Dear Staff, Take a look at what you can and come back for the rest at a more convenient time. Here is my weekly schedule: Monday - Oak Hill; Tuesday - Three Creeks; Wednesday - Lake Prairie; Thursday - Lake Prairie; Friday - Oak Hill How do I use AirDrop? • Here is a video on using AirDrop. Its not a great video but it does explain how to send/ receive files with AirDrop. Organization Tools for Teachers • Remind 101 - Send text messages to parent's cellphones (video tutorial). Here's the best part it...Remind 101 hides your personal number and Smartphones don't have to be used. Making the Internet Accessible with Google Chrome: • Blog Post - I thought this was a decent article that explains how use Google Chrome to your advantage as a teacher. Habits of a Highly Effective Teacher with Technology • 7 Habits of a Highly Effective Teacher - This infographic displays the seven habits of technologies effective integration into any curriculum. • Social Media - Take a look at this infographic from Scholastic on teacher's use of Social Media Clipart • Microsofts Clipart page - I have been getting a lot of requests for Clipart suggestions. So, here is Microsoft's website with downloadable and free clipart. Search the collection on this webpage. Primary Focus - Apps • First Grade App Suggestions - This first grade teacher took a snapshot of all the apps she has on her iPads, which provides a various app recommendations. Also, the images display how the iPad is organized into folders. If you would like your student iPads organized within folders, it can be done. Just let me know and would could organize one iPad and distribute to the rest with Apple Configurator. • CommonSenseMedia Apps for Learning section - Within this section of the CommonSenseMedia website, there many app reviews and they are all searchable by age, subject area, skill, and app genre. Intermediate Focus • Glogster - This web-based tool is like a blog but much more visual. This is a great website for students to create and present content. I just received an email from Glogster about a Christmas deal. If someone was going to purchase one Glogster license (PTO money?), you can give another class a free license.
Classroom Connections This week, I was happy to see students using blogs, and I was happy to hear teachers were creating their own blogs. Trisha Stanton, Sheryl Buche, and Shirley Kellemen have all sat down with me to start a classroom blog. We are just putting it together in stages and once it is ready these teachers will use it to report classroom happenings. It's a great way to circumvent creating, printing, and distributing a paper newsletter weekly. Creating a classroom blog is also a great way to: • • • •
Help organize classroom parties (use comment section to ask for party items), Showcase student work, Enhance instruction by providing content, and Keep parents informed.
I also noticed student-created blogs. The last time I was in Evan Berkey's room, his students were blogging. They seemed to find a thrill in creating their own online writing space. At Three Creeks, I spoke informally to Stefanie Olson's students, and they seemed to enjoy their blogs. In fact, a student recently moved to another school, and she wrote a blog post to her former classmates. Two important benefits are displayed here: 1. 2.
Students are enjoying writing Students write without an assigned topic (i.e. the student that moved)
It's really powerful stuff as you blog throughout the year. Primary teachers don't hesitate to create a blog for your students using the new (in November) KidBlog app. Blogging really allows for parents, teachers, and students to demonstrate growth over the school year. -- Dan Gibson