Teaching with Technology

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

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!

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 🙂