Month: November 2017

Jinglefish, Jinglefish…. 🎅🏻 🎄 🐟

efisher713 / / Email, Great Tech Sites, Math, Phone Tech

December 1st is here, and with it comes the craziness of the month ahead!  I wish you well this time of year, and I hope you have some peace during a chaotic month. Please remember, I am here to help you.  If you’d like a little breather, book me to come in! I LOVE teaching, and I can prepare a lesson that just shows off some tech, or I can connect it to your content. I’m happy to help and I love being with you and the kids!  Click my calendar here to book me – I filled up quickly last December, so get on there early!

Let’s take a look at some top tech of the week:

 

 

Holiday Tech ❄️  ☃️

Click here for my Google Doc (which I will update as I find new activities) for Holiday Technology Activities. Here you can find activities involving the stock market, how much the 12 days of Christmas would cost today, Elves singing, make your own digital snowman and even just Christmas Fonts for Google Docs.

Equatio now FREE for teachers   🔢

The extension, Equatio, by Texthelp is now free for teachers! This is great because previously they charged for this extension. This would help one use math language in a Google Form or Doc. You can even write (digitally) or dictate an equation and it will convert it into math language for you. Check it out below:

Sign up for your free account here: https://www.texthelp.com/en-us/products/free-for-teachers/

Send personalized emails with a Google Sheet ✉️ 

Do you regularly send parent emails?  Would you like a spreadsheet that houses student names, parent emails and a cell where you could write a personal note that automatically sends when you want it too? Even attach a file that shows something important? This is pretty cool! You could get this sheet already exported from Schoolbrains, add the mail merge add-on called Mail Merge and BOOM start sending personalized email to each and every parent or student. Keep this handy-dandy spreadsheet all year long and change the notes as you please. In a matter of minutes you can send 50 emails, all looking personalized! Send 50 more the next day – you can schedule them!

 

SCREENCAST FROM YOUR iPHONE! 📲 

With the newest IOS update you can now screencast your phone!  “When would I need this?”  Well, if you want to show students how to do something on their phones, this is useful. It is also useful to add video to Google Classroom from you! It’s much easier that screencasting from one’s computer and sending to YouTube to add to Classroom. Not only can you add the screencasting tool to your quick access screen, but you can add other tools that you’d like as well.  See below for the steps and an example video of me screencasting from my phone. Note – to get audio when screencasting your phone you need to long press the screen recording app and turn the mic on. 

This week I read a great blog post by George Couros author of The Innovator’s Mindset and the blog The Principal of Change. If you haven’t read George Couros book or blog, I highly recommend it.  George is a former Principal, and he has a great philosophy that I admire. He believes that it is important that we always work to get to “what is best for kids.” He had a great post this week about connecting with kids titled So Much More Than Letters and Numbers. I included an excerpt below:

If the technology takes away our human connection that is crucial for the development of our students, it is not worth it. Using tools like this can help to add to a conversation, but it cannot be the conversation on its own.  We cannot reduce our students to becoming letters and numbers. George Couros, The Innovator’s Mindset

Technology integration is a passion of mine, and I love it, but I love connections with kids even more! Have me come in, I’d love to connect with you!

oFISHally yours,

Erin Fisher 🐟 🐟 🐟

 

Fishgiving 🐟 🦃

efisher713 / / Assessment, Great Tech Sites, Math, Teacher Shout Out!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I am so very thankful to work with you, thankful to work in a great town with great kids, thankful for great bosses, thankful for all of the technology we have here, and thankful for all the support that’s given to me by you!  Thank you. I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend! It will be a crazy few weeks when we come back especially with all of the December holidays approaching!  Be on the lookout for Holiday Tech as I find it! I will compile it into a great list for you, separate from the Blog (but still featured here). Until then….I had some AWESOME appointments this week, here is some of the tech that came out of them! Thank you to the teachers and staff that had me come in. Special Shout Out to Melanie Lanni who booked me for document merge award certificates – I had so much fun with that!

Digital Assessment Made Easy  💻

I was booked this week for a great appointment to go over Go Formative! Go Formative is a digital assessment tool and can be used, similar to Pear Deck, in a live format or for online assessments (similar to Forms). This program now integrates with Google Classroom, making easier than ever to send out a digital assessment.  Every grade, aside from grade 10, will take an online MCAS this year. Formative has similar question styles to MCAS such as Multiple Select, Multiple Choice, Show your work (MATH!), and Short Answer.  Drum Roll….the best part….YOU CAN UPLOAD YOUR ALREADY EXISTING TEST AND JUST INSERT AN ANSWER KEY! No retyping or copying and pasting, and Formative generates great data and item analysis too!  This is a Super Tool for all types of assessments, including just daily check-ins! Check it out today!

 

Document Merge  📎

Thank you, Melanie, for booking me for this task this week! Document Merges are AWESOME! Picture creating hundreds of personalized documents, letters, or certificates for students with a single spreadsheet and template.  Check out the video below if interested!

Something COOL for your phone!   📲

This tech is for you (not really the kids)!  Recently, I upgraded my iPhone and now I get those super cool LIVE photos. I was a little behind with phone upgrades as you can see.  I had a bunch of Live photos and I really wanted to combine all of them into a mini-movie and have the photos run. Insert the AMAZING Google and the app Motion Stills which you can download to your iPhone. It’s very user-friendly and allows you to combine Live Photos into  GIFS or Mini-Movies.  Below is an example I made from my phone:

Video (Warning – it’s a bit annoying since the kids say “cheese” a million times)

#CHOOSEKIND Web Extension  😁

This is cute! The movie Wonder recently came out and it is based on one of the best children’s chapter books I’ve ever read! To promote the movie, the movie company released an extension. It will turn hate on social media to kind words. Take a look at the very brief video below to see!

MATH – PreK-12  🔢

This post (click here) from Richard Byrne includes a great rundown of resources to use in the classroom with Math. It has apps, youtube suggestions, lessons and more! It encompasses math from PreK to grade 12.

 That’s all I’m throwing out there for you! Enjoy!

oFISHally,

Erin Fisher 🐟 🐟 🐟

A little “under water” this week…🐟 🐟 🐟

efisher713 / / Great Tech Sites

 

HI EVERYONE!!!!

I hope you all had a GREAT week! I spent the better part of the week down and out with an awful sinus infection. My post below, as a result, is lacking a bit, but still FULL of GREAT TECH!!!  I saw an awesome article posted by a teacher this week about inspiring students. The article is titled What to do when a student constantly refuses to work. It’s actually taken from a Podcast and is a great read.  My favorite excerpt from it is as follows: “Stay focused on inspiring your students. Don’t focus on whether they are actually inspired…let the energy of YOUR classroom be such that students who don’t buy into the lessons are missing out. Remember, you can only control yourself, not anyone else”  With that, I give you one of my FAVORITE inspirational videos below.

Google Meet – BETTER than Hangout! 

If you want a great way to share your screen with 25, possibly 30, students and have the ability to chat – then Google Meet is for you! Google Meet just came out last year and has a bit more functionality than Hangouts.  It’s unclear if Google plans to phase out Hangouts and replace it with Meet. Either way, both Hangouts and Meet are pretty cool! Watch the video below to see Meet and check out a comparison of Hangouts and Meet here!

Science – BioInteractives 

From the site:

At BioInteractive, you can find award-winning multimedia resources, including apps, animations, videos, interactives, and virtual labs, to bring the excitement of scientific discovery into your classroom. Our rich video resources range from a series of short films on evolution, hosted by an award-winning author-scientist, to lectures on the brain given by a Nobel-prize winner—all supplemented by teacher guides and classroom activities. Our team members include scientists, artists, and educational experts.

Dedicated to advancing science education, HHMI provides powerful teaching tools for use in high schools, colleges, and universities across the country, free of charge.

Check out this AWESOME, FREE resource here.

Review Game Creator – No Devices Needed 

Are you without devices, but still need an option for review games in class? Check out this great post from Richard Byrne about Blended Play!  It’s free online portal where teachers of any subject and grade level can create games to review material

ClassTools 

Richard Byrne highlighted the site Class Tools on his blog last week. He says: “ClassTools, developed by a history teacher named Russel Tarr, is one of my favorite places to find educational games, game templates, and graphic organizers.”  I explored, and this is a pretty cool site when you’re looking for an interactive activity in a pinch. Check out his video below:

Click the link below to search ClassTools for an interactive game you can use!

http://www.classtools.net/_SEARCH/  

Simple History 

Simple History is just that, simple! It is a YouTube Channel comprised of cute, cartoons that give a very brief synopsis of Historical Events.  Check out the YouTube channel here!

Happy Friday Vikings!

oFISHally Yours,

Erin Fisher 🐟 🐟 🐟

 

Don’t get TIDE down 🐟 🌊

efisher713 / / Great Tech Sites, Pear Deck, Teacher Shout Out!

YAY for long weekends!  I could use a little extra sleep this weekend with the chilly weather coming in and three young boys adjusting to Daylight Savings Time, how bout you? As November is upon us, and we have disjointed weeks with Veteran’s day, Thanksgiving, and Central School Conferences, my calendar starts to slow down a bit. It seems we start to get tied down to all of the tasks that need to get done in this short month. However,  I would LOVE to see you, in your classroom, and show you how Peardeck runs (I’ll build you one), Flipgrid works (I’ll create the lesson), or any of the other great tech tools we have here in EB! Please check my calendar and book me to come in, even if it’s just to show off!

I have SO MUCH TO SHARE with you this week. Check it out below:

Nice work Science Teachers  🐸 🔬

Awesome job Megan Krugger and Kelly Hansen! These 8th-grade science teachers presented at the Massachusetts Association of Science Teachers annual conference last week on Debate in Science Education. They focused on GMOs, Fracking, and the Dakota Access Pipeline. It’s some pretty interesting stuff, with great lessons involved! I learned quite a bit just by reading through their presentation.  Take a look at the website they designed for the presentation, it’s very impressive! Click Here. 

Attitude of Gratitude HyperDoc  ❤  😊 ❤  😊

This is a great activity to modify and use with your students (click here), especially during this thankful time.  This HyperDoc asks people what they are grateful for.  Then, the answers are displayed in a word cloud or Padlet.   The creator of this HyperDoc linked Answer Gardens to each question. You could do the same, or link a Google Doc and share results with the class. The only issue I have with Answer Garden is you cannot tell who wrote what, leaving room for students to be inappropriate. If I were to modify this activity, I would link out to a Google Doc or Padlet where students can write their answers, allowing me to see who is writing what when I view the revision history.   If you’re interested in this activity, but would like assistance or the original modified into a format you can use, please book me today! I would be more than happy to put this into a format you can use!

Build a Turkey 🦃 🦃 🦃  🦃 🦃 🦃

If you want a fun activity where students use Google Slides to build a Turkey, click here! It’s very cute! This is inspired by Eric Curts “Build a Jack-o-Lantern” and created by @bethkingsley13

MORE FONTS for Google Docs 🔠    🔠

(taken from Eric Curt’s Blog post 800 Fantastic Fonts)

There are over 800 fonts you can use in Google Docs!  It’s very easy to add more fonts to your font choices. Check out this cool font below called Creepster:

You can preview all of the Google Fonts by going here: https://fonts.google.com/

Then, to add a font to your choices, in your own docs, simply choose your font menu and click add more fonts.

Enjoy this Ryan Gosselin SNL video about Fonts 🙂 HEHEHEHEHE!

Change your default font in Docs  😁  😁

WHAT?!! This is so simple, and I’ve been manually altering my font for years! Check out this great post from tech blogger Jake Miller.  You can see the whole post here, or view the GIF below to see how to change your default font in Google Docs. I’m a big fan of the Sniglet font myself 🙂

Pear Deck Add-on – EVEN MORE AMAZING (and easier) than the site!  🍐🍐

If you have been overwhelmed by Pear Deck in the past or found it cumbersome to create Decks then this post is for you! If you flat out LOVE Pear Deck, this post is also for you because it just got BETTER! Pear Deck has added an add-on for Google Slides. What this means is that now you can take ANY Slide presentation you already have, and add questions right to the slide. IT. IS. SO. GREAT. You can watch my video if you’d like, or you can read about it from Pear Deck by clicking here.  If you’d like to see what Pear Deck is all about, I will gladly create a Deck for you and come in and present it to the students so you can see how it works. Lisa Grinkis did that last week, and it worked very well! Please just book me for the time to create it, and then if needed, for the time to come in and use it with the children. Lisa felt comfortable presenting it herself since she is an avid user of Pear Deck!

Piktochart: Cool Infographic Site 🖼  🖼

Thank you, Megan Krugger for sending me this fun site to play with! If you’ve attended PD on infographics in the past, you may have seen Picktochart.  This site is free (although does have a “level up” paid option) and allows you to create some pretty cool infographics.  It has many templates, text boxes, images, “stickers,” graphics etc etc that you can use. It reminds me of sites like Shutterfly where you can REALLY get into making something. BEWARE, once you play with this, you are committed to HOURS of fun. I made an example below, which allowed for easy embedding (although large). This would be a great project for students to show their knowledge regarding a certain concept! Unlike Google Drawing (my app of choice), there are many templates that one can just insert information rather than start from scratch.

School Committee  🏫  🎒  🏫 🎒

Lastly, I had the wonderful opportunity to present and give an update regarding technology integration to the East Bridgewater School Committee on Thursday evening. You can check it out on EBCTV, if you’d like, and you can also access my presentation here.

 

I LOVE showing off the awesome things you do! Book me to come in today and see it!

Have a nice weekend everyone.

oFISHally yours,

Erin Fisher 🐟 🐟 🐟

Don’t be afraid to MAKE WAVES 🌊 🐟 😃 💙 💛

efisher713 / / G-Suite, Teacher Shout Out!

Happy November Everyone!

I hope you’ve had a GREAT week!  I’ve seen some great tech this week in classrooms, including the Cardboard Challenge down at the Middle School! What a FANTASTIC week to be a Viking!  Check out some pretty cool tech integration below, and let me know if you want to “make some waves” in your classroom by trying some new tech tools! You can find my contact information in the “Contact” tab of the blog! Happy reading!

Google Maps adds Planets and Moons  🔭  🌕   🌏  🛰

Now, instead of just showing pictures of the planets, let the students travel there through Google Maps! This is really neat because you can zoom in, see craters, gasses, and features of every planet and moon that Google Maps has to offer. These are real photos of the planets and moons.  Read about this latest update from Google about this cool new feature of Maps (click here)! Play with Google Maps by clicking here.

Google Slides – Photo Slideshow Add-on  📸 ➕ 

Perfect timing Google! Just as I was gathering all of the MASSCUE photos, Google Slides came out with a new add-on that easily creates photo slideshows.  These slideshows are also EASILY embedded into Google Sites.  If you are one of the many wonderful teachers in our district who takes many pictures of students and wants a place to put them, this is a great option! See the how-to video below!

MASSCUE PHOTOS 2017  📷  

Thank you to everyone who sent me photos! I used the Google Add-On referenced above to create this slideshow. You need to click the right arrow, and then play button to get it started 🙂

 

ASSISTive tech tools: 2 new ones to try! 💡    💡

I tried a few new tools recommended by Eric Curts on his blog, this week. I found two of them to be pretty good.  Resoomer and Auto Highlight both assist in summarizing articles found on the web. Resoomer will cut the article down to the most important 30% (or so) of information and Auto Highlight will leave the article in its entirety, but highlight the most important points. Paired with a screen reader (like Select and Speak), these tools would greatly assist a nonreader in understanding grade level material.

Thank you for allowing me to be a small piece of your awesomeness!

oFISHally yours,

Erin Fisher 🐟 🐟 🐟