Students don't have an e-mail account? Here's your solution...and other Gmail hacks

Problem: Web 2.0 tools need an e-mail address, no two ways about it, for security reasons and for password reset functions.

Problem: some of the most popular free e-mail sites do not allow people with birth years in a certain range to create accounts for certain services (ex. Google Accounts work for Gmail with parent credit card, but not at all for Blogger).

Problem: teachers encouraging students to be dishonest with registration is just morally wrong (trust me, I already went through that angst immediately after teaching Cyber Citizenship and came to that conclusion for you :).

Solution: teachers use Gmail+ to create student accounts! (courtesy of the EduBlogger)

The way it works

Step	Example
teacher has or creates a Gmail account. I recommend setting up a separate account from your regular e-mail so any student spam does not interfere with your regular messages.	anyteacher@gmail.com any.teacher@gmail.com And Gmail is even cooler because you can add dots to your account name
teacher creates students accounts by adding a plus after their e-mail account but before the at (@) symbol	anyteacher+student1@gmail.com any.teacher+studentFirst.studentLast@gmail or any combination of dots (.) and pluses (+) thereof which allows you to distinguish which service messages are coming from

That's all there is to this relatively recent and incredibly bothersome problem! I mean, I scratched my head for days and sent many protest e-mails when I couldn't find a solution, but over the break I ran across a number of resources, one of which was this Edublogs lesson on this issue and a major issue is solved.

My original solution involved petitioning and campaigning and demonstrating to get my district's tech people to quickly implement Google's FREE Apps for Schools to get student e-mail accounts, but that probably wouldn't have worked :)...ok, definitely would not have worked. Ok, I'm still going to do all of the above because I need my students to have Google Docs, but this workaround is a short term solution. And now I'm rambling so on to the next one!

Another tip comes from this article:  you actually receive accounts on 2 domains with Gmail: gmail.com and googlemail.com, so using filters you can differentiate where mail is coming from. Having debugged and de-virused many student computers, I recommend you use this tips...with an account separate from yours.

To create e-mail accounts for your blood children (as opposed to your adopted-student-children) under your Gmail account, this article suggests adding the account+ to your Gmail settings... with the first hack, I'm not sure it's necessary, the only difference being if your child wants to "send" a message with their name instead of the parent's.

Lastly, I label e-mails and sort files using numbers (ex. 0-really important stuff, 9-stuff to do when I'm bored out of my mind, in-between-numbers: prioritized stuff), but I like this suggestion to use slashes like a file system and other symbols to organize your Gmail Inbox.

Spring 2011 Curriculum Ideas

I'm thinking about what I'd like to teach my students before June (t minus 3 months) and I have so many ideas! Problem is there's so little time...basically 4 months and some weeks before the end of May, which is when the best teachers cease teaching and begin planning for the end of the year. I mean, going beyond May is torturous for your students with all the sunshine and graduation planning!

Anyway, I've decided to ask students what they want to learn and prepare a few lessons so they can choose or rotate. Here are some topics I've come up with [will add more as students suggest or as inspiration hits]

• HTML & Web Design (web design, programming, art, communication)
• Designing and Building a [miniature] House using reused and recycled materials (architecture, engineering, design, electrical circuitry, interior decor, ecology)
• Podcasting Spring events (engineering, communications, design, recording, writing)
• Art with Digital Tools (visual arts, history, communication)
• Game Design (game design, computer programming)

Back in School: Resources for the tech teacher

I am taking a credential class, Instructional Strategies for the Adult and Adolescent Learner, and have the great honor of being a student of the NASA - Endeavor Science Teaching Certificate Project, so I will be a busy bee! Though each class has just met for the first time in the last 48 hours, I already have useful resources:

Benchmarks & Standards

• entire book! Science for All Americans: the ideal science knowledge people will have long after graduation
• entire book! National Science Education Standards: adopted in the 1980's and useful to compare to your state guidelines
• entire book! Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8: methods to make science relevant in the K-8 classroom

When was the last time you took a refresher course or participated in professional development? There are so many programs and opportunities available, especially with the abysmal ratings U.S. students have received:

• Krause Center for Innovation's MERIT Program 2011
• Krause Center for their tech in education classes: they have face-to-face classes in San Jose (?) and online classes to learn or brush up on technology skills
• U.S. National Laboratory Teacher & Student internships (high school & college)
• National Lab Day (tba) ... President's Call to Action ... community
• Edublogger Teacher Challenge: having successfully completed their Student Challenge, this is the first opportunity for teacher's to get some blogging professional development to implement in the classroom (beginner & advanced challenges)