Dr. Z Reflects

Monday, July 01, 2013

Organize Yourself as a Mac Stickies Ninja

Yes, this is how I organize (?) my life.

I have been a long-time user of Stickies on my Mac. It is a simple and non-intrusive tool for taking notes. I happened upon a blog posting at the Mac Tuts blog about Stickies and it inspired me do some research and share it with you.

Please note that I have included a table of commands in this posting.

I use stickies in a variety of ways:

I will go into a meeting, pop open a sticky and take voluminous notes about the session.
I also use stickies when I am taking notes about my students' work as I read it. I like to do this because the stickies are small notes that can be placed anywhere on the screen alongside of the work I am reading.
Stickies is a great place for creating your To Do list. Since you can turn a note into a translucent floating note, it can sit in the upper corner. You will see my To Do list in the photo above. Since it is a floating window, it can appear over any of the other projects that I am running throughout the day as well.
I also use Stickies to store photos or screen shots for quick access when I need it.

Organizing Stickies
You can rearrange your stickies in any of 4 ways: Color, Content, Date and Location on the Screen. I usually use Date. It's kind of like organizing things in stacks on your desk. The most recent items are on top. I don't organize by color, but sometimes it is useful to organize by content. I don't understand how the "Location on the Screen" works, but it must be useful.

Keyboard Shortcuts with Stickies
I found a Plethora of Possibilities that I didn't know were available in Stickies. Decided that it would be useful to create a table of the commands and then discuss them Here it is:

Command	Operation
Command + ~	Rotate through sticky notes (Like Command – Tab)
Command + Ctrl + D	Opens dictionary
Command + Option + F	Toggles between Floating and Regular Note
Command + Option + T	Toggles between Translucent and Regular Note
Command + Shift + Y	Nab Text – Highlight text or URL. Text will appear on newly created notes
Command + W	Closes the note but allows chance to save before you close
Command + M	Toggles between Collapsing and Opening a note
Drag Media	Drag all forms of media into Sticky Notes (including emails)
Fn –Fn	Dictate to Stickies
Option + Tab	Create a list on your note (Inserts Bullets)
Cool Command
Command + Space	Launch Spotlight

Entering Content into Stickies

TALK TO STICKIES - Yes, you can actually dictate to Stickies (and any other text input application.) It is built into into Mac OS 10.8+ THIS IS AWESOME!!!! You just have to tap the Function key (fn) twice and it will open a microphone to dictate a 30-second audio file. Tap the fn key again and it will save the audio file. You need to be linked to the Internet for you.
DRAG CONTENT - You can just drag and drop photos, I have had more success with this when I have been dragging a file to a sticky.
NAB TEXT/URL - Want to save a set of text or URL? Just highlight the text you want and click Command + Shift + Y. If you have your Stickies already open, you will see your text appear in a new note. I was pretty excited when I learned about this.

Formatting Stickies

LISTS - I have often pined for the ability to insert bullets into my notes. Here is the answer. Just click Option + Tab and it will insert a bullet. Click Tab again and it will indent the bullet. Shift + Tab will outdent your bullet. Hit Return twice and the bullets will disappear.

Managing Notes

EXPLORE - You can rotate from note-to-note by just tapping Command + ~ Great way to peruse your work.
OPEN/CLOSE - You can open and close and open and close and open your note with Command + M.
SHUT DOWN - Want to delete a note? Tap Command + W.
FLOATING - If you want your note to remain in front of the other documents on the screen, you just have to FLOAT it. Tap Command + Option + F to turn your floating on and off.
TRANSLUCENT - Sometimes it's useful to be able to see through your notes. I don't use this much but I envision this as an overlay where you can take notes while examining something on your screen. Just use Command + Option + T to toggle it on and off.

Sticky Notes for an iPad

Want to have the wonderful capabilities of Stickies on an iPad? Your dreams have been answered. You can upload Sticky Notes for free to your iPad. It has all of the capabilities of your Mac Stickies but it is on your iPad. The only problem that I see with it is that there doesn't seem to be a way to synch the messages on my MacBook Pro with my iPad. This means that I live in 2 different worlds when I move from laptop to tablet and back again.

I just found something called StickiesSynch.https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/31646/stickiessync Haven't tried this yet, but it might be the answer. Apparently, you need to have access to a server that will check your system periodically for updates.

I FOUND IT!!!! I just found AirStickies. This is an app that I found online. They say that it costs $1.99, but I just downloaded it for free. Turns out that it costs $1.99 for the Mac OS X version to work on your computer. It requires that your iPhone is connected through wifi. I can't get it to work right now. Will make a posting when that is working. Good luck.

Evernote Might be Next
There are many things that we can do with Stickies. I think the next step is Evernote. I don't know much about Evernote but it would be good to find some way to export all of my Stickies notes to Evernote. Evernote would provide a method for synching between my iPad and MacBook. It would make life a little less segmented.

What do you use? Do you use Stickies or Evernote for organizing your life? If you don't use these, what DO you use?

Z

Additional resources:

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Kids Respond When You Believe in Them . . . Ask Principal Roger Boddie

After 36 years of leading the Hingham Middle School in Massachusetts, Principal Roger Boddie's students surprised him with a flashmob dancing tribute to him on his last day of his term on the job. It is touching to see how this affects Boddie as well as the students. Imagine leading a school for 36 years. That means that he probably had at least 2 generations of students. He became part of their families.

He obviously Made a Difference. He believed in his students and they responded. This aligns with the testimonials that I have been hearing all week at the ISTE conference in San Antonio.

I heard Kevin Honeycutt talking about his passion for teaching and challenging students.
Adam Bellow gave a moving keynote where he talked about Making a Difference in the world.
Jane McGonigal shaws how she had worked with learners and changed their lives through gaming.

There is no greater achievement than Making a Difference in someone else's life. That is why we became teachers. We want to make a difference it is when we receive acknowledgement as Principal Boddie received the tribute by his students that means a great deal.

I found this video on the blog of a good friend, mentor and colleague, Vicki Davis - CoolCatTeacher. Visit her blog to see what she has to say about this.

How have you been acknowledged as an educator?

Z

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Making Learning Meaningful for New Gens with Readings, Watchings, Listenings, and Doings @ ISTE '13

Making Learning Meaningful means more than "getting the point across." Meaningful Learning is a transformative experience where learners are building a Relation with what they are learning. Instead of memorizing information that can be recited on a test on Friday morning, Meaningful Learning involves students:

Connecting to content because of interest.
Finding relevance because it relates to what they already know.
Having a great deal of freedom in how they involve themselves with the content.

Building a Relation with what you are learning involves making decisions about what you are learning and how you will learn it. It doesn't mean that the teacher is not leading the learning process. It means that the teacher is not the center of all content and the purveyor of knowledge to the learner. The teacher learns along with the learner.

Today I am sharing my ideas with educators from around the world at the ISTE '13 conference in San Antonio. This is a huge international event where 20,000 educators from 70 different countries convene to share how they have been teaching and learn new ideas for how technology can be used to support learning. It is an INCREDIBLE event.

I am presenting on Wednesday, June 26 from 11:45 - 12:45 in Room 217 D. I don't know how many people will be at the conference but you will be able to follow along through a couple of pathways from anywhere in the world.

Twitter
For all of you twitterers, we will use the hashtag #MLMiste When you tweet, include this hashtag in your message so that others can follow along with your ideas. If you want to see what was posted, click on the hashtag above and it will show you what has been said.

Collaborative Notes
We will also use collaborative note taking. This is a Google Doc that I created and then laid open to the world for anyone to edit. (tinyurl.com/MLMiste) This means that you just need to click on the link and it will take you to the Google Doc. You don't have to sign-in but you will be known as Anonymous???? when you are entering your ideas. Go ahead and add the info that you find interesting. Go out on the web during the session to find relevant information and add the link to the document.

The Slideshow

Making learning meaningful iste 13 from Leigh Zeitz

I have posted this slideshow on SlideShare. You are welcome to follow along or use the content later with your colleagues or students. Just remember to provide attribution for where you found it. =-)

(Will be posted before the presentation on Wednesday. Never know what else we will add.)

Generations
I will begin our discussion with talking about Generations. The world is changing and so are the learners we encounter in out classrooms. We MUST consider that if we are going to Make Learning Meaningful. Here is a small chart that distinguishes the generations. The rest of the content on this can be found in the slideshow above.

Readings, Watchings, Listenings and Doings (RWLD)
Readings, Watchings, Listenings, and Doings (RWLDs) are online pages that hold digital content for topics that you are studying in class. Instead of relying on a textbook, you are providing your learners with Multimedia Opportunities to prepare for the work you will be doing in class.

Check THESE Out!!
Here are some examples of RWLDs that I use in my classes. They are designed for University classes at the University of Northern Iowa, but you could use this same format for 3rd graders. It's just a matter of making a blog posting.

This is the Flipped Classroom LONG BEFORE there was a Flipped Classroom

You will can learn more about RWLDs at my posting Textbooks are NOT Enough Anymore!

Thank You!!
I hope that this session has been useful for you. I am interested in knowing if and how this material has been useful to you. I hope that this is just the beginning of our connection.

Subscribe to this blog using the link in the right column.
Send me an email at zeitz@uni.edu
Follow me on Twitter: @zeitz
Let's visit on Skype: leighzeitz

How else can I help you? Respond in the comments below.

Z

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Teaching Generations Differently (weekly)

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Tech It To the NEXT Level

I am privileged to be Skyping with Amy Kangas and her wonderful class of educators who are spending the next week exploring what it means to be a 21st Century Teacher.

While I will just be there to answer questions and share some experiences, here are a few resources that might be useful for our discussion.

BackChannel:

Technology Integration Matrix:

UNI Instructional Technology Masters Program

Sunday, June 16, 2013

MY GAWD! It's Saturn thru Google Hangout!!!

There's Saturn. I can't believe it!

Fraser Cain in Courtenay, British Columbia, is SHARING THE UNIVERSE!
He is using Google Hangout to share this image on his telescope with other astronomers from all over the world.

English: Auroras on Saturn. Français : Des aurores polaires sur Saturne. Русский: Полярное сияние на Сатурне. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I know that the technology is here and I have connected with people all over the world, but this video brought me to tears. I don't know why, but the idea of connecting people from all over the world to through Google Hangout to see Saturn through a personal telescope in British Columbia, Canada, was incredibly moving for me, the teacher.

Sure, we have seen telescopic images on our televisions or even our computers, but this experience is not being directed by "The Establishment." It isn't something on PBS that someone in New York decided would be good for us to see. It is about a Canadian amateur astronomer connecting through Google Hangouts with individuals in Pakistan, Australia, U.S., Mexico, South America, South Africa and ??. It is an example of people sharing/learning/teaching with one another in a way that wasn't possible even 5 years ago.

This is what 21st Century Learning is all about. It is about connecting and collaborating and exploring on a global basis. It is about using our daily resources to constantly expand our opportunities with others.

What are you doing in your classrooms to encourage such collaboration?

Z

Happy Father's Day

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Learning Makes a Difference 05/29/2013

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Voki is a FUN way to do an Intro!

Voki is a fun way to have an avatar introduction you to your class. I have asked my students to do this, but rarely have done it myself. I am going to do that this year. Should be fun. Here is the intro that I did for an INTEL course that I am taking called "Facilitating and Implementing Online Professional Development." Should be fun.

What do you use for introductions? Can you suggest Avatars that you can make talk? I tried Xtranormal but it didn't work correctly.

Z

Wednesday, May 08, 2013

What Do Teachers Make? (Happy Teachers' Appreciation Day)

Happy Teacher's Appreciation Day, Everyone!!!

This is the day when we will appreciate you teachers who brought out the best in us. You made us achieve levels of excellence that we thought impossible. You challenged us to succeed!

I must admit that my best days in life are those when I made a difference in someone's life. It might be a student or a son or a grandson or a complete stranger, but I possess the Teacher's Gene and it is what gives me pleasure.

I recently had dinner with a couple of guys who were my college roommates back at UCSB. We started talking about retirement. I had thought about retirement before but that night I couldn't imagine living a life when I wasn't trying to improve our classrooms by providing future and present teachers with innovative learning experiences that they could use in their own classrooms. I couldn't imagine not working with students to challenge them to do the impossible.

I couldn't imagine not teaching.

I just bumped into Taylor Mali's talk on What Do Teachers Make. It is a 3-minute soliloquy about what a difference teachers make in the lives of their students. Here it is for you to watch along with a list of what Taylor identifies as "What Teachers Make." Go Taylor.

Teachers Can Make . . .

kids work harder than then ever thought they could.
a C+ feel like a congressional medal of honor.
an A- feel like a slap in the face
kids sit through 40 minutes of study hall in absolute silence.
parents tremble in fear when I call home to compliment students on their actions.
parents see their children for who they are and who they can be.
kids wonder, question and criticize
kids apologize and mean it
them write, write and write and read, read, read definitely and beautiful until they will never misspell either of those words again.
them show all their work in math class and hide it on their final drafts in English.
them realize that if you have this (brains) and you follow this (heart) then you don't have to worry about what you make ($$$)

Teachers make a Difference . . . what about you?

Related articles

Thursday, April 18, 2013

What IS the Difference Between 20th and 21st Century Classrooms

What ARE the differences between the 20th and 21st Century Classrooms? We have heard a great deal about how the 21st Century Classroom's characteristics but I found that the 21st Century Schools website has a comprehensive comparison.

How should we use this? I have introduced this in my classes and my students have found it to be a valuable tool fool as they evaluated their own classes as to their level of 21st Century qualities.

Look these over and use them to review your own classes. How can you improve your teaching?

20th Century Education is teacher-centered with a fragmented curriculum and students working in isolation memorizing facts.
21st Century Education is student-centered with real-life, relevant, collaborative project-based learning.

*20^th Century Classroom Qualities*	*21^th Century Classroom Qualities*
Time-based	Outcome-based
Focus: memorization of discrete facts	Focus: What students Know, Can Do and Are Like after all the details are forgotten.
Lessons focus on the lower level of Bloom’s Taxonomy – knowledge, comprehension and application.	Learning is designed on upper levels of Blooms’ – synthesis, analysis and evaluation (and include lower levels as curriculum is designed down from the top.)
Textbook-driven (content comes from textbooks)	Research-driven (content comes from student research)
Passive learning	Active Learning
Learners work in isolation – classroom within 4 walls	Learners work collaboratively with classmates and others around the world – the Global Classroom
Teacher-centered: teacher is center of attention and provider of information	Student-centered: teacher is facilitator/coach
Little to no student freedom	Great deal of student freedom
“Discipline problems" – educators do not trust students and vice versa. No student motivation.	No “discipline problems” – students and teachers have mutually respectful relationship as co-learners; students are highly motivated.
Fragmented curriculum	Integrated and Interdisciplinary curriculum
Grades averaged	Grades based on what was learned
Low expectations	High expectations – “If it isn’t good it isn’t done.” We expect, and ensure, that all students succeed in learning at high levels. Some may go higher – we get out of their way to let them do that.
Teacher is judge. No one else sees student work.	Self, Peer, and Other assessments. public audience, authentic assessments.
Curriculum/School is irrelevant and meaningless to the students.	Curriculum is connected to students’ interests, experiences, talents, and the real world.
Print is the primary vehicle of learning and assessment.	Performances, projects, and multiple forms of media are used for learning and assessment
Diversity in students is ignored.	Curriculum and instruction address student diversity
Literacy is the 3 R’s – reading, writing and math	Multiple literacies of the 21^st century – aligned to living and working in a globalized new millennium.
Factory model, based upon the needs of employers for the Industrial Age of the 19th century. Scientific management.	Global model, based upon the needs of a globalized, high-tech society.
Driven by the NCLB and standardized testing mania.	Standardized testing has its place. Education is not driven by the NCLB and standardized testing mania.

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