"Creativity is contagious, pass it on." ~Albert Einstein

Thursday, November 29, 2012

There are lots of great things happening in your school district or classroom right now.  Are you telling those stories?  If you don't start telling those stories,  someone else will!
An easy way to showcase those events is by using the iMovie app.  Yes, it is a bit pricey at $4.99, but the the benefits far outweighs the cost. 
One of my favorite features of the iMovie app is the Trailer feature.  There are 12 themes to choose from.  You can preview each theme to get a feel for each one before choosing your final product. All the goodies (sound, transitions, text) are there, you just have to supply the video and a little creativity with your wording.
Here are a couple examples of trailers for our Winter Sports Season:



We are showcasing these particular "stories" and various others by sharing via our district hashtag, #aurorahuskies and will be placing an insert in the basketball program tomorrow night to tip off our Winter Sports season that looks like this:


Start sharing your story today by using the iMovie app!

1

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Are you using Google Chrome for your web browser?  If so, you know that there are a variety of free extensions that you can get in the Chrome web store that will fit a variety of your needs in and out of the classroom.  One of my favorite extensions is the "Incredible Start Page."  You can customize your start page to easily find bookmarks, closed tabs or even take notes as you browse.
I like to add a list of what I have going on that particular day to the sticky note provided on my start up page.  I have added several Google Apps that create shortcuts to various tools that I use as well.  Here is what my Incredible StartPage looks like:


Head on over to the Chrome store and add the Incredible StartPage to your Google Chrome today!

1

Monday, November 26, 2012


I downloaded Apps Gone Free a couple of months ago after learning about it at a conference. Apps Gone Free informs you on a daily basis of a dozen or so apps that have "gone free" for a certain amount of time.  Some apps are free for a day, some for several days.   I didn't pay it much attention as it seemed to offer nothing but gaming apps.  
Lately,  I have started noticing some really great apps being offered that could be used in any pK-12 classroom. Yes, the daily offering will contain apps that don't have much educational value, but I am finding more and more great offerings pertaining to education. 
This is one app that I look forward to receiving notifications from on a daily basis.  Download it today and see what you think.


0

Monday, November 12, 2012



 "Don't be afraid of your fears.  They're not there to scare you.  They're there to let you know that something is worth it."        ~ C. JoyBell C.


Have you ever received a quick note or an email that made your day?  I did the other day.  Here it is verbatim, "Just wanted to write you a quick note that Kidblog was GREAT this morning!! :) Everything went smoothly and the kids really enjoyed it.  I am sending you the link so that you can check it out and read some of their stuff.  We are going into our second unit, which is called "Their thoughts changed our lives"...we are going to read about Ghandi, Einstien, and Rachel Carson (one of the first influential female scientists).  So today, I challenged the kids to think about "real life" people that have thoughts that change lives.  Real, fake, famous, or not...The prompts they responded to were, "What kinds of ideas have the power to change someone's life?" and "Have you ever been inspired by someone? Who?  Why are they special to you?"  Anyway, just wanted you to know that Kidblog rocks. :)"

Seems like a pretty basic email.  What you don't know is that this teacher had asked me to come into her class earlier in the week to help her integrate this new technology.  I had to turn her down as I was busy at the elementary.  Being the only Integration Specialist in our district, my schedule can get pretty busy as I try to meet the demands of 100 teachers and over 1,200 students.  I despise having to turn teachers down, but had to in this particular case as I was already booked at the elementary.   This particular teacher told me "no problem" and that she would "give it a shot to see how it goes." 

As you can see, I think it went very well.

Technology today is so hard to keep up with.  Yes, I know that there are a myriad of tools/apps that you can use in your classroom.  Too often teachers are overwhelmed by all of the choices that are available to them.  Need some simple advice when it comes to all of the choices?  Pick one or two tech tools/apps and integrate them seamlessly into your curriculum.  Go for quality, rather than quantity. 

This teacher took a chance, eliminated that "fear" that we all feel when teaching a new technology that we may not be too familiar with.  Quit trying to be "perfect" in your classroom.  Life isn't perfect. 

Are you going to take the "next step?"


0

Sunday, November 4, 2012


I have had students "guest post" on my blog before, but today is the first time that I am having one of my fellow educators composing a post. My colleague's  name is Gennevieve Helzer, and she is the Deaf Educator for the Aurora Huskies.  Actually, @MrsHelzer is more than a colleague.  She is also my neighbor and a great friend.  
We have some common planning time and her post stems from one of our conversations.   Thanks, Mrs. Helzer!

It's less than two weeks until we go 1:1 with iPads in grades 6-12.  The infrastructure upgrades are done, the iPads are here, the chunky, indestructible covers are installed, and we teachers have oodles of workshops and meetings and trainings under our belts. 

We're ready. 

And yet… there's some unease, some anxiety among the staff.  

Partly we're just not sure what this is going to look like day-to-day in each of our own classrooms.  And partly, I suspect at least some of us have some unspoken fears.  In this new world of connected, student-driven learning, have we become out-dated? Are our skills obsolete?  In a school full of well-equiped digital natives with continuous internet access, have we teachers become (gulp)… dispensable?

There is a sensation that the students are more comfortable with the devices than some of the staff.  There is a general agreement that at times, they will be teaching us.  There is an understanding that many of them are already savvy with technology some of us are still learning.  But I'd argue that comfortable is not the same thing as competent. Right now, our students are digital natives in exactly the same way they are (well, most of them are) native English-speakers.

In our district, most kids come to us in kindergarten already adept at social language. They have been immersed since birth in their native language. Most of them (not all) are curious, excited to learn, and willing to experiment and make mistakes as they master new words.  They delight in word play, jokes, and puns.  They are brilliant, innovative, and flexible in their use of their native language... but they are not necessarily purposeful and conscious in their use of it.  They are fluent, but they have not fully mastered it.  

So in addition to vocabulary in all subject areas, we spend thirteen years teaching them English grammar, discourse, and appropriate register. We expose them and coach them to use their native language for learning, not just social purposes. We explicitly teach them to expand, shape, and retrieve knowledge, to monitor their comprehension and become critical thinkers.  We know how to do this, and we're pretty good at it.

Throw a few hundred iPads into the mix, and what changes?  I'd argue, not that much.  We don't need to worry about being dinosaurs when the roll-out happens, because our students still very much need us. Yes, they are adept at using technology to make social connections. Yes, they have been immersed in technology since birth. Yes, they are comfortable with being plugged in, and most (not all) are curious, excited to learn, and flexible in their approach to problem solving with a device in their hands, even if they're sometimes klutzy about it.  

Now it's our job to teach them to use the iPads for learning. It's our role to guide them to be purposeful, conscious, and appropriate; to use the devices to find information, figure out relationships between ideas, communicate with precision, and become critical thinkers and problem solvers.  

This case of nerves about the technology?  We've got less than two weeks to get over that.  Our students still desperately need us to teach them the same things that have always mattered: curiosity, clear thinking, perseverance, and how to communicate and connect with others.   

Ready for roll-out?  

Yep.  We're ready.


photo credit: waferbaby via photopin cc
0

Author

authorHusband, Dad, Son, Brother, Teacher, Coach, Learner, Catalyst, Collaborator, Creator, Contributor, EdTecher, DIYer, Tinkerer, Golfer, Exerciser, Gardener.



Followers

Labels