Check out the following links for Tech help

The New Infinite Campus

Mastery Connect Overview

How Technology is Transforming Homework & Classrooms

Apps Lunch and Learn Video

Check out the Lunch and Learn from 4/10 on apps in the classroom.   Thanks again Jake Chiarelli and Sam Skaggs!

https://youtu.be/ILSaEYXSBGU

Tech articles

Apps that Rise to the Top-Tested and Approved by Teachers

http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/06/apps-that-rise-to-the-top-tested-and-approved-by-teachers/

Top 5 iPad Apps for Teaching Across All Content Areas

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/ipad-apps-all-content-areas-andrew-marcinek

Apps for the Classroom

Actively Learn is a program that allows you to take specific texts like short stories, articles, etc. and add notes and questions for students to read and respond to.  Teachers can evaluate students’ responses and students can also comment on each other as well.  Several of our Communication Arts teachers use this software but it has great application to any course/curriculum that requires thinking critically about text.  See the link below for getting started.

http://www.activelylearn.com/signup

Edmodo provides a safe and easy way for teachers and students to engage and collaborate for free, anytime, anywhere. With over 40 million users, Edmodo is the largest, fastest growing social platform for education. Awarded the 2013 EdTech Digest Award for Best Product, Edmodo makes the idea of a paperless classroom a reality. Kristin Justis is one teacher in our building who has used this app.

Use Edmodo for:

• Secure classroom discussions
• Posting assignments
• File sharing and uploading

Key Features:

• Classroom activity feed
• Student progress tracker
• Educational resource library
• Professional learning networks

 ExplainEverything is a tool for creating video like tutorials. Students or teachers can take photos or images, annotate them, record voices over them and explain different concepts that way. It could be good for giving students directions or for having students explain what they’ve learned.  Click below for online tutorials:

http://www.morriscooke.com/explain-everything-left/explain-everything-tutorials

Kahoot

This free app allows teachers to create and play quizzes, discussions or even surveys (which are called Kahoots) using any device with a web browser… including a laptop, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Android, Chromebook, Windows Phone or PC.  Without needing an account, everyone in the room quickly joins through their personal device, seeing their name appear at the front.  Answering questions in real time through an easy-to-use interface, they play against each other aiming to top the on-screen leaderboard, while you facilitate and discuss the content.  Formatively assess individual knowledge and adapt learning to suit!  Mrs. McPartland and Mrs. Winship are two colleagues who have used this program to help students review their material.  Check out the link below for how to get started.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ApWTkmx3Ub6d9Zpn8vWbwPAsc5iFUtJFR7mnxbBvNo4/edit

LastPass is a free app that can be used to store all of your usernames and passwords.  It will store all your data and you can review at any time.  Click on link below for more details:

https://lastpass.com/

Padlet is a free and easy way to create and collaborate in the classroom. It works like a sheet of paper where you can put anything (images, videos, documents, text) anywhere, from any device (pcs, tablets, phones), together with anyone.  This is great for getting feedback from students regarding content (e.g. each student can respond to a prompt).  Click on the link below for a short video tutorial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuzciL8qCYM

Screencast-o-matic is a free online resource that allows you to record your computer screen with audio.  This is a great tool if you need to create a video tutorial that illustrates new software or computer technology for students.  The recent Sharepoint tutorials , for example, were created using this program.

ShowMe is a free app (basic) that allows you to record voice-over whiteboard tutorials and share them online. ShowMe can be used as an interactive whiteboard substitute.  There is also a library of ShowMe Lessons by content area on the website.  Several features allow you to use this application for the flipped classroom.  Check out the website below for more information including the library of lessons and video tutorials:

http://www.showme.com/

Socrative is a free student response app that allows you to assess students in real time using a poll, race, or exit slip type platform.  Scores are calculated in real time and you can create as well as share your assessments with others.  Brian Santos, Chris Witthaus, Diane Fingers, and Shelly Parks are some of our teachers who have used this program before.  Below is a link to a video tutorial:

http://www.socrative.com/resources.php

Video: Creating rosters in Class Dojo

Here's a link to a video on how to quickly and easily create class rosters in Class Dojo.  You WILL need to pull a blank spreadsheet from Infinite Campus in order to do this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXq0tRv4fXQ

Powerpoint: Technology as a Vehicle for Change

Slides from a presentation by Sara White at our last building technology committee meeting. 

Kristen DiCarlo's notes from the METC

Here are some notes I took, websites I learned about and sessions I went to.

Session I Capturing their Future

Best at North for:  Career classes, personal finance, other business courses, special ed

-make what you are teaching relevant to the students’ lives

Websites referred:

1.       https://getkahoot.com/

-A game-based classroom response system

-Free to use

2. http://missouriconnections.org/

                - A career program that is free to use. Contact guidance to get more information about login (they are the admins for our school)

3. http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/

                -a place to record videos to upload to your website, schoology or other site for your students to assess

                -great to use for the flipped classroom or flipped assignments

Session 2: Getting the Most of your Assessments with online resources

Resources Quickly discussed:

1.       Google forms

2.       Socrative.com (Instant feedback)

3.       Edmodo (great for common core)

4.       Understanding the Google classroom

5.       Kahoot

6.       Discovery education (teachers rarely use this for videos, but there is also a quiz section)

Session 3: How Google saved my Back-True Stories from a Paperless Classroom

-I wasn’t overly impressed with this session. She talked more about online portfolios (which I don’t use) than anything Google related

Here are some portfolio sites:

1.       Yala.com

2.       Jimdo.com

3.       Sites.google.com

4.       Weebly.com

5.       Wordpress.com

6.       Instructables.com

Session 4: Enhancing Writing Through Multimedia Projects

MY FAVORITE SESSION BY FAR!!! HE WAS AMAZING!!!!

1.       One of his biggest projects he does with his students is 6 word stories (inspired by Ernest Hemingway)

See it here:    http://lhstv.weebly.com/6-word-stories---6-shot-videos.html    and here are the instructions: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/six-word-story-six-unique/id846218165?mt=11

2.       He focused on digital storytelling

a.       Conveying messages through video

b.      Digital media production

c.       Sharing stories

d.      Accomplish in any subject matter

e.      Video with sound and animation

f.        OR just use still videos with music

3.       It doesn’t matter WHAT app you use

4.       Enhance writing through:

a.       Scripting

b.      Storyboarding

c.       Blog reflections

d.      Comments

5.       Have students publish—you can use kid blog if you are worried about putting student work out there

6.       It helps students compare visual language to the printed world

7.       How do you assess a video??

a.       Accuracy of information portrayed

b.      Analysis of subject matter

c.       Clarity of visuals and sounds

8.       IMovie is the app he likes best

Session 5: Google Classroom 101

1.       This was a great session and useful for our school since we are transitioning into a “Google School”

2.       Their entire slides can be found here: Goo.gl/eyX7Hv, so I won’t go into all the notes that I took.

I am willing to sit down with anyone and help in any way that I can for any of these apps that I learned from yesterday.

Kristen

Video: Setting up Trackers in Mastery Connect for 2nd Semester

Consult this video on how to set up your trackers in Mastery Connect for Semester 2.

Link: Free Graphic Organizers for Studying or Organizing

Free graphic organizers

Traditional Learner vs. 21st Century Learner

Link: Five Fantastic, Fast Formative Assessment Tools

Five Fantastic, Fast Formative Assessment Tools

Link: How To Create A Test That Grades Itself Using Google Forms

How To Create A Test That Grades Itself Using Google Forms

Document: Lunch 'n Learn Presentation on VoiceThreads 1/23/15

Here is the handout given at the Lunch 'n Learn Presentation on VoiceThreads from last Friday. 

Video: How to set up Infinite Campus for Semester 2

Teachers, please use this video to to help you set up your Infinite Campus gradebooks for the second semester of the school year. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZA5Ir_f548&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

Google Drive Tips

Google Drive Tips

Outlook Tips

Did you know?

You can send an email and have it delivered at a later time/date.  This is a great feature if you need to send reminders to folks at a specific time frame later.  Click on the link below for a video tutorial:

  http://youtu.be/igVJfNUJV0g

Setting up your gradebook for 2nd semester

Hi teachers,

Here's a video that I (Brian) made that teaches you how to set up your gradebook for second semester in Infinite Campus. 

http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/coV2hTexYr

Some interesting articles!

Classroom Management Strategies

Five Powerful Questions Teachers Can ask Students

Edutopia's Top 10 Articles of 2014