Technology for Teachers
February 2016
Wonderful Websites
Spell with Flickr
Check out The Book Chook for some ideas on how you might incorporate this website into your teaching! I thought it might be cute for kids to take a camera around the school as a scavenger hunt for the letters they are learning to create their own Flickr word.
(P.S. I used my Snipping tool to copy and save my image straight from the site!)
IXL
I'm a data geek. I see so much benefit to analyzing data -- actual student performance -- to inform my teaching. It keeps me focused on actual objective truth, rather than subjective feelings about my students' understanding.
IXL is a big part of our math workshop in Room 133. During intervention time, while one group is practicing flashcards and timed tests, and another group is busy with a Bridges Workplace or other math game, and another group is being pulled into a small group with a teacher, one group is at the IXL "station."
I choose the skill(s) and tell students what I want them practicing. I use Analytics to monitor which students are needing help on the IXL skill for that week and help as needed.
Science Bob
Click here to explore!
Valuable Videos
Padlet
I can think of many ways I'd like to use Padlet. This is the same website Kris used at one of our meetings a few months ago. Check it out, and let me know how you could make this work in your classroom!
Keyboard Shortcuts
FIND
CTRL + F = FIND
This might come in handy if, like me, you're too lazy to restart your computer when it thinks the CTRL key is being pressed. You know, when you scroll with your mouse and it zooms your screen in and out instead of scrolling up and down? Yeah, it's super annoying. So having some keyboard shortcuts memorized will help you continue your work when the fateful day arrives.
I use the Find command a lot, even when my computer isn't frozen. I use it when I'm too lazy to read an entire webpage. Wait, I'm sensing a theme here...
Say you want to find what you're looking for on a page quickly. Hold down CTRL and F at the same time. A small drop-down window will appear in the upper right hand corner of your web browser. Type the word and the website will scroll to the next occurrence of that word. It will also highlight all the times the word is mentioned on that page.