Behind the Scenes: Connect Store

by | Nov 11, 2016 | Student Blog, Teacher Blog

Behind the Scenes: Connect Store

What is the Connect Store?

The Connect Store is the new shopping area that is being established by the Chrome Squad.  It is also classified as another one of the branches that grows from our technology organization.  The Connect Store allows staff and students alike to have the unique opportunity to purchase gadgets and accessories that pertain to Chromebooks.  The Connect Store also sells electronics, such as headphones, and writing utensils, such as pencils, pens, and highlighters.  The Connect Store is here for all your technology needs.

Meeting the Workers Behind the Connect Store?

The weight of managing and working the Chrome Squad’s store is upon three members of C4L–Jake Richter, Skylar Suydam, and Bryan Barnes.  Jake Richter, a senior academically and a senior member of the Chrome Squad, takes the lead position of managing the Connect Store.  When he isn’t collaborating with other members on store designs and making orders, you can find Jake voicing his opinion on the Debate Team from our school.  Debate is something Jake is super passionate about, and it helps with his negotiating skills when it comes to our C4L staff meetings.  With Jake having seniority regarding the Connect Store, he gives excellent management to this branch of C4L.  Skylar, a senior, is a new member of the Chrome Squad.  When she isn’t learning management skills and part taking in the various tasks required to run the Connect Store, you can find her studying away for her college major in biomedical engineering or practicing her Jiu Jitsu moves.  There are definitely two sides to Skyler–brains and beauty, so she’s just the type of well-rounded employee needed to take on the Connect Store.  Bryan Barnes, a junior, is also a new member to the Chrome Squad.  When he isn’t searching up new furniture for the store or taking down orders online, you can find him putting himself in the various academic and athletic activities we have here at Royse City High School, such as NHS, Student Council, Interact Club, GSA, Cross Country, and Track.  Bryan has a lot on his plate, yet he also makes time to do what he needs to do to make sure the Connect Store is up and running smoothly.  His quirky, positive attitude helps make the environment within the Connect Store branch of C4L more relaxed when there is more than a few things on their checklist.

Impact of the Connect Store

Since the Connect Store is a relatively new extension of C4L, the entire Chrome Squad as well as student and staff of RCHS can undoubtedly anticipate BIG things from them.  The workers behind the scenes all play their pivotal role in manning the ship.  They allow non-members of the Chrome Squad to be updated in the latest technology equipment and accessories while starting the journey that leads to the goal of allowing C4L to be able to fund ourselves from the profits of the Connect Store.  It sure was a work in progress, but from seeing all the hard work that has been and will continue to be put into every aspect of the Connect Store, it is obvious this branch is a winner.  The Connect Store, which is in the flex space downstairs diagonally from the Chrome Lounge, is set to open around the time of Thanksgiving, but you can already begin purchasing items on our website.  We hope everything that is offered from the store can be of service to you! Thanks to Jake, Skylar, and Bryan, we can continue to take those never-ending steps towards improvement of the Chrome Squad.  We’ll just keep getting better and better with wonderful people like them working behind the scenes.

Behind the Scenes: Blog Post Team

by | Nov 11, 2016 | Student Blog, Teacher Blog

Behind the Scenes: Blog Post Team

What is the Blog Post Team?

The Blog Post Team is yet another important part of our distinguished C4L organization at Royse City High School.  The primary purpose of the Blog Post Team is to write informational and tutorial blogs that can be used to benefit both teachers and students alike.  The Blog Post Team is quite similar to the Video Team in which both help everyone who has a Chromebook utilize it to its maximum potential.

Meeting the Girls Behind the Blog Post Team

That’s right! The Blog Post Team is the only branch of the Chrome Squad that is 100% operated by girls.  These empowered females include Laura Vause, Maggie Carrion, and myself, Britni Sanchez.  We are all juniors with myself and Maggie being new members to C4L and Laura being a veteran member.  Because of her seniority, Laura is sort of like the head of this branch.  However, she is always open to new ideas and suggestions by me and Maggie.  When she isn’t coordinating the team’s goals for each six week term, Laura is busy applying herself to her studies, participating in extracurricular activities such as NHS and Student Council, and helping her friends whenever they need someone to talk to.  Laura is involved with her church, as well, and is always there whenever anybody needs her assistance.  Maggie has an influential voice as part of the Blog Post Team, too.  When she isn’t being of assistance to those who come into the C4L Lounge with questions about their Chromebook, Maggie is participating in intellectual programs, as well, where she is an officer in NHS and SNHS and a member of Student Council.  She also devotes a substantial amount of her time to her swimming team where she swims circles around her competitors.  I play my role as a new member of the Blog Post Team, as well.  When on duty, you can find me learning new technological information from my fellow Chromies and helping others with their Chromebooks in any way I can.  Outside of C4L, I am involved in NHS, SNHS, Student Council, Interact Club, and BPA.  On the weekends, you can find me worshipping and hanging out with my friends at my church both Saturdays and Sundays and volunteering for the children’s ministry at my church Sunday mornings.  I always try to keep the positivity flowing both in and outside of C4L.

Impact of the Blog Post Team

Since the Blog Post Team is made up of three of the five female members of the Chrome Squad, I’d say we have some serious girl power up in this branch of C4L.  The Blog Post Team plays its role as a critical puzzle piece to the Chrome Squad by spending time thinking about technology problems, writing about their solutions, and informing the staff and student body of Royse City High School about the hard-working young adults behind each section of C4L.  The Blog Post Team has been an element of the Chrome Squad since it was first established last year, and I know it has already made a lot of progress in efficiency and will continue to improve as the members of this division continue to grow as technology experts and as individuals.  As a whole, the Blog Post Team wishes to help anyone in need, spread positivity, and continue to shed some light on the students behind this prominent organization we call the Chrome Squad.

Video Based Presentation Tools

Video Based Presentation Tools

by | Sep 29, 2016 | Student Blog, Teacher Blog

Video Based Presentation Tools

Adobe Voice

This is one of only two tools on this list that isn’t device agnostic.  Adobe Voice only runs on iPads, but it is such a cool tool I had to keep it on this list.  The idea is simple:  your voice is the star of the presentation. If you have a voice like mine you are probably saying no way, but it isn’t as bad as it sounds.  You pick a video type and template, drop in some icons or pictures, and ad your narration.  Adobe Voice takes care of the the timing and animation to create a professional quality video in minutes.

 

Touchcast

Touchcast is another video presentation tool that isn’t completely device agnostic.  You have to create the videos on an iPad or with a desktop app, but you can watch the videos on any device through the free Touchcast service.  The great thing about Touchcast is it is more than just a video recorder.  It has built in tools like inlays, teleprompter, annotator, and vApps just to name a few.

“Hacked” Presentation Tools

Blogger

Blogger isn’t technically a presentation tool because it actually a blogging platform, but I have used Blogger several times for presentations.  Because it is a blog it will be more text heavy than other tools, but that is a benefit if you want students to go through a presentation at their own pace.  I use Blogger for professional development because it is a great place to warehouse a lot of information that I can pull up for a quick presentation or refer people to if they need help.

Smore

Smore is a great newsletter creation tool but works equally well as a presentation tool for teachers.  With Smore you can create visually stunning presentations with a combination of text, graphics, and videos, slideshows, links, and more.

Tackk

If Haiku Deck married Twitter, their child would be Tackk.  With this tool it is super simple to create beautiful presentations and then share with the world.  From their registered users can comment on and share presentations.

Web Ready Presentation Tools

 

Piktochart

I love Piktochart.  Piktochart is an infographic creation tool that is simple to use and requires little to know graphic design experience.  You can use either professional pre-designed templates or start from scratch to create infographics fit for flyers, posters, websites, or presentations.  The added ability to add live updating charts and really cool transitions makes this a really powerful presentation tool.

Canva

Canva started off as a web based graphic design tool for novices that wanted to make a polished graphic without the fuss of Photoshop.  Since then Canva has developed into the go to place for web based graphic creation.  It is user friendly, chalk full of helpful guides and templates and even has a presentation tool.  It gives you the beautiful look of Haiku Deck with the flexibility of Piktochart.

Thinglink

Thinglink makes it on this list because when it comes to audience driven presentations Thinglink is the way to go.  Thinglinks consist of a background image that has interactive dots layered over the top of it.  The dots can be links to websites, videos, documents, social media feeds, etc.  It is a great way to let students explore content at their own pace and in their own way.

Using Infographs in the Classroom

by | Sep 29, 2016 | How To, Student Blog, Teacher Blog

Infographs/infographics are a great way to visualize and organize information.  A quick Google search will show millions of infographs with info ranging from the parts of a hamburger to the impact of plastic waste on marine life.  The reason for the rise in the popularity of infographs is largely due to the fact that they no longer require the knowledge of a graphic design to create.  Sure, you can use Photoshop or Illustrator, but other free web tools, like Google Drawing and Piktochart, make infographics accessible to everyone.

In regards to data or historical facts it is easy to see the value of putting the information in a visual format like infographs.  What is less obvious is how infographs can be used to explain intangible information like analysis or mathematical theorems.  I recently had my students create infographs charting/explaining motifs in the first five chapters of The Great Gatsby.  I gave them four simple guidelines and two means by which to create the infographs.

Guidelines:

  • The infograph must have 5 or more graphical elements (i.e. charts, graphs, pictures, etc.)
  • The infograph must show the progression of the motifs
  • The infograph must cite evidence of the motifs throughout the first 5 chapters
  • The infograph must explain the importance of the motifs
Creation Options:
  • You can create the infographic on butcher paper
  • You can create the infographic using Piktochart or Photoshop
For those of you that don’t know Piktochart is a free, web-based infograph creator.  It took a little time for the kids to get accustomed the the user interface, but once they did it was second nature for them.
It was also important to publish the infographs for a real audience.  So they added them to their blog, and I added them to a Thinglink (above) that I tweeted out.

Khan Academy: The Ultimate Learning Tool

by | Sep 29, 2016 | Student Blog

Whether you’re struggling in school or just want to get ahead, Khan Academy is the website for you. You don’t have to worry about paying a monthly subscription because it’s free. That’s right! It’s completely free due to the generous donations and hard working volunteers that join together to make the site affordable for all. Khan Academy is more than just a tutoring site because it can also help you prep for major tests like the SAT and the college admissions process.

One of the best things about Khan Academy is that there is the option to prepare for major tests such as the SAT. For example, the PSAT and SAT are important tests you take during your high school career, and it would be wise to show up prepared. Khan Academy merged with College Board to give a personalized learning program for each individual student’s needs. There are a variety of ways you can study for the test. You can take a full test or just the math or reading section. After the practice test, you have the option to review it. There are also tips and strategies for taking the test. It fully explains the format of the SAT and even provides a glossary of terms that further clarify SAT wording.

Khan Academy helps with any subject from kindergarten math to economics and finance. It has an individualized pace for everybody, so it moves at the right speed for each person. When practicing the desired subject, there are explanatory videos and activities that help the material soak in. Learning is made fun by the badges earned for progress. The badges are for different accomplishments made on the website.

Besides test prep and personalized tutoring, there is also help available for college admissions. You can explore college options that are the best fit for you. They even help you with the admission process including financial advice. Applying may be confusing, but Khan Academy makes it easier to understand.

SAT prep, tutoring, and college admissions are just some highlights of Khan Academy. This is a superb resource for anyone who wants free, great quality help. Even if you just want a leg up, then this is a great website to visit.  Khan academy is the place to go for all of your academic needs.

 

The Basics of Google Drive

by | Sep 28, 2016 | How To, Student Blog, Teacher Blog

Many of you have files and folders saved on flash drives and local drives on your main workstation. It is beneficial to have these files in your Drive account so that you can access and edit them anywhere. This blog post should help you with this (and yes this is a shameless plug for my own blog).

While you are waiting for your files to upload you can enjoy this music video from my cousin Andi’s band The Show Ponies. She’s the red head.

Now that is done we can move on to how to navigate and use Drive. This first video is about 18 minutes long but does a great job of introducing you to all the basic functions of Drive. It uses the older version of Drive, so if, or when, you begin using the new version of Drive you will notice a slight difference in layout and naming of features.

Once you have started to create files and add files to Drive you will need to organize them. The following video is a quick tutorial on how to create folders and organize files.

Now that your files are uploaded and organized it is time to collaborate. The following video shows you how to share and collaborate with Google Drive.

This article is Google’s catch all, and be all, of Drive information. I cannot more highly recommend this resource. You need to take a look at all the resources available on this site.

Seeing it in Action

Being a teacher I am always trying to find new ways to teach my kids and new tools to make my life easier. Lets be honest, teachers love it when we can make life easier while giving kids a stellar education. Lets be even more honest, not much about the educational machine is meant to be easy. Now that I have said that, I want to talk briefly about how Drive has made life easier for me.

First, I utilize Google Docs in my professional learning communities. I have, including myself, five people on my team and it can be difficult to coordinate all of us. To help with this we use a common Google Doc that we can all use in real time to create and share notes and planning ideas. We can then go back at any point and reference what we talked about in our meetings. We use a shared Google Calendar to keep ourselves organized. We can create, edit, and chat about upcoming lessons. We also create the calendar in a Google Sheet so that we can share the document with parents that want to know what is going on in the classroom.
(I also used “we” to start four consecutive sentences. I would typically discourage my students from this. I might change it later if I’m up to it… Crap! I did it again.)

Another useful tool for me in the classroom is the marriage that is Google Forms and Google Sheets. I create Google Forms for students to fill out so that I can get contact information. I create Google Forms to create exit tickets. I create Google Forms to pool interest in a topic or to schedule events. (I did it on purpose this time.) The great thing about Forms is that the data automatically populates a Google Sheet so that I can manipulate and analyze the data.

That is about all I have to say in this post. There will be a follow up post that will focus on more advanced features of Drive. But before I leave you I would like to give you a few reasons to switch the the new Google Drive. The Drive allows you to edit Office files without Office, share documents in a more streamlined manner, and so much more. Google Drive’s blog has a comprehensive article on the changes to Drive. It is worth the read.

Thanks for taking the time to check this post out.

Cody