🎶These are a Few of my Favorite (Organizational) Things

Throughout my career as an EdTech Teacher and Coach, I have sampled enough new “hot” and
“latest/greatest” products to realize that it is overwhelming to expect teachers to use everything that
rolls down the pike.  That sense of so much to choose from is often the barrier to using anything
at all.

Over the years, I have come to rely on the tried and true tools that truly help me get things done,
be organized -- both efficiently and easily.

Keep it Simple

As part of my job (and really, my natural curiosity) I read blogs, scan social media, attend workshops
and talk to colleagues in my field to stay up on what’s new in technology in the classroom and how
teachers are using it. I try to keep my personal tool kit simple so I can get the most out of it. One
of my multi-purpose go-to products is Google Suite.

Besides using it personally, our school decided to become a Google school several years ago.
It has made the management of my classroom so much easier. While I admit Office Suite products are
more robust in features, the Google package has made seamless work of assignments,
communication, collaboration, and work anywhere worth the sacrifice. With the Education version,
we also have unlimited storage for Google Drive. Plus, it has eliminated the “dog ate my homework”
and “it just deleted” excuses from students.  And for the most part, the Google team listens to
feedback.

Reading Blogs in One Place

I look to others in my field to help keep me current. I rely on those Bloggers who seem to have
endless energy and resources to keep me up-to-date on how they are using various tools.
As my collection of bloggers started to increase, I wanted one place to read them all.  
These are the people who regularly post wonderful ideas, resources, and most importantly, are generously ready to share when I have questions.

I use Feedly to subscribe to my favorite experts’ blogs. It is cross platform (website & device app) and I catch up on all my reading in one place. (See my list of fav bloggers on the sidebar.)   

Website Curation

For all the websites I visit to keep up on online resources, finding a place to keep them all -- whether
for me, colleagues, or my students, I absolutely love Symbaloo. Symbaloo is a website-based
tool that lets you create tiles that link to websites. Tiles can be organized through “webmix” tabs,
can be color coded, and shared. Visually, I love it and have my webmixes curated by subject and color.  I have been using the free version for many, many years and last year started using

the Teacher premium. I can share out a Webmix to my students for a particular project or to my colleagues for some Classroom Tools.

I have also recently started using Wakelet, another website based curation product, for my lesson
plan ideas. This website allows me to use an add-on in Chrome to save things as I find them online.
I can add any number of items, from images, websites, videos, and more. So far, it has been a nice addition to my toolkit. (and it’s free)

Classroom Discussions and More

Another tool that I use quite often in my classroom is Padlet (formerly Wallwisher).  The app is
similar to a bulletin board where you can post/display various items -- like images, links, notes,
and videos. While originally free for unlimited use, last year a cap was put on the free plan limiting it at three.

I love using it as a discussion tool for my classes as well as way to display mixed media projects.  
It almost always plays into a lesson for feedback and idea sharing with my students. I post a
question or comment  and students can reflect on it, adding videos or images, even links to other resources. There is a comment feature which allows my students to exchange ideas with each other. This is especially great for those students who would rather not speak up in class,

but have incredible thoughts to add to the discussion.

Workshop & PD Notes

The final tool that I use quite often (and for many years now) is Evernote.  This cross platform app
has seen me through every workshop I have ever attended.  It allows me to take notes, add links
and photos, and organize it all in a “note” by date. I use it exclusively at workshops as it easily
allows me to organize with titles, locations, tags, and notebooks. This is free with an upgrade option.

These are a few of my favorite things that keep me organized. What keeps you in check?

Tell me what are your favorite things.

Disclaimer: There are no affiliate links on this page - I make no profit from recommendations

Going Google Suite

     Our school went Google 2 years ago and some days I wonder how I went without it for so  long.
The training was very important in order to make for a smooth roll out. Since our goal was to have the middle school at 1:1 in the classroom, we started the full suite there. Two teachers took the Google Certified Educator training so they could be additional point people in the building. Every teacher on campus started with the basics of gmail/calendar as well as Sites for their class webpages.

I have slowly worked my way down to the fourth grade and will continue building skills with them for the rest of the year. My goal is to add the third grade next. While it's great to work with the kids in the computer lab, the success lies in the teachers using it in the classroom.

Classroom has changed the way I deliver instruction in my classes. I can put a whole lesson together in one place (including resources, weblinks, reflections, and assessments). The best part of all is that regardless of the hardware platform being used (Apple, Windows, etc), every student can access the work. The Forms App allows me to ask questions, quiz, survey, or use Exit tickets with my students (and fellow teachers).

The Share feature within the Apps (docs, slides, sheets) has the students creating and collaborating on work in a way they couldn't before. The G-Suite is working great with our Chromebooks and the Admin Console allows us to control the permissions for what students can (and can't) do.

I have been able to access my work wherever I am, reply to student questions or comments easily, and update or edit things on the fly.  I wholly recommend  G-Suite if you are thinking of taking your class or school in that direction. Be prepared for some bumps, but in the long run, it's well worth it.



 

ISTE2011 - Another Great Day !

Greetings All! Day 3

Marcie has summed it up pretty well so I thought I'd let her take the lead (since I am very very tired right now & my brain is full). I will add comments along the way.../suzanne


Well another great day at the ISTE convention..it's a little bit overwhelming...actually a lot overwhelming but so useful.
Biggest thing I think we realized today is that we need to get rid of our textbooks (eventually anyway... ok maybe not math) but SS and Science are completely moving online now and they are soooo interactive! and no these aren't just the kind of textbooks you just read online, they are completely interactive so you are appealing to all your VARK (visual, auditory, read and write, kinesthetic) learners, (how's that for differentiation!) (I totally agree-these new interactive "tech books" encompass an exciting way to bring plain old text to life./smc) This was a funny video that hit home with Suzanne and me! (very funny/smc)
Joe's Non-Notebook
Our kids today need interactivity to learn, they need multimedia textbooks that they can interact with to learn. ..oh yeah and we need more laptops to do it...but that's another issue! LOL (maybe netbooks, too/smc)

Anyway we attended a seminar today that explained the brain and how engaged learners (today's digital native kids) learn more when they are having fun. It is proven research. If we create lessons that are fun, collaborative, and appealing, they learn more...that's all there is to it. (we also were given statistics on the attention span of varying age groups in relation to lectures...a hint: not very long- so kids & adults are checking out much faster than we know/smc)
This video is a good case in point. So funny! Fun Theory

We also learned about the importance of global connectivity! There were several schools on a panel for a seminar that we attended who are not only connecting (via skype) with schools from other countries to discuss topics, but they are sharing blogs and doing projects together. It is awesome. One of the panelists was a principal who assigns countries to each of her grades and they search for teachers and schools to skype with...(i.e. 1st grade Germany, 2nd Grade Australia, etc) There was another panelist, Kathy Cassidy, who is a first grade teacher (hear that lower grades, we know some of you were wondering about this) and has a blog for each of her students. You can find it at KathyCassidyBlog . The kids post pictures they've drawn and other kids from all around the world in fact comment on them. The blogs are so cute because the kids still use their creative spelling. (This was my favorite and most energizing workshop for ideas of the day/smc)

They all said the best way to work with parents is to communicate right up front early in the school year that this is what you intend to do and most of them will get on board. She avoids last names and putting names with pictures, but other than that she uses everything, photos, video, etc! But to be honest...all the talk at the convention lately is that we all worry too much about internet safety and that it is getting in the way of real student learning! One of the speakers told us to review the Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA) which can be found here. http://www.fcc.gov/guides/childrens-internet-protection-act (There is also a great article in the Learning & Leading magazine this month regarding the debate over using real names over pseudonyms so children learn to take responsibility for what they write...hmmm, interesting. /smc)

Great day!!!!! Tomorrow it's all over!
Marcie and Suzanne