Thursday, September 23, 2010

StudyWiz Tips

After hearing many questions about saving things in StudyWiz from many of the students and also from you, I wanted to take this time to give you a quick tutorial about how to save and submit work.  I do want to thank all of you for your patience and willingness to work with us as we all learn how to best implement StudyWiz into your child’s learning.

Starting an assignment
When an assignment is put up on StudyWiz we will tell your child about it but we will also send out information in our week-at-a-glance in the newsletter. 
·         Logon to StudyWiz
·         Go to the Learning team and then to the class they have an assignment in
·         Click View Folders on the left hand side of the screen to see all folders listed
·         Next click on the folder they have the assignment in and then on the assignment
·         They will need to then click on the link to the assignment to open it on the computer.  Then they can begin to work on the assignment

Saving into the E-Locker
The E-Locker is a good feature to use when a student is working on something and doesn’t get it done but can come back later.
·         First the student needs to save the document that they are working on into their documents on the computer
·         Next they will go to their StudyWiz account
·         They need to click on the E-Locker tab at the top center of the screen
·         Once you are in your e-locker you need to scroll down to the bottom and on the left there is a link that you need to click on that says “upload new item
·         A screen will come up with two buttons.  You need to click browse and find the document you want to upload into your e-locker.
·         Double click on the document you want to upload into your e-locker, and then its name will pop up in the window on the upload screen.
·         Then Click upload and it should be uploaded into your e-locker

Finishing assignment that is already in E-Locker
When your student has not finished their work at school and have already saved their assignment to their e-locker.  It is very important to put it back into the e-locker once they are finished
·         Go into your student’s e-locker and download the assignment that needs to be finished.
·         Once you are finished with the assignment you need save it into your documents
·         Then go back to your student’s e-locker and upload the document you were working on into the e-locker.  It is VERY important that you re-upload the document into your e-locker so that it will be there when your student comes back to school the next day.

Submitting an assignment
·         Once you have finished the assignment you were working on and have uploaded it into your student’s e-locker it is time to submit the assignment.
·         You have to go back to the assignment that you were working on by clicking on the learning tab, then the class tab the assignment was in, and then click on the assignment.
·         Now you should see the link to the assignment and a button that says submit assignment
·         Click on the submit assignment button.
·         You have to do two things.
o   Fill in a description – it can really be anything but there just has to be something written in that text box.
o   Then click on import from e-locker.  This will take you to your student’s e-locker, you will need to click on the grey box on the right hand side of the assignment that you want to submit.
·         Last click on save at the bottom left of the screen and you are finished!

There are also detailed explanations of how to do these things with pictures on the StudyWiz website.  Click on the help at the top right hand side of the page.


Hope this is helpful
~Miss Hull

Sunday, September 12, 2010

What is a Glogster?

Glogster EDU is the leading global education platform for the creative expression of knowledge and skills in the classroom and beyond. They empower educators and students with the technology to create GLOGS - online multimedia posters - with text, photos, videos, graphics, sounds, drawings, data attachments and more.

I asked students to create a Glog over one of the five regions of the United States. They had to use their knowledge of the Five Themes of Geography and apply them to their region. What the students created was above and beyond what I expected. Many groups added music, a feature I didn't know existed, and some even added their own videos. The used of this on-line resource is a great example of how we can put something in the hands of our students and they are able to teach their teachers something new.

I think this project was a great example of how I am able to teach my students the basic concepts of a topic during my class time and they are able to create a product that applies what they have learned.

Here are just some of great Glogs your students created.

http://punishers.edu.glogster.com/the-best-glog-in-the-west/
http://punishers.edu.glogster.com/group-number-20/
http://punishers.edu.glogster.com/group-16/
http://punishers.edu.glogster.com/group-13/
http://punishers.edu.glogster.com/glog-group-1/

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Studywiz

Today I introduced your students to a new program called StudyWiz. This is an online program that can be accessed from any computer that has internet access.




What it can do….

• This website will show you and your students assignments they are working on.

• Allows them to take quizzes or tests

• Participate in chats. For example I can set up a homework chat every evening from 6-7 if your student has questions and wants to speak with me. Also, if they are working on a group project they could chat about ideas with their team mates.

• Elocker - This is where they should keep all of their assignments until they are ready to be turned in. This way they can start something at school and finish it at home. Its like a flash drive.

• Assignment Submission – When finished with an assignment they can turn it in online. I can grade and leave comments for them.



Now Im not expecting them to be experts yet but ask them to log you on so they can play around. If you have questions I can help out.



The website is studywiz.kellerisd.net

Click on the lady at the end (blue) and login

User name = student ID

Password = fml(firstmiddlelast initials)monthdayyear(whole year)



I would definitely bookmark this site.



Please go on and play around on the site. We will be using this site a lot this year in all of our classes.