Tuesday, August 26, 2014

PowToon - Animated Videos (free upgrade to premium)


I have mentioned PowToon before, but in case you missed it PowToon is a way to create short animated videos.  It's a really simple way to introduce things to your students or at a presentation.  Well PowToon has been generous enough to give away a free upgrade to their premium version plus accounts for all of your students.  All you have to do is go to their site and either create an account or sign in with your existing account.  The code to use is: ToonUp5M.
This won't last for long, so hurry up and sign up today!

This post also appears of my Science Blog - Savvy Secondary Science

Monday, August 25, 2014

ExitTicket.org How-To

I previously wrote about ExitTicket as a great way to assess your students and get some good data.  While it's a great resource it can be a little overwhelming if you try to figure it out on your own.  Luckily ExitTicket wants to help you figure it out and they have teamed up with Certified Ed Tech to do that.  They have created a course to help you learn how to best navigate their site.  It's not a long course and might be good to do before school starts.

How do you learn new technology?

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Fabulous Freebies!

Let me start off by saying I know that this is not super techy, but I have share when I find great free stuff!

I know as teachers we are always looking for free things for our classroom.  I want to introduce you to Teachers Pay Teacher.  I know you might be thinking, you said free and this has the word pay in it.  Yes, there are many items that you can buy, but there are also many items that you can get for free.  I encourage you to go to the site and sign up and get to downloading some free materials.  Below are some of my favorite freebies!




Where do you find awesome resources for your classroom?

This post also appears on my other blog Savvy Secondary Science


Creative Commons and Sharing your work

Are you sharing your work on the internet or want to use work shared on the internet?  Copyright is important but tricky.  Creative Commons has been doing it best to make it easier for people.  Here is an infographic to help you understand a little bit better.

If you want more information this document will help you also.

Do you share your work online?  What rights do you give the viewer?


Wednesday, August 13, 2014

ClassDojo Messenger

ClassDojo is something that I have posted about before, but they have a new update called Messenger.  It's an Android and iOS app that allows you to easily message parents.  It is important to note that it is private, so you never share contact information.

With the new ClassDojo Messenger app, you can:
  • Easily engage parents by instantly sending updates home
  • Privately message 1-on-1 with a parent, or Broadcast to all parents in your class!
  • Share photos of wonderful moments from the classroom :)
  • Know who’s read your messages with ‘Read receipts’
It sounds like it's similar to Remind, but allows you to send messages to individual parents not just all parents.  If you haven't checked out ClassDojo, take a look at it and this new messenger app.

How to you record classroom behavior?  What is your easy way to keep parents in the loop?




Monday, August 11, 2014

Using geographical maps in the classroom

Introducing the Free, Self-Paced, Open, Online Course:

Developing Project Based Instructional Units Utilizing ArcGIS Online


The purpose of this 5-part, self-paced course is to guide teachers to develop project based instructional units in which students analyze spatial data. Having students examine data, and patterns, and make claims using spatial data as evidence promotes learning within content areas and complements research on how students learn.


Technical Skills
  • Build experience with ArcGIS online as a tool for creating and analyzing spatial data
  • Discover the power of using spatial data to communicate ideas
  • Gather and prepare spatial data for teaching and learning

Instructional Skills
  • Learn about how students learn
  • Develop lessons using a project based instructional framework
  • Manage student-centered learning
  • Create lessons that require students to analyze spatial data and practice 21st century skills
Assessment Skills
  • Design an appropriate assessment of student learning and conceptual understanding that requires students to utilize spatial data to communicate ideas
  • Align assessments with learning goals
  •  Examine student work to guide development of quality assessments that measure student learning

Developed as part of the Examining Your Environment through the Power of Data (EYEPOD) Project funded by the National Science Foundation's Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program. Award DRL #0929846.







Monday, August 4, 2014

Top 10 Posts of July and what I've been up to

Here are the top 10 posts of July.  Check them out if you haven't yet!

  1. Free Online Graph Paper
  2. Increase to OneDrive free storage
  3. My Online Planbook
  4. Remind 101 gave me a Badge!
  5. virtual exit tickets and in class assessments
  6. Online Planbooks
  7. PowToon Slides - Animated Slide Shows
  8. SMIR.CH - how to use any phone (including "dumb" phones to do research
  9. My 100th Post and TeacherCast University
  10. DOTGO - search the web only using text messaging



I've been taking my summer "break" a little easier this year (I had a really rough school year), but am still focusing on school stuff.  I've been trying to make more blog posts here (please let me know if there is something that you are curious about) and updating a lot of my school files for next year.  For the first time in a long while I will not be teaching a new course next year!  I am still teaching 3 different preps, but at least it nothing new to prep for.  I've taken a few professional development courses as well and have been looking into ways to learn to code (that's right...geeky girl here!).

What have you been up to during your time off from school?

Saturday, August 2, 2014

My 100th Post and TeacherCast University

WOW---this is my 100th Post!!!!  I'm glad to have all of you followers out there and hope that you'll spread the word about my blog so that I can share with others.

I love sharing with other teachers and TeacherCast University loves to as well.  They offer a few classes (all of what are FREE) on things like using Remind with your classes, green screening and iPads in the classroom.  You get a professional development certificate when your done so you might even be able to get your district to give you some credit for these classes.

Other than this blog ;-), where do you look for professional development?