Gym-classroom hybrid helping kids with learning problems | wfaa.com Dallas - Fort Worth

I'm always harking on the fact that the only way education can change for the better is by meeting our students where they are. Find a way to motivate, engage and create environments conducive for success that is familiar to the way students of today think and operate with a focus on technology. Well, I was quite impressed with a local school district that decided to do just that by adding a technology tool that I had not yet thought have. You have to read the article to find out what going the extra mile to reach our students looks like. (Make sure to notice the MacBooks being used...)

Gym-classroom hybrid helping kids with learning problems | wfaa.com Dallas - Fort Worth.

The iGeneration...Better Get Used To It!

Found this great infographic on Kids and Mobile Technology that agrees with the notions of this digital generation. My 2-year old operates an iPad mini better than many of the adults that I train on an everyday basis. If we can't beat them... might as well Meet Them Where They Are!

Kids & Mobile Technology infographic by michelleink88.

Does Social Media Belong In The Classroom???

A parent called the lab this week and left a message explaining her displeasure with her student using Google+ in class to converse with her pen pal in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She felt that school was no place for students to be spending time on the internet video chatting with people and their time is better spend reading from a text book to gain knowledge. Ok, when I recovered from the laugh attacked that ensued, I invited her to the school to show her along with a few other parents how social media can be used in the classroom. The meeting is being held in a few weeks, but the list of interested parents has grown to 132. Guess how she got the word out to other parents to get them involved...FaceBook. Wow! So, as I was putting together my presentation, I began by asking myself if Social Media actually belongs in the classroom. People who know me understand that I'm always willing to try something new for learning especially if it fits my ed tech philosophy of meeting students where they are, but when considering implementation, one truly has to consider the why not and all the fears that are associated with students collaborating online. So, is it worth the risk?

Source: learndash.com via Holly on Pinterest

The Learning Life of StudyBlue

Understanding the mind of the digital child is challenging and I say this as parent and educator. However, the most difficult aspect to fathom is the study habits of this generation. As a part of my business research, I am finding that study habits are not introduced at an early age, students tend to have a difficult time with time management and priortizing their study schedule. Personally, my daughter seems to have the most success when she creates flash cards to help her retain. However, along with my students, paper flash cards got boring, using power point and Keynote was successful, but she didn't always have access to her laptop. However she always had her iPhone. StudyBlue has put together a cool way to study as they have truly taken some time to look into how today's digital student operates.
Via: STUDYBLUE.com So far, my student's who are using the tool have improved their test grades dramatically. It's worth a shot.

50 Years Later...

50 Years today, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his most replicated speeches "I Have A Dream". It's hard to imagine the progress of this country without the boldness of Dr. King. Students today take for granted the freedom to socialize on their precious networks,naively believing the this is the way it has always been. To keep the nation in a state of gratitude, we need to keep reminding our young people from whence we came. Problem, students speak in a different language today. So how do we continue to teach them the past and keep them interested? As we continue to meet students where they are audio and video mashups are a great way to impart historical wisdom and impress upon today's students. Using simple tools like audacity or Garageband on a Mac, students can take exerts from Dr. King's speeches and put them to music. This is so easy to do, but can have a great impact. Students learn a great deal about the power of words from a great man, while infusing relevant media that keeps them engaged. Students can also take video clips of recorded speeches and still images to create a video mashup put to music. iMovie and MovieMaker can be used to accomplish this task. It's vital that we keep history alive, especially when it comes to teaching our students about the impact of Great people such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We just have to meet them where they are to do so.

How Technology Is Empowering The Learners - Edudemic

Since I started working with Montessori schools, I have seen the most amazing faces of discomfort when I walk in the classroom to talk technology. Though each classroom is far from being traditional, the argument about adding technology leans toward the student's need for tactile learning. I'm told consistently that the student needs to feel the beads, touch the manipulative, learn certain grips to be able to be successful in the classroom. This article, though not completely disagreeing with the responses I receive, serves as a aid to my own argument of technology is their to enhance the learning. This is a great read.

How Technology Is Empowering The Learners - Edudemic.

Another iPad In The Classroom Push

Dealing with a large school district can be difficult when it comes to spending money on meaning technology. Everyone wants a bulk discount or instead of finding the best tool to meet the needs of the students where they are, the least expensive is what is chosen. Well, as my mom always said, "You get what you pay for!" Hopefully, this article from +EducationDive will help the big districts rethink their implementation strategies.

18 iPad uses: How classrooms are benefiting from Apple's tablets | Education Dive.

Just 30 Minutes

It's been many moons since I have been able to blog, but I'm back for Twenty Thirteen. My new position that took on this fall along with starting my own business has kept me away from sharing my educational technology passion. However, as the job has finally settled, I find it imperative that I get back to keeping up with the Ed Tech world.

In my Technology Lab our new challenge for this year is to take at least 30 minutes a week to learn something new. I myself have chosen to spend at least 30 minutes a day bettering myself by learning a new skill or adding on to the skills I already have. The thing is with students though, the computer is their number one resource for learning and when they get on the computer, they were immediately lost when it came to referencing learning opportunities.

So, I found a site for them that I highly recommend called Great Websites for Kids. This site is sponsored by the Association For Library Service To Children a division of the American Library Association. Great Websites for Kids actually is a safe site aggregate that suggest amazing and stunningly beautiful websites that are astetically pleasing to kids while providing relevant information to both the trending and standard topics that students are interested in from endangered species, to trivial facts about everything all while filled with vivid images interesting creatures like the coconut crab which I had never seen before or heard of in my life.

Great Websites for Kids divides the suggested sites into academic categories: Animals, The Arts, History & Biography, Literature & Languages, Mathematics & Computers, Reference Desk, Sciences, and Social Sciences. This could be a one-stop-shop for students doing research on various topics and keeps them steered clear from unwanted sites that are suggested when searching via Google. They also highlight a website for the week that appears when you first enter the site, bringing notariaty to some very information friendly sites that contain wealth of knowledge but delivered in a way that engages the students. Great Websites for Kids also has a link for Parents, Caregivers, Teachers & Others taking the search challenge away for us adults also when looking for useful information for our kids. I guess this my Website of the Week and I hope that students would at least spend 30 minutes a week accessing it to learn something new.

Making Leaps And Bounds Into the Future

Just a few days ago, I was speaking to a fellow educator about her differentially gifted students and their means of operating tools of technology to communicate and demonstrate mastery of the objectives. We were discussing how to manipulate the iPad and using the Universal Access on the Mac to overcome certain challenges. However, the thoughts continued to roll, I get an invite to take a look at a new product that is about to be unveiled and I immediately leap in the air with excitement.

Leap Motion has come up with a way to improve interaction with your computer through the natural movements. The idea is to replace the mouse and keyboard with a technology that will allow you to use your motion to dictate the applications on your device. Basically, you begin to conduct your computer like a technology orchestra using swipes, pinches, and any other normal hand movement to direct what you want to happen. Imagine some of our Differentially Gifted students having the ability to communicate with and manipulate complicated programs with their own natural movements. They receive immediate feedback and gratification by doing something on their own. The technology is comparable to what we have seen in the movies like Iron Man (Which I vow to have a system just like that one day) and Minority Report and makes huge strides in bringing similarities to our homes at a very affordable rate.

I can't wait to see this technology in schools across the country and I look forward to having it in my home real soon.

Update From JibJab Jr. Books

Reblog...Sneak Peek into Our Upcoming App Update!.

Truly love using JibJab Jr. Book, oops, I mean, StoryBots Starring You Storybooks both at school and at home. My own children have asked me to sell all of their books off of their bookshelves because this is all they want to read at night. In the classroom, younger students love being portrayed as the main character in a book. I have suggested to some to use the story to highlight the "Star of The Week" or whatever student highlighted activity going on in the classroom. However, as an extension, the great animations allows for the students to easily act out the scenes to practice literary elements such as sequencing.

I'm excited about the changes to come from JibJab Jr. Can't wait until the day they add multiple starring me character opportunity within the stories...hint hint!

Moby You Should Pass On This One...

As normal, I peruse the web searching for the newest tools to turn into Ed Tech super weapons to annihilate traditional teaching methods fed to today's digital student. In my search over time, I have found myself connected with more than enough social media platforms. Therefore, having a way to share, participate and be in all places at once is attractive. While looking at my social media hangar, one of my twitter PLN buddies posted something from MobyPictures and described it as a place to share photos on all your social media networks from one place. Perfect...so I thought. As soon as I went to the home page, my computer was flagged for inappropriate images. (I have it set up that way because I have kids.) Well, come to find out, Mobypictures does allow you to use one site to share with them all, but anyone can share anything, and I mean anything, including...well, I Leave it at that.

If you are looking to eliminate having to access multiple social media points in your classroom and simply use one to share to all, pass on Mobypictures, you could lose your job because of it.

I Love Prezi, but....

Ok, years ago, I become enraged when walking pass a classroom and students were putting together boring presentations on Power Point instead of using animation tools on Keynote or Xtranormal (When it was free and G-Rated). My, how time has flown by. Most people are now hooked on Prezi and for good reason. However, I think I may have found something that will provide a great alternative.

PowToon is the brand new Do-It-Yourself animated presentation tool that supercharges your presentations and videos! It's marketed as a time and money saver for creating Presentoons that bring the WOW!-factor to product demos, business presentations, social media clips, and much more. The educational factor is what interest me. Most teachers ooh and awe at Speed Draw Cartoon Presentations, or demos put together by the folks at Creative Commons. Well now, teachers and students can create those type of presentations themselves. 

I highly recommend the tutorials before jumping in and you have to keep in mind that PowToon is in Beta form, but oh the possibilities. I'm ecstatic. I love Prezi, but.... I may turn real soon. 

Not My Normal Technology Post, But I Had To Share

CLICK TO WATCH THIS VIDEO PLEASE!

On my way home tonight I saw a church billboard which asked the question:  “Are you showing God’s love?”  IMMEDIATELY the song I’ve included above came on.  PLEASE go listen to it.  It’s one of those songs I’ve heard before, but I admit, I have never really, truly listened to it’s lyrics.  It answered the question on the billboard.  I HOPE THAT MY LIFE IS PROOF OF GOD’S LOVE! 

I know my life  has not always reflected God.  There were years in my life that I knew who Jesus was.  I talked to God.  I prayed my little night time prayers and I blessed my food.  I even felt goosebumps when I felt like I was close to what God wanted me to do.  BUT I DIDN’T really reallly reeaaallly know Jesus.  I didn’t look at God as my true creator.  He was more like this big guy in the sky.  You know, that is what I’ve heard some athiest call Him.  EW!  I never ever never want to think like that ever again.

I can’t tell you the exact day I finally figured it out.  I mean, I know there are people who can tell you the exact day and hour that they actually got “saved,” and I'm one of them, but I can estimate the time where I finally figured out that Jesus is my personal savior!  I **FINALLY** decided that there were things in my life that were actually plans of the devil himself.  Did I drop all of those things cold turkey?  No.  Wish I could have!  Who doesn’t hope for peace, hope and a clean conscience!?   Even though I wasn’t able to drop them immediately, I did begin my journey of moving away from them.  Amen, Halleluia, Praise God!

I am such a sinner.  SUCH A SINNER!  We all have those gritty grimey things that clutter and cloud our mind.  I know I cringe or even get sick to my stomach thinking about some of the things I’ve done that were not Godly.   Positively though, I know, looking back, I’m not where I was 10 years ago.  I’m not where I was 5 years ago.  I’m not where I was a YEAR AGO!   AND I am not where I want to be now.  I want to be closer to God.  I want to be able to be in constant fellowship with Him.  I want to be able to LISTEN and hear what He wants me to do in all things.  I know I want a lot!  But I totally and absolutely believe that because I have Jesus as my savior, my faithful friend, my grace and my power, I can do all things THROUGH HIM!  I can continue to grow in Him and become THE PROOF OF HIS LOVE!

How to get more done quicker using your voice in Evernote

How to get more done quicker using your voice in Evernote

As I'm trying to become more familiar with the impact Evernote can have in the classroom, I came across this piece that actually taught me something new. It's worth looking at for certain, plus I definitely trust the Cool Cat Teacher!

Online School Newspapers

I made the decision to follow my god-daughter on twitter after meeting some of her friends at her High School graduation. Interestingly enough,as I begin to follow her, I thought about categorizing the different conversations, tweets what have you and putting together a college of messages for her to create a poster from. Well, a few days later, I ran across a web 2.0 tool that made start thinking about my initial idea as and educational project.

Paper.li is a content curation service that allows it's members to collect digital information and publish it as a newspaper all based on the topics enjoyed by the owner himself. Now of course I'm thinking of ways this can be used in the classroom and I can't help but be excited about using this tool in our journalism class. While teaching the basics of news reporting, students can be assigned various topics, comb the web for related information, articles, videos, etc., and then use Paper.li to pull it all together in wonderful template that actually engaging to peruse. I also though about using this as a staff development assignment for teachers to gather information about classroom management, or technology implementation and publish their papers as a way to share what they have learned.

 The truth is, there is a ton of information out there and I don't believe it is possible for one person to get to it all. However, working with tools like Paper.li many people can be reached and not have to search through the massive content of the world by themselves. Here are some links to some trending examples:

Wonderful Wedding and Wisdom
The Patrick Monroe Daily
The Obsession Fitness Daily