Best of the Week of Dec. 12, 2014

I have been busy collecting great resources, but I got behind on sharing them! If you have a few minutes before the end of the year you might want to check out some of these posts. 

• 60 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom- Twitter is one of the most powerful communication tools we can use. We can connect to anyone in the world in an instant. Lots of educators shy away from it because they see it as a waste of time, but when used with a purpose it can help us do so many great things! Students are already using it so why not incorporate it into our repertoire? This article has lots of interesting ways that students across grade levels can use Twitter in the classroom.
  
• 12 Expert Twitter Tips for the Classroom- This post explores how Twitter can help make connections between learning and concepts.
  
• How ‘Deprogramming’ Kids From How to ‘Do School’ Could Improve Learning- This article explores what differentiated instruction looks like and how one teacher completely transformed his classroom by using a different approach.
  
• Mission #1: The Power of the Blog- This blog will probably only appeal to math teachers, but it's a really good resource so I wanted to share it.
  
• Creating on a Chromebook- Peter Vogel is a Canadian educator who was one of the first to use Chromebooks. He has shared this doc that is a list of common tasks and apps that students can use to complete the tasks. It's a great resource!

Best of the Web for the Week of September 15, 2014

Eeek! I have fallen behind on my best of the web posts. Even though I haven't posted them I have still been collecting some awesome resources to share! I think you will find the tools on this list very valuable.

• 17  21 Useful Web Tools for Creating Online Quizzes and Polls- If you need to create a poll or quiz this is the list for you! Obviously since we are a GAFE district I tend to favor Google Forms, but there are some other options on this list that are great options.
  
• Alice Keeler is one of the brightest minds that I follow on Twitter. She shares more useful links and resources than just about anyone else I am connected to. She has written two posts that should be of interest to you. The first one is 20 Things You Can Do With Google Classroom and the other is 15 More Things You Can Do With Classroom. If you are not sure how to get going on classroom just let me know and we can schedule 45 minutes or so during your planning time.
  
• Top 100 Tools for Learning in 2014 is a decent place to start to learn about different web 2.0 tools. Do not for one moment feel like you are behind if you do not know all of these tools. The goal is to learn the basics then pick up a few different tools so that your students have some options when it comes to how they want to share their learning.
  
• Bringing Twitter into the Classroom- This is the story of a social experiment that changed the way an English teacher taught his classes. While the focus is on English there are more and more teachers who are using Twitter everyday to help their students become better writers and more engaged students.
  
• Why Resumes Matter Less and Twitter Matters More- If you teach then you owe it to your students to watch this. It will help you understand why it is so important that you begin using tools like Twitter in your classroom. 

Best of the Web - August 26, 2014

This week has been crazy! Our amazing Language Arts teachers have been busy getting students logged into Chromebooks. They have also been testing out Google Classroom which has been a hit so far! Even with all of the insanity I have kept my eye out for some great resources to share with you.

• My great friend Richard Byrne is the author of FreeTech4Teachers. This week there was a guest post written by Beth Holland about how to use Newsela with Google Docs to provide differentiated and collaborative reading experience. Beth walks you through the entire process which works for elementary, middle, and high school students.
• I came across a post on the Twitterverse called Why We Need to Teach Kids to Code. The author argues that coding is a basic literacy issue and that all students must learn how to code.
• There are already a handful of teachers using Google Classroom at Gering High School. We are learning as we go! For people who are more comfortable starting out with some ideas in there hands I wanted to share these tips for getting started with Classroom.
• Skype has been around for a long time and educators around the world have used it to make their classrooms more exciting and relevant.  As I was browsing the Twitter stream a few days ago a post that had lots of ideas about how to use Skype in the classroom caught my attention. This post has so many wonderful ideas for how to use Skype with students of all ages. If you are looking for a unique and fun way to incorporate technology into your classroom I highly recommend figuring out a way to use Skype.
• More and more of our students are using Google Drive. This post covers nine things that all students should be able to do on Drive. This means teachers should probably know how to do these things, too! 

Best of the Web - August 18, 2014

I've been monitoring the Twitterverse and I have come across some really great things that I think you will find useful.

• Alice Keeler (@alicekeeler) is one of my favorite people to follow on Twitter. She shares fantastic resources that focus on Google Apps. If you only follow a few people on Twitter please make sure she is one of them. Here is a post she wrote about Converting a PowerPoint attachment to Google Slides.
  
• @edudemic shared Jennifer Carey's (@TeacherJenCarey) post on Five Unusual Ways to Use Google Presentation. I like this list because it is ideas for ways students can use Google Docs beyond simply using it as a presentation tool.
  
• Holly Clark (@hollyclarkedu) shared this presentation called 20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web. This is a little geeky, but if you need to brush up on the technical things of how things on the web work then this will be very interesting to you. It is written in language that non-techies will appreciate and understand.
  
• Heather Callihan (@hcallihan) is a technology integration specialist in central Nebraska. She has created some great Chromebook resources. If you are interested in learning more about Chromebook you will want to check out her stuff!
  
• Jay Dostal (@jaydostal) Shared Molly Schroeder's post with tips that will help anyone who is using Chromebooks. Back to School with Chromebooks is packed with reminders and a refresher on vocabulary related to Chromebooks. She also included a nice list of tools that are used for finding content,  collaborating, and creating.  

Best from the Web - Week of August 11, 2014

I have found some excellent resources this week! I think you will find them useful as well.

• Karen McMillen (@mcteach) shared Excellent Gmail Tips for Teachers. This is a must read (and maybe print and keep near your computer!) for anyone who has ever lost an email. What many people don't realize is that there are specific ways that you should search. This post covers those ways.
• Karen also shared Classroom Posters and Resources for Teaching Students Digital Citizenship. (Karen is a rockstar!) This is a great read for all teachers because we are all responsible for teaching digital citizenship.
• Jerry Blumengarten (@cybraryman1) created and shared a New Teacher page on his blog. If you have never visited Jerry's site you are missing out on some fantastic resources! There is a page for EVERYTHING related to education.
• Sean Junkins (@sjunkins) shared 38 Ideas to use Google Drive in Class. This is a fantastic list of how to incorporate docs, slides, sheets, and forms into your routine. Don't feel like you have to do everything on this list. Pick a few things and run with it! 

Great Posts from Around the Web - August 6, 2014

Here are some great posts I have come across this week as I have been surfing the web. I think you will enjoy them as well. Have a great week!

• Dean Shareski - What's With All the Jumping? If you follow Dean on Twitter you will notice that he posts a lot of jumping pictures. His post about jumping provides the background about why he and his family do this.
• Gary Dietz (on guest post on The CoolCat Teacher's blog)   Five Lessons for Elementary Classroom Inclusion. Gary shares some ideas about inclusion that are from his book. The ideas are very simple and can be used for all students.
• George Couros - Five Ideas to Help You Blog We write all of the time so blogging should be easy, right? Unfortunately, it isn't always that simple. George shares some practical tips to make it a little easier.
• Angela Hascom - The Real Reason Why Kids Fidget This is an insightful piece about why kids need to get out and move! 

Best of the Web - August

Here are some of the tweets I came across this week that I thought you might enjoy.

• Dean Stokes (@deanstokes ) - 20 quick ideas for its use docs in the classroom. This is a great guide to help you discover creative ways to use Docs with your students. 
• Todd Nesloney (@TechNinjaTodd) -  A Crash Course Course in the Language of Twitter.
• Karen McMillan (@McTeach) - 35 Awesome Gmail Tips and Tricks
• Alice Keeler (@alicekeeler) New Google Drive: 4 Easy Steps for Sharing a Folder (Alice also wrote this post.) 

Best of the Web - July 27, 2014

Here are some resources that I have come across over the last week or so that I wanted to share.

• Matt Gomez (@mattBgomez) on how to use Google Docs to set up conferences with parents. This will work very well for elementary teachers!
• Richard Byrne (@rmbyrne) 40 Examples of Classroom and School Blogs. If you are thinking about blogging the examples Richard shared are sure to help you out.
•  @TeachThought  Four Steps Towards a More Personal Classroom. Great advice and tips for teachers no matter what age students you work with.
• It is a common misconception that Chromebooks are of no use if the internet is not available. Not true! Read Henry Thiele's post (@henrythiele) Chromebooks Beyond the Cloud: Everything Chromebooks Can Do Offline to learn more. 

Stolen Goods

This page will feature content that I find from around the web that I think might be valuable to you. Note that each resource links back to the original post. This is responsible digital citizenship. It is never acceptable to share the work that others have created by copying and pasting it.