Keyboarding Skills -- A Necessary Evil

 When I started teaching in Channahon School District, the kids at the junior high had a computers class as an arts rotation. The kids were using Apple IIe computers, and the curriculum was light on games and heavy on keyboarding. It wasn't the most exciting class, but the kids enjoyed it because they got to use some high tech devices in those Apple IIe's!

Now that you're all thinking, "Sheesh, how old IS Renee????" I'm going to use that attention to step on a soapbox.

Keyboarding.

It's not exciting to teach or learn. It doesn't seem to fit in any particular curriculum. It tends to be seen as a time suck in the classroom. But I would like to make the case for incorporating the opportunity to teach and practice keyboarding skills in ALL grade levels and curricula. Yes, even YOU, junior high teachers!

Speaking as someone who somehow managed to avoid taking keyboarding at all during elementary, high school, and college, I have developed my own weird version of typing. As you can see in the video below, I don't use all my fingers. I also have to look at my hands when I type. Now, I am actually pretty efficient at this "Bogacz" method -- but that's because I have "perfected" it over about 30 or 40 years (back to my age again!). It would be so nice if I actually knew the proper way to type.

Now, I'll be honest. I would LOVE for kids to learn how to touch type! Even as an adult, I am mesmerized by people who can type without looking at their hands. Realistically, I know that without a dedicated keyboarding class, the chances of the kids knowing how to touch type are probably not real great. In that case, I'll take a high level of keyboard familiarity. To achieve that, kids need constant opportunity to use a keyboard. The only way to get away from "hunt and peck" is to know where to go on the keyboard. That's why I am able to make my goofy keyboarding work -- because I know the keyboard.

If you're not sure what the value is in kids knowing how to keyboard, let me share this great article I found that sums it up pretty well! You don't have to read it if you don't want to because here's the TL;DR for you:

• Keyboarding is a necessary skill for education and most careers. It is required for fun (social media) and work (communication).
• It helps conserve mental energy. By not having to think about finding the keys, brain power is available for students to think about what they are typing. It is a less mentally exhausting experience if part of it can be done on "auto-pilot."
• It helps improve computer-based test scores. I know that it's wrong to put too much emphasis on standardized test scores, but it happens. People care about them. Kids who know their way around a keyboard are at an advantage because they will use less time trying to find the letters and symbols they need. Kids who have to use time to look around the keyboard may get tired of typing and give up without finishing their task or simply run out of time because they are slower -- and that ends up in a lower test score which is a less accurate reflection of what they know.
• It eases frustration. This has been hinted at on the previous points. Some kids may refuse to do an activity altogether because keyboarding is so frustrating. The more chances we can give kids to find their way around a keyboard, the less frustrating it becomes.
• It can increase student confidence in their work. By knowing that the keyboard is not something to be conquered, students can work more freely to do quality work.
• It supports digital equity. Since we know that keyboarding is a life skill, we also need to recognize that not all kids have equal access to keyboards. If we assume that kids will be able to practice their keyboarding skills at home and eschew it here at school, that puts kids without computers at home at a disadvantage that will only increase over time. By making sure kids get keyboarding time at school, we can help keep that gap as narrow as possible.

Now it's time to hear from YOU! How do YOU encourage keyboarding skills in your classroom? Let's crowdsource ideas in the comments below! This way, we can get ideas from each other and hopefully give our students a skill they really need but is too often brushed aside. I've got some fun stickers for anyone who comments!

Cool Tool Alert -- GIF Library to Spice up Google Slide Decks

 The slide deck is a reliable standard for delivering content. No matter how hard we try, they can become really boring and monotonous. One way to jazz them up is by using GIFs! Those are the little animated images we all have seen but maybe have no idea how to make them or find them. Well, fear not! Eoghan Young on Twitter has compiled a whole bunch of GIFs you can use to add to your Google Slides! Before I get to the link where you can access all these goodies, here are a couple of things to note:

• The link takes you to a LIVE, EDITABLE slide deck. PLEASE use extreme caution when using this file; you don't want to accidentally wipe out all the work that has been done. Click, copy, and paste with caution and care!
• The SAFEST way to use this slide deck of GIFs is to make your own copy. Here's how you do that:
• Click File.
• Move mouse to Make a Copy.
• Click Entire Presentation.
• If you want kids to be able to use these GIFs in their presentations, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT give them access to the original file. PLEASE make a copy!
• To use a GIF, simply right click it, then choose copy, then go to the slide deck you want to add it to, and right click and then paste. Voila!

Here's the link to the GIF slides! Enjoy!

Social Media Tips for Educators

 It's rare to find an adult who isn't on some social media platform (even my 75 year old parents use Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat). Teachers and those who work in education are not an exception. But because teachers are pretty visible, and because they work with children, they are sometimes held to a different standard on social media. I'm not here to debate if that is right or wrong (because that's a pretty big discussion). Instead, I would rather share some tips that are considered best practices for teachers when it comes to social media.

• In my personal opinion, this is one of the most important things you can do -- maintain separate accounts! For instance, I have a separate Twitter account for work and for my personal life. They don't "follow" each other, either. I want them to be separate entities. When I want to Tweet about how excited I am about the new season of Ozark coming out, I want to do that from my personal account 😁
• The next big thing I think you can do is use those privacy settings! While my work Twitter is public, my personal Twitter and all my other social media accounts are locked down pretty tightly. I also check the privacy settings every few months, too, in case anything has been updated or changed. 
• When it comes to your personal social media accounts, avoid "friending" or "following" students and parents. This can just blur the lines between personal and professional. In a small town like Channahon where many of the staff are also residents, this can be challenging. In this case, if you do end up connected personally on social media with students or parents, be extra mindful of your online postings.
• Avoid talking about work in your social media posts. Yes, we all have bad days at work, but because our work is with and about children, it can seem really negative when we post about our jobs. Be especially mindful of posts like, "The kids really felt the full moon today," or other such posts. They're likely meant to be harmless, but some people, unfortunately, will interpret this as bashing on kids, and all that will happen is you will find yourself in hot water.

These are just some commonly accepted practices. What suggestions or tips do you have? Add them in the comments! I've got swag for all who offer their ideas!

Memes for Learning

 Everybody loves a good meme! They are often clever and thought-provoking, sometimes accurate, but always eye-catching! We can capitalize on the love of memes with our kids by asking them to create their own! What's really cool is that this can be done with pretty much any age level and in any subject area! Here are some ideas I came up with just thinking about this blog post (see below for my examples of them as well):

• Language arts: create a meme that demonstrates the relationship between two characters in the story.
• Science: create a meme that reflects a fact about a weather phenomenon.
• Social studies: create a meme that reflects the action of a historical figure.
• Math: create a meme that explains a mathematical process.
• P.E.: create a meme encouraging physical fitness and health.
• Music: create a meme making a classical composer "cool."
• Art: create a meme that shows appreciation for an artist.

All it takes is an idea, access to a meme generator, and a little creativity! This can be a fun project because

• It encourages creative thought.
• It helps students learn to be thoughtful with their words (there's not a lot of space on a meme for words).
• It is a medium kids enjoy.
• It merges language with something visual, which can be a key to helping students' comprehension.
• It can be done pretty quickly -- this can be done in one class period.

A couple of considerations, though:

• Be sure your expectations are clear. Otherwise, you will surely end up with memes that don't involve much learning.
• Preview your meme generator! Some WILL offer images that are not appropriate for school! Avoid those. Some also charge fees. Skip those as well. (If all else fails, you can have kids create their memes using Google Drawings. I know a person who can help you with that -- her name is Renee 😁).
• Tell kids to be thoughtful. Unfortunately, some images that are popular with memes are also poking fun at people or exploiting stereotypes (examples: images of people of color, individuals who are overweight).
• Give kids an authentic audience. Memes are created to be shared, not just turned in. Once the memes have been turned in, share them with your class, on your class website, or on Twitter (always being mindful of keeping students' identities safe).

Here's a post from ISTE that talks in depth about using memes in the classroom.

Math

Social Studies

Language Arts

Art

Music

Science

P.E.

Insight on Citing Sources

 Raise your hand if you remember "old school" citing sources for research papers. I'm talking about using a typewriter, correction tape and white out, and formatting with an MLA guide open on the desk! Ah, the good old days.... Kids today have it so easy because they don't have to worry about ANY of that! (If I had a dime for every time I had to re-type a page of my bibliography because I realized I forgot a source that needed to be listed, I'd be on a beach in Fiji right now.)

Google Docs makes it exceptionally easy to create internal citations and a works cited page, all formatted properly! With a few clicks of the mouse, students can copy and paste a web address or enter in publishing information and insert an internal citation and add a works cited page at the end of their document. Seriously. Want to see how? Check out the demo video I share at the end of this post (I created it to be shown to students).

Now, I know some of you are excited about this great little tool in Google Docs -- I'm looking at you, TRS and CJHS teachers! And I bet some of you are smiling to yourselves right now, thinking how grand life is that you don't have to cover this with your kids -- now I'm looking at you, NBG and PP teachers! But I say whoa Nelly, NBG and PP! You don't necessarily need to teach kids about using a standard format for documenting sources used for research, but you SHOULD be helping students to understand that information on websites, in videos, in books, etc. have all been put together by other people and we need to show that we respect their work by letting others know where we learned out information from. So while the citation tool isn't necessarily something you would use with your students, the concept is definitely something they can start to learn!

One thing I did in the past was to assemble a list of Common Core and ISTE standards where documenting resources was embedded (there are not really any standards that explicitly state skills related to documenting sources). You can find that list here, if you're interested or if it will be helpful.

In addition, here's a handy support document you can use with students to help them through the process! Click here to view the document. Click here to make your own copy that you can customize, if you want!

Need help with teaching your students about how to use the citation tool in Google Docs or sharing information with them on the importance of respecting copyright? I've got you covered! Let me know what I can do to help! I love talking about copyright -- I'm that nerd :-)

Demo video of how to use the citation tool in Google Docs (designed to be shown to students):