Getting Organized with a Planner

I always feel like I have a million things going on and I have trouble focusing on what needs to get done and what is just fun to do.  I now have two planners: one I use for personal stuff that I carry around with me and another I use for school related stuff that stays on my desk at school.  I have recently started decorating my personal planner with some functional stickers that help me organize my thoughts.  I was contacted by the great people at Oh Hello Co about doing a blog post about how I could use their stickers in a school planner.  I love their stickers and use them in my personal planner so I decided that they would be great in my school planner as well.  Below is a quick video on how I plan a week in my school planner.  If you are interested in checking out these stickers, click on this affiliate link that will take you to their shop.  As a thank you, you will get $5 off your first order.

What do you do to stay organized? 

Disclaimer: Links used in this post are afflilate links. 

Amazing Google tips and tricks from the EdTechTeam

Today I spent the day virtually attending the EdTechTeam GAFE summit at the University of Hawaii.  There were four sessions along with the keynote and demo slam that were streamed lived via Google Hangouts.  I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about Google, but I learned so much in the various sessions today.  Lucky for you, EdTechTeam recorded everything and you can go back and watch it.   I highly suggest that you add these to your YouTube watch later list.  You can get to the links for all of the sessions by going to bit.ly/hawaiionair.

If you don't have time, or interest, in watching all of the sessions I highly recommend the Chrome Secrets and Google A-Z sessions.  These are the two session that I learned the most in.

Have you every been to an EdTechTeam GAFE summit?

The Best Pencil Sharpener EVER!!!

This year I started using the BEST PENCIL SHARPENER EVER!!!  Ok, this may seem dramatic, but as a teacher you know that pencil sharpeners can be a big pain in the classroom.  You may also be asking what this has to do with technology.  Technology is not just the electronic technology we think of.  Technology is defined as the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes. (source)  I would definitely classify this pencil sharpener as technology.


In my classroom there were two choices - the old fashion pencil sharpener that has been bolted the wall for the past fifty years or the electric sharpener that always gets jammed or makes so much noise.  I had hear about the pencil sharpener from Classroom Friendly Supplies last year and, though it looked good, wasn't sure if it was really worth it.  I finally took the plunge and bought a sharpener.  I am so glad that I did because it really is the best sharpener.  It's super easy to use, quiet and works great.  I recorded a short video so you can see how it works.

I know I mentioned this is the video, but while it comes with a clamp I would suggest that you don't use it.  I have used it with and without the clamp and I think it's better without the clamp.  It falls off and then the kids think they broke it and it just takes up time.  There is a permanent mounting bracket you can get if you want to permanently mount it somewhere.

So since writing is not my strong suit and I'm not good at conclusions, I'm just going to leave you with this:  You need at least one of these sharpeners in your classroom asap.  I regret not getting one sooner.

Classroom Friendly Supplies has provided me with this sharpener for purposes of providing a review. I received it at no charge to me and I am under no obligation to return the product but can keep it for me own personal use. In addition, the above link is a referral link.

A playlist of video tech tips

If you aren't reading Richard Byrne's Free Tech for Teachers Blog, be sure to add it to your feed.  He recently put together a collection of soem of the videos he has made into a YouTube playlist.  There are a lot of great videos for a variety of tech tools.  Take a look at it and see what new thing you can try.  Click on the three lines on the top left of the video to see a list of all of the videos in the playlist.




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Zaption Presenter

Zaption Presenter is now out of beta and open to all!  If you haven't heard of Zaption before it a website that allows you to insert questions into videos so that students are stopped along the way and asked them to respond to a question.  Up until now it was an individual task.  Now you can create a tour (what Zaption calls a video that you have inserted questions into) that the whole class watches at the same time.  Students get a code and can answer the questions on their own devices during the video.  The question shows up both on the video and on their screen.  In addition, you can add questions to the tour on the fly if there is something that you want to focus on.  Below is a sample tour that will explain to you how Zaption presenter works.

How do you typically show vidoes in your classroom?

Texthelp brings you Teach for Google

Texthelp is has created Teach for Google.  It's a site where you can get mini courses on how to best use Google Apps for Education in your classroom.  There is a mixture of free and paid content.  The free content includes things such as Guided Notes and writing a RAFT.  Take a look and see what they can do for you!

an easy way to group your students

This spreadsheet will help you create groups for your classes very quickly. Watch the tutorial video below to learn how to get the most out of this spreadsheet.

Click here for a link to the spreadsheet

Super Grouper Tutorial from Michael Matera on Vimeo.