EdTech by Emily

Lots of people are discovering the power of Flipgrid! Michael Hughes, a teacher in Lake Elsinore, California, is taking Flipgrid to the next level. He uses Flipgrid to help manage stations for his littles. He puts the QR code for the grid on the students' response sheet so that they can access it easily. You HAVE to check out his Twitter page to see his examples! ( Click here .) I would love to see his ideas in action.  Drop me a line!  We can work together!

These virtual manipulatives by Toy Theater are my latest favorite math find. Reasons I love this site: Simple but elegant design attracts kids but isn't so busy that it is distracting. Each tool also has a description for its instructional use.  Some tools list the Common Core standards they could address. (I know, I know...) Many also have a link to even more pedagogy information, related printables, and even videos. The manipulatives include some that are fantastic for early numeracy such as Rekenreks, two-color counters and ten frames. There are even some pretty good math and reading games included on the site. (Although there are more math games than reading at this time.) The makers promise it is free for teachers. Not freemium, free. 

This Chromebook training by Nadine Gilkison is AMAZING! I think it is intended to use with students but I think it would be awesome for adult training, too! Actually, all of Nadine's stuff is great. You should definitely check her out on Twitter or on her blog !

Winter Holidays with Storyboard That StoryboardThat is one of my favorite tools for demonstrating learning. One thing I love about this tool is that StoryboardThat includes lesson ideas & plans for use. In this post , StoryboardThat shares several examples of lessons revolving around winter holidays. As with most edtech tools, StoryboardThat offers a free plan and a paid plan. With the free plan, users can create a 3 x 1 storyboard or a 3 x 2 storyboard. To use the free plan, simply click the Create a Storyboard button and start working. When finished, users can screenshot their work so that they can have evidence to turn in. If you love StoryboardThat so much you choose to pay for an account, you and your students will be able to save your work & create with multiple layouts. As a teacher, you can also create classes and assignments and use rubrics with the paid account. You can read more about the paid account features here . One thing to think about, Storyboa...

This is a nifty little tip I use all the time if I need to hop on someone else's machine and don’t want to completely log them out of what they are doing. It’s called INCOGNITO MODE. Incognito mode is a clean window that is not automatically logged into anything, and it doesn’t save your history or save cookies. It will also remove login information so that it doesn’t appear the next time a window is opened. To learn how to open an Incognito Mode window as well as learn 8 more reasons you might benefit from Incognito Mode CLICK HERE . Article credit: Kasey Bell from Shake Up Learning

I got this idea by listening to the Google Teacher Tribe Podcast with Kasey Bell (from Shake Up Learning) and Matt Miller (from Ditch That Textbook). The idea is this: create a Google Slide with a page for each student. On the first slide create a Table of Contents linked to each student’s slide. It will help facilitate the beginning of a collaborative lesson and also help you find each student’s work quickly. Personally, I would make one Google Slide this way and copy it for each assignment so that I wouldn’t have to create the Table of Contents each time. You can SEE AN EXAMPLE HERE .

Halloween Activities with StoryboardThat StoryboardThat is a free, online software that lets you create storyboards with an easy, drag and drop interface & hundreds of pieces of customizable clipart. It can be used on a Chromebook or on an iPad. StoryboardThat is an excellent tool for student content creation. You can see more examples of lessons involving StoryboardThat and Halloween activities here .

Book Creator...on a Chromebook! Book Creator is a versatile tool that can be used to create books or projects in any subject area. Book Creator was formerly only available as an app on iPads but now is available for use on Chromebooks! To find out more about using Book Creator with your students you can check out this Google Slide .

Quick, Draw! is a fun, new tool by Google that uses a “neural network” to guess what you’re drawing. The user is given a word to illustrate and as the image is drawn Google’s fancy artificial intelligence engines guess what is being drawn. You really just have to try it to see it’s magic! I think this tool would be a great ice-breaker or time filler, a fun way to introduce devices to students, a tool for practicing drawing skills as well as practice reading and vocabulary development. Quick, Draw! will work with both iPads and Chromebooks. To get started, head to quickdraw.withgoogle.com and see if your drawing skills are up to par!