January 17, 2017

January 17, 2017 lconzemius

My Upcoming Schedule:

I will be gone all this week.
I am available next week: Monday, Jan 23 – Park Rapids

Tuesday, Jan 24 – 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, including dates not listed above. If it works for you I’ll try to make it fit into my schedule. J

Scheduled Classes:

Attached is a new schedule of classes for January through March. Your input through the survey was so helpful! Although there is always the option to stay for two hours, most of the classes on the list will take approximately one hour. CEUs are given for EVERY HOUR you attend. As I’ve been doing, I’ll announce the classes for the coming week or two in this newsletter. If you could RSVP to me it would be extremely helpful. Thanks!!

Tuesday, Jan 24: Finding apps for your Curriculum, MS Lab. See below for description. Everyone is welcome!

Presidential Inauguration 2017

This week I have the incredible opportunity to take in the events leading up to and including the Presidential Inauguration 2017. I serve on the board of directors for ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). This is where some exciting conversations regarding the future of education in our country take place. I am thrilled to be able to participate, and can’t wait to share our northern Minnesota issues with those I meet! I will be in DC Monday, Jan 16-Sunday, Jan 22.

I will be back in school Monday and Tuesday, Jan 23-24, but will be off the grid from Jan 25th until Feb 6^th.

Newsela

Newsela is a library of leveled content and articles from daily news sources and nonfiction publishers on a wide variety of subjects. The free version allows you to share articles at a variety of levels with your students. These can be sorted by grade level, reading level, and more. If you teach reading, current events, social studies, or any other subject in grades 2-12, these articles can be a phenomenal resource for your curriculum!

Newela has a 30-day trial for their Pro version. Newsela PRO is an exciting core-aligned program that helps you engage students in non-fiction current events articles that are beautifully differentiated for readers grades 2-12. Take the time to see Newsela PRO’s amazing binder & article actions and Newsela’s engaging content & search. Another quick way to share Newsela PRO is through their quick overview – https://goo.gl/hZ4A3a. (Open this online to view the other links)

You can check out the recorded demonstration, recorded webinars, or online videos. They also have live online demonstrations; you can schedule to join one here. Visit: http://www.newela.com

Google Tip:

Google Classroom has made a few updates that you may find helpful. First, when you post a new assignment you can choose to post it to individuals or groups of students, or the whole class. This really increases the teacher’s ability to differentiate your assignments! (Ooooo – and would work great with texts from Newsela too!)

The second new enhancement provides additional options for setting your own notifications. As an example, you can set a notification when a student resubmits an assignment beyond the due date. As always, as a teacher who uses Google Classroom, your suggestions for enhancements are well received. If you have an idea for making it work better, let them know!

If you aren’t using Google Classroom, but would like to try, give me a call or email and we’ll do it together!

Google Extension:

I learned of this great Chrome Extension from Eric Ravenscraft. Amazon may be convenient, but nothing beats free. So, when you’re shopping for books on the Amazon website, Library Extension will find those same books at your local library.

The extension allows you to pick your favorite local libraries and add them to a list. Then, when you shop for books on Amazon, the extension adds a box that will let you know if those books are available at your library. If they are, you can just take a quick drive to pick up the book for free. Even if you like to buy some of your own books, it’s still a handy tool to remind you of the many benefits of your local library. Great article on the Many Benefits of Your Local Library here: https://goo.gl/hZxwaT

Life Hacks for Teachers

Don’t you just love life hacks? I find so many incredibly brilliant ideas that leave me wondering why I never thought of that! One I just learned of: hang your whiteboard markers with Velcro point-down to keep them fresh and longer-lasting! You can find 50 teacher life hacks here: https://goo.gl/dKCTZa Enjoy!!

Indoor Recess

Again? Were you tearing your hair out from all of those “inside” days? Here’s a tip from our friends at GoNoodle: GoNoodle’s Indoor Recess (https://app.gonoodle.com) channel has over 20 longer mash-up videos of their most popular content made specifically for when the weather gets in the way of going outside. Here are a few of my favorite Indoor Recess videos that’ll give your students the break they need (and your sanity back!):

Power Up! (12 min): https://goo.gl/u4IwOl

It’s Party Time (14 min): https://goo.gl/orr2aC

Animal Instincts (17 min): https://goo.gl/yGJGHN

Inauguration Activities

NEA has put together some resources for classes that are interested in learning more about the president’s inauguration. You can find them here: http://www.nea.org/tools/lessons/53997.htm

If you are interested in having your class “attend” the inauguration live, email me and we can set something up. I would be happy to Facetime or Skype a classroom and let you know what it’s like to be there live!

Social Media Safety

Students spend an enormous amount of time online, and much of that is social networking. What are they using and how can you protect them? Check out NetSmartz for your own students and for your family: http://www.netsmartz.org/SocialMedia. There are tons of activities, lessons, suggestions, and safety tips here that will help you understand the dangers – and the fun – of social networking.

Park Rapids Tentative Classes

Please note: register ahead of time and I will move the class to your building, if possible. J Remember, if at any time you want training, advice, guidance, or help in your classroom or with your team, you can contact me to set something up at your convenience. Thanks!

Date	Location	Title	Description
Tuesday, Jan 24	Century MS Lab	Finding apps for your Curriculum	Bring your iPad (or other device) and let’s look for (or at) apps! I will have some suggestions of how to find curricular apps. You will have individual time, with guidance, to check them out, or go through apps you already have on your device to see how to use them effectively with your class.
Tuesday, Feb 7	Century Elem Lab	Exploring Project Lead the Way apps & lessons	Need some time to explore the lessons and apps for Project Lead the Way? This is your chance to spend some time on them and to plan out your PLTW activities.
Tuesday, Feb 21	High School	Virtual Field Trips	Explore Virtual Reality apps, virtual field trips, and their usefulness in the classroom, during this hands-on workshop. Bring either your Android or Apple phone, and a tablet (iPad or Chromebook). I have a few viewers to try out as well – but bring your own if you have one.
Wednesday, Feb 22	Century Elem Lab	Integrating Technology into Reading/Language Arts	Looking for technology tools for your reading/language arts curriculum? We will look at online tools, apps, and activities for reading, spelling, vocabulary, comprehension, writing, and much more!
Tuesday, Feb 28	Century MS Lab	Integrating Technology into Math/Science	Science and math online tools, apps and activities are abundant. Come to see some of my favorites tools, and the resources to find them.
Wednesday, March 1	High School	Developing Curricular Projects that use Student Created Videos	With all these individual devices students of all ages can make excellent videos. No matter what level you teach, there are tools your students can use to create their own video projects. Come plan one today!
Thursday, March 2	Century MS Lab	SmartBoard: Beyond Beginner	Want to do more with your SmartBoard? We will look at lessons & tools that will increase your use (and your students’ use) of the SmartBoard, in some exciting ways!
Monday, March 6	Century ES Lab	Smart Notebook: Creating Lessons	This class will take you through the Smart Notebook tools. We will create our own lessons, discover many new features, and you will have a chance to see how easy it is to personalize your lessons with Smart Notebook.
Tuesday, March 14	High School	Using Google Docs in the Classroom	In this class you will have a chance to go through your Google Drive and organize it, practice sharing Google Docs with others and review the collaborative tools, and see how Google Docs can increase your efficiency in school.
Thursday, March 16	Century MS Lab	Using Google Forms & Spreadsheets	Parent Surveys, Student Quizzes, Data Collection, all can be gathered and organized efficiently with Google Forms. Display survey data, grade quizzes and tests, and so much more. Bring a quiz or survey idea so you can build your own Form.

Nevis Tentative Classes

Please note: register ahead of time so I know someone is attending. J Remember, if at any time you want training, advice, guidance, or help in your classroom or with your team, you can contact me to set something up at your convenience. Thanks!

Date	Title	Description
Thursday, Feb 9	Using Seesaw Digital Portfolios	Seesaw is a free tool for students of all ages to upload, annotate and share their work through a digital portfolio. Originally developed for elementary, this tool is appropriate for all ages, and has some great new features for older students.
Thursday, Feb 23	Developing Curricular Projects that use Student Created Videos	With all these individual devices students of all ages can make excellent videos. No matter what level you teach, there are tools your students can use to create their own video projects. Come plan one today!
Monday, Feb 27	Finding apps for your Curriculum	Bring your iPad (or other device) and let’s look for apps!
Wednesday, March 15	Integrating Technology into Reading/Language Arts	Looking for technology tools for your reading/language arts curriculum? We will look at online tools, apps, and activities for reading, spelling, vocabulary, comprehension, writing, and much more!
Monday, March 20	Virtual Field Trips	Explore Virtual Reality apps, virtual field trips, and their usefulness in the classroom, during this hands-on workshop. Bring either your Android or Apple phone, and a tablet (iPad or Chromebook). I have a few viewers to try out as well – but bring your own if you have one.
Thursday, March 23	Integrating Technology into Math/Science	Science and math online tools, apps and activities are abundant. Come to see some of my favorites tools, and the resources to find them.

Jan 3, 2017

January 3, 2017 lconzemius

My Upcoming Schedule:

I am available this week: Thursday, Jan 5 – Park Rapids
Friday, Jan 6 – Park Rapids
I am available next week: Tuesday, Jan 10 – Park Rapids
Wednesday, Jan 11 – Park Rapids
Thursday, Jan 12 – 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, including dates not listed above. If it works for you I’ll try to make it fit into my schedule. J

Scheduled Classes:

I am putting together a new schedule of classes for February and March. I have a brief survey for you so that you can give me your suggestions for topics, your availability for dates, and other information. The survey is located at: https://goo.gl/forms/K9ZPQ19Q8JzUmTwW2

Presidential Inauguration 2017

In January I have the incredible opportunity to fly to Washington DC to take in all of the events leading up to and including the Presidential Inauguration 2017. I serve on the board of directors for ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). In previous inaugural years we have sent only the chair of our board, but recently edtech organizations have been sending several staff members and their entire boards to these events. This is where some exciting conversations regarding the future of education in our country take place. I am thrilled to be able to participate, and can’t wait to share our northern Minnesota issues with those I meet! I will be in DC Monday, Jan 16-Sunday, Jan 22.

I will be back in school Monday and Tuesday, Jan 23-24, but am leaving on the 25^th for a winter getaway. This one includes sandy beaches and ocean views, and does not include internet access, so I will be off the grid from Jan 25th until Feb 6^th.

“Photos for Class” Images

Do you sometimes find that Google Image Search doesn’t provide the images you and your students are seeking? The people at Storyboard have created a new photo search engine called Photos for Class (www.photosforclass.com). It helps you locate age appropriate images with automatic citations that are creative commons licensed.

I did a few searches in this search engine and was easily able to find good quality images of animals, people, historic events, and the like. I tried typing in a few words that in Google would bring up inappropriate images, and was surprised to find that these results switched to “photos of adorable dog”, rather than the words I had used. This is the perfect search engine for pictures in the classroom! Try it out today.

Google Tip: Grading short answer questions

Recently I learned that Google Forms, with the Add-On called Flubaroo, is a solution for grading short answer questions! Open your Google Forms spreadsheet (the one that is created when you start the new form). Go to Add-ons and add Flubaroo (if you haven’t already done so). Using Flubaroo you can create your answer sheet with the correct short answer responses and they will automatically be corrected.

Using this tip it is very easy to create spelling quizzes and other fill-in-the-blank quizzes and have them corrected quickly and easily. Let me know if you’re interested in trying this out with a quiz today. I’d love to assist!
Love to read?

Join the 2017 Goodreads reading challenge today at https://www.goodreads.com/challenges/5493-2017-reading-challenge. Over 550,000 people have challenged themselves to read over 27 million total books this year!

Goodreads is a free website for book lovers. Imagine it as a large library that you can wander through and see everyone’s bookshelves, their reviews, and their ratings. You can also post your own reviews and catalog what you have read, are currently reading, and plan to read in the future. It’s the ultimate online bookclub, or, if nothing else, a great way to record the books you have read.

The Ten Most-Read Discovery Education Stories of 2016

Check out http://blog.discoveryeducation.com to read what teachers were reading about as the year came to a close. Articles on Pokemon Go in the classroom, Strategies for using primary source documents, math achievement, student engagement, and STEM education are just a few of the top stories.

Thinking about Motivation… as 2017 begins?

I have often thought that January and February are the best “learning months” of the whole school year. I loved hearing Larry Ferlazzo recently share his words of wisdom about unleashing student motivation. Here are his four key elements:

Autonomy (having a voice in what is being done)
Relationship (building a relationship with someone they like/respect)
Relevance (that what they’re learning connects to their hopes and dreams)
Competence (that they are capable of doing what they’re being asked to do)

Want to hear more? Play the podcast at: http://www.coolcatteacher.com/4-ways-cultivate-motivation-students/

Wonderopolis: http://wonderopolis.org

Want to increase the questioning in your classroom? Wonderopolis is a website that brings a daily “wonder” to your classroom (or search through them all and choose one that interests you on their website). An example: Wonder of the Day #1821 is “Why do Drink Lids have Extra Holes? You can check out related vocabulary words, learn some history, try an experiment or two, and even watch a neat, short video or listen to a brief podcast. And if your students are wondering about things that aren’t listed yet, you can submit your question! Wonderopolis has been helping people answer (and ask) questions for years! Check it out today!

December 19, 2016

December 19, 2016 lconzemius

Top Ten Tech Tools to Try in 2017:

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!!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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).

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!

Dec 5, 2016

December 4, 2016 lconzemius

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

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.

Nov 21, 2016

November 20, 2016 lconzemius

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

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!

November 14, 2016

November 13, 2016 lconzemius

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:

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

November 7, 2016

November 6, 2016 lconzemius

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.

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.)
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.)
Turn HDR on. High Dynamic Range photos take more memory, but are higher resolution.
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.
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.
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.

Oct 31, 2016

October 30, 2016 lconzemius

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!

Oct 24, 2016

October 30, 2016 lconzemius

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:

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

Oct 17, 2016

October 30, 2016 lconzemius

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.