Summer Tech Tips–What Do You Need?

I’ve been off a day already! Ah, glorious life–no schedules, sleeping in, walking the dog… Hopefully you’ve gone to movies, picnics, amusement parks.

Enough of that. Time to think about next year. I’ve got lots of ideas, but I’d like your input:

… Oh, I see. You’re busy trying to entertain your out-of-school children. I understand–I have a great list of all-encompassing websites at Great Websites for your children to visit. Students can freely visit any within their age group without you worrying about content (although, there’s still that stuff outside of the digital neighborhood called ‘ads’).

Are they busy now? Do you have a moment? Vote! I’m waiting…

Sigh…

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Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years. She is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books on how to integrate technology in education. She is webmaster for six blogs, CSG Master Teacher, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, a columnist for Examiner.com, featured blogger for Technology in Education, IMS tech expert, and a monthly contributor to TeachHUB. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.

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Weekend Website #130: EngageNY

Every week, I share a website that inspired my students. Here’s one that I’ve found effective in supporting the pedagogic changes to Common Core

Can’t Attend ISTE 2013? Try this

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Space is limited so reserve your spot now!

Cost: $219 (a bit pricey)—includes recorded archive of all Access ISTE 2013 sessions for six months

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Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years. She is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. She is webmaster for six blogs, CSG Master Teacher, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, a columnist for Examiner.com, featured blogger for Technology in Education, IMS tech expert, and a monthly contributor to TeachHUB. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.

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ISTE 2013

ISTE 2013 is fast approaching. This is the most popular meet-and-greet/training conference in all of tech ed. It’s four days (if you count the pre-conference Sunday) with over 700 sessions and 150 additional workshops on tech trends, knowledge, tools, and more. Plus, there are more than 500 exhibitors with everything you need to run a tech ed program and classroom.

10 Factors to Consider in Tech Report Cards

It used to be simple to post grades. Add up the test scores and see what the student earned. Very defensible. Everyone understood.

It’s not that easy anymore, especially in technology. Here are all the factors I take into consideration when I’m posting grades:

• Does s/he remember skills from prior lessons as they complete current lessons?
• Does s/he show evidence of learning by using tech knowledge in classroom or home?
• Does s/he participate during class discussions?
• Does s/he complete class goals?
• Does s/he save to their network folder?

Weekend Website #126: BrainPop Game Up

Every week, I share a website that inspired my students. Here’s one that I’ve found effective in… Here’s a great website to answer that question.

Humor that Inspires–for Teachers! Part II

If you liked the last Humor that Inspires, here are more to kick-start your day:

1. “It was the experience of mystery — even if mixed with fear — that engendered religion.” – Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
2. “If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.” – Mario Andretti
3. “I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure — that is all that agnosticism means.” – Clarence Darrow, Scopes trial, 1925.
4. “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” – Henry Ford (1863-1947)
5. “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” – Warren Zevon
6. “There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” – Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
7. “If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” – Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
8. “The instinct of nearly all societies is to lock up anybody who is truly free. First, society begins by trying to beat you up. If this fails, they try to poison you. If this fails too, the finish by loading honors on your head.” – Jean Cocteau (1889-1963)
9. “Everyone is a genius at least once a year; a real genius has his original ideas closer together.” – Georg Lichtenberg (1742-1799)
10. “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it” – Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
11. “While we are postponing, life speeds by.” – Seneca (3BC – 65AD)
12. “Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?” – Bumper Sticker
13. “God, please save me from your followers!” – Bumper Sticker
14. “Fill what’s empty, empty what’s full, and scratch where it itches.” – the Duchess of Windsor, when asked what is the secret of a long and happy life
15. “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” – Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
16. “Luck is the residue of design.” – Branch Rickey – former owner of the Brooklyn Dodger Baseball Team
17. “Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die.”  – Mel Brooks

Weekend Website 123: Google Gravity

Inquiring minds don’t always need a purpose. Fun is often inspiration enough. Check out this clever rendition of Google Search:

7 Websites That Ring in Spring

The temperatures are freezing on the East Coast. We had hail out here in Southern California. But, Spring is right around the corner and we as teachers must get ready for it. What better way than with Spring Websites. Here are some of my favorites:

1. Spring Garden–click to find flowers
2. Spring Science Webquest
3. Spring Games
4. Life Cycle I
5. Life Cycle II
6. Spring Word Search
7. Spring Word Scramble

Weekend Website #121: Class Badges

Every week, I share a website that inspired, excited, and/or informed my classes. Here’s one on a popular trend in education–awarding badges:

New Year’s Gift: 113 Digital Citizenship Links

That’s right. We’ve updated the Digital Citizenship Link page, in preparation for the release of K-8 Digital Citizenship Curriculum. Enjoy!

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Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years. She is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-6 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. She is the author of Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, a columnist for Examiner.com, featured blogger for Technology in Education, IMS tech expert, and a monthly contributor to TeachHUB. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.

Weekend Website 40: NORAD Santa

It’s the time of year when inquiring young minds want to know–Where’s Santa? Here’s a great website to answer that question.

Track Santa on Xmas Eve

10 Digital Tricks to Add Zip to Your Roadtrip

Last week, my daughter and I drove from Southern California to Washington DC–her new duty station with the Navy. I could share the glorious national wonders we encountered (the Grand Canyon, Nashville TN, the extremely understanding Texas police, that sort), but I thought instead I’d share with you how we used two smart phones and two iPads to make the seven-day trip across 2600 miles, seven states and one District, through cities and towns, find hotels and gas stations (ranging in price from $4.98 in California to $3.03 somewhere in Tennessee), entertain ourselves, and do whatever else came up on the daily twelve-hour journey:

• We started at AAA getting their electronic Triptik that mapped our route across the country. This was a general guide which provided the broad strokes for our trip
• We used Google Maps when we were looking for hotels, restaurants, or gas stations, or wanted to checked distances. A note: My daughter updated her iPhone to Apple Maps while I (wisely) hadn’t. Apple Maps was far inferior to Google Maps in every reason you want a map–directions, finding locations, distances. If you haven’t, don’t update. Wait until Apple does more than apologizes for the ineptitude of their mapping program and actually fixes it
• We set up stations on Pandora (which has MANY MORE commercials than it used to) to listen to our favorite music from 8am to 7pm when we (almost) always tucked in for the night
• We had both iPhones going–one for Google Maps and one for Pandora. We didn’t need this–we could toggle between the two–but having both active was convenient. Of course, one phone was always recharging because the Maps programs drains the battery
• When we approached towns, we used SigAlert to see if there were traffic problems and Google Maps to reroute to avoid them. This came in handy just outside of Memphis where SigAlert showed a highway close down
• We used the iPhones to update email, respond to messages, read blog comments, text my husband on our progress, transfer money between bank accounts (something we didn’t plan on having to do), solve a work problem (it’s a long story)

Weekend Website #114: 55 Digital Citizenship Links

Understanding how to use the internet has become a cornerstone issue for students. No longer do they complete their research on projects solely in the library. Now, there is a vast landscape of resources available on the internet.

But with wealth comes responsibility. As soon as children begin to visit the online world, they need the knowledge to do that safely, securely, responsibly. I’ve collected resources here so you can make your choices.

Here’s a list of 55 Digital citizenship links. They cover K-6. I’ve given the list a permanent address here.

How to Teach Digital Citizenship in 1st Grade

How can I teach my students about digital citizenship

Understanding how to use the internet has become a cornerstone issue for students. No longer do they complete their research on projects solely in the library. Now, there is a vasy landscape of resources available on the internet.

But with wealth comes responsibility. As soon as children begin to visit the online world, they need the knowledge to do that safely, securely, responsibly. There are several great programs available to guide students through this process (Common Sense’s Digital Passport, Carnegie CyberAcademy, Netsmart Kids). I’ve collected them as resources and developed a path to follow that includes the best of everything.

Here’s First Grade:

Our Children Remember…

Happy Labor Day

Have a wonderful, safe Labor Day. If you’re looking for activities for your K-5, click 7 Great Labor Day Websites.

If you’re wringing the last moments out of summer, I’m with you. Tomorrow, it’s back to school! Here’s what’s coming:

Credit: Randy Glasbergen

Let me Plan Your Tech Curriculum–for Free

This is 5th grade. There are wikis for K-5

I have an angel out there who donated enough to my blog that I can arrange to share all of my daily lesson plans with you for FREE. S/he insists on anonymity so I can’t share details.

It started with a conversation. I mentioned that there were a lot of teachers being transferred to tech ed jobs (IT coordinators, tech teacher, [fill in the blank]) who didn’t have experience in this field. Their hearts and minds were there–they wanted to do it right–but had no background in teaching technology. Introducing technology to students is likely one of the most important skills students will learn int heir entire educational career. It shows them how to be curious, independent–all those skills educational standards like IB, ISTE and CCSS revere.

I whimsically mentioned If only I could be there with them, in their classrooms, to answer questions, mentor…

And an idea was born.

Here’s all you have to do:

I’ve been Nominated for the Fascination Award

Vote for me

Woah. This is cool.

But what is the Fascination Award? Here’s what they say:

In order to be fascinating, content can’t just be useful, valuable, entertaining, educational, or interesting. These are all great traits to have but fascinating content is a mixture of these things and much more.

Fascinating content is best quantified by the physical and emotional reaction that it instills in its audience rather than particular traits of the content. Put simply, fascinating content:

• Inspires its audience.
• Creates conversation around the topic.
• Creates a strong emotional reaction (positive or negative)
• Gets shared both online and off.
• Contain genuinely fascinating content
• • Voting Starts: June 04, 2012 (12:01 EST)
  • Voting ends, 1^st place winner is chosen: June 11, 2012 (11:59 PM EST)

Weekend Website #89: Rubrics for Web 2.0 Tools

Drop by every Friday to discover what wonderful website my classes and parents loved this week. I think you’ll find they’ll be a favorite of yours as they are of mine.

29 Steps to Internet Safety for Kids

Photo credit: Public domain pictures

This is a great list from Deb Ng, founder and former owner of the Freelance Writing Jobs. I thought hard about what she’d written to see if I could add anything, enhance or disagree.

Nothing. It’s a great list, as good as any I’ve seen since social media exploded on the education landscape. Read and take note:

Most of my online crowd are savvy when it comes to the Internet. We know how to navigate, can spot shady characters at a glance, and can quickly spy inaccurate and poorly written content. However, there’s a whole generation of young people out there who don’t know any of this. And it’s not a slam on their intelligence, either. Not everyone knows enough about predators, privacy and SEO content to educate their kids, and it’s not something so quickly offered in school. We’re getting better at teaching our kids the ropes online, but there are still some areas in which we’re falling short.

Why are we so good about teaching our kids how to avoid shady situations in the real world, but remiss when it comes to the unsavory online stuff?

I recently experienced a circumstance where my son viewed something extremely adult online, despite parental control settings. And though I haven’t been too lax about keeping an eye on his online habits, it got me thinking about all the things all parents should be teaching their kids about using the Internet.

Here’s my list – I hope when you’re done reading, you’ll add your own items to the list because I know there’s much more.

1. Not everything you read online is true: It used to be anything we read in print was true. We could trust newspapers, magazines and books as reliable sources of information. It’s not the same with the web. Since anyone can become published, some of the stuff you’re reading online isn’t true. Even worse, some people are just rewriting stuff they read from other people online, so you might be reading the same false information over and over again. Even Wikipedia isn’t necessarily a reliable source. If you’re researching something online, consider the source. Some poorly written, ramdom web page, isn’t necessarily a good source. However, if you find a .gov or .org site, the information has a better chance of being true. Always look at who owns the website and whether or not they have an agenda before considering whether or not certain information is true.

Monday Freebie: #33: Grow Your Story

This year more than any before, classroom budgets have been cut making it more difficult than ever to equip the education of our children with quality teaching materials. I understand that. I teach K-8. Because of that, I’ve decided to give the lesson plans my publisher sells in the Technology Toolkit (110 Lesson Plans that I use in my classroom to integrate technology into core units of inquiry while insuring a fun, age-appropriate, developmentally-appropriate experience for students) for FREE. To be sure you don’t miss any of these:

• Subscribe to Ask a Tech Teacher by Email
• Sign up to the RSS feed

…and start each week off with a fully-adaptable K-8 lesson that includes step-by-step directions as well as relevant ISTE national standards, tie-ins, extensions, troubleshooting and more. Eventually, you’ll get the entire Technology Toolkit book. If you can’t wait, you can purchase the curriculum here.

I love giving my material away for free. Thankfully, I have a publisher who supports that. If everyone did, we would reach true equity in international education.

Grow Your Story

Use a first-grade or second-grade story. Show students how to add description to it, setting details, sensory details, characterization, so it sounds more mature and interesting. I use thought bubbles to make it more fun.

Click on them for a full size alternative.

Web 2.0 Tools in Tech Ed

Please check out my latest article for the internationally-acclaimed Innovate My School. I think you’ll enjoy it!

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Weekend Website 40: NORAD Santa

It’s the time of year when inquiring young minds want to know–Where’s Santa? Here’s a great website to answer that question.

Track Santa on Xmas Eve

6th Grade Tech Textbook Almost Ready

I received numerous requests for this logical addition to the K-5 series. We’ve collected lots of ideas from 6th grade teachers, checked the details and are now organizing the lessons so they work in your classroom. Once that’s done, we’ll put them into a year-long format that provides sixth graders a student-centered curriculum to move them into the skills they’ll need for middle school education.

If you’d like to be notified when this book is ready, please click the form below and sign up. The publication date looks to be after the new year.

Monday Freebies

I’m starting a new program here on Ask a Tech Teacher. This year more than any before, classroom budgets have been cut making it more difficult than ever to equip the education of our children with quality teaching materials. I understand that. I teach K-8.

Subscribe to Ask a Tech Teacher by Email

Sign up to the RSS feed

…and start your week off with a fully-adaptable K-8 lesson that integrates technology into core classroom subjects. Each has been tested on hundreds of students and includes step-by-step directions, as well as relevant ISTE standards, tie-ins, extensions, troubleshooting and more. They’re all from the two-volume Technology Toolkit that integrates technology into classroom units of inquiry while insuring a fun, age-appropriate, developmentally–appropriate experience for students.

Eventually, you’ll get the entire book.

If you can’t wait, you can purchase the curriculum here.

We start in a week. Sign up. I love giving my material away for free. If everyone did, we would reach true equity in international education.

See you soon!

Do You See Youself in This Video?

This is great…

Google EBooks is a Year Old. How are they doing?

On Monday, Dec. 6, 2010, Google finally launched the Google Ebookstore. Long-awaited, it’s a viable outlet for ebooks of all kinds. Google Books. It offers ebooks for Androids, iPhone, iPad, Nook, Sony and the Web. All in one place. Doesn’t that sound right? I found one of my books there…

Google Books Version of my Book

Weekend Website #40: NORAD Santa

Drop by every Friday to discover what wonderful website my classes and parents loved this week. I think you’ll find they’ll be a favorite of yours as they are of mine.

Track Santa on Xmas Eve

10 of the Best Math Websites Out There

There are an awful lot of math sites on the internet and too often, they are filled with distracting ads that make it difficult to find the learning material, or too many games that don’t so much teach math skills as babysit kids.

Here are some I’ve found useful in my technology lab. They’re straightforward, with an uncluttered interface (mostly) and a focus on teaching not entertaining:

Wild on Math—simple to use, challenging for the best of students

Math and Virtual Manipulatives and Tessellations –well organized, using a whiteboard with shapes and colors as the virtual manipulatives.

Math website—popular, a standard

Math—by Grade Level–a longtime favorite that reinforces basics, math facts and speed math

Math–Mental Math –traditional mental math practice. Well done.

Math–Minute Math –Mad Minutes

Games that make you think –logic, for K-3

Multiplication.com–lots of multiplication problems, lessons, games, with a few on addition and subtraction

Interactive Math Lessons–lots of them. You’ll find everything you need here.

Math problems by skill and grade

16 Things You Know If You’ve Been Reading This Blog

Computer technology isn’t as hard as it sounds, but it does require consistent use. You can’t learn a skill and stick it on a shelf for three months without it molding. Here’s what you do: Read this blog. I cover the stuff you will use daily. It won’t get stale. Take my test. Try these sixteen.

Basics

• 13 Cool Win 7 Tricks
• How Blogs and Wikis Make Students Better Writers
• 10 Ways Twitter Makes You a Better Writer
• What You Need to Know about Kidproofing the Internet
• Tips for Internet Searches
• Let’s Review… Tech Essentials
• Using an Internet Start Page
• Twenty-one Techie Problems Every Student Can Fix

Great Free Stuff

• Top Ten Free Apps to Install on a New Computer
• 5 Great FREE Programs for Kids
• 4 FREE Online Keyboarding Programs for K, 1
• Five More Must-have Free Apps

How to Hack, Stop a Hack and Know When You’re Hit

• 5 Clues You’ve Been Hacked and What to do About it
• How to Crack your (Lost) Windows Password
• How to Hack Passwords
• Five Little Known Ways to Hack a Computer

642 Hours to Complete Race to the Top Application

Wow. Is this normal? Anyone know?

Education Week: Heavy Lifting Ahead for ‘Race to Top’ Applications

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Blogging for Education

I have a chance to win $500 for the cause of my choice. I have so many, I want your input. What do you think I should talk about? Here are the details. Read them and then post a comment. Thanks, friends!

Summer Fun: What Happens When You Mix an Intern, $500, and a Non-Profit for Education?

The story: One of our team members, Jeremy, thinks that teachers and friends of teachers can help us locate the best non-profits that focus on education through blogging

The dare: Our intern dared Jeremy to put his money on the line and he’s ponied up $500.

YOU: Prove Jeremy’s theory and win a $500 donation to your favorite non-profit organization focused on education

Nominating a non-profit is simple, and will help them whether you win or not. To nominate:

* 1) Write a blog post naming the Top 3 activities and contributions that describe why you support a particular organization, and why their work is inspiring.

* 2) At the beginning of the post, inform your readers why you are writing the post by including the following blurb:

This post is being submitted to Teacher Certification Map to raise awareness for educational charities and the important role they play. To learn more about the effort, check out Blogging for Education

* 3) Once published, send us an email at blogging4education@certificationmap.com. Please include your name and the link to the post.

The winner will be chosen based on several variables:

1) Potential impact of the organization.
2) Quality of your post (accurate and inspirational? Does it inspire others to support this cause?) and
3) Your passion for the non-profit that you support. Are you taking steps to make sure as many people as possible see your post and understand why you support your cause?

The winner will be announced Monday, July 27th, 2009, and submissions are due by 2pm on July 27th. Once we have chosen an organization, we will make the donation and then recognize both the non-profit and the submitting blog(s) here at the Teacher Certification Map.

Nominations are now open! Who do you think deserves this recognition the most?

technorati: take notice

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Using an Internet Start Page

Include everything oft-visited to make internetting simpler for your child (and safer)

This is a great idea for kids. Use one of these free start pages to put everything important there for your child that’s internet-based. Mine includes oft-used websites, blog sites, a To Do list, search tools, email, a calendar of events, pictures of interest, rss feeds of interest, weather, news, a graffiti wall and more. Yours will be different, more geared toward summer activities. Ask your child what s/he’d like there. Maybe sponge activities (internet sites that take just a few minutes to soak up empty time).

Summer technology

We’ve been off a week already–time to get going! Hopefully you’ve gone to movies, picnics, amusement parks. Time to sit down at the computer and try some new stuff. I’ve got lots of ideas, but I’d like your input. I’m only waiting a day, so vote fast: