#IMMOOC4 Week 1: Innovation in Education

I'm veering off my usual blog style today ... I joined round #4 of the #IMMOOC book study. Interested? You can still join! (website) [I am a little late with week 1's blog post ... better late than never!]

Here goes!

EMPOWER (by: John Spencer & AJ Juliani)
Week 1: AJ & John ask us to consider what students are “DOING” during our 400 daily available minutes. Why do we need to begin by considering the expenditure of time?

Time is and always has been very precious and it's the one thing that we will never get more of, no matter what we do. As a teacher, we need to remember that our students are only with us for a set amount of time and then they move on so we HAVE TO MAKE IT COUNT. I taught 7th & 8th grade Social Studies and I only had each class for 42 minutes. Bells rang to start and stop class and I HAD to make those 42 minutes mean something to my students. I also was very aware that my students had 6, maybe 7 other classes, extra-curriculars, and home responsibilities. The "competition" with time inspired me ... it pushed me to become more efficient, but also trimmed the "fat".

My little pie wedge of time was extremely precious to me. I wanted my students to know that I wanted the best for them, so I gave them the best of me.

AJ & John ask us to invest a large part of our day “to inspire creativity and innovation.” Describe one thing you are doing to make this a daily priority.

I am not in the classroom anymore - I am fortunate enough to be a Technology 
Integration Specialist in the same district I taught in for 14 years.

I 💖 my job.
I 💖 the people I work with.
I 💖 the way I am challenged.
I 💖 the opportunities I have every day at work.

Magazine Templates You Can Do

These past two weeks, I have been consumed with inspiration from Ryan O'Donnell's (@creativeedtech) magazine templates (website link)! I have found so many amazing uses for them in the classroom.

I simplified his TIME magazine for 4th graders who were doing reports on famous Ohioans. "WOW!" is about all I can say. They did wonderful!


TIME Magazine Template

For a different "feel", I also adapted Ryan O'Donnell's National Geographic Magazine Template with the same idea.




On the other end of elementary school spectrum, I had plans to work with Mrs. Martin in 1st grade on President reports. I threw out the idea of creating magazines with their research. She let me run with it. 

Her students read the Scholastic News magazines, so I used that magazine as the inspiration. ( Thank you! ) 

I'm pretty sure you'll agree ... these littles "ROCKED IT!"  

"Schoolastic NewZ" Magazine Template

Since then...

I've been working on a few others. I'm excited to share them out as templates for you to use. Click on the images below to open up them as templates. If you see one you like, click on the "Use Template" button in the upper right corner.

Resources ... LOTS of Tech You Can Do

I curate. A LOT.  So much that I had tossed around the idea of calling my blog "My Brain Can't Hold it All" because truly ... there IS so much out there, I just can't remember it. I HAD to collect it.

I've created some things to contribute, but honestly, there is SOOOO MUCH GOOD STUFF out there! It's not all mine ... I credit those from I find it from. Yoda said it best ...

This page is one of the most important reasons I began this blog. I 💞 sharing out ideas, information, and links. I share things that are worth taking 5 minutes to look at. I do plan to add to it every couple of days. 

Here is a little preview of what I've gathered ... some my original work, some quick links to others. Eric Curts, Ryan O'Donnell, Chromebook Tips/Tricks, lots of Google related things, and more. 

If you like what you see, check out the "Resources" tab at the top of m blog. The search options at the top of the page make it INCREDIBLY easy to find what you are looking for. Be on the lookout for this page to just grow and grow.

I hope you find something that you can use tomorrow and I hope you find something you can share with a friend. Until next week ...

Force Copy? ... No More! Viewing You Can Do

I 💖💖💖 when others share out their work! I 💖💖💖 it even more when I can see what it is they are sharing. Only a handful of years ago, I thought it was AMAZING when Stacy Smith (@MilfordTECH) showed me how to "force a copy" for my students. I quickly deleted all the "Make sure you make your own copy" I typed at the top of all my docs. I moved on to jokingly reminding my students how polite Google is when it asks if we would "like to make a copy". 

Earlier this school year, I came across the amazing post by Tony Vincent (@tonyvincent), "Google Document URL Tricks" and my mind was blown! It was a posting that transformed how I think about sharing. Tony shares 5 ways to change the ending of your link to serve your sharing need. My favorite one is to change the ending to "template/preview" and when others click the link ... they see your doc but not everything else going on all around it. And if the viewer decides they like what they see, they just click the "Use Template" button and they have their very own copy they can edit/modify/share.

This is a breakthrough in sharing work with others!!

Let me clarify - there IS a time and place for each of these endings. Please don't be confused - they can't be used interchangeably. Tony does a great job of explaining each ending and when would be a good time to use it. Forcing a copy is hands-down a MUST KNOW for teachers, but it's not always ideal for sharing out your work.

Which brings me to today. At least twice this week, I've wanted to "see" what someone was sharing, but in order to do so, I needed to make my own copy. If I decided I didn't want it, I'd need to delete it. Maybe it doesn't sound like a lot, but I like to keep My Drive organized.

Soooooooooo ....... never fear! I have a little tip for you. You do NOT have to be tied to their share settings! Nope. You have control. Seriously.

Next time you get this message:

Olympic Activities You Can Do

The Olympics bring back very fond childhood memories for me. Every four years, I'd be glued to the TV watching the various competitions. Today, with all the options available, the Olympics is still something I look forward to. (The pageantry of the Opening Ceremonies is far more exciting to me than the Super Bowl!) My husband and I enjoy sharing this experience with our 3 girls.

As an educator, I see the possibility for Olympic-themed academic activities. Math and science are at the top of the list, with a healthy does of social studies and ELA not far behind. I was inspired by the article "8 Ways to Celebrate the Winter Games in Your Classroom" written by Jenn Horton on the We Are Teachers site. Jenn did a wonderful job of pulling together 8 ways you can explore more about the Olympics and include it into your classroom. I encourage you to check out her article. 

I created a Google Sheet that you can make your own copy and share with your students. I included an activity for each of the main content areas and left it open enough that students of all ages can attempt at least one of them. 
Feel free to make your own copy and adjust it as you wish for your students → [LINK to "5 Olympic Activities You Can Do"] 

Shout out to Tony Vincent for his tip on making Google Apps preview-able templates! 💖 !

Activity #1: Math - a Google Sheet is a great place to work on graphing skills. I tried to do the "heavy lifting" on this one so even our littlest learners can take part. All that needs to be done is select 5 countries and then tally their medals won by typing a "1" in the cell. 

Activity #2: Geography - a Google Sheet can become a collection of information where data can be entered and then compared across, in this