Stuff to check out this summer
in between trips to the pool, hanging out, & napping, I mean
Looking for some new teaching ideas this summer? Try some of these links.
Still trying to master Google docs and all the other Google tools? Me, too. You might want to look at the Google Tools tutorials from Richard Byrne (Freetech4teachers.com) and others.
Stupeflix, Xtranormal, Masher, Animoto - all these are ways you can use video in your classroom. Learn about these and more from freetech4teachers.com
Want to engage with other teachers across the country about issues that matter to you? Join the community at Teachabililty.com and network with educators on a wide variety of topics. (Full disclosure, I do write for teachability under the name erinblogs.)
Want some food for thought (it's low cal, perfect for summer)? Watch some of these TED Talks Education presentations. There's also a TED page devoted to lessons worth sharing called TED-Ed. Some older TED talks related to education are noted by Richard Byrne HERE.
Can you tell I really like Richard Byrne at Freetech4teachers? The guy's amazing. He has so many great resources to share about education, and that's what he does. Every single day. He used to be a teacher, but now he just does this. I follow his blog via an RSS feed and get a headline every day on my Yahoo reader (don't know what the heck all that means? Check out this page for more info on RSS and feed readers). He also has a post about the top ten blogs he looks at every day which you might find interesting.
Wes Fryer is another guy who really will make you think about education and teaching strategies. His blog is called Moving at the Speed of Creativity. Wes is a digital learning guru and the author of Mapping Media to the Common Core. He has a lot of great presentations and handouts on his website as well.
Looking for some new apps to try out? Check out these links:
55 best free education apps chosen by the people at TeachThought.com
http://www.teachthought.com/apps-2/the-55-best-best-free-education-apps-for-ipad/
Educational Technology and Mobile Learning’s list of apps educators need
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/12/a-list-of-all-best-ipad-apps-teachers.html
Edutopias top five apps for teaching across content areas
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/ipad-apps-all-content-areas-andrew-marcinek
35 Must Have apps as recommended by Appolicious (for iPhone and iPad)
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/ipad-apps-all-content-areas-andrew-marcinek
Apple in education - all their apps
http://www.apple.com/education/apps/#
Literacy apps for struggling learners from the state of New Hampshire http://www.education.nh.gov/instruction/special_ed/documents/apps_early_literacy.pdf
Education.com’s suggested apps for elementary school kids
http://www.education.com/slideshow/ipad-apps-elementary-school/
Ipadapps4school.com’s suggested apps for learning to read
http://ipadapps4school.com/2013/04/21/sentence-reading-magic-ipad-apps-for-learning-to-read/
And finally, your school's e-book collection
Did you even remember that you have ten e-books available to you and your students? Many of you may not have had a chance to check out your school's e-book collection. We received these collections FREE from ABDO Publishing. There are ten books of varying levels and genres for elementary and ten books for middle school. There's a link to the books in the Book Resources section of the Library Resources page.
If you didn't get chance to take a look during the school year, please take a look now. There are some really good titles available. They're multi-user access books, so if you had the students in a computer lab, working on laptops or using iPads, they could all be reading the same book together (or reading different books in small groups or all reading independently). You can also use them with your projector. It's a great opportunity, so please take advantage.
Update, June 11: This just in! No more passwords are needed and you have access to all levels’ titles!!
Here are your usernames and passwords, though, just in case:
(username &user PW
DeepCreek tigercubs
Damascus tigers
EastGresham eagles
McCarty hornets
GordonRussell thunderbirds
PowellValley panthers
HighlandGBSD huskies
NorthGresham stars
WestOrient wolverines
ClearCreek wildcats
eastorient eagles
hogancedars hawks
hall hurricanes