Sailor Learning Nov15

Here is the first monthly episode of our "Sailor Learning" series.  Check out how we are developing forever learners!  Thank you teachers!

Hour of Code Week Dec. 7 - Dec. 11!

Teachers and students across the nation will be participating in an Hour of Code during the week of December 7th.  Let me know if you would like me or one of my high school coding students to lead your class in an hour of code.  jbengele@sailornet.org

https://code.org/learn

Voice Typing & Kaizena Add-On App in gDocs

Tech Time November 24

Star Wars in the Classroom

    Yes, the Star Wars craze has now even permeated the education realm. However, this site has some amazing ideas that will give your students a deeper appreciation of a concept by linking it to similar themes in the series.  For example, I investigated the "Democracy versus Dictatorship" lesson and was impressed with how the movie clips and discussion questions will get students thinking about our own government.  Also, there are Star Wars books written in Shakespearean?  I don't know if I would purchase them even if I were an English teacher, but how fun would it be to have students take a movie or book that they're crazy about and have them write it the way Shakespeare would have hundreds of years ago?  This site will definitely have you and your students delving deeper into the universe for answers.

http://www.starwarsintheclassroom.com/content/index.asp

2 Chrome Extensions for Reading

Tech Time 11/20/15

Chrome extensions are apps that work in concert with your browser to perform a specific task.  Two that will help our struggling readers are Readability and SpeakIt.  Watch this week's tech time to learn more.

Technology is a Tool

The image below says everything.  
"Technology is a tool, not a learning outcome." - Bill Ferriter
Read more . . . http://www.teachingquality.org/content/blogs/bill-ferriter/technology-tool-not-learning-outcome

Our students, our future

     How do you know that you've just attended an outstanding professional development?  Your brain hurts from thinking, both deeply from your own beliefs and viewpoints being either challenged or validated, and also from generating ideas from the information you've collected as a participant.
Today I attended a leadership meeting led by Dr. Bill Daggett and Eric Sheninger, and both renowned educational leaders gave me plenty to ponder.

Here are some brief snippets of what I witnessed today:

Zaption - Make videos interactive & collect student data!

After working with our 2nd graders on their individual online math lessons, it has become clear to me that learning coins and their monetary value is a confusing process.  So, I thought I would demo this cool tool, called Zaption, by creating a coin 'tour' for our future bankers, financial investors, and of course, consumers.
http://zapt.io/t8edt4fk
This took me less than 10 minutes to create and you can share the link with anyone - no login required!

Reading Apps

Today, I spent some time with a few of our high school students installing and exploring some neat accessibility apps that make reading go smoother and faster.  There are literally dozens of apps that manipulate your browser when you are using Chrome.  These are called extensions and are found in the chrome web store. Students can install the Chrome browser from self-service and are then able to install their own extensions on their laptops.  Here are a few that make reading online easier:
Readability
SpeakIt
We also investigated the Spriztlet bookmark which uses eye-tracking research to make reading faster.  When you create a Spritz account, you are able to vary the number of words per minute from 40wpm all the up to 1000wpm!  

Linking Email Accounts

How to forward your sailornet emails to your vermilionschools email.

Join Vermilion Teachers

Tech Time Session #2 Join our Google+ Community!

TechTime 3: Forms Summary of Responses

Another reason why Google Forms are ideal for assessments.  Show a graphic summary of responses with a click of a button!