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.