How to Use the Technology That You Finally Got In Your Classroom

Since taking on the role of one of our building's technology coaches three years ago, I wondered about the best way to share the different ways that teachers could utilize the laptops, iPads, and Chromebooks that students were using in their rooms.  Obviously, the best way would be to sit down with teachers, find out what content they were teaching, and then pick a couple of possible tools that would work for them.  For teachers who are new to using technology in the classroom, they need that one-on-one attention, but for teachers who are comfortable with technology, sometimes they just want to refresh what they've been using, or need a tool for something that they've never tried before.

After looking online for ideas from other blogs and websites, I found numerous compilations of different online tools, but they were typically a long list of sites, and quite often, were not set up in any format that made it easy to find what I was looking for.  Other issues that I found were that the lists tended to be for either iPads, or for windows based computers, so some of the sites were useful, while others weren't. I took the best of each website, added others that I found on my own, and created a Google doc, called Educational Technology Resources, which is broken down by the method of instruction being used, and soon, updated with grade level appropriateness.  This is a living document, so make sure to check in often to see what's new.

Let the Games Begin!

Welcome back Lakeview teachers!

I'm trying something new this year in an attempt to spread around some of tech knowledge that I've been picking up over the last year or two.  I've been at the Google camp at the high school for the last two days (in fact, I'm creating this blog in one of the workshops) and I've been picking up a lot of great tips that I'll be sharing over the next few weeks.

I'm also creating a district web-page called ed-tech where I'll be putting much of this information in a more traditional layout allowing teachers to search by subject, or grade level.  Right now, it's pretty empty but look for more material as the start of school approaches.

Enjoy the rest of your summer!