So this is a tool that is always changing as well.
I am a member of Educational Media and Technology Association and this year I was lucky enough to learn about Zoom. I had heard other teachers mention Zooming and completing webinars through Zoom but I had never tried it or heard of it really other than that. So the great thing about EMTA is that if you're unable to attend the meeting in person you can Zoom in! So I have had the pleasure of seeing that this year during our meetings. I also was able to take part in a makerspace webinar by Zooming into the webinar. I find Zoom to be fantastic! I am grateful that I have had the opportunity to learn about it this year and I hope to continue to use it in the future. So I have really only seen pros for this other than the one webinar I did notice that you cannot join until it is exactly the time of the event unless the coordinator sets up the event differently. I had to wait until exactly 315 to join the event which made me rather nervous that I was going to miss something but I didn't. I like the video or phone conferencing capabilities with Zoom. It is a great feature to have.
While reading the article Top 200 Tools for Learning I did come across a tool that may fit better under productivity tools however, it is such a great tool that I wanted to share it here. Plus I already turned in my blog for productivity. It is the tool My Study Life. It allows for you to add your schedule and it was created specifically for students. The schedule can be based on a day cycle which many schools use this. Along with adding in holidays to make sure the schedule reflects the number of days in school accurately. You can then add tasks and have reminders set up as well. It allows for you to set a homework schedule so that you are spending the appropriate amount of time on each task. Plus you can sign into it with Google so many schools that have G Suite for the students will be able to have students just sign right in and keep track of their schedule. Overall this also would allow for collaboration between a teacher and students if the school purchased the educator version. This would allow for teachers to upload their homework or reminders into the system and share with their students. The student version is always free. I signed up as a student just to play around with it. I was able to add in my classes that I teach just to see how the schedule works. It is pretty neat.
A few other tools that I have tried and absolutely lover are Padlet, Popplet and Remind. All of these tools are great for brainstorming or reminders. I have used Remind as a coach to contact my players and ensure that they know when practice is or if there is a cancelation. I also use Remind for one of the LuLaRoe groups I'm in :-) (guilty pleasure). The consultant will send out messages about upcoming sales so that we do not miss out. It is a great program! I love to use it and it is nice to be able to use it with students. My co-advisor for yearbook uses it along with me for our yearbook meetings as well to keep in touch with the kids and remind them of deadlines.
I have used Padlet in the past with the science teacher that I collaborate with and the students absolutely love this tools.I also enjoy how we use this tool to introduce ourselves at the beginning of this workshop. It is a quick and easy tool to use to get to know one an another. It is also a great tool for brainstorming.
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Thing 47: Productivity Tools
I wanted to work with the productivity tools this year since I will be teaching a college prep course for students at school. I wanted to find some simple apps and tools to introduce to them so they could use them in the future! However, as always I found so many things that I didn't even know existed especially with Google. Of course, you always learn something new about Google.
So I may be way behind the eight ball or I've just never paid attention to Google but I did not know that Google had templates on it! I was reading the article EdTechTeacher 10 Creative Ways to use Google Tools to Maximize your time and one of the last pieces of this article was all about the templates and being able to use those! Wow! I'm so excited that I found these and I will definitely be using them in the future with my students! Especially when I teach summer school! Leave it to Google to make your life easier!
Another tool I will definitely be introducing to the students is Grammarly. This is a great tool for students as many of them struggle with grammar and sentence structure. This is a great extension just to add to Chrome and since many schools are equipped with Chromebooks now it will be much easier to show the students how to use this feature. It is also nice to be able to show the students how to add the extension to the Chrome browser so they are able to use it from any computer device. So I am excited to show the students this extension since they will be needing it in the future for college.
I believe these two ideas will help the students tremendously. As always I learned about Google Keep last year and absolutely love it! So I will also be showing the students that option as well.
I have been trying out Nuzzle for myself and I'm still trying to figure it out. One of the librarians in our area uses it and I get her newsletters every day. I enjoy seeing the stories that she has to offer so I decided to try it for myself. I am unsure if I like it or not or if I would just rather subscribe to other's newsletters and see what is going on for them. I have never been a huge fan of Twitter so having to use my Twitter account again really threw me off however it is good to get back to Twitter as it truly is a great place to interact with others and be able to see a lot of the latest and greatest news. I look forward to continuing to use Twitter and Nuzzle to determine how I truly feel about it in the future.
I love my paper planner and have always used that- so I'm always looking for ways to increase the use technology when it comes to my calendar. I keep a lot of my doctor appointments and other personal meetings right on my calendar on my phone. I find this to be most useful for me along with my paper planner. I hope to show both of these aspects to the students so that they can determine which mode will work best for them.
Productivity tools are a great feature to have. I am looking forward to learning new ways to stay productive in the future as the world of technology changes around us.
So I may be way behind the eight ball or I've just never paid attention to Google but I did not know that Google had templates on it! I was reading the article EdTechTeacher 10 Creative Ways to use Google Tools to Maximize your time and one of the last pieces of this article was all about the templates and being able to use those! Wow! I'm so excited that I found these and I will definitely be using them in the future with my students! Especially when I teach summer school! Leave it to Google to make your life easier!
Another tool I will definitely be introducing to the students is Grammarly. This is a great tool for students as many of them struggle with grammar and sentence structure. This is a great extension just to add to Chrome and since many schools are equipped with Chromebooks now it will be much easier to show the students how to use this feature. It is also nice to be able to show the students how to add the extension to the Chrome browser so they are able to use it from any computer device. So I am excited to show the students this extension since they will be needing it in the future for college.
I believe these two ideas will help the students tremendously. As always I learned about Google Keep last year and absolutely love it! So I will also be showing the students that option as well.
I have been trying out Nuzzle for myself and I'm still trying to figure it out. One of the librarians in our area uses it and I get her newsletters every day. I enjoy seeing the stories that she has to offer so I decided to try it for myself. I am unsure if I like it or not or if I would just rather subscribe to other's newsletters and see what is going on for them. I have never been a huge fan of Twitter so having to use my Twitter account again really threw me off however it is good to get back to Twitter as it truly is a great place to interact with others and be able to see a lot of the latest and greatest news. I look forward to continuing to use Twitter and Nuzzle to determine how I truly feel about it in the future.
I love my paper planner and have always used that- so I'm always looking for ways to increase the use technology when it comes to my calendar. I keep a lot of my doctor appointments and other personal meetings right on my calendar on my phone. I find this to be most useful for me along with my paper planner. I hope to show both of these aspects to the students so that they can determine which mode will work best for them.
Productivity tools are a great feature to have. I am looking forward to learning new ways to stay productive in the future as the world of technology changes around us.
Monday, February 26, 2018
Thing 44: Social Reading & Book Stuff
I completed this "thing" last year as well but I find it great to go over again as the world of Social reading is changing around us.
So last year I focused on Goodreads and getting my account set back up and running. I was able to get my faculty book club members using Goodreads as well so we can now track our book club books along with our free read books. Two of the women in the group love it and love to be able to share their reviews. I like to do the reading challenge and challenge myself to more books each year. I have also created an audio book list for myself so that those books that I listen too I can also add to my Goodreads account and track my progress. Is there a platform out there to just track audio books? This would be a great idea to create in the future if there isn't one already out there.
So to listen to all of the audio books that I listen to- I use Overdrive through our public library system. I absolutely love Overdrive. I have only used it for audio books as I am not a huge ebook reader and the few ebooks that I do read I read on my Kindle app. But Overdrive has been great. My commute for most days is a 35 minute drive one way so I am able to listen to a lot of books. This years SSL conference in Long Island is featuring Steven Sheinkin whom I have not read any of his books so I immediately downloaded Abraham Lincoln's Grave Robbers and Time Twister series to listen to. I love being able to listen to nonfiction as I will admit I am a fiction reader all the way. I will read some nonfiction here and there but I definitely prefer fiction. Overdrive has been great in this aspect to let me branch out and listen to more nonfiction texts than I would read.
I also used Overdrive last year to be part of the Audiofile Sync for Teens for the summer. I have the books all on my phone and plan to start listening to them soon as the new titles for this summer will be coming out soon :-)
So Overdrive has been a huge hit for me and I cannot wait to see what else the app will bring forth.
I also did the summer reading BINGO with my students last year and I plan to do a similar summer reading challenge for my kids. I like to try new things and the BINGO went over really well last year but I think I will do something new this year. I am just trying to decide what format I will use this year. I am thinking about some type of weekly format- we use Google classroom at school and I"m thinking about setting up a Google Classroom this year to cut down on the use for paper as last year I had 26 participants.
So last year I focused on Goodreads and getting my account set back up and running. I was able to get my faculty book club members using Goodreads as well so we can now track our book club books along with our free read books. Two of the women in the group love it and love to be able to share their reviews. I like to do the reading challenge and challenge myself to more books each year. I have also created an audio book list for myself so that those books that I listen too I can also add to my Goodreads account and track my progress. Is there a platform out there to just track audio books? This would be a great idea to create in the future if there isn't one already out there.
So to listen to all of the audio books that I listen to- I use Overdrive through our public library system. I absolutely love Overdrive. I have only used it for audio books as I am not a huge ebook reader and the few ebooks that I do read I read on my Kindle app. But Overdrive has been great. My commute for most days is a 35 minute drive one way so I am able to listen to a lot of books. This years SSL conference in Long Island is featuring Steven Sheinkin whom I have not read any of his books so I immediately downloaded Abraham Lincoln's Grave Robbers and Time Twister series to listen to. I love being able to listen to nonfiction as I will admit I am a fiction reader all the way. I will read some nonfiction here and there but I definitely prefer fiction. Overdrive has been great in this aspect to let me branch out and listen to more nonfiction texts than I would read.
I also used Overdrive last year to be part of the Audiofile Sync for Teens for the summer. I have the books all on my phone and plan to start listening to them soon as the new titles for this summer will be coming out soon :-)
So Overdrive has been a huge hit for me and I cannot wait to see what else the app will bring forth.
I also did the summer reading BINGO with my students last year and I plan to do a similar summer reading challenge for my kids. I like to try new things and the BINGO went over really well last year but I think I will do something new this year. I am just trying to decide what format I will use this year. I am thinking about some type of weekly format- we use Google classroom at school and I"m thinking about setting up a Google Classroom this year to cut down on the use for paper as last year I had 26 participants.
Monday, February 5, 2018
Thing 28: App-palooza!
After completing this "thing" last year I knew that this would be one to complete every year as the world of technology and apps are always changing. Learning about new technology and apps that can better inform and help students is always important. It is very difficult in the world of education to stay on top of the most up to date information. The "best" that is out there is always changing. The needs of your students are always changing as well.
First I looked at the "Should I download this App?" Checklist. I found it a great review to view the checklist. It is important to put pedagogy and student needs before the price and an app. Many people forget this and just look for the best app to get the job done without looking at the needs of the project and the students. This is an important checklist to share out with your faculty and staff and I plan to create a document from this checklist to do just that as our school is slowly adding Chrome books to the school. It is important for all teachers to read this checklist so that they can better fit the needs of themselves and their students.
I also found it very interesting in an article about having an AUP for personal devices. My school is still not allowing personal devices to be used unless the teacher wants to allow it. If the teacher doesn't want a device in their classroom the students are supposed to leave it in their lockers or keep it in a pocket where it isn't a distraction. This as you can imagine has caused a lot of issues for many students. We are however adding more and more devices to the school so hopefully soon many of the classrooms will have Chrome books or other devices for student use.
I then looked at the best apps for teaching from the AASL website. I enjoy that the website goes back to previous years as well so you can compare the changes in what is being used for apps.
One of the apps that I use in my daily life is Google Keep I was happy to see that it falls on the list for best apps. I have not used this with any of my students but I feel that it would be beneficial for the kids to know about. I will use this app when teaching my after school program (ASP) for college prep 101. This will be beneficial to the participants in learning organizational techniques and more.
I"m interested in exploring The New Immigrants: NYC 1880-1924 by Vanguard Direct/New York City Department of Education. This app caught my eye because I just finished working on an immigration inquiry project with my 11th grade teacher in Morristown. I would like to look into this app to use in the future with the class. We followed the tool kit from engageny.org just to keep it more in line with the regents exam for the students but I think that this app would help to benefit the students. I look forward to learning more with this app in the future.
I have also saved a few of the app tasks in my Google drive so that I can go in and try them. They look great and like they will be very beneficial. This is definitely one of my favorite "things" to complete.
First I looked at the "Should I download this App?" Checklist. I found it a great review to view the checklist. It is important to put pedagogy and student needs before the price and an app. Many people forget this and just look for the best app to get the job done without looking at the needs of the project and the students. This is an important checklist to share out with your faculty and staff and I plan to create a document from this checklist to do just that as our school is slowly adding Chrome books to the school. It is important for all teachers to read this checklist so that they can better fit the needs of themselves and their students.
I also found it very interesting in an article about having an AUP for personal devices. My school is still not allowing personal devices to be used unless the teacher wants to allow it. If the teacher doesn't want a device in their classroom the students are supposed to leave it in their lockers or keep it in a pocket where it isn't a distraction. This as you can imagine has caused a lot of issues for many students. We are however adding more and more devices to the school so hopefully soon many of the classrooms will have Chrome books or other devices for student use.
I then looked at the best apps for teaching from the AASL website. I enjoy that the website goes back to previous years as well so you can compare the changes in what is being used for apps.
One of the apps that I use in my daily life is Google Keep I was happy to see that it falls on the list for best apps. I have not used this with any of my students but I feel that it would be beneficial for the kids to know about. I will use this app when teaching my after school program (ASP) for college prep 101. This will be beneficial to the participants in learning organizational techniques and more.
I"m interested in exploring The New Immigrants: NYC 1880-1924 by Vanguard Direct/New York City Department of Education. This app caught my eye because I just finished working on an immigration inquiry project with my 11th grade teacher in Morristown. I would like to look into this app to use in the future with the class. We followed the tool kit from engageny.org just to keep it more in line with the regents exam for the students but I think that this app would help to benefit the students. I look forward to learning more with this app in the future.
I have also saved a few of the app tasks in my Google drive so that I can go in and try them. They look great and like they will be very beneficial. This is definitely one of my favorite "things" to complete.
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