Teaching with Technology

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

3 Reasons to Read Illuminate Before School Starts

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Hey, all! Happy Tuesday! We’re officially in the second half of summer – if you’re like me, the Fourth of July marks the halfway point. My back to school dreams have started and my wheels have been turning, thinking about changes and updates I’m making in my classroom for the new year! Are you looking for ideas and energy to jumpstart your back to school planning? Illuminate is the book for you! Here are my top three reasons that teachers should read Illuminate before school starts:

1. Motivation (XP, Take What You Need)
A few years ago, I learned about the concept of gamification of learning at a conference and immediately thought, “this seems like a lot of extra work.” I fell into the same motivation slump that my students were experiencing – teacher facepalm moment. When I finally jumped into the gamification pool, the results were awesome! Students love earning XP for completing assignments, “bonus missions,” and winning games. I often find myself “throwing XP around like confetti” to help give my students that extra boost of encouragement. Check out Chapter 8 of Illuminate for a guide to getting started with XP and gamification!

2. Virtual Field Trips (Google Earth, Nearpod)
My students LOVE going on virtual field trips. Heck, I LOVE going on virtual field trips! Really, though … who doesn’t?! It’s fun, educational, and super engaging for students at all grade levels. As a high school Social Studies teacher, we use virtual field trips almost daily to connect with places, people, and concepts we’re learning about. Are you discussing the branches of government? Check out the White House, Supreme Court building, and the Capitol building! Learning about French monarchies? Tour the Palace of Versailles! The possibilities are endless and the result is an engaging component to your lesson, using technology. Interested in learning more about taking your students on virtual tours, but also helping them create their own virtual reality? You’ll love Chapter 2 of Illuminate!

3. Demonstrate Learning with Memes (IMG Flip, Google Drawings)
Memes … they’re EVERYWHERE! We see them, and so do our students. When we can connect pop culture with class content, student engagement can go through the roof! As a year-end activity, my Government students create memes that describe concepts they’ve learned in class. I preface the activity with this: “pretend that you’ve just met someone who only speaks ‘meme’ and you must explain the concept of ________ to them using a meme.” The products that my students create are fantastic! Definitely check out Chapter 3 of Illuminate for more tips on using memes in your classroom, but also how to encourage your students to create representations of what they’ve learned!

Have you read Illuminate, yet? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks for reading 🙂

5 Top Tips for Using Google Classroom Series – Tip #1

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Hello, all! I’m still here! I’ve taken a brief timeout from blogging, social media-ing, etc., while my family and I were on vacation. We got back from Florida late last night before Tropical Storm Barry made landfall, and we had a great time! I don’t know about you, but I can definitely tell that we’re in the second half of summer vacation because I’ve been having these random ideas pop into my head about different ideas, strategies, and tools to use in my classroom in the fall – I guess it’s in my teacher DNA! If you’ve been keeping up with the Google Classroom updates and additions that have been rolling out over the last few weeks, you’re likely SUPER pumped, especially if you’ve been a Classroom user for a while. The new grade book looks fantastic, the rubrics (for those in beta testing) are fabulous, and it looks like locked mode will be available for GSuite users in August. All of this in addition to the fantastic features of Classroom that we already know and love!

All of these changes and updates can get overwhelming. As I share in Illuminate, with all of the tech available for teachers and students, sometimes we can be tempted to throw up our hands and say, ” I just figured it out! Stop changing!” To combat that urge and share my favorite tips for using Google Classroom, I decided to create this quick guide for teachers. I’ll be sharing a one-pager in the next few days 🙂

Tip #1: Add the Share to Classroom Extension
Holy moly. The Share to Classroom extension is a huge hit in my classroom. When I presented earlier this year (in 4 states over 5 days!) my students biggest piece of advice for me to give was to tell the teachers to add the Share to Classroom extension or, as they call it, “the push thing.” Why? Because it’s easier for them to access resources, games, etc., that I share with them. Yes, I could write the link on the whiteboard. Yes, I could post the link on Classroom. But they just LOVE that I can push the resource directly to them!

How can you use this lovely extension in your classroom? Talk to your Google admin and request the Share to Classroom extension be pushed out to student and teacher Chromebooks. Or, if that route doesn’t work, and your students are able to add extensions on their devices, walk them through the steps of adding an extension.

When you add the extension, you’ll be able to click on the icon on your extension bar and see a list of classes that are associated with the Google account with which you’re signed into Chrome.

Next, access a resource you want to share with your students – websites that I share with my students range from primary and secondary sources, contemporary issues articles, to links to play Kahoot! or Quizizz – yes, the URLs for those websites are super short and easy to type, but if the teacher can just push it to you … ha!

From the Share to Classroom icon, you’ll be able to create an assignment or announcement with the resource, ask a question, or push the resource to students. Select the class section and push! That’s it!

The extension will push the resource to your students and it will “magically appear” in the bottom portion of your student’s screen. After a brief pause (1-3 seconds usually) the resource will open in a new tab on student devices.

WOOHOO!

I love using Share to Classroom when I’m out for the day to encourage my students to remain on task. I open a new Google Doc and push the blank doc to my students. As they appear on the doc, I type “get to work!’ in funky red font. It’s great!

What are your favorite uses for Share to Classroom? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Check back soon for tip #2!

Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading 🙂

 

Great Citation Creator – MyBib

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Hey, all! It’s been a second since I’ve shared a post with you, hasn’t it?! I’ve been thoroughly enjoying my summer, and I hope you have been doing the same. My daughters are both involved in sports, camps, and swimming lessons, and I’m neck deep in some FANTASTIC online courses – I’m literally teaching 6 classes online right now! My best friend and I have also been running a volleyball camp for three different age groups this week – I actually brought my Keurig to the gym yesterday! I’m busily prepping for my summer presentations and thought I’d share a great Chrome extension for creating citations that I learned about earlier this year!

A few years ago, I shared a post about RefMe, which was a fantastic Chrome extension that helped my students easily create citations. It was 100% free, easy to use, had an app, and was just glorious. Then, as some tools do in the world of edtech, it was bought out and absorbed by another company. I was SO BUMMED. They had even sent me a RefMe coffee mug!!

Since then, I’ve been searching for something similar. Earlier this year, while I was presenting on Social Studies and Google Classroom around the country, a teacher shared MyBib – a Chrome extension that students can use to create citations.

To get started with MyBib, add the extension to your Chrome browser by clicking here and granting it permission to run on your browser.

Then, head over to MyBib and log in with your Google account – yet another website that doesn’t force me to create and forget a username and password!

Next, have your students choose a source they’d like to include in their work. To grab their citation, they’ll click the extension, choose their preferred citation style and, voila! Students can either copy/paste the citation and/or in-text citation or can save their citation to a project. Students can also edit the citation within the extension or on their project. The project, the work cited or bibliography, can be shared with classmates, encouraging collaboration!

Have you used MyBib in your classroom?

Thanks for reading 🙂

Illuminate Summer Learning Series

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Happy Sunday, friends! I’m entering the third week of my summer vacation, and my daughters are already starting to argue, whine, and complain that we haven’t done anything “fun.” We’ve been to see the new Aladdin (two thumbs WAY WAY up!), been to the park, our hometown fair, won three goldfish (one is still living!), been to the library, and made multiple trips to Panera. We’re doing all sorts of fun this summer! We’ll be making a trip to Branson soon and to Philadelphia for ISTE at the end of the month – will I see you there?! Speaking of summer fun – let me tell you about the Illuminate Summer Learning Series – a fun way to spend your days this summer!

 

I got the idea for the Illuminate Summer Learning Series a few months ago, honestly probably in January of this year. As I present at conferences and schools around the country, I’ve had teachers ask if I have any online courses or webinars. My response has always been, “I don’t, but that’s a great idea!”

Now that I’ve had a second or two to myself (I’m not exaggerating, friends!) I’ve decided to launch a series of mini-courses that teachers can complete “on-demand.” While we all know that teachers don’t really get the summers off, it is nicer, at least in my experience, to be able to “go” at a slower pace than I do during the school year. Here’s how the courses work:

  1. You register (and pay) for a course
  2. I send you a code for our Google Classroom section
  3. I post instructional videos, learning tasks, and opportunities for reflection/collaboration on Sunday for you to complete by Saturday of that week
  4. You spend as much time or as little time as you want on the modules each day during that week
  5. You get a certificate of completion at the end of the course

That’s it! My first round of classes starts on June 9! I’m so excited to work with teachers around the US as we discuss the awesome features of Nearpod, Top Tech Tools for the Classroom, and the amazing tool that is Google Chrome.

Are you interested in joining the fun? Registration closed on May 31, but I’m re-opening the form through June 6 at 11:59 PM. Don’t miss this opportunity! Click here to learn more about the courses I’m offering!

I hope to work with you this summer!

Thanks for reading 🙂

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!