Tech Tuesday for May 16, 2017

Odds and Ends A look back at pictures, podcasting, and possibilities. Hello fellow educators! Let’s look back to where we have been over the last few editions of the newsletter. 1. We saw an intriguing picture of Lennox Middle School. 2. We considered the economic and educational challenges of a school like Lennox. 3. We explored the story of Carlos and how I heard about him and Lennox on a podcast. 4. We learned what a podcast is and how it can be used in education.

I hope you found this journey useful. The goal of all this was two-fold. 1. Introduce you to visual thinking strategies as demonstrated in the “What’s Going On in This Picture” example to the right. 2. Inspire you to listen to a podcast that will make you a better educator. Join our podcast discussion here!

App Pick of the Week What's Going On in This Picture https://www.nytimes.com/column/learning-whats-going-on-in-this-picture From The Learning Network of the New York Times, comes this fascinating educational tool. We all know that our news often comes to us in the form of pictures. Each week, the New York Times selects an interesting picture and posts it with the caption removed. They include critical thinking questions about the picture. Teachers can show the picture to students on Monday and discuss the meaning behind the picture throughout the week. On Thursday, the New York Times reveals the caption of the picture and the story behind it. I got this idea from Kristin Ziemke (http://www.kristinziemke.com/) who is full of great technology and literacy ideas. This inspired me to use the first picture of Lennox Middle School to draw people into my main point about podcasting.

Google Tip of the Week Google AutoDraw https://www.autodraw.com

This Google tip is a bit of fun and a bit of STEM. Google uses machine learning to guess what you are trying to draw and helps you out along the way. You don’t think I could draw a car this well on my own do you?! Here’s a quick video explaining Google AutoDraw.

What I've been training on Audio and Video Production Evidence of great learning is a big priority for me, and I have been thinking about how students can produce audio and video content for this purpose. See more of this vision here. Of course, one way students can do this is by producing their own podcast!

Teachers Using Technology Do you know of a great use of technology by a Westfield Teacher? Share your own technology tip with me or nominate another teacher! Teacher of the Week: Sandy Nerney, 3rd Grade teacher at WWES Tool: SpellingCity https://www.spellingcity.com Technology Items: 1. Spelling City app 2. Computer 3. iPads Sandy uses Spelling City to differentiate spelling practice and to proctor spelling tests. Depending on their level, students in her class have 1 or 2 spelling lists of the 4 available each week. That could turn into a lot of paperwork, but Sandy has turned to SpellingCity.com to handle a lot of the practice work and test taking. She give students a list of spelling words, but they can choose how they want to practice them at home and at school on the different Spelling City games available online. It’s easy to find their individual spelling lists without having an account, and it’s fun to practice with the interactive games. On test day, students find their test in the app, Sandy approves them to begin, and then a few minutes later their grade is shown, with mistakes corrected on-screen. Sandy can then record scores individually. Because students take the test on an iPad with headphones, the students can have a certain word read to them multiple times or have the word used in a sentence. That’s some great individualized learning! This innovative use of technology frees up Sandy’s time so she can work on other things, and the kids are more engaged in the “practice spelling words” process. Proactive students can even get a jump on next week’s words any day of the week! Connect with Sandy:    nerneys@wws.k12.in.us    x7936

Access the archive of past newsletters in this shared Google Drive Folder. WWS Tech Tuesday Newsletter Archive Access our Google+ Community here.