State Standards Reference Apps

Mastery Connect has developed an app for each of the 50 states. With this app you are able to easily have all of the standards for your state at your fingertips.

You can easily find these apps in your app store by searching "Mastery Connect" or by going to the Mastery Connect App Site.

Do you have an easy way to track standards in your classroom?

Bird Brain Science - science meets the common core

BirdBrain Science is a website that allows you to provide your students with common core based science readings that you can differentiated based on their reading level.  Most articles will adjust anywhere from 3rd to 8th grade.  In addition, the students can have the articles read to them.  At the end there is a short quiz.  The quiz questions, types and length, vary depending on what grade level they were assigned.  At the end you can review reports of your students' program.

Below is a short video to explain the site a little more.

Follow this link to participate in a pilot to access this site for free.

What ways do you incorporate reading into your classroom?

This post is cross posted on my other blog Savvy Secondary Science 

Top Posts of November and What I've been up to

Below you can find a recap of the top posts of November.  This November was crazy and I attended 3 difference conferences/workshops.  Needless to say that I have so much new information to process.  I'll be talking about it in the upcoming posts.  One of the major themes that I took from this month of learning was to really think about what I want my students to learn with each assignment.  Yes, you want them to learn the content, but what is underlying skill that they can transfer to all areas of their life.  Something to think about!

Top Posts of November

1. PowToon - Animated Videos (free upgrade to premium) 
2. My Google Basics for Teaching Certificate
3. StudyBlue Pro - give it a try!
4. URL shorteners
5. PowToon Slides - Animated Slide Shows
6. Google Basics for Teaching
7. Hour of Code
8. ClassDojo - manage student behavior
9. how to use any phone (including "dumb" phones) to do research
10. Top 10 Posts of October and what I've been up to

Google Tools and Tips for Teachers - Free Online Event

Google Tools and Tips for Teachers - Free Online Event

SimpleK12 is hosting a day of free webinars on Saturday, December 20th

I have been using the resources the SimpleK12 has to offer for several months now and I really like what they have to offer.  There are a variety of webinars and resources available to view.

This day of of webinars is focused around Google.  They will focus on:

• learning the quickest way to get started with Google tools

• improving your students' communication skills

• discovering how easy it is to create collaborative documents

• saving time with simpler more effective data collection

If you are interested please click here for more information and to register. 

My Google Basics for Teaching Certificate

Yay, I completed the Google Basics for Teaching course that I mentioned in a previous post.  I can't say that I really learned a lot from it, but I think it would be really good for those who are new to Google.  If you know anyone who fits into that category be sure to share the course with them.

Hour of Code

Computers are everywhere, but fewer schools teach computer science than 10 years ago. Good news is, we’re on our way to change this. If you heard about the Hour of Code last year, you might know it made history. In one week, 15 million students tried computer science!

Computer science was on homepages of Google, MSN, Yahoo! and Disney. President Obama, Shakira and Ashton Kutcher all kicked off the Hour of Code with videos. Over 100 partners came together to support this movement.

This year, let's make it even bigger. I’m asking you to join in for the Hour of Code 2014 (I am!). Please get involved with an Hour of Code event during Computer Science Education Week, December 8-14, 2014.

Get the word out. Host an event. Ask a local school to sign up. Or try the Hour of Code yourself -- everyone can benefit from learning the basics.

Help us reach 100 million students by the end of the year! Get started at http://hourofcode.com

Socrative - collect real time data on formative assessments

Socrative is something that I have used in the past and plan to use again in the future.  I really like it because it allows me to have students answer questions about a topic.  Then I can use the data from their answers to the questions to see where they are confused and what things I need to review more with them.

One of the things that I love about socrative is that it works on any device or browser so kids can answer questions on ipads, computers, phone or whatever they have.

Socrative just updated to their 2.0 version. Below is a video that explains it and this link will take you to the new user guide.

How to collect feedback and data from your students.