Connecting Your Students with the World: Book Review by Billy Krakower, Paula Naugle, Jerry Blumengarten (Eye on Education, 2015) Overwhelmed teachers who want to collaborate globally are going to love Connecting Your Students with the World. This book designed especially for grades K-8 classrooms. I’m excited to review this book. My favorite thing: The book organizes by month! You’ll see all the opportunities by month with links and information about the project. You’ll learn how to take part. There are tons of links and resources to get you started. I knew when I saw this book several months ago that it was going to help lots of teachers and their students connect. Connecting isn’t always easy. Teachers are busy and don’t have time to ferret out what they need to do. This book makes it easier. The authors of this book are often seen at conferences. (Sometimes one of them even wears a cape. Here we have (L-R) Billy Krakower, Jerry Blumengarten (the two pics in the middle) and Paula Naugle (right.) They are quite a team and have written a great book for teachers, Connecting Your Students to the World. Mystery Location Calling How -To Guide Some people call it Mystery Skype. Others call it Mystery FaceTime. They’re right, we should take the tool out of the name of the practice. We can connect with anyone, anywhere, anytime. Mystery Location Calling is the best way to get started. They’ve broken it down by how you get prepared. What you’ll do to connect. And the roles for all  the students (including many I’d never thought of but make such sense.) It is worth the book just to have this handy guide. Connecting Your Students to the World on Amazon Monthly Projects and Activities Connect your classroom! A child’s worldview will change. Everything changes. You can connect with the world much easier than you think possible. With this book, you can plan your whole year. Although I teach high school, I’m going to use this book just to keep up with what is when. Standards And yes, the standards correlations for Common Core and ISTE are in there. So, if you need to meet a standard and want to do it with global collaboration (why not?), you can do it too. My Book Review Connecting Your Students with the World (K-8) is a must-purchase for all teachers in grades K-8 who want to collaborate globally. (Add it to your shelf along with Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds. Flattening Classrooms teaches you how to plan and construct your projects!) This book has: The practicality of Paula Naugle, The zest and energy of Billy Krakower and the Incredible curation superpower of everyone’s favorite cybrary man, Jerry Blumengarten. I hope this fantastic team cranks out some more books as helpful as this one. I recommend this book for: Elementary and middle school teachers (K-8) Anyone who wants to do Mystery Location Calls Curriculum directors Anyone responsible for planning school-wide events and calendars. (Many principals do this job!) Connecting Your Students with the World is a practical, useful book for teachers. I highly recommend it. Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising." The post Connecting Your Students with the World: Book Review [Book] appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

An Every Classroom Matters Episode How can we connect with our students every single day? Teacher Jennie Magiera reflects honestly about how she killed creativity but brought it back from the dead. She shares how a simple Google form changed everything about the relationship with her students. Her insights about kids working below grade level are helpful to every teacher who struggles to reach them. A White House Champion for Change, you’ll be inspired to connect with your students in new ways after listening to this episode. Important Takeaways How a mood check-in gave Jennie a "qualitative shift" in her relationship with her students. (BYOD schools take note) 5 Ideas for how to do mood check-ins (even without technology) How Jennie pursued Ken Robinson’s dream to move towards creativity only to realize she had "broken" her students How to empower and engage kids who are far below grade level. How to help kids want to learn. Educator Resources Creating Mood Check Ins with Google Forms [VIDEO] Power to the Pupil - Jennie’s TEDx Talk Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk on Creativity Jennie Magiera’s Keynote on Wes Fryer’s Podcast @msmageira Quotes How can we allow for all students to have access to powerful and transformational opportunities? @MsMagieraPowered By the Tweet This PluginTweet This Every child deserves a world-class education. @coolcatteacher #edreformPowered By the Tweet This PluginTweet This We need to give our students more choice and voice. @MsMagieraPowered By the Tweet This PluginTweet This "I realized I had essentially broken my students. They were looking for rubrics and checklists. I had robbed them of their ability to make choices. They didn’t feel comfortable anymore, they were so reliant on me. I had to undo that overscaffolding and show them how to be their own educational agents of change on their own educational journey." Jennie Magiera Connect with Students: Getting and Staying in Touch with Every Student is Episode 175 on Every Classroom Matters with guest Jennie Magiera. Join the Every Classroom Matters Awesome Educators Network on Facebook You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or elsewhere, get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above. The post Connect with Students: Getting and Staying In Touch with Every Student appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

An Every Classroom Matters Episode My ears were still ringing. The tears were still fresh. The day itself was ok, but at 3:04, I got a phone call that I try to forget. I can’t tell you any more than it was horrible. The worst accusations. No inquiries to what happened. Pure, unadulterated hate. It was the single worst day of my teaching career. So, when I went home, I had an episode of Every Classroom Matters to record with my friend Alicia Roberts from Arizona. We were supposed to talk technology. I say supposed because the moment I got her and my senior producer Jeannette on the line, I burst into tears. It was too much. I trust these two women deeply, and all the pain came out through the phone line. I sobbed. So, we sat there wondering what to do with me. We decided that the calamitous school year Alicia had and my devastating day could not be wasted. We decided to speak to all you who struggle. We could always leave the result on the cutting room floor. Or it might help someone one day when enough time had passed to let the show air. So, if you are falsely accused, yelled at, hurt, or misunderstood — dear friends, this show is for you. I can’t fix these problems, but my friend Alicia and I can share how we dealt with them, each in our way. No tear is wasted when you use the heartache to serve and encourage others. Here’s to you, teachers. Few people understand the hurt and betrayal teachers feel when these things happen. I know the pain. Alicia does too. You are not alone. You are noble. You matter. Important Takeaways Betrayal happens to us all. What to do when you have difficult conversations. How a polar bear led to Alicia deciding to move to another school. Sometimes you go, sometimes you stay. It depends on your situation. We all need people who love us and encourage us when we’re down. Alicia encourages me and it is overwhelming. We all need people who love us and encourage us when we’re down. I hope that all of you listening out there will appreciate and understand that it takes courage to share this show. I also think that administrators should listen to know how it feels when teachers are in this situation. Will you go encourage someone who is having a hard time today? Please? Educator Resources How a Student comment saved Ms. Lopez, who was about to quit. (Alicia mentioned this article.) Interview Links @teach2inspireu   Join the Every Classroom Matters Awesome Educators Network on Facebook You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or elsewhere, get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above.

Make Writing Essays Easier My student cried when I showed her how to voice type in Google. Then, instead of 90 words in one class period, she typed 500. She edited it. She turned it in early. Tears of joy happen when the right tool is taught to the right student. Technology isn’t flashy The right technology makes lives better. Make writing well easier with these four writing tips. We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master. Ernest Hemingway about writing #amwritingPowered By the Tweet This PluginTweet This Teachers are busy. As I share in Reinventing Writing,  teachers need to do what teachers do best — give creative advice. Sadly, many teachers are glorified spelling and grammar checkers. Many students won’t or don’t use the technology tools. Stop the madness! I require students to use Spellcheck and Grammar tools before turning in work. Here’s what I teach. 4 Writing Tips for Students Tutorial Video My 4 Favorite Student Writing Tips that Make Writing Easier Writing Tip #1: Use Grammarly www.grammarly.com Grammarly is awesome. I have the pro version that includes extensive grammar checking and plagiarism checking. So, I edit every blog post with Grammarly. My students signed up for Grammarly this week. As a result, here are the valuable lessons we learned. How to Get the Basic Version of Grammarly Free (Read this First) Go to Grammarly using the Chrome web browser. Firefox and Internet Explorer take you in an endless loop. They do not seem to give you the option for the free account. You can also search "Free Grammarly" in a search engine to get to the right page. If you go to the page that has you paste in text, sometimes it will take you in the "sign up" loop. Make sure it talks about the free account on the page BEFORE you sign up. Make sure you are clicking on the button that says "Sign for Grammarly, It’s free." If you start signing up, and it doesn’t say it’s free, you’ll have to use another email. I don’t know how to get it to let you sign up for the free version once you start signing up the other way. When it asks, install the Grammarly Chrome add-in. Now, Grammarly will check basic grammar. Grammarly will also tell you how many advanced issues there are. (You need the pro version to see them.) The Grammarly status bar. Notice the percentage it says is copied from other sources! When grading student work, I paste all papers into Grammarly and turn on the plagiarism checker. (See picture above.) Typically, I’ll coach students before they turn their work in so they can see that they should rework it. When you check your writing, it generates citations for works you quote. It makes generating MLA citations so much easier when I’m writing books. I couldn’t live without Grammarly. The Grammarly Chrome plugin helps me write better email, blog posts and Facebook status updates. Grammar Coaching Tip. Grammarly doesn’t just correct your work; it teaches you WHY you made a mistake. I find that I’m removing bad habits no English teacher could eradicate. Grammarly is my English teacher. I can focus on content, not commas. Writing Tip #2: Use the Hemingway App http://www.hemingwayapp.com/ In the screenshot, you can see Hemingway’s  five basic suggestions with color coding: Hard to read sentences (Yellow) Very hard to read sentences (Red) Simpler alternatives (Purple) Adverbs (Blue) Passive voice (Green) Hemingway Tip. Sometimes students who don’t space after the period will have sentences turn red that shouldn’t be. Once they fix their spacing, the red will go away. Because I have the Grammarly extension installed, it also checks grammar inside Hemingway.  (Shown by the advanced issues and critical issues box.)  Formatting Tip. Sometimes these tools will mess up formatting. For this reason, wait to format until after editing. Also, note that Grammarly mistakenly believes the word "Grammarly" is an adverb because it ends in a "ly." No tool is perfect! You still have to use the software between your ears. As I show in the tutorial movie above, I like to paste into Hemingway. Improve sentences, then go into Grammarly. Teach students to get rid of the colors. Run on sentences jump off the page. Yahoo! Some students want to leave a sentence as yellow or red. Have them read the sentence to a friend. See if their friend understands it. If not, simplify. Reading Level Tip.There are times, especially in higher education, when you choose to write at a higher grade level. But I’ll tell you a secret: blog posts with a lower reading level perform better. My goal is below sixth grade. You can still use big words! Just simplify. Writing Tip #3 Use Pro Writing Aid https://prowritingaid.com/ As seen in the screenshot, Pro Writing Aid has many tools and checks. It is a must-use for those doctoral dissertations or books. I run my most important works through both Pro Writing Aid and Grammarly. It is easy to sign up for the free account on Pro Writing Aid. Pro Writing Aid is perhaps the most robust, free grammar checking tool available. It can be complex, so take the time to teach your students about each aspect. My favorite tools here are the sticky sentences review and transitions report. Remove Sticky Sentences for Online Writing. Sticky sentences hurt readability. Sticky sentences have a high number of commonly used words. (You can see these "sticky words" in the purple highlighting below.) Rework these sentences. The more you use Pro Writing Aid, the better you get at avoiding sticky sentences. While sticky sentences may not bother a writing teacher, they are death to a blog post or online writing. Rewrite sticky sentences for improved readability. Add Transitions. I have a list of transition words pinned to my bulletin board. With them in front of me, I can better add them to my writing. The target, according to Pro Writing Aid, is to have transition words on 25% of your sentences. I struggle to get that high, but there is no doubt, that when I add transitions, my writing is easier to read. Pro Writing Aid helps you add transitions to your writing. Pro Writing Aid has so many features; this tool can be overwhelming to beginners! (See my bonus tip below.)  Try the Pro Version Free. You can tweet about the service and earn some free weeks of the pro version if you want to try it out. The Pro Version makes it easier to edit the document live as you’re working on the document.  Writing Tip #4: Use Voice Typing to Draft Your Paper https://support.google.com/docs/answer/4492226?hl=en The Macbook Pro and Mac Air running the newer operating systems have a robust dictation feature. But now, Google Docs has Voice typing (as I demonstrate above.) Just about any computer with a microphone running Google Chrome can use this feature. Tips for Voice Typing in Google Docs Not surprisingly, you need to use the Chrome browser. I had to turn on Rapid Release in Google Apps for Education before my students had access. Use a headset mic and teach students to talk quietly. Just a few can do this at once, or you end up with chaos. If your mic cancels out background noise, that helps. You can’t backspace (that I’ve found). Teach students about drafting and just encourage them to get it on the page. Dictating from another source is STILL PLAGIARISM. (I’m not sure why that is hard to understand, but it is. Writing teachers will smile at this one.) Collaborative writing is awesome, as I discuss in Reinventing Writing, but when a student is voice typing, it is best not to have other students in the document. Trust me on this one. Voice Typing and Kids with Learning Differences. For students who struggle with written expression, voice typing is a must use. It will be interesting to see if the testing done on many LD students starts more deeply testing verbal expression versus written expression. The benefit of testing in this way means that we could find students who will benefit from voice typing most of their work.  Offline Writing Tips Many of these tools are available offline. If you have poor Internet access or like to write offline, improve your editing. Hemingway has an offline app for the Mac and PC. (I use this when I write my books in Scrivener. I often write and block the Internet so to focus.) Grammarly and Pro Writing Aid both have a plug-in for Microsoft Word. (Grammarly’s plug in only works on the PC. Pro Writing Aid works on both.) You can dictate using a Mac  and Windows 10 is supposed to have many voice features. (I haven’t played with them yet, but some people say Cortana is pretty cool in Windows 10.) Bonus Writing Tip for Beginners My middle schoolers aren’t ready for all of the tools I’ve shared. I just teach them the spelling and grammar check in Microsoft Word. Then, I take them into Grammarly. Here’s a quick video that I use to get students used to spelling and grammar check. ESSENTIAL TIP FOR TEACHERS: Require Spelling and Grammar Check Every Time Spelling and Grammar check do you NO GOOD if you don’t USE THEM. Use them. These tools are here. They are available. I require their use. I won’t even grade papers if it has not been checked. I am not a human spell check. I fatigue over time and miss things. I’ll let the computer do that… my student’s computer. Special Needs. Spell check, grammar check, and voice typing are saving technologies for students with special needs. We should expect and teach how to use these valuable tools. They can change the lives of kids! Require students to use them!  Writing has been reinvented. We must reinvent some of our teaching practices as well. We haven’t even delved into collaborative editing, writing, and collaborative prewriting, but I covered that in my book. Please share your writing tips and tools in the comments. The post 4 Writing Tips to Help the Writing Process appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Empower Awesome Learning Every Day We are team classroom. Learning can be a solo venture. It can also be a team sport. (Thanks to Krissy Venosdale of Venspired for letting me use the graphic on this post.) No bystanders.   When you build team classroom, you unleash a giant. Your class can learn more, grasp more, and move faster. Students learn to appreciate each other’s strengths and work together. 10 Ways to Build Team Classroom 1. Have a wordless way to ask for help. Flags, indicators, cups. Something. Teach team classroom to spring into action when someone is struggling. As the teacher, be one of those who helps those struggling too. You’re part of the team. One of my secrets of an awesome classroom is empowering everyone to help. There are no bystanders. We have these cards I call "flip cards" or "station cards." Each student gets one, and they slide into a slot above the computer where everyone can see. When everything is great, the card is green. When they are stuck, the card is red. If they just want to talk to me (not urgent, have a question like a grade, etc.) the card is blue. If they are away for a moment (like checked out to the bathroom), the card is yellow. But what is awesome is what happens when someone sees the card flip to red. It reminds me of rafting. Before you go down the Nantahala river, they give you this talk. I’ve heard the talk at least 50 or more times. "When someone falls in the water, it is a red flag. Everyone’s goal becomes to get that person back into the boat." A red card is a similar call for help. If I’m not available or across the room, everyone’s goal is to help that person get back on track. Of course, there’s one significant rule — no hands on anyone else’s mouse. Help one another do it themselves.   2. Help students appreciate everyone’s unique strengths. I like to discuss: how the brain works, personality types, or anything that helps students see that "book smart" is not the only smart. When they start appreciating talents, they become more confident of their own. They become grateful of strengths in others. Classroom example. Fifth grade teacher Laura Candler talks about how she used an "intelligences" quiz to do this with her students. 3. Praise the types of behaviors you want to see with growth mindset words. Talk about your team classroom with words. "We work together." Things like on the poster above. Study great coaches. Learn how they help their team work together in positive ways. "I am so proud of how you worked that out." "I noticed how you all listened to everyone’s opinion." Classroom example. Read the Teaching Growth Mindset post including the words that you should say to promote a growth mindset. Teaching Growth Mindset with these 10 Statements by Sylvia Duckworth 4. Be clear when things you’re doing are NOT team classroom type activities. Tests, if you have to give them are definitely a solo endeavor. 5. Plan celebrations together of great achievements. Today in my classroom we’re having a "screening party." Everyone has finished their movies and we’re watching them. We’re bringing breakfast foods. I’m planning to tell them just how I feel about their accomplishments. They’ve worked so hard together. Classroom Example. You can see the Invent this project we did on our public wiki. 6. Let students lead. When you ask a question, step back and let them discuss it. When you have them in charge of something, you can advise when they ask, but let them find their way. As Kevin Honeycutt said on a recent show, "teachers should be the resource, not the source." Let students volunteer to lead and give them titles like: Project Manager, Assistant Project Manager, Editor, etc.. When they come to you with problems, teach them how to work through the problem. Only get involved in the rarest of circumstances. Classroom example. When my students created their app projects last year, they did it. I was an advisor. They led. You can see their teams, presentations and videos. Note that these teams were across classrooms. Every team had someone from one of four classes. They used Trello to coordinate their work. Leadership and Mystery Location Idea. One of my favorite aspects of the book Connecting Your Students with the World book by Blumengarten,Krakower, and Naugle is the leadership positions they designate as part of the mystery location calls.  If you’re doing Mystery Location Calls or "Mystery Skypes", you can build team classroom NOW with their ideas. 7. Value your students’ opinions. Students will come to you for opinions. I always ask what they think first. I also work to include students in other conversations. For example, a teacher asked me about the graphic design of a piece. I said, "__*student name*__ has a great eye for graphic design. _*student name*__ do you have a moment to give us your thoughts on this piece?" Help students become known for their strengths. 8. Be willing to admit when you’re learning or mess up. We all mess up. When I make a mistake or inadvertently have a misunderstanding, I privately apologize to the child. There have been a few times I found out that something I said was misconstrued by several kids. When that happened, I apologized publicly in front of the class with that person’s permission. Every single child deserves respect. To be a team, you must respect all of the teammates. When teachers mess up and cover it up, they are not behaving honorably for their team. These teachers are undermining themselves by letting their pride keep them from doing what is right. 9. Never speak ill of another student or teacher when they are not present. If students want to say something negative about any other person, it will not happen in my classroom. If they want to talk privately to me about a problem they are having with another student, that is fine. But a public "dissing" with other kids will not be tolerated. There’s too much gossip, slander, and unkindness in the world today. My classroom is a place of respect and people who are not there deserve to know that their reputation is safe in my classroom. 10. Let the Class Set Team Goals When you plan activities, projects, or initiatives — let the class set team goals. The #choose2matter movement is an incredible model for how to do this. (Listen to Angela Maiers talking about this program and get a copy of her free ebook Liberating Genius.) Students should have social entrepreneurship projects. They can choose to make a difference in the world together. Unleashing student creativity in this way creates a passion for the project and for learning how to do the project. You can incorporate passion-based projects into any subject. Classroom examples. Pauline Roberts and Sciracy, the 4 Liter challenge, and my students talking about passion-based learning are three examples of passion based learning in action. You have a classroom. You build a team. Build team classroom. Teamwork certainly makes the dream work. But the secret is to have great dreams and build highly effective teams. Everyone doesn’t have to get along. But everyone should "get" what you’re teaching and be able to work as a team. You can do it. Speaking of teams, we’re a team. Team teacher. That is who we are. We reflect. We encourage. We help each other be more. Go team! Be an awesome educator every day. We can do this! Attribution note. UPDATE: I’ve been told that Krissy Venosdale at Venspired created this graphic (shout out to Janelle Wilson and Sarah Schleehauf  on Facebook who let me know this.) Krissy gave us permission to use the graphic within moments. Yeah! I’m reaching out to Krissy to see if she will allow the graphic to stay on this post and a place to link the source. The graphic at the top of this post seems to have come from teachfactory.com, however, that domain name is for sale, and I can’t find any trace of the company. It is an incredible graphic.  The post 10 Ways to Build Team Classroom appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Every Classroom Matters Episode #177: Judy Fishel Guilty. We tell students "be a good student." "Study hard." "Work hard." But are we guilty of not telling them HOW to be a good student? WHAT study tips actually work? WHAT things do they do to be a "good" student without having to work so hard?  Important Takeaways The simple things students need to do before anything else. What does it mean to "study?" How do you study? What can you do that will have more impact than reading a book or passage four times? Why rewriting notes doesn’t work, but what does. How do you help reluctant learners become more self-motivated? Over Judy Fishel’s 35 year career in education, she was a Presidential award-winning math teacher and principal. She’s not only read the research, but she’s lived what works. Judy knows how to help students get results. In this episode, she shares important study tips for students. Educator Resources Judy Fishel’s April 2015 book Straight A’s are Not Enough: Breakthroughs in Learning for College Students Judy Fishel’s Breakthroughs to Learning Website Quotes Study tips So many times we just tell students, -Study for a test- or -pay attention in class- but we don’t show students what it means to be an excellent student but we don’t tell them how. Vicki Davis Study Tip: It is so important to reorganize notes, not just rewrite them. Study Tip: Students need to eat healthy foods, get rest, exercise, and sleep. Join the Every Classroom Matters Awesome Educators Network on Facebook You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or elsewhere, get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above. The post Study Tips: Teaching Kids to Be Excellent Students appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Every Classroom Matters episode 178 with John Spencer Writing should be exciting. You can teach writing skills with powerful multimedia based prompts and ideas, a global audience, and easy to use tools. John Spencer has the data to show that kids write more using this method. Important Takeaways How can reluctant writers get excited about writing? Why we should use multimedia writing IDEAS (not prompts.) The big question that should be asked BEFORE writing (but most people don’t.) Why we shouldn’t dictate student writing topics and instead, give them choices. Why sometimes less technology inspires more creativity. If you teach writing to any age student, you’ll want to hear what 14-year teacher and now college professor John Spencer Educator Resources What is Design Thinking? Can it work in my classroom? by John Spencer Larry Ferlazzo "The Best Web-based tools for Teaching" Episode 131 John Spencer’s Write about App Student Shark Tank How to Write Magnetic Headlines by Copyblogger Upworthy  follow @spencerideas on twitter If you love writing, check out 4 Writing Tips to Help the Writing Process  Quotes "Prompts require kids to write.Ideas inspire them to write." John Spencer   Learn how to teach writing skills with rich multimedia writing prompts, a global audience, and student engagement. Join the Every Classroom Matters Awesome Educators Network on Facebook You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or elsewhere, get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above. The post Teach Writing Skills: Using Powerful Prompts to Inspire Students to Write appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

The top 10 education tweets of the 2015 school year so far include lots of sketchtnotes. Sketchnotes! Educators love them.  SAMR, growth mindset, new tools, blogging, and back to school were hot topics for my PLN. How encouraging it is to see educators taking the little time we have to reflect, learn, and challenge one another to be more. A big shout out to uber sketchnoter  Sylvia Duckworth! She has graphics in 7 of the 10 top Tweets! She is so gracious and helpful (as well as talented.) How were the top education tweets selected?  The Buffer app weights popularity using retweets, favorites and click throughs. When you look at Twitter, you don’t see "clickthroughs" but that is a measure of how many people click the link or interact with the graphic. (Think of it as helpfulness, I blogged about it when I analyzed the tweets for last year. Top 10 Education Tweets (August 1-October 9, 2015 on @coolcatteacher ) 1. SAMR Model Sketchnote Well done! mT @JeredMartinez: The SAMR Model from @sylviaduckworth #edtech #edchat #NASUWT15… http://t.co/Tf2svHVFgy pic.twitter.com/a6o9CRdJYU — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) August 1, 2015 2. Helping Kids Reflect on their Learning What a great way to have kids reflect on their learning.: http://t.co/BaCQbqiXJW pic.twitter.com/WGHDchiHJ9 — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) October 3, 2015 3. Growth Mindset Words   Nice chart: RT @Primary_Ed: Growth Mindset focus http://t.co/0khYwxQwiG via @kevindeforge #edchat #edtech #ISTE2015 … pic.twitter.com/NkGkggTNFh — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) August 27, 2015   4. How I teach a Growth Mindset in My Classroom (With Sketchnote from Sylvia Duckworth)   NEW POST: How I teach a growth mindset in my classroom http://t.co/hjQZsC6P7r pic.twitter.com/5TYpA3x6I7 — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) October 6, 2015 5. Quote from Confucious about Teaching "Tell me and I forget; teach me and I may remember; Involve me and I will learn." Confucius #edtech pic.twitter.com/mW9iqukQG2 — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) August 2, 2015 6. 5 Ways of Bringing Student Passions to Student Learning (an article I wrote for Edutopia with a Sketchnote by Sylvia Duckworth) 5 Ways of Bringing Student Passions to Student Learning http://t.co/HbaVX3hHGq sketchnote by @sylviaduckworth pic.twitter.com/zSZTRqmMUd — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) August 20, 2015 7. 10 Habits of Bloggers that Win   FREE BOOK: 10 Habits of Bloggers that Win by Vicki Davis (sketchnote by @sylviaduckworth ) http://t.co/hVV5cNHiNe pic.twitter.com/BkeDqbt1w9 — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) August 9, 2015   8. Funny Back to School Cartoon   Lol this is priceless! pic.twitter.com/qsvRTyWOUi — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) September 2, 2015 9. 15 Things Every Teacher Should Try this Year 15 Things Every Teacher Should Try This Year by Austin Gagnier & Sylvia Duckworth http://t.co/aWfNCsd4nm — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) October 3, 2015 10. Epic Sketchnoting Resources: How To Get Started Note: This is a blog post I wrote on sketchnoting. It is difficult to know if people liked the blog graphic or the topic. I think it was a combination of both. Epic Sketchnoting Resources: How to Get Started Teaching Sketchnoting http://t.co/glH0Bghq1Ppic.twitter.com/GrydM2lPJ9 — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) September 30, 2015 connect with me on twitter by clicking here @coolcatteacher A big thank you to all of you who connect with me on Twitter. I’m grateful for your words of encouragement, best practices, and everything you share with me every day. My PLN is chock full of over achievers, super-parents, amazing athletes, and really smart people. We live in an amazing day when we can connect in such a way!   The post Top 10 Education Tweets of the School Year So Far - Fall 2015 appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

The Cellist of the Schoolyard In 1992, thirty-seven-year-old Vedran Smailovic was principal cellist of the Sarajevo Opera. Because of the fighting, Sarajevo was being called "the capital of hell." On May 27, a long line waited in front of one of the last bakeries in town. Parents wanted to buy bread to feed their families. A mortar landed among them, exploding and killing twenty-two people in line. Something inside Vedran Smailovic’s heart broke. The carnage lay in the street outside his window. Instead of white bread for the masses to eat with their red meat, there were white bones and bloody masses of red flesh scattered everywhere. It scarred his mind. His naivety evaporated. War was in his neighborhood. What could he do about it? As he stayed up that night sobbing, his anguished mind struggled to rescue his soul from the pit of despair.  How could he make a difference in a living hell?  What could he do? Smailovic did the only thing he could.  The only thing he knew. The next day, he donned black.  Not the black of mourning, but the formal black of a musician of a prestigious opera company.  Twenty-four hours after the massacre, at 4 p.m., Smailovic settled his stool beside the still smoking crater. And he began to play. Smailovic plays in the partially destroyed National Library in 1992. (Source: Wikipedia) Excellence Amidst Tragedy. He continued to play every day at 4 pm for twenty-two days - one for each person who died. He played through the rockets red glare and the bombs bursting in air. The citizens in the capital of hell received a heavenly emissary every day at 4 pm.  They heard music that reminded them of the good, beautiful things of life. The lilting music singing that there was hope that again peace would return. His powerful testimony brought even more attention to the horrors around him.  This is quoted from a news report. "Asked by a journalist whether he was not crazy doing what he was doing, Smailovic replied: "You ask me am I crazy for playing the cello, why do you not ask if they are not crazy for shelling Sarajevo!" He played on. After twenty-two days, he moved his chair.  He played in other neighborhoods with freshly charred craters and fragments of humanity where souls had recently departed this earth.  He played in graveyards amidst the newly buried where muffled mourners shuffled in the street looking for bread. Snipers poised to shoot those who attended funerals where he played. Smailovic played on. He played until December 1993. He had played to hold out hope to those who would listen.  He became the personal embodiment of hope for peace in Bosnia.  He dispensed hope in his music; he became hope to his people. The next year, in 1994 famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma played a newly composed piece by English composer David Wilde at the International Cello Festival in Manchester, England.  The piece entitled "The Cellist of Sarajevo" haunted those who were there. Pianist Paul Sullivan described it this way in Everyday Greatness: "When he had finished, Ma remained bent over his cello, his bow resting on the strings.  No one in the hall moved or made a sound for a long time.  It was as though we had just witnessed that horrifying massacre ourselves. Finally, Ma looked out across the audience and stretched out his hand, beckoning someone to the stage.  An indescribable electric shock swept over us as we realized who it was… Smailovic rose from his seat and walked down the aisle as Ma left the stage to meet him.  They flung their arms around each other … everyone in the hall erupted into a chaotic, emotional frenzy… We were all stripped down to our starkest, deepest humanity at encountering this man who shook his cello in the face of bombs, death, and ruin, defying them all." My heart is quiet. It is as if the strings inside my vocal chords that make that dissonant sound - the sound of whining - those chords are broken. Snapped in two by the understanding that far worse things are happening in the world than my struggles to make ends meet and to put 26 hours into a 24-hour day. And the vocal chords that share hope and goodness, and knowledge are stronger. I feel compelled. I must impart knowledge, but I must also teach things to prevent more carnage in future breadlines. I must play my music. I will lend my voice. I will pull up my chair to empower my students to add their voice to the things that echo for the good in this world. You see, right now, our schoolyards are pretty tough places.  I don’t care where you work; parents are stressed out.  And when parents are stressed out, they send stressed toddlers, tykes and teens in through our doors. And  teachers are stressed too!  Administrators!  Curriculum directors!  Librarians!  Tightening budgets mean we have to do more with less.  And we love our students, which means we have a decision. We have a choice. We can see the carnage and problems outside our window -  and we can have a pity party and say we are in the midst of the capital of hell.  And we can do nothing. Or, we can take a bit of humility and perspective from a cellist who really has been to hell. Realize that we have a choice as we retreat into our homes at night and lock our doors and contemplate what we shall do on the morrow.  Surely our problems are far less. Most of our problems aren’t hell. They are hard. Sometimes they are hell. But not always. We can’t do a lot.  Some of us can blog.  Others can speak or sing.  Lots of us can teach, encourage, and help others. But there’s one thing we can all do. We can teach. For, you see, a good teacher is like music in the life of a student.  Every educator is music in someone’s life. Our little words and actions are notes in the symphony of our school. The more of us who unite to play sweet music, the more we can be heard. United we are a symphony. But alone, we can still play sweet music. So many times, life is not what we want it to be.  But we examine ourselves, see what we can do and then we do what we can with all we have. For, by playing our music - sometimes we become the only symbol of hope that others will hear. Adapted and updated from Cellist of the Schoolyard written in 2006, coolcatteacher.com - http://www.coolcatteacher.com/the-cellist-of-the-schoolyard/ Sources: The Cellist of Sarajevo. Live Positive. Everyday Greatness: Inspiration for a Meaningful Life Paul Sullivan.  "The Cellist of Sarajevo" The post Why Teachers Need to Keep Going Even When It’s Hard appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Useful Tools for Teachers Padlet is a versatile, easy to use tool for every teacher’s toolkit. Let’s dive into Padlet and Learn the Basics. At the bottom of this post, I have a Padlet that is temporarily open for you to post and share your favorite edtech tools. Richard Byrne, author of Free Technology for Teachers, spent some time teaching the teachers at my school about Padlet. I’ve got some notes in this article that he mentioned in the workshop to give him due credit. Richard has a fantastic blog, and I highly recommend it. Padlet Website: www.padlet.com What you can share on Padlet: The box where you type or share your item in Padlet. Padlet lets you Type Record Your Voice Add a Hyperlink Add a Photo Add a Document The flexibility of this tool means you could have one class padlet for the year and share resources and links throughout the year. (Particularly if you set it up in "flow" style as shown below.)   How to Edit Your Padlet As with many tools the gear icon (as shown in the graphic below) is where you go to edit your background and change your settings. You can customize your Padlet page with a different background, title and more. Organize Your Padlet Richard Byrne taught me something new today. You can change it to be more like a Twitter or have a flow. I like this view much better than having people write all over the board. You can move the Padlet layout to stream. This view is much better than typing all over each other, in my opinion. (hat tip Richard Byrne - I didn’t know this.) Security and Control with Padlet There are lots of features you can customize on your padlet. For example, you can make it public, private, password protected and even moderate everything. You can have lots of control of your Padlet even moderate comments. Remember, as the teacher, you can see a little trash can and delete items that need to be removed. You can also turn off writing and set it just to view when you’re not in the classroom. If you’re worried about "naughty students" - you just need to dig deeper. How you can give the students the link to the Padlet: You can share the link with others in many ways. You can also copy the link at the top and paste into a link shortener like bitly. If you click the share button, you can share via email, Tweet, and it even creates a QR code. But the best way is to copy the long address and then paste the link into bit.ly and customize the link. (See my blog post on link shortening.) SANDBOX: The BIG Tip for the First Time You Use Padlet (or any Tool) As Richard shared, he has a common experience with tools that I do. The first time you share it, have a sandbox Padlet. Sandboxing software means that you play with the software before you get down to "business." Kids get a bit excited and sometimes silly. When they are done and get it out of their system, delete the Padlet and go onto the real activity. Glad to see another teacher seeks kids get excited. Both Richard and I recommend this as best practice in the workshops we give. How can I use Padlet in the Classroom? For younger classes, use it as a portfolio to share with parents. Snap pictures of student work and share them. Richard Byrne says you can use it almost as a blog. Have a class Padlet and put the links to everything else in it. Set the student web browsers to start with the class Padlet. If you set it to flow, the work is already at the top. You can have pictures on the Padlet and have kids sort the pictures to classify them (and use the Interactive White Board (IWB)). Have students create their Padlets by topic and paste their link in the class Padlet. Use it as a class backchannel and have discussions on it. Have students work a problem, and snap a picture of how they worked it. Padlet Resources Richard Byrne has written blog posts and recorded many tutorials on getting started with Padlet Tom Barrett has a fantastic Google Presentation "32 Ways to Use Padlet in the Classroom" that you should review Classroom 21 Wikispaces on Padlet Matt Miller’s 20 Useful Ways to use Padlet in the Classroom Now Created with Padlet The post How to Use Padlet: A Fantastic Tool for Teaching appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Essential Google Chrome Lessons: 30+ Short Videos Want to know how to make Google Chrome faster? Want to feel productive? Tired of all of those tabs?  Take time to learn how to use Google Chrome better.  These quick tips will have your Google Chrome browser faster like new in no time! Table of Contents I’ve organized this tutorial into four sections: Make Google Chrome Better (Including how to make email links open in Gmail!) Make Google Chrome Faster Make Google Chrome Prettier Make Google Chrome Do Cool Stuff Reference the Google Chrome playlist for future videos added to this series. BEFORE YOU START: How to Download Google Chrome If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Google Chrome is a super fast web browser (if you know how to keep it fast.) You can do all kinds of cool things in Google Chrome if you know how. This video shows you how to download Google Chrome and gives a brief intro. Section 1: How to Make Google Chrome Better 1. How to Add and Organize Bookmarks in Google Chrome If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 1 Teaches: How to add bookmarks to Google Chrome. How to show and customize the bookmarks bar in Google Chrome. How to add folders to your bookmarks bar and move them around. Productivity Tip: Be intentional about organizing your bookmarks bar. If you have run out of space, organize your bookmarks into folders. You can even use folders inside folders. Don’t use the names of websites on your bookmark bar or make them as short as possible. Save space. Save typing. Save time. 2. How to Get Google Calendar, Google Drive, and Gmail Updates in Google Chrome If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 2 Teaches: How to add a Google Calendar Checker into your Browser How to add a Gmail checker into Google Chrome. How to add a Google Drive checker that shows you updated documents in Google Drive and lets you access them quickly. Recommended settings for the Gmail checker. Extensions Checker Plus for Google Calendar Checker Plus for Gmail Checker Plus for Google Drive Productivity Tip.  Only use the extension that fits your workflow. Email notifications will kill your productivity. A calendar reminder might keep you going to a meeting on time. You don’t probably don’t need lots of notifications, but you might want quick access. 3. How to Zoom in and Out in Google Chrome If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 3 Teaches: How to zoom in and out in Google Chrome on a PC and a Mac with the keyboard. How to zoom in and out in Google Chrome on a PC with your mouse. Productivity Tip: Any time you can use the keyboard instead of putting your hand on the mouse, you’re probably going to save time. 4. How to Open a Link In a New Window in Google Chrome If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 4 Teaches: How to open a hyperlink in a new window in Google Chrome. Productivity Tip: Opening a new window can save you time and keep you from losing the webpage you are on. Too many windows can slow you down. (See the tip below for handling too many windows.) 5. How to make all email links open into Gmail in Google Chrome If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 5 Teaches: How to make your email links open into Gmail. (This solves the problem of clicking a link and your computer trying to open Outlook or something else when you’re using Gmail.) Hyperlink: http://cctea.ch/gmail-open After you click the link, click the little gray diamonds that will appear on the right side of your address bar. It will ask you to reset your default for opening email. And you’re set! 6. How to Check Your Spelling and Grammar in Google Chrome If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 6 Teaches: How to use the Grammarly plug-in to check your spelling and grammar in Google Chrome. Productivity Tip: Read 4 Writing Tips to Help the Writing Process if you want to dig deeper into Grammarly and learn some other tools to assist you with your writing, grammar, and spelling. 7. How to Sync Google Chrome Between Computers If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 7 Teaches How to sync your bookmarks, history, and all of your Google Chrome settings to follow you to other computers. Here’s how to set up Google Chrome sync. Security Tip: If you ever sign into Google Chrome on a computer that is NOT YOURS. Make sure you sign out when you’re done. Otherwise, you may put yourself at risk. Note that Chromebooks automatically sign you into Chrome and sync your settings with other devices that have Google Chrome sync running 8. How to Change Your Download Location (and Sync Your Downloads Between Computers) If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 8 Teaches: How to change your download location to a different location than the downloads folder. Also, I include a bonus tip about syncing your downloads between computers (and how you can free up space on all your computers at the same time with this tip.) Productivity Tip: Your downloads may have important documents in them. If you have no time, just move the items in your download folder onto an external hard drive sometimes. Or, take the time to delete what you want and put the other things into a "to file" folder. If you follow the bonus tip on this video and sync your downloads folder, you can clean out all your downloads in one pass. 9. How to Get Google Chrome to Read Web Pages to You If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 9 Teaches: How to get Google Chrome to read web pages to you. Extension Speak It  10. How to Define Words as You Browse Using Google Chrome If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 10 Teaches: How to define a word by right clicking in your browser or double-clicking a word. Extension Google Dictionary Productivity Tip: Learning vocabulary in context is key. So, it is best to see the definition when you see the word on a page. Use this tool with students who are doing research or when you’re wrestling with a page full of big words. 11. How to Search Your Web History in Google Chrome If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 11 Teaches How to find a website that you found in the past but can’t find right now. A faster way to find something you found before without searching Google Security Tip: This only goes back to when you last cleared your history. If you erase your history, you lose it. If you use Google Sync, you can see your history from all of your computers. 12.How to Remember Your Passwords in Google Chrome If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 12 Teaches: A safe way to remember your passwords in Google Chrome using Last Pass. Extension Last Pass SECURITY WARNING AND DISCLAIMER: Use Last Pass instead of Google Chrome’s password remembering feature. Just make sure that you can remember your master password if you use LastPass, or you can lock yourself out of all of your accounts. I am not responsible if you set up a password you cannot remember. You need to remember ONE password for this service, but you MUST remember it, or you can lock yourself out of everything! Section 2: How to Make Google Chrome Faster If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here.  13.How to Make Google Chrome Faster: Turn Extensions off in Chrome with Extensity If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 13 Teaches: How you can speed up Google Chrome by turning off Google Chrome extensions when you don’t need them. How to install and use Extensity, a free extension, to turn extensions on and off in Google Chrome without restarting Chrome. Extensity will make your life easier and your Chrome browser less cluttered. Extension Extensity Productivity Tip: Just keep the things running that you need currently for your work. When you have too many extensions, they can conflict with each other. It happens all the time. Learn to turn on what you want and need at that time. 14. How to Make Google Chrome Faster:  Turn Off Plugins in Google Chrome If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 14 Teaches: How to view your plugins. How to turn off some plugins. How some plugins are needed in Google Chrome. Technical Tip: You need some plugins. For example, in the video, I mention how Silverlight is necessary for viewing Netflix. Google Chrome’s help center on plugins also notes that at some schools, administrators have to handle your plugins. If you’re a beginner, you might want to stay away from this one. Or, if you have problems, re-enable the plugins one at a time until whatever you’re doing starts to work. 15. How to Clear Your Browser History in Google Chrome If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 15 Teaches: How to clear your browser history and other items in Chrome. Productivity Note: I only use this when I’m having problems with a site loading or speed issues. Because I do so much research, I often want to search my history (Tip #11) and you can’t do that when your history is cleared. You can also just clear your cache or other items. 16. How to Use Google’s Chrome Cleanup Tool to Clean up Your Chrome Browser (Windows Only) If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 16 Teaches: How to make Google Chrome faster by downloading Google’s Clean Up tool to Clean up Your Google Chrome Website: https://www.google.com/chrome/cleanup-tool/ - Windows Only. Technical Note: This tool is only for Windows. Chrome removes the most common culprits that will slow your browser down including Conduit, My Search Dial, and SmartBar so you may see your browser look different after you’re done. Removing these programs is a good thing, these programs are doorways to even worse spyware. See the current list of what this tool removes. See Google’s recommendation for a Mac or just follow tip #17. 17. How to Make Google Chrome Faster: Remove Malware from Google Chrome and your computer If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 17 Teaches: Where to download the free version Malwarebytes. Why you would want to use Malwarebytes to scan your computer. Why a person might want the pro version. Website: Malwarebytes (just download the version for Malware cleanup) Technical Note: I keep a current version of this handy program on my thumb drive since Edtech Expert Luke Allen recommended it to me years ago. His tech tools for teachers is a great list. 18. How to Search Text on a Page in Chrome If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 18 Teaches: How to highlight text on a page and create a new search from that text with one click. Productivity Tip: Combine this with Tip #19 for a super fast search experience. All of our student researchers should know these. 19. How to Open Multiple Links at Once in Google Chrome If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 19 Teaches: How to click and drag a box that will open multiple links in new windows. Extension: Link Clump Productivity Tip for Teachers and Testers: If you have to review many web pages for your students or just to test them, this tip will save you time. Try it and see how much faster you work. Close each window as you review each web page and when they are closed, you’re done. I recommend opening no more than 8-10 at a time. You can slow your work down. (Or open all you want and use Tip #20 to manage those tabs!) 20. How to Manage Your Tabs Better in Google Chrome If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 20 Teaches: How too many tabs can slow things down. How to suspend tabs but still find them later. Extension: Too Many Tabs Productivity Tip: Remember to use Extensity (Tip #13) to turn extensions on and off as you need them. When I’m researching, I use tips 18-20 together.  21. How to Search with your Voice in Google Chrome If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 21 Teaches: How to turn on voice searching in Google Chrome. How to search using your voice in Google Chrome. Privacy Tip: Google may be saving your voice searches too. See tip #30 for how to know what they are collecting and to clear it if you wish. 22. How to Voice Type in Google Documents If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 22 Teaches: How to activate Voice Typing in Google Docs How to type with your voice in Google Docs Productivity Tip: I give more detail about Voice typing and other productivity tips in 4 Writing Tips to Help the Writing Process  23. How to Put a Website Shortcut on Your Desktop If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 23 Teaches: How to put a website shortcut on your desktop (works on PC and Mac) What to do if a website shortcut doesn’t look like the Chrome icon.  24. How to Take Pictures of Your Screen in Google Chrome If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 24 Teaches: How to take a picture of your screen in Google Chrome. How to put the picture in your Google Drive How to download the picture Extension: Techsmith Snagit Productivity Note: Snagit will also do a video of your web browser and screen recordings with your voice. The only limitation is that it can only do what is showing in your web browser screen. If you want to take screenshots and videos of other programs, use a tool like screencastomatic. 25. How to Get Rid of Ads in Google Chrome If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 25 Teaches: The most popular way to block ads in Google Chrome How you can remove other clutter and read just the text of the web page. Extensions Adblock Clearly (If you use Evernote, Clearly has extra features that work with it.) Productivity Note: Sometimes ad blocker tools can slow your computer down. Section 3: How to Make Google Chrome Prettier  26. How to Make to Use Themes in Google Chrome If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 26 Teaches: How to install a theme in Google Chrome Why you might want to uninstall themes in Google Chrome Productivity Note: Some themes can slow your Google Chrome down and make it slower. Be careful about themes that haven’t been installed by a lot of people. Just about anyone can upload a theme. If it slows your browser down, you can always go back to themes in settings and go back to the default.  27. How to Make Google Chrome Easier to Read If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 27 Teaches: Some options to make Google Chrome easier to read. Accessibility options for those with disabilities. How to change the font size and make it larger in Google Chrome Section 4: How to Make Google Chrome Do Cool Stuff  28. How to Have a More Productive New Window When You Open One If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 28 Teaches: How to have a productive new window open in Chrome that will keep you focused on your goals and on task. Extension: Be Limitless Productivity Note: Be Limitless will also track how you spend your time. You do have to "train" it a little. It lets you set your goals. One note: It does not sync across web browsers, which I love. You can set goals for home and work that are different!  29. 2 Ways to Save Money with Extensions in Google Chrome If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Video 29 Teaches: How to search the price trends of Amazon products (book prices vary over time) How to compare Amazon prices to other websites. Extension: The Camelizer Price Jump Money Saving Note: There are other apps and tools, but check the ratings. Some of them are spyware. Only turn these on when shopping and turn them off when you are not.  30. How to Clear Your Google History in Chrome Video 30 Teaches: How to see what Google tracks about you (including search, voice, and location) How to clear this data Privacy Note: Some services may not function without this data. You do want to know what they have on you. You should clear it if you want to. (I do.)  Google Chrome Playlist I’ve compiled all of these tutorials into a Playlist that will play without stopping. You can embed this on a website or link to it. I’ve found that so many people don’t know how to use their web browser. Learning to use Google Chrome will make you more productive, safer, and save your time! OK, friends. What did I miss? Please share your favorite extensions with me in the comments, on Facebook or Twitter. Got any more tips about how to make Google Chrome faster — please share! I hope this is helpful. Vicki The post How to Make Google Chrome Faster, Better and Prettier appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Every Classroom Matters Episode #179 Parent involvement matters! We know it but do we realize we’re talking up to a full point of a student’s GPA? Let’s look at some well-known research showing what kind of parent involvement matters most. Today’s guest, Dr. William Jeynes authored one of the most comprehensive studies to date. He analyzed the grades of 300,000 students and the behavior of their parents. He discovered what really impacts student learning as it relates to parents. Amazing! From 3/4 of a point to a full point of a student’s GPA is impacted by parental involvement. (That’s almost a whole GRADE LETTER!) It wasn’t just any parental involvement but a specific kind. Try Bloomz: Bloomz is your one-stop solution for parent-teacher communications. More than just connecting with parent cell phones, you can send long or short messages. You can send pictures and links. You can even coordinate volunteer schedules, donations, and parent-teacher conferences. I’m using Bloomz in my classroom. Thank you, Bloomz for sponsoring this show. Today’s episode is a must listen for PTA’s and schools who are working with parents to help their kids do their best. This is a show you must share with parents. Don’t just guess about what works, know what works. (You can use some the quotes from this show with your parents on social media. Scroll down to take the pics. You have permission to use them anywhere.) Important Takeaways The number one parenting aspect improving how students perform. The incredible importance of reading and parent involvement. The kind of communication that hurts students the most. What kind of parental involvement programs work? The shocking lesson Dr. Jeynes learned about what is wrong in schools when a child was hit in the head with a baseball bat. (I am not kidding!) Dr. Jeynes makes the parent research simple. Anyone can understand his explanation on the show. I’ve included the research below for those of you who want to read it. Educator Resources Dr. William Jeynes’ Meta Research on Parent Involvement Contact Dr. William Jeynes @BloomzApp - our show’s sponsor Use these graphics to share with parents   You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or elsewhere, get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above. Join the Every Classroom Matters Awesome Educators Network on Facebook Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a "sponsored show." The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to edit and post it. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.) The post Why Parent Involvement Matters: The Research appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

The Tool We Should All Be Using to Improve Education In the 1970’s the parking lot would be full of parents ready to see the school play. Or Christmas pageant. Or spelling bee. Students performed, and parents came. The school auditorium was the place where students showed off their work. The halls showed artwork that parents came by to see as they attended events. The school building was the hub of the community. Everyone came. Everyone roamed freely. A child’s bookbag went home, and Mom checked it every day. The notes were read. The artwork went on the refrigerator. Papers were signed and returned. Simple. Today many families have someone working 24/7. Some parents are out of town. Another does shift work starting at 4 pm. Families are changing too. Notes don’t get home. Sometimes notes get to one home, but some kids have two. Some book bags don’t even go home. Communication can be a challenge. A new stage emerges. So does a new note home to parents. Social Media: The New Stage All the world’s a stage has never been truer. Parents no longer pack parking lots, but they pack Facebook. They tweet. They share pics on Instagram. They look at them. Parents congregate and share online to see what is happening. There are those who turn up their nose at such newfangled approaches. They long for the old wooden stage with the squelchy mike and wooden seats. "Things were simpler then," they mumble. And they were. There were fewer stages. There were less parking lots. And the largest ballroom was the American Legion. Now, (if I want to) I can pop my cell phone out of my pocket and bring up Periscope and stream a school play to my one hundred and ten thousand Twitter followers. I can take pics of my students and share them with Kid President and everyone following #kpawesomegirls. When my school had Homecoming last week, thousands of people took to our Facebook page to see the pictures and videos. Everything from the announcement of the Homecoming Queen to the mini-parade was uploaded soon after it happened. Parent Engagement Matters The research shows that parent involvement can make as much of a difference as 3/4 to a full grade point of a child’s GPA. That’s a letter grade. We need to involve parents. We need a new stage. Social Media: The New Audience But the world’s not just a stage. It is also a grand meeting place. Social media gives us largest ballroom ever assembled where people from around the world can mix, mingle, and find their clique. Jacques du Toit and his students can be Tweeting Aztecs and Karen Lineman’s first graders can tweet what they learned today. Kathy Cassidy’s six-year-olds blog for the world. My students can write a blog about their offense at human trafficking and create apps and websites encouraging people to be kind. Authentic Audience. A 2008 ASCD article says, "When student work culminates in a genuine product for an authentic audience, it makes a world of difference." We know that audience improves student work. Whether kids write tweets that they audition on a classroom "Tweet Board" and the teacher picks the best, or they connect in a massive Twitter chat about improving education (#stuvoice), students are eager to share. They want an audience. Staging a Comeback in Education Students are standing on the stage already in their private lives. So are parents. Let me tell you who’s not on the stage. Schools. Too many schools fold down the wooden seats, turn on the squelchy mikes, plan events, and wonder why no one comes. Too many schools whine because parents don’t show up. Too many teachers complain that kids don’t want to write, or that parents won’t read to their kids anymore. But complaints are just words. Let’s put our words out where they really matter. We’re ignoring the world stage. We’re ignoring a powerful way to get out the powerful messages that can and will engage parents in the learning of their kids. We’re ignoring a powerful platform that will help kids want to write again: social media. Yes. Social Media! Why aren’t more schools using social media? Because we want to "protect kids". We want to keep them safe. From what? Their parents actually knowing what is happening in the classroom for a change? In reality, kids are in more danger from the person they jump into the car with after school than some invisible bogeyman who lurks on the Internet. (We teach kids how to cross the street, but how any schools talk about the risks of geotagging pics on social media? But I digress.) Using social media in schools isn’t about trite "make progress" sayings. It isn’t even about accepting what is new or leaving behind what is old. Using social media is actually about three good old traditional values that can make a country great: encouraging strong families, loving kids, and pursuing excellence. What We Do Because We Love Children When you love kids, you do what is right for them. When you love kids, you want them to be well educated. When you love kids, you empower and encourage their parents to be the best parents possible. When you love kids, you change even when it makes you uncomfortable. Powerful allies.  We must be a generation of educators who builds a new stage. We must welcome a new way to communicate with parents, show student work, and educate for student success. If a school building constructed 50 years ago had never been maintained or improved, we would complain. It is time to update our communications methods too. For, we cannot let generations future look back upon the watchers on the wall and see a band of educators and parents who saw only a frozen north. Social media and schools need not wed in a blood-red wedding. Social media and schools make powerful allies, not sworn enemies. More work I’ve created on social media in schools A Guidebook for Social Media in the Classroom published on Edutopia What Your Kids Really Need to Know about Digital Citizenship published on Edutopia What are Teacher Rights on Social Media? (with Scott McLeod) How to Get More Volunteers and Donors for Your School Using Social Media (with Beth Kanter) Tweeting Down Classroom Walls - a Twitter guide I wrote for Edsurge Reinventing Writing - my book about 21st-century writing (including using social media in the classroom  The post Social Media in Schools appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Every Classroom Matters Episode #180 History, literature, and math teachers are desperate for easy ideas to engage kids. We want kids to be excited about our subject, and we want to use technology. But we don’t want anything really hard. What can we do? Well, today’s guest Lucas Gillispie has something you can do that might be much easier than you think. He runs on of the largest implementations of Minecraft of any school in the world. He should know. Important Takeaways Easy ideas for every subject area using Minecraft How hard is Minecraft anyway? Ideas for convincing parents and administration of the value of Minecraft in schools. Why Minecraft in Schools is The Modern Marvel Did you play in a sandbox as a child? You took the sand and built castles. You might have had a bulldozer drive through the sandbox making "brrrr" noise as you scooped up sand and pushed it to the far ends of the box. Or, on the beach, you built a sandcastle, frantically deepening the moat so your sandcastle won’t wash away in the incoming tide. Playing in the sand is a child’s game, but now we have a game that all ages are playing. A sandbox game. What is Minecraft? Split it into the two words: Mine and Craft. Kids mine for all kinds of things in the game. With the minerals and wood and items they mine, they can craft things. Minecraft is a game where kids build and create. The boxes are exactly square, so Geometry and Math are easy to teach in there. History and literature work too because kids can make the ancient wonders of the world or the a street in Paris just prior to the French Revolution. Educator Resources @lucasgillispie Edurealms - Lucas’ blog with lots of information on gaming Want to know more? more Minecraft shows: 3 Ways Monsters and Minecraft Can Drive Great Teaching & Learning with Joel Levin, creator of Minecraft EDU Many Education Games are Worksheets with Points: 6 Ways to Find Better Learning Games with Kae Novak, chair of ISTE Games and Simulations Network Lesson Plan: Enabling Kids to Game their Way to Literacy with Dr. Lee Graham about the GiverCraft Minecraft Project that has kids collaborate in a literacy project. Join the Every Classroom Matters Awesome Educators Network on Facebook You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or elsewhere, get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above. The post Why Minecraft in Schools is the Modern Marvel: 5 Epic Ideas appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

21 Money-Making Strategies for Social Media Newbies with Dr. Cheri Toledo My friend, Dr. Cheri Toledo has pulled together 21 social media experts to share the basics of getting started with social media. This free video series is for beginners! Do you ever ask yourself, "Could I be growing my business with social media?" Have you ever thought, "What are some effective strategies for using social media tools for my business?" Or maybe you’ve wondered, "What is social media and why should I use it?" If you are ready to take your first steps into the social media world … or move to the next level of implementing social media to grow your business … then here’s your chance! Creating a Buzz with Social Media: 21 Money-Making Strategies for Social Media Newbies, will give you the introduction that you need to start taking advantage of all that social media can do for your business. I will be talking with Cheri about using blogging to grow your business. Ready to jump on board? Sign Up Here The interview is live now but will only be up for a limited time! Click here to sign up! Join Dr. Cheri Toledo for Creating a Buzz with Social Media: 21 Money-Making Strategies for Social Media Newbies. I am sharing this with you because Dr. Toledo has been a friend and someone I’ve worked with for many years. It is a free resource, and she has lots of amazing people she’s interviewed. I’m a tad late posting about this event, so you’ll want to join in it quickly. This free video series is one of those to share not only with teachers who wish to use social media better but business people as well. Enjoy! Another awesome, free resource for you!  - Vicki Davis The post Creating a Buzz with Social Media appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Inspiration for People Working in High Stress Environments Stress at work is real. Particularly in high-stress jobs like teaching. While study brain research, four E’s jump out. Our secret for coping with stress at work will lie in understanding executive functions and emotions. To cope, we must  make the most of encouragement and enrichment to make it through. Let’s dive into our brain and how it responds to stress at work. The "High E" Moments that Cause Stress at Work There are two "E’s" that make things stressful and need lots of energy. Executive Functions: Switching Between Tasks Rapidly Executive functions are those parts of your thinking that need lots of energy. Learn more about this in books like Two Awesome Hours or The Organized Mind. In the Organized Mind, Daniel Levitin talks about one part of the executive functioning of the mind, the insula. The insula is the "attentional switch." Levitin says: "if it is called upon to switch too much or too often, we feel tired and a bit dizzy, as though we were see-sawing too rapidly." (43) Executive functions are finite. We don’t multitask. We uni-task but might switch between more than one task quickly. When we do this, we can fatigue our decision-making process. Stress depletes self-control. Decision fatigue is real.  Ever wonder why you have a rough day and go home and blow your diet? With too many decisions or too much stress, our willpower wears out. (Sounds like teaching, doesn’t it?) In The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg says "If you want to do something that requires willpower—like going for a run after work—you have to conserve your willpower muscle during the day," As a teacher, we’re answering what feels like a million questions. We also get interrupted what seems like a thousand times. All the while, our insula switch is flipping between tasks. No wonder we’re frazzled by 2:15. After reading research on executive functioning, we can see why. When a person is asked to make too many decisions too rapidly, it fatigues their decision making and depletes self-control. High stress during the day can mean unhealthy eating at night and many more lapses of self-control. The secret: cut out nonessential questions. How can you reduce questions? Procedures. I have a sign-out sheet at my door for kids to write where they want to go when they ask to leave the room. They are taught to just hand me the board and I sign. No asking, no decision. Just sign. Sometimes I choose to question or say no, but this is the exception. So, instead of having to decide YES. I’ve already decided "yes" and only have to decide "no." This one procedure eliminates at least 20-3o questions a day! (And I can remember where they went and when.  This may seem small but it is HUGE. I feel less stress and the class flows more smoothly. Coping with Stress at Work Secret #1. Reduce stress by reducing the number of times your insula has to flip by reducing small decisions. Have rock solid classroom management procedures. When we put as much of our classroom on autopilot as possible, we are freed up for critical decisions. (Read The Classroom Management Book by Wong and Wong for help.)   Emotion. Secondly, there’s also the other "high E" — emotion. As educators, most of us can handle tough situations. Difficult decisions. Professional discussions. But personal attacks can wear you out. There are those people who go around and do drama all the time. They love to fuss about this or disagree about that. They do what I call this "neck thing" where their head starts bobbing as they fuss and fuss. Sometimes they look like hens. But for me, they look like a big red sign saying, "run for cover." Some see drama and "fun" but I see "high E." The scenes in Real Housewives of Atlanta look like hell to me. When I see "high E" I know it will zap my energy. I will be worthless the rest of the day. Schools Are Hard Places to Work. But sometimes the drama comes running at you like a big old angry bull, and you can’t get out of the way. You don’t know it’s coming. One moment you’re having lunch in the meadow. Then, you open a door and on the other side you have a big snorting bull running for you, horns gleaming. You just hope you’ll survive. Lots of people say, "life’s too short" and it is. But this is one thing about schools people need to understand. Schools grow High E situations like a petri dish growing penicillin. Because if you want to get people upset, mistreat a child. And rightly so. Stomp on their dreams and I will be the bull coming at you, and you’d better hold on. Of course, too many people go into "charging bull" mode before listening to all sides. Or they can’t know all sides. This type of person on a school board or in a school makes it particularly hard to survive. Coping with Stress at Work Secret #2. Wise people know there are always two sides. They listen to both of them before making up their minds. If it is not their right to listen to both sides, they give people the benefit of the doubt.  Save emotions for after you have all the facts. Give others the benefit of the doubt. Learn to listen quietly. Learn to expect emotions to run high and be a person who keeps yours in check until you can sort through the issues. High E Overload: The Schtuff that Fuels the Fire Most teachers love to teach the kids. But what we don’t love are the high E situations in the hall, in the parking lot, and in the front office. We have that colleague, and we’ve been around the block enough with this person to know that there’s nothing we can do. They should tattoo an E on their forehead. Every interaction will be tangling with a drama Brahma. The High E Schtuff that Kills Educators It is the other schtuff that burns us out.  Why do I call it schtuff?   Shhhhhh. Well, it combines the "shhhhhh" sound. Like, be quiet. Don’t tell anyone. Don’t say anything. There’s a real pressure in schools not to speak of those things that are wrong. Schools are full of elephants, and we shush them like noisy kids in the library. Tuff. And then tuff at the end because it sounds like "tough" because the schtuff is just that — shush and be quiet about the things that are most tough. That schtuff that: Breaks your heart, hurts your feelings, and leaves you spinning out of control like a speeding truck on wet south Georgia clay in a flood. That schtuff. The schtuff that has you cry yourself to sleep. It gets your neck muscles so tight that you think you’ll break your own neck. Schtuff has you so upset; you don’t know if you can even walk in the building. And if you’re going to make it through the High E schtuff — you have to have encouragement. Schools that Handle Their Schtuff When you have schools with lots of schtuff, you feel the tension in the air. Don’t talk about the elephants. Pretend they aren’t there. Tough it out. Even though the hope has been sucked out of the room as the air out of a cargo bay on the space shuttle opened in space. My pastor gave a great example yesterday at church. He says everyone has big heavy baggage. They load up the overhead bins with it. It is heavier than they are. When turbulence hits their life or organization, the bins open and baggage starts falling out. Exceptional superintendents and principals are great at dealing with schtuff.  We’ve got too many people who just keep cramming more in the overhead bins. Keep feeding elephants. Keep shushing the troops telling them that everything is OK.  Many of us work in toxic environments. If I told you that how you’re coping with your job was killing you - would you cope differently? It is what we DO with what we HAVE TO DO  that determines our physical health. There are ways we can cope, but it is vital to know that YOU have control over YOU  How To Thrive in a High E Environment (even with schtuff) When you work in a "high E" environment - you HAVE to add the third and fourth E’s, so you can make it ANYWAY. High E #3: Encouragement Encouragement is vital. We need people who love us. We need to vent. We need to hear positive things. We must have hope. We need support. We need encouragement. There are ways to work through problems. Books like The Influencer and How to Win Friends and Influence People and How to Stop Worrying and Start Living are helpful books. Coping with Stress at Work Secret #3. Find encouragement in the pages of great books. I just finished reading 21 Great Leaders by Pat Williams. Somehow the fact that Walt Disney failed, and Steve Jobs did too, and Nelson Mandela struggled in prison — that helps us when we face a prison of our own. Knowing the struggles of others can helps us as a fail and get back up and try again. Find encouragement in the presence of people who are encouragers. And if someone is always "sucking your will to live" - GET AWAY!" High E #4: Enrichment If you’ve seen a baby be born, you know that a beautiful soul comes into the world through much travail and pain. Some of the biggest progress comes through some of the greatest pain.  If you wait until you have great circumstances to progress, you’ll only digress. The birth of Mickey Mouse. An unethical distributor stole a rabbit character Walt Disney invented. So, Walt went back to the drawing board (literally) and created Mickey Mouse. Out of agony came genius. There are those who see the world as win-lose. Great people choose to see the world win-win. Small people play king of the hill on tiny hills. Big people make bigger hills.  Be a person of greatness — always work to make a bigger hill. Be welcoming to new people. Encourage others and enrich your own learning. The world is a vast place. There are many amazing people in it. There are many incredible "undiscovered" talents. Oh, that I could find and encourage great talent wherever it is. People like: Sylvia Duckworth and her talent for sketchnoting and Justin Tarte and his ability to find a perfect tweet and Jerry Blumengarten and his ability to curate the world. These are just three amazing people out of the thousands of talented people in my PLN. These three (among many others) see the world as a place to make bigger hills. They are welcoming more people to jump on the hill too. Coping with Stress at Work Secret #4. To improve high-stress situations, it is going to take lots of people in lots of places being encouraged to make progress. Make a bigger hill for your profession by encouraging more people. Recognize excellence everywhere you see it. Look to enrich the lives of others and your profession.  So, my dear friends. I’ve talked myself out of a funk. I was down and despondent and now, by the end of the post, I’m encouraged again. For there will always be those bulls. And listening to bulls too much is bull. Don’t do it. There will… There will always be people who make schtuff and hurt people and hurt kids. There will always be people who are in positions but do not lead. There will always be short-sighted people who would rather stuff more schtuff in overhead bins and feed elephants than to clean out the mess and get real work done. As long as there is breath in at least two noses on this planet, there will be interpersonal struggles. As long as I have breath… But as long as I have breath, I will work to encourage us to be excellent anyway. As long as I have breath, I will work to enrich the lives of others. As long as I have breath, I will work to make bigger hills and welcome all beginners and undiscovered talent. You can… You can live in a small town and have a big mind. You can be a teacher at an exhausting school and have an amazing classroom. You can live your whole live misunderstood and use that to better understand students and their parents. In the end, to me, High E is about achieving a High Level of Excellence. Anyplace. Any time. Anywhere you are. If you’re going to be excellent, you have to take on tasks that are emotional and require every neuron of executive functioning you have. If you’re going to be excellent,  you must be encouraged and enriched to do better. If you’re going to be excellent, it starts with a decision. If you’re going to be excellent, it is up to you.   The post Secrets for Coping with Stress at Work appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Practical Graphic Design Tips Anyone Can Use Graphic designers need to understand color. But there are some basics we all need to know. We should remember: a little bit of color theory, how to pick colors, and how to use them. This three-part video series will help you learn the basic color theory and tricks you’ll need to use great colors together in Microsoft Office. Graphic Design Video 1: Understanding Color Theory This video from the Artist Block explains basic color theory better than I could. (Plus, he’s cool.) The important thing for students to understand is the primary colors and that certain colors go well together. Once they are a tad overwhelmed or at least convinced that this is complex, then they are ready to get the help given in videos 2 and 3.   Graphic Design Video 2: How to Pick and Use the Perfect Color in Desktop Publishing My Google Plus connection Penny Cristensen added this note to the video today (and shared a cool resource) after it went live: Vicki, I’ve been using this extension for a couple years now & love the Color Picker. Thank you for adding Color Schemer Online to my toolbox! I like to show others where that hex code can be used: Picmonkey, Google Draw, Canva. I also include the tools Adobe’s Kuler and the Kuler app for picking colors from your real life surroundings and point out how to use palettes curated on Pinterest. Feel free to check out my post on the topic: hotlunchtray.com/color-me-happy-technology-thursday/ I have added your link to the comments of the original post - thanks! Graphic Design Video 3: How to Pick the Perfect Color and Put it into Microsoft Office In Microsoft Office, you will probably want to change the color in three ways: the background, the borders, and the font color. Learn how to take the "perfect colors" and color in Microsoft Excel. This technique also works in all Microsoft Office Programs: Microsoft Word, Publisher, and PowerPoint. Graphic design doesn’t have to be difficult. Learn the tools that help you do it better. Please share your tips in the comments.  The post How to Pick the Perfect Color and Use it Anywhere appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Every Classroom Matters episode 181 Kid President is a cute kid. His short videos pack a powerful message. His brother-in-law Brad Montague helps craft his message. Take a behind the scenes look at the viral sensation sweeping through classrooms today. Important Takeaways Brad gives a behind the scenes look at how he and Robby Novak started Kid President. Have you heard of #kpawesomegirls? Hear the story behind the new Kid President rap about awesome girls throughout history?  The Awesome Girls Rap Went Live Oct 22, 2015! What about the pressure put on Brad and Kid President to just be "entertaining"? Learn about socktober and helping homeless shelters? This chat with Brad Montague makes me fall in love with Kid President even more. I love the message behind the fun but also love Brad’s passion. Brad wants to leave a library of work to make the world a better place. If so, he and Robby Novak are off to a great start. Share the Story of an Awesome Girl You Know! Want to tell Kid President about an awesome girl in your life or school? Here are 3 ways to celebrate the awesome girls in your life: Tweet Kid President @iamkidpresident on Twitter and hashtag it #kpawesomegirls Give a shoutout to your #kpawesomegirl on Kid President’s Fanpage on Facebook Email Brad Montague.  Kid President Resources and Links @thebradmontague Contact Brad Montague @iamkidpresident KP Awesome Girls Playlist from Soul Pancake How we used #kpawesomegirls in my classroom Join the Every Classroom Matters Awesome Educators Network on Facebook You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or elsewhere, get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above.  The post Kid President: Kids Inspiring Kids to Change the World appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Productivity Tools for Students and Researchers Social bookmarking is the modern student’s research tool. As I share in Reinventing Writing, research and pre-writing helps a student start strong. But how? Here’s your answer: Diigo has a fantastic new outlining tool! Before students write, have them turn in their outlines to you. Also, require that they rephrase their research sources at the point they bookmark it. I teach how to get a private link for the outline. If you still want it in Microsoft Word or Google Docs, I even show you how to export your outline! So easy. TIP FOR TEACHERS: If you’re using a Learning Management System, you can cut and paste the key points and action steps and use the videos as is. Social Bookmarking is green! One ream of paper is 6% of a tree! It is estimated that a page of paper costs 6 cents each in terms of waste. Then, why do we have students printing a fifty page Wikipedia article or a 10-page document to verify one quotation? Why are we using paper when social bookmarking can make research so much easier. You can even link Diigo to other services like Evernote using IFTTT.com. Each video is separated below, but you can also view this series as a playlist on Youtube.    1- Why do we need social bookmarking? [0:34] Key Points: Why Do We Need Social Bookmarking? It saves paper. It keeps your email from filling up. It is an easier, more productive way of researching. After You Watch This Video You Should: Understand some of the benefits of using social bookmarking. Why you need a tool to help you organize your online research.   2- What is Diigo? [0:21] Key Points: What is Diigo? Diigo lets you easily share with groups. You can annotate web pages. You are creating your personal library of online bookmarks to use in many ways. After you watch this video, you should: Understand that Diigo is a social bookmarking tool to help you organize and share your research.    3- How to Sign Up for Diigo [0:28] Key Points: How to Sign Up for Diigo? Sign up at www.diigo.com. Teachers should sign up for a free teacher account to get extra features. After you watch this video, you should: Sign up for a Diigo account at www.diigo.com TIP: If you have a Google account, click "Sign In" and click the Google button, then just fill in a username and password. It will link with your Google account!    4- Install the Diigo Chrome Extension [0:28] Key Points: Install the Diigo Chrome Extension The Diigo Chrome extension can save you time. The button is typically found after logging into Diigo the first time. (You can also use the link below.) After you watch this video, you should: Install the Diigo Chrome Extension by clicking here. (The rest of this tutorial uses the Chrome extension, but you can bookmark and use outliner from any web browser.) If you use any other Web browser including Internet Explorer or Firefox, use the Diigolet.    5- Annotating a Web Page with Diigo [1:05] Key Points: Annotating a Web Page with Diigo Annotating a web page means that you can highlight the page. You can also add a private sticky note to a page. You can add a public sticky note to a page if you send it to a group. (You have to join a group first.) After this video, you should: Annotate a web page by going to a page and using different color highlighters. Write a sticky note and put it on a page. If you are a member of a group, put a sticky note on a page and send it to your group. Go back to your Diigo account and click "library". See what annotations look like in your library. Look at the screenshots below and read the captions to see how annotations will show up in your library and in your outliners. Screenshot 1: The annotation made in the video and how it shows up in the library view of Diigo. Note that sometimes it appears faster if you go ahead and bookmark the page. Screenshot 2: To see annotations in the outliner view (that I teach you below), you need to click the "view mode" button instead of "edit mode." Then, the annotations show up. 6-Bookmarking a Web Page with Diigo [0:52] Key Points: Bookmarking a Page with Diigo Anything you select with your mouse will go into the bookmark when you hit the button. You have to turn off the annotation’s Highlighting feature for this to work. Whatever you type in the box becomes part of the bookmark. Summarize what you’ve read in the box. (This will help prevent plagarizing work by putting it in your own words.) Be consistent with your tags so you can see patterns and organize your bookmarks. After you watch this video, you should: Bookmark a web page using your Diigo button. First, find the web page you want to bookmark. Using the mouse, select and drag your mouse across some text. Click the bookmark button. Type some text in the box summarizing what you’ve read in addition to what is already showing. Don’t click "Save" yet, watch the next video first!    7- Adding a Diigo Bookmark to the Outliner Research Tool [0:26] Key Points: Adding a Diigo Bookmark to the Outliner Research Tool and Tagging You can create outlines for different projects. You can share bookmarks with groups when you’re bookmarking it. After you watch this video, you should: Send your bookmark to an outline. Make sure that you create a NEW outline for the project to send your research to. After you send the bookmark to your outline, go to diigo, then click "outliners" to see what it looks like.    8-Using the Diigo Outliner Tool to Plan [0:46] Key Points: Using the Diigo Outliner Tool to Plan Use your tab key to indent and shift tab to out-dent your outline. You can turn in a public link when you are done. After you watch this video, you should: Click on a line in your outliner and press tab. Hold down shift and press tab and see what happens. Use your mouse to point at the bullets and drag something around in the outliner. Type something in the outliner to see how it works. TIP: You don’t have features to change the font or format. I’ll show you how to export this to a wordprocessor to make this fancier if you want to.   9- How to Organize a Diigo Outline [1:27] Key Points: How to Organize a Diigo Outline When you have bookmarks already in Diigo, you can find and quickly add them to your outliner. You can organize your outline with text that you type. Click the shareable link button to share a private link for people to see your outline. You can copy and paste it into Microsoft Word or Google Docs. You can also copy and paste the notes into Powerpoint and make it into an outline in PowerPoint. After you watch this film, you should: Type some text in your outliner. Click the shareable link button and email it to someone else. Let them see if they can open it. Click the Export button to open up a report. Copy some of the text and paste it into Microsoft Word or Google Docs. Copy some of the text and paste it into a PowerPoint slide. (Advanced users can use the Outliner in Powerpoint!)    Have you read Reinventing Writing by Vicki Davis? There's a whole chapter on social bookmarking!   Bonus Diigo Tutorials These tutorials are not necessary for beginners but show some advanced features that many of you who are already using this tool may want to use. The bulk tool lets you move bookmarks, retag them, and re-organize. Researchers will want to know these tools. Bloggers or those sharing resources might want to auto-share their bookmarks to their blog. 9 - 5 Minute Power Diigo Tutorial [5:05] 10 - How to Auto Post Diigo Bookmarks to Your Blog [3:27] Want to know about modern writing? Check out my book Reinventing Writing.  The post How to Use Diigo’s New Outlining Tool: Social Bookmarking Made Easy appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Connected Educator Month! The K12Online Conference 2015 is a fantastic resource. You’ve got another week to experience it LIVE. Even afterwards, all of the work is still there. You don’t want to miss out! Join in! K12Online is never really over … it’s all online and archived. If you look really hard, you might even find one about integrating on a shoestring….. K12Online Conference 2015 Keynotes The 2015 keynote speakers include Don Wettrick @DonWettrick, Alan Levine @cogdog, Stephanie Chang @MakerEdOrg, Scott McLeod @mcleod, and Karen Bosch @karlyb. The K12Online 2015 Conference Schedule The full lineup of presentations and presenters is available on the 2015 Schedule. There is an entire week yet of presentations, but all the presentations from every year are archived - just navigate to The Main Site and look across the top … each year the conference has been held is listed. Also remember all video presentations are available in iPad / iPhone / iPod touch compatible format in the iTunesU Portal Connecting with K12Online Conference Website http://k12onlineconference.org/ Twitter https://twitter.com/k12online FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/k12online Conference hashtag #k12online15 The K12Online conference organizers 2015 deserve a big shout out for helping create such an incredible resource for educators around the world. A big thank you to: Carol Broos Karen Fasimpaur Leslie Pralle Keehn Peggy George Susan van Gelder Wesley Fryer I appreciate also Lisa Durff’s work with the K12 Online Conference 2015. (Lisa helps me in amazing ways while still finishing up her PhD!) I hope that all of you out there will use these resources and get started with your learning. You can get started with my friend Don Wettrick’s keynote and just keep going! As anyone who has presented at the K12Online Conference will know, these presentations take SO MUCH WORK. Creating video isn’t easy. (I know that some of  my past presos  took days to make!) Thank you to all of the volunteers, organizers, speakers, and attendees. K12Online is awesome! I learn so much all year long from them! -Vicki Davis The post Incredible FREE PD! K12Online Conference 2015 appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

A Weekly Roundup of What's Being Talked About in my PLN This week, an inspirational blog post inspired by a cellist who played on through the bombing of Sarajevo tops the list of blogs this week. Minecraft and Kid President have educators talking. On Twitter, success, teaching practices, and trying new things are topping the list. (You can add Google Drive to Microsoft Office.) You write this post! Your tweets, retweets, reshares and likes show what you care about. Let’s see what you’re saying to all of us this week. How are the top 10 tweets and posts selected? I used the statistics of traffic on my blog for the blog posts. I used Buffer  analytics to give us the top tweets. Tweet popularity calculates by retweets, favorites, AND clickthroughs.  A clickthrough happens when someone clicks a tweet. Clickthroughs are something you can’t see looking at someone’s tweets. They can only come from analytics from the person who tweets the tweet. (And knows how to set it up or view it.) I hope you find something helpful. Top 10 Blog Posts This Week Why teachers need to keep going even when it’s hard topped this week’s list of top blogs. Why Teachers Need to Keep Going Even When It’s Hard - Inspired by Vedran Smailovic, the Cellist of Sarajevo, a post encouraging teachers to keep making their music even when they’re discouraged. Why Minecraft in Schools is the Modern Marvel: 5 Epic Ideas - An Interview on Every Classroom Matters with Lucas Gillispie, the teacher who runs one of the largest implementations of Minecraft in schools in the world. Kid President: Kids Inspiring Kids to Change the World - an Interview with Brad Montague, director and creator of Kid President Social Media in Schools - a piece written for Cathy Rubin from the Global Search for Education top 12 Teacher Blogs answering her question of the month "What is the role of social media in classrooms?" How to Make Google Chrome Faster, Better and Prettier a tutorial series on the ins and outs of getting the most out of Google Chrome 15 Best Google Drive Add-Ons for Education an older perennial favorite. I’ll be updating this one soon with one tweak. What to Do When Someone Hates You one of the most popular posts I’ve ever written. Hate is something many of us struggle to overcome. These are truths I learned when grappling with a hate situation of my own. Lots of people read this one after searching for a solution to their problem on Google. 4 Writing Tips for Students 4 Writing Tips to Help the Writing Process - I’m getting thank-you emails about this post more than any other. As you help kids with college essays and high school essays, this post has the tools and tips to help you teach kids. It includes tutorials and links to sites that help you. Note Taking Skills for 21st Century Students - Note taking has changed. Here are some tips and videos that I share with students and teachers so that when you take notes, you’ll remember. Top 10 Tweets of the Week 12 Mini Habits of Insanely Successful People http://t.co/ZGcc8XB8Yj pic.twitter.com/3zfq8X4how — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) October 17, 2015   5 Highly effective teaching practices http://t.co/hmliADnLmI — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) October 19, 2015   WOHOO! This Plug-In Puts Google Drive Inside Microsoft Office https://t.co/aKh9Pl1mju #edtech pic.twitter.com/2VJ3eyh41Z — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) October 21, 2015   15 Things Every Teacher Should Try This Year by @Austin_Gagnier8 and @sylviaduckworth https://t.co/v5bRDabnP7 — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) October 20, 2015   NEW POST: Social Media in Schools http://t.co/ycgI4jOYJ9 pic.twitter.com/okZkdb0o5C — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) October 19, 2015   AWESOME: Download 15 Free Programming Books for Coders of All Levels http://t.co/wXrqI2oWA2 — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) October 17, 2015   WSJ Reports: Survey Finds Teens Prefer Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat for #socialmedia http://t.co/5ArWmetDTH pic.twitter.com/3FDRsg3zjX — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) October 18, 2015   Why Parent Involvement Matters So Much: The Research http://t.co/HvXKS34dmO pic.twitter.com/63GMUcVRHS — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) October 17, 2015   NEW SHOW! Kid President: Kids Inspiring Kids to Change the World https://t.co/kTsUhd6YV3 #edchat pic.twitter.com/khAmSZsrej — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) October 22, 2015   10 Ways to Build Team Classroom https://t.co/41m3YkH0t7 — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) October 20, 2015   The post Top 10 Tweets & Blogs This Week appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Design Thinking and Productivity that Matters Walt Disney had 50 names for the seven dwarves. Why do so many of us think we need just one or two tries to have great ideas?Walt Disney understood that to become great, you ideate. Brainstorming was one key of his genius. Among such odd names as "Graveful" and "Awful" and "Biggo-Eggo" - we find  "Grumpy," "Happy," and "Bashful." Walt Disney didn’t stop with the first seven names he came up with. Disney had seven times seven plus 1. Ideation is the "formation of ideas." Geniuses have always ideated. Learn how to brainstorm if you want to be more creative. Leonardo da Vinci’s Brainstorm In 1489, the same year he drew the Vitruvian Man, Leonardo Da Vinci made a list of all of the things he wanted to investigate about the human body. His list included such things as: What nerve is the cause of the movement of the eye? "What is sneezing?" and Why an infant of eight months does not live? He made lists of questions and pursued the answers. Curiosity doesn’t kill the cat; it makes the imagination alive! Romeo the Red-Nosed Reindeer? When Robert May was tasked to write a "cheery book to give store customers" for Montgomery Ward, he brainstormed a list of ten names for his reindeer. Could you imagine "Rollo the Red-Nosed Reindeer?" How about Reginald? Romeo? No, it became Rudolph. But first Robert May came up with ideas. He ideated as he created. Why Are We So Afraid of Idea Creation? There are three reasons I think we don’t brainstorm more: We don’t ideate because we don’t understand the benefits. We don’t take the time to brainstorm. We don’t want to look dumb. Let’s tackle these problems one by one. 1. Ideation is Important. Before creation comes ideation. Most people aren’t ideating, they’re just regurgitating. Sure, lots of schools are using design thinking. But they are other people’s designs! Other people’s thinking. Before creation comes ideation. When leading students in genius hour for the first time, it is a struggle to help them find their genius. They don’t know what to create because they’ve never been asked. They don’t know what to think about because they’ve never been given time to think. Decisions made without ideation aren’t decisions, they are just cookie cutter ideas with a slightly different dough and a slightly different cutter but aren’t truly an original recipe. They are sloppy knock-offs of another idea that DIDN’T WORK. Ideate and ruminate and then MAKE A DECISION.  2. Ideation Takes Time Ideation is a process. We often call this brainstorming. Here are two easy ways to brainstorm. Brainstorming Method A: Require 50 ideas. I wonder why so many people think they should be able to come up with the perfect idea in the second or third try? If Walt Disney brainstormed 50 dwarves, can’t we? I require 50 scribbled ideas for every brainstorm. The first ten will be trite, boring, and safe. When students run out of safe ideas, they get creative. And when they run out creative ideas, they become geniuses. When creating ideas becomes the goal, we get rid of inhibitions and come up with ideas. When we try to come up with a "good idea", we stay safe. Safe is boring. Safe is unoriginal. Safe is never genius because safe has already been done before. Brainstorming Method B: Freewriting. Mark Levy’s book  Accidental Genius gives insight into what happens when you have people free write about a topic for an amount of time: Anyway, while they’re writing, be it for five minutes, thirty minutes, or something in between, I walk throughout the audience to check on how they’re doing. I offer encouragement and crack jokes. I never read what they’re writing. Nonetheless, I can tell the exact moment when the writing for them starts to click. As I walk by, I jab my finger down on the page and say, "Here’s where you started saying something important" and "Here’s where your thinking came alive." Almost always, the participants agree. They wonder how I could know. My trick has a simple explanation: When they begin, participants tend to write in a cramped script that fits on the line neatly. Once they loosen up, once they tire, once their internal editor starts to recede and they viscerally connect with the material, their handwriting relaxes. It happens all of a sudden, and it’s easy to spot, even if they’re facing me and all I can see is their pads upside down. Their letters grow large and loopy, and they take up several lines. Their words grow fainter, because they stopped pressing on the paper so hard. It’s an unclenching of hand and brain. It’s the point where they stopped worrying about being correct and polite and began using the part of their mind that’s original and raw. It takes time as Mark Levy says so beautifully for your brain to "unclench." It isn’t easy, but when you see it happen you do it again and again. (There’s a reason this post started out over 2,000 words. It is now 1200 and I deleted the first original 800 of them!) Teach students and teams how to ideate. Teach them methods of brainstorming. Help them unclench their brain and create ideas. 3. To Get to Great, You Must Be Willing to Risk Dumb Why was Walt Disney completely unafraid to have a name like "Biggo-Eggo" as a potential name for a dwarf? Walt Disney was perhaps a genius, because he was unafraid of ideas - even crazy ones. There’s one small step from crazy to genius. Few people remember the mockery Steve Jobs endured the day he unveiled the "iPad."  Most people thought it was a dumb name. But we don’t want to be the one people call silly. We stay mediocre, so we don’t get criticized instead of being the genius who stands alone. If you fear to be wrong, you’ll never be right. If you’re afraid of looking dumb, you’ll never be a genius. If you won’t come up with ideas, you’ll never find novel solutions. Make your team or classroom a safe place to come up with any kind of idea. Teach groups not to pass judgment too quickly. Help your group understand that "dumb" often precedes genius.  Ideate and Become Great Let me ask you this: What idea would you pursue if you had no risk of criticism? If you weren’t worried about anyone thinking you were wrong — how would you improve student learning by 400%? What would you do tomorrow if you had no restrictions to get kids truly excited about learning? reading? math? Throw off the everyday clothing of the mild-mannered reporter and don your Superman cape, for goodness sakes. Tackle these questions with brainstorms. Freewrite. Ideate. Create ideas — lots of them. Share ideas — lots of them. Talk about ideas — lots of them. Yes, there’s a time to make a decision. But if you decide before you brainstorm, you’ve decided too soon. You’ve killed the conversation. You’ve buried genius. So, don’t be Dopey! Refuse to let Grumpy or those who are Sneezy at new ideas keep you from coming up with them. It isn’t time to be Bashful or Sleepy. Listen to the Doc and come up with some great ideas! Lots of them! You’ll be Happy you did! How do you teach brainstorming? Got tricks or ideas? Share them in the comments below or on your own blog. Let’s ideate together! Will you share your ideas?  The post Brainstorming: The 7 Dwarves’ Secret appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Every Classroom Matters episode 182 How do you fill your students with wonder? How do you help kids love animals? How do you engage students in science? Carmelo the Science Fellow (who is also a principal) shares his fun-tastic ideas for science and getting kids excited in this episode. Important Takeaways The unbelievable thing he puts IN his walls. How he got students excited about science his first day of teaching. Now that he’s a principal, what happened when he put his desk in the welcome area. Carmelo the Science Fellow has cool science ideas but also exciting ideas for teaching. I found myself inspired with his can-do attitude and any means necessary methods of teaching. But his work is also grounded in the science research that we quoted in the show (referenced below). We can no longer PowerPoint kids into boredom in the science classroom. We can do better. Here’s how. Educator Resources from this Show BOOK: Crazy for Science with Carmelo the Science Fellow VIDEO: Carmelo’s Teaching Methods Research: Making Science Classes Engaging National Science Teachers Association (NSTA): Position Statement on Hands on Learning Join the Every Classroom Matters Awesome Educators Network on Facebook You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or elsewhere, get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above.  The post How to Get Kids Excited About Science: Carmelo the Science Fellow appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Every Classroom Matters episode 183 How can we improve our lessons? When do we know what works and what doesn’t? In today’s show, Dean Shareski talks candidly about student feedback and the role of self-reflection in teaching. Improve the craft of teaching by incorporating his suggestions in your classroom routines. Become intentional and level up a little every day. Important Takeaways How student reflections can help teachers improve. A scary thing Dean found his college students weren’t comfortable doing. The two-word question that made Dean a better teacher. The problem with rubrics. Vicki’s "a-ha" moment about student feedback from Dean’s inspiration. Dean Shareski’s honest talk about grades, assessment, and student feedback apply to every level of teaching. Self-reflection is an important part of teaching. Dean helps us understand how we can reflect and how our students can help. Today’s Sponsor Lesley University has an impressive line-up of online programs specifically designed for busy teachers. If you’re interested in strengthening your professional training, your resume or your career options, you’ll want to take a look at what Lesley has to offer. Lesley’s programs include: creative learning environments, experienced faculty, small classes, and the kind of supportive online community that we all value and want.  Educator Resources and Links from the Show Ideas and Thoughts Blog we discussed on the show @shareski Take a moment to check out Lesley’s programs for teachers by going to Online.Lesley.edu/BamRadio.  Check Out Lesley University’s Online Programs Great quotes from the show you can share… We can always use student feedback. If we think we’ve arrived, we have a long way to go. Those teachers who don’t think they need student feedback often need it the most. Improve your teaching with student feedback. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or elsewhere, get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above. Join the Every Classroom Matters Awesome Educators Network on Facebook The post Improving Your Teaching Through Student Feedback appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!