Videos That Inspire

Who doesn't love to watch videos that leave you feeling uplifted and inspired? These twenty-six videos have something for everyone. Each viewer will come away with their own interpretation of the purpose and message. 

Watching the little girl experiencing rain for the first time helped to remind me that first experiences can be magical and to allow children the time to absorb them. Moonshot Thinking and Rubik's Cube carry such inspirational messages of hope for the future. And who doesn't love watching Kid President? Hearing him talk about everyday heroes has to warm even the coldest of hearts. 

So take a few moments out of your busy day and watch a few of them. I can guarantee that you will find something that will make you smile, think and believe in a hopeful future. 

Far Too Long

It has been far too long since I have thought about adding to this blog. After watching Matt Cutts TED Talk - Try something New for 30 Days I have decided to renew my blogging efforts. If for no other reason than to chronicle my thinking around the profession I have dedicated my adult life to - teaching. 

So here's my first post for the new year. Today I watched a webinar about personalizing professional development to meet the diverse needs and passions of educators. Three passionate educators; Tom Murray, Kyle Pace and Steven Anderson shared their insights and experiences around why, how and when educators should be allowed to personalize their professional development. Listening to them was like listening to conversations I have had with colleagues in my own building over the past year. Hearing them discuss personalized PD was so reaffirming. I hope others will also find them as insightful and inspiring as I did. 

Digital Art and Photography For the Classroom

Having grown up as the daughter of a talented artist I have had ample opportunity to view and appreciate art throughout my life. Naturally, I have my favorite mediums and style, as influenced by my father's own art. With that said, I have also become a fan of digital art created on iPads. 

There are oodles of photo editing and art creation apps which can lend an artistic flair to student projects. The apps I am going to highlight here are but a few available for use on iPads. I started getting creative with geometric designs as I was working on an iTunes U geometry course for my fourth graders. 

The first geometric design was created using Sketchbook Express. This free app is easy to learn and allowed me to create images quickly. Once I finished the image I saved it in my photo library. From my photo library I was able to access the image using the next three apps. 

The second image above was created using the app Percolator. I imported the original image to Percolator and then had fun playing with the different adjustments until I had something I liked. I have used Percolator with student portraits and this has led to some fun 'Guess who this is?' displays. 

For the third image I used Word Foto. This app has many educational uses. Again using the original image from my photo library I was prompted to add words. The app then randomly filled the image with my text. There are various styles and fine tuning adjustment available once the words are placed. After making my final adjustments I saved the Word Foto image to my photo library. I could also share my new image using either an email or Facebook upload. In the classroom this app could be used to highlight key concepts or vocabulary for any image a student wanted to use. There is tremendous potential here.

In the fourth image I used the free photo app Snapseed. This app tends to bring out the more artistic side of the user with multiple filters, frames and fine tuning of images. Again the user has multiple options for sharing the image, including the iPad's photo library.

With these four easy to use apps, there are so many creative options for teachers and students to explore and create images, which will enhance lessons and projects. It is well worth adding these to your app wish list. 

Created with WordFoto for a biography project.

Created with Percolator for a nonfiction project.

Smart Notebook App Gets Smarter

     About six years ago I acquired a Smart Board in my classroom for the purpose of meeting the needs of a visually handicapped student in one of my math classes. I learned, mostly through trial and error, how to use the software and eventually created all of my Every Day Math lessons with Smart Notebook. Even though the student moved on at the end of the year the Smart Board stayed. Then a few years ago I received a grant to purchase two iPads and an Apple TV. With the apple TV and an app called Splashtop Whiteboard I was able to control my math lesson from anywhere in the room. This was a huge advantage as I was able to have greater proximity to the students. Things were running pretty smoothly, but there were frequent glitches. However, as we all know technology continues to improve and advance. 
     In the fall of 2012 Smart Notebook released an app for the iPad. I was intrigued. Could this be a way to resolve the glitches I was bumping into using the Smart Notebook software with the Splashtop app? At first it wasn't and I was very disappoint and a little angry since the app was expensive, at least as far as apps go. The problems were numerous, it would crash, it would freeze, and it was difficult to get the lessons from my laptop to the iPad. In my disappointment I even wrote an unfavorable review and went back to using Splashtop. But I knew the app had potential and I was betting on Smart Technologies to make it right. Several months later they did. With an update to the Smart Notebook app many of the problems disappeared. So I gave the app a second chance and this time I wasn't disappointed. 
     There are differences between what you can do using Smart Notebook on a laptop and what you can do with the iPad, but the Smart Notebook app has gotten smarter. The crashes and problems with screen freezing have disappeared. Now I can easily access my lessons by storing them in Dropbox. I can also upload the lessons to the two student iPads in the classroom and have students follow the lesson at their seats, this is a big deal to 10-year olds. When a student is absent I can have them review the lesson with a classroom support person when they return to school. This year I had a student who struggled with math and her parents asked how they could help. They had an iPad at home and were willing to purchase the Smart Notebook app, so I started to send the lessons home on a weekly basis. The parents would review the lessons with their child and her math confidence began to improve. 
    While the Smart Notebook app is smarter now, I am hoping that the next update will make it a genius.

The Padagogy Wheel

I discovered this graphic through my Twitter PLN. The concept is great. Designed by an obviously creative and thoughtful educator, I am so glad Allan Carrington is willing to share his work combining the SAMR Model with Bloom's cognitive domains. This makes perfect sense. The apps connected to each section connects technology in a way that helps teachers determine the best options to challenge students at every level. 

Google Drive Workflow for iPads

If you are a teacher you know handling lots and lots of student papers and projects can be an organizational nightmare. When students create digital projects and papers teachers also need a way to organize the incoming files.  This is a great tutorial which outlines the workflow on an iPad using Google Drive with iMovie, Book Creator, Notability and Explain Everything. The narrator of this tutorial makes the workflow feel logical and doable. No more searching for digital files submitted by students! In addition to keeping files organized, this is also a solution for the teacher in terms of sharing out files with students. I have been looking for this type of workflow and am thrilled to have found it!


Google Drive iPad Portfolio from EdTechTeacher on Vimeo.

Is Your Webpage Dead?

How many times have you opened a teacher webpage and within a few seconds realized the very busy teacher, who created the page, hasn't touched it in months - maybe even since last school year?  Teachers are busy, stressed and overwhelmed. So how do we expect a teacher, on top of everything else, to maintain a current and relavent webpage?

For most of us a webpage is a place where parents can go to see schedules and get classroom updates (maybe). There might even be a link or two. Over the summer and in the first weeks of school teachers will update and add things to their webpage. But then September rolls into October and that very busy teacher gets swamped, the webpage becomes nothing more than a memory and the class updates become outdated. 

I hope this post will give educators an opportunity to examine why they have a webpage. If you ask a teacher you will probably find that most teacher webpages were created because there was an inservice in their district and teachers were told they needed to have a webpage on the school website. Since creating the page they haven't had time to get back to it and have probably forgotten how to manage most of the features. That's the honest truth.

So how do teachers breathe life into their webpage? I believe teachers need to step back and ask themselves - what do I want my webpage to do for me? For my students? Do I want my page to be  for communication with parents? (You might consider a blog instead.) Or, do I want my webpage to be a place for students to go when they need to connect with a site I want them to use? For me it is the latter. I decided a few years ago to make my webpage a place for students. A place to access sites I have previewed and found helpful in promoting learning and engagement. In the past year I have started to link my own math tutorials. These tutorials virtually allow me to be at home with my students when they get stuck on their homework. I also use my webpage to showcase student work and projects. Students and parents have reported how much fun this is for relatives who don't live close by. For example, grandparents get to see their grandchild's latest iMovie project from half way cross the continent! 

So, what does a teacher need to think about when developing their webpage? 
1. Purpose - Who is the webpage really for? What do you want to accomplish through your webpage? Is it a place for parents to get information or is it for the students?
2. Be realistic - Once the year gets started how much time will you realistically have to keep the page current?
3. Keep links updated - At least twice a year check any links you have on your site. Are they still active? Dead links are a bummer.
4. Consider using your page as a teaching or communication tool. Since I often use my webpage in lessons I keep it current out of necessity. This also refreshes my skills in managing the various features of the page. 

So, give it a try. Examine your webpage's purpose and the rest will fall into place.