Tech Newsletter for 4/11

fcsclassic.com

Kickoff Classic : Preview of Featured Speakers

Casey Bethel

Casey Bethel is the 2017 GA Teacher of the Year. Mr. Bethel is a science teacher at Manchester High School in Douglas County Schools. He earned a Master’s Degree in Plant Genetics and conducted experimental research at the Center for Applied Genetic Technologies at the University of Georgia. Lessons he designed have been published in The Journal of Chemical Education. For the past five summers, he has sharpened his skills as a scientist, conducting experimental research in a Biochemistry lab at Georgia Tech. To learn more about Casey Bethel, follow him on Twitter @2017GATOTY and check out this inspiring video clip.

Tony Vincent

The only thing Tony Vincent likes better than teaching is learning. He currently resides in Council Bluffs, Iowa, but he used to teach fifth grade in Nebraska. Since 1998 he’s been a pioneer in digital learning, having a classroom website before many classrooms even had internet access. In 2001 he had a 1:1 classroom full of Palm Pilots, and in 2005 he started one of the first podcasts from an elementary school. Click HERE for more information about Tony.

Bernadette Lambert

Bernadette Lambert loves o write. It is who she is. She studied broadcast journalism at the University of Georgia. From there, she worked many other jobs – newspaper, college registrar, photographer, and even a buyer for nuclear plants in Georgia. Then, she worked for 10 years in the public school system teaching and eventually coaching teachers in all things literacy. Later, she joined Scholastic as a national reading specialist. From there, she joined the International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE) to spread the word about how rigor and relevance and learner engagement could change our classrooms.

Hackberry Labs

HackBerry Lab is a space for creative individuals to engage in designing, inventing, building, and problem solving. Home to the Berry College Creative Technologies program, it is a special place which houses the tools, technology, and community to support students and others need to let their ideas take shape. These tools include a variety of 3D printers, laser cutter and vinyl cutters, an extensive woodworking shop, welding equipment, and the tools and materials necessary to program and develop electronics from prototype to professional circuit boards. Housing programs like HackBerry RND, HackBerry Hands, and HackBerry Motorsports, we provide students opportunities to develop their specific skills and interests and share them with the community at large.

Additional Outside Speakers* Active Shooter - Michael Ruple Code.org - Tanya Cleeves Differentiation - Dr. Gilda Lyon Discovery Education - Aubrey Legrand GALILEO - Russell Palmer Gender Differences - Dr. Gary Ross Habitat for Humanity - Bruce Day Inclusion - Ray Hammett SLDS - Tammy Silvers Tech Fair - Bucky Bush University of West Georgia - Dr. John Ponder Workshop Model - Terry Haney *We are still confirming and seeking out specific outside speakers.

Tech Newsletter for 4/5

Are you still having trouble getting your items to show up on your Google Site? Do you sometimes forget to set share permissions or receiving emails to view your items? A simple solution is to create a shared folder in your Google Drive. Put all these items on your site in a shared folder and you will never have to worry again. Your items will show up to whomever views your Site. BONUS: The shared folder link can also be shared in your TKES documentations.

Congratulations to our most recent group of Level 1-Google Certified Teachers from Glenwood Primary School:

Carla Taylor

Bridget Quigley

Rhonda Childs

Carrie Graves

Angie Travis

The 2nd Annual Kickoff Classic is around the corner.  Be sure to follow @fcsclassic.  Also, feel free to post pictures from last year using #fcsclassic.  

Over Spring Break I, Lee that is, took a trip over to Athens to assist some friends with a conference they were putting on. Saturday morning was the conference, but there was also a Maker Faire Saturday afternoon. There was everything from cardboard, to knitting, to robots, to bicycle couches. Made me think, why not us? Is there anyone out there interested in turning kids into makers and showing off some talents? Email lgreen@floydboe.net. Let’s talk.

There will be a national Kidblog webinar with April Cummings on April 19 from 4:30 - 5:00

Sign up HERE

Tech Newsletter for 3/7

Use  Google Keep to save your thoughts, notes and other items that you want to remember “just in time”.  You can add the app to your phone using your favorite app store; it syncs across all of your devices. Use it for notes, lists and reminders. You can even add labels, color code items, take photos, and add collaborators. Then, when you are ready to add notes to a document, you will find your “Keep Notepad” under the “Tools” section. Just another handy tool for your educational and personal Toolbox.  More on Google Keep

Mr. Foss, ELA teacher at AMS, is using Google Read and Write to teach his students how to make vocabulary lists and collect highlights from annotated notes in Google Docs. Click on the links above to see examples of student work. This quick reference sheet is an excellent resource for those of you who are just getting started with Google Read and Write.

EdCamp Rome is full and around the corner!  If you are attending EdCamp Rome this year, use #edcamprome when writing a tweet. If you’re not attending EdCamp Rome, you can still view all the tweets from the event by looking up #edcamprome on Twitter.

How cool would it be to turn your class into a Virtual Training Hub? You are there as a teacher but since your material is online, you get to spend more time building relationships with your students. Check out Drea and Jenny from Google in how they setup the hub for their

business. Want to try setting this up yourself? Ask a friendly ITS staff for assistance.

Interested in Free registration

for  GaETC 2017?

By applying and being selected as a presenter you will have your registration fee waived

Click Here for more information.

Interested in being a presenter at the Kickoff Classic?

Submit a session proposal

HERE

Tech Newsletter for 2/28

Have you looked at the little gear in Google Classroom when your students turn in their work? Click on the “Done” in the assignment and the gear at the top right will allow you to create a Google Sheet of all the assignments you have graded and returned to students. *You do have to return the assignment before it will show up on the spreadsheet. It will even calculate the average for you as well. Give it a try.  If you aren’t using Google Classroom yet, here’s a quick overview.

Tyler Thomas, math teacher at Pepperell Middle, has created an innovative method for students to self-check their work using conditional formatting in Google Sheets. When the students enter their answer into a cell in Google Sheets, the cell will turn green if the answer is correct. Take a look at his example: Measures of Center-Mean and Median Practice.

Curious about how other FCS teachers are using Twitter?  Go to the Floyd County PLN Twitter to see a feed of FCS teachers sharing, collaborating, and promoting their classrooms and schools.

Would you like to have students do voice overs on their written work? It’s as easy as 1, 2, Screencastify! Installing this Chrome Extension will allow your students to make 10 minute videos that save to Google Drive. Have them improve their literacy skills by making a read along text!

EdCamp Rome is FULL!

However you can be put on a waiting list Here

Interested in being a presenter at the

Kickoff Classic? Submit a session proposal HERE

Interested in Free registration

for  GaETC 2017?

By applying and being selected as a presenter you will have your

registration fee waived

Click Here for more information

Tech Newsletter for 2/21

Teachers and Students are inserting YouTube videos in Google Slides, but now you can create and use your own videos saved in Drive.

For more on this click here.

Teri Pendley and the Pepperell Elementary School staff  have been brushing up on their Twitter chat skills and expanding their professional learning network by participating in their own Twitter chat (#pesdragonspln). Follow #pesdragonspln on Twitter to keep up with the great things happening at PES!

Share what’s going on in your classroom or school on Twitter by including the hashtag #floydpln.  A hashtag allows users to easily view Tweets that contain a specific hashtag.  

FCS Twitter Guide

Technology allows  you the capability to do things you’ve done before in a new and innovative way. Tim Yancey at Model High School is working to modify his instruction by using the Lucid Chart Add-On within Google Docs.  This allows students to create flow charts, Venn diagrams, and other graphical data interpretations. Need to compare/contrast? Be like Tim and give this a  shot.

EdCamp Rome is FULL!

However you can be put on a waiting list Here

---

Interested in being a presenter at the Kickoff Classic? Submit a session proposal HERE

Tech Newsletter for 2/14

Are your students researching for Black History Month? Using Google Scholar for Middle and High school students; and KidRex for Elementary students, can provide valuable reliable information for their research reports.

Have you heard about the trending “escape rooms”? Mrs. Phinazee, an ELA teacher at AMS, brought the concept to her classroom by utilizing Google Sites and Google Forms to create a digital escape room experience for her students. Put your critical thinking skills to the test and see if you can break out of Mrs. Phinazee’s digital escape rooms:

Shakespeare Escape Room

To Kill a Mocking Bird Escape Room

Twitter is an incredible tool to share events at your school.  Jamey Alcorn, principal at Pepperell High School, used it to live stream the return of wrestlers from the individual state championship in Macon, Georgia.

Click here to see the stream via Twitter

Piggy-backing on what our runner above is doing in her classroom, Mrs. Phinazee had to learn how to use the tools to design her digital breakout. To do this it took the use of Data Validation and Conditional Formatting in Forms. This is a powerful tool! See your ITS for assistance in building your own Breakout!

The 2nd Annual Edcamp Rome!

Saturday, March 18, 2017

at Rome High School in Rome, Georgia

www.edcamprome.com

What does it cost?

Nothing! The day is entirely FREE.

More info    Register

Tech Newsletter for 2/7

It’s February and Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Here’s a fun ELA/writing activity using Google Drawings to create magnetic poetry, courtesy of @ericcurts (follow him on Twitter) & Control Alt Achieve

Students in Jenni Stansell’s Science class at AMS, are developing Google Sites that address solutions for tomorrow’s environmental challenges. Mrs. Stansell’s students are completing this task in conjunction with the 2017 TAG-ED Middle School Webchallenge, a STEM challenge that  focuses on the integration of technology and curriculum. To learn more about the TAG-ED challenge, click here.

Twitter is an excellent medium for learning from others or sharing the great things going on in your classroom or school within the Floyd County PLN or with educators across the country.  

Check out the link below to see Mr. Carvajal’s class at MMS doing a Google Hangout with Cat Flippen.

Link to video on Twitter

With Valentine’s Day coming up, why not integrate some SAMR into the experience. Just to remind you SAMR stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition. The idea of SAMR is to move learning to the Redefinition stage because tech allows for the creation of new things.

This site has some GREAT SAMR lessons for any grade level for Valentine’s Day. There are no tech, low tech, and high tech options available. Get to making some Valentines!

The 2nd Annual Edcamp Rome!

Saturday, March 18, 2017

at Rome High School in Rome, Georgia

www.edcamprome.com

What does it cost?

Nothing! The day is entirely FREE.

What do I need to bring?

Bring a friend and your favorite device: laptop, tablet, smartphone with the appropriate power cables.

More info    Register