The Math Learning Center has some wonderful free math interactive apps with downloadable versions for specific operating systems and devices. There are Chrome apps for Fractions, Geoboard, Math Vocabulary Cards, Money Pieces, Number Frames, Number Line, Number Pieces, Number Rack, and Pattern Shapes. These can be pinned to a Chromebook Shelf for easy student access.
Or more importantly, do you have a nice backpack? No? Would you like one? If so, keep reading!
This year UCET has teamed up with Steph Davis and Osprey Packs to give away one "Pixel Daypack" each month starting in October 2016. To win, all you have to do is tell us "What's In Your Backpack" on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
Post a picture of you and/or your students using Instructional Technology to enhance learning. Use the hashtag #ucet4success with your post. We will scour the web each month and select the best image that captures the spirit of UCET and award the educator who posted it a free Osprey Pixel Daypack and two tickets to next year's UCET Conference. From now until March that's six opportunities to snag one of these awesome packs. You'll be the coolest educator carting around your edtech gear at #ucet17!
These certifications prove your expertise as a Google for Education user in the classroom! Each certification includes an online training course, practice reviews, and a 180-minute certification test. The certifications can be used on blogs, websites, social media profiles, email signatures, and professional resumes.
Here is a great idea from Kasey Bell at Shake Up Learning using Google Draw to make a template for Magnetic Poetry.
This is a view only version of the template; make your own copy and then distribute to students through Google Classroom for an individual or collaborative project where students can drag and drop the words on to the Canvas.
Bring parents and guardians into the loop as the new school begins. The following web tools facilitate teacher/parent communication.
Google Classroom
You can now invite parents to receive a "Guardian Summary" of student work and class announcements.
Class Dojo
Let your students document their classwork through photos, videos, and notes! They get to share it all with their teachers and their parents. Student Stories are now part of all ClassDojo accounts. Check them out today: www.classdojo.com/StudentStories.
Remind
A safe, simple, and free way to stay in touch with students and parents without using personal emails and phone numbers.
Canvas
Parents can be invited as an observer in their student's Canvas classroom. Contact Cory Little at 801-354-7485 for instructions.
One of the concerns I often hear from teachers is that although they would like to use more technology in their classrooms, they don't have the time to learn and implement new tools. Here are some great tips from Ask a Tech Teacher about using intuitive technology that students can self-teach.
Google Classroom now includes the ability to poll students. You can ask multiple choice or open ended questions, set a due time and date, add attachements and videos, and give students the ability to reply to each other.
Google for education posted 4 suggestions for using this new polling features:
Prezi's can be embedded into a blog or website. Just copy the embed code at the bottom right of the Prezi and paste it into the html editor of your site.
Animoto is a digital storytelling web tool that easily creates stunning videos. Just choose a theme, upload videos, and add text if desired. Animoto adds the panning effects, transitions, and background music. The personal version limits the videos to 30 seconds and adds a watermark.
However, teachers can apply for a free educators account that provides the following benefits:
No watermarks
Unlimited 20-minute videos using up to 600 photos
50 student accounts
HD quality
3000 music tracks
Share via email, embedded in blog/website, YouTube, or downloaded file.
Did you know you could type and edit a Google document with Voice Typing? Just open a Google Doc and select Tools>Voice Typing, and then click on the microphone displayed on the left to begin typing.
This week Google added a wide range of voice commands including punctuation, selecting text, coloring and highlighting text, editing and adding tables, and even asking for help. Here is a list of all the new options:
Easily create digital sand art images with this free web app. Students can snap a .png image of their finished artwork and use it to enhance another digital project.
As teachers, we excel at scouring the internet, hunting and gathering new resources and ideas from other educators. However, we are more hesitant to contribute to online communities, planting questions, cultivating ideas, and sharing our harvest. Often that is because we feel we don't have anything significant or meaningful to share.
Here is a great list from Chalkup with ideas to ignite your thinking. While it is meant for Twitter, these can also be great starters for Blog, Facebook, or Google+ posts.
One of the perks of being a Certified Google Trainer is connecting with other Trainers worldwide who share their resources and tips on a daily basis. Here are two gems I found today.
Spreadsheet of Recommended Apps and Extensions by some folks at Northville Public Schools. The list includes descriptions, cost, ratings, links to YouTube videos, and direct links to the Chrome Web Store.
Ed Tech Nut Website by Kelly Fitzergerald, a Tech Integration Specialist from Austin, Texas, who knows her Google! Her home page has a filtered collection of apps and extensions--check out the rest of her website also.
With 300 hours of video being uploaded every minute to YouTube, finding your favorite instructional videos can be time consuming. Creating playlists in YouTube is an easy and efficient way to save your YouTube videos and share them with students and colleagues. Retrieve your playlists from your YouTube library, share the URL, embed the playlist on a blog or website, and collaborate with others in compiling the list.
Creating a YouTube Playlist and Embedding it in Blogger
