Simmons Classroom

By now you may or may not have heard of badging. Some of you might instantly have the reaction that it is yet another fad in education; give it time and it will go away. While that might be the case, I think it is still worth looking at to see if it can be used to increase your student's engagement. I have been exploring badging via a MOOC course that I started this week, especially in regards to its impact in the gamification of the classroom.

If you are a history or civics teacher, you should check out the Digital Public Library of America. Why? Because it's awesome!

One of the teaching strategies I learned from the MATH 180 workshop prior to the start of school this year was giving students a question to answer as they came into class and were settling in. What a great way to get their heads in the game (and out of the hallway drama)! Today's Diigo education links included a website that I think would make a great addition to any math classroom and even other classes like consumer science where students have to make logical decisions about things such as what price is better on two items.

I don't hide the fact that gamification of the classroom intrigues me. I post a lot about it here on my blog. This week I started a Coursera MOOC course called Gamification , which is being taught by Kevin Werback through the University of Pennsylvania. Although a number of the participants are looking at it through the education lens, there are also a number in the business world who are intrigued enough to enroll as well. So far I've watched a number of lectures within the course. But this video on YouTube that was referenced was good enough to share. If you think you can ignore the power of gamification, this video may change your mind.

I worked with a teacher at the middle school recently who was concerned about "being legal"in regards to what her students were using in their projects for her class. I am currently assembling a list of resources that have materials that they can use on my " Guide & Tutorials " website for future reference. In the meantime, here is a great article for Edutopia on using Creative Commons in K-12. Creative Commons in K-12 Education: Using and Sharing Students' Work Safely | Edutopia

If you are like me, you spent countless hours when you were young building with legos . If you were a parent of kids like me, you spent countless hours vacuuming up those little pieces or hunting for them with your bare feet in the middle of the night (ouch!). When I heard about Build with Chrome yesterday, you can understand why my eyes lit up. What is Build with Chrome? It's this:

For those of you who visit my site regularly and pay attention to details , you may have noticed that I changed the title of the MLTI PD Opportunities tab. I reworked the calendar on it today to also contain the webinars that are offered via EdWeb.net and am looking for other calendars to include as well. Why? Well, we all know that we are more apt to take advantage of PD opportunities when they actually interest us (and not when someone simply tells us to attend). EdWeb  offers a wide range of topics in their webinars, which are often free, so I wanted to ensure that you knew about them. They also come from the non-Apple/MLTI perspective, so it will give you some variety on the content and point of view. Click here to check out the page and see if there is an opportunity that you are interested in!

Rather than reinvent the wheel, I wanted to pass along a link to a website that has a list of 7 science-related educational tools  as well as descriptions for each of the websites. I have used Learning Never Stops , the website I found it on, before for their great compilations of all thing technology for education. One of my favorite sites in their science list is Sellafield Ltd's education resources page , which has a long list of activities complete with PDF downloads, games, videos, etc. to make them an easy way to add variety to your science classroom.  Check it out and let me know what you think!

Hi, everyone! Thank you to those of you who said you were interested in the MLTI opportunities that I mentioned via Staff Talk last week. I was able to arrange for the "Digital Literacy and Citizenship: Best Practices" workshop to come to us, whereas the "Digital Responses To Performance Based Initiatives in Science Teaching", which had fewer requests, will be held at Biddeford High School. I have included the descriptions of both sessions below. Please remember that you must fill out a conference request form as well as register for the session via this link in order to attend. These are just two of the many subjects being covered this spring. Be sure to check out the full list via this webpage .

Here is my agenda and weekly announcements! Be sure to check it all out because I have information about AppleTVs  and the high school laptop checks in it.

For those of you who emailed me on Friday or were just paying attention, you likely saw that I wasn't in the office. I was out of state attending a photography conference. After getting home late last night, I'll be focusing on getting into the swing of things today and replying to the dozen emails I have. Stay tuned for my plan for the week and an announcement about another MLTI training we are going to host next month. In the meantime, to go back to using your Google calendar as a planner, this image that came across to me via Twitter is so very applicable. The above image came from this article on TeachThought.com entitled " 10 Benefits Of Digital Planning Tools For Teachers ". As always, let me know what you think!

I am off campus this morning (with Brandon Poulin from the middle school) for the MLTI workshop on Standards, Assessment, and Mobile Devices. Given that I'm here to be the messenger for all of you, and the fact that I said I'd report back from my training when I filled out the conference request form, I'm going to be taking notes on my Google Drive for those of you who are interested as well as tweeting out sites that I find to be interesting @SusieTechIntegr. The Google Document itself is embedded below.

Recently I came across a blog post online featuring 40 Maps That Will Help You Make Sense of the World  from A Sheep No More . The topics range from where Google Street Level view is available to countries not invaded by Britain and time zones in Antarctica to the highest paid public employee in each state. Obviously, you can find information on just about anything in map form on this post. So, how can you use this in the classroom?

If you or your students don't have internet access and you use Google Drive, all is not lost. By using Google Drive, you can it up to enable offline access. Then, if you lose power or internet (or don't have internet in the first place) you can still access your Drive items. Here is a video to give you an introduction to it. If you are interested, there is a link under the video to walk you through how to set it up.

I know how easy it is to see smartphones as a nucense. There are several teachers who have expressed their frustration about them to me and see them as a distraction. So, when I came across this infographic from Edudemic , I knew that I had to share. The subtitle says it all: "Students use smartphones to study more, and more efficiently." So, check out the whole infographic and let me know what you think. Perhaps the motto "If you can't beat them, join them" should start to apply.

While looking at the latest resources to hit Google+ this morning, I came across a post about this music timeline that Google posted last week. If you are a music teacher, it is a very visual way to look at the history of music and what some of the important albums released for the various genres were at different points in time. Click on the genre and you'll see a new graphic that breaks it down in to subcategories. Of course, all of the album art links to their Google Play store in hopes that you'll buy it. However, imagine using a site like this to have students chose a genre that they love and then use it as a base for research about what artists and groups came before and lead to the music they know and love today.

This week was pretty awesome and next week is shaping up to be even crazier. Here is my recap & agenda so you know what is going on and when.

If you are not a fan of how gmail groups your emails together, you can actually turn that off. I had a teacher contact me this morning concerned because he missed emails because of it. If you want to turn it off, I posted a tutorial on my "Guides & Tutorials" page today. Go check it out !

This week I worked with two teachers at the middle school who were looking to graph some data that they had for their students' test scores. Instead of doing it within an application on your computer, you can do it right on Google Drive using the Spreadsheet tool. It's easy to do and then you can actually share the data and the graph easily since it's already online. If you want to learn how to create spreadsheets and graphs, you can certainly make an appointment with me and I can help you learn how. Or, I just added a page to my Tutorials & Guides pages to walk you through it with a screencast I found on YouTube, a link to Google's "Get Started with Google Sheets" website, a link to Google's EDU Training documents on Google Sheets, and my Google Drive folder of resources. Click here to check it out!

I had a teacher at the high school earlier this week come to me and inquire about spelling and grammar check within Google Drive . If you've used it at all, you know it's not the best. So I decided to check to see what options we had What I found is pretty darn awesome. Right off the bat, this works if you are using Google Chrome, which is available under the "Web" category in self service, or Safari. The extension itself is from Ginger  (click on the link to download it). Why is it cool? Well, you don't just get improved spelling and grammar check within Google Drive almost anywhere in Chrome or Safari . (Since originally posting this, I have figured out that it does not work with Google Drive because of the permissions it requires. I am looking in to it.) It's anywhere in the browser. So if they are putting in answers in an Infinite Campus assignment, it will work there. Here is a YouTube video showing you how it works:

This week has shaped up to be a quiet week on the blogsite  front. I've been busy setting up Apple TVs and training folks on how to use them as well as showing off how to use Google Calendar in the classroom (stay tuned for my information about that). But I wanted to take a moment to "announce" that I will now be extending my office hours to 2:30PM on the days that I am offering them. I know that sometimes it is hard to get to me during the day, so I am hoping that this extra time slot will prove useful. You can book the time right on my website and then just let me know what you'd like me to help you with via the description. It could be to cover a topic that I've held a workshop on or it could be something unique to you. I'm here, after all, to serve you!

As a teacher that has officially been teaching (for Bonny Eagle, mind you) for 8 years this month, I definitely know what it means to have data. And we certainly have a ton of it. I actually create a lot of my own data in terms of tracking my projects with all of you so that I can better serve your needs. So, when I saw this infographic on Pinterest of all places, I knew that I had to share it with you guys as well. I think it really speaks to how well utilized data can really help shape our classrooms and, in turn, our students' learning.

For a list of just a few of the URL shortener options that I've found, you can click on this link .

As a follow up to my post last week about Keizema, which allows you to add audio and written feedback to items in your Google Drive, I had a teach write me an email asking about the permissions involved with the apps that you install. In this screencast, I'm going to show you how to disconnect an app after you have installed it. Now, if you are paying attention, you'll see that I disconnected the app. That means that, in order to use it again, I have to give it the permissions. In my world, it's easier to just leave it connected and not go through the hassle. But, if that's the way you'd like to go, certainly go for it! In the end, it is whatever is comfortable for you that matters.

As more and more teachers move over to using Google Drive, the opportunities to provide feedback to our students is growing by leaps and bounds. I know that some of you out there love being able to type in feedback within Google Drive or maybe have started using dictation within your Mac to transfer your speech in to text comments in the document. Let's take that one step further. I found Kaizena a couple weeks ago and think it is a great, easy additional app to use with your Google Drive assignments. Why? Well, Kaizena is a free app that lets your record audio comments to any Google Drive item along with highlighting and comments. So, instead of whipping out your red pen (or trusty keyboard) you can now use your own voice to tell them your thoughts. If you are interested in it, here is a tutorial video I found on YouTube. And you can always make an appointment with me during my office hours or just stop by and we can look at it together. YouTube Tutorial Video

Have you taken photos of your students doing a project relating to technology? If so, the Leadership Cadre would love to see them! We are working on an assignment from Apple to "capture 5-10 “moments” of innovative learning and teaching in your classrooms, school, or community." I already have five verbs that I've found photos from the elementary schools for. But I'd love to find 5 more verbs from the middle and high schools. I've marked the verbs we have so far in bold, but feel free to send me a photo that fits one of them because I can always "reclassify" what I already have put together. Documenting Discovering Engaging Experiencing Participating Immersing Connecting Dialoging  Debating  Collaborating Partnering  Exchanging  Creating Sharing Inquiring Researching Personalizing Mentoring  Solving  "Your learning verb here" Thanks so much for your help!

by beutlerink . Explore more infographics like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually .