UCCS EdTech Tips
Your Weekly Dose of Technology in the Classroom
End of 1st Quarter
As the first marking period comes to a close and you feel haunted by conferences, quarterly exams, and report cards, try to implement one new technology tip that may make your life easier and give you back a few hours of your precious time. Whether it be something small, like a website that visually organizes your favorite bookmarked links all in one place, or something much larger, like a form add-on that can save you hours of arranging and organizing conference schedules or assigning who is bringing what to the holiday class party, I hope you can take something away from this frightfully good Halloween edition of my EdTech newsletter!
Zing! - Free ebooks on any device!
Zing! is a free online ebook site accessible from any device that can connect to the Internet. It features thousands of fiction and non-fiction books for readers of all ages. You can search by genre, topic, theme, reading level, etc. You can even add your own teaching points to any text. Get more ideas and teaching tips as well as suggested ebooks, interviews with authors, lesson plans and more at the free BuzZing website. For only $10 a year get even more access to reporting tools and personalized learning packages for your students. What a great resource!
Symbaloo
Symbaloo is a social bookmarking tool that allows you to create visually appealing webmixes of sites that you want your students or parents to visit. You can create different categories of webmixes and share them with your students and colleagues or embed them on your class web site or have the students save them on their iPad homescreen. Symbaloo is accessible from any device and even has an education version at Symbalooedu.com. Create a tile for anything with a URL including videos, lesson plans, presentations, images, web sites, and more. Check out one of my webmixes that I have created for EdTech Tools.
Choice Eliminator - Google Form Add-On
With conferences and other holiday parties and sign ups going on in the classroom, it makes me wonder if teachers are using any technology tool to help make filling these slots any easier. There are many apps and websites out there that I enjoy using that I will mention over the next few weeks and let you decide which one works best for you. I will start with Google, because it is a product that we use daily and might feel more comfortable with. Google Forms are easy to create and Add-ons can make your forms even more useful. Check out Melinda Waffle's blog post with step-by-step instructions of how to use this add on.
Event Information
Creating and Maintaining a Class Website
We will be using Weebly to set up a class website and explore options for best layouts and take a look at examples of successful teacher/classroom websites. Use the following spreadsheet if you would still like to sign up: https://goo.gl/WvwGm3
When?
Monday, Nov 2, 2015, 03:00 PM
Where?
High School Media Center
Event Information
Google Drive for Beginners
If you are using Google apps daily with your students, you are probably no longer a beginner. If you aren't, this is the PD for you. Let's get you freshened up on your Google game and make sure you know all the features of Drive and its related apps and how it can work in your favor for collaborating with your colleagues and working with your students. Go to the spreadsheet to sign up: https://goo.gl/WvwGm3
When?
Tuesday, Nov 10, 2015, 03:00 PM
Where?
Elementary School
Sarah Overholt
Technology Integration Specialist
Email: soverholt@unioncityschools.org
Website: uccstech.weebly.com
Location: 430 St Joseph St, Union City, MI, United States
Phone: 517-741-3316
Twitter: @silvertechie