Dear Staff, Take a look at what you can and come back for seconds later. Cloud Computing: What is the cloud? I'm not sure everyone knows what Google Drive or Dropbox does for us. Check out this video explaining cloud computing, which was created in relatable terms. Have you downloaded Google Drive yet? If not, contact me for assistance. Additionally, I have been working with several classrooms at Oak Hill on using Google Drive for sharing documents with teachers. Fifth grade at Oak Hill is already using Google Drive, but all of fourth grade (Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Retzlaf, and Mr. Berkey) has booked me for classroom assistance. In addition, Mrs. Lembcke had me teach her students how to use this online tool. If you would like me to help integrate this tool into your classroom, please book a time with me. iMovie: A great tool students have on their MacBooks is iMovie. If you want to produce visually stunning presentations on any topic, start thinking about allowing your students to create their own movies. iMovie Support is a great online resource from Apple. It provides various tips, tricks, and steps for completing specific tasks. For the iPads, there is an iMovie app that I think extremely valuable, but it is quite expensive in terms of buying multiple iMovie apps. I have made movies using iMovie on my iPhone and iPad. It is extremely easy to use, and I know Mia Kouros has used it to provide parents with a field trip slideshow. Check out this blogpost describing the iMovie app. It is definitely worth buying for at least your teacher iPad. Games: Some of the following games are free and others cost money. I would suggest creating a list for parents to encourage using with students struggling with basic skills. 1. Academic Skill Builder - (Free) Several games for students to practice various math skills and more. 2. HoodaMath - (Free) Multiple math games for students to practice various math skills. Use this times test on HoodaMath to email student reports to your email account. This frees up your time spent grading for other instructional purposes. 3. PoraOra - (Free with membership option) Skill building games within a 3-D world. Bringing specific content learning and practice to the world of video gaming. Watch the YouTube video explaining PoraOra. Check out the School Accounts page. Quad-Blogging: I know some classes are blogging. If you have a class blog, you may want to add an extra dimension by blogging collaboratively with three other classes from across the world. Check out this website on QuadBlogging. Basically, it is a way to connect with three other classrooms around the world. Each class takes turns publishing various genres of writing and the other three classes evaluate the writing. Watch this video from David Mitchell on the need for an audience when writing (blogging) and the testing gains his school saw.
Meetings: Principals or team leaders in charge of keeping minutes. Check out LiveMinutes and this video explaining this web-based tool and its services. This is an interactive way to schedule a meeting, provide materials (Go paperless!), and keep track of everything that was said/done. -- Dan Gibson Some random TCSC pictures: