Category: Teacher Shout Out!

“REEL-Y” Awesome Techie Teachers! 🎣 👨‍🏫 👩‍🏫

efisher713 / / Teacher Shout Out!

What an AWESOME week! 😍  This week was Community Tech Night in East Bridgewater. We had a great team volunteer their time to share our amazing tech use with the community. 💻 It was also the Digital Learning Day conference in Medfield this week as well. Five of our FABULOUS East Bridgewater Staff shared their knowledge with others from around the state! It was simply a great week in Ed. Tech. in EB.  Hence, the focus of my post is our AMAZING, Fabulous, Awesome staff! So, read below to see some AMAZING things your colleagues are doing!  It may give you a few new ideas. 🙂 Certainly reach out to them! I know from working with them personally, that they are always willing to help.

Community Tech Night 💻 

Community Tech Night in East Bridgewater was held on Tuesday evening.  Although it wasn’t as well attended as we had hoped, it was very well received by those in attendance. Bethany Barra, Nick Davis, Maureen Holbrook, Laura McPhee, Ginny McCarthy and Bill Silva shared their knowledge on various topics such as Hyperdocs, Google Classroom, Google Keep, Padlet, Readworks, Epic, SeeSaw, ReCap, YouTube, and more! The parents and school committee members in attendance were very impressed, as was I, with everything shared! THANK YOU so much to these fabulous teachers, and every staff member every day, willing to share their expertise! Check out the general resources below from the evening and reach out to the staff members listed if you want to know more about what they presented!

Medfield Digital Learning Day 📖

Tori Cameron, Jamie Hulke, Laura McPhee, Julia Sheehan and Erin Fisher presented at Medfield Digital Learning day this week. This is a great conference attended by over 100 schools, including schools from New Hampshire and Rhode Island!

Tori Cameron was inspired by 103.3 Amp Radio’s TJ show to start her own Podcast. He even MENTIONED HER on his radio show this week, and played some of her latest podcast episodes!  Tori presented at Medfield about Podcasting and hosting her own Podcast: Steam Up the Classroom. Check out her presentation here, it has some really great resources including great educational podcasts for kids!

Jamie Hulke and Julia Sheehan use so many great tech tools to engage their students in a truly blended learning environment. These two presented on Digital Discussion and showed all of their great tips and tricks when using tools such as FlipGrid, Instagram, Twitter Chats, Google Classroom, and even using Google Sheets as a Discussion Board – SO COOL! Check out their fabulous presentation here!

Laura McPhee presented Holy Organization Batman! In this amazing presentation, she highlights Google Keep, an incredible tool for student engagement, organization, and productivity.  The Google App is quickly blowing up and Laura’s presentation shows Keep’s full potential! Consider using this tool today and access Laura’s presentation here.

Would you like to present?

Consider sharing your knowledge with other teachers around the state! Our staff in East Bridgewater has so much to offer.  MASSCUE is currently accepting proposals for their annual fall conference. You can gather more information about this event by clicking here. Will you put in a proposal? Let me know, as a former presenter for the past 4 years I can assist you in forming your idea so it is accepted as a workshop.

Amazing Classroom Lessons this Week 🎒 

In addition to Tech Night and DLD, I also had the opportunity to assist in the most wonderful lessons this week with some fantastic teachers! Kim Hardiman, a first-grade teacher, had me come in this week to assist with a spectacular blended learning experience. Students researched a topic using a book bundle on Epic. Students took notes (on paper) from their research and created a Telling Brain Frame. From their notes, students then created a Google Slide on their topics to show their knowledge. THIS WAS ALL DONE IN FIRST GRADE – AMAZING! 

                      

It is always a pleasure going into Christine DiLorenzo’s room, a second-grade teacher.  This week, she wanted her students exploring a tool that will allow them to create animated presentations. We chose to look at Animaker. What a great way to demonstrate knowledge!

Stacy Linnehan, Language-based special education teacher at the middle school, is always looking for new tools to try! It is always a pleasure to go into her room and give her something new! Check out her students below, using Chromebooks to view the problems she provided and standing at the whiteboards to do their work. All of her students are working at their own pace, allowing her to walk around the room and check in with each student to give that personal connection.

         

Laura McPhee had me come in and we worked together with her students to make E-Books using Book Creator. This is a great site/app to create E-Books.  You can include video, text, images, audio and more in a really cool format. The book even turns a page! Her students are creating books to show examples of physical and chemical changes.

TPACK  

Technolgy, when combined with content and pedagogy (TPACK model), can make learning more accessible and more engaging for our students. Many of the ideas above demonstrate this model! Consider integrating the T with your content and pedagogy to reach our learners in this digital learning age!

East Bridgewater staff and students are nothing short of Amazing! Have a great April Vacation week everyone 💙💚💛🧡💜❤️

oFISHally Yours,

Erin Fisher 🐟 🐟 🐟

The fish in MY school 😁 🐟 🏫

efisher713 / / Teacher Shout Out!

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again #togetherwearebetter!  Monday, 2/26, was our annual technology PD day here at the East Bridgewater Public Schools and so many of our own SHINED 🌞 ! Many teachers had the chance to show off what they’re doing with technology and share with colleagues. We had 32 sessions offered throughout the day with 21 of our own staff presenting!  It was a great day and so many ideas are already being put into practice.  If you check out our Twitter hashtag #greattobeaviking you can see many of the highlights of our technology integration.  Spreading the love, and best practices, is what it’s all about!  Check out just a few of the many great presentations below:

Google Classroom 📎 

Seriously, who doesn’t LOVE Google Classroom?! After out tech PD day, even administrators were inspired to use this GREAT tech tool! Principal Andrew Gentile has now started a Google Classroom for his staff where he is posting all sorts of great, important information! What a great use of Classroom and also modeling taking risks!  Bill Silva did an awesome job showing off Google Classroom and all it can do!   Check out Bill’s presentation below, he touches upon all of the great features of Classroom and how he uses it.

 

1:1 Chromebooks in Grades 1 & 2    💻

Have you wondered how our 1st and 2nd graders are using their 1:1 Chromebooks? Well Sarah Beberman and Kim Hardiman have a great presentation below that shows how they use 1:1 technology in their classrooms.  It is AMAZING and so impressive that some of our youngest students are doing so much with Chromebooks! Imagine what these kiddos will be able to do as they progress through our school system!

 

SeeSaw – A Digital Portfolio   🖼️

SeeSaw is a pretty awesome Digital Portfolio where students can post pictures, activities, videos and much, much more! Tori Cameron did a wonderful job presenting SeeSaw to many of our staff.  The next day, Joan McLaughlin was already using it and her students LOVED it! Way to go Tori, and way to go Joan!

iPads   📱

Have you wondered how our early grades are using iPads? Preschool, Kindergarten and half of first grade are 1:1 with iPads. Walk into Sandi Telless‘s room and you can easily see her students are pretty tech saavy on the iPads! Check our her slides below where she shares some of her favorite iPad apps she uses in her Kindergarten classroom:

Differentiating with Tech  🚀

Have you thought about how to differentiate with technology? Beth Barra does a great job running small groups and having activities at different levels for her students. The very next day I saw collaboration with the same Flipgrid topic in both Beth‘s room and Kim Hardiman‘s room. Nice job ladies! Check it out below:

These are only JUST A FEW of many great presentations.  If you would like to see them all be sure to visit our East Bridgewater Smart PD Site or reach out to me at Efisher@ebps.net. I cannot express enough how much I enjoyed planning, engaging, presenting, networking, and reflecting on this day! Thank you to all of those who were a part of it! It is truly GREAT to be a Viking!

oFISHally yours,

Erin Fisher 🐟 🐟 🐟

Fishy Feedback 📝 🐟

efisher713 / / Pear Deck, Teacher Shout Out!

 

Hello hello!

I hope this post finds you well. It has been a tremendous week here in EB. It was a pleasure to pass out the Chromebooks to our first 25 teachers willing to pilot 1:1 teacher devices!  Already, we have teachers using Screencastify with students and this is due to having a Chromebook – Amazing! It was great to get to interact, even for a short time, with some faces I don’t usually see. I hope to work with you further. Remember, I am here for your benefit – so please reach out! There is no task too small!

Shout out to a whole SLEW of teachers this week – EB and OTHERS:

CHROMEBOOK PILOT TEACHERS way to step outside the comfort zone for some of you and take a Chromebook! I know you’re doing to do great things! PLEASE use me as a resource! I’m here for you!

Julie Sunderland and Kathy Pittsley are high school math teachers at Fairhaven High School.  Julie also happens to be a very dear friend of mine for over 20 years! Julie happened to text me on a Saturday night “Hey have you heard of Pear Deck?”  Have I heard of Pear Deck?!!! 🍐 OMG! Well – next thing you know, I basically force her to come to my house on MLK day for a 2 hour tutorial of how to use Screencastify, the Pear-Deck add-on in Slides, Quickshare Screenshot extension, and Equatio.  THESE TWO TEACHERS ARE AMAZING! Julie – right off the bat – told me “treat me like I’m dumb” which she is NOT. However, often I think that’s what we fear others will think when we don’t know about a certain concept – which can be anything, not just technology. Let me tell you, this is NOT the case with me. Never, ever, do I think anyone is dumb. In fact, I LOVE showing a new piece of technology you may have never seen before.  Needless to say, these two amazing math teachers left with some great stuff – and they emailed this week to let me know it! Math teachers – these four tools make for a great combination in HS math – give me a shout out if you want to see!

Matt Savage I loved walking into your room and hearing Disney Music and seeing Pear Deck Vocabulary running! Woohoo! Boy did your students look engaged! Way to integrate Steve McGuire’s Disney Day!

Speaking of Steve McGuire, I heard Central School Preschool had a pretty awesome dance party this week! The kids loved it!

So much fun podcasting with Tori Cameron! Did you know she has her OWN podcast?! I was honored she asked me to be on it, thanks Tori! Check our her Podcast site: Steam Up The Classroom.  A certain Ross Clayton has been featured on the podcast as well!

Sarah Beberman Thank you for allowing me to start digital portfolios with a group of your second graders! Imagine what their portfolios will look like when they graduate? So cool!

Let’s see what tips and tricks I have this week that may help you out:

Technology in Central School Preschool 👦🏻🖥️👧🏾 

I’m so very lucky that my own children have been able to attend the Central School Preschool.  If you are a staff member in this district, you may want to look into this FANTASTIC preschool program. All three of my sons have been through, and this year we were lucky enough to have the amazing Mrs. Gorham for the third (and final 😥) year. I am also lucky enough that Mrs. Gorham and I have built a great relationship, so much so, that I can say to her “How about I come in and try Flipgrid with your students!”  This week I had the most wonderful opportunity to run the iPad center during center time AND use Flipgrid with PreK E.  Flipgrid was very successful, we asked each student “What is a farm?” and the responses were precious.  PreK E then watched every response on their smartboard and had a great time seeing one another on screen. I would love to share this with you, but due to the blog being public, I will not post it here. If you are interested in seeing this cute example of Flipgrid please reach out! However, here’s a cute slideshow of PreK E using their iPads this week! If you are a teacher who would like me to come in and run a technology center for you, I would be more than happy to do so! I can even create you a CUTE slideshow after the fact to share with parents.

 

Feedback in Writing 📝 

Providing meaningful feedback for student writing is a hot topic everywhere you turn! As educators, we want to provide feedback that will both engage and assist our students with the writing process, but it can be so very time-consuming.  Below are some great posts regarding digital feedback that may make it easier, engaging and more productive for you and your students!

This is a great post from Catlin Tucker (yes that is how you spell her name) regarding shortcuts in Docs. 😺 Catlin is a HUGE proponent of not bringing home grading! She was the keynote speaker at MASSCUE a few years ago…and let me tell you…AMAZING! Her post is worth a look.

http://catlintucker.com/2017/07/shortcuts-in-google-docs/

Anyone who knows me, knows I just LOVE the extension Screencastify! This great post from blogger Jake Miller highlights how he uses Screencastify to provide feedback on writing for students in his class. Imagine giving a student audio feedback while you correct a paper, so effective! We have many teachers here already using this great tool, check out another awesome way to use it!

Click here for Jake’s post: http://jakemiller.net/screencastify-for-feedback/

See the video below about how to use Screencastify:

Special Characters in Docs 😀 

Speaking of feedback – how about using some smiley faces or even a taco in your feedback?! Have you ever needed a certain character in a Doc? Well, thank you Ginny McCarthy for asking me this question – it will help so many.  Take a look below to see how to get certain characters easily and efficiently!  Examples include checkmarks, happy face, dogs, frogs, – pretty much anything! ✅😀🐶🐸🌮

 

I hope to see you soon! Imagine what we can do! 

oFISHally yours,

Erin Fisher 🐟 🐟 🐟

I FISH you a Merry Christmas and SEA you next year 🎊 🎅🏻 🌊

efisher713 / / Teacher Shout Out!

I simply cannot believe we are upon another New Year! Looking back, 2017 was quite the year in terms of technology and all that we have achieved as a district. That is all a credit to YOU! It is amazing to look around and see ALL that teachers are doing to implement technology into their classrooms in some way.  Below I would just like to showcase some of what is going on in our buildings, as it is AMAZING! Check it out….you may just see your name. 😉

Google Sheets Timeline 

I taught a course this semester through PCEA/Worcester State, titled Teaching and Learning with Google Tools.  One of the assignments was creating Timelines with Google Sheets.  Lisa Grinkis, a middle school teacher, created a textbook-worthy timeline. Check it out below (or click this link for the actual Sheet), it is INCREDIBLE! She will now use this with students as an example and have them create their own. How cool is that?! This Timeline she created went above and beyond the expectation, and really shows off the versatility of Google Sheets!

Online Learning 

8th Grade Science is doing something SUPER AWESOMELY COOL right now! Kelly Hansen started using Schoology and set up an online, 3-week course, for her students that runs parallel to her current science curriculum. Megan Krugger is also using it!  In the transition from the old standards to the New Massachusetts Science Standards, Kelly’s 8th-grade group missed out on Cells. So how is she bridging the gap? Through an online module! In class, face-to-face, she’s covering the current 8th grade standards. BOOM! 2 for the price of one and BONUS – students don’t miss out on important concepts! The content and assignments are self-paced, and the students are interacting on the discussion board. The kids LOVE it and it’s a great way to cover content in a way that may reach other learning styles!

Padlet 

Padlet is an amazing tool. It is basically an online bulletin board that can house a collection of resources for a specific topic.  If you like posting links in Google Classroom, and find that you have many links around a certain topic, you may want to think about creating a PADLET to house the links, docs, videos and other items. This way, you can just link out to your PADLET in the future.  Check out these GREAT Padlets created by Laura McPhee and Tori Cameron on Plate Tectonics and a Snowflake Padlet by Beth Barra.  Jamie Hulke also uses Padlet to have students post BookSnaps, a great way to showcase student connections to literature!

2nd Grade Selfies! 

Is there anything better than a text from 2nd grade showing me how they’re changing their profile pictures to selfies of themselves? I love it! Thanks, Sarah Beberman!

 Math Songs – NumberRock

Thank you, Melissa Leonard, 3rd-grade teacher, for this cool YouTube channel NumberRock!  It has so many great math songs!  Check out the one below, and also check out the entire YouTube channel here!

I’m very much looking forward to the break, but even more, I look forward to working with you after the break! Book me here and I’d be happy to come chat about tech integration. Think of what we can do…Google Classroom, Making Video, Creating Video playlists, GoGuardian settings, Digital Portfolios, NEWSELA, Pear Deck…the list is endless!

Enjoy the break everyone!

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 🐟 🐟 🐟

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 🐟 🐟 🐟

 

 

Catch a Wave (of great tech!) 🌊 🐟 💻

efisher713 / / Great Tech Sites, Teacher Shout Out!

I always love my job, and where I work, but this week has been one of the absolute best of my career.  The annual MASSCUE fall conference was this week and it was the 35th anniversary of this incredibly inspiring event.  Spending the two days with 27 Viking staff members, who are visionaries at what they do, filled my heart. Talking to teachers, technology directors, sped directors, and administrators from other districts while at this event left me feeling inspired and thankful to be in our district.  We are in an incredible time in education, and we are so fortunate to be in the place that we are.  YOU are so amazing, and when we talk to other districts – many are in awe of YOU. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of that.   

I will share some of our pictures of this event next week, but this week – I’ll highlight our presenters below as well as two other AWESOME tech tips! Enjoy!

MASSCUE   OMG WE SAW THE PATRIOTS!!!!   

The Masscue fall conference was a wonderful event once again. This conference is the LARGEST conference-style event that Gillette Stadium hosts. East Bridgewater brought a record 27 staff members to the conference this year! Anyone who expressed an interest in attending, via the Google Form, was sent to the conference. It was a great two days, with a record number of staff members presenting and representing East Bridgewater.

On Wednesday, we had our picture taken on the field! While waiting to return to the workshops upstairs, we were held in a waiting area with a security guard. The ENTIRE PATRIOTS TEAM walked by us, onto the field, 5 FEET AWAY! Tom Brady smiled and waved to us! Why do I tell you this you ask? Because maybe this little bonus will entice you to attend next year! When you attend MASSCUE, you leave feeling empowered, you leave with new ideas and you connect with others outside of East Bridgewater with a similar vision as you! It’s an amazing day, consider coming next year!

Consider presenting – if you present you get to attend both days! You all do AMAZING things in your classrooms and buildings, and others love seeing it. MASSCUE is entirely teachers, administrators and school staff, interested in using technology some way in their practices – they would love to see what you do.

Thank you, BETH BARRA for taking some great notes on Wednesday to share with staff. Beth teaches fourth grade and she has a few great tools in here that would work well for k-6 classrooms! Click here for this resource.

Check out our EB presentations below! There is some GREAT stuff from AWESOME teachers in here!

Amazing Add-ons and Extensions 

Richard Byrne, of Practical Ed Tech, posted an awesome document this week that features 25 Great Google Add-Ons for teachers. There are some great ones in here that include a list of canned comments you can choose from when grading writings through Google Classroom, a really cool Word Cloud add-on for Docs, and a rubric generator for Sheets.  Check out (click here) this great breakdown of 25 (newer) add-ons and extensions!

Make your DOC so it cannot be copied! WHAT?!  

I was reading my weekly email from Practical Ed Tech Blogger Richard Byrne this week. It was an awesome post which I referenced above. While I was reading an item he posted, I tried to copy and paste something from it and email to a colleague, referencing him of course.  Docs wouldn’t let me copy it! It wouldn’t let me “Make a Copy” of the Doc either (I could screenshot it though)! If you create a Doc, Slide, or any other G-Suite item, you can do this too!  I had to research this magic and it was one of those simple little things that were there ALL ALONG. If you present on a particular topic or create a resource document, I would consider doing this. We don’t want anyone taking your work and claiming it as one’s own.

See my screenshots below:

The message I received

 

Go to Advanced sharing:       

Check the box:

Thanks for reading! And THANK YOU EB – it’s truly GREAT TO BE A VIKING!

oFISHally yours,

Erin Fisher 🐟 🐟 🐟

You’re Amazing – it’s for SHORE 🐠 😅 🏖

efisher713 / / Google Sites, Teacher Shout Out!

This week I was honored to present at the SEAM BSU chapter meeting at Bridgewater State University. SEAM is the Student Education Association of Massachusetts and falls under the MTA and NEA.  I talked about each and every one of you to the group, and showed off tools you’re using in the classroom to educate students.  The SEAM group was mesmerized, eager, and astonished at all that you do. When we step away from our own roles for a minute and take a look at what we’re doing and what we’ve accomplished, it’s truly amazing.   It’s easy, especially at this time of year, to feel tired and heavy. Teaching in the classroom can be isolating. The weather is changing, we’re go go going with our own lives at home, juggling families and school, managing our own adult responsibilities, we’re also trying new standards, curriculums, tech tools, and getting new students (STILL)…but keep doing what you’re doing. YOU ARE AMAZING and it shows!  I wouldn’t be surprised if we get a record number of BSU student teachers in the spring, they were so impressed at all that you do!

Let’s take a look at some tools below to assist you in your amazingness:

Catch of the Day: Printing ALL student’s assignments from Google Classroom 😱

Thank you, Melissa Leonard, 3rd-grade teacher, for asking me this question.  I went on a hunt to find the answer! There is actually a few ways you could do this, but I found the option below to be the most user-friendly. It uses the app PDF Mergy. Take a look, if you need to combine multiple files, not just from Classroom, to print.

Screenshot Tools  🛠   

There are so many great ways to take partial area screenshots.  Take a look at this short video tutorial of my three favorite ways. This is great tech that will help teachers and staff of all grade levels! Please just remember copyright law and fair use law when screenshotting.

Google Form Add-ons  Image result for google forms   

So many of us use Google Forms! It is such a versatile tool, and the best part is that it is always improving!  Check out the article below from Richard Byrne for some cool add-ons to use with Forms that will make it even better for you!

Add-ons for Forms Click Here

Are you Certifiable?      

Have you ever been interested in becoming a Google Certified Educator? Wondering what that even means?  Once you become a Google Certified Educator, you have access to the Google Forum as well as many other resources available only to trainers. You get the updates on anything new before the general public. The best part of being a GCE is being part of the forum and being able to ask questions of other Google Educators.  You are listed in a database for those seeking trainers which can provide for other opportunities outside of the classroom.  Plus you get the nifty little badge to put on your email. If you would like to see what certification entails, to be endorsed by Google, see the link below from my fav. blogger Eric Curts.

Google Educator Checklist

Typito     

FREE video service.  Do you like making videos of your class using pictures and music? Do you find MovieMaker or the YouTube editor a bit difficult? Then you may want to try Typito.  Richard Byrne did a great video how-to on this resource. It’s free and allows for many options when editing including putting text across pictures.

First Grade Tech Image result for child    

First grade is now on iPads and Chromebooks – how exciting! They really enjoyed their first experience with KaHooT!

 

 

Have a great weekend everyone!

oFISHally yours,

Erin Fisher 🐟 🐟 🐟

 

Adapting to Changing Tides 🌊 🐟 🌊 🐟 🌊

efisher713 / / G-Suite, Great Tech Sites, Teacher Shout Out!

Hello Everyone! 

I could not help but have the title above. We have done so much adapting this year as a district! Central Elementary is doing such an amazing job adapting to new technology in the building! JRSRHS is doing an amazing job adapting to their technological circumstances (that will improve!). Mitchell continues to adapt to new tech tools and standards. We all adapted on Tuesday, when someone broke the internet 😜 whoops (it was me, I am sorry – it won’t happen again…I hope)!  Everyone is adapting, and when I see it, I am so impressed! We are preparing our kiddos for changing tides and it’s showing! Let’s see what changes are taking place in tech this week:

Catch of the Day: Typing Practice! ⌨ ⌨ ⌨ 🎣 🎣 🎣

Thank you, Sarah Beberman and Beth Barra for sending me the programs you’re using for classroom typing practice.  If you find your students need additional typing practice, after computer class where they also work on typing, Sarah is using Typing Club (click here) and Beth uses both typing club and Nitro Type (click here).  Typing Club even includes “Touch Typing” which gives practice for typing on the iPads as well. This may be a good use of downtime in the morning before school or “while waiting” for everyone to get up and running on their Chromebooks.

Google Slides Update               

Google Slides recently had a major update! Now, it has an add-on menu, chart feature, skip a slide option, and tile view.  Check out this video post to see the new features.  One of the best new features is the ability to insert charts. You can now have students EASILY create timelines with the timeline chart inside Google Slides and that is just one of six (so far) diagram options!

 

Reopen Closed Tabs 😲 💻 😲 💻 😲 💻

Do you ever close a tab accidentally? I do it ALL OF THE TIME!  Here’s a VERY quick video to show you how to reopen that tab in the exact same spot where you left it! It’s basically an “undo” for internet tabs.  Sometimes it’s the tricks that are so easy, that we forget to share them! What’s your quick trick? Share your trick in the comments below or send it to me via email! These little tricks help us all and together we are better!

 

Special Ed Presentation 🖥

This week I had the most wonderful opportunity to present at Bridgewater State.  You can view my presentation below, and you may find some helpful tools. You will notice Pear Deck Slides embedded into the presentation. This can now be accomplished with the Pear Deck add-on (see above blog post). Thank you to the IEP coordinators, James, and Special Education staff for giving a great presentation on our PD day. You’ll notice I used some of your content in my presentation.

 

Flipgrid Overview 

Have you caught the FlipGrid fever?  If not, give it a try!  This (free) program is EXPLODING all over the Twittersphere! Flipgrid started to gain momentum last year, and recently has just exploded! This is a great site/app that can truly be used at all grade levels, including PreK!  Picture a PRIVATE grid, that you can share with parents and/or students, that has little videos of a classroom activity, response to a prompt, quiz etc! You as the teacher/moderator control the grid. YOU decide what videos can be seen, and who can see them.  I can’t say enough about this tool! Since it’s exploding everywhere, some of the top ed-tech leaders have created “how-to” guides. So, see below if you’re interested in using this fantastic tool! You can book me as well and I can come in and help you use it or film!

Click here for a “how-to” guide. Don’t be fooled by the length of the guide, the font is really big. It’s a quick read.

 

 

As always, if you want to try any of this amazing task, reach out! You can find my booking calendar on the Contact page of my blog.  I love this stuff, and there is no task too small that I don’t enjoy! Even if you just want me to film for you, for FlipGrid! Maybe you just need an idea of how to get going with technology in your classroom, I’m here for you in these changing tides 🌊

I hope everyone has a great weekend! 

oFISHally yours,

Erin Fisher 🐟