Questions to Ask Parents

Edutopia posted an article about the questions to ask parents at the beginning of the school year.  The article, "7 Questions to Ask Parents at the Beginning of the School Year," provides teachers with strategies to create partnerships with their parents.  Do you have questions you already ask parents?  Do parents have questions they would like to add to the list?

Google Docs

I found this post, "10 Things Every Teacher Should Know How to do With Google Docs,"on the Edudemic blog.  These are just some tips and tricks for Google Docs, and with DPS using Google Apps more and more, it's important we understand how to use them.

Summer Updates to Google Apps

Richard Byrne (author of Free Tech 4 Teachers) created a PDF document to show the updates Google made this summer to Apps, Drive, Maps, Google+.

As DPS moves to using Google more often, I thought Byrne's post was extremely helpful for our work. Anyone else notice anything different about Google Apps?

Do you have a child who shows interests in computers/technology?

Edutopia (an educational blog everyone should follow) recently posted an article titled, "Teaching Your Kids to Code."

It shares 6 resources for introducing kids to the world of computer programming.  I personally use Scratch in my technology classroom.  Which resources do you use?

Tips for New Teachers

It's that time of year, again!  Back to school!

Free Technology for Teachers (if you don't regularly follow Richard Byrne, he publishes a fantastic educational technology blog) shared 100+ Tips for New Teachers.

This could be extremely helpful during those New Teacher Orientations or for a mentor to share with his/her mentee.

Power Searching with Google

Google has created an online course providing strategies for finding information.  It's broken down into 6 units and includes Google Hangouts.  What do you think of Google's Power Searching lessons?

Richard Byrne wrote a review of it in Free Technology for Teachers.

How Electricity is Made

If you don't follow Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers, it's one of the premier educational technology blogs.  He recently posted about Energy 101 which explains how electricity is made and dispersed to us.

 I could definitely use this with my 4th graders and their Energy Unit.  How would you use it?