January In-Service

Our activator for the afternoon session today will "The SAMR Model of Technology Integration with Google Docs."

Citations Take Two

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."  This is a line from a John Lennon song.  Others sources claim Allen Saunders is it's creator.  Check out Quote Investigator to help figure out this mystery.  My whole reason for bringing up this quote is it's meaning.  Even though I made some great plans for last week, "life" in the form of a snowstorm happened.  The results of the storm was an extra day off which in turn resulted in two ILT sections not having class at all.  So ILT #1 and ILT #3, you will be working on our citation lesson from last week.  It is an important lesson, and I don't want you to miss it.  I will be out today and Mr. Frazier will be leading you through this lesson.  Please use the information below to successfully complete your introduction to MLA citations.

You will start off class by watching the Prezi, "Plagiarism & Citing Sources."  If you don't know what a Prezi is, have no fear.  It is a great slideshow with a bit of a twist.  To move through the Prezi, you will need to click on the arrow at the bottom of the page.  Each click will "zoom" you to the next slide or piece of information.
Once you have finished this Prezi, you will then practice writing a MLA citation for the website,

"iPads in schools:  The right way to do it."  You will use the resource, "Citing Internet Sources." There is a hard copy of this resource in the Workstation Resource folder next to your workstation (it's yellow.)  If you take a look at the bottom of this document you will find a box.  At the top of the box is a sample citation.  Below it you will see a list of 6 items which you will need to find on the website with the iPad article.  Please create your citation on the notecard you have at your workstation.  Be sure to pay attention to all punctuation.  Each space, punctuation, etc. are all a part of the correct format.  Do not write each item on a separate line.  Refer to the sample citation at the top of the box.  Your's should look similar to it.   (Hint:  your citation should begin with - Mathis, Joel.)

When you have finished, take a look at the answer on the back board.  Okay so now that you have gone through the pain of writing out a citation, I have some great tools I think you will find very useful.  There are some online citation creation tools that will make creating citations much easier for you.  Check out Easybib, Bibme, and CitationCreation.

You will try creating a MLA citation using each of these 3 tools.  Which do you like the best?  Why? Be ready to share your answers to these questions with us at the end of class.

My friends in ILT #4 are a bit further along than ILT #1 and #3 because you had one class last week.  Please make sure you have finished these citation activities.  Once you have completed them, move on with the next step below.

If you should finish this before the end of class, please use the Blog Design Rubric (pink paper) in your Workstation Resource folder to start preparing your blog to be assessed.  Do a great job and I will be back for class 2 to answer any questions you may have.  

Correct Citations If You Please

I hope you all enjoyed having an extra day off this week.  Did you take any time to think about why we weren't in school today?  Did you do anything special to celebrate or honor Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr.? Volunteers honored him all over the country. It is very hard for those of us living in 2014 to understand how much Dr. King did to change our country. Please find some time in your week to learn a little more about him and his legacy.

Moving on to the week at hand; Mother Nature seems to have another winter storm up her sleeve.  The forecast for Tuesday night in to Wednesday morning doesn't look very promising if you are a technology student trying to get information and learning experiences out to her students.  The weather forecasters are predicting, "Frigid with Fluff!"

Well on to the lesson for this week; Citations.  Up until this point, I have let you simply use a URL as a citation.  This week you will learn to write correct citations. Let's start by looking at a Prezi, "Plagiarism & Citing Sources." There are a couple of resources you will be using.  I found a good interactive Citation Flowchart that may help you with understanding of what to cite and what not to cite. The English Club has a great resource as well.  One of the best sites I have found is the Perdue OWL.

After exploring these resources, you will practice writing the correct citation for a website.  Please write the citation for theMacworld article, "iPads in Schools:  The Right Way to Do It" on a notecard. (There is a resource in your Workstation Resource folder.) I know this sounds tedious, but I really want you to "experience" what it feels like to write out a correctly formatted citation. This on line poster or this great cite, "Citing Internet Sources," will show you how to write a citation for a website.Okay so now that you have gone through the pain of writing out a citation, I have some great tools I think you will find very useful.  There are some online citation creation tools that will make creating citations much easier for you.  Check out Easybib, Bibme, and CitationCreation.
You will try creating a MLA citation using each of these tools.  Which do you like the best?  Why? Be ready to share your answers to these questions with us at the end of class.

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Copyright Terms

Today in class you will be working on a resource for yourself.  Last week's pre-assessment let me know my students, overall, needed some work with the terms or vocabulary associated with copyright. I have created a Google doc with the terms I would like you to define.  There is a link to an interactive site, Copyright Kids, on the top of this doc.  Please use this site to create your definitions.  I don't want you all working on the same doc so you will all need to create your own copy of this doc.  The video below will walk you through this process.  Before starting the video, you will need to be signed in to your Google accounts.  Please open a new tab and do this.  Then you will watch the video below.  You will also need to have the Copyright Terms doc to complete today's assignment,

Now that you have your own clean copy of this doc, you will be able to complete today's assignment.  Please take your time and be sure to define the terms in your own words.

Once you have finished this assignment, you make continue to explore the Copyright Kids site and take the "Copyright Challenge."

Another site you may want to explore is Cyberbee.  Some of you may remember this from last year.

ILT #2 this link is for you:  Copyright Terms.

RSS Feeds and Readers

Do you or anyone else in your family have a subscription to a magazine or a newspaper?  If you do, why?  Let's think for a minute about the benefits of having a subscription.  When a magazine or newspaper creates a new edition instead of you having to leave you house to go to a store to try and find the magazine or newspaper to buy, it is delivered right to your door.  There is a similar way to get new posts from your favorite blogs "delivered" right to your door.  RSS Feeds and using a reader such as Feedly can make this happen.  This may sound a bit confusing.  Let's try to clear it up by watching this video, "RSS Feeds in Plain English."  You will create a Feedly account today, add a Feedly button to your blog, and begin using your new "subscriptions" to follow blogs you like. I have some handouts in the resources folder next to your workstation.  I think these will help with the process. Once you have you iPads, we will add the Feedly App!  I think it will make more sense once we have gone through the process.

Pinning With a Purpose

Today in class you will start off by working on the last two agenda items.  To accomplish this task you will need to open your Pinterest accounts.  Your log in is your school gmail address (including @mybps.me; don't forget the 19).  Once you are logged in you will need to create a new board and title it, "Copyright and Citations." You will find a resource in your workstation folder to help you with this process; just in case you are confused.  Give this board a description and then "create" the board.  Next you will need to use the Pinterest search and find, evaluate, and pin at least 4 resources to your new board.  Remember to evaluate your pins.  Open up each one and decide if it will help you understand copyright laws or how to create a correct citation.  If it will not; then don't pin it!!

Once you have finished pinning, please do some work on your blog.  You should have at least 5 good posts by the end of this week.  Next week you will be creating a "reader" and getting your blog design rubrics.

Happy Pinning!!