Lesson recording and uses in the classroom

This blog features Swivl and how to use it in the classroom.

10 Trends to Personalize Learning in 2015

Here is a great 10 point article on personalized learning.

It is broken into the culture, environment, deeper learning, and relationships.

20 Websites for Elementary Learners

Top 20 websites for the elementary student that every teacher should know.

Higher Order Thinking Apps

A higher-order thinker is a critical thinker. What are the attributes of a critical thinker? Click here to find out more. 

6 Ways to Scaffold

“6 Scaffolding Strategies to Use with Your Students” by Rebecca Alber in Edutopia, January 24, 2014, http://bit.ly/1qlsFuj

TCEA TechNotes with some online tools.

Enhance Learning with These Online Tools

Having a ton of online tools in your tool belt won't earn you any prizes or necessarily make you a better teacher or leader, but having exactly the perfect website for a particular student need or in a special situation may earn you superhero status. It's not about the quantity; it's about having the right tool for the right job. Here are a few tools you may not already know and how they might best be used in the classroom.

Helping students understand the relationship of events can be difficult, whether it is events from history or in a story. One way to overcome the difficulty is to have them create a timeline of key happenings. Timeline JS is a powerful timeline creator that is both easy to use and filled with features. Beginners can create a timeline using nothing more than a Google spreadsheet, which is great for making collaborative timelines. Timeline JS can then pull in media to document events in the timeline from a variety of sources and has built-in support for Twitter, Flickr, Google Maps, YouTube, Vimeo, Vine, Dailymotion, Wikipedia, SoundCloud, and more. No registration or account is required. 

Your students have successfully completed an important unit of study and now need to summarize what they've learned. You could have them create a PowerPoint slide or two sharing what they've learned. Instead, have them first reduce the learning to one or two key sentences (a skill many students struggle with) and then create a beautiful representation of their learning with Recite. Recite has you type in a key thought or quotation and then allows you to select from a wide variety of templates that match the thought. Students can practice their design skills (another 21st century skill) while summarizing their learning. Completed creations can be emailed to the teacher, published to the web, downloaded as an image, or posted to Tumblr, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter. No registration or email account is required.

If your students have access to multiple devices in the classroom, whether in small groups or via a 1:1 program, then you will want to provide opportunities for them to share their ideas and answers during discussions. There are a lot of different feedback tools available, but AnswerGarden is one that is especially simple to use. The teacher or a student can create an AnswerGarden with a question that is then shared with the rest of the class via email, blog, social media, or URL. Other students can respond to the question by typing in their answers, which appear in word cloud format for everyone to see with the most frequent answers in larger text. No registration or email account is required and a free iPad app is also available.

TalkTyper may change the way your students write. It is free speech-to-text dictation software that works in any browser. Simply click the on-screen microphone and begin speaking; every word will appear. This will allow your students to focus less on their keyboarding ability and more on their ideas. What makes TalkTyper stand apart from similar programs is that it provides the ability for you to edit what is recorded before printing, emailing, or copying and pasting the completed text into another document. Again, no registration or email account is required.

Wonderopolis, Where Natural Curiosity and Inquiry Intersect Daily

With Common Core now in full swing and taking center stage it would be easy to set aside the magic and fun that teaching and learning can bring. Luckily with great sites like Thinkfinity's Wonderopolis you don't have to. This free site can bring out the natural wonder of the every day by offering brief excursions from everything from animals and architecture to volcanoes and woodworking all high interest in an easy to digest format. Users can search the site for CCSS aligned wonders or explore the "Wonder of the Day".
I wonder what I'll explore next...
Wonderopolis








Kathleen Hanke
Innovation Specialist
School District of Janesville

New Google Drive Visual

While prepping for some Google Drive PD I ran across a resource that I thought might be useful from Shake Up Learning

New Google Drive Cheat Sheet

50 resources for using technology in the classroom

This is a great general resource that covers many areas.

Site

Chrome- Version 38+, finding an update

For those who are much too busy to worry about tech but still pay attention to having the newest version of Chrome, version 38 is here.  There are many improvements but the following is the  one i found first.  To keep my Chromebook humming along as it should I have been  periodically checking for Chrome updates from the setting bars (I call them the "stack of pancakes") > settings>help and there it was. After updating to 38+ I couldn't find it, anywhere.  Some searching showed me that it was there but in a slightly different place. Below is an illustration to  explain where it was "hiding" all along.

Time for a new timer.

I was asked recently if i knew of any good timers to use.
As a result I made this guide of just a few of my favorites.
   

How to link Audio to QR Codes

A way to expand how we use QR codes.

8 Engaging ways to use technology to create lessons

Great ideas that are out of the normal "Box"

http://goo.gl/lcjanM

5 Tools for the Blended or Flipped Classroom

http://goo.gl/6aoKNl

10 tips for collaboration with technology

http://goo.gl/N7zNwe

40 Ways to screw up a powerpoint

I'm sure I've done a few of these.

http://goo.gl/f8RcUy

5 Upcoming Trends in Educational Technology

http://goo.gl/FJGBwc

Great article with links to some amazing resources.  I specifically like the link to the teacher PD resource.

Growth Mindset

http://goo.gl/sUZ9SJ

Great article about the only thing we need to be able to do... is LEARN!  The Growth Mindset.  You can do anything.

Google Forms: 5 Easy Uses

http://www.edudemic.com/5-great-ways-use-google-forms/

I really like the exit slip ideas.

Digital Citizenship: Keeping Kids Safe

http://globaldigitalcitizen.org/a-treasure-trove-of-digital-citizenship-resources-for-teachers/

Great link that has articles to read up on digital citizenship, videos to show, and other informative and helpful resources.

10 Things Every Teacher Should Know about Google Docs

I learned 5 things from this article. Google has a wealth of resources that keeps growing.

http://www.edudemic.com/10-things-every-teacher-know-google-docs/

Easy video creation and editing

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2014/07/this-is-how-to-create-videos-in-google.html

Great easy professional looking presentation and photo sharing

Super simple way to make professional looking presentations.  The app walks you through a sample in about 2 minutes you are ready to go!

http://blog.haikudeck.com/haiku-deck-app-mashup-canva/

Be a Better Researcher

This resource features a few key items that will help you become a more efficient and effective researcher.

http://www.edudemic.com/better-online-researcher/

Everything you need to know about iPads in the classroom

http://www.ipads4teaching.net/ipads-in-the-classroom.html

It really is everything you need to know.

Teachers in the 21st Century should be learning too!

http://www.fractuslearning.com/2014/07/15/educators-21st-century-learners/

In this short article it talks about how to create a professional Learning Network (PLN) so you can get information on as ready for it basis.

Saving files to multiple folders in Google Drive

http://goo.gl/ICnZ9M

Straight forward text and video directions

The Backchannel: Giving Every Student a Voice in the Blended Mobile Classroom

The Backchannel: Giving Every Student a Voice in the Blended Mobile Classroom

DIY Professional Development: Resource Roundup

DIY Professional Development: Resource Roundup

Different ways to Differentiate

Great way to connect technology to ways to help differentiate in the classroom.

Different ways to Differentiate

20 Chrome extensions for staff and students

Good overview.  As is mentioned in the article, there are probably 3-4 extensions that do the same thing.  These are the ones this author recommends.

20 Chrome extensions for teachers and students

Putting the World In Their Hands: Augmented Reality in the Classroom - Mind/Shift

http://goo.gl/BtpFbc

Adding voice to QR codes

http://classtechtips.com/2014/07/01/how-to-add-your-own-voice-to-a-qr-code/

Link on how to add voice to your QR codes

Book Trailers vs traditional book reports

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2014/06/why-book-trailers-are-great.html?m=1

Common Sense site from Elyse

Here is a link to a Common Sense site that links grade level standards to apps/websites.  Pick your subject area and grade level, and it will show you resources for each standard.  There are many paid apps, but free apps are within each standard-it might just take some searching :)

http://goo.gl/L2Wxbk

21st Century Word Wall

http://d97cooltools.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-ultimate-word-wall-weaving-thinglin.html#.U6wfV41dWAM

Great idea for vocabulary (which we all know is one of the game changer when it comes to student achievement).

7 Online Tools for Creating Charts and Graphs

http://goo.gl/GCgbwL

K-5 iPad Apps according to Bloom's Taxonomy

http://www.edutopia.org/ipad-apps-elementary-blooms-taxonomy-diane-darrow

This article links each of Bloom's levels to iPad apps.

How to Infuse Digital Literacy Throughout the Curriculum

http://goo.gl/cPGFfO

Digital literacy is defined as “the ability to effectively and critically navigate, evaluate, and create information using a range of digital technologies.” Many educational and business professional cite is as a critical 21st century skill. Even so, many schools have struggled to adapt it into their curriculum.

The power of praising kids

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWv1VdDeoRY

Video on the power of praise and mindset in kids.

7 iPad apps to create animations for flipped learning

http://goo.gl/PA43XZ

Google Drive Workflow

http://goo.gl/aUehkn

Simplify Distribution of Class Resources & Submission of Student Work

Reflections?