanted the students to access. The UI is great for beginners to website creation. 

Another little feature I think is very cool is the teacher's note. There is a little spot next to the class title, that is a note from the teacher. I think it can be a great place for reminders for the students. It could be a note to remember to bring their book to class or get a permission slip signed. Little touches like this really make 19 Pencils a nice tool for classroom teachers.

 

19 Pencils also offers a quiz feature that teachers could utilize. A teacher can enter in questions and answers to a new quiz. Then, the teacher would load their student's first name and last initial to create login and passwords to give the students. Once the student has the login and password, they can access the site and take the quiz. What the login and password allows the teacher to do is track the student's use of the site. There have been more than enough times where students are not accessing my site for materials they need, but insist they are on the site all of the time. This feature allows the teacher to track the site's use by students. This information could prove very valuable during parent conferences. 

The last feature I want to mention is The Playground. The Playground is a place on the class page that allows students and teacher to communicate. These could be longer messages left by the teacher or questions left by a student. They could even be messages left by parents using their child's login. 

In a class setting, questions could be quickly asked and answered using The Playground. The 19 Pencils website also looks awesome on iPads which is great news for teachers that have class sets of iPads. Students could do a complete backchannel using The Playground feature. The best part of that, is that the conversation will be saved on the site for students go back and check and students who were not in school that day could follow along with the conversation from home. 

I recommend 19 Pencils to teachers that are looking to easily and effectively:

- integrate a website into their classroom 

- save websites and videos with visual representations

- monitor their students online activity

- create assignments with references to relevant web resources

- add a teacher's note so that students have a clear understanding of what's expected of them

- create quizzes from scratch or use pre-made flashcard quizzes

- get instant feedback from your students with the social media Playground feature

Here's a link to the full set of features at 19Pencils:

http://www.19pencils.com/overview

If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a line at @TheNerdyTeacher.

19 Pencils is a paid sponsor of The Nerdy Teacher

The @19Pencils Search Box #EdChat #ElemChat

Getting the most out of your 19 Pencils Search Box

Now that 19 Pencils offers a great search tool to place on your blog or wiki, there are many great things you can do with them. Here is just one of the fun and engaging ways you can utilize this new tool from 19 Pencils.

Even though students might think differently, teachers do not know of every website out there. Nobody could ever play with every website and provide feedback for the students. Now, the 19 Pencils search engine can allow students to do some of the searching on their own.

A teacher can create an assignment where students use the search tool as a way to find sites on their own and provide feedback to the class. This would be a great way to teach some Internet searching skills and website evaluation.

By providing a rubric or form for the students to follow, the kids can search for great sites using the 19 Pencils search engine and then provide feedback on the form. Students could then use the form as a guide to a class presentation describing the site they found and how it would be helpful to the students in class. This simple assignment can help students grow in many different areas.

For teachers, student feedback is so important. Students will be able to review sites and let the teacher know what they think is valuable and that is the best feedback a teacher can get.

By using the 19 Pencils search box, a teacher can feel safe knowing that the websites that pop up a re appropriate for students to review and utilize in their learning.

We hope you enjoy the search box and the new pieces of 19 Pencils we continue to add to make this the best teacher tool in your belt.

Happy New Year!

- @TheNerdyTeacher

19 Pencils is a paid sponsor of The Nerdy Teacher