Thankful

Happy November blogging friends! Every year I play 30 days of thankfulness on Facebook but my November 1st status didn't post from my phone and I didn't realize until the next day. Yes I am that OCD that I couldn't begin on November 2nd so I was beyond thrilled when I saw Storie's link up Top 10 Things I am Thankful For. I am so thankful every day for my many blessings but these are the top ten things I am thankful for today!

Giveaways!

Every teacher LOVES a good freebie or giveaway and I have TWO amazing giveaways to share with you!

Miss V's Busy Bees is having a 500 follower giveaway! It may be the longest giveaway blogpost in the history of giveaways because it is actually 5 giveaways in one and there are some really awesome prizes! I am in desperate need of a blog makeover so I am really hoping to win #4. You should definitely head over to her blog and enter to win!!!

Pencils Books and Dirty Looks is having a 300 follower giveaway! Aimee is giving away a few of her favorite things! What are your favorite things? This girl loves Thai food, pumpkin anything, my MacBook Air and my iPad! Head over to Aimee's blog and enter to win! I know she would love you to become follower 301 :)!

2012 Mock Election and Google Forms

I am in L<3VE with Google Drive and particularly Google Forms which are created from within the drive! The possibilities are endless and I have used Google Forms for so many different things! Google Forms are SUPER easy to create and they collect and analyze all of the data for you which is amazing!

Since the 8th graders have been studying the political parties and election process we thought it would be a great real life application for them to hold a mock election. We created a Google Form and embedded it in within the computer lab Fusion pages for students to vote. Hurricane Sandy and a few missed days of school ruined our original plans but we were still able to hold the election by having teachers allow their students to vote! Scholastic Election 2012 had some great resources which we didn't get to use but thought would be worth sharing.

It is amazing that even at a young age there is VOTER FRAUD! Middle schoolers were especially dishonest and have at least 10 votes more in each grade than there are students! Each grade level has about 90 students. In 6th grade 147 votes were cast, 7th grade cast 104 votes and 8th grade cast 119 votes. Our school population went from 650 to almost 800! The timestamp on Google Forms is an easy way to see when someone is voting repetitively (each vote is cast within seconds of the next). It is also funny to see that they were trying to be slick by putting a different grade level for each however, the votes are seconds apart and go in order 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, etc. Kind of makes me giggle but also annoys me at the same time.

Anyways, Obama won with 67% of the votes. Romney received 30% and 3% voted "other." Let the countdown until the election begin and America will decide who lives in the White House for the next four years!

November Currently and Google Form Election

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Happy November blogging friends! 

I am linking up with Oh' Boy 4th Grade for November's Currently! 

Head over to her blog and link up and join in the fun!

1. Lilly and Gremmy are my two precious babies! They make me smile everyday and I don't know what I would do without them! Here they are on Halloween. Gremmy was a ladybug and Lilly was a bumble bee. How cute are they? Our pantry was so unorganized and became a huge mess with only two shelves so my husband, being the handy man that he is decided to remodel the whole thing! I cannot wait for him to finish as my pantry is our kitchen table right now!

2. epals.com - If you are looking to connect your class globally with other students this is an awesome site! You can find a classroom anywhere in the world to exchange emails, skype or to complete different projects with! Right now I am in the process of finding epals for our 8th grade class to exchange emails which are secure through the site (you can see all incoming and outgoing which are filtered for inappropriate content or language). What a great way to learn about different cultures and build connections across the oceans blue! 

3. So for all of my elementary teachers reading this please don't hate me I know that this is evil but it was one of the selling points for me to take the technology position! Report cards on average took me between 16 and 18 HOURS. I am so thankful that I did not have to spend my entire weekend diligently writing report card comments! What a perk to my new gig!

4. I have been searching for jazzy boots for some time now but I cannot seem to find any that fit right! I can't even find a picture of boots I like but I want them!

5. FETC is right around the corner and we haven't started on our presentation yet! My poor blog seems to take the back seat to life even though I've tried to make it a priority! "Eventually things will slow down," said NO teacher ever! I mean sure June will eventually come!

6. Knee Deep is one of my favorite songs and I am feeling a beach vacation is needed :)! 

Prezi

For those of you who have been affected by Hurricane Sandy, please know you are in my thoughts! While northern Virginia appeared to be right in the path of the storm my area did not get hit nearly as hard as meteorologists were anticipating although we were beyond prepared. School was closed Monday and Tuesday and we resume as usual tomorrow morning.

Are you ever amazed at what even the tiniest kids can do? I never underestimate the little ones as I've worked with first graders for years but it still blows me away when they are able to produce awesome products while using technology. I think sometimes people think that they are just too little to handle technology but that is NOT true at all!

I have been working with third graders on their animal research. They created QR Codes linked to a cool fact and a picture during our last two lessons. This past week I introduced them to Prezi and the app Scribble Press which I blogged about over here. The third grade teachers were not familiar with either so I had to come up with a way to make this lesson work while being in two places at once. I have been reading a lot on the flipped classroom and I decided to create a video tutorial for the students doing Prezi. This couldn't have worked more P E R F E C T L Y! I was able to get both groups started and then circulate and help everyone. This is three tech tips in one.

1. I used SMART Recorded which is a SMART Technology resource that I adore but didn't even know about until I found it on accident. If you have SMART Notebook you likely have it! It is a great screen recorder.
2. YouTube can be such a powerful "tool." Don't discount it :)!
3. "How to" videos can be extremely beneficial for students! Everyone was able to watch at their own pace. I gave little instruction on the "how" part of video watching. Some students watched the whole thing through and got right to work, others watched a part, paused and completed the step then went back to the video watched a part, paused and completed the step, so on and so forth and some watched in entirety and then used the video to troubleshoot when they couldn't remember what to do or if something went wrong.

I was so impressed with how well that this lesson went and the amount of work that was completed during a short time period! I am VERY interested in learning more about "The Flipped Classroom."

Google Search Stories

Have you seen the Google Search Story commercials? I was in love with them from the first second I saw them.

Did you know you could create your own Google Search Story with a few simple clicks? Check out my Google Search Story.

Happy Wednesday!

Tomorrow I am hosting an optional QR Code work session. I wish I would have had teachers RSVP so I could better prepare for my audience. I plan to go over the basics of creating QR Codes, offer suggestions and ideas for classroom implementation and allow for work time with support! 

While putting together with a few practical applications I found twtpoll which allows you to easily create polls and since I haven't posted yet this week I thought I would share this super quick tech tip. So here is my poll which I easily embedded into my blog.

And here is what the results look like....

Show Me

Last week the 6th and 7th grade social studies teacher asked if I could  be one of his centers today. He wanted students to create a podcast of a letter they wrote about the three ancient African Empires. He wanted me to use VoiceThread which is an app I have had downloaded on my iPads but haven't really explored. I did some research, created an account and was excited to use it today...

Not so fast, do you ever have a lesson that goes GREAT in your head but as soon as you begin to execute it crumbles...

First, the iPods were not connecting to our wireless network. As soon as they would agree to the acceptable use policy they were booted. Then, I finally got 4 kids logged in and started and VoiceThread informed me that I needed to upgrade to add more comments.

Since these two things were out of my control I had to quickly come up with a back up plan because sometimes things just don't go how we planned. AND sometimes Plan B ends up working out even better than you could have imagined Plan A going (actually that happens in real life too;)).

While quickly flipping through pages of apps I realized that Show Me would be a good substitute! I grabbed the iPads and we got to work! We ran into a few snags BUT they were able to take a picture of their letter, add photos and record their voice. One problem we had was with the photos, we couldn't figure out how to easily edit and move the photos once you had got out of the add screen. Another problem we had was the inability to "start over" with the recording. The third problem was that we didn't have enough iPads with cameras available so students had to work in pairs. We worked through all of these issues and figured out simple solutions.

Here are a few examples....

Virtual FETC and DEN VirtConLive

Happy Monday! I feel a little behind in the blogging world but last week I attended my first virtual conference (FETC)! There were some really great sessions. Adam Bellow founder of EduTecher had an awesome presentation called Wonders of the Web: Great Tools for Schools. He made such good points that I have to often remind myself of and I wanted to share with you all.

1. 42 million websites have cropped up in the last year. It is HARD to keep up.
2. Use your PLN to stay connected with educators and learn from each other (TED Talks, Fcebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.).
3. Don't do too much too quickly. Find one new thing to introduce.
4. Educational technology is about what you can do with the technology NOT what the technology can do for you.
5. Technology is not about the "stuff."

In addition to these tidbits of advice he also shared several great Web tools which can be found here. A few of the tools I have blogged about or used before but I also got a few new ones which I am excited to try.

Virtual FETC got me really excited for the real deal in Orlando which is less than 100 days away and I didn't even get to listen to all of the sessions. One great thing about the virtual aspect is that all of the sessions were recorded and can be accessed for the next three months. While attending Virtual FETC I made some awesome connections with educators across the country. I spent a lot of time chatting in the lounge and building my PLN (personal learning network). @PGeorge is one of the newest Twitter handles that I follow (look I am learning Twitter vocabulary).

On to my next point, Saturday morning while spending valuable time on my PLN I noticed that @PGeorge had tweeted about VirtConLive so I followed her link and was sucked into another virtual conference which was hosted by Discovery Education. Since I had plans for the day (Fall Festival at my school and a 1st Birthday Party) I was so bummed that I was going to miss out on the wealth of information (Yes, I know, I am a nerd with a capital N.). BUT just like Virtual FETC DENVirtCon was also recorded and can be viewed just like TiVo. I haven't had time to go back to either yet BUT I am certainly planning to soon. Without meeting Peggy at Virtual FETC I would have never know about DEN VirtConLive. I am so excited what expanding your PLN can do.

Blog Giveaways

WOW! Congrats Caitlyn at fourth grade lemonade on 100 followers! Celebrating 100 followers in the blog world is kind of equal to the 100th Day of School! Caitlyn is having a HUGE 100 follower giveaway with tons of prizes. Go check out her blog and become her newest follower :)! Enter to win the Rafflecopter (50 possible entries)! 

Who doesn't love giveaways? The Hive is having a 200 follower giveaway with lots of fun prizes from TPT stores! Go check out her blog and enter the giveaway.