The GPS Tech Guide is a site designed to support the amazing teachers of Grosse Pointe South High School. Please use this blog as one of the many great tools you use every day to provide the top notch education the students have always received.
Good afternoon everyone. I hope this post finds you all well. I wanted to make sure I sent out the last Tech Tuesday of the year on Tuesday.
While I will be continue to explore and catalogue awesome new sites over the summer, I will not be updating the page until the school year starts. Thanks for all of the support and kind words. It's always nice to know that the site is helping teachers.
Here are some final plugs for those interested in attending a conference or getting some Grad credit over the summer.
The Digital Teaching Series
I'm teaching a grad class online on Project Based Learning using Web Tools. If you are interested in exploring 21st Century instruction, consider taking my course.
The summer is a great time to relax, but also get needed credit hours. Here is a great program that offers online professional development from experts.
6 Week Courses
4.5 CEUs
3 Graduate credits available
The Digital Teacher Series is perfect for you if you:
Want to dramatically improve student engagement and retention during your class
Recognize the need to meet your “digital learners” on a new level
Are feeling pressured to utilize district-purchased technology
Understand your role in preparing your students to become “online learners”
There are 6 course on a wide variety of digital topics that are worth checking out.
Michigan has it's own official Google Conference set for October 19th. Registration is open and I encourage teachers that are interested in exploring what the free tools that Google has to offer can bring to their classroom. I may be biased as a featured speaker, but trust me when I tell you that this will be a valuable conference for teachers looking to learn more about Google tools. I encourage you to sign up quickly before space runs out.
Below you will find links to topics I have covered on this site. Each link will take you to posts that contain the topic I tagged them.
I hope everyone has a great summer and I look forward with working with all of you in the Fall.
Here is a great blog that also has links to World History and US History. Some of the information is cross posted on the three sites, but the sites come highly recommended by Mrs. Nardone at Grosse Pointe South, so I promised her I would share with the rest of you.
It's been a while since I've been in Social Studies, but these blogs have many great resources for teachers looking to engage their students in many different ways. These blogs are worth saving on your computer to view when you have some free time. There are great ideas that might be perfect for you to use next year.
Here is a great site that teachers might need as they work on advanced degrees or students could use for their research papers. Google Scholar is a search engine that allows you to search scholarly papers. Seems pretty simple because it is. The link at the top takes you to a site that explains how it works and provides a link to Google Scholar. This is just another awesome tool for teachers to add to their tool belt.
This is a little fun site that would work on your SmartBoard. It will come up blocked for students, so you will need to access it from your teacher station. Using Fire, Wind, Water and Earth, you can create 270 objects. Your job is to find all 270 different combos. I played for a little bit and it's fun. I could see this being used in Science classes across the district. Check it out.
Do not let the title fool you, this is really for everyone. Our district has passed new policy regarding the user of Social Media. Students are using it. Parents are using it. Businesses are using it. Schools need to be using it. These blog posts were put together by my friend George Couros. Although Canadian (kidding), he is an expert in educational technology and these posts are worth reading as we enter the Social Media age in Grosse Pointe Pubic Schools.
We have many new teachers in the district this year and I thought it would be helpful to compile a list of great tools that every new teacher should consider when starting their teaching career. Do not feel pressured to use every one of these tools right away. These are just suggestions based on my experience and the experience of many other veteran tech teachers when asked. If you have any questions about any of the tools listed here, please do not hesitate to contact me.
RSS Readers
There is a ton of information on the Internet, it is tough to keep up with your favorite sites. Often you find yourself wasting time to check websites that have not been updated or you miss other sites that are are updated constantly. By creating an RSS Feed, updates to your favorite website can be sent to one spot for you to read. I prefer to use Google Reader. It's easy to use and you can access it from mobile devices. Here is a cool little video that will explain the process of RSS Feeds.
Here is a great site for teachers that want to show some YouTube videos but might only want to show certain selections. Tubechop is a website that lets you take any YouTube clip and chop it down to size. It is very simple to use and does not take very long. Just select the video you want, select the portion you want to watch and click the chop button. You will be given a link or a code to embed into a website. This site can come in very handy if there is a specific part of a clip you want to show your kids without constantly resetting the video player. This can save you time in the long run. Check this site out.
Livebinders is a great site. It is a great way to keep any or all of the documents you have for a unit or an entire class. I have created a binder for my Graphic Novel Class. It's labeled as Pictorial Literature and it was a way from me to keep an organized binder of all of my new materials I wanted students to have access to. I was able to create individual units on each tab of the virtual binder and cut and paste my documents. Each assignment was clearly labeled and easily accessible for my students. As the Semester went on, I uploaded and linked more work to the binder. Each Binder has a 100MB capacity. I find it hard to believe that people are going to cross the 100MB mark, but you can always create another Binder. The Binders do not have to be teachers only though.
Students can use binders for projects. I hate having to carry around a bunch of different projects that students have created. They were frustrating in paper form and are a different type of frustrating if they are sent to my email or are burned to a disc. I use a Mac (Love it!) and might not be able to check the assignment at home if they used some weird program I don't have. Also, I just don't trust what kids put on their flash drives or email to open it at home. Livebinders allows anyone to create the binder and store on their website. With the ability to upload PDFs, Pictures, videos, etc, the students will be able to create a full presentation that a teacher can check from the comfort of home. For Social Studies teachers, I know you like to use binders for current events and other projects. A virtual binder would be a great way for students to link to current events and other important Social Studies materials that you can check at your leisure. Also, this is a free service, so it will not cost your students, or you, a dime.
I find it is a great way to store all of my documents in a easy to use location without taxing the school's servers. It also allows you to access handouts from the Livebinder that might have been previously saved at school. The Internet provides teachers and students with options, so it's important to try them out.
Drop Box is a service I use and love. I wrote a post about it last year. You should check out this post and see how you can use Cloud Computing in your life. Drop Box Post. If you are not sure what cloud computing is, watch this video to see if Drop Box is for you.
In the old days, when you found an interesting website but did not have the time to read it, you would create a bookmark in your browser and read it later. That worked fine unless you wanted to read that page from a different computer. Social Bookmarking sites, Diigo or Del.icio.us, allow you to bookmark sites to be read at a different time and place wherever you have computer access. The title link will take you to a post I did on using Diigo with students. It has made my life a little more organized, which is a huge help as a teacher. Below you see a video explaining Social Bookmarking and using Del.icio.us. Diigo and Del.icio.us are both great bookmarking sites. Try both out and see which you prefer.
I have written multiple posts in the past about the benefits of using Twitter as a teacher. For some reason, it has been slow to catch on with others. I can honestly say that I have learned more from the connections I have made through Twitter than any PD or grad class I have taken. When I have questions, my Twitter teacher buddies will have answers in minutes. You can follow me @TheNerdyTeacher and I would be more than happy to connect you to the teachers I chat with daily.
There are many more articles and posts out there about Twitter and how it has helped connect teachers from around the world. It is an amazing tool and you should seriously consider using it.
Wallwisher
I love using Wallwisher! I wrote a post on using it last year. It is great for peer feedback for projects. Check it out.
Here is a screen cast I had to create for a grad class. Embarrassing, but helpful.
A collection of sites:
Below are a list of sites that I cannot live without. They are blogs and sites written by some very amazing people that will go out of their way to help you. I don't have the space to really list all of the sites I follow, but here are just a few to get your RSS feed going.
I hope these sites are just a jumping off point as you continue to explore the wonders of Social Media and how it can make you a better teacher. Give it a Try!
