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.