March 5, 2013 · 8:38 am

This I Believe…Love

Holding Daughter's Hand

Holding Daughter’s Hand

I checked out the book This I Believe: On Love from my library a couple of weeks ago.  The book is a collection of essays written by everyday people.  The book is apart of the I Believe organization that fosters the sharing of our foundational beliefs through writing.  In the spirit of the book I wanted to share what I believe, on love.

Love takes strength, everyday.

Love is reflected in the daily grind of life, it is expressed in soothing a crying child at 1:30 in the morning, and the thirty minutes sitting next to their bed as they fall asleep (and not losing your cool when your knees pop awaking her so you have to sit for another ten minutes).

Love is reflected in making blueberry muffins every Sunday morning.  Sitting with the family at the table. Picking up shoes and coats in the entryway, everyday.

Love is seen in kissing your wife even though it is a bad day and things are not going right.  To show her that your marriage is more important than a bad day. Love drives us to be better next time, and the next time, and to be even better the next time after that.

Love calls us to live with an open heart.  To be strong enough to know your heart will break, because life will break your heart with joy and sorrow.  But love will put your heart back together.

Love calls us to be honest, to have the strength to do what is right in this world.  To stand alone sometimes and hold a candle size light in the dark until others find their way to you.

Love takes strength.  Love takes courage. Love takes everything you have.  And I believe that is the way it should be.

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January 9, 2013 · 7:58 am

“I do it.”

Clip art courtesy of ryanlerch at openclipart.org

This morning my youngest daughter was getting herself dressed. She was having a little trouble with one of her sleeves. Like many parents, my wife said, “Come here, I’ll help.”

Our daughter look at her said, “I do it.”

She continued to struggle to get the sleeve untangled and her hand through the sleeve.  She turned a couple of times like a dog chasing its tail. After a minute she stopped and said, “Need help.”

My wife then helped her get her arm through the sleeve and we continued with our morning routine. The time in between “I do it” and  “Need help” was probably at the most a minute. But in parental time it felt like an hour, especially since we were in the middle of our morning routine.

My youngest girl is a classic strong-willed child. She will tackle any thing she feels like. If this was any of my other four children at this age they would have let us help them get their arm through the shirt right away. We would have justified helping them for the sake of our routine.

It is easy to do things for our kids. Whether they are our own kids or our students. My oldest son is now 12 years old and we are asking him to take on more responsibility. But I wonder if I have simply taught him that dad will do it.  For example, for years I have cleaned the dishes from the table after dinner.  It is easier for me to handle the mess than have a child carry a plate with some uneaten macaroni and cheese on it and have the possibility that the child dumps the food on the floor. Or take their glass, with just a little bit of milk at the bottom, to the counter.  But now that I want my son to do more, there are moments of frustration because he forgets to put his plate in the dishwasher.  But I have done it for him for twelve years.

This morning my three-year-old daughter reminded me that building any foundation takes a lot of time and energy. It might be easy to do things for our kids for the sake of time or ease. But the foundation will not be there when it is needed most in life. When we are not there.

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January 8, 2013 · 8:53 am

Happy New Year

Happy New Year… a few days late but the year is still young.

The lines, “As I playback now, the tape of the year / Its not where I thought we’d be, still not where I feared” from the song above, “3 Days Till Next Year” by Keith Ward, is fitting for how I am feeling today.

Just like many people, there were too many things that I didn’t do.  Too many things that I took for granted because I was worried or simply complained about life not going the way I wanted.

January 1 gives all of us a symbolic moment to “replay the tape,” but what matters more is what we will do today.  And it is not the big things that we should focus on but as the song says, “Remember that friend, that you meant to call.”  We let too many small moments pass by, too many letters or emails not sent, smiles kept hidden and then wonder why the past year feels just like the last; filled with regrets.

Life is going to happen.  Whether I complain or accomplish a new goal.  January 1, 2014, will allow me another moment to replay the tape.  I am striving to have that tape filled with friendships, great moments, and new adventures.  But most importantly, not matter what struggles life might have in store for me, to have a year filled with joy and love.

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December 18, 2012 · 10:14 am

Plateau?

I was talking to my colleague Deanna Stall when she brought up an interesting point. She asked, “What if the system has plateaued? That this is the best that we can expect from school.” Good question.  It got me thinking about all the talk about changing school, from Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk “Bring on the Learning Revolution” to the book I am currently reading by Salman Khan, The One World Schoolhouse. One of the main points about education is how it must change, that it is broken.  But maybe Mrs. Stall’s question is more accurate.  Let me talk about the bench press first.

Not to get into the principles of conditioning, but I want to use the bench press to highlight the idea of a plateau. The bench press is a great exercise. But if you do the same rep set or keep the same weight everyday, you will soon hit a plateau in your development. The easiest way to break the plateau is a change in reps, weight, or the training cycle.  Change something, not stop doing the bench press.

School is a great place. Teachers work hard to provide an education for every child.  Activities, from sports to FFA to a school play, provide unique opportunities for students to express their talents. There are too many positives about school that get lost in the discussion of change.  Many times it feels like the discussion is centered on the idea we trash the whole system and start over.  But what if we think about it from the position of the plateau?

Change is growth, but the change is in the approach not the foundation.  An athlete will not stop doing the bench press when they hit a plateau; they change their training.

The question for a school, or even a teacher, is what to change to reach the full potential of the school or the classroom.  What can we change to break through the plateau?  Because the worst part of a plateau is the false perception that it is the best you can do…

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December 14, 2012 · 8:37 am

Bad Day

Did you ever feel like nobody listened to you? Or that what you were doing didn’t really matter? Or that you just felt tired of fighting the system? Yeah, I’m having that kind of bad day.

Now there are all kinds of factors in play; I am overly tired (little one is still getting up at least once during the night), it is the end of the semester and didn’t go as planned, and little things just don’t seem to be going my way. We all have had these bad days. But it’s important to know one thing.

No matter what job you have or what you’re trying to accomplish, you always have hurdles. Days where it just doesn’t go right. Sometimes these bad days make you feel like giving up. But it is in the habit of dealing with these days that matters.

There is a famous quote by Wayne Gretzky that says you miss every shot you don’t take. There’s a ton of other inspirational quotes that I could use here. But it’s not about the quotes (plus I embedded a good speech remix below done by Vulture from Coach Taylor of the TV show Friday Night Lights ).

It’s about recognizing the importance of what you’re doing. Of moving toward whatever goal that you have set. Bad days are tough. But see them as those intense training days of life.  We learn more, improve more, become stronger on those days that we are tested.  Bad days are those days; use it to strengthen your foundation.

Goals get accomplished because you work through the bad days. And you keep in mind what you are doing. Because it matters. It matters to you. And it matters to the people around you. Your students, your family, and your coworkers. So if you’re having a bad day. I hope you turn it around by remembering that what you’re doing right now matters.

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November 15, 2012 · 10:38 pm

Aurasma

Overview:

Aurasma Lite allows you to create and view augmented reality tags, or Auras as they are called, in the world around you. The app allows you to create your own tag with premade Auras provided in the app (Aurasma animation, images or 3D models), or leave your own photo or movie file from your photo stream.

There are two options for making an Aura with the app, regular and local (published in a channel). A regular Aura is usually connected to an image that you place the Aura on.  You can then share that Aura through social media or email.  When someone clicks on the Aura link they can see your tag if they have the same image. A quick example would be leaving an Aura on a newspaper photo.

A local Aura is placed in a physical location.  This is great for creating tags for schools, or museums.  The difference is that the user makes a channel to share the Auras left at that location.

Aurasma also has a studio to create layered Auras.  The picture in the “Why I like it” section will give you an example of how the studio works.

Why I like it:

Steps to View:

1.Download the Aurasma Lite app.

2. Create an account.

3. Search for  “Jamey Boelhower ” with the search option and subscribe to my channel.

4. Point mobile device at the picture below to activate the Auras. Double tap the video to go full screen, tap the A to go to Aurasma’s site, and tap the Twitter icon to see my profile. Video was made with ScreenChomp.

Try to have iPhone in the full screen, might have to move your device to start the Auras.

Use in the classroom:

I think the power of Aurasma for educators is in the studio creation of Auras.  Below is an example of content I have tagged in a social studies book.

Map of Mayan Civilization

Auras include video and picture of temple.

Like the location Auras, the studio allows you to have a channel that you can update at anytime.  You can leave instructional videos, websites, and other material tagged in traditional books.  Many students use the calculator on their phone to do math problems, imagine, though, that they can review a lesson because it is tagged to an image in their textbook.

Using the app to create Auras can be a great way to make posters or bulletin boards interactive in the classroom.  Students can make review videos for books and leave Auras on book covers.  There are some many ways to use Aurasma in the classroom.

Share your ideas with me via Twitter (jdog90).

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November 14, 2012 · 10:00 pm

Coursebook

Overview:

Coursebook is a personal video textbook.  Coursebook features videos from Ted, Khan Academy, Stanford eCorner, Yale, Railscasts and other educational sources.  You can also connect your Facebook and Linkedin accounts to see what your friends are studying with Coursebook.

 

Why I like it:

Coursebook is a simple idea, but designed so well that it is easy to get lost in learning.  The idea is to build your own learning path by selecting videos to watch.  Coursebook then keeps track of what you have watched, which ones you have tagged to watch later, and even which videos you have started to watch. The app then gives you recommendations based off your course work.  You can share your videos through Facebook and Linkedin; also you can share with the Coursebook community.

You can access your course work on their website, too.

 Use in the classroom:

This app is perfect for flipping your classroom or enhancing your curriculum.  At the moment Coursebook is just over two years old and you can’t just type in any keyword and get video results.  But I see great potential in what they are developing, and it can release the ownership of learning to the student.

For example lets use the study of cells in a high school class.  How can Coursebook be used in this situation?

First, I did a keyword search with “cells” and Coursebook provided 11 results.  The top three videos are “Using nature to grow batteries,” “Transplant cells, not organs,” and “Printing a human kidney.”  What an interesting way to enhance information about the importance of cells in our life!  What if there was a day or a project in the science class that allowed the students to connect the classroom lesson with a video of their choice?

OK, now let’s expand that science class to the whole year.  The student can build a coursebook with videos of their choice for the whole year.  If there were videos you wanted to use in your class, you make sure all students add it to their playlist.  This is the power of the flipped classroom idea.  It’s not about just watching a video, but about watching something that sparks the students’ imagination and you, the teacher, providing them the freedom and time to work with their ideas and questions.  With Coursebook the videos can be watched anytime and anywhere, the classroom is where you take that spark and ignite their learning.

Share your ideas with me via Twitter (jdog90).

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November 13, 2012 · 10:51 pm

Snapguide

Overview:

Snapguide is designed for users to create visual based how-to guides.  That’s it.  Sounds simple. It is and that is what makes it great.  The guides are built around teaching how to do something through pictures and videos.  Adding text is a part of the process, but you are limited to 200 characters a page.  Once your guide is finished you publish it to Snapguide’s site, then you can share it through other social media sites. Guides can also be viewed on their website, but can only be created through the app.

Why I like it:

It is easy and fun to make a guide with your mobile device.  One night I decided to make a Snapguide about one of my family’s favorite dinners, Pizza Sandwiches (click to see the Snapguide). So, I grabbed my iPad to take the pictures as I cooked, then designed the guide later that night.

Another bonus to the app is the Snapguide community.  You can investigate other guides, or follow someone who makes guides covering subjects your are interested in.  Be prepared to interact through the comment option with people who like your guides.

Use in the classroom:

I have a Process essay unit for my writing class.  I showed the students Snapquide as an option to create a “visual how-to” assignment (the students had a number of options).  Three students used Snapguide.  Below are their guides.

How to French Twist Hair

How to Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies

How to Make Ramen Noodles in the Microwave

Each guide was viewed at least 500 times.  Each had at least 50 loves.  And each got at least one comment.  This is the power of creating work that connects beyond the classroom.

The other side of Snapguide is finding guides to enhance what you are doing in class.  There are guides that could be used in art class, industrial arts, or music. Just browsing through the categories will spark ideas for you.

Snapguide’s focus is to allow users to make and find great step-by-step guides.  It is a great example of how we can share our knowledge with people who also enjoy our interest.  Using Snapguide is a great way to enhance any lesson that is centered on how to do something. Share your guides with me via Twitter (jdog90).

Series Note: I decided to use Tagwhat in the upcoming website series that I will be doing in December.

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November 12, 2012 · 9:41 pm

SCVNGR

Overview:

SCVNGR is the type of app that highlights the power of being mobile.  The main goal of SCVNGR is going places, doing challenges, and earning points.  You can do other people’s challenges or create your own.  The heart of the program is connecting the challenge to a physical place that then turns into a social experience.  The website also allows you to create Treks.  Treks are a collection of challenges that can take place at one site or cover different places to travel to.

SCVNGR has done a great job in the design of their app.  Every challenge has the same four parts to it: Check-in, Social Check-in, Say something, and Snap a picture. When a place has been tagged in a challenge, every player has these options.  The fun comes in the unique challenge you create at that location.  There are two ways to create a challenge.  The first is by gaining enough points at that location and unlocking the bonus Create a challenge option.  The second is to make an account on SCVNGR’s website and build challenges or treks through the site.  You get four challenges with your account; you can email SCVNGR to ask for more challenges.  There is also a reward option you can unlock by contacting SCVNGR (click here for more info).

Why I like it:

It is fun.  It represents how mobile technology can be used to create a social and engaging experience.  Each Challenge or Trek has an activity feed that allows you to see how you stack up with other players. I used SCVNGR as the backbone of my Creative Apps workshop.  I built a Trek that introduced SCVNGR and then used it to enhance the workshop.

The first part of the Trek was a photo challenge.  The participants had to find a specific plant.  I uploaded my picture of the plant, and they had to take their own picture once they found it.  Next, I had two trivia questions they had to answer by asking specific colleagues during breaks in the workshop.  If you were wondering, no, their answers were not on the activity feed, just their points.  I then incorporated three discussion questions around other parts of the workshop.  These challenges were added to the four template aspects mentioned above.

One aspect I enjoyed was adding media to the challenges.  You can add movie files, pictures, or audio to your challenges to create even more personal touches.  I filmed the instructions for one of the challenges and attached them to the game.

Use in the classroom:

I think this app has great potential for schools. Below are some ideas.

Create Treks for athletic teams, band concerts, or the speech team.  Time is not a factor for SCVNGR, so a Trek can be active for as long as you want.  For example, to get fans to follow your team, create a season Trek that has each game as a challenge.

Create a reading Trek for a semester.  The location would be the classroom, but each book can have its own challenge.

Visit historical sites, or set up a Trek before a field trip allowing you to ask trivia questions, gather photos, and just create a more engaging trip.

Collect samples of plants for science class.

SCVNGR is one of those apps that reveals the power mobile technology has to enhance our everyday life, let alone what it can do for the classroom.  I think you will find SCVNGR to be a great resource. Share your SCVNGR successes with me via Twitter (jdog90).

In case you are ever in Kearney, NE, and enjoy coffee, I have a Trek, “Better Latte Than Never” you might enjoy.

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November 11, 2012 · 10:10 pm

Pic Collage

Overview:

Pic Collage is a fun, easy, and powerful app to create collages. It allows you to access photos from your camera roll, the web, Facebook, or take a picture from the app.  The app comes with a standard set of stickers, with the option to buy more sets.  You can add text, colored borders, and even crop your photos by tracing around the section you want. You can even send your collage as a postcard for $1.99.

The finished collage can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.  You can also save it to your photos or send it in an email.  Pic Collage now has an account option that allows you to share your collages on Pic Collage’s site.

Why I like it:

Designing the collage is easy.  Rotating, resizing, arranging, and even trimming the photos are gesture based.  In no time you can create a nice looking collage. The ability to access images from the web makes the app a creative tool for the classroom.

Created by Kaylee, English Comp student.

Use in the classroom:

I have used the app as a poster alternative.  The example above is a poster of a student’s persuasive topic.  I think Pic Collage can be used for any class or grade level.  Being able to access images from the web enables students to research and show their understanding of any topic in a new and inviting form.

Whether it is for the classroom, or a collection of photos from Thanksgiving, I think you will enjoy Pic Collage.  Share your collages with me via Twitter (jdog90).

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