Instructables

Inscrutables is an amazing site geared toward people who love to build things. If you're looking to build robots, remote controls, crafts, or even food, Instructables has step-by-step instuctions (with helpful pictures) to help you create. It's a DIY-ers paradise with contests, groups, and forums to join to make your building experience that much better.

Google Field Trips

Google is offering a new program called Expedition. Schools can sign up for free to have Google come to their school to set up Expedition. Each school needs at least 6 teachers to participate, and we need Colorado schools to sign up so Google will stop in to see us!

Banned Book Week

It's Banned Book Week from Sept 28-Oct 2. Here are a list of banned books along with other supplemental activities. Do you read banned books?

Twitter & Meet Up

Want to learn something new? Interested in joining a conversation with other teachers on literacy, math, educational technology, etc.? Join other educators using Twitter Education Chats or use the site Meet Up to join groups interested in learning the same thing. I just registered for Meet Up to join a group of people attempting to learn coding. Wish me luck!

Webinars & Unconferences

Here's a list from Edutopia about the FREE webinars and "un"conferences for the next few week. These are a great opportunity for teachers to receive FREE professional development on their own time.

Safe Searches

Even elementary students are well aware of how to "google" just about anything, but a blog post of Common Sense Media suggests kids need to learn how to appropriately search the internet. In the post they include ways for students to master the Google search. Great read!

Online Professional Development

If you haven't heard of SimpleK12, they have FREE webinars for teachers to complete "professional development in their pajamas." Register this week for "Google: Getting Started with Google." They also have archived some of their professional development opportunities, and if you sign up for one, you can access it at any time. Check it out!

Google SItes

Every teacher in our district now has Google Accounts through our district domain. Many of our teachers have started building a Google Site. If your like our teachers and trying to build with Google, Richard Byrne has an excellent YouTube channel full of tutorials to help you build an amazing Google Site

21 Teacher Tools

TeachThought and author Lynn Usrey put together a list of 21 tools for teachers to easily use in the classroom. They organize these tools into categories such as lesson creation tools, student survey tools, home learning tools, and current events. Do you have any tools to add to this list?

STEM websites

As a technology teacher, I have a ton of students interested in makerspaces and coding. My goal is to collect as many resources as possible for both students and parents. Information Week posted an article covering 8 STEM websites students can use. I've had them work on a few including code.org but am excited to see the other ones as well.

Minecraft in the Classroom

There is no doubt about it, kids love Minecraft. My elementary students want to play it, read about it, and talk about it. How do we tap into this passion? Edutopia released an article on how to use Minecraft in the classroom. The article shows examples of ways Minecraft has been used to "explore real life buildings, practice ratio and proportions, learn about survival, and for visualization and reading comprehension." How else have you used Minecraft in your classroom?

Teaching 9/11

As teachers, we often wonder how to appropriately address days like today. How do we thoughtfully approach the issue with students? Edutopia provides a helpful article to remember 9/11 for many students who weren't alive when the tragedy occurred or were too young to remember. Any resources you would add to Edutopia's list?

#NeverForget

Making a Makerspace

Because I'm desperately wanting to have makerspace stations in my library, I've been hunting for how-to's, instructions, and guidelines on how to create my own makerspaces. I stumbled across an article from EdSurge describing exactly how to do such a thing. The article also links to other helpful articles one might find interesting. I'll definitely use EdSurge to help me along my journey toward Makerspaces.

Canvas

I've been searching for a FREE tool allowing students to create magazine covers, flyers, brochures, or infographics. Free Tech 4 Teachers had an excellent post about a tool called Canvas. I haven't tried it yet but it looks intriguing.

Student Feedback

Student Feedback allows teachers to see if learning is happening and what improvements can be made. Edutopia released an article to help teachers find ways to incorporate student feedback into their practice. Extremely helpful and insightful article!

Online Math Activities

Educational Technology and Mobile Learning released a post about online Math activities for younger learners. There's a list of about 4 different websites where students can solve puzzles and games to make learning math fun.

Virtual Field Trips--Farms

Are you looking to take your class on a virtual field trip? Discovery Education has a virtual field trip lined up for Oct 15 @ 1pm EST to tour the Creighton Brothers Farms. It's primarily intended for middle school students and explores the "interdependent relationships of organisms in an ecosystem and analyzes how every decision affects all aspects of a farm." Sign up for FREE and enjoy their archived field trips with lessons and activities.

Sphero -- Connected Toys

I was just introduced to Sphero by our 5th grade science teacher and my teaching coach. Basically, it's a sphere about the size of a baseball/softball, and a user can program it to move through a FREE iPad app. If you have students into coding, they love the Sphero!

Flipping a Classroom

TeacherCast released an informative article about the step one needs to take to flip their classrooms. The article walks you through the 3 steps in takes to effectively flip your classroom:

1) Thinking Phase
2) Acting Phase
3) Reflecting Phase

It even provides a downloaded PDF document to lead you through all the phases. An excellent resource!