An Ed Tech Tip for Administrators - READ SOME BLOGS!!

Discovering and reading blogs has been one, if not the most, influential personal and professional growth experiences in the past two years. I know that blogs have been around for a lot longer than two years, so I often think about what I was missing out on related to education prior to two years ago. The great thing about blogs is that there are several out there for anything. You can easily do a blog search to find one. Writing a blog has been a professional experience as well, but I will save that for a future Ed Tech Tip for Administrators.

Today I wanted to share several examples of great blogs written by several administrators from across the globe. I recommend adding them to your Reader Account.

1.) Burlington High School Principals Blog: Written by Patrick Larkin - Shares his experiences and happenings at his school. Has done a great series of posts on Becoming a 1:1 school. This blog is a great example of how a principal can blog about the great thing his school is doing.

2.) A Principal's Reflections: Written by Eric Sheninger - Does a wonderful job reflecting on what it is like being a principal at a school that epitomizes 21st Century Learning. Occasionally has his students guest blog about what it is like being a student at his school.

3.) School Finance 101: Written by Bruce D. Baker - Money is the number one thing that can get an administrator in trouble. This blog does a wonderful job of discussing financing in education. You can learn more about why a blog about school finance here.

4.) The Principal of Change: Written by George Couros - The blog focuses on helping and insipring administrators and educators discover or rediscover their passion. He has a great list of Leadership Blogs in a list on the right hand side.

5.) Principal's Point of View: Written by Larry Fliegelman - Writes about "Education Reform, Leadership Essentials, Parent Involvement, Standards Based Grading and more."

6.) The Principal's Posts: Written by Lyn Hilt - Writes about her experiences as an elementary school principal and shares the happenings from her school. Occasionally has students write blog posts as well. Shares opinions and thoughts on education and educational technology as well.

7.) The Principals Page: Written by Michael Smith - Even administrators need humor and need to laugh about life as a principal. This blog does a good job of that while also providing thought provoking commentary on what it is like to be a Principal.

8.) Connected Principals: Written by Many Principals - "This blog is the collected thoughts of school administrators that want to share best practices in education. All of the authors have different experiences in education but all have the same goal; ensuring we do what is best for students." You can find a list of contributors by clicking on the pages at the top of the page.

There are several other great administrator blogs that I have probably left off; my apologies. If you know of a great Administrator Blog or you are an administrator who writes a blog, feel free to comment with a link. Thanks!!

Now subscribe and read some blogs!!!

3 Essential Windows 7 Tools

We recently did a computer refresh in our district and several teachers received computers with Windows 7.  I recently typed up a document sharing with them 3 essential tools/apps that they could use in their classroom.  I also wanted to share them here because it is be a bad assumption on my part to think that teachers know about them.  So here is a short description of each tool, how to access the tool, and how to use the tool.  Share with the teachers in your building who also use Windows 7.  These are very simple and effective tools.

Snipping Tool

A.)   Description:

a.       This is a screen shot tool.  It allows you to click and drag around an area of your computer screen.  This is a great tool for capturing photos from the web or text from an article.  This is a tool for taking a “Screen Shot”

B.)    How to Access:

a.       Start Menu/Windows Icon Button in lower left corner

b.      All Programs

c.       Accessories

                                                   i.      If you want it on your desktop, right click, followed by “Send To” and select “Desktop (Create Shortcut)

C.)    How to Use:

a.       Click the down arrow next to new to determine the style of screen shot

b.      Your screen will cloud over.  Click and drag your mouse around the area that you want to capture.  You will see a red line.

c.       Release your mouse button to capture your screen shot.

d.      A window will open with what you captures/snipped

e.      Here is where you will save your image.  There are some additional features: Draw, highlight, copy, etc.  Use as you wish.

Sticky Notes

A.)   Description:

a.       Digital Post-It Notes that you can see and view on your desktop.  No more notes around your monitor screen

B.)    How to Access:

a.       Start Menu/Windows Icon Button in lower left corner

b.      All Programs

c.       Accessories

                                                   i.      If you want it on your desktop, right click, followed by “Send To” and select “Desktop (Create Shortcut)

C.)    How to Use:

a.       Double clicking the icon will open up a post it note.  You can type on it directly.

b.      Clicking the “+” will create a new post it note.

c.       Right clicking on the note will allow you to change the color

                                                   i.      Blue, Green, Pink, Purple, White, Yellow

d.      The x will permanently delete your post it notes.

Magnfier

A.)   Description:

a.       Allows you to easily zoom into certain areas of your screen.  You can also press and hold the CTRL button while using the scroll button on your mouse if you don’t want to use this tool

B.)    How to Access:

a.       Start Menu/Windows Icon Button in lower left corner

b.      All Programs

c.       Accessories

d.      Ease of Access

C.)    How to Use:

a.       Click to open and move your mouse around the screen to see the zoomed in areas.

b.      You will notice a magnifying glass.  Click that to access options.

c.       It defaults to a zoom of 200%.  You can change that if you need to by typing in a zoom or clicking the “+” and “-“ buttons

d.      Clicking on the settings icon (a gear) will allow you to activate color inversion and other features.

iaza - Simple Online Photo Editor

iaza is a simplistic online photo editor that allows you to upload a photo from your computer or copy and paste a URL.  Once you have done that, you have access to several editing features.  The features allow you to make changes to the photo and see them instantly.  You can then share the photos via Twitter or Facebook, or you can just right click and save your photo.  There are so many features with iaza that I can't name them, so I took a screen shot and you can see it below....click on it to see full size.

3 Links for All Subjects and Teachers

Shared on the Technology Bits, Bytes, and Nibbles Blog is a resource from Simple K12;  100 Virtual Field Trips for Teachers.  You can find field trips for just about every subject matter.  From Simple K12:
    "Virtual field trips challenge and expose students to new types of technology. It is a great way to spark their interest and motivate their learning in a specific content area. Virtual field trips can offer students more opportunities because you can take them to places they wouldn't normally be able to go to otherwise - like inside a volcano or ocean floor! In addition, virtual field trips may even boost students' reading comprehension skills and will expose them to different cultures and environments."  Check out the list and see what it might have to offer for your classroom.

The Department of Education provides Federal Resources for Educational Excellence.  Available within this resource are Animations, Primary Documents, Photos, and Videos.  The resources are broken down by subject and then broken down by curriculum and/or time period.  This would be a valuable first stop for teachers looking for some resources to use with their students.  There are several valuable resources for every teacher. 

From Teach Hub comes 100+ Google Tips and Tricks for Teachers.  You will find tips and tricks for using Google Search, Google in Education, Google Docs, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Mobile, Google Chrome, Google Books, and Google Apps.  Looking to use Google in the classroom, start here for tips to learn how.  (Is this a record for the number of time Google appears in one paragraph?)

Weekly Core Subjects Resources

The middle of April is upon us.  Kentucky will start testing in the coming months, so while your students are testing and you are covering classes, giving students a movie break, or whatever it is that you do because testing completely throws you off your schedule, check out these great resources for the subject matter that you teach!

English
1.) Vocabulary.com, the quickest, most intelligent way to improve your vocabulary.  Regardless of your education level or age, Vocabulary.com will help you to master the words that are essential to academic and business success.  You can find synonyms by searching for a word and even how many syllables you want the word to have.  You can also search for rhyming words as well.  You answer multiple choice vocabulary answers and get more tips on how to use the site.  This would be a great time filler.

2.) One Word Riddle - What nine letter word in the English language is still a word when eight letters are removed one by one (Not necessarily in order from right to left or left to right)? Take a few minutes to try and come up with a nine letter word that fits the bill, then watch the linked video.

3.) The Bookshelf Muse is a wonderful blog that I suggest English teachers follow.  The blog provides "writing tools and musings about reading, writing, and other randomness."  I suggest that you look at the right side of the blog for several various thesauruses.

4.) From TeachHub.com comes several video based writing prompts worth checking out and seeing how you can adapt them to your classroom.  The writing prompts are available either elementary, middle school, and high school.

5.) The Writers Notebook is a website that provides several PDF files for creating a Writers Notebook.  Seems to be a very complete resource for students.  You will also find several videos of student samples as well as videos for the Writers Notebook.

6.) Your Next Read is a Book Recommendation web site.  Good for students who are struggling to find books that meet their interest.

7.) Proust (Share your story, Preserve family history, Get to know the ones you love) is a website for users to answer a questions which helps tell people something about themselves.  It is a way for people to store and share their stories and opinions.  If nothing else, you could use the questions for providing reading prompts if not using the site as it is intended.

Mathematics
1.)  Wolfram Demonstrations Project is a website that uses animations and videos to demonstrate how math and science is used in the real world.  The purpose is to help bring ideas to life.  So if you are teaching calculus and want to show how a formula is used in the real world, check out this site.

2.) What's Special About This Number? is a website that provides information and links to resources about hundreds of numbers.  Many could be used for bonus questions on a test or for math brain teasers.  Gain some numerical knowledge through this site.

3.) That Quiz provides math test activities for students and teachers of all grade levels.  Click on a topic and users will be able to complete activities to learn about that topic.  There are several categories and topics to choose from.  Users can also determine length, add a timer, determine difficulty, and receive feedback.  Great resource to use before the ACT or SAT.

4.) Interactive Games provides visitors the ability to play and create their own mathematics games.  There are 6 different types of games that users can create with instructions for how to create them.  There are also several games already made that might meet your needs.  Worth checking out.

5.) Purplemath is a website that provides lessons for Algebra I.  It provides links to math resources that have been categorized and researched by them.  The lessons on Purplemath are written with the student in mind and they emphasize the practicalities rather than the technicalities
  
6.) Johnnie's Math Page provides games and activities for kids looking to learn math.  You will find the games and activities for numbers, geometry, fractions, multiplication, etc.

7.) National Council of Teachers of Mathematics is a great resource for math teachers.  They provide lesson plans and activities as well as provide visitors the opportunity to meet other math teachers.

Science
1.)  Earthquakes for Kids from the USGS would be a great resources for lessons on Earthquakes.  With the recent earthquakes in Japan and Earthquake preparedness being emphasized across the countries this would be a valuable resource.

2.) Wolfram Demonstrations Project is discussed in the Math links above, so check out what I said above.

3.) Learning Science is a free and open learning community for sharing newer and emerging tools to teach science.  You will find the best interactives and resources from around the world separated by subject matter.

4.) Science Buddies offers science fair projects ideas, answers, and tools.  You will also find information about careers in science as well as information on science camps.  If planning a science fair, this would be a great first place to look.

5.) Sciencebob provides videos and ideas for science experiments, information on science fairs, and provides an area for questions and answers.  There is even an experiment on the main page for all visitors to participate in and see results.

6.) Amazing Space provides teaching tools, videos, resources, activities, and even homework help for students that relates to exploring our universe.  There are also online explorations where students can explore the universe.  The Educators space provides tools to use with your students in the classroom.

7.) 50 Really Cool Online Tools for Science Teachers - a great list.

8.) First Orbit is a free film for you to download and share that was created to celebrate the first 50 years of human space flight.  It is available on YouTube in five segments and is about 5 hours long.  The iLearn Technology blog also has a great post on the NASA 50th Anniversary Flash Feature.

9.) The National Science Teachers Association provides links and resources for science teachers as well as provides a portal for science teachers to communicate with one another.

Social Studies
1.) Europeana enables people to explore the digital resources of Europe's museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections. It promotes discovery and networking opportunities in a multilingual space where users can engage, share in and be inspired by the rich diversity of Europe's cultural and scientific heritage.

2.) Creating Your Own Constitution is a great fill in the blank interactive that allows students to create a Constitution using similar language and ideas to how it was created for the United States.  A great activity.

3.) I have shared Time Glider before, but never included it with my Social Studies resources, so I thought I would now.  This is a great tool for creating timelines on the web.  Highly Recommend.

4.) American Rhetoric is a website of and index of over 5000 full text, audio and video versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, and other recorded media events.  A great primary resource.

5.) Pros and Cons of Controversial Issues is a GREAT website for government classes and debate teams.  A valuable resource if you have your kids discuss topics that are important and in the news.  The site promotes critical thinking, education, and informed citizenship by presenting research on controversial issues in a straightforward, nonpartisan, and in a pro-con format.

6.) History Matters is designed for high school and college teachers and students and serves as a gateway to web resources and offers other useful materials for teaching U.S. history.

7.) David Rumsey Historical Map Collection provides TONS of maps from various time periods in history.  There are so many different maps on this page.  If looking to show change over time, this would be a valuable resource for geography and social studies teachers.

8.) Teaching the Great Depression?  Here is a great set of lesson plans and curriculum to look over before teaching the unit.  There are 6 total lessons that you can choose from.

9.) Google Map Maker is a great tool for geography teachers looking to make teaching geography more personal to the areas that they live.  A great tool to make using maps more interactive and effective.