BYOD Toolbox for Learning

Wonderful Weekend Websites 10-3-14

The internet4classrooms website will allow you to drill down to an individual standard to find online activities mapped to that standard.  Click on Grade Level Help -  then select a grade level (K-8), from there you can choose from Resources, Skillbuilders, Standards, and even some Assessments.  The standards are Common Core, but I’m sure you can find correlation between them and the TEKS. You can even sign up for their monthly newsletter.

Here’s a great blog post dealing with students who are not doing their part in a group project. It outlines five simple ideas to try.

Check out the On-the-Spot Scaffolding for Students article from edutopia. These 3 strategies can help when you are

in the middle of a lesson and you get that distant stare.

PE teachers here’s one for you to check out --- Higher Order Thinking & Creativity in PE.

Wonderful Weekend Website 9-26-14

The Trading Card Creator is a tool that gives students an alternative way to demonstrate their knowledge. Students can create their own trading cards about a real or fictional person, place, object, event, or abstract concept.

Socratic Smackdown offers a fun approach to having students practice discussion strategies. Socratic Smackdown is a printable game designed to be played with up to forty students at a time. In the game students are awarded points for using each of six questioning and discussion methods. Students can lose points for interrupting or distracting others. There are a number of other games on this site. 

Today's Meet provides students with a place to ask questions throughout the day. By using a back channel tool like Today's Meet students who have a lot to say don't dominate the classroom conversation and the shy students are able to comfortable ask questions. Today's Meet now offers the option to create accounts and close discussions early. The newest feature is the ability to moderate comments in a discussion. 

“Research confirms the link between movement and learning” Here are Five Movement Strategies in the High School Classroom, they can be used in any content area to integrate movement into your lessons.

Check out this opportunity to attend the Region 10 & 11 TCEA (Texas Computer Education Association) on November 1st in Carrolton-Farmers Branch. There will be sessions and discussion in the following areas: Google Apps for Education, Emerging Technologies and Web Tools/Apps for the Classroom and more. They are still looking for presenters, so share some of the amazing things happening in your classroom.

The Professional Learning page on our district webpage houses many FISD specific handouts and tutorials, including Google, 7C's, and BYOD.

Tuesday Tech Tips 9 -23-14

Google Forms now will allow you to customize the heading, font styles, and background. Thanks Amy Mayer from Hunstville for a great how-to tutorial. Click here for the link. I can’t wait to try it out.

“We need to change the classroom habit of the bulleted list and the texty PowerPoint presentation because our brains don’t work that way. This idea called the picture superiority effect states that even your worst images, can have a much greater impact than your greatest text-based presentation slides.” Check out this link from “Ditch that Textbook” for information on finding great images.

In addition to pictures, students need videos. Check out Next Vista for Learning, it is a video sharing site created by teachers and students to share good news and good lessons. Additionally, they host challenges throughout the year that are designed to get students and teachers thinking about creative video projects. The latest contest is called Creative Fire!

Tech Tip Tuesday 9/17/14 (a little late)

Thank you to everyone who completed the Technology Needs Assessment, there is still time to complete it. Make sure you are signed in to your school Google account before accessing the link - http://goo.gl/H3dwqn

Use this Promethean tip to annotate your online textbook. 

Thanks Sabrina Lovell for the tip!!!

If you have discovered other tips and tricks for using technology in your classroom, please share them with the rest of the district. 

Add a quick Comment in Google Docs with a simple abbreviation!

 “30 Seconds of Google” explains how to add quick comments in Google Docs with a simple abbreviation.  For example, every time you type “gp”, it will automatically add “Great paragraph!”. Check out the other "30 Seconds of Google" videos on this channel.

http://youtu.be/w0sGPVljfdU

Wonderful Weekend Website

image source: http://blog.startapp.com/2013-holiday-season-numbers/

One of our FISD elementary schools uses the Class Messenger app to communicate with parents. They send pictures of what they did that day, communicate information and can even do a quick survey. It is different from Remind because it allows for two-way communication.

Another one does Hassle-Free Fundraising with the Shoparoo app. It turns your shopping receipts into donations for your school. 

Click HERE for Holt Interactive Graphic Organizers. Each graphic organizer has teaching notes with lessons and tips on how to use it in the classroom. What makes these PDF's different than regular PDF's is the ability to type on them. 

Check out this Google App called Timer Loop. It is a simple application to create multiple timers and loop through them in sequence. Perfect for managing your students time. Get it from the Chrome Store. 

Wonderful Weekend Websites

Image source:http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-calm-its-awesome-its-new-its-here/

Google Classroom!!!!

Here is what Google is saying about Google classroom --- ".....is designed to help teachers create and collect assignments paperlessly, including time-saving features like the ability to automatically make a copy of a Google Document for each student. It also creates Drive folders for each assignment and for each student to help keep everyone organized.Students can keep track of what’s due on the Assignments page and begin working with just a click. Teachers can quickly see who has or hasn't completed the work, and provide direct, real-time feedback and grades right in Classroom." 

 I've learned a few things after playing with it, make a class for each section that you teach, and teach students how to make an appropriate comment.   Ready to try it?? Here is a link to some videos that will help you set up Google classroom. Don't forget you can always contact me for some one-on-one training. I can't wait to see the AWESOME ways Forney ISD will be using it.