Our New Face Lift, Google Classroom PD, Tech Cohort and BrightBytes

As you can see, we've made some changes to the way that we will pass on our tech wisdom to you. On this blog you will be able to search through the whole archive of Tech Tips to quickly find answers to your questions. 

Google Classroom PD for CEUs

On Monday, September 29th Cassie and I will be offering a 45-minute professional development session on Google Classroom. The session will start at 7 am in the South Campus Media Center.

You will receive CEUs for your attendance at this session! You will need to register in PDExpress to get credit for this session. (login here) Once logged in click "In District Events" at the top of the page and select "In District Event Catalog". 

2014-2015 Technology & Leadership Cohort

Starting October 27, 2014, ~30 teachers will begin White Bear’s second Technology & Leadership Cohort focused on improving leadership and technology skills through four blended courses.  Members will also earn 15 graduate credits and a Technology & Leadership Certificate through Hamline. The Cohort will be taught in a blended format with all face to face meetings being held Monday afternoon/evenings once month.

Last year’s Cohort was a huge success, and we are delighted to extend the opportunity to a new group of White Bear teachers!  Learn more in the brief description below and read the full description at bit.ly/WBLAS1415cohortinfo. 

Applications are due October 9th, so start crafting your responses soon!  

The focus of these classes will be to enhance practice of integrating technology into White Bear’s curriculum as well as build leadership skills in teachers in the field of technology and learning. 

Contact the tech department or one of last year's cohort members with any questions.

It's coming...

Be ready to participate in this year's BrightBytes survey in the upcoming weeks. Important technology related decisions for the district are made based on the data from this survey. Those who speak are the ones who are heard. Our goal is 100% participation at every school.

IFTTT, Community Ed Schoology Page, Schoology Notification Settings (May 13, 2014)

Tip #1: If This Then That

If This Then That is a service that allows you to make connections between many of your online services. You create recipes that trigger an action in one service when something happens with another service. An example that I used in class was every time the daily weather for White Bear Lake was posted on the Weather Channel, IFTTT would add  that weather data to a new row in one of my Google spreadsheets. My students then compared the weather data that they were collecting for class with the data that was automatically added to the spreadsheet from the Weather Channel.  Essentially it is a way to automate some of the tasks that you do already, freeing up some of your time. It also has features that can do some pretty cool and unique things.  For a more detailed description click here.

IFTTT is also an app for Android and Apple.

Tip #2: Stay in the loop: Community Ed Teacher Page

You may have seen the new "White Bear Lake Teachers" page in your list of courses in Schoology. This page was created by the folks in Community Education to keep you in the loop about professional development opportunities.

"This will be where we post all flyers from Colleges and Universities offering professional development for teachers. We are moving away from paper flyers being placed in mailboxes and moving toward an online posting of flyers. We decided Schoology is the way to go to forward this communication to teachers."

-Kristine Wehrkamp

Tip #3: Notifications or not. The choice is yours.

As you are being enrolled in various courses and creating your own, you may or may not want to get an email about everything that happens in the course. Luckily, the choice is up to you! This is how you change notifications for a specific course and here is reminder on how to change notification settings for your account.

Formative Assessment with Pear Deck & Nearpod

Here are your Tuesday tech tips!

This week's tech tips feature two great presentation tools that can be used to increase student engagement and gather formative assessment data from students.

Tip #1: Pear Deck

Pear Deck is an app that connects to your Google Drive account allowing you to take existing Google presentations or PDFs and turn them into interactive lessons with embedded formative assessments. Students can join the presentation and participate through their devices. You can also create new presentations in Pear Deck. Click here for more information (including some great videos) on using Pear Deck.

Tip #2: Nearpod

Nearpod is a website that functions similar to the Pear Deck app in that it allows you to add interactive formative assessment features to existing presentations or to create new presentations with these features. A Nearpod app is available for Apple and Android devices allowing students to easily join in on presentations. Click here for a video overview of Nearpod and visit Nearpod.com to get started.

So which should you use? Give both a try! Both have features that the other doesn't. For example, with Pear Deck you can ask "pop" questions that weren't initially part of the presentation and with Nearpod you can ask questions in which students can submit a drawn or handwritten response.

New Google Sheets and Remind101 Attachments (April 15, 2014)

Here are your Tuesday tech tips!...

Many staff have inquired about the notification that comes up when using Google spreadsheets about switching to "new sheets." The question that gets asked... "What is new sheets and should I switch?" This answer to this question can be found in this week's first tech tip...

Tip #1: New Sheets? Old Sheets?...

The basic answer to the above question is that Google has updated spreadsheets. The updated version of Google spreadsheets is "new sheets." New sheets have some improved features from old sheets including the addition of add-ons. Add-ons are tools that you can add to your spreadsheets to increase the capabilities of the spreadsheet. Add-ons are also available in Google documents. There are add-ons that will grade Google form responses collected in a spreadsheet, automate email feedback to students from a spreadsheet, manage the creation and sharing of student documents, etc. Contact me or Matt if you would like personalized training on utilizing add-ons.

Currently about half of our district staff have been automatically switched from old sheets to new sheets. Eventually everyone will be switched. If you have been switched you can access old sheets with this URL: g.co/oldsheets.

Click here for a video that summarizes the improvements you will find in new sheets.

Click here for a video that summarizes add-ons.

Tip #2: Remind101 now includes the ability to attach files to messages

Remind101 is a safe way to stay in touch with students and parents via text message. Students and parents subscribe to a class and teachers send out messages to the class through Remind101 so that there is no exchange of phone numbers. You can now even include attachments with your messages. Click herefor details on setting up Remind101 or visit remind101.com.

Click here for a video about the new attachment feature in Remind101.

Internet for $10/month, Microsoft Office for $9.95, and Common Sense Media Appy Hour (March 18, 2014)

Here are your Tuesday Tech Tips!

Tip #1: Internet for $10.00/month for WBL Staff!

You can get 4G wifi access at home for $10.00/month (+ the cost of a modem) through our partnership with Mobile Citizen. Click here and enter your address to verify that it is within the coverage area. If you already have access at home you might consider the mobile 4G wifi hotspot.Click here for more details.

This is not available to students at this time, however, if you know of a qualifying (free or reduced lunch) student in need of computer/internet access please provide them with information about PCs for People and low cost internet.

Tip #2: The Latest Version of Microsoft Office for your Home Computer for $9.95!

All WBL staff are now eligible to purchase one license of the newest version of Microsoft Office for $9.95.

Click here for more details. This is not available to students at this time.

Tip #3: Appy Hour!

Common Sense Media has a 30 minute "Appy Hour" every month. You can watch live or later to see how educators are using digital tools for learning.

Click here for more details.

en → en

Tip #1: Internet for $10.00/month for WBL Staff!

YouTube Playlists and Free Editor in YouTube (March 4, 2014)

Good morning colleagues!

Here are your Tuesday tech tips! This week we are focusing on how YouTube can be used in the classroom as an educational tool.

Tip #1: YouTube Playlists: Like A Mixtape For Education

Making a YouTube playlist is a great way to sort and organize videos that you want to watch later or that you want your students to watch. After you create a playlist you can share it with a single link. This is perfect for sharing videos with students that are all related to a certain topic of study.

Just click the 'Add to' button underneath any YouTube video to add it to a playlist.

Click here for more information on making playlists.

Tip #2: No Video Editing Software? No Problem.

Free Movie Editor in YouTube

With YouTube's free video editor you can create and publish video projects online. After uploading clips to YouTube you are able to add your clips to the same project, add transitions. apply filters, add text or add an audio track. YouTube has also included a nice collection of Creative Commons licensed videos and audio tracks that are free for you to use!

The great thing about this editor is that you can access it from anywhere. Whether you are editing your screencasts on the go or students are at home working on a project, the YouTube editor is an easy way to create videos without spending money on software.

If you want to learn a little more about the editor click here.

If you'd rather jump right in and try it for yourself click here.

Google Spreadsheets for Lesson Planning & Haiku Deck (February 18, 2014)

Hello Colleagues!

Here are your Tuesday tech tips!

Per request of several staff, this week's first tip is about utilizing Google spreadsheets for keeping lesson plans!

Tip #1: Using Google Spreadsheets for Lesson Planning

A Google spreadsheet can be a great place for keeping lesson plans. Here are three reasons why Google spreadsheets are useful for lesson planning:

1. You can freeze rows or columns in spreadsheets to make headings or certain information accessible no matter where you scroll.

1. You can create drop down lists of items to fill in information (i.e. standards the lesson is addressing, chapters of a textbook, etc.).

1. You can access your lesson plans from any computer and you can share your lesson plans with colleagues.

Click here for information on creating a spreadsheet, freezing rows or columns within a spreadsheet, and creating drop down lists of items within a spreadsheet.

Tip #2: Check Out Haiku Deck!

Haiku Deck is a great tool for creating simple, yet great looking, presentations. Click here for an example. There is an iPad and web version available. Haiku Deck only allows a certain number of words per slide and pulls images that correspond to keywords on each slide that are free to use.

Blendspace and Collaborating in Schoology (December 10, 2013)

Here are you Tuesday Tech Tips.

Tip #1: Meet Blendspace

This tool allows you to collect digital content from around the web and compile it into organized lessons that students can work through at their own pace. You also have the ability to create quizzes right within your lessons that can be used for formative assessment. In Blendspace you are able to include any of you Google Drive formats or add content YouTube, OpenEd, Flickr, Educreations, Search Gooru or Dropbox. You can also upload media files from your computer or add a web page.

Photosynthesis example in Blendspace

Get started here or check out these webinars to see how teachers are using Blendspace in the classroom.

Creating Collaborative Research Projects

Digital Storytelling and Student Creation

Flipping and Blending The Classroom

Tip #2: Sharing is Caring (and time saving)

We collaborate in almost every aspect of our teaching and we often encourage students to do the same. Fortunately, Schoology has a feature that allows us to share the resources we create just like we do in other aspects of our job

Start by selecting 'Personal' from the 'Resources' drop down menu

Click the file box icon to add a new collection

Click the 'Share' button to add other Schoology users as collaborators to the collection

Anybody that was added as a collaborator will now be able to copy resources from that collection and add it to their courses. They are also able to add their own resources.

Splitting the workload between teachers and creating a great collection of instructional resources! What's not to love? The best part is that you will be able to pull from this ever growing collection to build your courses next year.

Bear Tech and Free Online Video Resources (October 29, 2013)

Hello Colleagues,

Back by popular demand... Tuesday Tech Tips! You will be receiving tech tips every other Tuesday through the end of the school year.

Tip #1: Bear Tech

Our new help desk ticketing system has been implemented! You can submit a ticket by going to the district website and selecting "Bear Tech" from the quick links. Once you submit a ticket you can log in to track the progress of your ticket. For information on logging in watch this video. You will also receive emails about your ticket progress throughout the resolution of your issue.

In addition to submitting tickets you can view the knowledge base for solutions to common issues or for current district issues that technology is working to find a solution for.

Tip #2: Free Online Video Resources

There are many free video streaming resources for teachers to bring video content to their students. You can find links to these resources in the Tech Tips section of the Bear Tech Knowledge Base or you can click here!