Using my @IdeaPaint on the desks #EdChat #EngChat

I'm excited to share this lesson with all of you that had my students drawing on their desks!

At the start of the second semester, I painted my desktops with IdeaPaint so my students could have an extra paperless space to take notes, draw diagrams and doodle. All of their drawings and notes can then be saved directly into Evernote and become a searchable part of their notes system.

We are wrapping up our unit on Gothic Literature and I wanted to give my students a chance to be creative. Each student was given one dry erase marker and given 20 minutes to draw. The students were not told what to draw and they had no idea how the drawings were going to be used. They just needed to draw. It could be just shapes, trees, sunshine, or anything they want. After the 20 minutes, I had every student stand at the front of the room and I randomly selected students to find another seat at a different table. Once there, I told the students there assignment is to write a gothic story based on the image on their desk. They need to include at least four of the six Gothic Elements discussed in class and use imagery to describe the image in front of them.

There were some groans, but once students started to settle in to the idea, there were some happy faces. I changed it up the next hour and had students switch desks twice and added their own art to the desk and then told them to write a Gothic story based on that picture. I can keep changing it up for each class to keep it fresh. When it comes to creative writing, there are no limitations.

For those of you who do not have IdeaPaint covered desks, this works great with pieces of construction paper, computer paper or lined paper. Give the students one marker or crayon and tell them to get to work. The picture they have to write about can become the cover of their story.

Guest Post: What We Can't Tell You #edchat

Here is a guest post from a reader I wanted to share.

There are so many people out there that think they know what teachers go through each and every day. They really have no idea what it is like on any given day in the classroom. I wanted to share one story of what it's like to be a teacher.

Share this with the next person that says teachers shouldn't complain because they get 3 months off each year. 

(Editor's Note: Some information was blacked out due to privacy laws.)

Making Connections

I had an awesome opportunity to talk to some great English teachers the other day. We talked about digital tools and we also talked about connecting with other teachers. One teacher asked me how can they connect with other teachers. They were on Twitter, but they found it hard to reach out to teachers and engage them in conversation. I gave them some tips and tricks and I thought I would share them here so they could share them with other teachers in the school.

Step One: Establish a Social Media Presence

This can be through the creation of a blog and/or Twitter account. If people want to connect, they need something that will connect them to other people. Blogs are a great way to expand on your ideas and Twitter is a great way to share your blog with other people. It is the route that I used and it has allowed me to meet some of my best friends. By having a blog and a Twitter account allowed me to connect with so many other teachers that are active in the blogging community and Twitter. It was a slow start, but I did connect with many great educators.

Step Two: Lurk and Then Engage on Twitter Chats

Find a Twitter chat that resonates with you. There are many great chats out, so find the one that that meets your needs. Once there, take some time and see what the conversation is like and how the pacing for this chat works. After a couple of weeks, I suggest you start to engage the people in the chat. Answer a few questions, respond to others who are in the chat. Start to follow these educators and become a regular participant these chats. I became really involved in #EdChat and met so many great people through the chat. It was a great way for me to expand my PLN. #EngChat was another great chat I used to meet many amazing educators passionate about learning and sharing.

Step Three: Connect Outside of the Chat Stream

Once you have become comfortable in the chat world, it is important to start engaging educators outside that one hour a week time frame. These could be simple questions and friendly conversations. Twitter for educators is a very friendly space and many of are always looking for interesting new people to connect with and share great ideas. Also, now that you have started to connect with many different educators, feel comfortable to start sharing your blog posts with the Twitter world. If the blog posts lends itself to a specific chat, add that hashtag to your tweet. Personally, I am always looking to for new posts to read. I find most of them on Twitter and I add them to my RSS feed if I love what I see.

Avoid spamming people with your blog posts though. Time to time I think I am guilty of this, so it is important to have conversations and the sharing of other great posts and not just a one-way conversation where it is your work all of the time. If people like your post, it will be re-tweeted around the world multiple times over.

Step Four: Connect at a Conference

Once you have connected with many of these great educators, see if any of them are going to be attending any of the conferences you are interested. If they are, see if people would be interested in a Tweet-up. Tweet-ups are a great way to take the digital connection you have spent time working on and making it a personal connection. Three years ago, I went to my first ISTE in Denver and I had my first Tweet-up. It was awesome. I got to meet so many people face to face that I had only shared tweets. Many of these people are close friends now that I can go to for help, support or just a good laugh. Heck, I met my brother from another mother this way (@TGwynn). Connecting at conferences is a great way to take engagement with your educational peers to another level.

Step Five: Don't Give Up

Stick with your blogging and tweeting. Don't feel like you need to post every dar or tweet every minute, but make Social Media a part of your routine. Continue to engage more educators on twitter and write what you want. Don't let yourself get stressed over your Twitter stream. You can't see everything, so just relax and be patient. If it is really good, someone else will tweet it again. Do not get obsessed with the number of followers you have. Numbers will grow and varying speeds. Just focus on being you and let the numbers game play itself out. Lastly, be you. People will read your blog and follow you on Twitter because you are you and you are the only you out there. We have have very original ideas to share and educators need more voices, not fewer.

I hope this helps those of you out there that are on the fence when it comes to engaging on Social Media. It is not easy to put yourself out there, but we expect our students to do this to some degree, maybe it is time to practice what we teach?

If you have any questions or just want to connect with me, you can follow me on Twitter @TheNerdyTeacher or shoot me an email.

Awesome Annotations with Livescribe #EngChat #EdChat

A group of students were not happy with the current selection of books in our curriculum, so they started their own book club. I agreed to come on as a co-adviser because I love to read and I support students who love to read.

The group will meet once a week and we will discuss part of a book the group has chosen. The first book the group chose is The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides. I love this pick because it is a great book and he is actually from the community I teach. The story is actually set in the city the students live, so that should make for some interesting conversations.

Anyway, I really wanted to make sure I did a good job reading and annotating this story so I could share with the group. I feel I have a high bar to meet since I'm an English teacher. I didn't want to just download a book and annotate that way and I didn't want to just buy a book and highlight it. I wanted to do a little bit more with the notes, but wasn't sure what to do.

Well, Livescribe was the perfect solution to my problem. I have the Livescribe Sky pen and I recently purchased Livescribe Sticky Notes. By using these two items, I can take notes on the Sticky Notes and not only save them in the book, but they are saved in Evernote.

I can take the Sticky Notes with me and leave them in the book as I read. With my pen by my side, I can just add the notes as they come up and annotate the book as well. This book club idea has me thinking though.

What if I took the books we read in class and did my own annotations using the Sticky Notes? After the notes were saved, I could then post a public link on my website or drop those notes in another shared notebook with my students and they could have my notes while they read. Maybe note specific notes, but perhaps I add guiding questions. The Livescribe pen and the Sticky Notes can change the way I teach annotation with my students and can add a layer of class discussion that I haven't been able to have.

If I allow the students to edit the notes I share with them, the students could actually add their thoughts and ideas to the annotated notes I left. This could create a crowdsourced collection of annotations for the entire class to see. This could have a serious impact on how my students study and share. It can also really help some of my struggling readers to see what others are thinking why they read and can also add their thoughts.

I think I am going to try this for Gatsby or Catcher this semester. I know that it will be some work on my end upfront, but once I do it the first time, I will have the annotated notes in Evernote and in my book for years to come.

For those of you looking at different ways to use their Livescribe pen, I think this is a fun and exciting way to use annotations in the classroom. Stay tuned as I explore Livescribe Pens in my classroom.

If you want to start your Evernote journey now, follow this link to sign up!