My addiction to Google grows stronger everyday! - Flubaroo rocks!

With paper becoming an expense we can no longer be liberal with, GCCISD is having to find creative ways for students to record their answers, responses, thoughts, work, etc. without always using paper. Believe me paper is still being used but, we as educators, must find ways to cut down on its uses.

It is an amazing thing to see just how creative educators are when faced with problems. I hate seeing our teachers have to deal with a lack of funding but it brings out some the most awesome teaching solutions! As a math teacher, I always loved for my kids to use dry erase boards to show work, problem solve, answer questions, etc. and I have seen science teacher now use those type of boards for group work but with large whiteboards (like 3 ft by 5 ft and the materials were acquired from Lowes - how awesome is that!). They found this to be a more successful tool than the individual dry erase boards, and much more cost effective than chart paper (at about a dollar per page).

I tend to push classroom response systems on my teachers to help cut down on the paper use. They work the same as the whiteboards in many ways. Of course we do not have enough systems to go around at this point in time. We do have a few computer labs per campus as well as a few mobile labs. Thus, I have also recommended to my teachers the use of Google Docs. The draw back was that you still had to grade your responses by hand, but you at least saved on paper and had all the responses organized on a spreadsheet.

This has now changed thanks to a wonderful little thing called Flubaroo! It is a script you run on your Google Form's submitted responses and it grades it for you (only for multiple choice)! Teachers have very little time to grade as it is and this will allow them to grade quickly so that can have time to actually analyze their student's work.

Check it out. It is free, and I am in love with it. Now if I can find one that will grade short answers. It is out there or will be soon.

Holiday Family Letters in Microsoft Word

I am working with some parents here in GCCISD. I am teaching them how to use Microsoft Word by having them create Christmas letters. I went online just to see what people are being charged for the pre-formatted ones at Walgreen's, Wal-Mart, Sam's etc. I was surprised at how high the cost was for these items, as well as, the lack of control you have over the document. If you do not care about the cost or are not an anal control freak like me then those places are awesome. On the other hand if you like to make something exactly how you want it without exception or feel that you are being overcharged then Microsoft Word is for you! There are great templates already available on Microsoft's website, and with a little manipulation you too can create great letters and cards. I have some samples of what I taught below.

Internet Safety for Parents

I came across this great blog about The 3Ps of Online Privacy.

I think this would be a great resource to share with your students, administrators, fellow teachers, and parents.