Online Read Aloud Stories

Image Source: Storyline Online Facebook Page

I was just introduced (thanks so much Noel - @DrewEdu) to a great website where members of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Foundation read aloud picture books and you watch them in a video. The site is called Storyline Online (Website | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube) and it is a free source for read alouds read by actors.

Storyline Online has 28 different books and the ones I have listened to have been very enjoyable. Each video has a run time so you can see how long it will take to read through it. They also have Free downloadable pdf Activity Guides to help you use the book in your class as well as links to buy each book with a small 8% being kept by the SAG Foundation. Take a look and see if one of these books would fit into something you are already doing, or make a plan based around one of these great read aloud stories, because it might be fun for the students to hear from another voice for a read aloud.

I have included the first read aloud video I watched because it is still one of my favorites. It is called  To Be a Drum (Goodreads Link | Amazon Link) and it is written by Evelyn Coleman (Website | Twitter) and read aloud by the great James Earl Jones (IMDb page). Yes, it is read by the voice of Darth Vader and Mufasa, along with many other incredible acting roles.

If you tried this site with your students, let me know how they enjoyed it. So far, mine have loved it and keep asking about when they get to watch another great read aloud by a famous person. Apparently they have forgotten that they already get to have a read aloud with a famous person almost daily, ME their teacher! Maybe we better watch another one today in class?

MLK Day 2015

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day! The more I learn about this holiday the more thankful I am for it. It has become a Day of Service and a reminder to help those around you so we can all live in a better country.

From the website NationalService.gov:

On MLK Day, Americans across the country come together for a day of service, picking up the baton handed to us by past generations and carrying forward their efforts. As one people, we show that when ordinary citizens come together to participate in the democracy we love, justice will not be denied.  

So make the commitment to serve you community throughout the year - and make MLK Day a day on, not a day off.

For more information regarding MLK, Jr. Day, visit NationalService.gov and Serve.gov. 

Let's get out there and do some service today! 

House of #EdTech Podcast Guest

I LOVE podcasts, as I have previously discussed here, and consider them to be one of my favorite forms of entertainment as well as professional development, depending on the specific podcast and/or the content of the show. With that said, I have never been on an actual podcast even though I have always had a secret desire to start one myself (one day, but not yet). I have always wanted to guest on one but had never had the opportunity until recently. I was lucky enough to be a guest on the House Of #EdTech podcast episode 22, hosted by my buddy Chris Nesi of ChrisNesi.com. It was an absolute pleasure to talk to Chris and share some of my background in education and technology.

I would love for you take a few minutes and listen to this episode (as well as recommend the previous 21 episodes!) and then let me know what you think. House of #EdTech is a podcast I have been listening to since it started almost a year ago and feel that it has been a great help in my own teaching. If you don't listen regularly then you need to change that and start today. Chris releases new episodes every other week so you get two new episodes each month and I personally would love to see him have the time to go weekly, but understand the time commitment that would take. Maybe down the road we'll get a weekly show, but until then I LOVE seeing a new episode appear in my podcatcher of choice, InstaCast.

iPad Recovery Mode

Image Source: iOS Recovery

I just had my principal come into my room panicked that his iPad had hit the equivalent of a Windows PC "Blue Screen of Death" in the form of a black screen with an Apple logo on it. He had tried turning it off normally, doing a hard reboot (holding down both the Power button at the top and the Home button at the same time) and neither worked. We were both stumped so I quickly searched out an answer and was surprised at what I found.

I ended up on an article called "iPad Recovery Mode: Fix a Locked or Stuck-at-Apple-Logo iPad" from the site About.com. I had never had to restart an iPad in Recovery Mode and was happy to see it wasn't as difficult as it may sound. Read through the articles if you find yourself in a similar situation, especially after updating to iOS 8 or the more recent iOS 8.1 as my principal did.

One thing to note, it is recommended to have your iPad connected to your computer, but you can also use the "Find My iPhone" app or use iCloud.com to do a remote wipe of the device. Not as fun of an option if you don't have a back-up, but you should be doing that regularly though, right?

#EdSurge50 Project

EdSurge.com

I am so excited to announce that I have been honored to have my first article published to EdSurge.com today as part of their Fifty States Project or #EdSurge50. The #EdSurge50 Project is an,

"initiative to publish articles by educators in each of the 50 states and U.S. territories (Puerto Rico, District of Columbia, Guam, US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, and so on) by the end of 2014."

I was lucky enough to be chosen to represent Utah and I wrote about the need for continued teaching of handwriting skills in this technology driven society. Part of the inspiration for the article came from my own article Need For Cursive which I posted back in May 2013. I felt very strongly about making sure my students learned and used cursive writing then and I still feel just as strong, if not more so, that they really work on their handwriting skills.

I would love for you to go and read the article on EedSurge.com and then if you enjoy it, share it out with your PLN and everyone else! Then feel free to comment on it and let me know your thoughts on the subject of handwriting in this digital age.

URSA 2014

URSA.k12.ut.us

I am so excited to be a part of URSA 2014 as a presenter. I will be presenting two different sessions during three different times, so if you are in the Southern Utah area, stop by today, tomorrow, or Friday for some great educational sessions about how to be a better educator with or without technology, although I prefer with whenever possible! If you aren't able to attend this great conference in person, feel free to attend digitally through the hashtag #URSA14. There will be lots of information to learn, so follow along and join in the learning process. 

I will be presenting the following sessions and would love to see you there!

Wednesday, July 9th:

10:10am: 6 Technology Tools Every Teacher Should Be Using - Ed Building, Room 202

• Sched Info: http://sched.co/1hMIKof
• Slides (pdf) - http://bit.ly/1zoSTmm
• Handout - http://bit.ly/1xR8SIh
• Dropbox Video - http://bit.ly/15CoDmd
• LastPass Video - http://bit.ly/WKRVOY
• Whether you are a techie teacher or a techno-novice, there are a number of online tools available to help you increase your productivity and perfect your computer skills. This session will cover five main technology areas: storage solutions, password management, bookmarking, information gathering and information sharing. Each of the five areas include multiple options to help allow for both flexibility of choice and availability of assortment. The different areas contain multiple tools, including; online flash drives, applications to help you remember your different passwords, the ability to save your Internet bookmarks to multiple web browsers and computers, sharing your bookmarks with others, RSS feeds, blogs, wikis, Twitter, and URL shorteners. Each of the areas contain both free and paid versions of tools allowing everyone the opportunity to use the products regardless of funding and finances.

11:20am: 6 Technology Tools Every Teacher Should Be Using (repeat) - Ed Building, Room 202

• Sched Info: http://sched.co/1osoU96
• See above for a description

1:30pm: Promethean Starter Tips - Ed Building, Room 202

• Sched Info: http://sched.co/R0oAA7
• Handout - http://bit.ly/1oAZGCg
• Are you new to the Promethean interactive white board (IWB) system? Do you want to learn how to use it more effectively in your classroom? Are you interested in using a Student Response System (SRS) to assist you in teaching and assessments? If you answered yes to any of the previous questions, this class is for you. This class is designed to help with the basic skills in using and understanding your Promethean IWB system. We will also look at using the ActivExpression SRS "clickers" to assess your students in both summative and formative use cases. Learn where and how to find pre-made "flipcharts" and assessments as well as how to create your own. The Promethean IWB and SRS systems are incredibly useful and this class will help you gain a better understanding of how to make them work for you and your teaching.

If you do come out, please feel free to come and say Hi! I would love to meet you. Happy learning!

Watch Google Classroom in Action -->

Watch Google Classroom in Action -->

Google is hard at work trying to win over the education market, as is visible with its Google Apps For Education (GAFE) project. Many schools love and use GAFE on a regular basis and with the release of their new Classroom tool, there may be many more schools coming on board soon. Check out the newly released video below to see just what Classroom is all about.



D. Frank Smith:

The video shows off Classroom's biggest attraction — the assignments workflow, which blends aspects of Docs, Drive and Gmail. Teachers can distribute and collect assignments across a variety of classes without using a single piece of paper. The system also allows teachers to grade assignments and provide immediate feedback. 

Applications to preview the app are being accepted now, and Google’s plan is to roll out access to educators before an anticipated global launch in September.

What do you think about this new tool coming to the GAFE suite? Are you interested in giving it a try? I think it may become a direct competitor to some educational CMSs like Schoology or Canvas. It'll be interesting to see what happens with it all.

Source: EdTechMagazine.com
via Pam Turley

Reaching Every Student, Is it even Possible?

Source: StockMonkeys.com

Having just read an incredibly thought provoking post by the Nerdy Teacher himself, Nicholas Provenzano I have to wonder, can we really reach every one of our students? Should we worry if we can’t and/or don’t? Are we failures if we can’t and/or don’t?

How many of us feel the same way Nick does here:

I strive to make sure that I reach every student and that every single one of them feel like they are in an environment that support them in learning. For me, 20 Time was the best project for that because it gave the students the power to control what they wanted to explore. How could I fail at giving students the choice to explore their interests? In implementing 20 Time I had to make cuts in the curriculum. I trimmed fat that was not required and cut out assignments that felt were nice, but redundant. By doing this, did I hurt my students for next year? 

I understand that the perfect lesson is my white whale. In a class of 90, is it acceptable to have 15 that did not like the lesson at all be the deciding factor as to whether or not I bring a lesson back? How valuable is student feedback. I know it is important, but how much weight should it have in making decisions like this?

As educators, we need to make sure we are doing our best to reach every one of our students, but should we really cut out lessons and activities we feel are valuable because a small percentage of our students dislike them? Are we hurting them by making sacrifices, although seemingly beneficial, in the curriculum we are asked to teach? Just how important is student feedback? I know I enjoy receiving it, both positive and negative, and yet, do I always use it to make adjustments?

I think many of us have felt similarly to Nick at the end of the school year. I know I always have a sense of melancholy near the end of the year and especially in the days immediately following the last day of school. Many times I start to question my every move and lesson throughout the year and then I have to stop myself and just let it go, at least for a few days. I have tried to make myself take a couple of days after school has ended and I am checked out for the year to not think about the teaching and learning that occurred in my classroom. I feel like I need to let it simmer and then come back to it after a mental break when I can focus more and truly give the reflection and growth the time it deserves and needs.

As Nick puts it:

Maybe I need some more time removed from these year defining events and think more about what 20 Time, not only meant for my students, but meant for me.

We can’t let ourselves get too discouraged at the end of the year, especially if we haven’t let ourselves rest stop and think about what actually happened.

Thanks to Pernille Ripp for pointing me to Nick’s excellent post. It has forced me to do some difficult thinking and reflecting on my school year. But it’s okay because I’ve had some time removed from the classroom this year and have been able to actually make some progress with what need to be done next year.

CMD+Space Episode 100 -->

CMD+Space Episode 100 -->

As I mentioned earlier on this site, I am a HUGE fan of podcasts and especially any that involve Myke Hurley, the amazing British podcasting personality. Myke recently celebrated the 100th Episode of his interview show CMD+Space on the great 5by5 network. If you enjoy podcasts as an entertainment medium, do yourself a favor and go have a listen. Making the episode even better is the fact that Stephen Hackett of 512 Pixels and one of Myke's cohosts on The Prompt turns the microphone around and interviews Myke.

Congrats to Myke on reaching 100 episodes of CMD+Space and for all his amazing work in the podcasting world. Good luck on hitting 100 more episodes!

(via CMD+Space Episode 100MD+Space Episode 100)

Making Space on iOS -->

How to Free Up Space on iOS -->

Bradley Chambers writes:

In 2014, 16 GB is becoming less and less manageable. Apps are getting bigger, we are consuming more media, and we are taking more photos. Time and time again, I've gotten calls and emails asking how to free up space on an iOS device. This is often a complex question. I want to run through some ways that you can deal with this issue if your phone gives you the dreaded out of space alert when you go to take a photo.

This is a great write-up answering a question that I get asked very frequently about how to make room for new photos or apps on your iOS device. Bradley has taken the time to detail 7 different steps you can take to make sure your iOS device has sufficient space to function as you want it to. I was amazed at just how quick and easy it is for your iOS device to bulge up like it's was on a months-long vacation.

I have to say, my favorite part of the entire article is below:

Using the above tips should help tide you over till you upgrade your phone again. Next time, move up to a 32 GB device (I am going with a 64 GB).

While I am currently using a 32 GB model iPhone 5, I think I may have to try to jump to the 64 GB model if I can swing it with the financial department. Until then, I need to go try a few of these ideas to make sure my iPhone stays lean and mean until this Fall and a possible upgrade.

(via Bradley Chambers on ChambersDaily.com)