Saving TIME and Organizing Your LIFE

I've mentioned far more than once that what every teacher needs more than ANYTHING else is just more time. A teacher's time is so precious and valuable, and it's also something that we HATE giving up for no reason. This week I went on a hunt for ways to save you time and help organize your already hectic life! (You're welcome in advance!) 

First, and foremost, I used a VERY cool program called Adobe Spark to create a page of tips and tools to save you time and help organize your life. This is a resource that I cannot wait to use to create pages for my students AND to have my students create pages for projects and assignments. If you haven't already checked this out, PLEASE do yourself a favor and watch the short video below to learn more about Adobe Spark and all the features it has to offer you! 

Now, on to the page I created for you! 

BONUS: Click the links below to see a few more of my favorite time saving tools and organization tools to help you keep your sanity the rest of this school year!

• Orange Slice - A Google Drive Extension that allows you to insert rubrics   for grading right into documents and files!

• PlanbookEDU - A digital planbook that allows you to directly attach files and share your planbook with other teachers for collaboration!

• Online Timer - A timer that ticks down like a bomb! Students love having the visual reminder of how much time is left watching the bomb explode!

All you REALLY need in life is Google Drive...

In a previous post I talked about all things Google, including Google Drive. This week, I explored even further in the world of the drive and found some features and add ons that I wish I had known about even sooner. As mentioned before, Google seems to get better and better the further you explore!

The first feature that I stumbled across was an Add-On in drive that allows you to annotate PDF files. This add-on is called Kami and I can't wait to share it with some of my colleagues! Watch the short video below for a better explanation. 

As a teacher who is nearly paperless now, Kami is really the last feature I needed. Additionally, Kami has worked really hard to make this tool work especially for teachers. Are you already using an LMS and want to incorporate Kami into that? 

• Click HERE to see how Kami works with Google Classroom! 
• Click HERE to see how Kami works with Schoology!
• Click HERE to see how to easily export a file from Kami to any other platform or learning management system!

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The second feature within drive that I find exceptionally useful is Google Forms. I know that I have written about Google Forms previously, but Google just keeps finding ways to make it better and better! Last time I explore Google Forms I made mention of the awesome add-on Flubaroo and how it made grading quizzes within Google Forms a breeze! Google apparently took notice to how many people were using Flubaroo because at the end of the summer, they began offering self grading quizzes as an option within Google Forms! It is limited to multiple choice, true false, drop down option questions, but this is still a HUGE step in the right direction for Google. The video below shows you exactly how to set this up if you're new to using Quizzes on Google Forms!

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The final feature that I found useful in Google Drive was the Add-On Mindmeister! This tool allows teachers and students to create mind maps and graphic organizers quickly and easily! The layout of the tool is extremely user friendly and the Google Add-On allows you to insert a created mind map into any Google Doc or Slideshow! This would be great for having students either create their own graphic organizers or fill in teacher created graphic organizers! (BONUS: It works on iPads!!! This is the biggest selling point for me!)

Not only is this a fantastic tool for a writing teacher to have in their back pocket, but it Mindmeister also allows multiple users to be working on the same mind map or graphic organizer at a time. This collaborative feature makes this a useful tool for a teacher of just about any content!

Still not convinced you need to check it out? Watch the video below to get a better understanding of Mindmeister's capabilities and uses in your classroom!

Learning Management System: WHAT is it and WHY should you care?

Learning Management Systems (LMS) seem to be ALL the rage right now in education. So what are they? Basically an LMS is a digital platform for students to interact with one another, receive digital lessons and resources, and turn in assignments. With the emergence of blended learning and digital learning, different LMS platforms have become more and more popular across the world. The video below gives an even more in-depth answer to explain exactly what an LMS is. 

So now you're probably saying, "This seems great and all, but why do I need one of the LMS platforms? What I'm doing works and has always worked!" To that I will add that today's students are living in a time that is like none that we've previously seen. Their futures will continue to revolve around technology and the use of all sorts of digital tools and resources. Why not incorporate what you're doing in your classroom every day with the technology and tools that they will need to succeed in their futures? 

You also are probably saying, "This seems great and all, but it also seems like a lot of work and like it would take a lot of time to set up!" To that I will add that you probably aren't wrong in thinking that initially. It can be a little bit of a learning curve when you are initially setting up your LMS and it will also take some time for you AND your students to get used to using it regularly. But what I can attest to is the MASS amount of time and energy that you will save once that learning curve is over. Think of all the quizzes and tests that will automatically be graded for you using these LMS platforms. Think of how quickly and easily you can give students feedback on assignments, or how efficiently you could grade essays and writing assignments. These platforms are designed to make the teacher workload LESS consuming but MORE powerful. 

MOST IMPORTANTLY I will add that you don't need to be technologically inclined to make one of these LMS platforms work for you, you just have to have a little bit of patience and be willing to try it. I'm not talking about looking at it for a few hours and deciding it's too much work upfront... I'm talking about REALLY trying it. Use it for a unit or a quarter and have your students give you feedback! You have to be all in to make this work for you. I honestly cannot image that you'll be disappointed if you do!

Need more convincing? Click HERE to read a short article about the Top 8 Benefits of using a Learning Management System in your classroom!

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This week I dove into exploring a few different LMS systems that I was not super familiar with. As a previous user of Blackboard and a current user of Google Classroom, I have to admit that I wasn't too enthused about trying ANOTHER LMS to see what it was all about. (Some of you may be reading this and thinking the same thing)... But after giving it a real try and letting myself explore the different tools and features available in some of the different options, I was pleasantly surprised. The two LMS platforms that I dove deeper into were Schoology and Edmodo. I had heard of both of these platforms before but had done very little research into how they worked and what they had to offer. What I found was that the two are exceptionally similar in use, but that the outlay and look of them is very different. Edmodo takes on a bit of "Facebook" style look and seems to be built to look more like a social media site. Schoology is a bit different and is organized more by assignment, quiz, or resource. Both of these platforms offers one tool that I feel Google Classroom is really missing: Connectivity. In Schoology you can search for resources and ideas that other educators have made public and shared with the Schoology community. In Edmodo you can join "groups" where other likeminded teachers share lessons, resources, and even assessments with one another. These connectivity pieces really allow you collaborate with other educators across the country and could even be used as a digital collaboration tool for teachers within your building! The image below shows some of the similarities and differences between Schoology, Edmodo, and Google Classroom. 

Overwhelmed about which LMS to try? Here are my thoughts... If you're just starting out, I don't think there is a wrong answer for which LMS to use. I think you have to choose the one that feels the most user friendly for you and your students. Even after seeing all of the awesome features of Schoology and Edmodo, I don't know that I will switch from using Google Classroom because I am familiar with it, my students are familiar with it, and it does everything that I need it to do right now. There isn't one right answer. And there are FAR more choices to choose from than just these three. I won't even go as far as to recommend one over the other, but I will say that you need to do your research before you make that decision for your classroom. Not sure where to even start? Click HERE for a great article about what you should consider before you make that choice. The most important thing is that you MAKE THE CHOICE to use an LMS in the first place! You will thank yourself later! 

Tweeting your way to a stronger PLN

Your Personal learning Network (PLN) is a fancy way of saying how you connect with other people to continue learning. How you do this is different for everyone, but this week I dove into finding new, digital ways of exploring and expanding my own PLN. One of my favorite PLN tools is Twitter! Not sure what Twitter is or how to create an account? Click HERE for a quick and dirty rundown! I use my classroom Twitter account almost daily in a couple different ways. First, and foremost, I use Twitter to share information, announcements, and student work! Twitter is a fantastic platform for students and PARENTS to see information and pictures of what is going on in your classroom! The students absolutely love seeing themselves and their work being tweeted out and parents love the idea of getting that glimpse of what their student is working on in class delivered right to their smartphone or computer. 

If you're already using Twitter, the video below gives some great tips on how you could take your classroom Twitter to the next level! 

Additionally, I use Twitter to connect with other teachers and educational companies! Because you can search hashtags on Twitter, you can find tweets about nearly any topic. I love searching #edtech to see what people are talking about and what resources and tools are being shared around! It is a quick and easy way to pulse what's new in the Ed Tech world! As you've heard me say before, I don't have TIME to do anything but take a quick pulse on just about anything! 160 characters is just what I need to easily browse through, find what I want and pass by what I don't! 

Interested in Ed Tech? Check out the Twitter users below who tweet out some fantastic Ed Tech based resources, tools, and articles! 

- @ShakeUpLearning

- @spearheadedtech

- @coolcatteacher

- @WilCodilla

- @KerryHawk02

Interested in searching some Ed based hashtags? Try searching up the hashtags below to find some amazing users, articles, resources, tools, and more!

- #edchat

- #edtech

- #edtechchat

- #GoogleEdu

- #CSEdu 

Don't forget to follow ME on Twitter @MissKingSMS for more #edtech and #EnglishEd tweets!

Blogs, Blogs, all types of Blogs!

This week's focus in the EdTech world was focused in on Blogs! I'll be the first to admit that I am not one to seek out blogs to read through.  A large reason for this is because I just haven't had the time to sit down and read through some not-so great blogs to find the really good ones. I use Twitter far more than I read blogs because the information is chunked into smaller, more simplified titles that I can quickly browse through to see if I actually want to read the article. What I took away from this week's exploration into blogs is that many of the people I follow on Twitter and really enjoy also have some pretty amazing blogs! 

Additionally, because I like the platform and setup of Twitter, there is also an amazing tool called Feedly that allows you to input the blogs that you follow and it will populate all the new posts from each of the blogs in a very visually pleasing way. For a quick rundown and a much better explanation on what Feedly is and does, watch the video below. 

This tool now allows me to QUICKLY browse through blog posts from my favorite Ed Tech bloggers and I can choose which to actually read and which to pass by. I've also added the Feedly app to my iPhone and my iPad because, as mentioned before, time is the biggest issue when it comes to reading this great information that these insanely smart individuals are putting out into the world. That's every teacher's problem, right? There just isn't enough time in a day. Well the Feedly app lets me quickly have access to all of these blogs in ONE place and even if I only have 5 minutes to browse through them during my lunch break or as I am waiting on a student, I know that I am using my time efficiently! 

Give it a try! I'll admit, I was skeptical at first but have been very pleased so far with the web based tool and the app. Not sure where to start? Sign up for a free Feedly account by clicking HERE! Not sure which blogs to follow after you have an account? Below is a list of some of my favorite blogs to help get you started!

• Shake Up Learning!
• Cool Cat Teacher
• EdSurge
• Blended Learning and Tech in the Classroom

HAPPY FEEDLY-ing!

Google Sites

This week in my Google Adventures I tackled Google Sites. I'll be honest here... I have not had positive experiences with this tool in the past and have felt that it is very clunky and not easily navigated. When I first got into this adventure this week I remember making several remarks about how the design and layout of the website itself looked like it was something directly out of 1998. 

Take a look below to see what I mean...

That being said, I did find myself really enjoying that process the more I got into it. Google Sites is a tool that allows you to basically build your own website for free. You can change the template, the look, and the layout of your website and individual pages. As mentioned before, the navigation is a little frustrating at first, but once you get the hang of it, the process is pretty painless. If you are starting from scratch on how to build your own site, the video below really helped me familiarize myself with some of the common tools and features that are available to you while you are building. 

Some of my favorite features within Google Sites include the ability to embed documents from your Google Drive directly into a page, HTML coding and embedding capabilities, and the ability to include direct, live links to any page. The image below is a screen grab from the site I created. I was able to include an example essay I had in my Google Drive directly onto one of the pages on the site. 

After playing around with the Google Sites and taking the time to actually sit down and build a site of my own, I definitely do see some of the benefits. As a teacher who previously used Blackboard and has switched to Google Classroom, one of the things that I really miss is the ability to have a place to store information and resources for my students all in one spot. Google Classroom is AMAZING in terms of learning management system that lets you turn in assignments and complete formative and summative assessments. My hangup has been not really having a well thought out way to deliver content and information to my students all in one place that was easy for THEM to navigate. I could add several folders into the "about" section of Google Classroom, but it doesn't look very clean and students often have a hard time locating specific information inside them. Realizing this, I chose to create a Google Site that would act as a storage space for content and resources that my students would need to have for an informative research and writing unit. On the site, students will have all of the information they need to learn how to READ informational texts and take notes on them, RESEARCH specific topics and find credible sources, and WRITE a strong, informative essay about the topic of their choice. The site houses important documents from my Google Drive, links to level-appropriate articles, a custom Google Search engine, videos, slideshows, and a plethora of other resources for my students to utilize. Click HERE to check it out!

Google Sites isn't perfect, but it ended up being exactly what I have been looking for. It was a lot of work up front, but I know that having all of these resources, tools, and information stored in one spot for my students will pay off exponentially in the long run! 

Google Earth and Google Tour Builder

I'll be honest, Google Earth and Google Tour Builder are two areas of Google that I do not feel exceptionally strong in. After fully immersing myself in the two this week, I now see the positive implications that both could have in the classroom. Both have different strengths, in my opinion, but are valuable and teachable in their own ways. Let's take a look at both...

Google Earth
If you're like me and feel like you need a beginners guide to how to even get started with Google Earth, click HERE. This short tutorial video really helped me understand the ins and outs of the program. The biggest takeaway I had from using Google Earth is that you really need to just play around with it for a short amount of time before you try to do any specific tasks. I had to click around and explore for about 7-10 minutes before I felt comfortable completing what I was truly trying to do. Because of this, I believe that the same would be true for my students using it in class. They're going to need some extra time to just play around and explore the program before completing assignments within it. This was an important "ah-ha" moment for me, as a teacher! In terms of teaching with Google Earth, I think one of the most powerful teaching tools it offers is the 3D models it allows students to understand. With a flat map in a textbook, students are only able to visualize so much. Google Earth really breaks that dilemma wide open and lets them have a much more detailed and accurate portrayal of the world in which they live. Personally, I see this as more of a TEACHER tool for teaching my students about specific areas of the world or pointing them to this tool to find specific information, but he possibilities are truly endless with this. Just in case you need a place to start from, click HERE to see how others are using Google Earth in their classrooms already! The video below is on the would be a great anticipatory set for introducing this tool to your students. 

Google Tour Builder

Google Tour Builder is a little more straight forward, if you ask me. I had very little experience with this tool prior to this week's exploration, so if you need a quick rundown on how to get started, I found THIS short video quite helpful. What I love the most about this tour is it's simplicity. Adding the locations for your tour is a breeze and all the other information that can be added is laid out in a format that is easy to follow and easy to accomplish. Google has done a great job of making this tool exceptionally user friendly! This tool, in my opinion, would be much easier for students to use to complete tasks. For example, it would be relatively simple for students to create their own tour over a specific region in Social Studies class, or over the settings and locations they read about in a novel in English class. I see this tool as much more of a STUDENT tool rather than a teacher too, and that is why I think it is even more powerful. The assessments that students could complete by creating an interactive tour of their learning is a pretty powerful tool! Below is a screenshot of a Google Tour over one of the novels in my students' current literature circles, The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. 

The complete tour, which can be accessed by clicking HERE, includes maps, street view images, still photos, and videos about each of the locations in the novel. This would be such a cool way for students to tell their own stories or to map the stories that others have created!

Overall, I think both of these tools have a lot of potential and would be excellent additions to any classroom. It was refreshing to see how many teachers outside of social studies and geography are using these tools in a meaningful way. Google is for EVERYONE, people!!!