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Techie Text Tools

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Tech Tools for Your Reading Block

Our Favorite Tech Tools!  Time to Share!

Wow 'Em with Weebly!

PEF Tech Showcase 2016

We had a blast at The Beauty of Engineering!  
It was sponsored by twiSTEM and the University of Evansville College 

of Engineering & Computer Science. 

 

 

 
 

 

 

Developing Digital Leaders...

Google Presentation

Created with Padlet

Why Blog?

Guiding Questions:
What's the purpose?  
Who is your audience?
What is your message?

What will we do?
Goals
Look at other blogs
Jump in and play!
Next Steps...


Why Great Teachers Blog & How to Get Started
Seven Reasons Teachers Should Blog


How Many Pages?
-Home
-About
-Ireland
-Others? (Other Resources about Ireland?)


My Favorite Teacher Blogs:
Kleinspiration -  Erin Klein, 2nd Grade Teacher, Michigan
The Cool Cat Teacher - Vicki Davis, High School Teacher, Georgia
6 Traits of Writing - Kristina Smekens, Indiana
Cybrary Man! - Retired Teacher, Florida
Cybrary Man's Blogs Page
Angela Maiers - #youmatter - Iowa






EVSC iCats: Creating a Profile in Blogger:

Create a Team Blog:
https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/41440?hl=en&ref_topic=12454

We have a dream!

Check us out!
Lincoln Lions share their dreams, as they celebrate and honor the life of Dr. Martin Luther, King, Jr.

We hope you like our video! 

Professional Learning: There's a Chat for That!

Did you know?  

There are over 300 Twitter Chats for teachers every week?  It’s true!  Check out the schedule here.  Have you ever wondered how other teachers begin that challenging unit on measurement?  There’s a chat for that!  How do colleagues make the Civil War come to life for middle school students?  There’s a chat for that! We are hearing a lot about “flipped learning,” but what does it look like?  There’s a chat for that, too!  Twitter chats are powerful sources of professional learning.

Getting Started…

This is a great video by Cool Cat Teacher, Vicki Davis.

When you see her screen, you are actually seeing a tool she uses called Hootsuite.  This tool provides the user with a more “organized” view of Twitter, shown by the columns.  Another popular tool among tweeting teachers is Tweetdeck; it offers several of the same features as Hootsuite.

Twitter Chats

This is a glimpse at a Twitter chat.  You can see that Kim Hendrick, Coordinator of Connected Learning for Center Grove Schools in Greenwood, Indiana, is facilitating the discussion.  It’s important to note that the teachers are using #INeLearn at the end of their tweets.

#Hashtags

Hashtags help our tweets stay organized.  If your Twitter account is public, then anyone can see your message.  For example, first grade teachers use #1stchat to connect with other teachers of first grade students.  When you click the word or phrase with the hashtag, then you can see all the tweets with that hashtag.  Indiana educators use#INeLearn to connect with other teachers around the state.  The #INeLearn chat takes place on Thursday evenings.  For more information about #INeLearn, visit the site with the chat schedule.

You can use more than one hashtag in your tweets if you want to reach out to more groups.  You may be interested in reaching out to all teachers; #edchat is recommended for such use.  You can use hashtagged words and phrases at any time while tweeting.  Hashtags are not limited to chats.

Archives

Miss a chat?  No problem.  They are archived for later viewing.  One such example is the archive of the #flipclasschat below.  The facilitators of this chat keep their archived chats in a Google Doc.  Another popular tool used for archives is Storify.

 Suggested Uses

Jump in!  Look around!  The brilliance of Twitter is that the user can determine his/her level of participation.  You can watch, follow, or jump right in and participate.  Many teachers all agree that Twitter is the best professional development tool they have ever used.  Teachers find great ideas, solve problems,  and find inspiration in the Twitterverse every single day.

Additional Resources

The Complete Guide to Twitter Hashtags

Cybraryman — All about Twitter!

Classrooms that Tweet!

How to Chat on Twitter

13 Great Twitter Chats Every Educator Should Check Out

EVSC livebinders Twitter page

Twitter is only one of many social media resources that provide personal and professional growth opportunities and support collaboration. Many teachers use Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, and other tools to connect with others and learn online.

Your Challenge

Today’s challenge is to examine how a Twitter chat of educators could expand your professional knowledge.
How could you use this resource to connect with and learn from other educators?
How could other educators learn from you?  Share those reflections in the comments below.
If you have another great tool for collaboration and professional learning, please feel free to add it to your comments as well.
Do you participate in any educational chats?  What have you learned from those chats?
Is there a specific topic in education that interests you?  Please share below and we will find a chat for that!

Who needs a brain break?

Brain Breaks are a useful tool for students to use to help activate, energize and stimulate their brains. Research indicates that brain breaks help students relieve stress.  Exercise boosts brain power.  Cardio activity increases oxygen-rich blood flow to the brain and increases students’ ability to concentrate.  What does this look like in the classroom?  Go Noodle helps answer that question. When I was a 4th grade teacher, this quickly became a favorite in my classroom. I must admit - I loved it, too! I appreciated the fact that the videos were safe, and I didn't need to worry about my students seeing something they shouldn't. What a relief! If it happened to be a student's birthday, that student picked our videos! It was difficult to stop at just one, too! We love Go Noodle!

Go Noodle is an online tool that is filled with safe videos that help students find their focus, by stretching, moving, and breathing.  Videos range from 2 minutes to 5 minutes, giving teachers lots of flexibility in planning.  

Getting started is quick, easy, and free!  You begin with your information:

Next, it’s time to name your class:

After naming your class, it will be time for your students’ favorite part: it’s time to pick your CHAMP!  You can change your Champ at any time.  As your class accumulates minutes from videos, your Champ’s muscles will grow; students love that!

Before each video, you will see your Champ, along with a fun fact:

It is helpful to review the videos before trying them with students.  There are some videos that are more appropriate for older students, such as “Cha Cha Slide,” while others may be best suited for primary students, including “Don’t Give Up,” with Bruno Mars and The Muppets.

It won’t be long before students pick out their favorites, such as “Let it Go,” “Everything is Awesome,” or “The Continental Drift,” all from recent popular movies.  

Think about times throughout the day when students are asked to sit for long periods of time; these are great opportunities to try Go Noodle.

Go Noodle has a YouTube Channel.  This is a great tool to use to view some of the videos. All the videos are included on their website.

Go Noodle has a Facebook page that has helpful suggestions and this page is used to announce new videos.

The Go Noodle Blog is a very helpful resource, filled with recommended strategies for the videos.

Have questions or suggestions on how to improve this tool?  Follow Go Noodle on Twitter. They add new videos and resources quite often, and they rely on teachers’ feedback for improvement.

Reflect on your daily schedule.  When would be a good time to get students up and get them moving?  

Is there a test coming up in which the breathing and stretching exercises could benefit your students?  Give Go Noodle a try.  Get that cardio going!

Mr. Townsel...

I had wanted to visit The Ron Clark Academy for years - YEARS - before I finally got to go.  Thanks to a grant by the Public Education Foundation, my dear colleagues and I were finally blessed to see the magic in March, 2013!  Within minutes of being inside the building, I was in tears, as I imagined what it would be like if ALL schools felt more like RCA. Yeah, you can just feel it.  There's an energy, an excitement, a deep commitment to do whatever it takes to see their students succeed.  It's evident in everything they do.

I'll never forget Mr. Townsel.  His students were amazing, without a doubt, as they rapped the periodic table!  (How did they do that?) Their passion, energy, and enthusiasm just left us speechless!  Wowzers!

It was at the end of the day, however, when Mr. Townsel left his mark on me.  You see, his classroom was home to several snakes.  Lots of snakes.  Fat, slimy, scary snakes.  Yuck!
We were visiting with him and he asked me if I wanted to hold one.  My immediate response was, "NO WAY!"  He continued to encourage me that yes, I could do something that terrified me greatly.  In the end, I did in fact, hold that snake, but I made Mr. Townsel stand right beside me the whole time!

Even without knowing him well, I know that that's what he did for everyone around him - he guided us, encouraged us, and stood beside us as we took risks.  He told us that we could do things that our fears were telling us we couldn't.

My heart is sad that the world has lost such an incredible teacher, but we are blessed that his GREAT LEGACY lives on in all of us.  Fear is something I struggle with daily, but Mr. Townsel's encouragement and compassion is something I will never, ever forget.  Rest in peace, Mr. Townsel, and thank you. 

That Day We Went to College...

Wow!  What a day!
 

Some of my eLeaders and I returned to my beloved alma mater, Indiana State University, on Saturday, November 1st, to participate in their annual gathering of amazing teachers, Sycamore Educators Day!  We had such a blast!

It was an emotional day for me, as I reflected on so many great memories spent on that campus many years ago.  It was in that very building - what is now the Bayh College of Education - that I decided to become a teacher!  Back then, it was the University Lab School.  I'm so thankful for the incredible professors I had, who taught me more about life than about passing the next test.  Some of those professors had such an impact on me, that I make sure I stay in touch with them.  They still hear from me during "Teacher Appreciation Week" each year.

It was a beautiful day to teach teachers!

We had fun sharing our favorite techie tools with teachers, and learning from them too!  If you'd like to see what we shared, click this link and it will take you to our presentation slides.  Enjoy!

Our t-shirts had the hashtag!

5 Reasons Your School Needs a Student Tech Team. Now.

I know what you’re thinking, because I’m thinking it too: where do I find the time?   Yes, I guess I’m asking you to add one more task to your over-flowing plate.  I promise you, it will be worth it.  When I started what became the Oak Hill eLeaders three years ago, I had no idea it would take us all on a path I could have never imagined.   Did I ever think I’d have an 11-year-old keynote speaker at a tech conference?  Did I ever imagine I’d see 10-year-olds traveling the country on a mission to teach teachers how to effectively integrate tech tools into their classrooms?  Did I think I’d see my eLeaders present to teachers on a college campus?  Not in a million years! 1. Your students need opportunities to be heard.  Loud and clear.  They need the opportunity to work on a project and a purpose that is bigger than they are.  They want the chance to make the world better with their contribution.  Daniel Pink discusses this in his book, Drive.  I believe it is a must-read for all teachers.Your students are going to blow your mind.  They want to follow Kid President’s advice to “make the world more awesome.”  Give them that chance. 2. You and your students can use your right brains!  You can CREATE.  You can get messy.  You can take risks.  You can imagine.  You can think outside the box!  No one is collecting data on this process!  Yippee!    Daniel Pink tells us that right brainers will eventually rule the world, and I believe him! (If you haven’t read this book, you must!)  We are educating students for jobs that don’t yet exist!  How do we do that?  We do that not by teaching to the test, but by providing opportunities for them to collaborate, solve problems, and lead! 3. Autonomy! You don’t have a curriculum map to follow!  Nothing about your experiences with your tech team is prescribed for you!  You will love the freedom this brings.  If you’re a rule breaker and a disruptor like I am, you will cherish this.  It will fuel your passion to keep going, despite those days when exhaustion is getting the better of you.You can create opportunities for students to choose what they learn.  When do we ever get to do that anymore?  (I will describe how I did this with my eLeaders in an upcoming blog post.) 4. Your students need the chance to become masters of their own learning. Angela Myers teaches us all about helping kids find their genius.  They need the freedom to figure out what they care about, and what they are good at. They need the time to ask lots of questions of you - of each other - and of themselves.   For some, they will be Minecraft masters.  For others, they may become the stop motion animation experts.  Some may create awareness of social justice issues by developing web sites to do so.  Some may become the techies who help teachers fix their computers!  Others may take that 3-D printer and create something miraculous!  It’s all possible! 5. There’s no pre-test.  There’s no post-test.  What you and your students will create cannot be measured on a standardized test!  Your journey will not be able to be “standardized,” because nothing about it will be “standard.”   As Peter Reynolds says, Create Bravely.  That’s what I’m going to do.  I will be starting new tech clubs in two different schools next month.  I’ll share my journey and I look forward to hearing about yours.

Contact me.  I’m on a mission to give students a voice. My mission is not to see you recreate what my Oak Hill eLeaders did, but to forge a new path and see where it takes you!  If you have started this journey, I’d love to hear from you.  Let me know how I can help.  I can’t wait to learn from you and your students.  Let’s do this!

Thank you for making the world more awesome...

Hey teachers, who’s ready for another amazing school year?

I keep thinking about all the hours you are spending in your classrooms to make everything just right before school starts next week.  I need to take a minute to send you a message.  

You see, I know what you’re doing right now:  you’re taping, copying, hanging, organizing, planning, teaming, measuring, learning, waiting, running, panicking, dreaming, working, meeting, drinking (coffee!  Where’s the coffee?!), reading, praying, cursing (you know who you are! ha!), borrowing, stapling, moving, worrying, shopping, buying, sleeping (well, not really), and freaking out!    ...And you’ll wake up, and do it all over again tomorrow!  :-)

You need to hear this.  Loud and clear:

Thank you for all the sacrifices you make every single day to serve your students and their families.   

Thank you for helping that student teacher learn how to master this beautiful, complicated art we call teaching.

Thank you for trying to keep up with the latest acronyms in the building.  The list keeps growing!

Thank you for going to work on that day that your head won’t stop pounding.

Thank you for the awesome ideas that hit you at 2:00am, even though you wish they would have arrived around 6:00am instead!

Thank you for sitting through those verrrrrrrry long meetings with a smile on your face, knowing the info. could have been sent via email.

Thank you for volunteering for that committee, even though you’re wondering where you’ll squeeze in the time to serve.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you for giving up your lunch break to help cover the recess duty.

Thank you for pressing on, especially on Fridays, when the exhaustion is beating you up!

Thank you for sharing all of your materials and ideas with the new teacher down the hall, because you know he/she is scared to death.

Thank you for joining the PTA, because they rock!
Thank you for trying that new “techie tool” even though you have no idea when you’ll use it.

Thank you for learning how to send a tweet.

Thank you for always learning.

Thank you for finding the humor that lifts everyone up!

Thank you for persevering until the light bulb comes on!  Magic!

Thank you for that hug you gave that one student, just because.

Thank you for drying all the tears on the first day.  And the second day.  And the third day.

Thank you for doing what you do.  Every day.

You inspire me.  You motivate me.  You DO make a difference.  It is my hope that you believe that.

I hope you have a fantastic year!

(...and if you need help with that techie tool, call me!)

Thanks for making the world more awesome.

~DeLyn

Why I can't go to #ISTE without my students...

#ISTE14

We just returned from #ISTE14 in Atlanta… and I’m feeling exhausted, excited, and inspired!  It recharges my batteries every year; this year was no different!  I love learning from so many amazing teachers.  And by teachers - I mean the 11-year-old kind - those young people usually known as “students.”

 I can’t go to ISTE without my kids - my Oak Hill eLeaders.  You see, they are my greatest teachers.  I have learned more from them in our past three years together than words can begin to describe.  They have changed my life in countless ways, because they’ve been my greatest teachers.  We’ve logged a lot of miles together, traveling to various conferences around the country to teach teachers how to use techie tools.  It’s been such a blast!

2014 marked our team’s second trip to ISTE.  Last year, we made the journey to San Antonio.  Check out our pics here.

Experiencing #ISTE14 through their eyes is much more magical than through my own, narrow lens.  Why?

They ask questions.
They explore.
They laugh.
They have FUN!
They tell their story.
They share what they know because they’re not scared.
They take greater risks.
They lead.
They teach.
They are BRAVE.

(Let’s be honest.  Traveling through the vendor hall is much more fun with them as well, but I almost lost them forever when they found the Minecraft booth!)

Check out more pics here...

 During our poster session, we had such thoughtful conversations with people from all across the country.  It was so fun to step aside, let the Oak Hill eLeaders shine and do their thing!  Isn’t that what we’re called to do as teachers?  Empower them and get out of their way!




In his book, Drive, Dan Pink challenges us to provide opportunities in which our students have autonomy; we must give them choices and let them make decisions and own their learning. They need time to practice so they can "get good" at such tasks, which he identifies as mastery.  They also need to feel that they are a part of a bigger project, which he calls purpose.  What better way to provide such opportunities, than to collaborate and travel to conferences to teach others?  

 As I reflect on our experiences at ISTE, I recognize the need for more support for those of us who sponsor student tech teams.  I’m on a mission to create some opportunities for us "Tech Team Coaches" to connect and learn from each other.  Stay tuned.  :-)

 Have you taken your students to conferences before?  If so, I’d love to hear from you.  If you haven’t, I want to challenge you to consider it.  There is so much we can all learn from them.  Sometimes I think we become guilty of talking so much about students, but we don’t take the time to stop and listen to them.  We don’t take the time to learn from them.  Let’s change that.

Thanks, #ISTE14, for more wonderful memories.  My brain hurts and my heart is full.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.