My Upcoming Schedule:
This week I will be in Park Rapids on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I will be out of town Wednesday. I can be available in Nevis almost any time. Please contact me to set up a meeting.
Summer Training Sessions
I am so excited to share information with you about our summer training sessions! They are being held on June 5-8 and on August 21-24. We have some great new presenters, and many sessions we have never offered before! You will want to add this to your calendar and attend several days to get all you can out of these presenters! I hope to have registration forms out to you by May 1, but to give you a taste, here are some of the sessions being offered:
Kelly Weets from Thief River Falls will be back with some great Google sessions on June 6 and Aug 21st!
Dawn Nelson from Osseo Schools will be providing training in coding and Google, and will share awesome resources you won’t want to miss!
Laura Klein from EverFi is sharing their great FREE resources on financial literacy and more!
Jim Rittenour, representing Makerbot, will be here to tell us all about 3D printing and how we can use it in our classrooms.
Richard Hreha, SCSU, will be presenting on Raspberry Pi for Beginners and Using Augmented Reality in the Classroom.
Several of our local tech stars will be sharing Using Seesaw, Math Elementary Tech Tools, Blogging, Collaborative Writing, Utilizing Twitter, and more!
A class is scheduled on Easy Ways to Use Technology for Coaches!
And those are just the June classes!! Kelly Weets will join us again in August, and Gina Drellack and Jake Seuntjes, from NWSC, will be here as well! Many additional teachers are joining us to present the best of what they do with technology in their teaching. Watch for more info!
Kayla Delzer
Due to her school schedule, Kayla Delzer is unable to present at either our June or August training sessions. However, Kayla has agreed to join us for a full day of training on Friday, August 11th!! Park Rapids and Nevis teachers may attend this full day of training at no cost. More information will be coming soon…but be sure to put this date on your calendar! Kayla’s high-energy workshop will feature hands-on activities, her favorite technology tools, and a full day of fun! Those of you who heard Kayla speak last fall at Park Rapids’ Back to School Inservice know that she is an award-winning 3rd grade teacher, an international keynote speaker, a classroom designer, a flexible seating guru, a digital citizenship expert and a technology champion! We are so fortunate to have her here!
Screen-free Week
On May 1-7, we are celebrating Screen-free Week! Screen-Free Week is a fun way to reduce our dependence on digital entertainment, including tv, video games, smartphones, tablets and computers. It’s a chance for children – and adults – to power down and reconnect with the world around them. For more info, visit: http://www.screenfree.org/
Need Training? Think Infinitec!
PAWN holds a subscription to Infinitec, which you are all able to access if you are employed in Park Rapids or Nevis School Districts. Simply visit http://www.myinfinitec.org and set up your free account, making sure to select the school in which you are employed. Verify your account, and then log in to Infinitec. Click on the tab for Online Classrooms. There are numerous tutorials and courses to choose from, and all of them record your time spent on the activity, so when you are done you can print out the certificate and turn it in for CEU credit. There are classes in the required areas for teacher re-certification, so if you need this credit you can watch online without having to locate a class nearby. I spoke with one of our teachers about her experience and she commented, “The class was awesome, with many to choose from in the ELL area. I took the test and printed my certificate.”
In addition to the certification courses there are courses on technology, special needs, specific subject areas, autism, early learning, and much, much more! Check out this FREE resource today!
New York Time VR
Want to experience the news as if you’re there? Check out the smartphone app nyrvr – where you can put yourself in the center of the story! Embed with Iraqi forces during a battle with ISIS. Take a meditation journey to the California coast. Climb to the top of One World Trade Center. Set foot on a planet three billion miles from the sun. Experience stories in an immersive, 360-degree video experience, reported by New York Times’ award-winning journalists!
Meet Megan McDonald
CILC (the Center for Interactive Learning & Collaboration) is promoting a fun conversation with Megan McDonald, author of the popular Judy Moody series, the Stink books, and The Sisters Club trilogy. Conversations are Wednesday, May 3 at 1PM ET (noon, our time) and Thursday, May 4 at 7:00PM ET (6:00 our time). All you need is a web browser and an internet connection – but you must be registered! Registration can be found here:
- May 3: https://goo.gl/2LpJSG
- May 4: https://goo.gl/g3JEg0
Export Quizzes from Google Docs to Google Forms!
This add-on, Formenate, allows you to export a Google Doc into a Form, so you can easily create a measure of student understanding. The tools and features in Forms allow you to enable quiz mode, assign an answer key, and correct the test – making your job easier! If you have quizzes you’ve already created in a Word or Google Docs, this is an excellent, time-saving way to move them into a Google Form. Try Formenate today!
Cult of Pedagogy (Teacher Nerts, Unite!)
This great blog, by Jennifer Gonzalez Boss, will speak to the heart of your teaching! Jennifer has fantastic ideas about improving instruction, supporting learning, and the pedagogy of teaching. Her most recent post, What to do on Lame Duck School Days, certainly struck a chord with me. She provides a list of ideas of things to do on these testing days or last days of school. Thankfully, the ideas are broken into “Low Prep”, “Medium Prep” and “High Prep or Long Term”. She’s really been there! Find Jennifer at: www.cultofpedagogy.com.
Laurie Conzemius LLC 