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Today, I have been given the opportunity to present to our secondary teachers in CISD. I have been given the course title: Web Apps for Infused Lessons. We are an extremely technology rich district, at the secondary level our students are 1 to 1 with netbooks. I am continually on the hunt to find new applications for our teachers and students to use...
I frequently get asked... 1. How do you find all of these apps and websites? 2. How do you stay in touch with the latest and greatest technology? 3. When do you have time to find new instructional technology practices and resources? My answer? My PLN or Personal Learning Network What is a PLN? How should you use your PLN? How to Become a...
This year CISD 3rd - 12th grade students and teachers have Gaggle Accounts and with Gaggle (drum roll please)...teachers and students have an unlimited amount of blogs! Today I had the opportunity to present the blogging application to the teachers at AV Cato. Here are a few reason why I am in LOVE with Gaggle Blogs: 1. Easy to set up and access...
Today in professional development you hopefully learned a few new tools and websites to help you initiate video conferencing into your classroom curriculum. Reflect on today and answer the following questions by responding in a comment below. 1. Today we talked about Skype, Distancing Learning, Google Hangouts and Face Time, which of these video conference mediums are you most comfortable with and the...
Digital Leadership Academy Chapter Review Chapter 9: Increasing Student Engagement and Enhancing Learning Digital Leadership: Changing Paradigms for Changing Times By: Eric Sheninger Though this is only my third year in education I have caught on to the patterns in this ever changing career. Every year there will be new students with different needs, every year there will be change in our curriculum,...
Today in professional development you hopefully learned a few new apps and websites to help expand your classroom audiobook library and our districts. Reflect on today and answer the following questions by responding in a comment below. 1. Today we talked about many recording apps and websites such as: www.recordmp3.org, Garage Band, Audacity and QuickVoice etc. Which of these recording mediums are you...
This summer in Tech Academy, we have focused on several items: 1. Building a strong PLN (we can never learn enough) 2. Overcoming barriers when infusing technology 3. What is a flipped classroom? 4. Creating an infused lesson using a web app for students to present new knowledge 5. Maintaining a teacher blog...
My mother-in-law taught kindergarten for 39 years. She will tell you that the first 38 years were amazing, gratifying, fulfilling and fun but that last year was a challenge. There are a couple of reasons why that last year was a challenge for her but the reason that hits home for me is her battle with technology. During her last year of teaching...
In Digital Leadership Academy for CISD we have been asked to give ourselves a grade for the ISTE Standards for Coaches by using the NETS Profiency Rating I am my worst critic, I have found myself being extremely harsh when assessing myself, I believe that right now I have earned a D: Beginning . As I step into my new role as Elementary...
I always want to give my students something that they may potentially hold on to that is unique to them and they may want to use or display. Two years ago I stumbled upon this idea from The Polka Dotted Teacher. Two years ago I gave each student a similar handout (this one is from The Polka Dotted Teacher) that listed each student in the class and then they...
WARNING: This is my most scattered post to date. Over the past month I have been talking on the phone with my parents, venting to my husband, brainstorming with my PLN and doing a lot of worrying about where my career path was heading. The night before an interview I called my mom (who is a 6th grade teacher) to get advice and...
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Towards the end of the school year I always see my students emerge as independent learners. I still have teaching/learning moments with my students but I love that my students are able to search for their own answers and learn from others too. As a reward for STAAR being over I created a few math lessons that works like a WebQuest. Below is...
When I was 9 years old my dad had a paid sabbatical (so unfortunate those rarely exists anymore) and at the time I never realized how fortunate I was as a child for my parents to take me and my two siblings on a ROAD trip, yes by car, from Austin to Boston one summer. During my first year of teaching, I was...
Every year when teaching range, median and mode my students love to create their own survey and collect data and then calculate the range, median and mode from what they collected. I only get one week to teach statistics and I always feel rushed because the students need time to survey 25 people individually and then organize their information. In order to save...
I absolutely love Popplet! My students and I will be using it on a weekly basis to create anchor charts, organize thoughts, assess understanding or help students create connections of concepts. What is Popplet? (directly from their website) "In the classroom and at home, students use Popplet for learning. Used as a mind-map, Popplet helps students think and learn visually. Students can capture facts, thoughts, and...
If you have IPads then you have GOT to start having students CREATE with Educreations. Educreations is like a personal SmartBoard for each student but it allows them to import pictures, record their work and easily share with one another. After studying ecosystems in science I would usually have my students sketch a food chain of their choice in their science journals and...
My students absolutely live for our 45 minutes of science everyday. This year I have heard more "What if....?" questions than in the past. Even though they love science when it comes to the STAAR it is always such a struggle for my students because of the amount of vocabulary and then add a language barrier to the equation and it can make...
With the STAAR test approaching my students and I were getting pretty bored reviewing standardized test questions with paper and pencil so I decided to call upon my PLN. After a few #'s I stumbled on a sparkling jewel called Kahoot! Below is an email that I sent to my school after implementing Kahoot in my classroom... A few people have been asking me questions...
