Chromebook Update

Wow, this year has definitely gone by fast. I just finished putting in my 3 week grades for progress reports, and it only feels like I have been back at school for a week. Even the kids thought math class has gone by quickly! I guess that is a positive response that I am doing something right! :-) Anyway, I thought I would share an update regarding the Samsung Chromebook that I am trying out for the school. The experience has been up and down, to say the least.

Positives

I LOVE THE CHROMEBOOK! It is small, lightweight, and user friendly. I can have it sitting out on my lecture podium so that I can complete our attendance, without having to turn off my Promethean Board. I can have students completing their daily warm-up, using the Promethean Board, while I am taking attendance on the Chromebook.

The Chromebook uses the Google applications, and they have an amazing feature where it AUTOMATICALLY saves periodically. Instead of having to ensure that I am pushing the save button when I am working on something, the program will automatically do this for me.

The variety of Google applications is very extensive. Our school district is looking to implement Google products throughout our classrooms, and I have found a couple of them that work great for myself.

• Google Voice: I set up a different phone number that links directly to my cellphone that I can give out to students for them to contact me in case of emergencies. They don't receive my actual cellphone number, but they can still contact me like it was a cellphone. Plus, when voicemails are left through this phone number, Google Voice will create an email with a transcript of that voicemail and send it to my email. This will be great if I have parent's contacting me, and I look forward to seeing how this feature works out.

• Google Translate: I don't use this feature myself, but I have a teacher that I mentor that has a large number of Spanish Speaking students in her classroom. She is teaching in Pre-K, and these students are unable to read. She does not speak spanish, so I found this application from Google helpful. I recommended that she take a look at it. How it works: The user has the ability to select what languages to translate between. So, as a teacher, we can type in a direction to give a student in English. Select Spanish as the language to translate into, and hit enter. The phrase will be translated to Spanish, and will appear in a separate window. But, since these small kids don't read, there is a great feature to this program. Not only will it convert the phrase into written word, but it can also speak the phrase for you! There is a small speaker looking button that can be pressed, and the computer will say that phrase in Spanish for the teacher! I haven't heard how it has been working for her yet, but she was extremely excited to have another resource to help her students.

Negatives

While I love this little computer, I have had some issues. Well, I might as well get this out, I no longer have the Chromebook. :-( We have sent them back, and I am hoping to receive a replacement soon.

• Power Problems: Three teachers at our school have been demoing the computers, and we have all had a problem with the Chromebook turning on. We don't really know what happened, but there was a few days where the computers would not turn on for us. We would plug them in, and the computer would not take a charge. For myself, the computer would work when it was plugged in, but it wouldn't accept a charge and would turn off once unplugged. For another teacher, her computer wouldn't even turn on when it was plugged in. The battery life of the Chromebook is around 8 hours, which is more than enough to last an entire school day. Remember, we are looking at these for our students. Also, these computers would be plugged in for extended periods of time, so we would need them to work regardless on how long they were plugged in. Not exactly sure if we will receive another Chromebook back. The vendor that we purchased these through said to send everything back, and I am hoping to receive a replacement soon.

• Working Offline: Since we are demoing the Chromebooks for use by a student, I have been attempting to take it everywhere that a student would take. I even took it to a professional development training and a UIL meeting hoping that I could take notes. However, you cannot pull up a Google Doc form to take notes UNLESS you are connected to the internet. The training was not at our school, and they did not have internet available at the location, so I was unable to take notes on the Chromebook. Also, we were having some internet set-up glitches during the time we met for the UIL meeting, and I was unable to take notes then either. I have been researching how to use it offline, but the computers were sent back before I could look into trying some of the things that were mentioned. 

Overall, the Chromebook is a great addition for a teacher. I am still looking on how to implement it into my math classroom for student use, so I'm not totally convinced that it is a great option for the math classroom. However, I love it for teacher use! Hopefully I get a replacement soon!

Google Sites for Classroom Website

As I dive into the adventure of learning more about the Samsung Chromebook, I must look into the features and capabilities of Google. Wow...what a list of things I can do. This morning I created my own website, in which I can keep track of all of our schools important announcements, my Algebra I course information, and my Geometry course information. I feel that this will be a great place for students and parents to look for updated information throughout the year.

YouTube has some amazing videos on setting up your first Google Site for your classroom. Google Sites for Educators Webinar was easy to follow. I was able to follow everything step by step, and by the time the webinar was over I had completed my class website. One thing that Google Sites has implemented into its programming is the WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get). This is completely different than using HTML coding, in the fact that you don't have to know any special computer language. Google Sites is very user friendly, and easy to use in setting up a classroom website.

While I was setting up my classroom website, I came across another Google feature - Google Voice. This is a great feature that masks my personal phone number behind another phone number that I can give to students and parents. Google Voice lets you choose a phone number, and any calls to that number are forwarded to your personal phone number. I set them to come to my cell phone. This allows me to keep my personal cell phone number private, but I can still have open communication with my students and their parents. Another great feature of Google Voice is the voicemail. The program creates a transcript of any messages that are recorded on my voicemail. I can keep them and file them as record of communication. So, I created a Google Voice number and included that on my webpage along with my school email address for my contact information.

All of these features are completely free, and I always say: "If it is free, then it is for me!" I recommend taking the time to look into the different features and capabilities of the Google applications. You may be surprised at how easy and user friendly they are, and what opportunities it presents to integrate technology into your classrooms.

Samsung Chromebook Test Drive (Day 0): In a High School Math Classroom

This past week I went to San Antonio, Texas to a professional development conference put on by CSCOPE. CSCOPE is tied directly to the development of Texas education and consistent curriculum. It was a great trip, and I continued to learn new tips and strategies to use inside my classroom this coming up year. My summer of professional development and training has come to an end, and I am looking forward to preparing for the upcoming school year!

When I came home, I had a wonderful surprise waiting for me. A Samsung Chromebook! What was even better about it was that the school provided it to me. I had talked to my school administrator on the way San Antonio about using technology in the classrooms. Several of my state standards are changing in the near future to require me to incorporate more technology into the classroom, and I wanted a head start. He mentioned the school district is working on equipping every teacher with a classroom set of Chromebook computers! I was excited by that news, in itself. Honestly, no more having to reserve a computer lab? Who wouldn't love being able to use portable computers inside their classroom?

The one thing that he mentioned is that some of the teachers would be "test driving" these Chromebook computers in their classroom. I didn't think that I would be considered since I was new to the campus, and am only in my second year of teaching. I was pleasantly surprised to come home to this gem sitting in my closet. I will be starting out with just one teacher computer for this first semester. I will need to learn how I can incorporate it into the classroom, and then I will be able to share my experiences with other teachers in the Spring. I have started to look online at all of the capabilities of this computer, and I am excited to start my test drive. I am waiting on my login information from my technology department, but I have a game plan as to what I need to use to prepare myself for this coming up semester. Stay tuned as I share my comments on using this new technology in a high school math classroom.