Technically Teaching Tips, tricks, resources, and ideas for surviving and thriving in the digital classroom.

Friending students on Facebook (and not getting yourself in trouble)

I have to qualify the whole "not getting yourself in trouble" thing.  It's possible your school district may have policies against friending students on Facebook.  If you work in one of these districts, you probably don't want to test them.  And as always, there is a standard "Don't be stupid rule" which always applies.

Facebook began a few years back as a way for students at a single college to network.  Eventually, it expanded to more and more colleges, and now to the world at large.  It seems like everyone who has ever seen a computer now has a Facebook account (except for my parents).  I have one, and I use it to keep in touch with old friends, where time and distance doesn't allow for telephone calls or visits.  High school reunions in the digital age are going to be interesting.  Everyone who I would talk to at my reunion is already on my Facebook, so I never really lost track of them.  Just random food for thought.

Anyway, at the start of the school year, the thought of "friending" a student on Facebook gave me chills.  My Facebook page is pretty benign, I've shown it to my parents and grandparents without embarrassment.  However, I didn't want my students to see that much of my personal life, nor the occasional "my classes really annoyed me today" status post.  However, one day during my planning period, I was reading a blog from a teacher, who said that posting his homework on Facebook, and using Facebook chat to provide extra help to students was working wonders for homework completion.  It makes sense - I spend a lot of time on Facebook.  I have to assume that validation-hungry teenagers would be spending even more time on Facebook.

So, now, with Facebook's new privacy settings, I'm happy to say that it is possible to Friend students on Facebook, but still keep that crazy Saturday night a secret.  All Facebook activity is logged, and if there was ever an issue, Facebook tends to be very cooperative with law enforcement.  Anyway, on that note, here is a screencast on how to "student-proof" your Facebook profile.

A few words of warning first:

1) Don't be stupid - remember that people will judge you not based on what you do, but what it looks like you are doing.  Anything you put where students can see it should be appropriate.  If you write on a student's Wall, it should be AND SHOULD LOOK appropriate.  Also, remember that it's easier to misunderstand intentions in text than in person.  Be careful.

2) You will learn more about your students than you ever wanted to know.  I'm reading a status post by one of my students right now " drunk az hellz".  She is 15.  I really didn't want to know that about this student, and it gets on my nerves.  You have to roll your eyes and move on.  If you are thinking of responding to a post like this, I would ask you to refer to the previous warning.

If you can't see the video below, the original is at http://www.screencast.com/t/j3WmLMdTA

U.S. Government Websites Are Chock Full of Data Goodness

Too often, our first answer for our data needs is to just "Google it".  While Google does a good job at text searches, finding data still remains somewhat difficult.  New tools, like Wolfram Alpha are working on solving that problem, but data is still harder to find than text.  Enter: the U.S. Government.  Government websites are chock full of data, more than we could ever want.  Two years ago, Lifehacker did a feature article, called "U.S. government web sites you didn't know you could use".  The article contains a list of some of the most data-filled government websites out there.  Use them to create data sets for your classes (a la Excel/Access lessons) or for student research.  Sample lesson ideas:

• Examine census data for trends, correlate census data to historical events
• Graph the exchange rate over time
• Use bighugelabs to create a trading card for different countries.
• Go Geocaching with the USGS
• Predict/graph the weather

Big Huge Labs: Motivational Posters

We've all seen the motivational posters.  You know the ones, where you have a pretty picture, with a black border.  Underneath is a word, and an inspirational quote to go with it.  They are a little too sappy for me, so I prefer the de-motivational posters found at despair.com.  While the poster on the left may not be good for the classroom, they make me smile, especially on those annoying days.

Anyway, before I bore you completely, I'm going to give you something useful.  Over the next few time periods, I'm going to post a few blog entries on bighugelabs.com.  This site is an amalgamation of lots of different tools for using graphics.  For example, they have a motivational poster generator.  Upload your image, your title and text, and watch your poster come to life.  It's easy to use, and free.  Once you are done, you can download your image and print it out.

Practical uses:

• Find a picture to illustrate and summarize an important quote or poem.
• Have students create a tagline for an important figure.
• Create a poster to remember a key concept.

My favorite, however:

Make your classroom rules more interesting:

Poll anywhere with Poll Everywhere

We've all seen the cool "clickers" at conferences (really known as Classroom Responders).  I had a set of these in my classroom last year.  They were awesome!  Kids loved them, and were excited about answering questions on them.  But there is always a catch.  In this case: $$$$$$$$$$.  Normal classroom responders run at least $2,000 a pop, so getting one in every teacher's hands is not realistic for most schools.

If only there were a way to leverage something students are bringing to class with them anyway as a "poor 1man's classroom responder.  What do all of our students bring to class?  Pencils...no.  Paper...no.  Backpacks...no.  Textbooks, definitely no.  Hmmm.......  CELL PHONES.  Every student has a cell phone in their pocket, despite the best efforts of education policy makers.  Poll Everywhere (http://www.polleverywhere.com) meets this need perfectly.  It allows you to put up a multiple choice (or free response) question, and have students TEXT in their answers.  Let's try it (don't worry - it's anonymous). Since WordPress is being annoying and not letting me embed the poll directly, click to go to the poll and vote.

When you text your answer, they are automatically displayed in real time.  Of course, Poll Everywhere also lets you vote via Smartphone, web page (for computer users), and Twitter.  Obviously, there are a few caveats.  You are going to have to monitor your classes twenty times more closely than normal to make sure students are on task.  This isn't for the "crazy class".  Your school or district may have policies in place preventing this.  Don't get in trouble.

Twitter-(not so)-iffic

I think it's possible that I'm the only person who doesn't use Twitter.  It's not that I don't like the service, but I just think that it's overhyped.  Take a look at this recent post from Senator John McCain:

Vote for Mark Reynolds for All-Star! He is a great athlete and an outstanding role model. Go D-backs, 3 in a row!

Or this one from Katie Couric on the Michael Jackson memorial service:

Talked to stevie wonder afterwards. I love the song he sang. Pretty amazing to sit next to such a legend.

Ok, guys, I DON'T CARE!  I think that some of the most useless stuff on the Internet right now can be found on Twitter (which is quite an accomplishment, when you think about it).  I think every teacher right now reading this has too much to worry about in their own lives and classrooms to pay attention to a minute-by-minute accounting of the lives of professional narcissists.

Anyway, I'm going to end the rant here, and talk about how Twitter can be useful in the classroom:

• Create a twitter feed with daily homework assignments and reminders.  Parents and students can subscribe to it, and see it every day.  Also, since Twitter will send you text message notifications of subscribed feeds, a student who subscribes to your homework feed can literally have their homework texted to them every day.
• Cheap classroom responders: Ask a question on your Twitter feed, have students respond to your Twitter feed.
• Summarizing: Since they only have 140 characters to work with, Twitter is a great way to have students summarize reading assignments.

Others?  Think Twitter is awesome?  Post in the comments.

"You have five minutes to complete this assignment"

This is the well-intentioned statement we all start with. However, if you are anything like me, one of two things always happens. Scenario 1: Student needs help. A LOT of help. While you are helping this student, five minutes passes, six minutes, seven, etc. Scenario 2: "Mr. Samberg - HOW MUCH TIME DO WE HAVE LEFT NOW?/WHAT TIME DID WE START?/WHAT DOES THAT STUFF PRINTED ON THE BOARD MEAN?"

Enter: E.gg Timer (http://e.ggtimer.com) - an online countdown timer, which displays, in REALLY BIG font how much time is remaining for you, and your class (if you have a projector) to see.  When time has elapsed, it even beeps.

What makes e.gg timer a little better is that there are two ways to use it: the easy way, and the easier way.  The easy way, go to http://e.ggtimer.com, and in the big box that says "Start a Timer", enter your time using natural language (5 minutes or 10 minutes and 20 seconds or 1 hour 3 minutes 11 seconds - just don't use commas).  Press "GO" and you are done.  The timer appears in the middle, with progress bars at the top and bottom.

Now, the easier way.  Just put the time in the URL.  For example, type in http://e.ggtimer.com/3minutes for a 3-minute timer, or http://e.ggtimer.com/5minutes20seconds for a 5 minute and 20 second timer, etc.  It's natural language without spaces...

Easy, effective and VERY useful.