Wearing Many Hats

Life is pretty fun. If you are anything like me the responsibilities are endless and the expectations have the potential to be overwhelming. As I have mentioned in previous posts I wear many hats as most of us do. I am glad to wear these hats and have these different responsibilities. I keep thinking that once one thing ends I will relax. In reality I find something else to fill that time. I think I might actually be a glutton for punishment but it's my choice and I have to live with it. All of us human beings are complex individuals with multiple gifts and strengths as well as weaknesses. The hats we wear stretch us and ultimately make us better. 

One thing that I realized is that adding different administrative roles one of my glaring weaknesses is organization. I kind of fly by the seat of my pants a lot in life. This makes life fun when in the middle of a class something isn't working. I can easily try something different and move on without much trouble. This can also be a huge weakness when it comes to remembering to email someone back or when a meeting is. The problem with wearing many hats is that you also have many people relying on you. I want to give those people like me a new tool that could help with organization. 

The newest tool that I discovered is Google Keep. This app allows you to create notes and write things similar to Post it Notes. What I like about it is that you can create things on your computer, phone, or other device due to the Google Keep app. You can also create an extension on your Chrome toolbar which allows for easy access. 

What I like about Google Keep:

1.  The ability to share a note with other people. This would be great to give your class a reminder or even a spouse. 

2.  The ability to be reminded at a later time.

3. Color coding of notes to create different list.

The following link will give you a quick rundown of the different features of Keep.

This tool will help me to be more organized and help me to be better at my biggest weakness.

Below is a tutorial on Google Keep and how to get it.

Google Classroom

"Change means that what was before was not perfect. People want things to be better." 

-Esther Dyson

I think it is important to stop and think about what we are doing in the profession of education. We are called to enact change. The biggest way to enact change is to embrace change in our lives. One of the harder things to do is to change our style of teaching and it is refreshing to be reminded that the goal of change is to Make Things Better.

So as I continue to look at the Learning Management Systems from previous posts I began to look at Google Classroom. This LMS makes a lot of sense if you or your school primarily uses Google. With different features like Google Forms, Google Docs, and Google Slides Google Classroom makes a pretty seamless transition for a management system. As I continue to try and find the best system moving forward. I feel overwhelmed by the similarities of the different systems and the fear that I am going to choose the wrong one and be stuck with it for an entire year. 

Side note: I have been told many times that "Variety is the spice of life". While I agree with the notion that variety and switching things up keeps me engaged and keeps things fresh, As I continue to search for things having so many options can almost be paralyzing. So if you are an administrator it really helps teachers for you to make a decision, stick with it, and support teachers to help them learn.

(Whew, sorry I had to get that off of my chest)

Google Classroom definitely has its flaws (Mostly because it is still relatively new). It is important to look at what Google has to offer in the learning management system game. As I mentioned earlier, most schools use Google Apps for Education (GAFE) in some capacity and having Google Classroom will help with that.

For a review of Google Classroom check out this link.

For some of the practical tips and tricks to use Google Classroom check out this link

After looking at the review if you want to create a Google Classroom here is a video tutorial that has been a lot of help for me.

If you are feeling overwhelmed or even anxious about making these changes in your classroom I would like to remind you to look at the quote at the top and take a deep breath. Enjoy the day and know that everything will work out. Not perfectly but the way it is supposed to work.

Learning Management Systems

This post I am going to be discussing some dreaded "Buzzwords". Buzzwords is defined as "a word or phrase, often an item of jargon, that is fashionable at a particular time or in a particular context." dictionary.com. These words get thrown around a lot and often is followed with disgust or disdain. The Buzzword or phrase I should say that I am going to mention in this post is "21st Century Skills." Gone are the days of just teaching content to students (Thank God). Now educators are responsible for not only teaching the relevant content, but also equip the students with the necessary skills that will lead to success in today's globally connected world. 21st Century Skills are defined by edweek.org as,

"core competencies such as collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving that advocates believe schools need to teach to help students thrive in today's world."

Learning Management Systems allow for you as the educator to facilitate learning in a way that will create the opportunities for students to learn these different skills. There are online features that allow for students to collaborate on projects using Google Slides. Students can be assigned tasks to upload files or create videos teaching them digital literacy. Students can be asked to create solutions to a problem with online resources teaching them both critical thinking and problem-solving skills. As we all know the internet is endless and these systems help you as an educator tap into these resources to enhance your classroom.

Students of today are different from the students that we were at one time in the stone age. Students don't even know where their lockers are because everything is digital, they are coming into the classroom with laptops instead of books, online applications instead of notebooks, and online learning platforms instead of planners. As an educator we have to not only meet the student where they are at but also continue to advance our own craft. The biggest wave of the future in classrooms are Learning Management Systems (LMS). These systems will help you to connect with students and actually cut out on the unnecessary grading, papers, and stress of trying to keep everything organized for 20-30 students per class. Some of the popular LMS's are Edmodo, Schoology, Moodle, Canvas, Google Classroom, and Chalkup. Each of these systems offer different things and I am not going to advocate for one over the other. Instead I wanted to bring awareness to the different systems.


The top five benefits of a Learning Management System are discussed here.

I wanted to give you information on a two LMS's that I am debating between for my class in the next school year as I move forward with using a Learning Management System in my classroom.






1. Edmodo- You can set up a free account at edmodo.com

2. Schoology- You can create a free account at schoology.com  

As I mentioned earlier, I am still in the process of deciding for myself which LMS I will use next year. Here is a comparison of the two and a pros and cons for both Edmodo and Schoology. I hope you can find one that will work best in your classroom.

Using Google Add-ons to enhance the classroom.

As you know by now I am becoming more and more obsessed with Google and all of the ways it can help enhance my class.  As amazing as Google is with all of its functions it is also a little scary that anytime I think about doing something I realize Google has a way for me to do it. In a way Google is literally taking over my world. I also find myself becoming very envious of today's students and find myself having higher expectations for them and less patience for excuses.

Google Add-ons offers many features with some of the top add ons featured here
Some of my new favorite add ons are Easybib and Flubaroo

EasyBib allows for quick and easy citations of resources in MLA,APA, and even Chicago. This is a great source for students that are writing research papers, presentations, or using any kind of citations. The add on in Google Drive allows for citations on the document and the opportunity to create a running citation page that can easily be copied into a Works Cited page.

Watch the quick video here to see how to get the add on and how to use Easy Bib.

Flubaroo is an add on that I plan on using a lot in the future in my classroom as I move to using Google Forms in the future. Google Forms in itself is something that should be checked out. It allows you to create surveys, responses and quizzes. Flubaroo will actually grade those quizzes and create a spreadsheet that can easily be used. The Video below shows how to get Flubaroo and its features.

So as you continue to use Google Chrome and discover more features always check to see if any add ons or apps can be used to enhance your class or work. Happy Hunting.

Connecting Voices

Sharing Ideas and Responsibility

I feel like the image above is the ideal situation in most areas of my life. Many people with their own voice and their own ideas coming together and eventually those circles overlapping. I love that this image is not just individuals with their own individual thoughts. Instead community is a mixture of individuals and their thoughts. Eventually each person has multiple colors representing voices and ideas in their bubble. This post is about connecting our voices. Of course collecting voices can have its down side. There are times when a decision has to be made and you have to have a clear voice. Many voices in those situations can be very detrimental to a task or an objective. The situations that I am mainly talking about are those where there is a collaboration. What I have noticed is that in those situations having only one voice can be detrimental. As an educator I am a part of a lot of collaboration that is actually just one voice. This one voice can have great ideas but everyone falls in line with their vision and normally take a back seat and don't feel responsible for the growth of a community. The many ideas and visions get lost and everyone seems to be focused on one person instead of the many skills and tools that the collective group can bring to the situation.

The image below shows a great example of what this one voice tends to look like:

So I am going to show you tool that I have begun to use to bring about a collective responsibility and a collection of voices. The first tool is something that we are all familiar with and that is Twitter. Social Media in general is a great tool for connecting with people all over the world. We decide how to use that tool to enhance us or bring us down. There are definitely many ways that Social Media has been used negatively, especially among high schoolers, but I am going to show you how to use Twitter in a productive way. 

Twitter allows you to use specific searches to find more information. These searches are used by hashtags (#). These hashtags are used to carry on a conversation with a specific theme. I have seen them used at weddings to tweet about the festivities to research projects that are used to connect with others that are familiar with the topic. 

1. The first thing you need to do is create a Twitter account. You can do that here.

2. Once you sign in you can then search for any topic you would like. For example I chose to look up espn by using #espn

After you select your topic anything with #espn tag will come up for you to explore

There are many groups and other things you can look up on Twitter. Below is a quick video tutorial on how to use Twitter for beginners.

Hopefully you begin to use Twitter and get connected with other people and hear many different ideas. Feel free to follow me @gbuckman4 and Happy Tweeting.

Custom Search Engine

This search engine is designed to give credible websites for historical research.

Hidden Google Gems

There are certain moments in life when you realize that you have been doing something completely wrong. Today was one of those moments for me. Google is taking over the world. Everyone is impacted by Google in some way whether it be using Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, and most commonly the Google Search engine. Even this blog is connected to Google. Google has caused for an extremely streamlined society. Google has very basic and easy to use features like emailing or searching for whatever your heart desires. Google also has some very complex features that can make life very easy. This post is going to look at three of the hidden gems that I discovered recently in Google; Google Task, Authentication Verification of emails, and Custom Search Engines.

1. Google Task- If you are anything like me you wear many hats. For example I am a teacher, husband, basketball coach, club moderator, assistant athletic director, and graduate student. (breathe in, breathe out) I have been running around stressed out for the past year due to the disorganization of my life. This disorganization is not intentional I just forgot an appointment here and there, look at my schedule at the last second and realize I have double booked myself.

We've all been here

Google Task is a hidden gem that will help to organize your life. It is a part of Gmail and helps to create a to do list. Here is a quick video tutorial on Google Tasks uses as well as how to get Google Task here.

After downloading Google Task you can download the app on the Android and Apple Store by searching "gTasks"

You can also create a tab on your toolbar. by doing the following
1.  Searching for Google Task in App Search Bar      

2. Click on Better Google Task

2. Authentication Verification- The next Google hidden gem is a simple authentication verification. This verifies the sender of your email to make sure that the sender is actually the real and not a virus or a phishing scam.

This is a simple way to help protect yourself from identity theft as well as well as keep you safe from any phishing scam. You can see how to enable this simple feature here

3. Custom Search Engine- The last Google hidden gem that I discovered is a custom search engine. As an educator this will be very useful in the coming years, especially for projects. So what a custom search engine does is allow you to put parameters on the content that is being searched. For example, if you are wanting your students to research a particular topic you can add filters and specific websites that will direct the search engine. This will help to create relevant and reliable sources.

Let's say you want your students to research about Richard Nixon and Watergate and use a regular Google Search. The third link down is wikipedia.com which is not a credible website because of the ability for anyone to edit the page.

With my custom search engine that same search topic will give you more reliable sources. I made the search engine to look for websites ending in .org, .edu and .gov. These websites are more credible. I also allowed for history.com and ushistory.org

The same search now garners these results:

Notice the top three results are from history.com and nixonlibrary.gov.
This video will help you create a custom search engine

I hope these little gems excite you as much as they excite me and as always use your voice to make a change.

I HATE USING TECHNOLOGY....Oh I guess it's not that bad.

Technology is one of those necessary evils for a lot of people especially educators.
Seriously think about a class where you have everything figured out to the minute. Your lesson is flawless, your video is completely relevant. You have even hyped the video up so much that a class of juniors are excited to watch the video (Honestly I had my class excited to watch a video over Nixon and Watergate). You go over to the computer to get everything ready and you can't get the sound to connect to the projector. You scramble, try to troubleshoot as fast as you can. Look up at the clock and realize Technology has won this round.  If this scenario sounds fresh that is because it literally happened 40 minutes ago and the frustration is still boiling in me. So how am I supposed to write a blog about technology when I am frustrated? It's easy because for the most part technology isn't all that bad. I mean technology definitely has its fair share of frustrations but it also has impacted and enhanced my classroom a lot. Like all things, technology has its good to go along with its bad.

One good technology tool is Google Chrome. I have used this browser over the past couple of years and can honestly say that I don't see how I ever used anything else. Google has a plethora of apps that can be used to help enhance both your personal and professional life. Google also has programs that rival Microsoft and allow for instant saving as well as the Google Drive which helps to organize your information. I believe that using a gmail account is a must when it comes to emailing especially if you are an educator or a professional of any kind.

How do I get Google Chrome? Good question!!
1. You can download Google Chrome by clicking on http://www.google.com/chrome/
There is also a video tutorial that shows the ease of downloading Google Chrome on your computer here.

2.Here are some great tips and features of Google Chrome here

3. If you are an educator like myself you will also find that Google provides a lot of services that will enhance your classrooms. Please check out the apps that come with Google and the ways you can use Google for educational purposes here.

Good luck and take your knocks while learning to use technology but don't let those knocks keep you down. Continue to explore new technologies and find ways to integrate them into your personal, professional and social life.

The Daunting Task

There are many things to do with a voice. Your voice can be used to shout loudly or to give the faintest of whispers. I am a coach, teacher, husband, brother, son, and a man of faith. I have very many voices. Sometimes my voices overlap and sometimes they are very separate. Each voice is very significant and what is more important is how to use your voice to inspire others to use their voice. As a coach I use my voice to communicate a common goal and the strategy to get to that goal. As a teacher I use my voice to educate and mold young thinkers. As a husband, brother, and son I use my voice to encourage and to love. As a man of faith I use my voice to share the things that I have learned in my convictions.

There are also many things that can happen with a thought. Thoughts bring ideas, passion, and ingenuity to the world. Thoughts help to make us who we are and help to dictate our decisions. What we think about something more often than not becomes reality about that situation.

With this blog I hope to share my thoughts in order to help expand my voice. Not because I have a lot of knowledge but as I gain knowledge from others I should be able to share that knowledge. The first thing that I have learned this week is the accessibility of using an RSS feed.

Feedly is a way to keep all of the blogs that you want to follow in one place and organized. Feedly has a very easy to use interface and also an easy way to categorize the blogs. The best thing about Feedly is that is free and has an abundance of categories and content. feedly.com

Setting up a Feedly account is pretty easy: 
1. You can link it to your gmail account for easiest set up.
2. Your search page is full of categories as well as a search bar for an actual URL.

3. After choosing different blogs to follow you can then categorize your blogs by content on your Feedly page. By creating different collections. For example I have a collection of education blogs.

4. After organizing your blogs you will then see any unread posts for the day.

Just like that you will have a Feedly account and a way to organize the blogs that you wish to follow. I plan on adding different categories between sports, cooking, and current news.

Good luck and please leave comments below of some of the categories and blogs you follow on Feedly after you set up your account.

Thanks.