Learning in Progress

These were tips I sent out to my faculty today.  I've really been having fun making photo-fliers that put into emails and print out for bulletin boards, so I thought I'd spotlight how I do that today.  Creating Fun Signs Using Photos You can create fun and engaging signs or handouts for your classroom using photos that you edit and add text to. The process is very simple, all you need is a photo and a photo editing software like Picasa, which can be downloaded for free [ here]. Example photo edited in Picasa When you choose a photo to edit, you will want to make sure that it is either one you have taken yourself, or one that is available to use, share and modify under something like a Creative Commons license.   Good places to look for photos that you can use is MorgueFile , a free photo archive (click [ here ]), or Flickr Commons , which includes photos shared from many of the world’s public photography archives (click [ here ]).   Before you dow...

New App for Follett Shelf eBooks  Look for the Enlight app in your device's app store If you have been having trouble with your current Follett Reader app, it may be because Follett released a new app for eBook content called Follett Enlight .   Search for it in the app store on your device, and be sure to download it.   You will need to enter your Follett shelf URL the first time you log in. Enlight works in much the same way as the TextFlow app for smartphones and the Follett Digital Reader that was previously used for tablets.   Check out our FollettShelf eBooks page by clicking [ here ] for more informatio n. Odyssey, Dig, and Jack & Jill – magazine Round-Up In an attempt to bring some new nonfiction selections monthly to our library, we are now subscribing to a number of new publications that may be of interest to you in the classroom. Odyssey —is a science publication by Cobblestone geared towards Intermediate students...

Last year, right before I started my new position, I discovered PowToon , which was in it's start up form.  PowToon is an online service that allows you to create animated presentations and videos.  I was pretty impressed with the service at the time and wrote about it in one of my first blog entries here .  Since I tried it the first time, the service has changed quite a bit.  Currently, for a free subscription, you can create as many PowToons as you would like, but you can only upload 30 PowToons to YouTube.  Right now, for me, that seems like a pretty good number. PowToons would be a great way for you to create short, instructional videos about difficult concepts.  It's also a great way to engage students in some of those more traditionally "boring" topics.  Even though creating PowToon can be time consuming, it could be an excellent way to create flipped class lessons.   The first PowToon I created was to introduce myself to my new student...

Here's the roundup of tips I sent out to the faculty today. Links are underlined in blue. #Kyedchat—A good Reason to Join Twitter In one of our last Tuesday Teacher Tips of the year last year, I talked about developing a Professional Learning Network (PLN) through Twitter .  Over the summer, my PLN grew, thanks in large part, to the start of #KyEdChat. #KyEdChat was spearheaded by Lexington based elementary school teacher Donnie Piercey (find him on Twitter here ) and includes a wide range of educational professionals based here in Kentucky and beyond .  Using the hashtag #KyEdChat , educators meet weekly on Thursday at 8 pm—9pm to discuss timely education topics and get ideas. Over the summer, “official” chat topics included: favorite technology, common core, back to school, what to do when a lesson fails, and project based learning. The hashtag can also be used to mark any comment or resource that would be useful to teachers in Kentucky. ...