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When I taught fourth grade, one of my favorite activities to do when teaching reading was to make use of sticky notes. (We are talking about the days when integrating technology was making use of the four to five desktop computers in the back of the classroom.) Whatever reading strategy we were using or story/text element we were discussing was marked in the students' books with sticky notes. If it was a copy of an article that was shared with the class, we would bust out the highlighters and write all over it to share our thinking. Now there's Diigo . Diigo has actually been around since 2006. So we are not talking about anything new. However, one thing that has greatly changed is the access to it. In the Chrome Web Store, there is a Diigo Web Collector  that allows you to quickly launch the service. Users can then highlight and post sticky-notes on any website. What is also really incredible is the ability to share a link to a users annotated page so that others can view...

Recognition Whether or not we as teachers like to admit it, it is nice to be recognized for working hard and finding success in new things. A lot of times, those ideas or tools we are implementing stay within the walls of our collaboration meetings with grade level partners. I got the idea of doing a MSDSC "Nerd Herd" from Amy Neal at DeKalb Central . She has a different name for it, but she has her teaching staff recognize each other for the accomplishments of being innovative with technology or even just "stepping out of your comfort zone" by trying something new with technology integration. I liked this idea because often times I do not know about the exciting things happening in classrooms. By having peers nominate each other for the MSDSC Nerd Herd, all staff can benefit. A teacher at Angola High School may be trying some things that an Angola Middle School teacher would want to know about. Using the Nerd Herd nomination can get those conversations going...

Screencastify Update New Update Screencastify  recently went through an update. If your Google Chrome has not updated the app, you can do so by right-clicking on the Chrome extension, removing it from Chrome, and reinstalling it from the Chrome Web Store . This post is not so much about the use of Screencastify so much, but merely the changes that took place. So if you need a quick overview on those changes, here you go. Previous Tutorials If you have never used Screencastify, my old tutorials are available as well. Those are listed below.  Reasons to Record Your Teaching Screencastify Screencastify and Distributing Video Screencastify Keyboard Shortcuts

Orange Slice: Teacher Rubric  is a Google Docs Add-on created by Matt Buchanan, Teacher at Angola High School. It is a tool that actually inserts a rubric within a student's document. The teacher can select various preset or customizable categories, grade it, and give instant feedback to the student. This tool also works well with Google Classroom as the title of the student's document changes with the grade inserted into it. This allows the teacher to quickly see the results of the entire class without opening each document separately. Below is a quick tutorial on how to use Orange Slice: Teacher Rubric. I recently contacted Matt to just ask, what caused him to develop this Google Add-on. Here he goes into great detail as to why he created the teacher rubric as well as his newest release of the student rubric. It is clear that creating easy tools for teachers to increase communication is a passion.. Matt also reveals that he has plans to develop a third Google Doc...

In August, I posted about using Dochub with Google Classroom . With it, students on Chromebooks can type, write, and highlight over the top of a PDF document. This is especially handy if you have a document you want students to write on, but not change the original integrity of it. Since then, updates have been made to classroom and the workflow is slightly different than it was previously. I created a couple videos for the purpose of launching Dochub in an elementary classroom. With these videos, you can see how to install the add-on in Google Drive as well as use it to manipulate a document from Google Classroom.  Download Dochub Dochub and Google Classroom Classroom Implementation Thought One issue that teachers have is if it is a document that students will utilize over a period of time beyond a day. Documents save automatically in Dochub. If a student needs to access and manipulate a document again, they do not need to access the document from c...

Over the last several posts, I've been focusing on creating screencasts for instructional purposes. I've looked at why teachers should consider making screencasts along with examples, how to create a screencast with Screencastify , and how to manage/distribute your video content to students. These resources are by no means exhaustive as there are many means by which a teacher can create video content for students, but it at least scratches the surface. However, one part I left out is how students can use Screencastify.  Students could create instructional videos much like the teacher. Another way a student can use Screencastify is to record a presentation they create for a project. By using the Chrome extension, students will have to click on the extension to launch the recording and then press the "present" button on whichever presentation tool that they use. In this post, I demonstrate how the user can use the "keyboard shortcuts" (I like to ca...

Google Drive In my two previous posts, I have information regarding why teachers should make videos with some examples as well as how to use Screencastify to create those videos. So the next question should be...how do I distribute the content? The answer to that question is actually quite overwhelming due to the numerous options. So I will throw several options out there because it really depends upon what device the students are using, what grade level, and the teacher/student comfort level. LMS (Learning Management System) There are a ton of learning management systems out there (Google Classroom, Schoology, Edmodo, Canvas, etc). I'm only going to focus on Google Classroom as the majority of teachers at MSD of Steuben County have made this L.M.S. their choice. Either way, a learning management system provides a great way to distribute and receive content. I made a couple videos on inserting videos into Google Classroom from Google Drive and Youtube. By insertin...