Teaching with Technology

Using educational technology to enhance the learning environment and increase student engagement!

Happy Birthday, Illuminate!

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Happy Wednesday, friends! I’m writing to you today from the comfort of my desk chair in my basement office at HOME! That’s right – we’re out! My last day was last Friday and I’ve been sleeping late, taking naps, wearing shorts, and hanging out with my daughters. I’m also drinking coffee, but that’s no different than any other day of the year 😉 We’re getting ready to head to the library now, but before we do I wanted to celebrate something with you — the birthday of Illuminate!

Yes! Today is the one year anniversary of the launching of my first book, Illuminate: Technology Enhanced Learning. Notice how I said “first book?” More on that later 😀 I cannot believe that it’s been an entire year since my book was released! I’ve loved participating in book studies, Twitter chats, and meeting so many of you who have read Illuminate – it’s been such a great year!

To celebrate the birthday of Illuminate, I would LOVE to see pictures of you with your copy of Illuminate, your reviews on Goodreads or Amazon, or tagging a friend in a post to let them know they need a copy!

Do any of these things today, tag me in your post, and I’ll send you some swag!

Thanks again for your support of my blog and my book! You’re awesome!

Summer Learning Opportunities with EdTechTeam

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“You’re so lucky, you have the summers off!” Have you ever heard that phrase? As the daughter of a teacher, my mom and I heard that from my dad ALL THE TIME! My husband says the same thing to me at the end of the school year, and my sister gets it from my brother-in-law, too! What non-teachers don’t understand is that while teachers may not actually be in the classroom during the summer months, we’re still working on our craft.

Sometimes, working on our craft is taking some time for self-care which looks different for everyone. Self-care for me includes a variety of things, like my recliner, coffee, my treadmill, the ocean, reading, and naps — all the naps 🙂

Working on our craft also includes reflecting on the year that was – I use my blog as my primary reflecting platform, but I’m also quite active on Pinterest! I’ve said this before, but teachers should earn some kind of professional development credit from Pinterest – ha!

Another way we can work on our craft during the time away from the classroom is by participating in activities that encourage professional growth. Conferences, workshops, webinars, courses, and book studies are fantastic avenues to accomplish this task. These activities often provide teachers with great opportunities to connect with and learn from other educators around the world.

EdTechTeam is offering a GREAT selection of online book studies this summer through which teachers can connect with and learn from other educators and authors, in an “on-demand” learning environment. Check out the fantastic course offerings here and be sure to use the code WELOVETEACHERS when you register by May 31 to receive a 20% discount!

What can you expect to learn from these courses? Real, practical, and easy-to-implement strategies that you can use in your classroom to enhance student learning! Awesome, right?

These courses begin on June 15. Be sure to register, grab your copy of one of many amazing books, and join the fun!

Thanks for reading 🙂

 

Mystery Post – Teaching with Technology

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Happy Monday! We’re almost halfway through the month of May, which means I’m only a little late with my monthly mystery post. My bad! You know how it is at this time of the year – we’re rushing to finish our content, meeting deadlines, and struggling to maintain energy and motivation to continue making learning awesome for our students. Hopefully, this post reaches you before the end of your school year so you can put the tips to use! Without further ado, here’s the May mystery post from Teaching with Technology!

DRUMROLL …

The topic of the May mystery post from Teaching with Technology is …

CHROME SHORTCUTS!

That’s right! Using shortcuts in Google Chrome is super-easy and a time-saver for teachers AND students. Here are a few of my favorites …

–> Insert a hyperlink by highlighting the word/phrase/image, selecting CTRL + k, pasting or typing the link. (CMD + K on Mac)

–> Reopen a closed tab with CTRL + t (CMD + t on Mac)

–> Create a new Doc, Form, Presentation, or Sheet using the “.new” option. Simply type form.new in your Chrome browser to create a new Google Form – easy peasy!

–> Insert a comment with CTRL + ALT + m (CMD +OPT+ m on Mac)

–> Center align text or images in a Google file with CTRL + SHIFT + e (CMD+SHIFT+e on Mac)

–> UNDO recent action with CTRL +z (CMD+z on Mac)

What are your favorite shortcuts to use? Share your best practices!

I hope you have a fantastic week! Thanks so much for reading 🙂

Edpuzzle Updates – May 2019

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Happy Monday! I opened up Twitter this morning and noticed an awesome new update that will help teachers continue to reach all of their students! Closed captioning is now available on Edpuzzle!

This is a fantastic addition that will not only help students with audio impairments but also those who prefer to “see” content as opposed to only hearing it. This will also help those who forget to bring their earbuds and would rather not use the community “Petty Beats” headphones that I keep in my classroom 🙂

I haven’t geeked out about Edpuzzle in quite some time, but it is truly one of my FAVORITE tools. If you’ve read Illuminate, you already know that!

One of my favorite features of the “assignment” option in Edpuzzle is that I can prevent my students from skipping through video content with a simple click of a button — or, a toggle of a slider. This same assignment box also allows teachers to post the assignment on Google Classroom if your roster is tied to a Classroom section. This option is especially awesome for younger students who may not be able to easily follow multiple steps to reach a destination.

Now, teachers can also turn on closed captioning for their videos from this same assignment box. WOOHOO!

I hope your week is off to an awesome start!

Thanks for reading 🙂

10 Days to Illuminate Learning

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Hey, all! I hope your week is going great and you’re digging deep to find the energy and motivation to be awesome for your students! I know I’m struggling this week – we’re on a weird testing schedule where 3-4 classes each day are an hour and a half in length to accommodate state testing guidelines. We’re used to 45-minute classes 🙂 I don’t know about you, but I’m upping my already impressive caffeine intake in an effort to keep learning fun and engaging for my students!

May is also a pretty exciting month for me – we’re coming up on the ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of the launch of Illuminate: Technology Enhanced Learning! I CANNOT believe it’s been a year already, and I’m so incredibly thankful to all of you for not only reading my blog but also for your support of Illuminate! You guys are AWESOME!

To celebrate the upcoming end of the school year, I’m launching a new type of book study – 10 Days of Illuminate – designed to encourage teachers throughout the last days of the school year. Here’s the plan:

Starting Monday, May 6, I’ll post a “share square” with options from each chapter of Illuminate. Choose what you’d like to create/share, post a link to your product (if applicable), tag someone you think needs to read Illuminate, and be entered to win a Starbucks gift card! I’ll pick a winner on May 17, which also happens to be my last day of school 🙂

Grab your copy of Illuminate and get ready to end the year on a high note!

Thanks for reading 🙂