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We Better Update Ouserselves As Teachers

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We Better Update Ouserselves As Teachers

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How Is The Internet Changing Language Today? 

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How Is The Internet Changing Language Today? 

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David Crystal - How is the internet changing language today?

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Professional Development doesn't have to mean sitting in a room with other teachers from your school and listening to whatever the administration has prescribed for you. There are tons of different options, whether you elect to participate in a large scale professional development program, attend a conference, or do something a little more self directed via your own research, tools you already use, and some good old social media tools.

But if heading out to a conference isn't in the budget or the timeline, but you're not sure where to start on the self-directed route, you still have options. There are a ton of awesome free webinars out there that you can participate in from the comfort of your own home (or school, coffee shop, etc). Even though December is a crazy busy month for many people, you can still take an hour here or there and delve into some awesome ideas that will help you in your classroom. Head back into school the following day, or figure out over winter break how you want to implement the things you learn, the choice is yours.

There are TONS of other options out there - way too many to list, in fact. But we've put together a short list of 7 free webinars coming your way this December that we thought sounded particularly interesting and relevant. Put them on your calendar and check them out!

7 Free EdTech Webinars Coming in December

1 - December 2nd - 3:00pm EST: Creating Student-Centric Learning Environment, Beth Holland interviews the leaders of the iPad Academy in Nebraska. Sign up here.

2 - December 3rd - 1:00pm EST: Tips for Transforming Your Classroom into a Personalized Learning Environment, with Don Goble, Michelle Spencer, and John Sessler. Sign up here.

3 - December 7th, 4:00pm EST: Using eBooks, Databases, and Digital Tools to Keep Students Engaged During the Holidays, with Michelle Griffith. Sign up here.

4 - December 7th - 6:30pm EST: Blended Learning with OneNote Classroom Creator with Beth Holland, Jen Carey, & Kim Evelti. Sign up here.

5 - December 9th - 4 pm EST: Celebrate Hour of Code Week- Learn to Code through Storytelling with Kate Wilson and Maggie Keeler. Sign up here.

6 - December 15th - 2pm EST: How to Save Money and Improve Collaboration With Google for Education, with Donna Frymire, Anthony Panella, and Stephen Fang. Sign up here.

7 - December 17th - 5pm EST - Digital Portfolios with Beth Holland and EdWeb. Sign up here.

Featured image via Flickr

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7 Free webinars that will boost your edtech skills - Daily Genius

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Professional Development doesn't have to mean sitting in a room with other teachers from your school and listening to whatever the administration has prescribed for you. There are tons of different options, whether you elect to participate in a large scale professional development program, attend a conference, or do something a little more self directed via your own research, tools you already use, and some good old social media tools.

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I intend to improve my PLN by keeping attending webinars, keeping in touch with teachers worldwide, learning daily about the current and new tools and trying them in the classroom according to the school's possibilities, reading as much as I can, watching videos on youtube and never stop learning.

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This past year, I had the AWESOME privilege of having a cart of thirty Ipads to share with my third grade team. #teacherdreamcometrue

Let's be honest for a moment:

In the beginning, I was completely intimidated by them...

Although I was more than familiar with the technology on a personal level, I NEVER dreamed of using it in the classroom (Ok... maybe I did dream of it, but at my old school we never had money for such lavish ideas.)

So, I did what any well meaning teacher, who wants to put technology in the hands of future, would do... I pulled them out and let the kids "play" with them every once in a while in the afternoons while I pulled a few kiddos for intervention.

Ok... I said it... I used them as a glorified babysitter.

But then, on one of those babysitting intervention afternoons, I saw my kiddos making a cause and effect flow chart of events using this program called "Popplet". I was intrigued.

So, after school, I pulled one of those intimidating puppies out and began to explore that little app.

My mind started to flood with ideas. This app wasn't just for "fun" it was a little gold nugget of endless educational possibilities!

This app is simple to use, very engaging-who doesn't like to be able to customize almost every aspect of a project? Perfect entry app for a teacher who was little "scared" of the technology. Did I mention it is suuuupppppersimple. Yeah... I like simple, too! 😉

So what is Popplet? It's like a glorified customize-able and interactive graphic organizer creator! But the official description is:

"Popplet is the simplest tool to capture and organize your ideas. With Popplet you can quick jot down your ideas and sort them visually. "

Here's a quick run down of how to get started. It is seriously so easy... a Kinder baby can do it!

Once you've made your first popple, then you can start adding extension lines to show the flow of information or to make connections.

One of our favorite projects was the Character Maps we made of our favorite characters from "Charlotte's Web". (You can read more about that project here)

My kiddos favorite part of Popplet has to be the ability to add photos and pictures.

Take a picture, and insert it directly, or add a pre-loaded picture. Above you can see my girls working on a forces of motion flow chart. They're using their bodies to demonstrate potential energy.

Of coursethere's loads of other ideas for using this app too!

What makes this app even better is that it has a FREE version. We love FREE in the educational world. Popplet Lite offers most of the same options, but limits you to just one popplet at a time. Which is fine if you're not planning on keeping your popplets stored on the device. The paid version ($4.99) allows you to create an unlimited number of Popplet boards on your device. I also need to mention that this app is only currently available through ITunes. (Sorry Android users!)

So if you're little intimidated by technology (like I was!) I promise you and your kiddos will love Popplet!

Do you use Popplet in your classroom? I'd love to hear about some of your projects! Comment below so we can all be inspired to use our technology better!

*All opinions expressed in this post are my own. I am not affiliated with Popplet in any way, nor was I compensated for my review*

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Popplet in the Classroom - The Applicious Teacher

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This past year, I had the AWESOME privilege of having a cart of thirty Ipads to share with my third grade team. #teacherdreamcometrue Let's be honest for a moment: In the beginning, I was completely intimidated by them... Although I was more than familiar with the technology on a personal level, I NEVER dreamed ...

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10 Ways To Use Instagram In The Classroom

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10 Ways To Use Instagram In The Classroom

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Instagram isn't just a platform for selfies, business promotions, and cute animals. With a little creativity, you can bring the visual power of photos and videos to your classroom, weave them into your students' learning process, and bring a little fun to their (and your!) days. Do you use Instagram in your classroom? How do you use it? Share your ideas, hits and misses, and insights with the Daily Genius community by leaving a comment below, heading over to our Facebook page and dropping us a line there, or by tweeting us a message on Twitter!

10 ways to use Instagram in the classroom
Send classroom notifications
Many teachers use other forms of social media - like Twitter and Facebook - to share classroom news and other notifications. Don't overlook Instagram for this. Having a snow day? Post a photo of a blizzard with a reminder along with any notes about what work will be postponed or due on a different day. Test coming up? Post a photo notification and any other pertinent information. Many students will remember the visual reminder!
Showcase students and student work
Feature a student of the week or month, with a short bio and some tidbits about themselves and their work. Throughout the year, showcase various pieces of many different student's work in as many areas as possible. Either one can serve as a reward for good work, consistent effort, or another measure you choose to attach to it. It will help keep students motivated to keep up their hard work!
Review content from class
Remind your students of some things you've talked about in class, to keep the concepts fresh in their minds. Ask them questions or bring another call to action to the photo you post. For example, if you talked about a historical figure in class, ask them who the photo is of, and 1-2 relevant items about that person, have them post a photo of one of that person's contemporaries, competitors, etc.
Share reading recommendations
Not all students get really excited about extracurricular reading. Get them interested by showing your interest. Share books that you've enjoyed (that are appropriate, of course!), books that are relevant to class material you've discussed, stories that have been popular with other groups of students, articles of interest, and more.
Track student progress over time
Snap photos of student work throughout the year. This can serve to document the progress they've made, and can be useful when putting together student portfolios as well.
Encourage and engage your students
Encouragement and engagement can come in all forms. When you're excited about teaching and learning, your students will be too. Whether you give a shout out to your class for a group achievement or just try to get them pumped up for something school related, Instagram is a great way to do it.
Have a contest
Instagram contests aren't just for businesses! Host a contest where your students share photos along a classwork related theme to win - the prize can be as simple as being featured on Instagram! You can host contests that require students to think and provide information relevant to class, or just-for-fun contests, too. Who in the class/school posts a photo of them in the silliest/best/most outlandish outfit? Have a writing contest where students use the photo you post as a writing prompt. The possibilities are endless!
Document the year
A lot of stuff happens over the course of the year - document it! If your class goes on a field trip, take some photos! When students participate in concerts, sporting events, classroom events, or anything else school-relevant, share photos of these events. Both you and your students will be able to look back over the year and remember the milestone events that took place.
Role Play
Have your students role-play and interact. They can imagine that historical figures used Instagram. What sorts of things would George Washington share on Instagram? Was Shakespeare a chronic meme-sharer? Who shared professional-related items and who shared more personal items? Have them share as though they were a particular person and interact with other students also posing as other historical figures.
Have students share relevant material
Your students' interests don't stop when they walk through the classroom door. Share things that are interesting and relevant to both them and to classwork. This could be photos of historical events, literary characters, mathematical concepts, and more. Encourage your students to find things that they'd like to share with the class along these same lines. They'll be excited to have 'their' photo picked and shared, and it will encourage them to think outside the box for each subject.

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10 Ways to use Instagram in the classroom - Daily Genius

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Instagram isn't just a platform for selfies, business promotions, and cute animals. With a little creativity, you can bring the visual power of photos and videos to your classroom, weave them into your students' learning process, and bring a little fun to their (and your!) days. Do you use Instagram in your classroom?

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Moodleshare Course: Creating Student e-Portfolios with Google Sites | E-Learning, Instructional Design, and Online Teaching

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Creating e-Portfolios with Google Sites by Jen Hegna is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Users are free to use, edit and share this course as long as this block stays in the course. If you download or like this course I would love to he...

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I can say I've learned a lot in these three modules of New Technologies. More than just new tools and possibilities, I'm able to rethink my teaching and creating new possibilities. Although I won't be using many tools right now, at least a few ones I intend to incorporate according to the school's possibilities. Once cell phones are allowed and there's a computer lab, there are a few possibilities such as skype in the classroom, padlet, popplet and kahoot. I intend to do something related to those tools in class.

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Collaboration In The Teaching Learning Process

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Collaboration In The Teaching Learning Process

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New Technologies II

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Technology integration

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It's essential to not just use technology but interate it to the methodology.

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KEEP CALM AND Don't Be A Technophobe. Another original poster design created with the Keep Calm-o-matic. Buy this design or create your own original Keep Calm design now.

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http://edorigami.edublogs.org/2008/05/12/21st-century-teachers/

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By connecting education with smarter technology, students use technology to collaborate with one another.

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Arrange your photos into a beautiful collage. It's super easy, give it a try!

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Before Bringing in New Tools,
You Must First Bring in New Thinking - By Marc Prensky

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Before Bringing in New Tools,
You Must First Bring in New Thinking - By Marc Prensky

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To create effective 21st century learning, it is not just our tools that need to change: it is our thinking.

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Technology should be available all the time, used when necessary, and also a natural procedure.

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Technology should be available all the time, used when necessary, and also a natural procedure.

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Using Technology x Technology Integration

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Using Technology x Technology Integration

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More than just using technology, it's important to integrate it to the learning process.

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Changing Paradigms From “Being Taught” To “Learning On Your Own With Guidance”
By Marc Prensky

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Changing Paradigms From “Being Taught” To “Learning On Your Own With Guidance”
By Marc Prensky

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“Some teachers make a PowerPoint and they think they’re so awesome,” says a student. “But it’s just like writing on the blackboard,” says another. “And then they read it to us,” says a third. “why should we go to hear it read?"

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Everything we do on the internet is registred.

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Unfortunatelly, this is still a reality in many schools in Brazil.