Top Ten Things I Learned at TCEA 2019

March, 2019

Just when I think I know all there is to know about educational technology, I go to TCEA and discover even more cool stuff!  It's hard to believe how far we've come and just how far we still need to go.  This video is a great visual of The Evolution of the Desk.

And that's just up until 2014!  Here are my picks for the Top Ten places you can go online to make your life easier and your students' lives more interesting.

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Number 10

Remote for Slides is an extension you can add to your Google Chrome.  It's great for people (like me) who don't own a clicker for their presentations or are constantly misplacing it or forgetting it.  Once you add the extension, you can connect to the slideshow with your phone or ipad.  Your device then becomes your clicker.  

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Number 9

Book Creator is an awesome tool for any subject.  It creates ebooks in a highly creative manner.  Ebooks aren't just for English teachers!  Watch this short video and see all the things you could have your students do in Book Creator.

Also, there's a WHOLE LIBRARY that shows how you can use this in specific subject areas and with specific grade levels.  And here are some links to examples of ebooks created on Book Creator for all the different subjects.

Science

Social Studies

Math

ELA

This website was among the 25 Best Websites from the American Association of School Libraries!

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Number 8

Kapwing is a video creator that also allows you to edit existing videos.  Some of the cool things that you (and your students) can do are:

• Make a video montage about a specific topic
• Make a looping video kind of like a Vine video
• Make a video collage about a specific topic
• Add text to a video
• Create memes

This website was among the 25 Best Websites from the American Association of School Libraries!

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Number 7

The Learning Network is from The New York Times and includes LOTS of lesson plans for all subjects.  As you can see below, there is are some great resources.  Need an Article of the Week?  Use TLN.  Want to do some lessons on Current Events?  Use TLN.  Looking for something to debate in class about things that are current with teenagers?  Use TLN.  Or you can simply search on the site for your specific subject area and go crazy.  This website was among the 25 Best Websites from the American Association of School Libraries!

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Number 6

Time Graphics is a timeline creator that allow you to add in pictures, files from Google Drive, video, and other great stuff.  The students can use the "Sign In with Google" button to create their accounts and create their timelines.  This link is to a Video Game History timeline that looks awesome.  This website was among the 25 Best Websites from the American Association of School Libraries!

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Number 5

Rewordify does exactly what its name suggests - it rewords paragraphs of difficult language and makes it easier to understand.  Go get some text from a resource you use with your students and see if it makes it better!

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Number 4

Gimkit was created by a high school student who got tired of all the Kahoot and Quizlets his teachers were making him do.  He turned it into a monetized competition that helps students learn facts.  Be aware!  This game is best suited towards simply worded, drill and kill types of facts.  But the kids love it!

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Number 3

Classroom Screen is a site that allows you to put a screen up on your projector that has many useful tools.  There's a random name picker, an instant QR code creator that stays on your screen all day, a virtual white board, a virtual text box for quick notes to class, a sound detector to let your class know they are getting too loud, a timer, and a clock.  Here is an example of most of the things this screen can do.  But go there and see for yourself!

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Number 2

I've talked about Goosechase before, but they've improved so much from last year!  The free account (choose the EDU option) allows you to create a different "game" for each of your class periods and there are enough teams available in the program for you to easily use this with all of your students.  Create a scavenger hunt type of assignment.  Students turn in pictures, text, or video as the answers to the scavenger hunt.  As the teacher you can monitor all incoming entries and delete them if they're wrong.  It DOES require the teams to have the app, but all of the school ipads already have it installed so it should be very easy to have everyone play.  

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And the number 1 thing I learned was.....

Adobe Spark creates beautiful, easy to edit videos!  I feel like it is MUCH easier to use than Wevideo which is on the Chromebooks.  It is also an alternative to Canva with the Spark Post option and it can also be used as an alternative to Google Sites with the Spark page option.  The video option is one I would highly recommend for use with students.  It will let your narrate over the pictures and video and even stitches everything together to create a nicely produced product.  If you're having your students do a video for an assignment, this is what you should be using.

Top Ten Things I Learned at TCEA 2018

February 15, 2018
Last week, I attended TCEA and learned about so many new tools for you to use in the classroom.  Here is my Top Ten TCEA Tricks 2018 for you to enjoy!  I'll be talking more about them during our next Tech Talk day on March 19th!

Number 10

Quick Draw is a site that is just plain fun!  It would be great to use as a mind break with your kids or just something fun to do on your own.  You simply use your mouse to start drawing what it says, and the computer tries to guess what it is.  It goes through ten items before it stops.  There is a real reason that it is out there.  This is a Google Experiment that is teaching Google how to recognize images for suggestions that you can add to your own documents and stuff.  You can play with that side of things by going to https://www.autodraw.com/.

Number 9

Yellkey is a site that gives you a quick and temporary link to a site with a long, ugly address.  It's nicer than Tiny URL because you can set it to only be good for 5 minutes or 5 hours or a whole day.  And you don't have to hope that what you choose is already taken.  It just spits out a link with simple words.  For instance, I did one the other day and it gave me www.yellkey.com/memory as the new link.  Easy for the kids to spell and remember.

Number 8

Mentimeter is a quick voting site.  Kids put in a code and vote so that the results are instantly on the screen in a graph format.  There are multiple options for what you want the results to look like - including a word cloud, a matrix, or using an image.  This might be a great choice for feedback from students if you aren't using Nearpod, but you still want to use something fun like this.

Number 7

I know Google Slides isn't something new!  But there was something I saw used in a presentation that I hadn't seen before.  Before you go into Present Mode for your presentation, click on the little triangle next to it and choose Presenter View.  Under Audience Q & A, choose Start New.  It will embed a link into all of your slides at the top which is a place for students to go and ask questions.  This is something that only you will see.  It kind of operates like a Parking Lot poster for questions that need to be asked, but there isn't enough time to answer them all.

Number 6

Buncee is a presentation tool that anyone can use.  One of the cool things that it does is "stitch" together slides from multiple presentations.  This means you could pull together slides from many different student submissions and make one presentation.  It's also just a bit cleaner and offers more creative tools than Google Slides.  The app is super-easy to use as well.

Number 5

The Google Streetview App has a feature in it that allows users to create their own 360 degree photo.  It is meant to be shared on Google Streetview for all to see, but you can save it to your photo album as well.  I can see this being used for some fun tableau fun as students act out a scene from history.  I'm sure there are some other fun uses for a 360 degree panoramic photo, and this app makes it very easy to create.

Number 4

Flippity has been out there for a long time, and teacher love it for the flash cards, crossword puzzles, and word searches.  But Flippity has added some other great tools since the last time you were there.  And all of the tools are set up for you in templates so that all you have to do it type in the information you want on the activity, publish it to the web, and give the kids a link.  Some of the new features include:  a Jeopardy type quiz show, a typing test where you upload the thing being typed, madlibs, and a memory game.  If you haven't seen this site in a while, it's worth a visit.

Number 3

Did you know that there if you go to Insert within a Google Doc and choose Special Characters that there is an emoji section?  And there is an extension that allows you to add them as well.  Why is this a big deal, you ask?  Because it makes it easy to do some fun activities with your students!  Share a copy of an article in Google Docs and have your students annotate it using only emojis.  They can use the comment feature to explain why they chose that emoji.  Or they can retell history using only emojis.  Or they can do a Six Word Summary (ask me about this if you don't know what it is) and use only emojis instead of words.  Or use them for clues for Breakout Boxes.  There are so many ideas!

Number 2

Booksnaps are a fun way to use the Snap Chat camera to annotate written text.  You can see from the example above what it looks like.  This could be done with textbook pages, maps of historical events, a diagram from Science, a book page - basically anything that needs annotation.  This obviously lends itself really well to ELA, but I can see lots of uses for all subjects.  I have even seen Math examples!

AND THE NUMBER ONE AWESOME NEW TOOL I LEARNED ABOUT AT TCEA IS......

Number 1

Do you love Ed Puzzle because it's so easy to insert questions and stuff into You Tube videos?  Well, introducing Insert Learning!  Now you can do it with web pages!!  You will need to add the extension to your own computer, but the student Chromebooks already have it installed.  With IL, you can insert sticky notes, audio, video, discussion boards, and more.  The students sign in with a simple code and are automatically put into your class so that you can see their answers.  It's probably the coolest thing I learned about all week that is applicable to any class!

So there you have it.  The Top Ten things I learned at TCEA.  I'll be referring back to this at our next Tech Talk.  If you want to know more about any of these tools, let me know.  Maybe we can work together to design a lesson with your students.  I would love to help!

Using the Rubric Tool in Canvas - by Gwynn Christmas

January 23, 2018
Well, it's been a while since I posted, but I wanted to make sure everyone knew about this awesome tool that has been out there on Canvas all this time, and many of us never even knew it!  Until the awesome Gwynn Christmas came along and shared it with me.  She has graciously put together a document that shows how to use the rubric tool in Canvas.  This is a nice way to grade what your kids are doing right there in Canvas.  Thank you, Gwynn, for sharing!

USING THE RUBRIC TOOL IN CANVAS
by the incomparable Gwynn Christmas!

I also wanted to remind the Science and Social Studies teachers about the Lightboxes that were ordered for your classes.  Here is a link to the Collection in my library system that lists them all and gives you access to all of them.  I would LOVE to work with you on these!  I even have an idea for using them along with a Breakout EDU box as a way to introduce a unit on whatever topic.  The students would explore the Lightbox like a scavenger hunt and then put together a quick Flipgrid on a specific topic.  Easy peasey.  Let's book time on the calendar today!

HMS LIGHTBOX COLLECTION

Use this link to access them all!

Just for Fun Tech

December 7, 2017
Alrighty, folks.  It's that time of year when we all can see the holidays on the horizon and just really need to make it to that last day of school before the two week break.  Therefore, I'm putting some fun things out there for you to just play.  Some are just silly, and some are simply entertaining, but they're all non-educational and worth it for a brain break or two.  Merry Holidays and Happy Christmas!  Here's an adorable laughing baby to get this party started.

Acrobots - a screen loaded up with bouncing acrobat bots that you can sling around and make bounce all over the place.  Change their colors and add more or less to your liking.  Cuz who doesn't love slinging around a bunch of little bouncy bots on a computer screen?

Open Puppies - Yep.  You guessed it.  Nothing but puppies and dogs running around being adorable!  Click the space bar to get a different puppy.  

Virtual Bubble Wrap - No explanation needed... :)

Bitmoji Chrome Extension -  Yes!  You can add your Bitmoji to any document, blog, or email that you want!  Just sign into your Bitmoji account on the Chrome extension and have fun!  Go to the web store to add the extension.

Awkward Family Photos - I know you've heard of it, but have you ever been to the website?  Very funny (albeit a little disturbing) photos!

Hey Girl - Sick of your Facebook friends?  News getting you down?  Instantly change all of the images on a webpage to Ryan Gosling.  Just drag a button from this site to your bookmarks bar and click it when you need a little more Ryan in your life! 

Spirograph Online - Create your own Spirograph images in lots of different colors and sizes.  You can even download them to your computer.  

Way Back Machine - This is a site that has archived the internet.  Just put in a site's name and click on the day and year you want to look at and it will show you what the webpage was at that time.  I looked at cnn.com from July, 2001, and found it quite interesting what the news was that day and how the webpage has changed over time.  

Internet Live Stats - Go there and watch in real time as the stats change.  You'll see things like: how many Google searches, how many websites hacked today, electricity used today, and even the CO2 emissions at the time.  

Gzaas! - Ok, so maybe this one is a tiny bit educational, but I couldn't help myself.  On this site you simply type in a message and it makes it full screen.  Great for a set of directions on the fly in your classroom.  It even lets you pick background colors and fonts.  

LMGTFY - Ever get tired of questions that could simply be answered if the person would just Google it?  Well, now you have a new tool.  Go to Let Me Google That For You.com and type in the same question they just asked you.  It then created a video of you typing it into Google and pull up all the answers.  You then just send the video link to that person.  Point made.  :)

Google Santa Tracker - Some fun North Pole themed games and a tracker for Christmas Eve using Google Maps.  

Google Trends - What is trending right now on Google?  Go to this site and add as many windows as you want and you will see live stats on what are the most popular searches in Google at that moment. 

Smarty Pins - Think you know where everything is located on a map?  Answer trivia questions by dropping pins on a map and see how accurate you are.  Your score is determined by how many miles off you are on your answers.  You can even choose specific categories like sports, history, entertainment, and science.

And, lastly, I couldn't forget about all the goofiness from Google!

Google Easter Eggs - Some fun Google search games that the guys at Google put in for fun.  Search "Atari Breakout" and go to images.  Your whole screen is now an Atari Breakout game.  Have fun.  OR Type in "Google gravity" and click the I'm Feeling Lucky button for your whole screen to crash down to the bottom because, you know, gravity took over.  OR  Have you ever seen the little dinosaur that pops up when your internet isn't working?  Well, click on it.  It's a game!!

Destiny Collections

November 7, 2017

You know that library system I'm always going on and on about?  It's called Destiny, and every teacher and student has a log in for that system.  This is important to you because of and cool piece of tech called Destiny Collections.  With Collections, teachers can curate sources for a project and keep them all in one place for the kids to access.  So, rather than have your students go out all over the internet or get confused with all of the different databases available to them, you can put all the resources you want them to use in one place.  This makes the research part of the assignments go a bit quicker and allows the students to focus on the work at hand.  Here are a few examples. You will likely have to log in to Destiny to see them.  Just use your ID# for the username and the password is READING.  If that doesn't work, then use your ID# for both the username and password.

Non Copyrighted Images - This collection offers sites where you can search for and download creative commons licensed images for school, work, and personal use.

Christina Blake's Health class - This was a collection I did for Blake's students a couple of weeks ago.  The kids were studying mental health, so I put together five collections for them to use for quick research before they did their projects.  It really cut down on the search time since they were only given two class periods to research five aspects of mental disorders.

Body Systems - This is a collection that I put together in about 10 minutes.  I searched for body systems in Destiny.  I then found all the ebooks available and put them in the collection with a simple click.  The students can open the ebooks from the collections page.  I also clicked on databases after I searched and found some pretty good sites that were quickly added in as well.  It's all ready to use for my kids in very little time.

You could put the link to the collections on your Canvas page for easy access.  Also, your students can put together their own collections on various topics to share with their group members - kind of like a big Jigsaw lesson. Come talk to me about how you could use this in your classes!

There is no specific twist this week.  This resource applies to so many different things that it's tough to point out just one!  AVID instructional strategies on accessing digital resources, the T in VESTED as they transform their learning, and especially anything research related in your ELM units.

Kami

October 24, 2017

Today's tech is the Kami app on Google Chrome.  Now that you have learned some great ideas for having your kids annotate in all subject areas, you might find this app useful.  It's a way for the annotating to take place online and be saved right into the students' Google Drive.  The link below would be very useful for you to better understand how Kami can work for you!

This is a link to a document that has lots of annotations done within Kami.  Melanie Beatty did this with her students with an article about the book they were reading at the time.

If you want a video example of how Kami works, you can click here to watch a Screencastify that I put together showing how to make this happen for you and your kids.

I mention this in my video above, but I wanted to point out that Kami allows the kids to collaborate a bit on their notes.  This is a great tool to use with your Cornell Notes as the kids go back into them for further learning.  Also, this is a great way to use the articles on AVID Weekly!  See what I did there?  I put the twist in the tech by pulling it back into an AVID strategy!

Storybird

October 10, 2017

Today's Tech Tuesday is about Storybird.  Now, just because you don't teach English doesn't mean you can stop reading!!  Writing is a great way to take your subject matter to a higher level!  Think about it.  You just finished your unit on (fill in the blank) and now you can have the students use that knowledge to write a story - or a poem - or a picture book - applying that knowledge.  And the kids get to pick the artwork that inspires them the most.

For instance:
You just finished your unit on equations.  Now you can do a picture book about that poor little x who just wants to be left alone so that he can see just how much he's really worth.  And the book is directions on how to make him happy.  Or even a recipe book on how to separate x from the rest of the ingredients.

You just finish your unit on The Outsiders.  Now you can write poetry from each character's point of view about Dallas's death.  Or a chapter story in journal format about the items that might be found (literally and figuratively) in Ponyboy's pocket.

You just finished your unit on the Periodic Table.  Now you can write a picture book explaining how it is organized.  Or journal entries from the point of view of several of the elements telling their feelings about where they are located on that table.

You just finished your unit on Explorers.  Now you can write poetry from specific points of view - even the points of view of the countries that have been discovered.  Imagine how happy they are to finally have someone come and live with them.  They were so lonely before!!

See?  Any subject can use writing!  And don't worry about the poetry.  It's all done in the magnetic poetry style with word boxes that can be manipulated on the screen to form the poem.  Very easy!

Here are two examples I did just for fun.  They are very simple, but you will get the idea.
https://storybird.com/books/reasons-we-read/?token=4t34x4ffts - A picture book example





https://storybird.com/poetry/poem/gsnpae7re4/ - A poetry example

 What's the twist this week?  Well, the twist this week is App Smashing!  That's where you use two technologies incorporated into one assignment.  For instance, have the kids get the link to their creation and put it on a Padlet for all to see.  You can grade from there, and it's a great way to "publish" the kids' writing.  If they're REALLY good, we could even link their work to the library's Destiny system and anyone searching for them as the author will find their creation in the library!

Oh, and if you need more information on Padlet, let me know!

Sutori

September 19, 2017
Sutori is a great site to use for building timelines with your class.  Now, just because you're not a History teacher, doesn't mean you can't use this nifty tech tool.  Of course, you can build timelines for whatever unit you are studying in a history class, but you can also use this site for lots of other stuff.

Dust Bowl - https://www.sutori.com/story/from-drought-to-dust - This is a great example of a timeline!

Weathering and Erosion - https://www.sutori.com/story/how-can-wind-change-the-shape-of-the-land - An example of some side by side images and questions related to those images.

Double Entry Journal for Reading - https://www.sutori.com/story/ready-player-one-double-entry-journals

A Template for a Word Problem in Math - https://www.sutori.com/story/graphic-organizer-math-connections - I really like the way this sets up the students to really think through a math problem and look for some real-world connections to the problem.  This one could make a great assignment for the kids.

So what's the "twist" you ask?  Well, thinking through the AVID strategies, I can see this as the perfect tool for the ELL of CORNELL notes.  Kids can take their notes and collaborate with peers in order to synthesize what they've learned.  They could summarize concepts on the left side of the screen and put examples and questions they may still have on the right.  It really just depends on the subject matter.  But the look of the site is so clean and easy to use, that students might really like having it available as an option for studying their notes.

Here is a link to a "story" that explains how to create your first "story".  https://www.sutori.com/story/how-to-create-a-story

Class Hook

September 13, 2017
Today's Tech Tuesday is all about Class Hook.  This is a great site to go find appropriate video clips to hook your kids into the lesson for the day.  The best thing about this site is that you can search by topic area!  For instance, I searched for English topics and found this clip for teaching the literary device of foreshadowing.  It's from the movie The Sandlot, and it's perfect!

I searched for Bill of Rights and found this clip from the movie Captain Fantastic.

When I went to the Science topics, I found a clip from Day After Tomorrow that could teach the effects of a tsunami.

And I even found some Math videos!  This one is from Shrek and shows the problem when incorrect logic is used.

So you can see how simple it would be to find something for your kids to get hooked!

Oh, and are you wondering what the twist is this week?  Well, don't forget the fun VESTED lessons we have to do!  This, of course, will work for the V in VESTED!  Have fun!

Missed Tech Tuesday on September 5, 2017?  Click here!

Twisted Tech - Flipgrid

The HMS Tech Badging Canvas page has so many cool tech ideas, and I wanted to find a way to tell you about them.  But this is a tech lesson with a twist because the tech I want to share with you could also be used with a fun AVID strategy in your classroom!

Flipgrid is really cool selfie video site/app.  You post a topic and it opens a grid where kids can click and post a selfie video responding to your topic.  Every student can see what was posted by all the kids, and the only way they can respond to the videos is by clicking a reaction button with a heart or a smiley face or whatever.  This can be done on their phones with the app, or students can use the Chromebook cameras to record their videos.

I can see this being a really cool way to incorporate a virtual Four Corners AVID strategy.  Students can read a piece of text or you can give them a specific topic to consider and then post a Flipgrid for what each of the four corners would be.

For instance, you might have the kids read a current event article about Hurricane Harvey.  Your four grids could be 1)Drive to Houston and help  2)Donate money to Red Cross  3)Organize a drive for people to donate items  4)Work with the shelters here in DFW with the evacuees.  You would tell the kids that their selfie videos must include specific reasons why they think their choice is the best option for helping the victims of the hurricane.

I think this would make an excellent homework assignment because it would all be on the site the next day and students can then respond to each other's videos either in a class discussion or as a written assignment.

So give it a shot!  I also have a Flipgrid out there and I would love to have your videos in there so that I can share them with students during my next book lesson with the kids.  The topic is:  Tell your favorite memory about reading from when you were a teenager.  Just go to the website or download the app and put in this code to respond to my Flipgrid - f74180.

And here is a whole Flipgrid of middle school teachers talking about how they use the cool tool in all subjects - https://flipgrid.com/a80f77