Room 305

When using my Mac at home my default browser has always been Safari. It has been known for years at our house that my husband uses Chrome and I use Safari. We never wanted to mess with logging in and out of all the websites and switching accounts, so we stuck with our plan. After researching Chrome I discovered many reasons why, I too should be using Chrome. Also, I discovered how I we could easily switch back and forth between our accounts. Who knew it could be so easy! This blog post is going to explore some features of Google Chrome and Google+. Google Chrome should be your web browser of choice. For so many reasons, but especially because of Google Extensions! Here are two videos about Google Extensions and some examples of Extensions you can download and use on Chrome. Extensions are a great way to improve your browsing experience. The Google Extensions store will look like this. When searching through the Extensions, I looked for the highest rated and most ...

School is right around the corner and that means time for lots and lots of professional development. One of my favorite professional development topics is how to better incorporate technology in my classroom. This Adobe Spark website was created with the intention of being shared with the staff at my school. I took a leap of faith and e-mailed it to my new principal. I have a feeling Flipgrid will be one of my favorite websites to use with my 2nd graders this fall. I am excited to report back on how it goes using Flipgrid and how my 2nd graders handled the social media website. Here is a video of some teacher testimonials about why they love using Flipgrid in their classroom. Google... oh Google. You surprise me daily. It is unbelievable to uncover new features on a daily basis. Did you know Google has a built in calculator? A easy way to search for movies? Or check on your flight? There is a way to only search for PDFs, PowerPoints or Word Documents! How about there is...

This Padlet wall was created for a 2nd grade classroom. Padlet is an online social media tool that allows students and teachers to connect by sharing ideas, links, videos and photos. Upon signing up you get four free Padlet walls. If you want more, you have to sign up and pay for an account. This Padlet wall is intended to help students organize information about Jellyfish. The wall could be used at the beginning or end of the unit. Here is a video with more information on how you could use Padlet in your classroom. FlipGrid is another social media tool where students can respond to questions with videos. Teachers can sign up for a free account or pay for a subscription. There is also a district subscription. It would probably be worth your time to check to see if your district has paid for a subscription. I have not personally used FlipGrid in my classroom yet, but my goal is to use is this fall. It will take some time to introduce and teach my 2nd grade student...

Teaching is hard work. Balancing a full time job, a family and the responsbilities of life creates in me a desire to be the most productive I can be. One way I have learned to save a lot of time is figuring out ways to make my life at school easier. Besides using routines and procedures daily, I have begun to incorporate many kinds of technology. Here are 10 websites to make your life as a teacher easier. 10. GoNoodle 9. Learn Zillion 8. Online Boxing Timer 7. Screencast-O-Matic 6. Bouncy Balls 5. Teachers Pay Teachers 4. Sign Up Genius 3. Flippity 2. NearPod  1. Seesaw These 10 websites have transformed my productivity in the classroom, some of them more than others, but all of them have given me the opportunity to spend more time with my students and family. Flippity allows you to create games and review activities for your students. The opportunities are endless. Here are a couple of the activities available on their website. Be sure you have a Google account ...

Google has come a long way since 1996. According to Google , their company officially began in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergery Brin. Now Google has over 60,000 employees in 50 different countries. Their products have transformed the way we use technology and have given millions the ability to use their tools to communicate. Google Drive is a personal cloud storage, allowing users to synchronize digital content. Within Drive there are numerous apps such as Docs, Sheets, Forms and Slides to name a few.  In this post we will be exploring a couple of helpful tips to keep in mind while using the Google apps. After exploring and watching the  YouTube video below by Teacher's Tech  I found a feature called OCR. OCR is called  optical character recognition feature. This feature allows you to take a mostly text PDF and convert it to text. What you do is right click on the title of the PDF and select "open with" then "Google Docs." Then the PDF should...

When I was in 2nd grade back in the fall of 1994, I was thrilled to go to computer class and use the massive box computer to work on my typing skills and maybe get to play Oregon Trail at the end of class. Times have changed and with students having access to a school provided device or the ability to get on the internet on a regular basis, the opportunities are endless. Devices can be used for numerous things including a virtual classroom that allows teachers to give quizzes, assignments, create folders with links to websites and facilitate a safe place where only students can share their learning. Learning management systems like Edmodo and Schoology were created with the ability to provide teachers the resources to engage students differently than a typical classroom. Both Edmodo and Schoology have a lot to offer teachers. From creating polls, to joining public groups with other educators, to adding events to a calendar and creating a grade book. Check out these two videos that ...

Have you ever wondered how to expand your Personal Learning Network (PLN) as an educator? Our connected world allows educators across the globe to connect in unique ways using technology and the Internet. Educators can connect with other educators, classrooms can connect with one another and educators can connect with politicians, scientists and historians to deepen learning. The Internet allows our enormous world to feel smaller. In this post, we will explore three tools that you can use to improve your PLN. Twitter  is a social network used by billions of people all over the world. Years before I used Twitter for personal reasons and never thought to use it as an educator. On Twitter educators can participate in educational chats, follow all sorts of people including other educators and community leaders. Check out this video on how to use Twitter to strengthen your PLN. The main benefit  Diigo is the user's ability to collect websites in one location and organi...