Teaching Matters Everyday
Five Tech Tools I Couldn’t Live Without
None of these are groundbreaking, mind boggling sources of extreme teaching innovation. They are just tools that I find myself using on a daily basis. Things that make my life as a teacher easier so I can spend more time focusing on student learning.
Participating In a Twitter Chat: www.tweetchat.com If you’re new to Twitter, especially to chats, TweetChat will automatically sort Twitter, showing only those tweets with the hashtag you put in. For that hour in a chat, it makes it easy to join in, adding your own tweets without giving adding the hashtag a second thought. If you are on Twitter and you haven’t experience a Twitter chat, what are you waiting for? @Cybraryman1 has them all organized here.
Creating PDFs. Using the simple “CutePDF” you can print any file to a PDF. Just install the program, then select “CutePDF” instead of your local printer. I do this for any document I send out, because you never know what version of what program your recipient will have. Also, if you are posting newsletters or documents for students, they can easily open on any mobile device or home computer.
Google Drive. If you have a gmail log in, you have a Google Drive. Across the top of the screen, when logged in, you’ll see a link to click “Drive” right next to “Gmail.” You can create a new document or upload an existing document, develop forms to survey and collect real-time data, and even collaborate on documents with people all around the world. The most important feature in Google Drive is “Share.” When you have a document open, click the “Share” button in the top right, then you can email it, assign editing rights, and start collaborating.
Apps Gone Free: If you love to try out new apps, especially browsing random ones that you might not have known about otherwise, Apps Gone Free releases new free apps every single day. Find new games, utilities, and even the app you can’t live with out and didn’t even know it. Check it out in the itunes store. It’s free. 🙂
SaveTube: You know when you find that GREAT video to share with your students, and oh yeah, YouTube is blocked by school filters? With SaveTube, you can save it and share it with your students afterall. Very simple to download and backup any YouTube video just by pasting the URL in. Visit SaveTube and check it out.
So, those are my five current favorites. What is YOUR favorite-can’t-live-or-teach-without-tech-tool?
10 Reasons I Love a Snow Day
Thanks to Kelly Tenkely for the quote! 🙂
1. It’s like pressing the PAUSE button the the DVR of life. As crazy busy as our days at teachers are, this is our pause.
2. Hot chocolate with extra marshmallows.
3. I get to catch up on my Google reader that now stands at about 865 inspiring blog posts that I want to read.
4. Spending an unexpected day off with family.
5. Cook something warm in the crockpot and dinner is not a driveby situation as we rush in the door from a hectic day.
6. Extra marshmallows. Oops, did I mention that already?
7. Because of Twitter, I never know what I will learn on a snowday, but I can guarantee I will learn something.
8. Watching those TV shows that I need to catch up on. Today? It’s Walking Dead. Yes. I love Zombies.
9. Getting Edmodo messages from students who are enjoying their day off, too.
10. As soon as my daughter wakes up, she’ll be wanting to make something, and we will.
The Questions In The Room
I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my teaching. Especially when it comes to the focus I’ve put on answers. On choosing the right one. On finishing with the correct words. Learning is far more about the questions. In a discussion today about our future, I asked students an essential question, “How does our past effect our future?” Their questions? They flooded the room and filled the air. How can we stop global warming? What is going to happen to the economy if gas prices keep rising? How can we stop endangered animals from becoming extinct? How can we help people be kinder to each other? Is technology more harmful than helpful? The list goes on. The problems? They were real. Big problems. Problems that there really aren’t ‘right’ answers, too. The kind of problems our kids are going to be solving in the future. We need to start getting them ready now. Sure, sometimes, life is about that one right answer. But, more often than that, life is about the questions you are asking.
