What Fish are in your School? 🐟 🏫

I learn an incredible amount on any given day about educational technology. The world of ed-tech is growing at such a rapid pace, one could easily learn something new every hour of every day! Students have taught me many new things, staff members, and famous ed-tech leaders out on that there interweb 😉 !  This week, I learned quite a bit from two of my favorite tech bloggers Richard Byrne of Practical Ed Tech and Eric Curts of Control Alt Achieve. I also learned of a new (to me) extension from teacher/Google Leader/blogger Alice Keeler and Matt Miller (Ditch That Textbook) while working with our own Lauren Dalton! Lastly, Chris Alles sent me a WICKED COOL FREE website that would be great for Elementary and Middle school teachers.  Check out some awesome click bait below:

The Fish in MY School 🐠 🐟 🐠 🐟 🐠 🐟 🐠 🐟 🐠 🐟 🐠 🐟 🐠

Chris Alles sent me a great site this week called “Whoos Reading.”  I created an account and fiddled around. At first, I thought, THIS IS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE. However, so far….it’s the catch of the day!  This site boasts that it is a FREE, and improved according to them, version of Accelerated Reader. Basically, teachers set up or import classes via Google Classroom (ALWAYS CLASSROOM – YEAH!). Students then can search for any book and take a quiz. However, the quizzes are open response style, and STILL, get scored! WHAT?! I know, right?! It’s a super cute owl who gives feedback for the questions too.  Students can also answer questions in an online journal WHILE reading and receive coins to upgrade their owl avatar. The site also reads aloud as well and has a speech to text option so students can dictate their answers rather than type.  It is a very cute site…I’m still waiting to find the catch, so if you find it, comment below!

Lauren Dalton is an amazing preschool teacher and early childhood coordinator at Central School. Speaking as a parent of a former student in her class, I can say she is AWESOME at sending home weekly emails and pictures to show what is happening in her classroom. This year, she wanted to find an easier way to do this. In our hunt, together, to figure out the best way we tried the extension DriveSlides (created by none other than Alice Keeler and Matt Miller).  This extension is SO COOL – it will take a whole folder of images….any images….and plop the whole thing into a slideshow. You have to see it to believe it.  Watch here!

Other Fishes in the Sea 🐠 🐟 🐠 🐟 🐠 🐟 🐠 🐟 🐠 🐟🐠 🐟 🐠 🐟 🐠 🐟

Practical Ed Tech Handbook 🐠

This Google Doc handbook is an incredibly useful resource written by one of my favorite techies, Richard Byrne. The best part is since it is a Google Doc, he constantly updates it! If you save it to your own Drive (File: Save to my Drive.…not make a copy) you will always have the most up to date version!It features some great tech including:

1. Communication with students and parents.
   Text/ SMS/ push notification tools.  (A GREAT TEXT APP FOR PARENTS, besides REMIND)
   Email management tips.
   Blogging tools.
2. Web search strategies.
   Getting beyond the first pages of Google.com results.
3. Digital citizenship.
   K-6
   7-12
4. Video creation.
   Video projects and tools for creating them.
   Tools for building & distributing flipped lessons.
5. Audio recording and publishing.
   Web-based & mobile recording tools.
6. Backchannels & informal assessment.
7.  Digital portfolios.

6 Bad Ways to Write Email 🐟

The title above says it all! I love Eric Curts, he has so many great posts. Check this one out here – ESPECIALLY, if you are new…so many good tips!

There is still so much to learn that it’s hard for me to not get overwhelmed! I often take a breath and say to myself…”just keep swimming.”

What FISH in your school teach you new things? What fish in the sea do you like to follow? #togetherwearebetter

Comment below 🙂