Ask a Tech Teacher

Resources for Digital Citizenship Week

Posted on October 17, 2018 by Jacqui

The California Department of Education encourages you to recognize October 15-19, 2018 as Digital Citizenship Week. Here are resources from Ask a Tech Teacher and Structured Learning that will help you learn how to teach digital citizenship to your students. Below, you’ll find everything from a full year-long curriculum to professional development for teachers:

Resources:

Digital Citizenship: What to Teach When (a video)

Curricula:

K-8 Digital Citizenship Curriculum

Professional Development:

Building Digital Citizens (a self-paced certificate class); this month, October 15-19th, this is available for free (with the code Free Digcit training through Google Classroom)–but without the certificate.

Building Digital Citizens (a grad school class, through UC and CSU)

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Great News: JotForm now offers a PDF Editor

Posted on October 16, 2018 by Jacqui

Forms are popular in schools for all sorts of reasons. Some teachers look no further than Google Forms but for those who require greater simplicity and sophistication in a form builder, as well as agility and rigor, free JotForm (premium edition also available) is an excellent option. It works on PCs, Macs, and mobile devices and offers what seems like an endless supply of professional-looking templates for tasks like performance evaluations, permission slips, volunteer sign-ups, feedback on events, asking for donations, collecting payments, providing contact information, and more. Its drag-and-drop interface makes building forms intuitive, quick, and easy. And the completed form can be pushed out via link, embed, or email. Here’s my review if you’re looking for more details.

If you already use JotForm, here’s some great news: JotForm has kicked it up a notch by offering a free PDF editor.

Why a PDF Editor?

Every teacher I know must edit a PDF at some time in the school year. Maybe they want to customize an existing PDF for use in their class, or a form they created requires that sort of versatility. PDF Readers are common (like Adobe Reader) but editing one is trickier. If President Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort had one, it would have changed his life dramatically (click the link to read more of this story–and thanks to the JotForm folks for pointing this out to me). Many school documents are shared in PDF format for ease of use on multiple platforms as well as security from being hacked or edited. The biggest reason by far why my colleagues require a PDF editor is that too often, the underlying document is lost and the teacher has nothing left but the PDF.

That’s when a PDF editor becomes critical. Click here for JotForms’ Complete Guide to Editing PDFs.

Categories: Reviews, Web Tools | Tags: website review | Leave a comment

Subscriber Special: October

Posted on October 15, 2018 by Jacqui

October 15th-19th:

Digital Citizenship Training

Buy the K-8 curriculum and get online PD for teachers in the 13 top Digital Citizenship topics Free!

To celebrate California’s Digital Citizenship Week Oct. 15-19th, 2018.

Just add the Code “Free Digcit training through Google Classroom” to the Special Instructions on your purchase.

BTW, training is through Google Classroom.

Questions? Ask Jacqui Murray at askatechteacher at gmail dot com.

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169 Tech Tip #114: Embed a Google Apps File

Posted on October 12, 2018 by Jacqui

In these 169 tech-centric situations, you get an overview of pedagogy—the tech topics most important to your teaching—as well as practical strategies to address most classroom tech situations, how to scaffold these to learning, and where they provide the subtext to daily tech-infused education.

Today’s tip: #114–Embed Google Apps Files

Category: Google Apps

Sub-category: Classroom management

Q: So many colleagues are sharing their Google Apps documents by embedding them, but I don’t know how to do that. Can you help?

A: Here’s how you do it: When your Google Doc, Spreadsheet, or Slideshow is complete:

Categories: Tech tips | Tags: google apps | Leave a comment

Tech Ed Resources for Class–Common Core

Posted on October 10, 2018 by Jacqui

I get a lot of questions from readers about what tech ed resources I use in my classroom so I’m taking a few days this summer to review them with you. Some are edited and/or written by members of the Ask a Tech Teacher crew. Others, by tech teachers who work with the same publisher I do. All of them, I’ve found well-suited to the task of scaling and differentiating tech skills for age groups, scaffolding learning year-to-year, taking into account the perspectives and norms of all stakeholders, with appropriate metrics to know learning is organic and granular.

Today: Common Core Bundle

Overview

In this bundle, you get 20 tech ed resources on how to use technology to achieve Common Core Standards–presented in a variety of ways including Lesson plans, webinars, and short but pithy articles. Included:

5 books (including 70 lesson plans)

8 webinars

7 Hall of Fame articles addressing Common Core topics

Who needs this

K-8 class teacher, K-8 tech teachers, tech coordinators, library media specialists, curriculum specialists

Classroom grade level teachers if your tech teacher doesn’t cover basic tech skills.

Categories: AATT Materials, Reviews, Videos | Tags: bundles, common core, product review | Leave a comment

Engagement through Competition

Posted on October 9, 2018 by Jacqui

Ask a Tech Teacher contributor, James Lovelock, has been thinking about the nexus of student engagement, online games, and learning. Here are his thoughts:

Student engagement has long been a point of conversation for educators, the concept that students must have an active interest in order to get the best benefit from instruction is hardly a new thought. Having said that, the ways in which that engagement is best achieved is a source of dispute, particularly depending on which philosophy on learning is held. Competition is definitely one of the more disputed forms.

Usually criticism of the idea of competition as a tool is that where some people win, other people must lose and that can serve to disengage them from learning. This sort of criticism is particular of classrooms where a couple of students may be seen to be dominant in certain areas and every other student conceivably looks at them and thinks inwardly “what is the point?” and proceeds to tap out, achieving the opposite of the intended engagement. To be fair, when competition is implemented without consideration to purpose or outcome for an entire class, this can happen.

Having said that, competition when used in a considered manner can be a highly effective tool for engagement in learning. A common example is that of a spelling test where rather than students competing individually they compete in groups, mixing together students who are stronger and weaker in the challenge so that those who would otherwise disengage are able to participate.

Categories: Games/Simulations, Keyboarding | Leave a comment

October is Dyslexia Awareness Month

Posted on October 8, 2018 by Jacqui

Surprisingly, 15-20 percent of the population has a language-based learning disability, and over 65 percent of those deficits is in reading. Often, these go undiagnosed as students, parents, and teachers simply think the child is not a good reader, is lazy, or is disinterested. Thankfully, the International Dyslexia Association sponsors an annual Dyslexia Awareness Month in October aimed to expand comprehension of this little-understood language-based learning condition.

Read more on TeachHUB

More on special needs:

Technology Removes Obstructed Writers’ Barriers to Learning

A Helping Hand: Assistive Technology Tools for Writing

3 Great Special Needs Digital Tools

Is Orton-Gillingham Right For Your Students?

A Symbaloo of Dyslexia tools

Categories: Teacher resources | Tags: special needs | Leave a comment

TeacherKit Saves You Time by Managing Class Tasks

Posted on October 6, 2018 by Jacqui

TeacherKit, a useful classroom management app for iOS or Android, provides teachers with one location to log student attendance, take note of student behavior, record grades, create student-level reporting, and other tedious tasks that traditionally take time away from teaching. The intuitive interface allows all this to be done with quick taps and swipes, generating data visualizations on the fly, both for whole classes and individual students. The student-profile system allows teachers to quickly contact students and parents via email, and the premium version adds the ability to send detailed progress reports, complete with behavior and attendance breakdowns. Plus, teachers can send announcements to an entire class, letting them know a date change, assignment due dates, and/or to update class information.

TeacherKit is a global Microsoft and Tradeline Strategic Education Partner with over 1 million teacher users around the world.

How it works

TeacherKit is easy to initiate and intuitive to use. Simply download the app from iTunes or Google Play and build classes. Students can be added via your class list, from other classes, or by photo. Once the class is set up, you can generate reports that summarize grades, behaviors, and more by class or student. Reports can be shared (as a PDF) via email or print. Optional reports include an overall class report, student performance, student/class grades, a class seating chart, and attendance. Here are samples of several:

Categories: Classroom management, Reviews | Tags: app reviews | Leave a comment

Tech Ed Resources–Organize Your Class

Posted on October 5, 2018 by Jacqui

Today: Organizing your classroom

Overview

18 webinars (more added as they become available), approx. 30 minutes each, show how to set up your classroom to be tech-infused.

What’s Included

Do you wonder how to set up an effective, exciting, motivating classroom to teach tech? It’s not difficult–but there are steps you must take that are different from a grade-level or subject-specific classroom. Watch these videos at the start of school and often throughout the year to understand how to integrate tech into your classes and how to help students use tech to get the most from their education adventure. Webinars included:

Categories: AATT Materials, Classroom management, Education reform, Teacher resources | Leave a comment

What Qualities Make an Effective Teacher?

Posted on October 4, 2018 by Jacqui

We all have a memory of our favorite teacher, almost always, the one who made us think we could do the impossible. In my case, it was Ms. Sampson. I left third grade and my third-grade teacher Ms. Gordon feeling like I didn’t measure up — and I didn’t. I wasn’t as fast, as clever, or as driven as my classmates. Ms. Gordon actually reprimanded me so roughly in front of the class once that a classmate I barely knew came to my defense, explaining to Ms. Gordon that it wasn’t my fault. Some students learn differently.

My fourth-grade teacher, Ms. Sampson, changed all that. When I entered her class, I did think it was my fault, that I wasn’t smart enough, but she explained without a single word where I was wrong. She didn’t do it by being an easy grader or downsizing my work requirements or even unduly praising me. She didn’t try to be my best friend and she didn’t make excuses for my third-grade failures. Maybe this was because she was new and didn’t know how to profile students who would succeed from those who wouldn’t. In fact, she wasn’t any of the characteristics we often equate to great teachers.

Now, as a teacher myself, I wanted to understand why Ms. Sampson succeeded where Ms. Gordon, a Nationally-recognized Teacher and in the Top Five in my school district, so abysmally failed to spark my love of learning. I started by reviewing knowledgeable websites like Benchmark Education. I read books like James Stronge’s Qualities of Effective Teachers. Then, I queried colleagues, administrators, and parents about why they thought some teachers succeed in preparing students for college and career and others just don’t.

Turns out that effective teachers all have certain characteristics: