Top Ten Tech Tools to Try in 2017:

1. Virtual Field Trips: Taking your students on a virtual field trip is getting easier and easier! Using your SmartBoard and any type of device, your students can experience another country, space, the ocean, or any other type of visit! Virtual field trips are a wonderful extension of your classroom! Let’s try one in 2017!!

2. Twitter: Twitter is an awesome way to connect with experts in education, communicate with families, and find resources any hour of the day. Let’s talk about how you can use Twitter in your classroom effectively! It’s easy, portable, and fun!

3. Google Forms: Creating a survey, poll, or quiz? Google Forms does the job! You will have easy access to your data, beautiful charts to display results, and quizzes that can self-correct!

4. Seesaw: Not just for primary classes, Seesaw allows your students to upload work into their own digital portfolio. It’s a wonderful way to store and access images, video, interactive lessons, and so much more!

5. Screencastify: Need to illustrate how to do something on the computer? Screencastify is a free screencasting tool that allows you to record your computer screen (no matter what program you open) as well as your own image (if you have a built-in camera/microphone). It makes creating flipped classroom videos a breeze!

6. Google Classroom: Looking to store your assignments in one location, and allow students to submit their work to you? Google Classroom is your answer! It works on all devices and keeps all of your students’ work in one place.

7. YouTube Playlists: Still searching for YouTube videos? Create YouTube playlists in your Google account and you will be able to locate videos, organize them by subject, and share them with others.

8. Quizizz: Would you like to create an online quiz (like a Kahoot!) but assign it as homework? Quizizz is a tool similar to Kahoot! that allows you to assign quizzes, so students don’t have to be in your class to complete them. Quizizz still has the excitement of the online game, but provides many additional options, including funny memes for students each time they answer a question.

9. ELM Databases: Want to provide resources for your classes that include quality images, primary sources, articles, video and more, are grade-level appropriate, and are easy to cite? The ELM databases at www.ELM4YOU.ORG will take care of your needs! Plus, all articles can be emailed to your account, shared easily, and include many readability features (including reading aloud).

10. Google Extensions: Sign in to your Google account while in the Google Chrome browser and you can add a multitude of extensions that will make your life run more smoothly. I use a timer, a Google Drive tool that saves any page into my Google Drive, Screencastify, Google Tone (plays a tone that shares the URL to any “listening” computer), and a reader that takes away the “junk” in an article and changes it to straight text. These are only a few of the many extensions free for Google users.

How can I help? Please contact me and let’s set up an appointment for these, or any other technology ideas!

My Upcoming Schedule:

• Monday, Dec 5: Park Rapids
• Tuesday, Dec 6: Nevis PM
• Wednesday, Dec 7: Park Rapids
• Thursday, Dec 8: Park Rapids
• Mon-Tues, Dec 12-13: TIES Conference
• Wednesday, Dec 14: Park Rapids
• Thursday, Dec 15: Park Rapids AM/Nevis PM

Please feel free to contact me at any time via my cell phone (320-241-6150), my home email (lconzemius@gmail.com) or my Park Rapids email (lconzemius@parkrapids.k12.mn.us). My schedule is flexible and we can always find a time to meet!

Scheduled Classes:

There is a two-hour technology class scheduled in Nevis on Tuesday, Dec 6 on Kahoot and Quizizz: two formative assessment tools that will work well with the technology in your classroom. This same class will be offered in Park Rapids on Thursday, Dec 8.

In addition, there will be a two-hour class on Google Cardboard (specifically – but virtual field trips in general) scheduled for Wednesday, Dec 14 in Nevis and Thursday, Dec 15 in Park Rapids. Virtual field trips can be enjoyed in any curricular area and by any age group. Recently kindergartners visited the ocean in a successful field trip in Rebecca Penning’s classroom. This is an opportunity to bring your class outside of the school! There are no special skills or equipment needed for virtual field trips these days – so come and learn how to take your class on one. Please don’t hesitate to contact me: I’d love to join you and assist in any way.

All of you are welcome to attend any of these classes. Please email me to let me know if you’ll be joining us. Thanks!

Want to talk to a “real computer coder”?

This week, Computer Science Education Week, the Seesaw company is hosting webinars with their computer coders. Do your students want to know how an app is made? Are they wondering what kinds of jobs are available for them, or what the work would be like?

Register now at http://web.seesaw.me/seesawcoders and your students can participate in a webinar! This is a fantastic opportunity for your class to hear more about computer science today!! (Not quite sure how to sign up? Email me! I’ll help you register, and will help your class get the most out of the conversation.)

My winter schedule

Several of you have asked when I’m going south this winter. Well actually, other than a few short trips, I will be around most of the time. Although I will not be around the last couple weeks of January, I will be back in early February to “enjoy” the winter with you!

Google Tip

Have you ever sent an email and then realized you didn’t add the attachment or didn’t mean to send it yet? I know I have! But Google has a little help for us:

Undo Send allows you to stop a message from being sent after clicking Send – but only for 5-30 seconds. After that… too late, the message has been sent.

To enable Undo Send, click on the gear in the upper right of the Google Mail window, select Mail Settings, and click on the Labs link. Scroll down through the Labs to locate Undo Send. You can also enter “undo” in the Labs search field to show the Undo Send Lab. Click the Enable radio button for Undo Send. Finally, at the top or bottom of the window, click the Save Changes button. Undo Send will be enabled and you’ll be returned to Google Mail.
Now, when you compose and send a message, you’ll see an Undo link above the message for 5-30 seconds.

To set that length of time, click again on the gear in the upper right of the Google Mail window and select Mail Settings. In the Settings window, click on the General tab. Scroll down to the Undo Send section, and use the drop-down menu to select 5, 10, 20, or 30 seconds. Scroll down to the bottom of the window and click the Save Changes button.
Coding

Dec 5-11 is Computer Science Education Week. Over 300 million students in over 180 countries will be coding this week!! You can find activities for people of all ages (4-104), activity directions, video introductions, and more, here: https://hourofcode.com/us. Whether you lead your class through an activity, partner with another classroom, or assign coding activities as “homework”, this is the perfect time to introduce your students to coding.

Think your high school students are too old to try? Consider this: computing jobs are the #1 source of new wages in the United States. Currently there are 500,000 job openings for computer coders… in every industry, in every state – and they’re projected to grow at twice the rate of all other jobs. Those are some startling facts.

The activities at https://hourofcode.com/us are available year around, so if you can’t get to it this week, don’t worry. In addition, if you have students interested in coding there are many incredible sites to learn coding on your own. These include: Code Academy, Free Code Camp, CodeWars, Khan Academy, Code.org, Code Conquest, Tynker (coding for kids), and many more.

To connect on twitter about Computer Science Education Week, check out the #HourOfCode, #GirlsWhoCode and #SeesawCoders hashtags!

Read Around the Planet REGISTRATION opens TODAY and closes JANUARY 6, 2017!

RAP dates: WEDNESDAY, FEB. 22 – TUESDAY, MARCH 7 2017 – TWICE invites you to participate in a celebration of reading using videoconference technology!

Classes can participate in English, Spanish, English as a Second Language/ESL, or special education. Classes share skits, raps, original poetry/writing, songs, game shows, and more. This is a CAPspace Matching Event. You sign up and we provide you a partner class.

 

My Upcoming Schedule:

• Monday, Nov 21: in Park Rapids all day
• Tuesday, Nov 22: in Park Rapids most of the day
• Monday, Nov 28: in Nevis PM, Educreations class 3:30 – 5:30
• Tuesday, Nov 29: in Nevis PM, Blogging class 3:30 – 5:30
• Wednesday, Nov 30: in Park Rapids most of the day, Educreations class 3:30 – 5:30
• Thursday, Dec 1: Contact me
• Friday, Dec 2: in Park Rapids

Please feel free to contact me at any time via my cell phone (320-241-6150), my home email (lconzemius@gmail.com) or my Park Rapids email (lconzemius@parkrapids.k12.mn.us). My schedule is flexible and we can always find a time to meet!

Scheduled Classes:

There is a two-hour technology class scheduled in Nevis on Monday, Nov 28, on Educreations. The Blogging class scheduled in Nevis for last week will be held on Tuesday, Nov 29 in Nevis. In Park Rapids there will be an Educreations class on Wednesday, Nov 30.

Educreations has added many additional features that make this FREE PROGRAM worth revisiting. Students now are able to save drafts and go back to them on ANY DEVICE! There are also enhanced ways to review projects, record each page individually, and share projects with others.

All of you are welcome to attend any of these classes. Please email me to let me know if you’ll be joining us. Thanks!

Google Tip

Have you ever wished you hadn’t just closed that Google Chrome browser tab? Get it back by right-clicking in the tab bar and selecting Reopen closed tab from the menu or by clicking Ctrl+Shift+T.

Global Education Conference:

http://www.globaleducationconference.com/page/2016-conference

Last week the 7^th annual Global Education Conference, a free online conference for educators, was held. This four-day conference featured speakers from all over the world, sharing this mission: to significantly increase opportunities for building education-related connections around the globe while supporting cultural awareness, recognition of diversity, and educational access for all. 

The conference seeks to present ideas, examples, and projects related to connecting educators and classrooms with a strong emphasis on promoting global awareness, fostering global competency, and inspiring action towards solving real–world problems. Through this event, it is our hope that attendees will challenge themselves and others to become more active citizens of the world. Let us learn, question, create, and engage in meaningful, authentic opportunities within a global context!

All sessions are available for viewing at the link above. Take a look at the website and tune in to any sessions that interest you!

Free Rice: http://www.freerice.org

One of my favorite fun activities for almost all grade levels this time of year is the Free Rice website. This site allows some drill and practice in a variety of subject areas, with the addition of a real way to donate. For each correct answer, 10 grains of rice are donated through the World Food Program to end hunger. Students can play on any device in these subject areas: humanities, math, language learning, English, chemistry and geography. Challenge your class to a donation today!

Donor’s Choose: http://www.donorschoose.org

Speaking of donations, do you have your classroom Donor’s Choose site set up? If not, consider creating one today, and then mark your calendars for November 29th! Donor’s Choose is teaming up with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to put some extra “giving” in #GivingTuesday for 100 lucky donors and teachers. This global celebration of giving is already one of the biggest days of the year for donations on their site. This fall they’re adding a special twist to inspire even more people to support teachers and students.

See the Donor’s Choose site for complete details, but here’s the idea: all day on November 29th, every time donors support a classroom on the site, they’ll be entered to receive one of fifty $5,000 DonorsChoose.org gift cards to support classroom projects, backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. But that’s not all; the teachers that donors support will also be entered in a separate drawing to receive one of fifty DonorsChoose.org gift cards. All prizes will be in the form of DonorsChoose.org gift cards, which can be redeemed on the site to fund classroom projects.

Additional Information: Incognito Mode

A few people have asked me about incognito mode, so here are a few additional notes. To access incognito mode, click the three dots (or three lines) up in the right-hand corner of your browser.

An additional reason to use it? There are times I’m on a public computer but need to check my bank account or other password-protected site. I don’t want this information saved, so opening a new incognito window prevents the computer from saving my username and password.

Incognito mode does work on iPads and Chromebooks. If you do not have the option available on your Chromebook, let your tech support person know. (It may be best not to have this mode available on student devices, as there is no way to track their history if they use it.)

Google Education on Air

Google has a free online education conference scheduled for Saturday, Dec 3. CEU hours are available for all attendees and over 100 sessions are schedule around the clock! Regardless of the age of the students you teach you’ll hear practical tips from other educators that you can apply right away. Topics? Computational thinking, creativity, digital citizenship, student engagement, leadership, and much, much more! Register today at: https://goo.gl/egCmoK

And one more tip…

Do you do use your phone for texting? I hate typing on that little keyboard, and I’m often typing silly mistakes. Most cell phones today have an easier way. Click the little microphone on the bottom of your keyboard and speak your text. You can even say punctuation marks and they will appear!

 

 

My Upcoming Schedule:

• Monday, Nov 14: 8am – 4:30pm in Park Rapids
• Tuesday, Nov 15: 8am – 4:30pm in Park Rapids
• Wednesday, Nov 16: 2 – 5:30pm in Nevis (Blogging class at 3:30)
• Thursday, Nov 17: noon – 6:00pm in Park Rapids

Please feel free to contact me at any time via my cell phone (320-241-6150), my home email (lconzemius@gmail.com) or my Park Rapids email (lconzemius@parkrapids.k12.mn.us).

Scheduled Classes:

There is a two-hour technology class scheduled in Nevis on Wednesday, Nov 16, on Blogging. All of you are welcome to attend any of these classes. Please email me to let me know if you’ll be joining us. Thanks!

Google Tip – Incognito Mode:

Google Chrome has a great little feature called Incognito Mode that allows you to open a “clean” window that is not automatically logged into anything. It doesn’t save the history or cookies in this mode, and it will remove this login information so it won’t appear again. Why would you want to go incognito?

• Logging into a shared computer? Do it in an incognito window and your information will not be saved on that computer. No reason to worry about remembering to log out.
• Student Presentations: If you’re having students use your computer to share something, and they have to log in, having each open an incognito window, log in, and present from that will remove all of their information when done.
• Unbiased searching: We all know that Google keeps track of what we’re doing, and that data affects the results of our searches. Want to eliminate that bias? Us incognito mode!
• Travel deals: If you’re searching multiple sites for the best deals, incognito mode will protect your identity, and hopefully provide better results.

Apple Teacher Program:

Apple has created a new Apple Teacher Program with badging for both iPad and Mac. Many of you have mastered using your iPad effectively in your classroom, and this is a great way to show that you have!

Go to: https://appleteacher.apple.com and log in with your apple ID. Select any resource to get started. There are study materials if you need them, so take a look at the reviews and pass the corresponding quiz to earn your badge. There is no charge, and you’ll have the title of Apple Teacher to add to your name!

Nearpod:

Nearpod has added some amazing virtual field trips to their lessons, which allow you to control the devices in your classroom. This is a powerful tool! I’d love to show you more! Let me know if you’re interested in taking a look!

Blogging in the Classroom

What does classroom blogging look like? Each teacher needs to consider this for his/her own classroom. A blog may be main content, shared regularly, designed for parents, students or both. Or a blog may be main content written by the teacher, gradually allowing and encouraging students to comment. As commenting skills grow, students may eventually get to write and publish their own articles in the class blog, or even create individual blogs on their own.

Blogs may be…newsletters, assignments, discussion areas, showcases for student work, plans for upcoming events, reviews of books, curriculum notes, classroom websites, links to online activities, links to student digital work, digital portfolios, science journals, reading logs, or anything you imagine!

Example Blogs:

1. 1A/B @ Willunga Primary–  Kindergarten
2. Little Champs – Kindergarten /  Grade 1
3. Ms Cassidy’s Classroom blog– Grade 2 (links to student blogs in sidebar)
4. Digital Voices– Grade 3
5. Miss Jordan’s Class @ Barwon Heads Primary School– Grade 4
6. Technie Kids– Grade 5
7. Blogs-by-the-sea– Grade 6
8. Krebs’ Class Blogs– Grade 7/8
9. English 10– High school
10. Mr Ross’s Science Class– High School
11. NCS Chemistry and Physics– High School
12. The Edublogger class blog list– includes Maths, Science, English, History, LOTE, EFL /ESL, Library, School news blogs and more!
13. CoolCat Teacher Blog – for teachers
14. PRHS Daily Announcements – staff & students

Classroom blogging creates a gathering place to chat about your activities or ideas outside of class. You can capture snapshots of the school year through various forms of media, including videos, images, podcasts, and more. It allows a free flow and sharing of information that’s relevant to students and their interests.

 

Free sites for building blogs:

• Edublogger: http://www.theedublogger.com/
• Google Blogger: https://www.blogger.com/home
• PR School Website
• Weebly: https://education.weebly.com/
• Kidblog: http://kidblog.org/home/

 

Additional guidelines for classroom blogs: Set up clear rules for the use of your classroom blog! Here are a few suggestions:

• Only identify student work by first names. All comments should have first names only.
• Set your settings to require approval for all comments submitted before they are included on the blog.
• Require appropriate writing in complete sentences. This can be adjusted by grade level readiness.
• Set blog settings to only allow the teacher to have access to post things on the blog.
• Model the type of posting and commenting that you expect from parents and students.

My Upcoming Schedule:

• Monday, Nov 7: noon – 5:30pm in Park Rapids (Webpage training at 3:30)
• Tuesday, Nov 8: 8am-noon in Park Rapids, 1-5:30pm in Nevis (Blogging class at 3:30)
• Wednesday, Nov 9: 1 – 5:30pm in Park Rapids (Blogging class at 3:30)
• Thursday, Nov 10: noon – 4:30 in Park Rapids (Webpage training at 3:30)
• Friday, Nov 11: No appointments scheduled: let me know if you want to meet. J

Please feel free to contact me at any time via my cell phone (320-241-6150), my home email (lconzemius@gmail.com) or my Park Rapids email (lconzemius@parkrapids.k12.mn.us) .

Scheduled Classes:

There is a two-hour technology class scheduled in Nevis on Tuesday, Nov 8, on Blogging, and one in Park Rapids on Wednesday, Nov 9, also on blogging. All of you are welcome to attend any of these classes. Please email me to let me know if you’ll be joining us. Thanks!

Google Tip:

Up until now a teacher wanting to create a quiz in Google Forms would have to add the additional “Flubaroo” extension. However, now Google Forms has scoring & grading built into the program! This means that you can add points and select the correct answer for every question and Google Forms will not only grade it for you, but will allow you to create settings to notify students of their grade. Imagine creating a review quiz for your class and posting it to Google Classroom. Your students can answer all of the questions and if you want them to immediately see their answers you can allow viewing of the total score, and you can allow students to view their incorrect answers, correct answers or even set it so students can retest.

DISCOVERY EDUCATION:

Discovery Education, http://www.discoveryeducation.com/, is filled with great free resources for teachers of every level and subject area. These resources include support for teachers, parents and students, with virtual field trips, featured programs, and a puzzlemaker that you can use to create word puzzles, mazes, crytograms, and more. There is a community blog where teachers from all across the country can connect and collaborate. This area also includes resources for literacy, mathematics, science, STEM, language arts, numeracy, social studies, and cross-curricular activities.

In this month’s Discovery Education Online Community you can find this article about STEM teaching: Four Elements of Great STEM Education. These four elements include: problem-based learning, rigorous learning, career, technology & life skills, and personalization of learning. The article ends with “Our world is becoming increasingly complex. All students, whether or not they go on to pursue STEM careers, need a solid STEM education.”

Google Trends

Google is able to uncover a huge amount of data based on the everyday searches of the public. This data can be accessed and evaluated in a tool called Google Trends. According to the help site, Google Trends data is an unbiased sample of Google search data. Only a percentage of searches are used to compile Trends data. Real time data is a random sample of searches from the last seven days. Non-real time data is a random sample of Google search data that can be pulled from as far back as 2004 and up to 36 hours prior to your search. Once the search data is collected, Google categorizes it, connects it to a topic, and removes any personal information.

Searches made by very few people are excluded. Trends only shows data for popular terms, so search terms with low volume appear as 0.

• Duplicate searches: Trends eliminates repeated searches from the same person over a short period of time.
• Special characters: Trends filters out queries with apostrophes and other special characters.
• While being interesting to anyone, Google Trends can be especially helpful for students analyzing current events (like election trends).

Taking Great Pictures with your Cell Phone or iPad:

Your cellphone or other small device can take terrific pictures, especially if you know these six tricks.

1. Tap on the screen to focus in, particularly if you have a lot of different depths in your picture. Tapping the screen also allows you to adjust the brightness in different places in your picture. (If your subjects have sun behind them you can click on their faces to lighten them.)
2. Pinch to zoom – but if you want the highest quality image, walk closer to your subject. You will get a higher resolution photo if you can take a close-up without having to zoom in so much. (And, just a note, although pictures taken with cellphones/iPads can’t be used in the newspaper, they can be used on the Internet – so don’t let that keep you from taking pictures.)
3. Turn HDR on. High Dynamic Range photos take more memory, but are higher resolution.
4. Take continuous shots by continuing to hold the shutter button. Many times you’ll snag the best smile if you have a few shots to choose from.
5. Delete unwanted photos from your phone or device. This frees up space on your device and makes it easier to make your selections when you’re ready to print, post or share.
6. Turn on the grid or select a square image to help frame your picture.

And one more tip: don’t be afraid to put your camera in the hands of your students when you’re doing classroom activities.

The Great Thanksgiving Listen

https://storycorps.me/about/the-great-thanksgiving-listen/ The Great Thanksgiving Listen is a national education project that empowers high school students to create an oral history of the contemporary United States by recording an interview with an elder over Thanksgiving weekend using the StoryCorps App. Find all the information online and find out how your class can participate. And if you’re not a high school teacher, consider how you might do some type of similar project in your own classroom.

My Upcoming Schedule:

• Tuesday, Nov 1: Park Rapids all day
• Wednesday, Nov 2: Park Rapids 8-2:00, Nevis 2:30 – 5:30
• Thursday, Nov 3: Park Rapids all day
• Friday, Nov 4: Unscheduled. Let me know if you want to meet. J

Please feel free to contact me at any time via my cell phone (320-241-6150), my home email (lconzemius@gmail.com) or my Park Rapids email (lconzemius@parkrapids.k12.mn.us) .

Scheduled Classes:

There is a two-hour technology class scheduled in Nevis on Wednesday, Nov 2, on Google Forms, and one in Park Rapids on Thursday, Nov 3, on using Google Forms. All of you are welcome to attend any of these classes. Please email me to let me know if you’ll be joining us. Thanks!

Google Tip:

Google Apps for Education is undergoing some improvements, including a brand new name – G Suite for Education. While I’m not too sure about the new name, some of the feature updates will be very helpful.

One new feature is Explore. Explore can be found in Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Calendar, and was designed to make complicated tasks easier. Here are a few examples:

• In Google Calendar, you can use Explore to find times when attendees are available for a meeting and locate available meeting spaces more effectively. If you plan with other teachers and use the “invite” feature of Google Calendar, you may find this update very helpful.
• In Google Docs, Explore will use “machine intelligence” to recommend websites, articles, images and videos that relate to the content of the text.
• In Google Sheets, Explore will allow you to convert written questions into formulas, so you don’t have to know, or locate “help” to find formulas, you can just type in “what is the total cost” and Google Sheets will provide the formula you need.
• And, in Google Slides, Explore will provide recommendations to improve the overall look of the presentation, suggesting design enhancements that will enhance the content without any extra work.

BINGO:

A free Bingo card creator can be found here: http://goo.gl/vmV0LH. This link will bring you to www.kidsCerts.com, a website that will help you create free, great-looking certificates and Bingo cards. One of the nice things about this site is that you can use images as well as text – so the results look amazing, and can be printed easily to multiple, unique cards. The certificates on this website are also easy to create and beautiful to look at. Give KidsCerts a try today!

Have you ever done a “Twitter Chat”?

A Twitter chat is an incredible way to network with other educators from your own home. Using any device or a computer, you follow the tweets at a certain time of day, commenting to the questions if you have something to say, or just reading the great comments others are sharing. During a Twitter Chat you will learn about great resources, new teaching methods, articles, freebies, and more, and will be able to personally communicate with like-minded educators from around the world.

A few Twitter Chats to check out, in case you’re interested:

#Edtechchat – Monday, 7PM CT: This chat is focused on using technology in the classroom.

#edchat – Tuesdays, 11AM CT and 6PM CT: This chat is focused on education, and has a different theme each week.

#Ntchat – Wednesdays, 7PM CT: New Teacher Chat was created to provide mentoring for new teachers.

#whatisschool – Thursdays, 6PM CT: Conversations about schooling, with weekly questions related to the future of education.

#EngageChat – Fridays, 7PM CT: Conversations on how to keep students engaged.

#Satchat – Saturdays, 6:30AM CT: Discussion for current & emerging school leaders.

#Sunchat – Sundays, 8AM CT: Global chat for educators around the world.

You don’t have to connect “live”. Search the hashtag to read all of the tweets from the past chat whenever you’d like.

November Resources: Native American Heritage Month

NEA has a terrific resource of Native American Heritage lesson plans and activities for all grade levels on their website at: www.nea.org. To get you to the right spot, here’s the breakdown by grade:

K-5 www.nea.org/tools/lessons/native-american-and-alaska-native-heritage-month-grades-k-5.html

This resource includes non-fiction text, information-gathering, creating a board game activity, a study of Alaskan animals, Native dolls, pourquoi stories, modern/ancient tool comparison, vocabulary (place names), and many background resources.

6-8 www.nea.org/tools/lessons/native-american-and-alaska-native-heritage-month-grades-6-8.html

Including poetry, fighting injustice, examining US expansion, pottery, modern-day Native American cultures, teaching historic places, expeditions, Stories from the past, and much more.

9-12 www.nea.org/tools/lessons/native-american-and-alaska-native-heritage-month-grades-9-12.html

This list includes links for expansion of the US, three-voice narratives, teaching with historic places, the Ancestral Pueblo People, cultural stories of rock art, the Smithsonian Education American Indian Heritage Teaching Resources, campfire stories, traditional crafts, video resources, and more.

Science & Math Resources: http://scimathmn.org

SciMathMN is a non-profit partnership promoting quality science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. Housing all of the science and math standards, SciMathMN also contains best practice information, and every benchmark from Kindergarten through high school. Select a benchmark and you can view an overview, misconceptions students have, teaching vignettes, teaching resources, assessments, resources for differentiation, and information for parents and administrators. It is a wealth of information no science or math teacher should be without!

My Upcoming Schedule:

• Monday, Oct 24 – in Park Rapids all day
• Tuesday, Oct 25 – in Park Rapids all day
• Wednesday, Oct 26 – Park Rapids, 8am – 12:15, Nevis, 1:00 – 5:30
• Thursday, Oct 27 – in Park Rapids all day
• Friday, Oct 28 – in Nevis, 11 – 4:00

Please feel free to contact me at any time via my cell phone (320-241-6150), my home email (lconzemius@gmail.com) or my Park Rapids email (lconzemius@parkrapids.k12.mn.us) .

Scheduled Classes:

There is a two-hour technology class scheduled in in Nevis on Wednesday, Oct 28, on Seesaw student portfolios, and one in Park Rapids on Thursday, Nov 3, on using Google Forms. All of you are welcome to attend any of these classes. Please email me to let me know if you’ll be joining us. Thanks!

Google Tip:

Google Forms is one of the best and easiest ways to get information from your students, from other teachers, or from parents. I’ve used it for years, and have loved the way I can survey a group quickly and easily. But Google has added a new feature to Google Forms, and it is one that makes this an even better tool for teachers! The new Google Forms has a built-in feedback loop that allows you to make your form into a quiz with all of these quiz options:

Grading:

• Release grade immediately
• Later, after manual review (which turns on email collection

Respondents can see:

• Missed questions
• Correct Answers
• Point values

Let me know if I can help you set up a form and give this a try!

Keyboarding Links:

Want to share a few keyboarding links with your families, or try some with your students? Here are a few to take a look at:

Typing Club: www.typingclub.com

Typing Study: www.typingstudy.com

Dance Mat Typing: www.dancemattypingguide.com

Ratatype: www.ratatype.com

Creating Amazing videos to share

One of my favorite tools for sharing pictures and video with the community is through the use of Animoto, which is an online tool as well as an iPad app. Although a paid service, Animoto offers an educational use that is free of charge – and that allows you to let your students create free videos from their pictures and video clips!

To get a free education account, first create a trial account at www.animoto.com. Use your school email address! (If you want to create home videos you can create a separate account with your home email address.) Then go to https://animoto.com/education/classroom and click on the “APPLY NOW” button. Typically you will receive an email in the next 24 hours letting you know that your account has been approved. Each year you will need to reply to an email from Animoto reminding you that your free education account is expiring unless you follow the link to continue it for another year.

So, why do I love Animoto? Using their pre-created themes and music, you can put your pictures and video clips together into a professional-looking video! This is a great tool to use to tell the story of a field trip, classroom event, project, concept, or activity. Animoto makes digital story-telling easy and fun – with a terrific video to share after just minutes of putting it together!

The Animoto blog has a terrific list of 10 Ways to Use Video in your Classroom. Read it here: https://animoto.com/blog/education/ways-use-video-in-classroom. Take a look at these terrific ideas today!

Social Media in Class

Are you using Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram accounts with a classroom account (or are you considering it?) Please share your classroom account with the school so we can follow your page. It also is very helpful if you use the school’s hashtag so we can follow what you’re doing each day! The Park Rapids District Twitter account is: @parkrapidsisd (or you can use #parkrapidsisd).

Interested in seeing what other classes are posting? Here are a few to watch:

• Miss Weeding’s Class: @busybees104
• Panther Phy Ed: @pe_panther
• Park Rapids math: @parkrapidsmath
• Nevis Robotics Tech-No-Tigers: @tnt3102

If you choose to promote your classroom activities through the use of any of these accounts, here are a few rules to follow:

1. Keep the account separate from your personal account.
2. Be open with parents about what you’re doing: have parents sign a permission slip
3. Never post student last name’s or location/school.
4. Post photos that show groups of students, not individuals
5. Be cautious about “following” others: do not follow personal accounts.

 

My Upcoming Schedule:

• Tuesday, Oct 18, Park Rapids, 8am – 4:30pm
• Wednesday, Oct 19, Park Rapids, 8am – 4:30pm

Please feel free to contact me at any time via my cell phone (320-241-6150), my home email (lconzemius@gmail.com) or my Park Rapids email (lconzemius@parkrapids.k12.mn.us) .

Scheduled Classes:

There is a two-hour technology class scheduled in Park Rapids on Thursday, Nov 3, on using Google Forms. I am available most days after school so please let me know if you’d like to meet with me.

Google Tip:

Very often when I’m signing up for a new account in any website I’m asked if I want to sign up (or log in) using my Google account. If the app is related only to school I will do so using my school account. This makes it easy for me to log into these apps without having to remember additional user names and passwords. But how do I know what I’ve connected? And how do I delete one that I’m not using any more? This is where your security settings come into play. Go to: https://myaccount.google.com/security and scroll down to the list of connected apps. From this list you can view all that are connected  – and remove those that you no longer user.

Links:

I want to share a few resources for free electronic books. These resources will allow you to have students open the same book on devices in your classroom (giving you full sets of books for language arts lessons), and will give you a large number of books to share with families to increase the size of their home libraries. These resources are mostly geared toward elementary students, although some have a selection of books for older students as well. Please note: if you’re looking for multiple copies of classics, all of them are available free in any electronic book reading app.

Unite for Literacy: http://www.uniteforliteracy.com/

Original non-fiction picture books support beginning readers of all ages. Features include predictable, rhythmic language; images with clear, familiar subjects; and text that ranges from one word up to a few sentences per page. Children everywhere can “see” themselves and imagine their full potential through the images in our books. Pictures that reflect a child’s eye view of the real world, in all its rich complexity, encourage rich conversation and a personal connection with books. Our books provide unique audio support to families who speak (or are learning to speak) English, indigenous or foreign languages. Simple audio buttons on each page allow you to hear narrations by native speakers in warm, expressive voices.

International Children’s Digital Library: http://en.childrenslibrary.org/

The ICDL Foundation’s goal is to build a collection of books that represents outstanding historical and contemporary books from throughout the world. Ultimately, the Foundation aspires to have every culture and language represented so that every child can know and appreciate the riches of children’s literature from the world community.

More Reading Resources…

EPIC! https://www.getepic.com/educators  Thousands of books are available for teachers to use with their students a no cost! The app works on all devices and is a great resource for reading!

Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page  Over 53,000 books for readers of all ages. This collection holds ebooks for all the classics, providing multiple copies for your students.

Presenting: THE GREAT GLOBAL PROJECT CHALLENGE AND GRANT

Educators are interested in engaging in project-based learning with other classrooms around the world. Often they embark on time consuming journeys to identify potential deep learning opportunities and project partners. And, it is sometimes difficult for educators who design projects to find active participants. The Great Global Project Challenge is an initiative designed to collate projects and connect interested collaborators.

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) recently revised its standards for students. ISTE calls for students to become empowered learners, digital citizens, knowledge constructors, innovative designers, computational thinkers, creative communicators, and most notably, global collaborators. The Great Global Project Challenge will help educators provide authentic learning opportunities for students to meet these standards.

Between now and December 1, 2016, global educators will design collaborative projects in which other students and teachers may participate during the course of the 2016-2017 school year. The objective is to create and present as many globally connective projects for students and educators as possible. Let’s see how many teachers and students we can engage in globally connected learning opportunities during the course of the next year!

Any teacher, school, nonprofit, or company can participate in this challenge and have their project listed on the Global Collaboration Day website. There will be a grant available to educators from non-profit accredited Pre-K-12 schools, thanks to sponsors VIF International Education and the Partnership for 21st Century Learning.

The Great Global Project Challenge Grant

Grants of $1,500 (US dollars) will be issued to the the top ten projects that are designed and successfully implemented between now and April 1, 2017. The project design teams for grant-eligible projects must be made up solely of educators employed by non-profit accredited schools and can come from any country.  If projects are to be conducted in a language other than English, proposals must be submitted twice. One submission needs to be in the home language; a duplicate needs to be in English. Grant details are available here: http://www.globalcollaborationday.org/the-great-global-project-challenge-grant.html

These grants must be used for professional development, classroom equipment, or other resources that will facilitate future globally connected project-based learning. Recipients will be required to submit a plan for use of the grant monies and will be required to present at the online 2017 Global Education Conference.

A committee comprised of leading global educators and organizations will serve on the evaluation team for the Great Global Project Challenge Grant. This group will design an evaluation rubric for scoring these projects.

Curious about global project? Let me know! I’d love to work with you!

Thank you for the great pictures for Facebook, Twitter, and the website! Please keep them coming! And, if you are tweeting in your classroom, the addition of the Park Rapids hashtag, #ParkRapidsISD will help bring additional viewers to your tweets. Please include us! Thank you!

My Upcoming Schedule:

• Monday, Oct 10: Park Rapids, 7:30AM – 5:30PM
• Tuesday, Oct 11: Park Rapids, 7:30AM – 2:30PM/Nevis, 3:00 – 4:30PM
• Wednesday, Oct 12: Park Rapids, 7:30AM – 6:00PM
• Thursday, Oct 13: Park Rapids, 7:30AM – 12:30PM

Please feel free to contact me at any time via my cell phone (320-241-6150), my home email (lconzemius@gmail.com) or my Park Rapids email (lconzemius@parkrapids.k12.mn.us) .

Scheduled Classes:

There is a two-hour technology class scheduled Monday in Park Rapids from 3:30 – 5:30 in the Century Elementary computer lab on the Seesaw digital portfolio tool. Here’s the full description:

Monday, Oct 10 3:30 – 5:30 PM

Seesaw Student Portfolios Seesaw allows students and teachers to easily post items into a student portfolio, which can also be shared with families. Children as young as preschool can learn how to scan a QR code to add an image or document, and teachers have full control of everything posted. Seesaw is a powerful tool, yet is easy to use…and free!

I realize it is a busy time with conferences this week. Please let me know if you are planning to attend. If no one is we will reschedule this one. It’s an awesome program!

Google Tip:

Want to share an article with your students, but aren’t happy with all of the advertising around the edges? This is where the Google Chrome browser can really come in handy. Head to the GoogleChrome Web Store and install the extension called Readability. Then when you are viewing a page from the Internet that has advertising or images around it, click the Readability image (which looks like a little chair)  and save the page. You can then print it as a PDF or open it in a book app (like Kindle or Nook). This creates a great class handout or addition to Google Classroom!

Links:

Need to pick a random student? Use the random name picker at classtools.net. Easy set up, save, and use! www.classtools.net/main_area/fruit_machine.swf (doesn’t work on an iPad)

Greg Tang Math: www.gregtangmath.com is a wonderful resource for engaging math professional development, math center resources, word problem work, and games.

Flippity.net

Instructions

1. Go tonet
2. Follow the on-screen instructions and prompts to:
   Make a copy of the provided Google Spreadsheet.
   b. Enter your questions and answers.
3. Publish the spreadsheet and copy the URL
4. Return to flippity.net
   e. Paste the URL you copied in step 3.
   f. Click the “Go” button.
5. Use the icon in the lower right corner to flip and advance the flash cards
6. Click the “Share” button to get the URL and/or a QR code for your published flippity cards.

Classroom ideas:

• Could be used for any content area!
• If the “questions” are links to online images, the images will show on the flash cards!
• Students could submit questions and answers via a Google form and they could be compiled into a classroom set of flashcards.

A new webpage? Why? Our website hosting company, Blackboard, acquired a company called Schoolwires. While Blackboard has been focused more on delivering content, the focus of Schoolwires has always been on creating good-looking school webpages. Blackboard has decided that over the course of the next year all of their schools will migrate over to the Schoolwires format. Park Rapids opted to begin that process at the end of July, so all of the content in our current page has been copied and reformatted over the last several weeks.

Websites of all types have been moving to a format that is much more interactive, including utilizing a multitude of images, headlines, calendar events, surveys, and feeds from social networks, rather than websites that just store content in a more static, unchanging way.

Consequently, our Schoolwires website affords us huge opportunities to engage and interact with our community. I am excited to share it with you and see what we can do with it!

Initially you will be required to log into the site, update your contact information, add any other information you’d like, and add your schedule. If you’re interested, you can add photo slideshows, Twitter feeds, video players, links, additional pages, and more!

I am meeting with many of you this week, with a goal of meeting with EVERYONE by Oct 13, as our new website will be announced to the public on Monday, Oct 17^th!

My Upcoming Schedule:

I will be in Park Rapids Schools Tuesday – Friday, Oct 3-7. Please feel free to contact me at any time via my cell phone (320-241-6150), my home email (lconzemius@gmail.com) or my Park Rapids email (lconzemius@parkrapids.k12.mn.us) . This week I am really focusing on completing the update of the school web page, as well as beginning to train teachers and staff to use it. I am so excited to share it with you!! I think you will find it easy to work with!

Scheduled Classes:

There is a two-hour technology class scheduled Tuesday in Park Rapids from 3:30 – 5:30 in the Century Elementary computer lab. We will be looking at a variety of ways that technology tools can assist you in managing student behaviors, as well as tools that you can use to deliver your instruction through technology that keeps their focus. Here’s the full description:

Using Technology to Improve Classroom Behavior

Managing a 21st Century Classroom can be a tall order. Find out ways of Improving your overall classroom behaviors by using technology to increase the frequency and consistency of positive feedback, manage behavior interventions, and keep easier records for goal setting.

Google Tip:

Using Google Chrome for the first time this year? Here are Alice Keeler’s 6 Tips for taking advantage of all that Classroom can do. For more from Alice, see: http://www.alicekeeler.com/ (My go-to for Google answers!)

1. All directions in Google Classroom – Type directions into the description. Stop giving directions/stop repeating yourself. More time to work with kids! Bonus: special ed staff have all specific directions, documents and due dates.
2. Go paperless – Create an assignment, students open it and add their work.
3. Use collaborative Slides – Create one slide and share. Each student adds an additional slide.
4. Use collaborative Sheets – Students input information into cells, or each add a tab.
5. Use Google text Docs – Give students feedback before the assignment is due to increase the quality of work handed in.
6. Use Google Classroom for everything – Push documents out and collect student work. Classroom is your workflow homebase. Every comment, edit, and feedback is recorded and dated (and no more clogged email boxes!)

Educreations: Draft Syncing!!

The biggest thing since sliced bread has come to Educreations – and I am excited about it! When sharing iPads and using Educreations, the most frustrating has been the fact that you really need to complete the Educreations project in one sitting, because it was not possible to save a draft. Recently, Educreations at least allowed draft saving – but only as long as the user went back to the same iPad. Finally it has arrived!! Now your students can begin creating an Educreations project on one iPad, and finish that project on any other iPad – as long as they log into their account. Draft syncing makes it possible – and now it is finally realistic for students to use Educreations for multiple projects. There is no more worrying about other students accidentally deleting their drafts. This is a huge update! If you haven’t tried Educreations let me know, and let’s use it in your curriculum soon! I am happy to be there to help support you and your students.

What is ck-12.org?

Are you looking for additional practice for your students? Are you searching for games and simulations that will help make your curricular content more clear? Trying to locate material that will challenge your gifted learners? Look no further than ck12! Originally built for high school, ck12 now includes content for K-12 in math, and includes the sciences (earth science, life science, physical science, biology, chemistry & physics), English (writing & spelling), and includes engineering, technology, astronomy, history and health.

As a teacher you can add your students to ck12 and follow their progress as they work their way through lessons and simulations, and are tested through practice activities. Ck12 offers skill builders, extra credit activities, and ways to differentiate for your students. Ck12 is totally free, the activities work on all devices, and all activities can be integrated into Google Classroom. http://ck12.org/

Links:

The coolest thing I’ve seen lately? Google Expeditions. Learn more here:  https://www.google.com/edu/expeditions/ You’ll need to download the app – and then you “guide” the class on a virtual field trip. Try it out with a friend…and then with your entire class. It is amazing!! I’d love to help you lead your class on a virtual adventure!