First Ever Techcoach Chat on Twitter

A number of weeks ago, I accepted a new position in our district.  Technology Integration Specialist.  I wanted to connect with teachers who had similar responsibilities and did so through Twitter.  Along with @michellerussell we created the #techcoach chat which started last night.  For the first ten minutes it was just three people and THEN it exploded.

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So many great people with so many different and engaging ideas.  The storify is here!

Ideas that I will take away from the chat.

• Whenever I observe teachers performing great things using technology, I will send a form of communication with an "I observed", "I noticed", "I wonder" See Tweet
• Create some sort of time for teachers to learn at their own free will: Whiteboard Wednesdays, Tech Tuesdays, Tech Tip Tool Thursdays See Tweet Digital Citizenship Days See Tweet
• I really liked WOW (Wired on Wednesdays) in summer! See Tweet
• Focus on Technology Look Fors using standards to get teachers to try implementing tech See Tweet
• Techcoach Menu See Tweet See Blog
• Team Teach, Teacher learns tech while you #techcoach teachers See Tweet

Overall, incredible hour of learning and another great example of how PD has changed over the years!

Join us next week for another great #techcoach chat Thursdays 8:30 PM EST. And don't forget to become part of the community...join now.

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Racine School District Hangout Top Ten iPad Lessons

As global learning continues, I will be having a Google Hangout with some great teachers from the Racine School District.  These teachers are moving full speed ahead implementing iPads.  I would like to share ten learning experiences from the past year that were successful using iPads.

My Classroom Blog

1. QR Code Check Out
2. The Big Climb
3. Pic Collage For Reviewing
4. Creative App Carousel Hour
5. Enhanced Note Taking - Explain Everything App
6. Student iPad Created Video
7. Individual Instruction Based on Data Assessment
8. Twitter MVP
9. Shirtee App, Google Form Set Up Math Problem
10. Students Blog Reflection Before Quiz

Please remember, not everything that will be completed using any tech device will go as smoothly as planned.  Try to do what you can, with what you have, with where your at. In addition, if you are designing a lesson try to remember the following items.

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Google Calendar as Lesson Plans and Embedded In Blog

Today was a great day of learning!  Teachers set up calendars for each of their classes or subject area.


To communicate with parents and students these calendars will be used for their lesson plans and embedded into their classroom blogs.  The step by step process is in video and presentation form below.






The entire process of creating a lesson plan in Google calendar and embedding the calendar with a week's lesson plans into a Google blog took one hour.

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Implementing Tech Checklist

Using a great app, Comic Life, that I learned about from @langwitches , I created a checklist for teachers to remember the process for implementing tech while getting help.  I realize that it may be simplistic, but it was the first idea that came to me while using this great tool.

I will be sending this in an email, placing it on our best practice site, and printing SOME paper copies to hand out to teachers.

I really like how the Comic Life app worked.  It was easy to use and allowed for some great font, colors, and effects.  While the cost of the app is pretty significant, $4.99, I think it could be a great checklist creation app.

Teachers could create some digital, visually appealing checklists for students on problem-based learning.  The sky's the limit for the type of lists that could be made.

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Interactive Response Tools

Because I am presenting in two weeks on blended learning and ALL that it entails as I have scene it and experienced it last year, I sent this tweet out to my PLN.

I was blessed to receive a number of responses.  I am putting all of them in one area as a number of teachers may ask about this in the upcoming school year.

In no particular order:

• Socrative
• Today's Meet
• Nearpod
• Poll Daddy
• Smarttech Response
• SMART Response VE
• Answer Garden

I also learned about Larry Ferlazzo's Best of List for Response tools.

Since I do not know what type of device everyone will have or what the wireless connection will be like, I have decided to have two different methods of response.

My preferred method will be to use the Answer Garden tool.  I created a test question and the response shows up below.

I like the way it shows up in a word cloud, and I like the different options for exporting and keeping.  It is also a big plus that no creation of an account is needed.

For those that have a cell phone, I think I will stick with PollEverywhere for now.

I am truly thankful for the help that I received in learning about great tools for interacting with an audience.

Please consider following them:

• @lisettecasey
• @acihlar
• @TeachaKidd
• @jenlegatt
• @KristinStrauman
• @ShellyMowinkel
• @suser1

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edCampGB Final Thoughts

As my first edCamp got underway, I somewhat had an idea of what an edCamp is.  After experiencing it, I now know.

Educators.Relaxed.Collaborating.Learning.

Four fellow teachers joined me that really haven't been exposed to technology as much as maybe other people.  It was a thrill for them to become so excited about the format (relaxed) and the learning that they experienced.  We had a multiple hour conversation after the conference and really became excited about what can be incorporated. Awesome!

My personal experience was fantastic!  Meeting people from twitter was one of the best aspects,. but other aspects of the day rocked as well.

There are so many great options for the schedule, that it is always difficult to choose.

I decided to attend the Evernote, iTunes U, and Tech Coach Sessions.

Evernote: We discovered that we could make a class account and had many people using the account on iPads at one time.  Updating and adding to a note worked flawlessly.  We talked about the benefits of Evernote over other options, due to the ability to upload everything: words, pictures, videos, links, audio.

iTunesU:  This was really an introduction to what iTunes U is.  I enjoyed learning about the "Beyond Campus" and "K-12" section.  I added

• AP European History  (For introduction to our high school AP teacher)
• TED Education Creative Problem Solving
• Google Apps in the Classroom
• Apps for the Classroom
• On The Road To Implementation Common Core with Common Sense
• Common Sense Ending Cyberbullying and Online Cruelty

I will be share the iTunesU resource with our teachers some time during the year as a Tech Tool Tip.

Tech Coach:  Discussed strategies for teaching teachers technology.  We focused on

• ISTE standards
• How to move the non users in our district to users
• Offerings of teaching tech in our district, learning at different times (Learn @ Lunch)
• How we obtain our resources, Twitter, Google+, Facebook, ZITE app
• How we save the resources we find, Evernote, Google Docs, Diigo, all over the place :)

Overall, the day was fantastic and many resources were obtained!

Our tech director would like to incorporate this edCamp idea into a day of professional growth for our teachers in our district.

We can...more details to come!

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Paper Form To Google Form

Our guidance counselor sent me a PBIS (Behavior Management Referral) form that has been on paper in recent years.  She asked, "How can I change this to a Google form?"  Ask and you shall receive.  A short tutorial on how to make a paper form changed to a Google form.

Creating a Google Form is Here!
Episode 21 Paper Form To Google Form

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