Better Design with Adobe Spark + White Bear Lake EdTech Badge Wall Reminder

Great design in seconds with Adobe Spark

Great design matters! The resources and materials that we create can have impact on our audience's mood and attitude towards the topic we are presenting. Often times formatting and design is overlooked because of how much extra time it can take. With Adobe Spark you can create great graphics, web stories and animated videos in a few simple steps. Use their style guide and image library to easily create communications for your students and parents. 

Trying using the 'Post' to create a simple poster for your classroom or office. This could also be used to design a nice looking images to be used in your next Google Slides presentation. 

'Pages' could be used to create a photo journal of your next big class project or to create digital portfolios of work. 

The 'videos' can be used in place of slides to create visually appealing presentations or lessons. 

Visit spark.adobe.com to get started

White Bear Lake EdTech Badge Wall 

It is great to see so many people signing up in Google Classroom and getting going with their learning! If you have started, tell others in your building about how it is going. You may even consider challenging them to a friendly competition.

We are providing this self-paced PD opportunity as a way to develop a baseline set of tech skills using the tools that are common in White Bear Lake schools. The Badge Wall is also designed to give credit to those who have already spent time developing their skills as you can check off items that you already know how to do. There are 15 total PD hours available. Follow the directions below to get started.

1. Join Google Classroom using the code 27v8eib
2. Click “Open” on the White Bear Lake EdTech Badge Wall assignment to get your own copy of the digital badge wall.

3. Click on one of the tools along the bottom of the digital badge wall. Work through the challenges at your own pace. There are links to videos that will explain how to do each task. When you complete a task, put an “X” in the “Check off with an X” column to earn your badge. If you already know how to do a task, skip the tutorials and mark it with an “X”.
4. Click the “Turn In” button when you have completed each challenge by Wednesday, May 17th, 2017.

WHAT IS YOUR WHY?

• You will be able to impress your colleagues and your students with your tech skills.
• PD hours will be available. One hour of PD will be given for each tool (column). You must register on PD express for each tool (column). You do not need to complete all 15 columns (15 hours) to earn hours for individual tools (columns).

• You will receive a fantastic completion sticker and corresponding digital email signature badge when your whole wall is complete. You will also receive a digital certificate to display proudly in your classroom.

WHITE BEAR LAKE EDTECH BADGE WALL

This week teachers all across the district are starting a self-guided EdTech Badge Wall Challenge.

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1. Join Google Classroom using the code 27v8eib
2. Click “Open” on the White Bear Lake EdTech Badge Wall assignment to get your own copy of the digital badge wall.

3. Click on one of the tools along the bottom of the digital badge wall. Work through the challenges at your own pace. There are links to videos that will explain how to do each task. When you complete a task, put an “X” in the “Check off with an X” column to earn your badge. If you already know how to do a task, skip the tutorials and mark it with an “X”.
4. Click the “Turn In” button when you have completed each challenge by Wednesday, May 17th, 2017.

WHAT IS YOUR WHY?

• You will be able to impress your colleagues and your students with your tech skills.
• PD hours will be available. One hour of PD will be given for each tool (column). You must register on PD express for each tool (column). You do not need to complete all 15 columns (15 hours) to earn hours for individual tools (columns).
• You will receive a fantastic completion sticker and corresponding digital email signature badge when your whole wall is complete. You will also receive a digital certificate to display proudly in your classroom.

#BlackHistoryMonth + Templates in G Suite + ISD624 Twitter PLN

Black history month provides a tremendous opportunity to celebrate Black American culture and praise diversity and inclusion. Google Arts and Culture is one great resource available to us. Discover thousands of artworks, artifacts, and stories from cultural organizations across the United States. 

• Discover African American art
• Check out the story of inspiring choreographer and activist, Alvin Ailey, or Edmonia Lewis, the 19th Century African American Sculptor. 
• Take a virtual tour of key locations in civil rights, like Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma or Little Rock Central High School.
• Watch Key moments in civil rights history, like JFKs Adress to the nation on civil rights or a clip on the Tuskegee airmen in WWII.

Want to connect globally with other educators doing the same thing? Follow and Engage with the twitter hashtag #BlackHistoryMonth

(Google Apps For Education has recently been renamed to G Suite.)

G Suite has recently enabled the ability to create templates. A template is a file that serves as a starting point for a new document. When you open a template, it is pre-formatted in a useful way. Here are some examples of why you would want to create templates:

• Use a template in Google Docs, so AVID students could create a copy of a Cornell Notes template in one click. 
• Use a template in Google Forms, to start every Google Form by asking first name, last name, and email. 
• Use a template in Google Slides, so your students can work together to show mastery or create a resource by using a collaborative slide deck.

For step by step directions on G Suite templates click here

Here is how ISD 624 employees can access the templates specific to our domain.

 

Here is how you can add templates specific to our domain.

If you would like to go more in depth, from a comfortable source, check out what the Sync Sisters have to say about G Suite templates. 

To see more from the Sync Sisters youtube channel, click here. 

If you are interested in learning more about getting started with Twitter, check out our blog post from January

For those of you that have recently started your journey towards becoming a connected educator, here is a second chance to join the resource of twitter handles from ISD624 teachers to share across our district. Twitter handles collected from this form will be available to ISD624 employees via this blog and emails from your Digital Learning Specialist. Fill out this form if you are interested in sharing your twitter handle for other ISD 624 teachers to follow:

ISD624 Twitter PLN