Digital citizenship can’t be taught from a book. Anne Collier’s views are rich with examples from around the world of best practice in digital citizenship education. Anne should know. She works on Facebook’s Safety Advisory Board and edits NetFamilyNews.  Anne argues "digital citizenship" shouldn’t even be the term - in today’s world, these conversations are part of citizenship. Listen to "An Educators Guide to Digital Citizenship" She makes the surprising assertion that the United States is behind many classrooms she has visited around the world. (Hear why.) After listening to Anne, many schools should reevaluate their approach teaching digital citizenship. ### Add Anne Collier to Your PLN @annecollier NetFamilyNews Listen to Anne Collier - ECM #71 Show Notes Anne Collier #71, "An Educator’s Guide to the Emerging, Expanding View of Digital Citizenship" Anne Collier, the co-director of a nonprofit in Silicon Valley, talks with Vicki Davis about digital citizenship. Digital citizenship is beyond netiquette, digital safety, and online classroom management.  Citizenship includes participation, a sense of belonging, and rights / responsibilities. Bronwyn Stuckey and Marianne Malmstrom with their work on Quest Atlantis are shared as a best practice in her description of digital citizenship. Anne stresses that digital environments are not separate from physical environments.  Teaching these skills is important, but practicing is imperative. The biggest issues in this field right now include active and responsible participation.  She advocates working in an online community of practice. Join a learning community in which students rise to the challenge of exercising digital citizenship when allowed to use the tools in their education. Anne recommends looking at what people have written about citizenship and applying salient points to the digital environment. She tries to focus on social literacy, media literacy, and digital literacy. Listen to Anne Collier - ECM #71 Every Classroom Matters is a bi-weekly podcast by Vicki Davis on BAM Radio network with best practices for busy teachers.  Subscribe. Show notes prepared by Lisa Durff, Production Coordinator for Every Classroom Matters. Need help listening to the show? If you’re clicking "Play" on the BAM Radio Site, this often works best in Internet explorer. Or subscribe in a podcatcher. If you need help, use this tutorial. The post Anne Collier: The Best Digital Citizenship Curriculum appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Design online learning materials for students with special needs using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Principles and everyone learns more. UDL advocate Karen Janowski shares a power-packed 10 minutes of ideas for designing online learning experiences to reach every child.  Go on a turbo tour of Karen’s popular UDL Toolkit wiki in this show. Listen Karen Janowski teach UDL Principles Add Karen Janowski to your PLN Karen Janowski @KarenJan EdTech Solutions - Teaching Every Student ### SHOW NOTES Karen Janowski #72, "Universal Design: How to Personalize Learning for Every Child" Karen Janowski, Assistive Technology Specialist with the Newton Public Schools, talks with Vicki Davis about the Universal Design for Learning  principles (UDL) that will reach and teach every student. She traced the term ‘universal design’ back to its use in architecture, where it meant a design that was useful to everyone. She advocates teaching every student throughout the school day by using good design tools. When you design lessons to help those with special needs, everyone benefits. Audio recording, Voicethreads, slideshows (Animoto), and other alternate methods to paper and pencil are her favorites.  Karen emphasizes the reusability of screencasts, as other reusable learning objects (RLO’s). Karen has built a wiki along with Joyce Valenza, of UDL Resources, just for the classroom teacher who is searching for alternate tools for students. Karen mentions Cast.org, one of the originators of Universal Design for Learning in education.  Using text to speech tools for assessment is one tip she wishes every teacher knew.  She likes VoiceThread, Schmoop, Rewordify, and TLDR (a chrome extension). Vicki recommends teachers study Karen’s UDL Toolkit wiki to learn more  UDL Principles. Listen to Karen Janowski teach UDL Principles Every Classroom Matters is a bi-weekly podcast by Vicki Davis on BAM Radio network with best practices for busy teachers.  Subscribe. Show notes prepared by Lisa Durff, Production Coordinator for Every Classroom Matters. Need help listening to the show? If you’re clicking "Play" on the BAM Radio Site, this often works best in Internet explorer. Or subscribe in a podcatcher. If you need help, use this tutorial. The post UDL Principles to Reach Every Child (with Karen Janowski) appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) can be a challenge. SMART has created a bridge — SMART Amp. Together with a web browser, SMART Amp builds a bridge between diverse BYOD devices in a simple collaborative workspace connecting students and teachers. Unveiled this past Wednesday via live stream, SMART Amp makes it easy for students to work together. To illustrate the simplicity of the tool, as the panel discusses collaboration, students from San Diego and New York study biomes in the SMART Amp workspace. (This is the live collaboration we dreamed of when writing Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds.) This post is divided into two parts. In Part 1, I’ll share SMART Amp product info. To sum up the panel (including Clay Shirky, Angela Maiers, Cristin Frodella, and Warren Barkley), Part 2 is my transcription of the best quotes. Clay Shirky says "Introverts are often the ones who flourish in this environment. Degree of introversion and extroversion has a huge impact on how students choose to contribute - shy kids most benefit from the modes that are asynchronous. Otherwise, you let the extroverted students dominate. It is also important as students grow older to have girls in a situation where they won’t get interrupted." (Scroll down for the rest of the quotes from the panel.) ### SMART Amp Cloud Software Neil Gaydon, SMART CEO says "Disparate devices present challenges, In BYOD, how are they going to work together? SMART Amp brings together devices under one simple architecture. It ‘glues’ the classroom together and unifies it. SMART Amp lets anyone choose any device they want." Students in San Diego and New York City collaborated live as they studied biomes. As evidence that technology is often not transformational, Warren Barkley from SMART observed an iPad classroom where the students stack their iPads on the teacher’s desk like paper. The teacher checks assignments and hands back the iPads when done. Warren says it was "the saddest thing I have ever seen." ~ (Note to reader: In the classroom Warren Barkley observed, the style is entrenched in the "Substitution" phase. Notably, the SAMR model as  shared by Richard Wells helps us understand why some classrooms aren’t transforming. We are substituting technology for what we’re already doing but we’re not REDEFINING what happens in the classroom as we should.) ~ Although I haven’t tested SMART Amp (yet) with my students in collaborative projects, collaboration via web browser in such a way is exciting. We need this because we must reinvent writing (my new book coming in just 2 ½ weeks) and collaborate globally. As Clay Shirky says in the panel discussion: "The ability to distribute collaboration over large areas is one of the characteristics of this new era." We will all be making decisions in the near future about how to bridge our BYOD devices. From what I’ve seen SMART Amp will be a contender. For the cost of an app, SMART Amp is between $9 and $3 per student per year. (Depends upon volume.) Notably, you are not required to use a SMARTBoard to use SMART Amp. ~ SMART Amp Talking Points SMART Amp - cloud based software lets students collaborate and share ideas in interactive workspace - requires no installation or updating of apps and is accessible from most internet enabled devices. Overcome struggles of multi platform  (BYOD). Seamless transition from whole class, small group, and individual learning. Project based learning (PBL), student led learning, collaborative learning, personalized learning, inquiry based learning are all possible using SMART Amp. Robust way to get dynamic content on or off personalized devices. What is happening in most classrooms isn’t transformational because students and teachers aren’t connected. Teacher creates file →  Sends content to student devices. Live collaboration and sharing real time. When computers "die" - teachers won’t "freak out" because files are based in the cloud. Files live in the cloud. They collaborated and then split off into small multi-classroom groups. Teacher embeds assessment - capture individual learning inside the workspace. ### Panel Discussion on Collaboration Warren Barkley from SMART leads a powerful panel discussion around student collaboration with technology. In this section, I’ve taken live notes but when verbatim, I’ve put it in quotes. Angela Maiers says: "The necessity to operate in ‘the we’ defines your role as a learner and your potential to lead. We must create environments and mindset to let the work move forward." Angela Maiers "Be the kind of learner you want students to be." Clay Shirky Focus on social media and technologies. "The ability to distribute collaboration over large areas is one of the characteristics of this new era." Cristin Frodella, Google "In our workplaces we never work alone, we are constantly working together… we get to work with students and teachers who are grocking the information flow." Warren Barkley, SMART As social expands are we preparing students to prepare for this collaborative world? Clay Shirky When technology comes into the classroom it is easy to still do old things in a new way. Collaboration enables better forms of learning than the repetition and test model. Collaboration gives students permission to say what they don’t know. It is easier to turn to your peers than to turn to your teachers - collaboration does a better job of surfacing the short term goals of education. Angela Maiers We shouldn’t position collaboration as a skill. Collaboration must be the default, not just an activity. Collaboration is the how work is done. The necessity to operate in "the we" defines your role as a learner and your potential to lead. We must create environments and mindset to let the work move forward. Cristin Frodella Google researcher Rich Kiker told Cristin teacher John Benner’s story. John is a middle school math teacher who flipped his classroom. (Kids go home and absorb content via video and learn concepts. In the classroom John teaches using project based learning, collaboration and working together.) 100% of his class has succeeded to the highest level of Pennsylvania standards for improved learning. Clay Shirky "The thing this medium is best at, if you’re shy, there is an asynchronous way to add to the discussion without having to raise your hand. Introverts are often the ones who flourish in this environment. Degree of introversion and extroversion has a huge impact on how students choose to contribute - shy kids most benefit from the modes that are asynchronous. Otherwise you let the extroverted students dominate. It is also important as students grow older to have girls in a situation where they won’t get interrupted." Standardized tests - the problem is we are looking at rankings instead of how kids learn Angela Maiers Spent time to talk to students before they started the press conference. When educators talk about collaboration we talk about standards but students didn’t mention any of that. Kids said "It helped us as individuals because it helped us work together. We don’t have a choice not to contribute." It is a deliberate environment. The cool part is "we learned ideas about each other that we never knew." It was default that "contribution became nonnegotiable." "These are the mandates and tenants of the sandbox. Put them in a sandbox, this is what they do." ~ Clay Shirky says "People try to optimize what they are measured for - they ignore what you say and act on what you measure. We have to measure these things but we have to start insisting on additional kinds of value and how it can be evaluated. Other kinds of skills matter. Math is not the only thing to get right. Don’t stop measuring and ranking - how can we start adding to the rankings so more of what matters gets reflected." Clay Shirky "People try to optimize what they are measured for - they ignore what you say and act on what you measure. We have to measure these things but we have to start insisting on additional kinds of value and how it can be evaluated. Other kinds of skills matter. Math is not the only thing to get right. Don’t stop measuring and ranking - how can we start adding to the rankings so more of what matters gets reflected." Warren Barkley Saw teacher take up iPads - mark it on the iPad and then hand the iPads back out. "It is the saddest thing I’ve ever seen." Cristin Frodella We’re not providing change management training to schools. How do we teach teachers how to do this? Clay Shirky Back when computers first emerged, only one class of companies thrived. In most companies, people were computerizing but weren’t becoming more productive. The companies who upgraded and changed what they were doing were the ones who became more productive. We must upgrade and change what we’re doing. "Teachers don’t absorb best practices from administrators, they absorb them from other teachers. If you don’t have a community of practice then change will not flow between your classrooms." "Letting teachers choose to opt out of new tools works because it gets the naysayers and blockers keep things from being blocked moving forward. Let those who are interested implement change. They’ll talk to their peers. Otherwise you have pockets of learning and nothing spreads across the whole school." Likeliness is to copy their behavior from one another not from vendors and not from administrators. Angela Maiers "Isolation is the most detrimental enemy of collaboration and innovation." She points to Twitter as building community. Clay Shirky The principle obstacle to a group innovating is the group itself. Too rigid and people will opt out. Too open people will distract themselves. Angela Maiers Masterful explanation of cooperation versus collaboration. Cooperation is often each student with defined roles. Collaboration is a lot messier and requires students to grapple and push back to get to the final product. Clay Shirky Cooperation is a Flickr photo group. Collaboration is a Wikipedia article. Both are possible modes of working but if you’re going to say that they labor together to shared outcome is harder to do. ### In summary, the potential impact of online spaces on introverts and girls points to collaborative spaces as a way to engage all learners. (Something many of us have been saying for years (2007).) I would argue further that online spaces that are synchronous and asynchronous help your students who are more introverted. Schools are bricks and clicks. Every classroom has a face to face environment and an online environment. Likewise, as a teacher, I have a face to face and a digital persona. Both are important ways I connect and communicate. Building a bridge in BYOD is going to be of strategic importance as we move our classrooms through the  SAMR model  to bring them to a total redefinition of how we teach and learn. From what I’ve seen, SMART Amp will definitely be a leader in this space. ### Disclosure of Material Connection: This is being written by me as I watched the live stream of their press conference. I am being compensated by a related company via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to live blog the press conference and post it to my blog. 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 SMART Amp: The New BYOD Collaborative Bridge appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

As I watched my field day team win one of the longest bouts of tug-of-war I’ve ever seen, I was reminded how forces combine to tug education in the wrong direction. It might be as subtle as a phrase or a bad habit permeating our profession.  This morning as I sat down to blog, opinions and rants poured from my heart onto the page about the forces tugging us in the wrong direction. We can pull back - add your voice but even better - add your actions. Education is a noble calling - lets do things worthy of that calling. 9 Defining Ways Educators Can Tug Education Back in the Right Direction 1. Take Time to Listen and Learn Every Week Learn from intriguing people. Your energy and excitement is often in direct relation to the ideas you’re bringing into your life. Teachers learn best from other teachers and educators from other educators. Teachers must be a living model of lifelong learning. To do this, we have to carve out time to learn. Administrators and others should leave behind the misconception that a teacher should always be working. Sometimes they should be learning if they’re going to be a great teacher. The best teachers are great learners. Teaching is an incredible profession. But we must have the courage to speak about the forces that tug it in the wrong direction. 2. Ensure Professional Development (PD) Includes the Pedagogies Teachers Should Use Our PD should be an engaging use of the pedagogies we are espousing in the classroom instead of lecture-only hypocrisy. If it works use it. If you lead PD, don’t say you "don’t have time" to use the best teaching methods because teachers won’t either. Lack of time is a grand excuse - we all have the same amount. It is how you use your time that counts. Teachers do as you do, not as you say. So, when you teach PD, model effective teaching practices. And teachers, be professionals and engage. When I am in a session and see teachers misbehaving, I could "snatch a knot" because teachers should know better and be there to learn. 3. Teachers (and Students) Need a Voice First, include teachers in your panels and conferences! I’m done listening to condemnation-breathing guilt-inducing "thought leaders" who don’t comprehend or understand today’s teaching situation. I’m also sick and tired of panel discussions talking about teaching without one teacher on them. Thought leaders. Business leaders. Political leaders. Not one teacher. COME ON!!!! ENOUGH!! We are not idiot children who can’t speak for ourselves. There are hundreds of thousands of teachers who ARE making the change into the 21st Century who can share how transformation happens. Stop acting like 21st century learning hasn’t arrived and we have to sit alone hypothesizing what it looks like. Many of us are there NOW. Include teachers who are doing it in the conversations. Second, add diversity! With a profession that is 80% women, I’m also quite disgusted at the under-representation of women and minorities in conversations that should represent the diversity of the teachers and students we serve. We need more perspectives from a variety of backgrounds to move forward. Third, most  staff meetings need a serious agenda-lift. Teacher led staff meetings are happening in innovative schools everywhere. Instead of the top-down approach let teachers take the lead on important issues - you might be  surprised. Most teachers will tell you that staff meetings are some of the biggest wastes of time at school. Don’t read us the announcements - let teachers  read announcements before the meeting and talk about things that can improve the school! Fourth, after you include teachers, turn to students and include them too. Stop talking about students and start talking with students - many poised, knowledgeable students are ready to contribute their voice. Student voice is part of an effective school (and conference.) In education, the often unknown but influential "helpers" are those who plan our education conferences. Their choices of speakers are important. 4. Share Your Learning and Inspire Others Educators who care, share. Take time to share your favorite books, internet radio, and resources to help inspire those around you. First, share with your colleagues. Your peers don’t need a consultant — THEY NEED YOU. If you’re excited - you should be sharing. Get over the fact that your sheer excitement will be offensive to teachers who exude complacency or crabbiness. I’m going to be excited even though my peers may not like it. My message to those teachers who get upset when other teachers get excited is to  stop worrying about others making you "look bad" and just make yourself look good by being engaged in your job. Make copies of inspirational best practices and put them in the teacher’s lounge boxes.  Share something new you’ve learned every day with someone. Include people who don’t connect via social media. Second and perhaps most importantly, at least once a week share something you’ve learned with students. In my classroom these conversations will start like this: "I’ve been reading the book __ on __. I find ___ fascinating.’ or "When I learned ___ it blew me away (I’ll show the article on the board if it is online). What do you think? Then, encourage them to bring things in they’ve learned too. "Show and tell" should become "care enough to share." Let’s be the lead learners in a society needing to see living examples of lifelong learning. What you do when you are alone at your desk is important.   5. Be Fair Because You Care Because we can’t take everyone in the back room with us - we must do our best to avoid all appearances of favoritism, nepotism, and discrimination. Be fair to all children and respect their personal learning journey. First, be fair with any bonus opportunities. If you give it to one, give it to all of them. Honor roll may mean to one kid what passing means to another. Second, listen to all sides as you reconsider decisions. Beware of digging your trenches before you know you should be defending the land.  Integrity is best shown when we mess up. When ethical situations occur, students watch us carefully. Be as fair as possible because life’s not.   6. When You Get a Spotlight, Grab a Mirror Some love the spotlight. But remember that hundreds of thousands of incredible educators are doing a great job every single day without encouragement or thank you. Most of us would agree that introverted genius teachers are under-recognized.  So, we can spotlight more teachers in two ways: grab a mirror or make more light. Grab a Mirror To be inclusive, when you gain a spotlight by winning an award or being given the chance to speak- grab a mirror. Shine some  light on those who inspire and help you. Point out teachers who deserve it. Mention your favorite teacher when you’re receiving recognition. Don’t teachers deserve some credit? Make More Light Notably, today’s social media gives us the opportunity to make more light. My Internet radio show, Every Classroom Matters is how I’ve made more light. I felt there was a need to have a short show that the average busy teacher could listen to on a ten minute break. Also, I wanted to feature teachers from all parts of the world including teachers not on social media.  Every Classroom Matters is my way of making more light. You can do this too through your blog, status updates, Tweets, and Instagram or any way you share. Enlighten the world on your awesome profession. Be part of the movement to share great teaching.   7. Be Gracious But Keep Perspective Here’s a pet peeve. When award winners say "I’m so humbled by ___" No, you’re not humbled - you’re proud. Being humbled is when a kid tells you three months later that she thought you didn’t like her because of something you said back in January. Being humbled is when someone comes to observe your room and two of your students didn’t take their ADD meds and are swinging from the fluorescent lights. Being humbled is realizing you’ve eaten in the lunchroom instead of packing your lunch and gained 10 pounds this month. But being humbled is not winning an award. You’re proud - AND YOU SHOULD BE. "A rising tide raises all ships." We can be the tide. Our job as educators is to lift up others, even as we’re being recognized. So be proud. Don’t pretend you’re humbled. You’re not. You’re grateful and glad. Accept the award. Say thank you. Don’t act like the teacher who doesn’t deserve it. Would you see business leaders sheepishly holding their heads down accepting award for man of the year? Spotlights give you a megaphone. Your profession needs you. Speak IMPORTANT words, not what all the puffy, happy people want you to say. Why is the word "proud" a dirty word in education? There  is a difference between being proud and being prideful. If you are fortunate enough to win an award, choose your words to feature your profession and to speak for your profession. If you’re the best,  use that moment to exalt our profession further. A rising tide raises all ships. Be the rising tide. And have pride in a job well done — and then get busy doing more.   8. Stop the Flattery: No Rock Stars This past year, Mashable listed me as one of 10 Rockstar teachers on Twitter — (I’m humbled…. uhm, no I’m not. It was exciting when I was sitting in the teacher’s lounge and my Twitter stream told me.) I spend a lot of time curating and working to inspire others on Twitter and I’m honored and proud to be included but… I AM TOTALLY NOT A ROCK STAR. I don’t look good in leather pants. I’d rather be a heroine than take some. I’m after a higher calling and one that fills me with meaning and so are most of you. Why do we need to slap labels on us to make us more important? Isn’t a being called a teacher awesome enough? Flattery can turn a helpful person into a know-it-all faster than rock star Eddie Van Halen’s fingers move playing  Eruption. People who think they are the center of the universe will watch opened mouth as it  implodes when they find that their universe and the real one barely intersect. Thank people for their work and service but let’s ditch the "rock star" moniker. Flattery doesn’t help anyone but can make incredible people less helpful. "Stormy seas" made you a more skillful classroom navigator. Use problems as an opportunity to level up. 9. Level Up Every Day Leveling up is a decision - a craving to be better, teach better, and learn better tomorrow than we did today. Yesterday’s laurels will become stale - you need fresh ones every day to continue to excel at the art and craft of teaching. Teaching is active. It is something we do every day. Most compelling evidence shows that joining or forming a professional learning community (PLC) is one of the most important things the committed educator can do. PLC’s help us work towards weekly and daily improvement. It also requires us to admit we can improve. Your perspective is important! Share it.   Teach On Our lives are but a blip in the heartbeat of history. But how we  use our blip is important. Teaching one of the few professions that will impact the future blips. Teaching is a noble calling. I’m Grateful For You Each one of you who reads this blog, shares on Twitter, or connects and comments here — you give far more to me than I could ever give you. Publishers and conferences notice me because you noticed me first. You’ve told them about me via Twitter, email, or phone calls. I’m so grateful for you. Thank you for what all of you  do and share. Remember that sharing the work of other educators does make a difference like it has for me. When you reweet and reshare articles you’re showing others that this is an important conversation to have. You are the real rock stars of education because you are the rock solid people who help kids reach for the stars of their dreams. When forces tug our profession in the direction we don’t want it to go, let’s have the courage and perseverance to pull back. This fight is worth fighting because the future is at stake. Call me a teacher.  That is reward enough.   The post 9 Defining Ways Educators Can Tug Education Back in the Right Direction appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Michael wanted to tell his story but he needed help. So, teacher John Lozano helped Michael find his voice through video. Although it took seven months to craft and edit, Michael’s video is released first on YouTube (then removed  for reasons John shares on the show). After editing, it is rereleased on NextVista.org. This touching story points to something many of us are finding out: video gives us a powerful way to help kids with special needs share their story. Listen to John Lozano via Web Browser Listen to "How Do We Help Other Kids Kids and Adults Understand Autism?" on iTunes I love John’s authenticity for the struggle but his passion for helping Michael share his story. As soon as the other children see the video, John says they start to understand Michael better. As can be seen from this story, every student needs a voice, whether via blog, audio, or video. Let’s help them develop that voice. Of course, we must add our voices too. In this story, my friend Rushton Hurley told me about Michael and John. Rushton used his connection, not to promote himself but to help another. With this in mind, we all must be advocates to help students who have important messages like Michael’s be noticed. Every child we teach matters. Uniquely, this modern age has given us the opportunity to take the pressure of a live audience off of students. To be fair, I believe that students on the autism spectrum should be given opportunities to create videos instead of always being force fit into live presentations. Applause to John, Michael and Michael’s mom for sharing Michael’s story and the bravery that comes with "putting yourself out there." If you are inspired,  leave Michael a message in the comments. (Notably, these comments are moderated so give them a chance to go live.) Here’s the thing about Michael that impresses me. Although Michael has autism; autism doesn’t have Michael. There’s a difference. This young man will tell his story to the world. As can be seen in this story, he and his Mom will help him reach out and be the best Michael he can be. In summary, Michael and his mom have been empowered by a visionary hard-working teacher who didn’t do this for the notice he would get. John Lozano did it for Michael. And in helping Michael find his voice, John is now a voice for what can be done when you use technology to embolden and empower every child. Hats off to you too, John Lozano, you’ve shared a best practice that matters: using video with special needs kids. Great work! Michael’s Video: My Name is Michael Show Notes: John Lozano ECM Show #73 John Lozano is a Resource Specialist at Easterbrook Discovery School in San Jose, California. He used video to teach digital storytelling to a student labelled with autism. The student created a video telling others about being someone labelled with autism. His video created empathy with his fellow students about the problems he experiences. The video is hosted on Next Vista and the music used is by Kina Grannis, who allowed her music to be used in the video. Add John Lozano to your PLN @mrjohnlozano My Name is Michael Every Classroom Matters is a bi-weekly Internet radio show by Vicki Davis on BAM Radio network with best practices for busy teachers.  Subscribe. Show notes prepared by Lisa Durff, Production Coordinator for Every Classroom Matters. Need help listening to the show? If you’re clicking "Play" on the BAM Radio Site, this often works best in Internet explorer. Or subscribe in a podcatcher. If you need help, use this tutorial. The post Using Videos to Give a Voice to Kids with Autism with Teacher John Lozano appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

12 Choices to Step Back from Burnout Edutopia May 16, 2014 In more than a decade of teaching, I’ve come precariously close to burnout probably close to 20 times. (The last week of school is always a given.) Edutopia asked me to write about these for my blog over there. If you’re going to step back from burnout you have DECISIONS to make. Hope this helps you make them so you can thrive. The post 12 Choices to Step Back from Burnout [Link] appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

With a whopping four hundred fifteen THOUSAND fans on her Facebook teaching resources page, Laura Candler is at the center of a thriving conversation about teaching on Facebook. Although "retired," Laura finds and vets free resources to share on her website and blog. In this show, Laura shares how she uses a tool she developed based upon Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences to help fifth graders see the strengths in themselves and one another. Listen to Laura Candler - Multiple Intelligences in Fifth Grade When I blogged about Laura’s Free Multiple Intelligences Survey a while back it instantly sparked so much interest that I booked her for the show to talk about it. We must help students appreciate their own strengths and the strengths in one another. If our students think the only kind of smart in school is making a good grade on a test, we have failed them as a school. This show gives you a creative best practice idea to move past that. However, this free resource is not a research tool or diagnostic - you’ll want to hear how she uses it so you can keep balance. I think you’ll agree with me that Laura is refreshingly helpful, practical and real. You’ll find cool tools and best practices on her website that can help you immediately. Enjoy meeting Laura on today’s episode of Every Classroom Matters. ### Add Laura Candler to your PLN @lauracandler Laura’s Teaching Resources Facebook Page Teaching Resources Corkboard Connections Learn More about Laura’s Multiple Intelligences Survey and Information Listen to Show #68: A New Way to Think About Multiple Intelligences ### Laura Candler- ECM Show Notes #68 - A New Way to Think About Multiple Intelligences Laura Candler, a retired educator, discusses resources for emphasizing Multiple Intelligences in the classroom.  Using these free resources can help students learn about their learning strengths and how they learn best.  She talks about the survey she uses with students, a tool for intermediate students to learn about MI Theory. For the different intelligences she uses K-12 language, like Word Smart, Picture Smart, and Music Smart.  She has never been challenged about MI Theory and has seen it empower her students and believes this is a tool that is successful in the classroom. Laura does not hint at the wealth of information on her website. Be sure to check out her many resources, like the Lunch Bunch and her Literature Circle Resources.  Laura Candler is a retired 5th grade teacher in North Carolina, a conference presenter, and an author. ~ Every Classroom Matters is a bi-weekly Internet Radio Show by Vicki Davis on BAM Radio network with best practices for busy teachers.  Subscribe. Show notes prepared by Lisa Durff, Production Coordinator for Every Classroom Matters. Need help listening to the show? If you’re clicking "Play" on the BAM Radio Site, this often works best in Internet Explorer. Or subscribe in a podcatcher. To get help use this tutorial. The post Laura Candler: How to Use Multiple Intelligences to Help Students See Their Strengths appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Want some practical ways to use tablets in the classroom? I’m a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) school and was asked by Microsoft to share practical ways that any teacher can use tablets. In this presentation you’ll learn: More than fifty (50) ways that you can use a tablet in your classroom (most of these apps are multi platform) You’ll see a sneak peak of the fabulous new Office Mix tool that will change screencasting forever You’ll get a preview of some of the information from my upcoming book Reinventing Writing. (Released June 3, 2014) It was an incredible session with more than 1,500 registrants. We had attendees from around the world: the US, Canada, Ecuador, Vietnam, Egypt, Australia, and more… There was awesome energy in the group. Upcoming free sessions are with Jonathan Bergman and more. The sessions are free. (If you want a certificate of attendance, you can sign up and watch the 10 video series and receive one.) The post 50+ Ways a Tablet Can Make You a More Effective Teacher appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Writing has been reinvented. Nine tools have changed writing, learning and living forever and we need to understand how to use them in our schools. The keynote video in this blog post was part of the Reinventing the Classroom conference and I share the highlights of what I do with my students to teach these 9 types of tools and build community among your writers. I’ll share tons of best practices and give you a sneak peak of the book. Reinventing Writing teaches you about the 9 tools that are changing writing, learning and living forever and how to teach with them. Reinventing Writing, the Book, arrives June 3 My new book Reinventing Writing arrives on June 3, 2014! Reinventing Writing is written for any teacher using or trying cloud documents with students. I teach you how to select the right tool for teaching purposes, how to set it up quickly, and how to prevent common mistakes. I explain that it has never been easier, more convenient, and more important than right now. Participate in the Virtual Book Signing for Reinventing Writing (June 3-10) For the first week of the book launch, I am hosting a "virtual book signing."  There are several ways to get a signed bookplate in the mail from me. Post a selfie on social media with your copy of Reinventing Writing. If you’re on Twitter, Instagram, or Google Plus- use the tag #reinventingwriting -or- Write a book review on Amazon or Goodreads or anywhere you write online (any book review counts, I can’t require it to be a good one although I hope it will be. Email the screenshot, the link, and your mailing address to: reinventingwriting@coolcatteacher.com (If you want the signature to a certain person, let me know the name too.) I’ll mail you my special thank you in a couple of weeks after the book launches. (This is your chance to get a signature for your book if you can’t get out to any conferences this summer!) If you want to participate, you might want to go ahead and order your copy. I have links to many of the book sellers (it is available internationally) on the Reinventing Writing page. Upcoming Events Where Info from the Book Will Be Shared May 31 - Classroom 2.0 Webinar "Reinventing Writing" 12:00 pm - 1: 00 pm EDT June 19 - Louisville, Kentucky - Teach, Tech, Learn - Keynote, Session and Book Signing June 29 - 4:15-5:15 pm - ISTE 2014 - "Wonderful World of Wiki Wiki Teaching" (Preregister for this) July 24 - Leadership 3.0 Keynote Reinventing Writing Coming in July — a Bookchat with #txeduchat If you want to join the conversation I get out for the summer today (May 23) and have time for a limited number of Skype or Google Hangouts with book groups or clubs. If you’ve got a group that is going to learn how to reinvent writing and foster powerful writing communities, just email lisa@coolcatteacher.com to book a time for this summer or early fall. The post Reinventing Writing: Free Video and Virtual Book Signing appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Research: INEQUALITY IN TEACHING AND SCHOOLING: SUPPORTING HIGH-QUALITY TEACHING AND LEADERSHIP IN LOW-INCOME SCHOOLS Excerpted from A Nation at Risk: Preserving Public Education as an Engine for Social Mobility, Richard D. Kahlenberg, Editor 2000 by Linda Darling-Hammond and Laura Post This important excerpt of a larger book hits on the quality of teachers and the success of children in low-income schools. If you want a better school, spend money on staff development and helping your teachers become more proficient. This article is full of research and important topics of conversation among teachers and policy makers. "Longitudinal studies in Tennessee and Dallas, Texas found that differences in teacher effectiveness are an extremely strong determinant of differences in student learning, far outweighing the effects of differences in class size and heterogeneity." P 128-129 http://www.stanford.edu/~ldh/publications/LDH-Post-Inequality.pdf If you haven’t read this article, take the time to dive through with a highlighter and prepare to discuss the implications. Teacher quality and teacher education makes a big difference. Sadly, the first thing most states have cut is teacher training with some states even making the move to limit teacher education and make sure they are "in the classroom." While being in the classroom is important, being well educated is even more important. I find that when I learn new methods of teaching and strategies, I become a better teacher through the practice of working to improve my classroom. I’ve put this article in my Pocket app to read more deeply this summer. The post Research: INEQUALITY IN TEACHING AND SCHOOLING: SUPPORTING HIGH-QUALITY TEACHING AND LEADERSHIP IN LOW-INCOME SCHOOLS [Link] appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Bring your Own Device (#byod) is a hot topic in education and one that many of us, including me, talk about often. It is challenge to bridge all the devices and teach. But, if you believe the SAMR model, BYOD can redefine your classroom (without killing your budget.) The Epic BYOD Toolchest on my Edutopia Blog includes 51 of the tools I used this past year in my BYOD classroom. Since I was just named one of the top 10 influencers on Twitter in BYOD by Onalytica. (#3 after Maribel Lopez @MaribelLopez and Tina Barseghian @MindShiftKQED of MindShift), you might find my 51 favorite tools for BYOD list over at Edutopia helpful as you look for apps to use with students. Read "The Epic BYOD Toolchest" on my Edutopia Blog ### Keeping Up with BYOD It can be a challenge to keep up with the rapidly changing best practices in BYOD. If you’re into BYOD, I suggest you look at the Onalytica BYOD Influencer List and follow them on Twitter. BYOD isn’t just one person, it is a movement. Even if you have one device of one type you provide, it is likely you are BYOD in some way because you probably have all types of smartphones and devices on your network whether you want to or not. Following BYOD will help you stay up to date whatever type of school you are, because it concerns bridging every type of technology out there. See the Top 100 BYOD Influencers at Onalytica ### Epic BYOD ToolChest with 51 BYOD Tools You Can Use Now Since we’re talking BYOD, I put together an Epic BYOD Toolchest for Edutopia of all the apps and tools I use in my classroom to bridge the various devices my students bring to class. I was amazed when I realized that I don’t just have one or two sites or apps but 51 I depend upon frequently. Multiplatform tools that are easy to set up and serve a purpose are my favorites. Every single tool on the list I used in my classroom this past school year. Hope it helps! The Classroom is Reinventing and Writing is Reinvented My new book Reinventing Writing has gone live on the Kindle Store at $27.80 (those of you who got my message last week, it was temporarily at $19 - if you want it, I’d get it now.) The print book will be out in another week or so. So much of my work with BYOD includes writing with students and the 9 ways writing has been reinvented. I’ve written this book for the modern educator and student for any teacher using or trying cloud documents (essential for BYOD). You learn how to pick the right tool for teaching, how to set it up quickly, and how to prevent common mistakes. If you’re into BYOD, you must work towards becoming as paperless as possible and this book is a must-read. (Remember that you can get me to "sign" your book or ebook by participating in the virtual book signing.) Order Reinventing Writing Now(This Links to Amazon) ~ Top 10 BYOD Influencers (See Onalytica for the Top 100) Rank Twitter Handle Name PageRank (Normalised) 1 @MaribelLopez Maribel Lopez 100 2 @MindShiftKQED Tina Barseghian 75.25 3 @coolcatteacher Vicki Davis 74.97 4 @NMHS_Principal Eric Sheninger 60.83 5 @mssackstein Starr Sackstein 43.17 6 @InnovativeEdu Lisa Nielsen 35.91 7 @RossCoops31 Ross Cooper 28.06 8 @mluhtala Michelle Luhtala 22.63 9 @andycinek Andrew P. Marcinek 21.96 10 @jksuter Jason K. Suter 21.93 The post The Epic BYOD Toolchest (51 Tools You can Use Now) and BYOD Influencers to Follow appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Reinventing Writing is here — in ebook format at least. Those of you who follow me on Twitter and Facebook got the news last Friday that due to a glitch, the book was released early at a big discount. I’m glad for those of you who jumped on it (the price went back up yesterday.) I didn’t blog it here because I wasn’t sure it was going to stay in the store but I’ve heard from my publisher and the ebook version is here to stay! Reinventing Writing: The 9 Tools That Are Changing Writing, Teaching, and Learning Forever is here! (See table of contents below.) How Will Reinventing Writing Help Me Improve Writing in My Classroom or School? Watch the book trailer to learn more. The Reinventing Writing Book Trailer covers the 9 tools that are changing writing and gives you a sneak peak into what you can expect from the book as I cover each of them. As I said at the end of the trailer, with as much as I love reading books and writing - my life’s work wouldn’t be complete without a book on writing. We can harness the power of peer feedback and community and the technology in our hands to reinvent writing. We shouldn’t just be doing it the way we’ve always done it but according to the 4 step SAMR model, we should redefine the classroom. We need peer review and more revision and technology lets us do that. Infographics. Wikis. Blogs. Twitter. ePaper. eBooks. eBookmarking. Cloud Syncing. Online Brainstorming and Graphic Organizers and more! The Trailer is on YouTube and uploaded to Office Mix. Look at Reinventing Writing on Amazon You can use this to introduce the book if you have a book club or group reading it. Share or use it. You can download the slides from Office Mix along with my video if you want to use it offline just attribute the source. Get Reinventing Writing on Kindle Want a signature for your book? Act now. The ebook on Kindle is available now and you can buy the hard copy now now. (See the Reinventing Writing landing page for more info on where you can buy the book.) The print book will be out soon. Remember that I have a virtual book signing going on right now if you want a signature for your book or ebook. Participate in the Virtual Book Signing Office Mix was the Screencasting Tool I used to Make the Trailer: Take Note Flipped Classroom Fans I made this trailer using the super cool new PowerPoint Plug in called Office Mix. It is a great free tool that anyone who uses PowerPoint can install. It is the best screencasting tool out there - bar none. I LOVE IT. Upcoming Events Stay tuned for a cool contest next week and other announcements about fun things I’ve got going on with the book! Check my events page for where I’ll be speaking and say hello (or bring your book and I’ll be happy to sign it there.) Tomorrow I’ll be at Classroom 2.0 sharing about the book! Reinventing Writing Table of Contents Part I: Get to Know the New Writing Chapter 1 - How Is Writing Reinvented? Chapter 2 - Picking the Right Tool Part II: The 9 Types of Tools Chapter 3 - Reinventing Paper: ePaper and eBooks Chapter 4 - Reinventing Notetaking: Digital Notebooks Chapter 5 - Reinventing Notecards: Social Bookmarking Chapter 6 - Reinventing the filing cabinet and inbox: Cloud Syncing Chapter 7 - Reinventing Word processors: CLOUD Writing Apps Chapter 8 - Reinventing Journals & Book Reports: Blogging and Microblogging Chapter 9 - Reinventing Group Reports and presentations: Wikis and Website builders Chapter 10 - Reinventing Prewriting: Graphic Organizers, Mind Mapping, and More Chapter 11 - Reinventing Illustrations and scrapbooks - Cartoons and Infographics Part III: Practical Ways to Implement the Tools in the Classroom Chapter 12 - Reinventing Citizenship: Preventing problems by teaching students how to be good digital citizens Chapter 13 - Making Your Job Easier: Building Writing Communities where students love to learn Chapter 14 - Will it Ever Stop? Enjoying & relaxing in the new age of change with a timeless mindset Appendices Appendix A - Quick Start Checklist (Putting it all together) Appendix B - Common Core Standards Summarized Appendix C - During Class Writing Checklist Appendix D - Good sources of information to add to the Student PLN Appendix E - Common Pages for Wikis and Websites The post Buy the Book Reinventing Writing and Improve Student Writing Now! appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Your bank data, your accounts, your email, and your life are all wrapped up in your ability to create secure passwords and remember them. And yet most educators (and their students) struggle to remember passwords. With so many passwords stolen, there are things all of us SHOULD know to make our identities and bank accounts safer. Mark Burnett, author of the most commonly used passwords wordcloud featured on this post, says that the top 10,000 passwords represent 98.8% of all users. (This was said before services like Last Pass began being used.) So this means that if a hacker has those 10,000 passwords and takes a crack at your account, then 98.8% of us are at risk. Wake up and smell the cybercrime, friends. It is time to get savvy. 1 - Never Tape It On Your Desk Most password theft happens because of "social engineering." Most people keep their password taped under their keyboard or in the right or left hand drawer or wallet. Get an app like Password Caddy (http://j.mp/pcaddy)  on your phone and store your password there, not out where the world can see it. 2 - Switch to a passphrase Use a phrase instead with uppercase, lowercase, and numbers included. Ilovetofishat6:00am! is an example. 3 - Don’t be obvious If you look at the worst passwords of 2013 (http://j.mp/worstpass) 123456 and password top the list. (Sunshine and letmein are also in the top.) Don’t use your spouse’s name, kids, grandkids, birthdays, phone numbers or a keyboard row of any kind. 4- Never save your passwords in your web browser Unless you’re using LastPass or another secure service, this is the worst way to save your passwords. 5 - Have a unique password for your bank and email account NOW When you sign up for a site that asks for your email and password - DON’T ENTER YOUR PASSWORD TO YOUR EMAIL. It is asking you to set up a NEW password for that particular site. No one will ever ask for your email password. No one. Your email password and your banking password should be unique and NEVER USED AS THE PASSWORD ON ANY OTHER SITE. 6 - TRICK: substitute numbers and letters Pick certain numbers to replace letters - like a code — you could always use the number 7 instead of T’s for example. 7 - TRICK: Use the site name somehow in the password You can have a system for passwords but make them unique by using the site name you’re logging into somehow. 8  - Use a password manager Many experts are recommending password managers after the recent Heartbleed bug that impacted 60% of ecommerce websites. (http://j.mp/pwdmgr) Remember that if you mess up and forget your master password for one of these services you’re locked out of everything permanently. You could write it down and lock it in your safety deposit box.  One Password, LastPass, Dashlane are 3 good ones. (I use LastPass and love it but it does take some getting used to.) 9 - Use a fingerprint reader Biometrics or the using of your fingerprint or some other unique identifier related to your biology is definitely the way things are going. I love the fingerprint unlock on my iPhone 5s. (NYMI has a heartbeat sign in tool coming the end of the summer.) 10 - Lock your screen and log out If you step away from your computer or mobile, set it to lock or log out. This is particularly important for teachers. If all of this overwhelms you, get LastPass and be done with it. Only .18% of us have completely unique passwords. It is time to wise up - we can do better. Having a method to remember highly secure passwords will keep you and your loved ones safe. Spread the word. This article was adapted from one I published in my newspaper column for the Camilla Enterprise/ Pelham Journal. The post 10 Important Password Tips Everyone Should Know appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Email is not free. It never has been. Surprisingly, the average office worker spends one fourth of their workday reading and responding to email. To stop one of the biggest culprits of wasted inbox space, help everyone understand five email basics before forwarding  mail of any kind. 5 Things to Know Before Forwarding Mail to Anyone 1 - Check for Accuracy on Snopes Most importantly, the frantic emails with breaking information are usually false. Before forwarding mail, research the facts at snopes.com. Tech Tip: Any time you get an "urgent warning" from someone via email, ask yourself if you know the person who claims this experience. Is this a friend of a friend of a friend or someone you know? Keep in mind, sometimes real things happen to real people and email can be a great way to prevent your friends in an area where scammers are operating from being taken. Take examples like the flyer in the carjacking ploy  to be alerted that all that is urgent is not so. In this case, the previous carjacking example has been flying through people’s inboxes in some form since 2004. Do your research and stop the madness! You harm your credibility when you don’t check your facts! When you forward a hoax email, you show that you don’t confirm the accuracy of what you repeat. (It makes us wonder what else you tell us that you don’t verify, for example, gossip.) To keep your credibility, tell everyone the corrected information when you find proof that your earlier email is false. 2 - Change the Subject Line Getting messages that say Fw: Fw: Fw: Fw: (Like Mistake #1 above) show that the last four people who forwarded the message didn’t change the subject line. To clearly help your friends know what is in the message, change the subject (and remove the Fw’s.) 3 - Add a Comment on the Email Readers want to understand why messages from you are important. (See Mistake #3 above.) So, if you’re too busy to comment about something by typing your thoughts at the top, don’t forward. I’ve even seen people who forwarded to 20 people without reading it first. Now they have wasted the time of another 20 people. How rude! 4 - Delete the Emails on the Message Would you give your friends’ phone numbers to strangers? Many don’t know when they forward without deleting email addresses at the top of the message body, they’re doing the same thing with email. Eventually, when those long messages with everyone’s emails fall in the hands of con artists, everyone on that message will have their email sold to spammers or identity thieves. In mistake #2 above, the sender of the message included everyone’s email and the previous sender did too! I’ve seen forwarded emails with hundreds of email addresses - ripe for email harvesters to grab them. Tech Tip: This practice is called email harvesting and is also why listing emails publicly on a website is a bad idea. That is why you’ll see people spell out their email like vicki [at] coolcatteacher [dot] com instead of typing the address. In other words, when someone gets your forward, the words of what you are forwarding should be at the top of the message - nothing else. They shouldn’t scroll down until eternity comes to read your message. (See Mistake #4 above.)  Additionally, they should never see anyone else’s emails. 5 - Protect Email Privacy: Use Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) for Distribution Lists Understandably, people get angry when their private email is shared without permission. To explain this point further, when an organization sends a message to everyone without using BCC, everyone on the message sees your email address. (See example #2) If he was included in the message, crazy old Uncle Bosephus can now fill everyone’s inboxes with his information that aliens are going to land in town square a week from Sunday. Click the BCC to send a blind carbon copy. This practice comes from typewriter days when they would make a carbon copy that went to someone not listed on the memo or letter — or a blind copy. It is perfectly acceptable practice to use this for distribution emails, however, if sending an email to a few people, it is best practice for everyone to know who they are (unless they would mind the others seeing their emails.) Here’s a trick to send messages to large groups while protecting privacy. Email recipients have your email in the From: line, so type yours in the To: box as well. Then, put your friends’ emails in the Bcc: box. As a result, the only email message that shows is yours in the To: box. You’ve protected your friend’s privacy as you email a group. Tech Tip: Most email programs will limit you to 50 people on a message, so if you want to use more, create a distribution group of some kind. If you do this a lot with your personal email and someone reports you as a spammer, your email may get "blacklisted" by others, making it impossible for them to get your message. This is why professional organizations should use Mailchimp or Aweber instead for their mailings. If one person gets marked a spammer, it could impact everyone in the organization. So, friends, think before you forward. Time is money. Don’t waste either. And hey, while you’re at it, maybe you should forward this to your fast forwarding friends. This article was adapted from one I published in my newspaper column for the Camilla Enterprise/ Pelham Journal. If you think your local newspaper might be interested in syndicating my column, ask them to contact me. I believe that the only way to combat cyber criminals is to start doing a better job of educating everyone on technology in simple ways. It will make stronger communities. The post 5 Email Tips Everyone Should Know Before Forwarding Mail appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Reinventing Writing, the print copy, will be shipping soon. I’ve worked so hard on the research and writing of this book to be helpful to the modern teacher. While the Reinventing Writing Kindle Version is out already, the print copies are supposed to ship June 11. In celebration, I’m hosting a Goodreads author giveaway and giving away 2 copies of the book! Enter now and enjoy. If you want to know more about this book, review the book trailer and table of contents or see what early reviewers have said. Goodreads Book Giveaway Reinventing Writing by Vicki A. Davis Giveaway ends June 10, 2014. See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter to win Hat tip to Joanna Penn for her great podcast The Creative Penn who taught me about the Goodreads Author program. Visit my Goodreads Author Page.  The only drawback of Goodreads for authors is that although it pulls in Amazon star ratings, people call also rate your book on Goodreads who aren’t verified purchasers. Sometimes people for whatever reason may rate your book who haven’t read it. But if you’re going to write anything,  you have to have a thick enough skin to put yourself out there or don’t write. I think this book will be helpful for anyone using technology tools to write. The focus is on the tools and how to use them. Enter to win the book! The post BOOK GIVEAWAY: Enter to Win a Copy of Reinventing Writing appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

The #WorkWonders contest is here! Quickly snap a picture of something you’ve created  in Microsoft Office and share it to me in Twitter or Instagram . To enter, include the hashtags #WorkWonders and #contest . At the end of the contest, the best one wins a Microsoft Surface 2. What a perfect reason to try out the new Office Mix or Office 365. If you can, I’d love links to videos, blog posts, or examples of what you’re doing to share with other teachers. Visit the Work Wonders Website! How I #WorkWonders with Office Mix: Surface Pro (v1) with keyboard, stylus, Microsoft Wedge touch mouse and my external USB mic . Krispy the Cat gave no assistance. You can win a Microsoft Surface 2 and a featured blog post here on my blog where I write about what you’ve done. How I #WorkWonders Every Day I use Microsoft Office every single day (as I have since 1987 when I was a freshman in college and first cracked open my software box for Microsoft Word.) You can see how I #WorkWonders by just looking at my new book Reinventing Writing. I wrote the book in Microsoft Word while exchanging revisions and comments with my publisher.  As seen in the picture, I used my Surface Pro and the free PowerPoint Office Mix to #WorkWonders — the book trailer to launch my new book Reinventing Writing. In my classroom, well, let me count the ways: In my classroom I #WorkWonders by creating presentations, review games, and screencasts in PowerPoint. All of my complex rubrics are created in Excel and I duplicate the pages to give feedback for each student and print a personal copy of the rubrics while Excel does the Math for me. I write most of the curriculum for my students in Microsoft Word and print it as epaper to give digital handouts. Oh, and then there’s OneNote - I take notes into OneNote on my Interactive White Board (IWB) and we share notes together in that amazing notetaking service. When I create tickets for the scavenger hunt games we play, I use Publisher to create those (including QR Codes) and use Access to track the equipment we have all over campus in my IT Role. Now, all of this has gone more portable with my Surface Pro 1. In my experience, the Surface Pro 1 is the best laptop I’ve ever owned. (See picture.) In fact, it is so small I carry it in my pocketbook everywhere. Later today, I’m going to share a blog post to dive deeper into Office Mix.  Office Mix is the greatest screencasting tool anywhere. For this reason, every flipped classroom teachers should try it out. ### How to Enter the #WorkWonders Contest 1. Snap a Photo or Screenshot. Take a picture  or screenshot that answers this prompt: How do you #WorkWonders using Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, One Note, Access, Publisher or Lync? (For the purpose of being even more helpful to others links blog posts are welcome but not required. Just send the link to your blog post with the pic.) Although your entry doesn’t have to be for use in the classroom, I’ll take a shine to teaching or something used by schools. 2. Enter Via Twitter or Instagram Send me a picture of what you did (to @coolcatteacher on Twitter and Instagram.) 2 Hashtags Required: #WorkWonders #contest To earn extra favor with the judges (me) you can include a link to a blog, website, or video with more info in your tweet or Instagram status. See full contest rules and prizes but only one entry per person and sorry, international friends, US only. See Official Contest Rules How Will the #WorkWonders Winner Be Judged? You can win a Microsoft Surface 2 by entering the #WorkWonders contest with a simple tweet or Instagram post hashtagged #WorkWonders #contest  Creativity/Originality (25%)  Quality of Submission (25%); and  Fit to Applicable Contest Theme (50%). I’ll be judging entries sent to me on Instagram and Twitter.  During the contest, I’ll be sharing the cool stuff you’re doing as it comes in. ### What Do You Win in the #WorkWonders Contest? Microsoft Surface 2 Tablet A special blog post I’ll write here about you and your creation The joy of  inspiring other people! (And the eternal gratitude of Krispy the Cat.) #WorkWonders Contest Details Launch Date: 6/3 When this post goes live! End Date: 6/9 (at midnight EDT) Winner announced: 6/16 So, quickly, get out your camera or take a screenshot now, it will take just a moment to enter. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Legal residents of the 50 United States (DC), 18 years or older. Enter Promotion by: 6/9/14. To enter and for Official Rules, including prize description, visit http://bit.ly/1lQtjOu. Void where prohibited. Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a "sponsored post." 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 Share how you #WorkWonders with Microsoft Office and Win! appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

The #WorkWonders contest is in high gear. As a result, people are sharing how they #WorkWonders using Microsoft Office by posting pictures on Twitter and Instagram. (This morning’s post gives contest info.) Since I’m asking you to share how you #WorkWonders, I’m going to share one way I #WorkWonders using Microsoft PowerPoint and the new (free) Office Mix Plug-in. To do this, all you need to do is have PowerPoint 2013 and download the Office Mix Plug In from their website. How I #WorkWonders With Office Mix: The Best Screencasting Tool Ever This year I’ve used screencasts to create lessons as my students learn how to use Microsoft Office in sophia. They learn online and I travel the room and help them face to face. While it uses the flipped classroom techniques,this isn’t flipping because students are using the screencasts in class. Think of it like team teaching with myself - an online me and a face to face me. To #workwonders with Office Mix, I used my Surface Pro (v1) with keyboard, a Wacomm Bamboo stylus , a Microsoft Wedge touch mouse and my Blue Snowball USB mic to get good sound. No cat required to do this. Because it is so easy, Office Mix is changing everything about how I screencast. Just click the Office Mix Plug in inside PowerPoint and record the video slide by slide. It lets you do screencasting, embed videos, write on the screen and will record webcam. To see how Office Mix works, watch  the book trailer I made with it. PowerPoint is natural fit for me this week when I needed to create my booktrailer for my recently launched Reinventing Writing Book. I used my PowerPoint slides I already had with Office Mix plug-in on my Surface Tablet to #WorkWonders. ( Although I have a fancy mic in my setup in the picture, the mic inside the Surface Pro would be just fine.) Because the app is so great, I would be sharing about Office Mix whether I ran this contest or not. Office Mix is that good. Watch the Book Trailer on the Office Mix Site or Download It How Do You #WorkWonders? Enter and win a Surface 2. How do you #WorkWonders with Microsoft Office? Quickly grab your phone or take a screenshot of something you’ve created in Microsoft Office and send it to me via Twitter or Instagram with the hashtags #WorkWonders #contest . See yesterday’s post for more about the contest and judging. Learn More About the #WorkWonders Contest When the contest is over next Monday, the winner gets their own Surface 2. (As can be seen in my video, if you don’t have a touch screen to use with Office Mix, you’ll want one.) Do something awesome with Office - no matter how big or small, #WorkWonders and share it now. Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a "sponsored post." 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 How I #WorkWonders With Office Mix and PowerPoint appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Most educators use Microsoft Office every day but don’t unleash its power. Here are 15 ways you can #WorkWonders with Microsoft Office with links to ideas. You have until Monday to snap a picture of how you #WorkWonders and send it to me on Twitter or Instagram. As I announced Tuesday, the winner will receive a Surface 2. (See Tuesday’s post for full details.) #WorkWonders from around the US are pouring in on the official #WorkWonders website so feel free to browse their entries to figure out what you want to share. Microsoft Office is something many of us have been using every day for twenty years or more. Why not celebrate the coolness? I opened my first box with Microsoft Word in 1987 and it has been there like a close friend ever since. After I show you an example of a graphic I made in PowerPoint, let’s dig deeper into Microsoft Office with some cool free resources. How I #WorkWonders Using PowerPoint Below you can see the 20 Questions from Chapter 2 of my new book Reinventing Writing. I created this in PowerPoint using Smart Art. If you’re curious, I added the numbers by inserting text boxes. The arrow is a symbol and I found the check icon from a site with free clip art. Many people don’t realize, there are guides to help you align everything in PowerPoint, too or you can hold down control and click the items you want to align and use the alignment buttons. In this example, you see the 20 questions we should ask about any technology tool before using it in our school. I created this for Chapter 2 Reinventing Writing and the publisher and I liked it so much, we kept it in the book.  Because it is so easy, PowerPoint is my go-to tool for making graphics of any kind and I teach this to students. When I created charts an tables for my book Reinventing Writing, it was easier for me to just make them in PowerPoint and save as an image to insert in my manuscript in Microsoft Word. Most of the images created originally in PowerPoint are used throughout the book. This is just one way I work wonders using Microsoft Office. (To find out more about the 20 questions to ask, see chapter 2 of my new book Reinventing Writing (c) 2014 Vicki A. Davis and Routledge Publishing More ideas… 15 Simple Ideas of Ways to Work Wonders with Microsoft Office Don’t let this limit your imagination. I’ve also given you examples and websites if you want to know more ways to #WorkWonders. Try one of these and snap a pic! Do you collaborate with peers on documents using Office 365? Grab a screenrecording of how it works or take a pic. (See these great tips for collaborating in Office 365.) Have you created a screencast for your students using PowerPoint Office Mix? Share the video. Do you create cool rubrics using Excel? (You can make and download them at Rubistar or use this tutorial.) Do you use Excel for data analytics or charting? (If you use a screen snip, remember to blur out anyone’s name that might show.) Did you know Microsoft has a Data Analysis Toolpak that is a pretty cool add in. Have you written or created something lately to share with others using Microsoft Office? Do you have a cool hack or trick that you use almost every day in Office that will help other educators? (Loved the recent Lifehacker 6 Tips on Better Formatting in Microsoft Word.) Do you take notes with your students in One Note? Do you share your lesson plans or other items in One Note? (See this extensive One Note Tutorial at udemy that you and your students will love.) Do you take notes with others for a class in One Note? (Did you know this tool is free to download?) Do you share papers or edit collaboratively with your students, teacher, or professor? Do you have a cool way you use PowerPoint to teach and engage students? Grab a picture or share a screencast? (Have you seen the Pinterest Boards with free PowerPoint templates for teachers?) Have you already created or shared something cool that you’re doing with Office almost every day? Do you connect and talk live with collaborators while you’re writing or creating documents together? Do you create infographics or charts using Powerpoint? (Most of my graphics for my new book Reinventing Writing were created using Smart Art and Tables in Powerpoint and saved as a tiff or png — see below for an example.) Share those charts and what you did. Do you have your students create newsletters in Publisher? (Have you see the new Publisher templates online?) Do you have your students use SmartArt to compare things, create Venn Diagrams or make infographics?(See these Smart Art Tutorials and Tips) You have until Monday to share how you #WorkWonders using Microsoft Office. Grab a quick screenshot or picture (as I did here) of something you’ve created and send me the pic via Twitter or Instagram right now. You could win a Surface 2. See Official Contest Rules   Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a "sponsored post." 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 15 Ways to #WorkWonders with Microsoft Office. Share yours #edchat appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Three D Printers are exciting new technologies, but what are the best practices? Kelly Hines received a MakerBot 3D printer through a proposal she created on Donors Choose. The 3D printer has transformed her classroom in so many ways but is not as hard to use as you might think. In this episode of Every Classroom Matters, Kelly shares about costs and best practices for teaching with the 3D printer. Hear Kelly Hines Talk 3D Printing in her 5th Grade Classroom She’s partnering with a design classroom at the high school to create a powerful multi-age learning experience. This is one of the tools that I predict will be the big conversation at ISTE 2014. Personally, I’ll be making the final selections for one that someone has agreed to donate to my classroom for next year. Show Notes Kelly Hines #59, How 3D Printers Opens New Possibilities for Project Based-Learning Kelly Hines describes how she uses 3D printing with fifth grade students.  Her students have become the experts for classroom visitors. The students develop skills in using 3D printing for charities and social change. The students explain the printer as a glue gun which works with the MakerBot site. They also are using Block a Thought app which allows drag and drop building plans to print using the 3D printer.  Kelly notes that the students don’t want jewelry or personal items printed, but are concerned with printing things like prosthetic hands for others. The other thing that has been really neat to see is the level of social consciousness that they’ve developed. One of the first things that they saw on the MakerBot website was the man who printed a working prosthetic hand for his child…they said Mrs. Hines, we should MAKE one of those.— Kelly HinesTeacher, Greensboro North Carolina She subsidizes the expense of the printer upkeep by collaborating with high school students who mentor her students in trade for use of the printer. She claims the MakerBot software makes it easy to use the 3D printer.  She recommends such a printer for special and hands-on learners. Hear Kelly Hines Talk 3D Printers and 5th Graders Every Classroom Matters is a bi-weekly Internet Radio Show by Vicki Davis on BAM Radio network with best practices for busy teachers.  Subscribe. Show notes prepared by Lisa Durff, Production Coordinator for Every Classroom Matters. Need help listening to the show? If you’re clicking "Play" on the BAM Radio Site, this often works best in Internet Explorer. Or subscribe in a podcatcher. To get help use this tutorial. Question: Do you have a 3D Printer or know someone who does? You can leave a comment by clicking here. The post 3D Printers in the 5th Grade Classroom with Kelly Hines appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Twitter: Best Practices For Educators via @edudemic Vicki Davis’ Guest Post on Edudemic Blog June 11, 2014 Twitter is an incredible tool for any classroom, if you know how to use it. Teachers like Karen Lirenman and Kathy Cassidy show us how even very young children benefit greatly from the safe online connections through their teachers.  If you’re still not convinced read the  100 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom  on Edudemic. I wrote this guest post for Edudemic as part of the launch celebration for my new book Reinventing Writing. In the book, Chapter 8 is dedicated to Twitter and Blogging - Chapter 8 - Reinventing Journals and Reports: Blogging and Microblogging Best Practices for Twitter in the Classroom In my new book Reinventing Writing, I share many of the best practices for the effective classroom use of Twitter…. Read the rest of the article on Edudemic Did you know? When Writing Tweets, Use Adverbs and Verbs: Studies have shown that tweets with more adverbs and verbs are shared more often. (What a great way to teach parts of speech.) Learn Essential Twitter Best Practices including: The 2 Essential Apps for Twitter in the Classroom and How to Use Them 14 Ways to Increase Engagement on Your Tweets based on Science 3 Valuable Hashtags for Classrooms Read Twitter Best Practices by Vicki Davis on Edudemic Please enjoy and share. I love the Edudemic Blog and had a great time getting to know Jeff Dunn this past March at the Global Education & Skills Conference in Dubai. He led an incredible panel discussion about leveraging mobile technology throughout the world. (Watch it.) Add Edudemic to Your PLN @edudemic Blog: http://www.edudemic.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edudemic The post Twitter: Best Practices For Educators via @edudemic [Link] appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Classtools.net is a free site for teachers created by teacher Russel Tarr. This site has EVERYTHING including Fakebook, graphic organizers, and video game makers.  Russel teaches in Tolouse France, and decided to use his programming skills to make the graphic organizers he wished he could use on the web. (I talk about Classtools in the Prewriting Chapter 10 of my book Reinventing Writing.) If Facebook and Twitter are blocked for you, this is your ANSWER! (And yes, it is FREE.) Listen to Russel Tarr talk about his awesome site Classtools.net Show Notes: Russel Tarr ECM #63, Fake Applications for Real Life Lessons  On Classtools.net, Russel has created tools for students including FakeBook, timeline tools, diagram makers, hamburger paragraph makers, SMS generators, and a QR code treasure hunt. (Go to classtools.net to see them all.) He says he enjoyed programming and creating what other teachers and he needed for teaching students. FakeBook is very popular among history teachers. You can’t access Facebook in school. You can’t access Twitter in school. You can channel that interest into what they’re learning in school using Fake Twitter and Fakebook.— Russel TarrTeacher, Tolouse France and Creator of Classtools.net Russel especially likes the chemistry FakeBook pages for particular elements, and never dreamed the tool could be used in that way.  He has also created Twister, which is a fake tweet generator were students can create tweets in ‘character’ of historical figures. Russel never thought the site would be so popular, and continues to be amazed at the positive feedback he receives. Listen to Russel Tarr talk about his awesome site Classtools.net Add @russeltarr to your PLN @russeltarr http://www.classtools.net/ Creator of Fakebook Every Classroom Matters is a bi-weekly Internet Radio Show by Vicki Davis on BAM Radio network with best practices for busy teachers.  Subscribe. Show notes prepared by Lisa Durff, Production Coordinator. Need help listening to the show? If you’re clicking "Play" on the BAM Radio Site, this often works best in Internet Explorer. Or subscribe in a podcatcher. I have a tutorial to help you Question: Do you have a favorite tool from Classtools.net? Please share. You can leave a comment by clicking here. The post Classtools.net Created by Russel Tarr a Teacher from France appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

The Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai this past March was a powerful conference connecting more than 850 education thought leaders from 59 countries around the world. Of the 7 billion people in the world, 6 billion now have access to a working mobile phone. This popularity, especially in areas facing the most urgent educational challenges, creates new opportunities for improving education access and quality. Similarly, the expansion of social media tools like Facebook and the development of social gaming platforms have radically changed the way people interact and communicate, with the potential to positively transform the learning experience and environment. This session will discuss how mobile technology and digital platforms can be leveraged to enrich education and extend its reach. It will showcase examples of how new technology and media have enhanced educational attainment for the most marginalized groups and look at ways to take proven good practice to scale.— GESF 2014 PanelLeveraging Mobile Technology GESF 2014 Mobile Technology Panel Participants: Moderated by Jeff Dunn (co-founder of edudemic.com) H.E. Dr. Mahmoud Aboelnasr (Minister of Education, Egypt), H.E. Mohammed Gheyath (Director General of Smart Learning Program, UAE), Benjamin Berte (CEO, Socrative, USA), Vicki Davis (Teacher, USA), Hayley McQuire (UN GEFI Youth Advocacy Group, Australia). We had a variety of perspectives on this panel including a lovely young lady from Australia working to help the indigenous people of Australia learn via radio. If you want to get a big picture of mobile learning, this is a great session to watch. Global Education and Skills Forum is a Powerful Conference for Connecting The conference was fantastic for connections and learning. For example, I met an intriguing writer for Forbes, Jordan Shapiro @jordosh, who shared his book Freeplay with me that is on my summer reading list.  He shared some very interesting take aways on his article "Now There’s a Davos of Education and a $1 Million ‘Nobel Prize’ For Teachers." Likewise, our edtech conversation in the U.S. often becomes a polarized discussion where old gets positioned in opposition to new. No doubt this is the fate of a culture that’s founded from revolution; innovation is always tantamount to conquer and rarely seen as iteration. Hence, we use words like ‘disruption’ rather than ‘supplementation.’ Consider our obsession with the notion that we need to throw out 20th Century instructional methods in favor of 21st Century ones. At the forum, I discovered a more thoughtful big picture attitude. Especially among the speakers from the United Arab Emirates, there was a smart attitude where the strengths of new technologies were blended with the traditional.— Jordan ShapiroForbes Online The speakers at the conference were strong albeit a bit more on the political side, but I expect that  teachers will be more included in the future, particularly with the $1 million dollar teacher’s prize to be awarded at next year’s conference. (This summer would be a great time to apply.) As you make your plans for 2015, keep an eye on the Global Education and Skills Forum Website. The conference was of the highest quality in every way. I learned so much. Question: What are the mobile learning technologies that are making a difference in your part of the world? You can leave a comment by clicking here. The post GESF 2014 Panel Discussion: Leveraging mobile technology [Video] appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Summer is a great time for learning. Tonight, many Texas educators will be talking about how writing is reinvented on #txeducat from 8-9 pm Central Daylight Savings Time but guess what - anyone can come!!  Last time we had the chat, I created a Twitter Chat tutorial video to teach how to participate in a Twitter chat, so watch the video, grab the book, and join us. Oh, and for some reason the price of the Kindle ebook dropped yesterday from $28 to $19.22 — it did this before and then went back up to $28 after 2 days. Thank you Tom Kilgore for the invitation. Last November, I was blown away with the  powerful insightful thoughts of the educators who join in the conversation. Anyone can join in-  just follow the #txeduchat hashtag when it is time to start to see the questions and join in the conversation!  (If you can’t participate tonight, I suggest making it a goal to try one of these over the summer, check out Jerry Blumengarten ‘s @cybraryman1 curated List of Twitter chats and find one.) The post Reinvent Your Learning -Learn to Twitter Chat with us at #txeduchat Sunday June 15 8-9 pm CDT appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Classroom 2.0 is a fantastic community for learning and sharing. They have webinars throughout the week and you should join their community. Recently, I shared the 9 ways writing is reinvented with show hosts Peggy George, Lorie Moffat and Tammy Moore and the lively community at Classroom 2.0 Live! Reinventing Writing has been published and this video is a great intro for the book. Visit the Show Archive to Watch & See Links Classroom 2.0 Live! Archive for Reinventing Writing Webinar YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG40HgKjkl0 Archive Page on Classroom 2.0 (This has Video, Audio, and a close captioned Blackboard Collaborate Recording) Reinventing Writing LiveBinder with all of the Links Shared in the Session (the audience was lively and shared tons of resources too and Peggy got them all!) Our special guest today will be the one and only Vicki Davis! We are so excited to have Vicki (@coolcatteacher) share some of her best advice about reinventing writing with a sneak preview of all of the amazing resources and information that will be coming out in her new book. She will share the highlights of what she does with her students to teach these 9 types of tools and to build community among writers with tons of best practices. Nine tools have changed writing, learning, and living forever. Her book, Reinventing Writing, is written for any teacher using or trying cloud documents with students. She will talk about how to select the right tool for teaching purposes, how to set it up quickly, and how to prevent common mistakes. This has never been easier, more convenient, and more important than right now.— Classroom 2.0 Live!Reinventing Writing Webinar hosted by Peggy George, Lorie Moffat and Tammy Moore Add Classroom 2.0 to your PLN The Network: http://www.classroom20.com/ Classroom 2.0 on Twitter @classroom20 Classroom 2.0 Live! on Twitter @liveclass20 Classroom 2.0 on iTunes U [Tutorial video about how to add them] My new book Reinventing Writing is here! Buy the Book now. The post Reinventing Writing Webinar on Classroom 2.0 [Video] appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.