Teaching with Technology

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

Nearpod + Google Earth = AWESOME!

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When I present at conferences or schools around the state/region, I take my daughters and my Momma with me for a mini vacation! The girls hang out with Grandma in and around the hotel while Mommy gets excited about educational technology! (We leave Daddy and Papa at home to work!) Last week, I shared the awesomeness of Nearpod with a fantastic group of teachers at Pembroke Hill in Kansas City, Missouri. I LOVED their enthusiasm for teaching and their excitement for using Nearpod in the classroom!

I absolutely LOVE so many features of Nearpod, but my favorite engagement tool is the virtual field trip. I LOVE being able to take my students to places around the world-I think it makes the content come to life in a way that can’t really happen with a video or primary source! As I was sharing this fabulous feature with the great teachers at Pembroke, a teacher asked if the virtual field trip feature was like Google Earth. I said that this was similar to a Google Earth activity, except that the virtual field trip was actually part of the presentation instead of linking to another site.

Then, I mentioned the new updates to Google Earth … have you seen them? Google Earth now works on a Chrome browser! No more downloading clunky software that, let’s be honest, was NOT user-friendly and rarely worked – at least for me. Now, students can access Google Earth and all of its awesomeness on their Chromebooks! Woohoo! Google Earth also unveiled “Voyages” which are great collections of resources and tours for a variety of topics that can be wonderful for use in the classroom.

The new version of Google Earth allows teachers to easily share locations with their students via link. Here’s where Nearpod comes in!

As I was sharing the new updates to Google Earth, I had an ah-ha moment … I was talking about sharing links to locations with Google Earth, and about how Nearpod allows teachers to include websites in their presentations. THE LIGHTBULB CAME ON!

Nearpod (Gold Account and above) allows teachers to include websites in their Nearpod lessons. Nearpod also offers fantastic virtual reality options, but what if you can’t quite find what you’re looking for? Go to the new Google Earth, search for a location (or use Voyages for super awesomeness!), copy and paste the link to your selection in your Nearpod lesson, and voila! Your students are transported around the world without leaving your classroom!

Nearpod + Google Earth = awesome!

Thanks for reading 🙂

Stages of Writing an EdTech Book

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Well, friends – I hope you’re enjoying your “teacher’s summer!” We all know the truth behind the myth of teachers having “summers off” … good one, right?! That’s not to say we don’t unwind a bit over the summer – and this is a well-deserved relaxation! My family and I had a wonderful vacation on the beach in South Carolina, and I thoroughly enjoyed drinking my Starbucks on the beach 🙂 This summer, I’m also having a blast teaching an online Technology for Teachers course and WRITING A BOOK! I am SO EXCITED to be writing an EdTech book that will be published by EdTechTeam! Can you sense my excitement? 🙂

I thought it would be fun to share my stages of writing an EdTech book and ask a favor of you, as well!

Stage 1: I think I want to write a book
I’ve been blogging about educational technology for a little more than three years now and will be starting my 10th year in the classroom in August. I feel like I have some great ideas and valuable experience that I can share with teachers who are in all stages of EdTech-dom. I want to share a simple, but an important message with teachers around the world who are in the trenches with me during this awesome time in education – there are many FANTASTIC EdTech tools available (which can be slightly overwhelming!), but it’s NOT about the technology you have, it’s about how you use it to enhance the learning environment for your students. There is no magic tool that will in and of itself transform your classroom into an amazing learning space. You are the teacher and technology will never replace amazing teachers. Technology can enhance and elevate your classroom!

Stage 2: My book is going to be PUBLISHED!
When I read the email from EdTechTeam that they were interested in publishing my book … I SQUEALED. Out loud. In my classroom. Fortunately, this was during my planning period, so no one was around to see me jumping up and down and prancing around my room chanting, “EdTechTeam is going to publish my book!” I am SO EXCITED that this amazing group is going to help me share my message with teachers all over the world!!

Stage 3: Wait, I still need to write the book … 
I LOVE writing, especially about how I use EdTech in my classroom. However, writing a book is a tad different than writing 600 words on my blog. I can honestly say though that I am having a BLAST writing this book! You can expect it to read like a narrative – like my blog – and have practical examples of how you can use fabulous EdTech tools to engage your students in exploring, creating, collaborating, communicating, reflecting, and thinking critically, as well as how you as the teacher can design lessons, assess, and motivate your students with technology! As you can see, I have SO MUCH to share with you!

Stage 4: What the heck do I title this thing?
Here’s where I need your help, friends. What do I title this book? I’m torn between two titles, and I need your feedback! Do you like … “It’s NOT About the Tech! It’s How You USE It! Tips and Strategies to ENHANCE your Classroom with EdTech Tools” OR … “Make Your Classroom AWESOME! Tips and Strategies to ENHANCE your Classroom with EdTech Tools”  I can’t wait to hear what you have to say! Please click here to cast your vote! I’ll be sure to update you on the results on Twitter and Facebook!

Be sure to join this mailing list for information and updates about my new book … whatever the title may be!

As always, thanks for reading 🙂

Blogging Book Reviews for Kids

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My oldest daughter, Hanna, will be in first grade this fall, and she’s a REALLY good reader! However, like most parents, I want to encourage her to keep reading and keep getting better! Lately, she’s been complaining that reading “takes too long” or she just doesn’t want to read. This makes my book-loving heart hurt! While we were eating lunch today, Hanna was talking about how much she loves watching tutorials and toy unboxing videos on YouTube (seriously, have you ever watched these things?!) and I had an idea … she could create book review videos! Her own vlog about books that she reads! I introduced this topic to her, and she was immediately excited to get started! Then, she panicked a bit because she was afraid to be in front of the camera … I told her she could create a book blog and share her thoughts about the books she reads with anyone. The response? Hanna’s beautiful blue eyes lit up and she squealed, “I can blog like you, Mommy?!” Absolutely! My daughter will be blogging about the books she reads and is EXCITED ABOUT READING!

 

We came up with this idea at about 1:30 this afternoon, and by 3:00 she has already created her blog (using Google Sites), typed an “About Hanna” section, and chose a picture for Mommy to upload to her site. She’s already figuring out how she wants to set up her blog – she wants to have specific pages for book series (like Amelia Bedelia, Fancy Nancy, etc) and wants to limit each page to 3 or 4 books so “the pages don’t get really long and people don’t see them!” She’s excited to have many different pages, as well. For example, Amelia Bedelia part one, Amelia Bedelia part two, etc.

Hanna is EXTREMELY EXCITED to “read lots of books on this blog.”

I’ll be sure to update you as her blog continues!

Thanks for reading 🙂

Zip Quiz Trivia Game from Quizizz

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Quizizz is one of my go-to review activities in my classroom – it’s just so fun and easy to create! My students love that they can play the game on their individual devices, see the class leaderboard, and view fantastic MEMES after they answer each question! The memes, friends. Oh, the memes!!

Quizizz has recently unveiled a great app that students can use to prevent summer “brain-drain” by reviewing age appropriate trivia-like content. The best part? IT’S FUN!

Zip Quiz is similar to Trivia Crack with a few exceptions …

–> Players can choose to “spin the wheel” for a category OR can select a category of their choice
–> Players can choose the level of the questions they receive
–> True to Quizizz form … the MEMES are great!
–> Players can also choose an avatar

Zip Quiz is available as an iOS app.

Here’s how to get started:

On this screen, select “Get Started” – but, I’m sure you figured that out 🙂 Next, you’ll choose an avatar … the focal point of many popular memes.

On the next screen, you’ll enter your username and select your grade level. It’s been a few years since I was in 12th grade, of course!

When you see this screen, you’re ready to play!

Next, you’ll get to select “individual or versus” based on whether you want to play a game individually or against an opponent.

If you choose “play versus,” Zip Quiz will find a random opponent for you to challenge. After you’ve finished the game, you can challenge your friends through text, email, or social media to beat your score!

Next, you’ll be able to either spin the wheel or choose your quiz subject!

You have 60 seconds to answer as many questions correctly as you can! True to Quizizz form, the winner gets a crown and the loser gets a rain cloud! Zip Quiz will show your accuracy percentage, the number of questions you missed, and the number of questions you answered in 60 seconds.

This game is FUN and a great way for kids to continue learning, or at least review over the summer break!

Give it a whirl!!

Thanks for reading 🙂

Create a Class Blog with Google Classroom!

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I LOVE blogging! I love love LOVE it! You have no doubt picked up on this fact if you’ve been reading my blog (thank you!). My blog gives me a way to express myself to an authentic audience, reflect upon my teaching experiences, share my triumphs and struggles from my classroom, connect with and learn from other educators around the world, and provide resources and strategies for other teachers. I LOVE it. I want to be able to offer my students the opportunity to contribute to a class blog because I see so many benefits of students blogging! If I were using the “old” version of Google Sites, creating a class blog through the announcements template would be a breeze. However, even though the new version of Sites is stunning, I’m missing the announcements option! Enter Google Classroom!

Google Classroom has become an essential feature of my classroom. Classroom serves as our landing page and houses Docs, Slides, Forms, important websites, announcements and other resources that my students need. I create a Google Classroom section for each class period and archive those sections at the end of each year. There are MANY ways to utilize Google Classroom sections – some may create a section every quarter, some for every unit, and some may use the same section year after year. That’s part of the beauty of Google Classroom! Teachers can use this fabulous tool however they feel it will best benefit their students!

Now … to the class blog project!

My American Government classes have a gamified component – a huge motivator for some of my students is the chance to earn Bonus XP. I plan to create a section in Google Classroom titled “Bonus Blog” (or something else that’s more clever!) and will have all of my students join that section. Throughout the year, I’ll use the question feature of Classroom to create a variety of blog topics and will encourage all of my students to participate in our Class Blog. How will I choose topics to include on our Class Blog? By surveying my students, of course! I’ll create a Google Form to solicit responses and view the data on a Google Spreadsheet. Forms and Spreadsheets make my Google-heart happy! I also plan to create free-choice questions on the Classroom section to encourage students to authentically reflect upon whatever they want to share!

I tried the concept of a blog using Google Classroom with my online Tech for Teachers course this summer, and IT WAS AWESOME! I loved how easy it was to view and respond to student blogs, and I am so excited to use this activity with my students this fall!

Thanks for reading 🙂