ELT burnout revisited A little more than two years ago, I talked about burnout, particularly the path towards it that I and probably you were on. My ELT:Other ratio stared glaringly in my face, mocking my attempts at having a life outside of language teaching. It’s then that I realised I was definitely on the road to burnout. Now with Shelly Sanchez Terrell’s cycle 4 of the 30 Goals for Educators, and an upcoming Google Hangout I’ll be doing with her about them, it seems like an opportune time to revisit my path and see if things have changed. The gist of the ELT:Other ratio is looking at how you spend your time in language teaching areas vs all of your other interests. It’s a 3-step process: If your #2 & #3 shows over 50% of your time on ELT, you might be heading down that fiery path. One caveat that came out in discussion, however, was the blurry grey (or in this case red) overlap between social media and ELT. What’s there to be done about burnout? If you don’t feel like you’re burning out, go with that.
25 Google Drive Tips You’ve Probably Never Heard Before | Process Street Recently I moved over from Dropbox to Google Drive and found a few unexpected benefits. At first I had a little trouble managing the space since the 1TB on my Google Drive was bigger than my HDD, but after I got that sorted I started to learn some of the deeper features of Google Drive, some of which are pretty cool. Below is a list of the top tips and tricks I have learned from playing with Google Drive over the last few months. Work Well with Others Google drive got it’s early breaks in the market by being far superior at collaborating with others than any other tool out there. Publicly Share Documents Not only can you share and collaborate with people you invite, but you can also make documents public. Control Access Levels for Security Just because you want to share and work with others, doesn’t mean you necessarily want people messing with yo sh*t. Chat While Collaborating Search by Person Enhance your Experience with Add-Ons Don’t forget the Apps Use Drag and Drop to Upload
Avoid Burn-Out Posted by Shelly Terrell on Saturday, June 29th 2013 Goal 2: Avoid Burn-Out of The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators. Click the link to find out more about the 30 Goals Challenge for Educators. “Courage doesn’t always roar. This year with the 30 Goals Challenge for Educators, our 30 Goals Facebook community is voting on what some of the goals will be. My Take on the Goal Each year as a teacher I struggle with burn-out. Another important way I avoid burn-out is through taking time for myself everyday. For more ideas about this goal, check out the video I did in 2011. Goal Short-term-Take at least one hour for yourself where you don’t dwell on your role as an educator but instead give your time to relax and have some fun. We are pinning ideas on ways to avoid burn-out here. Long-term- Begin to schedule weekly even daily times where you leave your work as an educator behind and aim for balance. Educational Leadership Goal New Teacher Goal Take an hour for yourself each day for a week.
Using Voice Comments with Google Docs for End of the Year Projects I had a “just in time” professional development moment thanks to Jennifer Roberts and her video titled “Docs Voice Comments.” I wanted to share it with other educators as I know many of us are planning end of the year projects, assignments, and written pieces. Lastly, these end of the year projects are finished products, so covering them with comments or editing directly on them may not be the most effective way to provide feedback. My students are currently working on a Digital Portfolio Project to share the work they have created in our class. I’ve decided to use the voice comments app instead of typing out all of my comments. Because their projects will take the form of a website, I’ve decided to have students “make a copy” of the assignment description, which I created as a “view only” Google document and “share” it directly with me. Follow the steps below to enable the Voice Comments app. Search for “Voice Comments” and connect app to your Drive account.
Install Bookmarklets / Extensions of Your Favorite Tools Posted by Shelly Terrell on Sunday, December 8th 2013 Included in the Digital Tips Advent Calendar and part of the Effective Technology Integration category The tools I choose to use habitually or recommend to teachers, usually meet most of these requirements, they provide: a free web versiona free mobile app (a plus if it works on multiple platforms)a bookmarklet or extension for your web browsera way to embed your work on your blog or platform There are many tools I think are beautifully designed, but I refuse to use them because without these features they take too much of my time. One of the ways I am able to collect, organize, curate, and share so many valuable resources is because I have installed the extensions or bookmarklets of my favorite web tools on my Chrome browser. These tiny icons, usually at the top of your browser, do magical things when clicked. Luckily, many of your favorite tools have an extension/ bookmarklet. Challenge:
10 ways to use Google Plus in the classroom | The Theatre Professor Circles Obviously you are going to want to create a circle for your class and guide them through making a circle for the class as well. But as cool as that is, it doesn’t stop there. You can also make a circle for announcements and important links and drop any posts in that you know you may use every semester. Then you just find it in the stream for that circle and repost to your current class when you are ready. Photos/Video Because photos and videos are dropped into albums, privacy settings allow you to make albums that only certain circles can see. Google Talk Because google is already part of my “always open” tab club it is much easier to set up a place for students to initiate a quick chat session through google rather than the ANGEL chat client or Skype. Ability to control notification methods Google+ alllows the user to determine just how they will be contacted with new material has been posted, messages sent, photos tagged. Mobile apps Group Work Google Docs and Calendar Hang outs
Build Your Teacher’s Survival Kit The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining. – John F. Kennedy When I first began teaching, I remember meeting a veteran teacher who carried a big bag with her everywhere. I forgot what the situation was but I remember her coming to the rescue with masking tape, scissors, and Post It notes. She told me she always carried those things among other items like dry erase markers, poster putty, and so forth as a teacher, because she had learnt that situations always arise when she needed these items. That left a huge impression on me and I kept thinking of this as a survival kit. More Resources If you enjoyed these ideas, you may want to get your copy of The 30 Goals for Teachersor my $5.99 ebook, Learning to Go, which has digital/mobile activities for any device and editable/printable handouts and rubrics.
Not waving but drowning Coping with social media, professional development and information overload Meet Olga. Olga teaches English several hours a day. She accesses the online staffroom of her school to download material to use in some of her classes.She reads daily digests of e-mails from the five online professional development discussion groups belongs to. Olga is a teacher who knows how the Internet and social media can help her develop as a teacher. How many of the above things do you do? Web 2.0 has brought us many varied and wonderful opportunities for professional development. And worst of all, I worry that it’s just me. So let’s talk about it. 7 Tips for coping with social media: Tip 1: Accept the inevitable. Tip 2: Make a list of all your ongoing online professional development sources (Twitter, discussion groups, blogs, webinars…). Tip 3: Put your list on the wall above your desk (yes, on paper – I do!) Tip 5: Use personal management tools to help you organise incoming info.
Tips and Tools to Manage Your Twitter Time! Posted by Shelly Terrell on Saturday, July 10th 2010 Part of the Cool Sites series Photo from Brad Fitzpatrick a great flash animator and cartoonist! Do your friends or partner accuse you of being a Twitterholic? Define your purpose! Use a Browser! Tweetdeck- I love the several options to save you time in the free browser, Tweetdeck! Helpful Tools & Resources! Twitterfeed- I have several blogs that I read daily that provide me with some of the best resources consistently. Challenge:
Chrome Extensions for Educators