Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Do You Remember . . .

Do you have students say, "I forgot," when questioned about a homework assignment, project, or a test?  Or parents that state they didn't know about an upcoming field trip or Parent teacher Conference? Remind has the solution.



As we’re settling in to our classrooms during the first few weeks of school, it’s important to establish strong communication with students and parents that will carry on throughout the rest of the school year. Setting up a Remind class is a great way to reach students and parents on the mobile devices they use most — their cell phones.

Long gone are the days of manually collecting parents’ and students’ personal contact information into spreadsheets! With Remind, students and parents can subscribe to your classes and personal contact information is never exchanged. The more students and parents that are subscribed to your Remind class, the more effective your messages are! 

There are several ways to invite students and parents to your Remind group.

1. Invite students and parents via e-mail 
2. Send home a parent letter (English) (Spanish
3. Share the Remind app QR code 

Directions for getting started can be found on the support page


12 Great Ways to Use Remind in your Classroom

1. Deadline reminders. A project is due. There’s something students must bring to class this week. A quick text reminder goes a long way to making it actually happen on schedule.

2. Extra credit question. If this fits your educational philosophy, extra credit is great motivation to be signed up for class text messages. 

3. Something to think about. Giving students a question or problem to ponder in their downtime — posed at the right time — could yield very interesting ideas.

4. Kudos to students. They love praise. When they deserve it, if we can broadcast it to their classmates and others on your list, the boost in morale could last a long time. Praise in-class — and out-of-class — successes. Praise little things and big things.

5. Kudos to entire classes. If test scores for an entire class were excellent on average, give them a digital pat on the back. If parents are on the list too, it’s even better to praise in front of them.

6. Link to a photo from class. Create a class Flickr account and upload photos from your class (Ensure that you have parental permission to post students' photos), from the hallway outside your class or from school events. Then send a shortened URL (Google Shortener) of it to everyone on your list. It’s a great way to build classroom — and school — community.

7. A “this day in history” fact. Whether you’re a history teacher or not, interesting historical facts are fun. Send a quick one to students to interest them. Search “this day in history” in a search engine for lots of options.

8. A poll question. Poll Everywhere allows you to set up poll questions online for anyone to answer. Or create a google form. Both generates a link to the poll/form, which could be texted to your list. Ask them for their opinions about class or topics you cover. Then report back in class later.

9. Interesting school news. Pass along interesting, relevant, exciting school (or district) news to students — especially the type that they might not find out about otherwise. Everyone likes to break news!

10. Field trip updates. If you’re on a field trip with older students and many have cell phones, use text messages as a reminder of how much time is left or interesting things that they might want to check out. If you have a list of parents, send updates of what you’re doing on the trip, giving them instant access to what’s happening.

11. A question from an upcoming test. If you’re willing to divulge a question from your next test, this could be a great motivating factor for students to be on the list. Use this as a hook to get them to sign up and then you’ll be able to send them whatever you need — or want.

12. Anything interesting and relevant. As long as it’s entertaining and connects to your class or school, there’s a good chance your students will appreciate it. But be careful not to overdo it. Don’t send too many messages, and don’t use it as another method to cram more classroom facts down their throats. They’ll unsubscribe and you’ll lose your new avenue of communication.

What other ways could you use text messaging services with students? Which of the above is the best? Leave your ideas in a comment below!

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Let's Drive

Google Drive and Beyond


Yes, we have Google Drive! Okay, now what? Well, there are tons of ways to use Google Drive to enhance teaching and learning.

Add-ons are really easy to discover and install. They are available across all Docs & Sheets when they are installed. Below is where you can get add-ons and a list of some add-ons you can use in Google Docs to make teaching and learning more efficient.


Doctopus


"An octopus for docs! Teacher-built tool for scaffolding, managing, organizing, and assessing student projects in Google Drive.
Doctopus gives teachers the ability to mass-copy (from a starter template), share, and manage grading and feedback for student projects in Google Drive."



Flubaroo



"Flubaroo helps you quickly grade and analyze online assignments and assessments, as well as email scores to students!
TEACHERS - Transform your grading process!! Flubaroo is a FREE add-on to Google Forms/Sheets which lets you quickly grade and analyze student performance on multiple choice and fill-in assignments. Within a minute you'll be able to: * Get scores for each student, and identify students in need of extra help.
* View average score, and a histogram of scores.
* Quickly identify questions which a majority of the students missed.
* Email students their scores, along with optional notes to the class and/or to each student."



Kaizena 



"Kaizena makes it easy for teachers to give high quality audio feedback on student work - simply highlight and speak to give verbal feedback, or attach reusable resources for common problems. This Doc Add-on allows you to quickly open the Google Doc you're currently viewing in Kaizena, which is very useful if you're using workflow tools that link directly to a Google Doc such as Doctopus."


Texthelp Study Skills 




"Use Texthelp’s Highlighting Tools to highlight key areas of your document to collect, group, and learn from later. Simply select and highlight the desired text and click “Collect Highlights” to extract it and place it in a new document (by color or location) for students or educators to review. Used by educators in the classroom to help students identify and group key facts together, indicate new words to learn, or collect research to assist with studying. Texthelp’s Highlighting Tools are great for all content and grade levels."



EasyBib Bibliography Creator 





"The Bibliography Creator by EasyBib allows you to easily create a bibliography for your research paper. Automatically cite books, journal articles, and websites just by entering in the titles or URLs. Format citations in MLA, APA, and Chicago style. When you're finished creating your bibliography, click Generate Bibliography and we'll alphabetize your citations and add them to the end of your paper."


Below are some great extensions you can add to your toolbar to make planning and sharing easier.

WatchDoc



If you have shared some documents with others on Google Docs, before you had to go check whether anyone's modified them. This Chrome extension will list your shared documents that were updated since the last time you have viewed them.

 Save to Google drive



This extension allow you to save web content directly to Google Drive through a browser action or context menu. You can save links to documents, images, and HTML5 audio and video all by right clicking and selecting 'Save to Google Drive'.

 Send to Google Drive


Allows you to upload a pdf version of the current page to your Google Drive using the pdf crowd service. It also makes it easy to save a web page to your Google Drive.


 Save Text to Google Drive




The Save Text to Google Drive Chrome extension helps you save web text content to your Google Drive.


Wright On!

Monday, September 8, 2014

Post-it to the Max

Post-it to the Max


Post-its are a great tool to use in the classroom.  Wouldn't it be cool to print directly on them?



Here just a few uses for math equations, class poll, story mapping, parent notes, student reminders,  timeline sort, vocabulary, exit tickets, QR codes,  rubrics, and much more.  all you need are some Post-its and a printer. 

Step 1. Print each template out.

Step 2. Place the Post It Note / Sticky Note inside the square. 

Step 3. Type in the template the information you need.

Step 4. Place the template page with the Post It Note / Sticky Notes into your printer & print.


Tip:
·    Be sure that the sticky side of the notes goes head first in to your printer to avoid paper jams.



Adapted from

Angela Crescenzo

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Tech Talk: Communicating with Parents and the Community

Tech Talk: Using Video to Communicate with Parents and the Community the First Week of School 


I am passionate about integrating technology into teaching and learning. What better way to start the year off then introducing yourself and the school to your students, parents and the community with a video. 


Early tech integration shows students and parents that technology will be a part of the learning process for your class and allows the you to build a home to school connection.  Including students in the video and apart of the production process will help build academic ownership and establish a relationship with the teacher early. 



Creating a first week of school video can be fun and simple with Animoto. Anomoto allows you to add photos and video clips to create a video in minutes. They have a wide variety of video style options to select from.  They also have a library jam-packed with a diverse selection songs, all pre-licensed for use or upload your own music.  Sign up with as a teacher and you will have access to more features and be able to share your code with your students.


Ideas for back to school videos:

  • What happened our first week- pictures of students, teachers, administrators during the first week
  • Back to School Night Invitation
  • Teacher Introduction
  • Course introduction
  • The sky is  the limit


Below are some sample videos of how you could use video to build a bridge of communication between school and home. 


First day of school


Meet Mrs. Lindinger!


animoto back to school from omid on Vimeo.

How do you plan on introducing yourself to your students and their families? Comment below. Let me know if you need help creating your video. 

Wright on!

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Pow, Pow, PowToon!

If you have not heard of PowToon, well you are missing out. PowToon provides users with easy to use animation tools to immediately begin creating professional-looking animated explainer videos and animated presentations.  PowToon believes in the importance of education so to celebrate reaching 5 million PowToons created they are having a 50,000 FREE Classroom Accounts giveaway!
Each account gives one teacher + 60 students access, this is normally $96/yr per account. What a deal!

 Why sign-up for PowToon!

Teachers can create animated videos/presentations to communicate key concepts.  Students can create animated videos/presentations to demonstrate comprehension of essential content. Below is a sample of a PowToon video.


Head over to www.powtoon.com and use promo code: ToonUp5M to get your free classroom account. 

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Hello world!


As a former classroom teacher I understand that your time is valuable.  As teachers your plate is full with planning, grading, parent meetings, meeting meetings, and life. However, integrating technology can be exciting and transfer instructional ownership to the students. I am starting this Blog to help make your tech life easier.  As a teacher I would search for ways to integrate technology into my instruction and it could sometimes take hours.  It is my intention to do all the hard work for you and share it here.  I will be posting tips on technology integration in low-tech classrooms, new and creative resources, ways to reinvent your tech use, and more. Subscribe to this blog so you’re the first to know about the latest blog post.

Wright on!