Favorite Finds from TCEA

Guest post by Tracy Brandt, 2nd grade teacher at Johnson Elementary

My name is Tracy Brandt, and I’m a second grade teacher at Johnson Elementary.  I attended TCEA for the first time this year as a part of the Dragons Go Digital program and came home with many new and fun ideas.  Below are some of my favorite finds. I hope they will benefit you as well!

Here are my top 3 favorite finds:

SnapType is a free app available for iOS that allows you to take a photo of any worksheet or workbook page with an iPad, and then use the keyboard to type on the page. You can save the annotated document as an image, make it a PDF, or a SnapType Document. Then you can print, email, or message the document.  SnapType is very useful for students who have handwriting difficulties or occupational therapy.

Smarty Pins is a feature that turns Google Maps into a geographical trivia game.  You can start a game immediately or choose from a variety of topics such as Arts & Culture, Science & Geography, Sports & Games, Entertainment, or History and Current Events. Players start the game with 1,000 miles (points).The goal is to correctly answer as many questions as possible before running out of miles (incorrect answers subtract from your mileage.). To answer, you drop a pin on the city or area that correctly answers the question. Players get bonus points for answering within 10 seconds without using any hints.

Canva.com is a powerful, versatile, and easy creation tool. It uses formatted “canvases” for multiple forms of social, business, and educational media such as infographics, brochures and email headers, invitations, posters, etc. Canva comes with a library of photos, graphics, symbols, layouts and text arrangements for you to use and most are free.  It is also available as an app.  It is very simple to use, just drag, drop, and create!

Favorite Finds from TCEA

This was my second year to attend TCEA. The conference has quite a turnout, and I found it energizing to be in the midst of so many educators. It was also great to be able to follow the conference on Twitter (#TCEA15) so that my learning wasn't just limited to the sessions I could physically attend.

Here are my top 3 favorite finds:

1. Getting organized digitally: Greg Garner’s presentation provided a multitude of digital organization tools. With so much of our lives online, to say things can get overwhelming is an understatement. Greg’s main idea was that we need to “devise a plan and get organized.” If you are organized, you can be more productive. No brainer, right? There are a variety of organizational tools or plans such as GTD, 43 Folders, and IFTTT, but the trick is to find what works for you. Once you find it…be intentional about using it! You can find Greg's presentation with more resources here. 
2. Smarter Chrome: I have been using Chrome as my browser of choice for a while now, and I love the way it makes my life easier. Amy Mayer's session Smarter Chrome (session link) shared general Chrome tips along with extensions and apps that just made me love Chrome even more.  A few examples: 
• The omnibox is pure awesomeness: Want to set a timer? Just type in “timer 10 minutes” (or whatever amount of time you need) and BAM!, Chrome gets a timer going. Need a calculator? Just type in what you need...34*99 and BAM!, Chrome answers it for you. Click here for more omnibox tips and tricks. 
• Extensions are where it's at: We've talked a little bit about extensions on this blog before, and I have a growing list that I regularly use. Amy talked about a few extensions that were new for me, so I had to install them and give 'em a go. TabCloud saves the tabs you have open to reopen later or even on a different computer. Webpage Screenshot lets you take a screenshot, add annotations, or even edit the look of the webpage itself. Extensions can be found in the Chrome Webstore. Click here for some extensions to get you started. 
3. Touchcast: This is a wonderful little app for flipping your classroom or creating interesting video content. Touchcast allows you to pull in video, websites, images, polls, and more creating an interactive and engaging experience. See Touchcast in action below:

(link to video)

TCEA was a great learning experience, and I highly recommend it as a "must attend" for any educator. 

Favorite Finds from TCEA

Guest post by Randy Stuart, Executive Director of Technology

Favorite Ideas:
I think there is always a struggle to either do things the way that they have always been done or to move toward a new, lesser known path. One of the presenters, Kristen Swanson (@kristenswanson), shared with campus leaders three points that I think are essential in moving education forward toward continuous improvement. (More info)

1. Education is fundamentally different in a networked world. If you have spent much time in education you know that it can be a trendy group, and changes fly in and out regularly. Sometimes we are prone to just say “this too shall pass.” However, technology in education is not a passing fad, and it will affect all of what we do. With the availability of apps that solve math equations and show the answer, we must focus more on the learning than on the answer. With the ease of accessing information, we must shift from teachers being the source of all knowledge, to teachers being the facilitator, helping students wrestle and learn from the abundance of information that is available and to do so safely.
2. Effective professional development in a networked world is about relationships. Learning in the classroom is more about relationships than information, and this is even more important in working with adult learners. Adult learners are busy and need to have learning more tailored to their practice for it to be most effective. Those who are stepping out into the tech unknown need to share their experiences with others. Improving our instructional technology practices will happen best as the cloud of relationships we have works together to learn and grow.
3. Learning is messy, but it has a pattern. Gone are the days of silent students in rows reading, and a teacher with a ruler at the ready waiting to strike the student that makes a peep. Learning is best when we are engaged and excited about the material. The framework Mrs. Swanson presented was:
1. Curation - Where we group and organize information.
2. Contribution - Where we share and collaborate our learning.
3. Reflection - Where we synthesize and make connections with prior learning. 

Click here to englarge.

Favorite Tool

Learning Management Systems (LMS) – The vendor area was full of LMS, and many of the sessions at TCEA this year were dealing with LMS. While LMS have been around for a long time, it seems like this latest generation has finally gotten its act together and is ready for the mainstream classroom. Today’s LMS makes it so easy for students to collaborate, receive assignments, and turn in projects from any device. It also makes it super easy for teachers to grade materials and to provide video or audio comments about the student’s work. This is going to make a huge impact on education.

Favorite Tech Gadgetry 
Microprocessors - Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone Black, Arduino…Though these have crazy names, the opportunity for learning with these powerful little devices is amazing. Combine the influx of microprocessors along with a mixture of great programming environments like M.I.T.’s Scratch (simple enough for even early elementary programmers), and you get awesome STEM learning in real world ways. Robotics was also a big part of this year’s conference, with Lego’s latest Microprocessor, the EV3, which gives students the ability to program and test their program on real life animated robots (which can also be programmed by Scratch!). Not to mention the interworking of MakerBot’s 3D printing of Minecraft objects, my mind is exploding with creative ideas!

Favorite Finds from TCEA

Guest Post by Caitlin Frank, Carroll Senior High Economics Teacher

After attending TCEA in Austin this month, I went through my materials and want to share a few of my favorite discoveries. One of the classes I attended and enjoyed was the Apps class where a group of teachers shared their favorite apps that they could use for various teacher activities. Several of the most useful apps included Quizlet, Landtech Esign, Post-it-Plus, Evernote, and Scannable. All of these apps were focused on making the educational experience more digital for students and teachers.

Quizlet is an online quiz system that takes topics from every subject and turns them into notecards that students can study on their phone. My students started using this app years ago for economic vocabulary and they swear by the accessibility of a phone with the benefits of studying notecards. Quizlet is available for iOS and Android devices.

Landtech Esign is a very convenient app for teachers who need to submit an electronic signature. By inputting your signature one time it can save and duplicate it onto any document you need a signature for.

Post-It-Plus is a way for students and teachers to take their important post it notes and scan them into their computer or tablet. It actually scans them in as a post it note and can be used/organized just like an electronic post it note. Post-It Plus is only available for iOS devices.

Evernote Scannable is an app that is a scanner without having to buy an actual scanner. It can scan any document directly onto your phone and enables you to save/share these scanned documents easily. Evernote Scannable is only available for iOS devices.

All of these apps take what teachers are doing everyday but makes the process more accessible and simple. Plus they are all free, which can save teachers time and money when trying to organize their materials. However, the way the teachers organized the class was what made it my favorite class. They used a “Top Chef” theme and incorporated their favorite food/drink apps just to keep the audience involved and entertained. Also they showed each of these apps on their own devices to the class to illustrate how each one looked/worked. This interactive teaching style would also be a beneficial tool for teachers who are trying to share their technology discoveries to their fellow educators.

Favorite Finds from TCEA

This year I focused my learning on all things Google. I wanted to have more in-depth training on the way Google was being used in the classroom. Wow, did I come across some great workshops. One of my favorite finds at #TCEA15 was more theory-based than a "how-to" for using Google tools. It was about application and what that looks like in the classroom.

The workshop was titled "Learning Design with Google in Mind" by Tracy Clark. The concept was how to use Google+ Communities to push challenged-based questions to students. (DISCLAIMER: This concept works best with secondary students because a Google+ account is needed.) The workshop itself had four challenges for the participants to complete centered around the Four C's of Technology Integration.

Here's the 411 of implementing this with your middle school or high school students:

1. A Google+ Community would need to be created for the learning.
2. Challenges would need to be created and loaded to the Community prior to sharing with the students. (Feel free to look at Tracy's examples. She even loaded videos with some challenges.)
3. Students should be placed in groups before access to the Community.
4. Benefits of designing a lesson with Google+ in mind:
• Students are given a challenge-based question that requires deep thought process.
• Students use one of the Four C's of Technology Integration to complete the challenge.
• The challenge is not complete without answering the reflection piece.
• The learning becomes deeper when it is more than recall, memorization or drill and kill.

Although I've know about Google+ for a while, I did not see the value of it for the classroom. This concept was so eye-opening. I love the idea of students having a community to complete challenges and apply reflections with everyone in the classroom and also globally. 

Resources:
Tracy Clark's Smore - Learning Design with Google in Mind

Favorite Finds from TCEA

Guest Post by Rachael Hulse, 3rd Grade Language Arts and Social Studies, CES

Hey Dragons! My name is Rachael Hulse and I am a 3rd grade Language Arts and Social Studies teacher at Carroll Elementary. I attended TCEA this year for the first time with our digital team.

Here are just a few of my Favorite Finds from #TCEA15:

Charades for Kids!
This is a really fun way to review any vocabulary words. All you have to do is put in the word list and then you are good to go! We used this for Wordly Wise and they LOVED it.

Plickers
Plickers lets you poll your class for free, without the need for student devices. They have a printed card that they hold up and rotate depending on their answer. The iPad will scan the cards and immediately give you results of what everyone answered. I have loved getting to use this with my students!

 Quizlet
This is a flashcards and study tool that will help students to review anywhere. Students can 1) study on the go, 2) play games to study, 3) create your own flashcards or 4) study with images and audio. A great tool for all learning styles.

Post-it Plus
Use the app to capture an image of the Post-it® Notes from your work session and manipulate them digitally. Capture up to 50 notes at a time and save as a board. You can combine boards. Export boards to PowerPoint, Excel or PDF file. This would be great to use during reading/writing workshop or for exit tickets.

All the apps are free and can be used on any iOS device. The apps can be used across curriculum and are a great way to engage your students. Be sure to give them a try. 

On top of all the great learning, a few of us enjoyed getting to see the Spazmatics perform at the conference. 

Left to Right: Jenny Bowen, me, Jessi Valles

Favorite Finds from TCEA

Guest Post by Candice Karas, Old Union Elementary School Science Lab Teacher

My name is Candice Karas, and I teach Science Lab at Old Union. This was my second year to attend the TCEA conference, and I found it just as beneficial (and overwhelming) as I did the first year! I definitely recommend attending if you get the chance.

Here are my top 3 favorite finds from TCEA 2015:

AnswerGarden.ch – a quick and easy way to assess students

• Create an AnswerGarden in less than 60 seconds – no account required.
• Type a question or prompt and give students the URL; they can answer on any device with a browser. Any time someone from the audience submits an answer, it appears in your “Answer Garden,” which is a word cloud. The more times that answer is submitted, the larger the word grows in the cloud. 
• This is a super-fast way to see what your students are thinking and how many students are on the same page. This tweet shows how I was able to spontaneously use AnswerGarden when a class of 4th grade students brought their devices to the lab.

Page Eraser – erase unwanted portions of a webpage before you display it to your class

• This is a Google Chrome extension.
• Very easy to use: install the extension in your Chrome browser, click its icon when you’re ready to use it, and then click portions of the webpage you’d like to disappear. 
• Nice for getting rid of distracting or inappropriate elements on an otherwise great website.
• The presenters had lots of other useful Chrome tips on their Tackk, and Kristie Johnson has a great ThingLink with more Chrome extension ideas.

Appear.in – video chat tool

• No registration, account, or downloads needed
• Connect up to 8 people in the same video chat
• You could use this to connect to more than one classroom during a Mystery Skype session, hold a debate between up to 8 classes, or to let more than one class take advantage of a guest speaker or virtual field trip. 

Bonus: http://bie.org/resources is a website full of PBL resources.

If you’re looking for other resources, check out my technology blog, search #tcea15 on Twitter, or visit this website to take a look at all of the handouts from this year’s conference.

Favorite Finds from TCEA

Guest Post by Mary Pruitt, K-6 Mathematics and Science Curriculum Coordinator

Hi Tech Lovers! I’m Mary Pruitt and I’m a Curriculum Coordinator.  I went to TCEA this year for the first time in several years and it was good to be back! Such a quality conference! And in case you think TCEA is only for nerds…let me assure you…you are SO WRONG!

Anyway…back to business!  I’d love to share a few of my favorite finds with you…these tools would be great as you communicate with your students and parents, as well as, help you collaborate with other educators.

Screencast-o-matic

• With Screencast-o-Matic, you can easily capture (with or without your voice) a recording of what’s happening on your screen.  
• You might use this if you need to show students how to log-in to a website, update a blog post or edit a paper.  

Present.Me

• Present.Me allows you to upload your PowerPoint and record yourself talking at the same time.  Click here to see a video from the company.
• You will want to use this link (http://presentme-edu.com/ ) to access the educators’ site because it’s free.  
• Use this link to flip your classroom or provide notes from information given in class.  

PosterMyWall

• Create an online flier or poster here. Templates are already created and the posters can easily be shared electronically over email.  

Free Bonus Information. Links to these sites as well as many of the online links that you need or might commonly use (including this blog) are located here on our District Teacher Resource Symbaloo.  This can also be accessed from the For Staff page on the District Website if you’d like.