Monday eLearning Missive
September 22, 2014
Over 200 people gave me a few minutes of their time this past week. With the fullness of your schedule, this speaks loudly to me. THANK YOU. I'm looking forward to meeting with the staff at Fairlawn on Thursday. This is Week 7 of the EVSC iCats Photo Challenge see info below for the theme and submitting directions. Are you guilty of any of the below? I know I am!
25 Signs You're Teaching in 2014-2015
1. You think of clouds as good things.
2. You believe tagging is the new email.
3. The blogosphere is more relevant a term than the stratosphere.
4. You spent more this year on iPad peripherals than you have pencils and pens.
5. You giggle when you recall how you used to simply give tests at the end of a unit.
6. You google before you even try to remember.
7. You begged your school accountant for an iTunes card instead of your annual classroom fund.
8. Have actually used the phrase “digital citizenship” in a sentence with a straight face.
9. You’re in bad shape if the internet goes down during a lesson.
10. YouTube makes more sense than television.
11. You forgot what chalk does to your skin.
12. Flipping the classroom is an instructional strategy rather than a response to misbehavior.
13. You’re sure Vine is rotting your middle schooler’s brain.
14. Your district has a more transparent facebook policy than they do on assessment or curriculum mapping.
15. You’re scared to explain your blended, student-centered, mobile-centric classroom to parents, so you don’t mention any of it on the syllabus.
16. You’ve “crowdsourced” something–school supplies, for example.
17. You trade rooms with another teacher for a better Wi-Fi signal—and don’t tell them why.
18. You’ve texted during class, but have taken a student’s phone for doing the same.
19. You plan lessons assuming that every student has Wi-Fi broadband access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
20. Students blame passwords and log-in issues rather than the dog for eating their homework.
21. Your students have to explain certain technologies to you, but you pretend you already knew.
22. You seriously consider that if it’s not being talked about on twitter, it may not have happened.
23. You’ve spoken more recently with the tech leader in Mumbai than the new 10th grade Math teacher down the hall.
24. You’d never admit it, but you judge other people by the tech they carry.
25. You’re energized–and absolutely fatigued–by the rate of change in your craft as an educator early in the 21st century.
Schedule Sept 22-26, 2014
Tuesday: AM - AIS Diamond PM- AIS First
Wednesday: AIS First
Thursday: Fairlawn
Friday: AM Flex (send me your requests for help!) PM iTeam Meeting
Bright Bytes Survey
No login usernames or passwords are required.
You will be receving a link very soon, if you haven't already, from your building technology coordinator.
Since the links are building specific, I do not have access to them all.
Forwarding Gmail to Outlook
I know we all have a lot on your plates so to give you one less email box to check you can have the mail forwarded from your Gmail account to your EVSC Outlook account. The directions for doing this can be found here: http://evscicats.com/blog/how-to-forward-evsc-gmail-to-exchange-email/
Google Access Issues
Tool Tip- Plickers in 10 Steps
Plickers combines high tech with low tech. All you need to get started is a device with a camera. This is a way to use clickers in your class for immediate feedback without spending the $$ for the clicker device.
1. Go to www.plickers.com to register for an account.
2. Create your classes by clicking Add New Class. Fill in the basic info and add your students by name.
2. Download the app for your device from the app store. (Android, iPhone, or iPad)
3. Print out a set of Plicker cards. Found HERE.
4. Open the app and sign in with your credentials.
5. Tap the class you are teaching.
6. Click the + to add a question or if you have used the website tap Planned.
7. Click Create or Library. (Library pulls up all the questions you have used.)
8. Type your question and correct answer.
9. Hand out your Plicker cards to students. (Make sure the student has the correct number that corresponds to their # in the Plickers website.)
10. Tap the camera icon. Scan the room as the student holds the their card that corresponds to the answer. (The answer they wish to use must be pointing up)
Where the Magic Happens.
Please submit any photos from the week by:
- You can share via Instagram- Simply post your Instagram photos using the hashtag #EVSCstory. Feel free to add other hashtags as well to indicate the theme (e.g. #Selfie), or add more information to the caption to help tell the story.
- You can share via Twitter- Post your photos to Twitter using the hashtag #EVSCstory. Again, we invite you to add other hashtags, including some of our EVSC hashtags like #evscchat. You can also include our Twitter handle (@evscicats) to ensure we see your pictures as soon as you post.
- You can share via Facebook- Visit our ICATS Facebook page, click the Message button in the upper-right corner, and in the text of the message give us your name, school, and the theme for the week. Be sure to attach the photo by clicking the Add Files button. While you are there, we’d love it if you liked our page
- You can share via Google Drive- If social media isn’t your thing, feel free to share your photos directly with us through Google Drive. Use this link to access our shared folder. You will need to then click the blue Open in Drive button. Then drag your photo into the window, or click the red upload arrow in the upper-left to search for your photo and click Open. It would help us if you would name your photo with the week’s theme and your name and school.
How to Check Out the Photos
After each week’s challenge, we will post a link to the archive of the week’s photos here. Follow the link, and enjoy the story that unfolds!
Sarah Stephens - eLearning Coach
Email: sarah.stephens@evsc.k12.in.us
Website: evscicats.com
Location: 2319 Stringtown Road, Evansville, IN, United States
Phone: (812)435-0979
Twitter: @edtechintegrate