'Tis the Season for Tech Fun!

I had to pass along some great information about apps and using iPads with our current projectors.

Appy Holidays App Sale

This site lists great education apps that are on sale or are free! Apps are listed by skill, age range, price, etc. They're also on facebook and frequently share information about apps going on sale there as well.

iPads and Projectors

I've had several conversations with different teachers about different ways to connect their iPads to their projectors in their rooms (if they have a projector in their room).

A wired option is to use a VGA switch.  Melanie Gray currently has this setup in her room.  If you google VGA switch you'll find many options from many different places. 

Another option to wirelessly mirror your iPad screen to your projector via AppleTV. This is certainly a more expensive option but being able to walk anywhere in your room with your iPad and showing what is on your iPad screen through your projector is certainly appealing.  I've included two links to websites/blogs with information about how this can be achieved.

The Nerdy Teacher 

iEar.org

I will not guarantee in any way shape or form that the district will provide technical support for any of these options since they are not district initiatives but I believe we're beginning to see how we can support each other with the integration of technology in to our classrooms. 

Happy Holidays!

SMACKDOWN...

...was a HUGE success. The wordle above is a compilation of the google doc we used today.  I love the fact that the word share is prominent here.  I think it is a great reminder for us to continue the conversation and share resources with others.  That is what Tech Tuesday is all about sharing!

Thank you so much for taking time to come and hang out with us.  I hope you walked away with at least one thing you could use in your classroom.  I know I did.  I loved Scott's idea of using PowerPoint to create choose your own adventure stories!  I've had my own students play with wordle, but never thought to use if for character traits (Thanks Carla)!  XtraMath seems like a great site that allows kids to practice their math facts in a quick and painless way.

I've posted the information from the google doc we created below so be sure to check it out!  If there are others sites that you would want to share just add them in the comments section.

It is such a huge blessing to work with so many passionate teachers.

~Melanie

Topic, Presenter, School, Grade

Jolie Valentine, Hoben, Media Specialist, Destiny Quest / My Quest http://bit.ly/uAcz4a
- Videotape book reviews
- Videotape kids reading books for others to listen to
- Can work on writing summaries
- You can friend your students and recommend books to them
- Create bookshelves to share what you are reading; see what your friends are reading

Carla Morrin, Miller, 5th Grade, wordle.net
- Class goals at the beginning of the year
- After studying adjectives and verbs make a wordle poster
- Make a wordle poster about themselves to share at the beginning of the year as a get to know you activity
create a Mother’s day or Father’s day poster as a gift to mom or dad
- Have kids type in word wall words, several times creating a wordle spread.
-Another version is www.abcya.com
- Ask students a review question on google doc (like this) or a google form. Put the results in Wordle.net. Ask: “Are the largest words (most frequent) the most important?” This leads to great discussion.

Emily Verbeke, Too many to name, Psychologist, Interventioncentral.org
- I have a great cheat sheet if anyone is interested..Aimee Bell - of course!

Carol Wiessner, Eriksson, ?, weebly.com
create a class website for parent information

Michelle Krug, Workman, 2nd, storybird.com
-Can be used by different grade levels
-Parents can buy books created
-Use pictures as story starters
-create a story of a recent genre learned

3rd Grade Team from Workman, xtramath.org
- Differentiate instruction
-math facts practice, monitors progress
-This site can be self monitored by students and parents

Diana Olds, Hoben, 4th, pinterest.com
-tons of teacher ideas to steal and share
-Email diana.olds@pccsmail.net or kristi.berry@pccsmail.net or melanie.gray@pccsmail.net
for an invite
Sample Boards: http://pinterest.com/dolds/teaching/, http://pinterest.com/blueberry314/classroom/, http://pinterest.com/graymela/classroom-favs/
- Stealing welcome :)
                   
Kristi Berry, Miller, 5th, ReplayNote App
www.screencast-o-matic.com
-go to google and save images
-then add your own words

Julie Dillon, Isbister, K, shutterfly.com
great way to share pictures with parents
can upload newsletters
Your parents can purchase a book of all the pictures. The books are hardcover books! They can also purchase individual pictures.


Beth Sexton, Dodson, Media Specialist, http://forums.pccs.k12.mi.us/moodle/
-to get your own course contact Jim Casteel or Carol Isakson

Melanie Gray, Workman, 5th, watchknowlearn.org
a warehouse of videos for the classroom
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/
makes comic writing fun and easy for the students.
use it for word wall words

Scott Mod, Bird, 4th, Choose Your Own Adventure ppts
-very cool you can add buttons to connect PowerPoint slides and create choose your own adventure stories
-You can also do this with Youtube videos: PSA Choose What Happens Next from the Ad Council: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGkaw44-Ql4 (Note: You have to be careful showing this one because of the suggested videos in the right column.  Some are inappropriate.)


Mary Beth Revesz, 4th, Workman, Showme.com
-similar to replay note
-record tutorials for students and families
-showme.com has a ton of screencasts that teachers have already made

Kaarina Bodnar, Workman, Digital Voice Recorder
-record reading books for fluency
-record writing ideas to refer to later when writing stor
- dragon dictation app (free on Ipad) will actually type out dictated ideas

Tech Tuesday - Smack Down!

Tech Tuesday's first Smack Down is just around the corner!  I am so excited to see over 60 people signed up to attend and at least 14 people who are willing to share!  That is AWESOME!!  Some of the items that will be shared are:  Weebly, Storybird, digital voice recorders, Pinterest, xtramath, and wordle.  All of the sites that are shared will be posted here on the blog and on the wiki.

Whether you are a tech veteran or a tech newbie know you have sometime to share.  You might think its a little thing, however the site/tool might just be what someone has been searching for.

The Details: 


When: December 6th
Time: 4:15
Place: Plymouth High School Media Center Computer Lab

Sign-up with this link (http://goo.gl/u2Jj9)


Not sure what a Smack Down is....check out these links.

Animoto Video -

You Tube:  Educational iPod touch apps for students and teachers

You Tube: How to use wordle.



~Melanie

Tech Tuesday - Blogging

Blogging presentation by MaryBeth Revesz.

Blogging

View more presentations from Melanie Rogers Gray.

Apptastic!

This last weekend a crew of us from PCCS got up WAY early in the morning and headed to Grand Rapids for edCamp Grand Rapids.  It was an incredible experience and I highly recommend that everyone attend an edcamp if they have the opportunity.

Emily Verbeke and I had no intention of presenting at edcamp.  However, someone had posted that they would love to see a session on apps.  Emily asked if I had planned on presenting my Apptastic presentation from edCamp Detroit and I quickly told her only if she did it with me.  So needless to say we presented at edCamp!  Our session started with us sharing some of our favorite apps and then we opened it up for other people to share theirs.  Below you will find our presentation as well as some other links of resources for iPad apps.  If you have a favorite app please leave a comment.  We'd love to add it to my list!

~Melanie

Apptastic

View more presentations from Melanie Rogers Gray

iPad Resources:
-Lucy's iPad Resources
-www.iear.org - apps recommended by educators - awesome site!
-Escondido Union School District - list of ipad apps by subject area
-iPad apps shared by EdCamp Grand Rapids peeps

iPad Resource Links for #edcampGR

Escondido Union School District

iEar.org

Lucy's iPad Resources

PCCS Tech Tuesday Teachers Wiki

Use YouTube as a search engine for tech ideas.

When I wanted to learn about Google calendar, I went to YouTube and searched for "Google calendar tutorial." This video showed up.



As a visual learner, I really appreciate tutorials made by other educators and techies. I learn a great deal this way.

How to shorten links for your students to read from the board.

goo.gl

How to make a Google form.

Sample: http://goo.gl/rMCJZ

Pinterest

Pinterest now has an education category. Check it out!

Espon Interactive Whiteboards

Here are some resources that you might find helpful.

1.  Video Tutorials by AJ Brothers.  These quick videos that walk you through what your IWB can do! You can follow this link to the AJ Brothers videos on the PCCS UDL webpage or view them here!  There are also a ton of other videos on youtube.

Video 1: Splash Screen

Video 2: Orientation

Video 3: Easiteach Menu 1

Video 4:  Easiteach Menu 2

Video 5: Glass Mode

Video 6: Drawing Tools

Video 7: Text Tools Part 1

Video 8: Text Tools part 2

Video 9: Object Properties and Manipulations

2.  Websites:

• http://www.easilearn.com/ - Has additional interactives that can be download. There is no cost for some, however some are paid.
• http://www.myeasiteach.com/ - Interactives that have been created by teachers around the globe.  You must create a user name to see the lessons that have been created.  Free.

3.  Moodle Resources - Last year as part of the UDL Training.  Two teachers from every builidng worked with another teacher from their building to create interactive lessons using the Easiteach Next Generation Software.  Those lessons were for 4th and 5th grade only. They can be found in the K-8 Math and Science section of moodle.  Both 4th and 5th grade science folders have a folder called Easiteach Lessons. 
Moodle site: http://www.forums.pccs.k12.mi.us/

4.  Interactive Books: You can also use books like the one below from Scholastic called "Writing Lesson for the Interactive Whiteboard."  You have to be careful though...not all books like this will work for our system.  If it say "SMART" then it will more than likely only work if you have a SMART board.

What resources have you found that work? Leave a comment!

A Vision of Education

Why Tech Tuesdays?

Here is the Prezi that was shared during Tech Tuesday on Tuesday, 10/4.

Apptastic

Thank you to everyone who attended the Apptastic breakout session and thank you hanging with me as I ran through a TON of information.  For those of you who did not attend the Apptastic breakout session don't feel like you missed out.  My handout is a google doc here and soon it will be on the TechTuesdayWiki.  On the Wiki I will have links for each of the apps directly to iTunes so you won't have to do any extra searching but you'll have to wait a day or two to link all the apps.  Pros and cons....


Here are the links at the bottom of my hand out for quicker reference.  Enjoy! Happy Apping!

https://sites.google.com/site/bloomsapps/home
http://teachwithyouripad.wikispaces.com/Blooms+Taxonomy+with+Apps
http://www.apple.com/education/apps/
http://www.scoop.it/t/educational-ipad-apps

10/4 Reflection

Please click on the link below to complete the reflection for today!


http://goo.gl/jpSrK

Thanks so much for joining us!!

Twitter!

Below you will find the presentationS used during our Tech Tuesday talk on twitter. 

Twitter! on Prezi

Twitter

View more presentations from graymela

Articles of interest about twitter and getting started with twitter.

• http://adaptivelearnin.wordpress.com/2011/09/30/why-teachers-should-join-twitter-what-i-have-learned-as-a-twitter-newbie/
• http://www.creativeeducation.co.uk/blog/index.php/2011/09/10-reasons-to-tweet/
• http://web20classroom.blogspot.com/2011/09/twitter-series-new-kind-of-twitter-pd.html
• http://principalj.blogspot.com/2011/08/twitter-for-teachers.html
• http://livebinders.com/play/play/34291
• http://www.cybraryman.com/edhashtags.html

Tech Tuesday 10/4

Hello Everyone,

Over 80 elementary teachers and administrators signed up for Tech Tuesdays. This is really exciting, but has caused us to look at a different plan. Instead of one large group session, the session will look like this:

Beginning at 4pm there will be a general discussion about technology integration in the classroom and the “why” behind Tech Tuesdays.

Then there will be three breakout sessions: 

1)Twitter both professionally and in the classroom (Your kids can tweet and you can learn a ton…this is not just a place to follow celebrities!)

2)Pinterest and Google Docs during Writing Workshop (This session is limited to 30 participants)

3)iPad Apps and sharing…what are you using/what can you use in your classroom

Please BYOD (Bring your own device). If you have one.

Workman has WiFi access so we should be able to use our own laptops, iPads, netbooks, etc.

See you tomorrow, October 4^th at 4pm. We will meet in the media center at Workman.

Everyday Math e-Toolkit

This weekend while learning from my personal learning network (PLN) I came across a blog post about the Everyday Math e-Toolkit by Danny Nicholson writer of The White Board Blog. As soon as I saw this post I knew this needed to be shared with my awesome colleagues.

Everyday Math has an eToolkit that can be used with interactive white boards, but you don't need one to use it.

With the eToolkit you can choose tools by a specific grade level or by all grade levels if you want. Some of the tools available are: line segment, compass, protractor, calculator, timer.

With the pan balance you can add weights.

The mulitplication chart makes it easy to see fact families!

I can't wait to use the Everyday Math e-Toolkit with my students. Don't forget to check out the Everyday Math website - lots of great stuff to check out.

Enjoy!

:-)

Melanie

Dropbox Rocks!

Have you ever been working on a document or presentation for school at home and forgot to email it to yourself so you can use it the next day? Well then Dropbox is the web tool for you!

Dropbox is a FREE web based service that let's you access your documents, photos, or videos from anywhere. With Dropbox you get 2GB of space, which is more than enough for the average user. Think of it as a mobile flashdrive that you don't have to worry about leaving on your desk at school or in your computer at home. Dropbox is very user friendly. You can also download the desktop application for Dropbox on your home computer. Which makes accessing your files even easier.

Here are some of my favorite dropbox uses:

1. A depository for my school files. I no longer worry about where I saved a document.

2. When I was at MACUL this year I got an email from a parent asking for work for their sick child. I was able to go into my dropbox account, grab the document and email it to the parent. The student had the work completed when he returned to school.

3. I created a dropbox account for my classroom. My students no longer come in the day an assingment is due and say my printer is out of ink. They simply log into the classroom dropbox account and upload their work. When they get to school they log back into the classroom dropbox account, download it, print it, and turn it it. Which means less hassle for me!

4. I also have some students who use it as a way to get a project they are working on back and forth to school. I don't have to email it to the parent anymore and then have them email it back. The kids take care of it all on their own!

5. With Dropbox you can even share a file or an entire folder with anyone you like. Makes it super easy to share your fantasy unit with your colleagues!


Dropbox is incredibly easy to set up and user friendly. By signing up for dropbox using this link, both of us get additional space. Check it out!

:-) Melanie