The Great Virtual Teacher Adventure!

  (Illustration by Cathryn Cunningham/Albuquerque Journal Dyslexia That word that makes everyone cringe. The teacher cringes because we fear, do I really know what this is and how to help students who are dyslexic? The parent cringes thinking, Is there something wrong with my child?  The student has been cringing because they’ve known for a long time that reading is just SO hard for them and thinking, Am I ever going to be able to read like my classmates? How can we learn to spot students who may potentially be dyslexic? The article, Common Signs of Dyslexia , on Orton-Gillingham’s website provides some very insightful checklists that teachers can use to help guide them in the quest of finding help for struggling readers.  If we can move towards identifying students with dyslexia, we can know more specifically how to help them. The article points out common indicators of different aged children: preschool, elementary, high school, and even adults.  I, for one, will ...

 Canva+Quizizz = Love Design by Christie Thompson Four Days ago at FETC, Canva and Quizizz announced to the world their new partnership, and I am so here for it! You can now make your quizizz assignments even more engaging using the power of Canva! The possibilities are endless when appsmashing these great tools.  You can completely personalize your student's meme experience or even try making one of your own awesome escape rooms like those quizizz gives us on holidays and special occasions! You can read all about it in this canva blog post as well as get access to a few templates canva already has going. Wanna explore on your own, check out all the quizizz templates here . Like check this one out!

       Assigning classwork other than writing through Book Creator         Are you using Book Creator in your classroom? Up until this point, I have just grazed the surface of all the amazing tools that Book Creator has to offer. Last year I allowed my students to use my library as a space to free write and create books for their own enjoyment. That was the extent of the Book Creator use in my classroom.      This year I had the opportunity to attend several sessions on Book Creator at the Georgia Educational Technology Conference. Through these sessions I learned about tools and tricks that made me LOVE Book Creator. Who knew Book Creator was so user friendly? My favorite feature that I learned during GAETC that Book Creator offers is the ability to push out a page you create to all of your student's books!       Pushing out assignments students       One of the cool aspects of this tool...

At the GAETC in November 2022, I learned how to create a color palette in Canva from two presenters (Christie Thompson and  Leslie Fisher). Video: How to Create a Color Palette in Canva Canva Slides Step by Step:

  Link in cse the embed video does not work for you: MOON STOP GAP ANIMATION

  How to create an interactive lesson from Google Slides. It can be difficult in the virtual setting for teachers to see the work of their students.  You can easily convert any Google Slides presentation to an interactive Nearpod! Benefits- Students are actively involved Teachers can see their student's work in real time Teachers can share student exemplars without showing student names Students get immediate feedback Students can fix and resubmit answers How to video- 

Are you an overwhelmed teacher creating new games and lessons?   Don't worry!!  Now, you can flip the classrooom and put the students in charge of creation through collaborative GIMKITS.  Students in my class have been creating vocabulary journals in www.bookcreator.com adding new words each week throughout the year.  Every month we do a spiral review of words by making a collaborative Gimkit using www.gimkit.com.  Students go back to beginning of their journals and add questions based on their words.  We discussed multiple choice questioning and how to create challenging questions.  Then we play the gimkit!!!  They have lots of fun playing the game and they take great pride in having ownership in the creation.  So, the next time you are working tirelessly to create all of those lessons, ask yourself which part of the lesson you can hand over!   You will be amazed how they take ownership of their own learning! Vocabulary Journa...

Learn how to remove a background from an image in Canva! There are so many things you can do with this!  Abracadabra...Poof...Background is Gone!

I love Quizlet ! I love GimKit ! But it wasn't until attending GAETC (Georgia Educational Technology Conference) that I re-discovered the world of Pear Deck ! The "Flashcard Factory" in Pear Deck is an awesome enrichment activity that allows for a deeper understanding of vocabulary before students complete a GimKit as a review.    But here's the most exciting part... all 3 programs work together to help you work smarter, not harder when creating the activities!  Watch my video to see how! 😎

 Peer editing is powerful for so many reasons. Students need opportunities to read each other's essays as well as receive encouraging comments from both peers and teachers. Using Google Slides allows those students who are shy or those who want to comment on everything a chance to fully participate during the writing process. Additionally, the feedback students receive helps them better understand the revising and editing components of writing.Peer editing using Google Slides is a great way to get students involved with the writing process. See video link below. Peer Editing Example

Stop Motion Animation with Google Slides Need an ENGAGING activity for your students?  Stop Motion Animation is the answer!  Check out the video to see how it's done! 

Schoolytics: An EdTech Unicorn This year marks my 22nd year in the classroom.  During that time, technology has evolved at break-neck speed and impacted education in ways I never imagined.  Throughout this long span, I have presented powerpoints on tiny tv screens, booked computer lab days, embraced BYOT, checked out iPad carts, implemented 1:1 chromebooks, and taught virtually. Perhaps the only constant throughout this time of rapidly developing educational technology was my personal EdTech quest.  No matter the program, no matter the LMS, no matter the device, I was always searching for that EdTech unicorn.  That one app that was going to revolutionize my teaching by ticking all the necessary boxes.  It was going to store contact information and logs, lesson plans and ideas, and, of course, grades.  It was going to support student feedback and data analysis.  It was going to make missing work easily attainable, flag questionable work, and help me wit...

  Class Dojo saves all the messages you have sent to parents. If you need to document the communication with parents, here is an easy way to retrieve the messages.

C.S. Lewis states that "You can make anything by writing" and that is what every student should know as they begin to write. Ideas and thoughts are not easy to "come by", and when my kiddos write; they take me to another place. I always tell them that, "I'm traveling for Free", when I read their writing, I'm traveling for FREE!! I had the opportunity to attend several professional learning seminars in November at GAETC (Georgia Educational Technology Conference) in Atlanta. I learned so many new ideas that I can share with other professionals, as well as incorporating it into my classroom. One activity that I would like to discuss is allowing students to code and write. I feel that writing can be a difficult skill for students, and one way to gain their interest level is to allow them to code first; and write about what their coding.  Students are more immersed in their writing when they have the freedom and flexibility to control their topics; als...

 Track, laser, optical, wired, wireless, so many options!  If you teach online, game or spend hours on your keyboard a day, it is worth thinking about the health of your tool-your hands! A simple switch to a vertical mouse may be helpful in preventing injury due to prolonged use of the fine muscles in your hands and wrists. I found the J-Tech Digital Mouse  to be an easy transition from the traditional mouse. It feels smooth in the hand, takes pressure off, aligns your wrist correctly, reduces strain and it is budget friendly for around $30. C arpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) is a "common neurological disorder that occurs when the median nerve, which runs from your forearm into the palm of your hand, becomes pressed or squeezed at the wrist. You may feel numbness, weakness, pain in your hand and wrist, and your fingers may become swollen and useless. You might wake up and feel you need to "shake out" your hand or wrist (National Institute of Health). " To help avoid stra...

  About me I am a health and PE teacher and I LOVE it!  I have been teaching for over 10 years now but lately I have been thinking a little out of the box.  As a matter of fact, everything I do now is "out of the box" because I find myself working at Empower Virtual Program in Newnan, GA.  random person I meet: Wait, you teach PE...virtually?  me: yep! random person: So what does that look like? Do you just stand in front of the computer and do jumping jacks? me: nope rando: Do you just give them a list of exercises to do?  me: nope rando: Well you obviously don't  play sports, so what exactly do you do?  me:  I teach kindergarten through 8th grade PE and Health rando: 😖

  Hey fellow teacher, are you feeling like leading a club is yet another "thing" just added to your plate and you are not feeling too passionate about it...I have been there!   About me I am a health and PE teacher...but I DO NOT have any interest in hosting a fitness club so I have been thinking out of the box. As a matter of fact, everything I do this year is "out of the box" because I find myself working at Empower Virtual Program and teaching Kindergarten through 8th grade. I was fortunate enough to attend the GA Educational Technology Conference (GaETC) and was INSPIRED by Tony Vincent to start an ANIMATION CLUB!  SHAPEGRAMS- google drawing    (FYI  my school uses google suite products)  Ready made...yes please! I started with an annual subscription to Shapegrams ($35) as a starting point. Tony Vincent has created some excellent ready to use lesson plans, google slides, google drawing worksheets, and YouTube videos! Worth every penny!...

  Resources!

I  had only attempted Canva in a personal application and had to pay for a premium to achieve my end goal, so I shied away from it after my 30-day free trial was over. However, I decided to give “for Education” a go, and really enjoyed the end product. UNTIL, I was unable to print it, for the upcoming Showcase. HELP! Angela told me she has been able to print from Canva at home. We tried it here but were unable to. Any advice would be appreciated!

Takeaways from the Gwinnett County Virtual School Presentation at GAETC. They offer three different models for virtual learning.  Of the schools I have spoken to, the ones that are successful offer different models.

       As I prepared for my first year of being an official virtual teacher in our school system's new virtual school, I thought of ways that I can prepare my students for the future, not just academically, but also in equipping them for the innovative society in which we live today. With technology at the forefront of our program, what ways could I utilize technology to teach and enhance their academic growth, yet still make it manageable and age-appropriate?      I personally had never blogged before, but knew that I wanted my students to create their own blogs imbedded into their digital portfolios.  That meant that I needed to play around with it myself so I could also model for them the expectation. I had previously used Kidblog in my face-to-face classroom, but I wasn't crazy about the changes made to the platform. I wanted something that would not be public, but could be shared with families. Since students would be creating digital port...