Digitize Your Newsletter

Image from www.kimconstable.com

Don't let your parents feel buried under the paperwork sent home.  Allow them to access your information digitally!

Ways to digitize your newsletter:

Send via email - Simply take the newsletter you already create on your computer and send it to parents as an email attachment.  Only print paper copies for students with no parent email contact information.

Post on your blog - Copy and paste your information as a blog entry.  Parents who subscribe will receive the entire contents of your post in their email inbox.

Post on your Google Site - Make your newsletter a "blog entry" on your Google Site or upload a copy onto your "File Cabinet" page.  A blog entry will notify subscribers, while placing it in the File Cabinet will not.  (You can post a link to the File Cabinet location . . . as a blog entry!)

These are all simple to learn, and I would be happy to teach you (or your team) how to do this.  Your parents will love it!

Click here to request help digitizing your newsletter.

Book Creator - Upcoming Training

Click here to watch a 1-minute video describing our upcoming Book Creator Training!

Who should come?

Every single teacher in the Elementary School would benefit from attending because:

Book Creator is on all iPads on the cart

Book Creator is for all subjects

Book Creator is for all ages

Book Creator can be used to create lessons

Book Creator can be used for students to show their learning

Two options:

Thursday, Oct.1, 3:15-3:45

or

Friday, Oct.2, 7:30-8:00

See you there!

Tech Storm!

Image from profalbrecht.wordpress.com

Hey everyone!  This school year has begun with a flurry of exciting and challenging requests for tech integration from many staff members!

I. AM. SO. THRILLED.

Please keep 'em coming!  And please be patient if I don't get back to you the same day.  I guarantee you that your question or project is important to me.  I will happily deliver the amazing tech resources you need, as soon as I can get to it!

Since I am only at school 10 hours per week, the best way to reach me with questions and requests is via email at haglinb@maplelake.k12.mn.us or fill out a request form here.

A quote from the Benchmark Universe Training, September 18th

Video for Teaching Compare and Contrast to Primary Students

Click here to see a cute YouTube Video for teaching Compare and Contrast to primary students.

Global Read Aloud

The Global Read Aloud is a fantastic way to connect your students with the world through reading!

There are no rules other than reading one of the selected books aloud to your students and connecting in some way with a different class about the book.

Last fall, Amy Kosloski's class participated.  They connected with classes in Texas, New York, and Canada through Skype and Kidblog.  Check out some of their Kidblog posts here.

They enjoyed a good book together and became more engaged as they discussed the book with other classes.  They broadened their perspective as they viewed, spoke to, and blogged with students from a different area of the world.  Click here to see a few moments from one of their Skype experiences (this was a Mystery Skype, in which each class tried to guess the location of the other class).

This opportunity is for all ages, K-12.  It officially begins October 5th.  I can help you set up a partnership, teach you and your students how to Skype/blog/make any other sort of connection.  Please click here to let me know if you are interested in learning more about the Global Read Aloud.

Free Books on iPad for PreK-5th Graders

Image from carlispina.wordpress.com

Your students can each have their own account in this free digital library, accessible on iPads or computers. There are tons of titles available for ages 4-12. 

Why is it free?  EPIC makes their money by offering parents $4.99 per month home subscriptions.  They request that teachers inform the parents about this, however there are NO parent subscriptions required in order for your class to access this all for free when they are at school!

The books are high quality and there is a large variety.  This video is the ad directed at parents.  Check it out to see how the app works.  Educator accounts are completely free.

Click here to request my help in getting your class signed up for accounts.

Selfies for Learning

Image from Techie Teacher

We all know kids love to take selfies.  Why not assign a short project using selfies to demonstrate learning?

Students can use the camera app on an iPad or their own smart phone to take pictures of themselves with any desired learning tools.  Some great ideas for this can be found in Techie Teacher Julie Smith's post here.

Using an annotation app such as Skitch or PicCollage, students can combine and label their photos.  It is easy to upload them to a blog for publishing, or to email them to the teacher for viewing or printing.

Please click here if you would like to learn more about this or to request help teaching your students about these apps.