A couple of weeks ago, I read a tweet about a Google Sheets add-on called Essay Metrics, by Oli Trussell. I clicked the link and did a little reading, and quickly realized just how awesome this tool could be. I added it to my Google Sheets and played with it, and confirmed, yep… this is awesome.
This is one of those add-ons that are great for any subject area. Let’s take a look at it and see how it works, and go from there.
Ok, I know, some of you are wondering what this post is doing here. Stick it out, and we will get there.
Parents. That one word can evoke a wide range of reactions from teachers. After this many years in education, I think I have seen and/or experienced all of the possible reactions. The key to a child being successful is a team effort. How can we foster that partnership with parents, and how does EdTech factor in?
Classroom clickers. For years, we have had them in our classrooms. It seems that they were all the rage in classrooms. Tech conferences were filled with presenters and vendors showing off clickers. We recently presented at the Alabama Educational Technology Conference. Looking back on the experience Continue reading
Everyone has heard, Google Docs is all the craze for collaborating with writing. It’s extremely functional, can save your file in multiple formats, has built in chat, and more. Since writing this POST the other day, I have had a few questions about revision history. Continue reading
A few days ago, I wrote about various ways to collaborate with others using Google Apps for Education, or GAFE. Technology today allows for collaboration in so many ways, but it is important to remember that Continue reading
This seems to be the summer of reading… wait, aren’t all summers summers of reading? No, hold on, reading is always good, summer or not. Well anyway, enough of that. Recently, I finished a great book by Dave Burgess, Teach Like a PIRATE. Let me tell you, it was a treat.
Now, let’s start out with the nitty gritty. Yes, the word PIRATE is all in caps. That is intentional. Work with me here and we will get to that.
Yesterday, I participated in a great discussion about utilizing Google Apps for Education (GAFE) for collaboration. Tweets were flying back and forth with great ways to collaborate with peers. One of the things mentioned was that not all teachers are comfortable using EdTech to collaborate. In fact, there are many that are not comfortable with collaboration at all, EdTech or not. In the interest of giving some level of comfort to everyone, I decided this would make a great topic to blog.
Ok, so yesterday I delved into teaching History/Social Studies using EdTech. While I started that as more of a personal flaying of myself for not having noticed just how under-taught history is in schools, it turned out to be a rather interesting and popular topic.
So, on that note, I am diving into the area of science. Another of those courses that often gets a raw deal. There are A LOT of teachers out there who are only concerned with their subject area. It’s the old “My subject is the most important yadda yadda yadda” syndrome. Or, the really vulgar thoughts, “My subject is tested this year, it counts more.” Continue reading
It’s good to be back in the swing of things. We have been on a little road trip/vacation. We had the chance to visit some of the Lincoln historical sites in Springfield, MO while on our trip. Watching my daughter take in the history was eye opening. My daughter has always been well read, and very interested in learning. However, it wasn’t until we were at the Lincoln museum that we realized just how ‘under-taught’ she was in history.
Twitter. People either love it, or they hate it. Those who hate it, tend to hate it vehemently. Those who love it, swear by it. You will find a few that fall somewhere in between.
Twitter has the ability to be incredibly powerful. Using Twitter, you have the ability to reach tens of thousands of people extremely quickly. That reach can be compounded through retweets. So your potential audience is HUGE!