Tech Tools to Make Your Life Easier in the Fall By Thom Gibson During the summer months, in an effort to avoid feeling overwhelmed two weeks before school starts, I usually make time each week of the summer to work on plans for next school year. This involves reading books on pedagogy, revising curriculum, and researching various tools that may make my life easier—I’m sure it’s the same for you. Here are a few of the best tricks and tools I’ve discovered in summers past that have made my life more manageable when back to school comes around. Planboard: Keep all links, resources and lessons plans in one place. Problem While my class calendar does house general plans for the day, sometimes I have links to videos I want to share, notes about who’s coming to office hours, a place to keep a to-do list for my off periods, and a couple reminders about announcements I want to make for each class. Solution I use Planboard for all of my lesson-planning needs. FormMule: Update Google Calendar with Google Forms I found a tool called FormMule.
Edit and Share Videos Like a Rock Star The engine of learning is not always fueled by reading. In fact, knowledge is often acquired via audio, video, role-playing, and other approaches that address the varied learning styles of today’s students. One communication method that has seriously grown up from even a generation ago is video. Where movies used to be considered babysitting — the activity of last resort for tired or unprepared teachers — that’s no longer true. Today, done well, they become real teaching tools that use optics to communicate ideas, unpack granular concepts, and connect students to information. For many teachers, though, there’s the rub: How do they use this tool to agilely and effectively deliver content? EdPuzzle Edit, quizzify, and add your voice to any video. Tammy’s YouTube Clipper Because the ads that introduce many YouTube videos may not suit your student group, use this tool to truncate the video and show just the part you want. Touchcast Vialogues YouTube editor More on videos as a classroom tool:
5 Tools Tech-Savvy Teachers are Using for 21st Century Learning By Troy Lambert Great teachers at schools everywhere are taking advantage of technology to become leaders in the evolving educational field. The traditional school system was set up to teach kids about the workplace of their future: the bell system taught them about factory whistles and lunch and recess taught them about rigid break and meal times. However, kids now need to be prepared for an entirely different kind of workplace, one filled with open spaces and focused on employee collaboration. Not to mention the tech skills most employees are now expected to have. Tech-savvy teachers are becoming leaders in education, developing and implementing programs that duplicate this evolving work environment—with technology at the center of it all. Consider how you can become a leader in educational technology, and give 21st century students an appropriate education, with these tools. Tiered Activity and Learning Software Learning programs used to be especially challenging for teachers.
How to Use Google Drawings Google Drawings is a free, web-based drawing tool that allows users to collaborate and work together in real time to create flowcharts, organizational charts, website wireframes, mind maps, concept maps, drawings, and more. It is included in GAFE, Google Classroom, G Suite, and Google Drive (this may vary in managed domains, depending upon whether the administrator turns on access to this tool). To use Google Drawing, here’s what you do: Open your Google Drive account; go to New and select Google Drawings. Insert shapes, lines, an image, or text with the editing tools.When finished, add this drawing to another Google Doc, slideshow, or spreadsheet, save it as a stand-alone file, and/or share it with others in a wide variety of methods. There are a lot of drawing programs available — SumoPaint, KidPix, and TuxPaint to name a few. Be aware: Each drawing program mentioned above may have some of these, but few have all. Here are eight projects that are perfect for Google Drawings: Comic strip
How to Use Google Apps Here’s a collection of Ask a Tech Teacher articles addressing individual Google Apps: Google Docs Google Drawings Google Forms Google Hangouts Google Keep Google Voice This isn’t meant to be comprehensive. How do I teach Google Drive to K/1? Weekend Website 123: Google Gravity Google Apps Support Bloom’s Taxonomy–Take a Look Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years.
What is Google Keep and Why Use it in Your Classroom? My daughter just bought her first house (though it went on hold several times as the Navy threatened/offered to move her). We wanted a simple way to share a ToDo list that would be available on phones, iPads, and computers, and would auto-update with our ideas. I looked at a variety of options, but found something wrong with each of them. Until I found Google Keep. It requires a Google account and — as with other Google Apps — the amount of space you get for saved notes depends upon your Google Drive size. Pros Because Keep doesn’t include a lot of (rarely-used) tools, it is intuitive to learn and simple to use. One of the most amazing features of Google Keep is that it will pull text from images (such as pictures of pages from a book) into typed text. For Android users: You can add a drawing to your note and/or draw on an image that you took or is shared with you. Cons Education applications Bookmark interesting links. Overall, Alan Henry over at Lifehacker said it best: Google Keep logo
Tools per creare mappe concettuali I migliori tools per creare mappe concettuali personalizzate. Affina la ricerca Edraw Un utile programma per creare mappe concettuali colorate e divertenti, particolarmente indicate per la scuola primaria. Vai » VUE – Visual Understanding Environment Software open source per la creazione di mappe concettuali, realizzato da un gruppo di accademici della Tufts University di Boston. Vai » XMind XMind è un potente editor per creare mappe concettuali di ogni tipo. Vai » Mind Maple Per chi ha poco tempo o è alle prime armi, Mind Maple è un software che consente di trasformare velocemente un testo in mappa concettuale. Vai » Essay Map Utile applicazione online che permette di creare in pochi click, e con l’aiuto di una semplice guida, uno schema riassuntivo per spiegare o ricapitolare concetti e idee chiave riguardo un qualunque argomento. Vai » Blumind Vai » Programma gratuito per disegnare mappe concettuali e pagine basate su grafica vettoriale VML all’interno del browser (IE a partire dalla versione 6).
7 Online Tools to Make Custom Learning Games (No Coding Required!) By Elizabeth Kahn It is a fact that even in the 21st century, students need to study and review information they’ve been taught in class. In fact, many scientific studies have asserted that learning doesn’t take place without repetition. Study guides created by the teacher or student in the form of lists may help when a student is preparing to take a test but may not be the best route for learning. There are many digital tools that allow teachers and students to create games to make the repetition of information fun, rather than a chore. The librarian and classroom teacher can make a great team when planning and executing lessons where the students generate games for study review in any content area and across grade levels. Flippity Flippity offers several opportunities to design learning games with a Google spreadsheet. Digital Jeopardy There are several ways to create digital Jeopardy—including tools like Flippity. More: How Gamification Helped More Than 10,000 Students Improve Reading
10 Ways to "Googlfy" Your Classroom By Bethany Petty Google has taken the world of educational technology by storm with its fantastic suite of tools for the classroom. These tools provide seemingly endless possibilities for teachers to enhance the learning environment and increase student engagement. Below are 10 great ways to “Googlfy Your Classroom” and use these tools to their fullest extent. More: 10 Ways to Save Time Grading With Google 1) Actively read a primary source (Docs) Google Docs has come such a long way since I was originally introduced to it in college. Students highlight certain parts of the text they find interesting, important, or confusing. 2) Create a collaborative presentation (Slides) Watching students collaborate on a project together is always exciting for us teachers. To learn more about the Explore feature, check out my article on it. 3) Go on a Field Trip (Google Earth) I absolutely love taking my students of field trips with Google Earth. More: 10 Ways to Use Google Maps in the Classroom This.
Using the New "Explore" feature in GAfE Programs - Teaching with Technology A recent update made by Google to Docs, Slides and Sheets is causing quite a stir in the EdTech community! If you or your students were fans of the “Research” function, you may have noticed this morning that it has been replaced by “Explore.” Don’t be alarmed! Here’ a quick rundown of how to use the new feature, what I like about it, and what I’m adding to the feedback option to be changed! To launch Explore in Docs, Slides, or Sheets, simply select the small star icon in the bottom right corner of the screen. Explore allows users to access outside information based on search terms … web resources and images, as well as Drive files. In Sheets, Explore allows users to ask a question about their spreadsheet data and drag and drop a variety of charts and graphs in the Sheet. In Slides, Explore provides users with suggested layouts based on their slide content. A huge concern for fans of “Research” is that “Explore” does not include citations for sources that are referenced. Thanks for reading!
10 Ways to Save Time Grading With Google By Lynn Erickson We all know that time is of the essence in the teaching world. In many instances, we spend quite a bit of our time grading student work. With many online tools at our fingertips, grading student work doesn’t have to be as time consuming as it was in the past. Below are some ways you can save time grading with the G Suite for Education. More: 10 Thoughts Every Teacher Has While Grading Shared Docs for Writing Assignments Use a shared Google Doc for student writing assignments to provide quick feedback and help guide them during the process. Form Template Check List In Google Forms, create a Google Form Template with student names along with a check list of skills, homework points, etc. Assess Discussion Online In Google Classroom, you can now create exit tickets and bell ringer activities using the new question-driven discussion feature. More: 13 Online Gradebook Apps to Make Grading Easier Export Google Classroom Grades into Google Sheets Set Shorthand for Fast Grading
10 Ways to Use Google Maps in the Classroom By Jessica Sanders Google Maps is a great free tool for teachers to engage students. They’ll love mapping major novel moments, guessing locations based on clues, and investigating cities around the world. More: 20 Best Google Education Resources Create a Custom Map Have students create their own custom Google Map. Add all locations on the map you want to visit.Add all locations on the map you’ve been to before.Game: I say a city; you pin the location the map.Game: I say a geographical monument; you pin the location on the map. Students can add notes as well. Investigate the Modern Version of an Ancient World Investigate the modern cities that bloomed from ancient worlds. Pin Point a Book’s Setting If the book your students are reading takes place in an actual city, state or country, head to the map, where students can walk the streets and get a real-life feel of the setting, while giving it perspective in terms of the rest of the country or world. Use Detective Skills Go On a Scavenger Hunt
15 Fun classroom energizers for students. Children are busy people. But when it comes to school they just freeze. They have to sit still for a long time and that’s why they get tired. In this blog post, I will list some fun and engaging energizer activities for in the classroom. When is the right time for an energizer? For some reason your students aren’t listening anymore. It is the last hour of the dayIt’s Friday afternoonStudents get tired after lunchIt’s Monday morningThe content is boring (that happens!) If you notice that students are losing attention for one of these reasons, it is time to think about a fun classroom game. Interactive energizers for students are fun, but teachers also have to take into account that the age difference between students is very important. Classroom energizers for elementary school Here are 5 fun classroom activities for elementary students. 1. This classroom game is more suited for the little kids. 2. Ask the group to stand up and to form a circle. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. For example: 1.