Tech Tool Tourney

In the spirit of March Madness, MindShift has coordinated an effort to choose the year's best educational technology tool. You can vote for your favorite or just learn about widely used tools available for teachers. Also, follow the voting on their twitter hashtag: #techtooltourney.

Computer Science framework

A national committee of state reps, school districts, teachers, technology companies, and organizations have taken to creating a K-12 computer science framework. Their work is scheduled for release during this summer and could be a game changer for technology teachers. Sign up to review their work as they go.

Literacy for ELL's

It's a challenge to teach the writing process to students who's primary language isn't English. Many of them struggle just to access the content. EdSurge has some excellent ideas of how to scaffold the writing process for ELL's. I particulary like the tools they provide to "develop, implement, and evaluate" they're learning as they move through the process.

Creating Great Teachers

Here's an interesting article from EdSurge: Five Ways to Create Rockstar Teachers. It concentrates heavily on professional development for teachers and how to incorporate choice, personalized learning, and teacher leaders within the professional learning community. Also, school leaders need to lead by example and commit to the life-long learning process.

Pi Day

Happy Pi Day!! Here are some resources and activities from NASA for students to learn about Pi.

Chrome Music Lab

Here's an interesting tool from Google: Chrome Music Lab. It allows users to explore the different sounds and how music works. You can experiment with different sounds like rhythm, harmonies, instruments, voice, and many others. Students will love exploring the different possibilities. An excellent tool for music classes or the 2nd grade sounds unit.

Flubaroo

I finally tried a Google Forms Add-on tool: Flubaroo. After you download it, you can have Flubaroo grade your Google Forms for you. This saves me so much time grading my exit tickets. It's a great resource!

Google Webinar

Are you curious to learn more about Google Apps for Education? SimpleK12 hosts a FREE webinar on Saturday, March 26 from 8am-1:30pm. Attendees learn about GAFE (Google Apps for Education), Google Hangouts,Virtual Field Trips, and getting to know the Chrome web browser. When you register, you receive a FREE ebook: The Best Google Chrome Extensions.

School Reform

Here's an intersting read from EdSurge: From Industrial Models and 'Factory Schools' to....What, Exactly? It discusses the possible avenues schools could reform through personalized learning, flipped classrooms, technology, differentiation, etc. It really leaves it open-ended and wants to start a discussion. It even challenges readers to share their ideas on social media using the hashtag #NextEdStory.  What ideas do you have?

Project Based Learning

Creating a project soon? Use TeachThought's chart of planning questions to move your project from Simple to Complex

Neverware

This might be a game changer! A company called Neverware has created a way to turn old computers (here's a list of their compatible devices) into Chromebooks using the Chrome Operating System. It's $59/device. Sounds like a great deal!

Solar System Apps

My end of the year project for 3rd graders involves a study of our solar system. If you're like me and looking for solar system resources, here's a list of 14 apps for teaching students about the solar system.