Newsletter December 13, 2013

Thank you for attending the PD sessions

I want to thank all of the teachers who have been able to attend the PD sessions. I realize that schedules do not always line up that you are able to attend these sessions but I am hoping that some of the material is able to be shared with colleagues that are unable to attend. Remember that there is a nice amount of content from sessions on the West G main page under "Teacher Resources: and then clicking "PD session resources". Materials are added within a day or two of the session. These often include slides, videos, and links shared at the PD session.

http://www.westg.org/content_page2.aspx?cid=578

Interactive Ebook for Teachers Using iPads

Paul Hamilton wrote an really fun ebook with 10 lessons that you can use with students who have iPads. It's only 99 cents. It has outlines on how to set up the lessons but also videos that show how apps he suggests are used. I recommend it because I feel that many of his ideas could be connected to other lesson activities. I put the link below so you can check it out for yourself.

https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/10-amazing-lessons-for-ipad/id718701088?mt=11

FriEdTechnology Blog

There are a number of education blogs on the internet and I wanted to point you to one that I have been enjoying recently call the FriEdTechnology Blog. While it has Ed Tech in it's title, most posts are geared toward a later audience and range from helpful classroom tips to motivational articles. It's well worth taking a couple of seconds to scroll through to see if there is content that would interest you.

http://www.friedtechnology.com/

Chrome Web Browser Extensions

If you are new to the Chrome Web Browser because you installed it when we switched over to Google, you might not be aware that there are "extensions" that can be added into the browser that are incredibly useful to make it behave differently for teacher use. Kristin Gregory sent me a great link that I thought many teachers would benefit from checking out.

http://www.alicekeeler.com/teachertech/2013/11/03/5-chrome-extensions-for-teachers-part-2/ 

If there is anything in this newsletter or on my web site that you need help with using, please let me know. I'd love to help.

http://whelanweb.com/

How to schedule a time to meet?

The easiest way to contact me is through email at sean.whelan@westg.org. Please let me know what you'd like to meet about, your room number, free periods, and any other info that might be helpful to me in order to prepare for our meeting. I'd love to meet with you to see if I can help facilitate any issue you might be having.

Newsletter November 21, 2013

Welcome

This is the first of a monthly or more newsletter that I want to start putting out about technology in education. I'll try to make sure to include information about a particular tech topic of interest. Feel free to contact me with suggestions on what you would like to see here in the future. I want this to be a way for me to keep you up to date on useful tips and larger topics related to educational technology within our district and beyond. I have this newsletter linked on my web page at whelanweb.com. This is also located in the "teacher resources" section on our district's main page. 

Tools for choosing web sites and apps

The good news is that there are a ton of apps and web sites out there that are educationally appropriate for our students. The bad news is that it is often hard to find the time to search through and find the correct options to try. The nice part is that there is content associate from K-12.

1) http://www.graphite.org/

This is a terrific site that allows you to search for apps and web sites by grade level groupings and content areas. It also has reviews which are often very helpful in shrinking the list of choices down to content that is directed towards to your particular needs.

2)https://www.edsurge.com/products/

This is another community driven site that allows you to search for apps by curriculum needs, teacher use, and more. It's not as extensive as Graphite but provides another resource.

I am attaching an article from ISTE's "Learning and Leading with Technology" Magazine. It had some interesting considerations when searching for apps and web content that may be useful.

ISTE Article

Switching to Google Mail aka Gmail

Early in this school year, we started the process of making the switch from our old Outlook Email to Google Mail. During the after school PD sessions, I briefly went over navigation of the new email system, how to make labels (folders) and also some tips for making contact groups. If you missed the session or would like to review them, I am posting them here. Please let me know if you need further help.

Email navigation 1

Email navigation 2

Making Labels

Contacts 1

Contacts 2

How to schedule a time to meet?

With this being the first newsletter, I thought it would be really helpful to give a reminder how how to make an appointment to meet. The easiest way to contact me is through email at sean.whelan@westg.org. Please let me know what you'd like to meet about, your room number, free periods, and any other info that might be helpful to me in order to prepare for our meeting. Sometimes it's helpful to have an initial meeting to cover some of those topics and then we meet for a follow up. I try to schedule meetings with staff in groupings. Ex: If I receive 3 emails from the high school, I try to group them on the same day to make the best use of my time and to help as many people as possible. There are days where I wind up going to 2 or 3 buildings so it is helpful to group people this way. I'd love to meet with you to see if I can help facilitate any issue you might be having.