Deb Norton Tech

Recently I shared with our staff a Google Site that I created for our literacy class.  The site incorporates screen captures from the book that we were reading and a Google Form.  The end result looks somewhat like the format that the new Smarter Balanced Assessment test will have. The staff showed interest in learning how I created this site, so I have created a video tutorial showing what I did. Look below the video for the video content if you would like to watch a certain portion of the video. Video Content 0:00 Introduction and sample 0:50 Create a Google Site 1:13 Select a theme for the Google Site 1:30 Change the Logo or Header 2:34 Create pages 3:18 Screen Captures using Snipping Tool (Windows 7 or later) 4:32 Insert the screen captures 5:40 Insert a Google Form Click here to view a video tutorial on How to Create a Google Form Thank you for watching my video.  I hope you consider creating your own Google Site for Literacy.  Let me know if you have any

As you may know, I have been facilitating the current term of RAP  sessions.  RAP stands for Ripon Academy for Professionalism and it is professional development for new teachers as well as any veteran teachers that want to join.  I am very thankful for being given this opportunity. Each week my co-facilitator, Kathy Davis, and I have been leading the session.  So far this year we have covered a lot of great topics including:  Using  Surveys, Polls and Backchannels; Making Flipped Videos Using Jing or Educreations;  Using iMovie to Make a Book Trailer or Video;  Using and Creating QR codes;  Troubleshooting, Tips, and Tricks. This past week we decided to do a RAP Smackdown (Kathy's great idea).  In a Smackdown each person in our group was asked to share a site or tool that they use in their classroom. Here are the sites / tools that were shared: #1 - Flocabulary - Hip Hop videos that bring vocabulary to the classroom through videos. #2 - Frank Gregorio's You

Have you heard of the website IXL.com ?   IXL is a site with math exercises.   I have seen this site many times over the past year, and I have used a few of the activities with my students on a few occasions, but I have never really looked into what IXL has to offer. Then, one day, my 6th grade son, Robert, shared at the dinner table that his favorite class was math because he had finally mastered an activity on IXL that he had been working on for a few days.  I asked him more questions about the IXL site and he told me that his math teacher assigns different math activities for the students to work on and that it was fun and really challenging. Seeing how enthralled my son was with this site, I knew that I had to look further into IXL . So, I signed up for the free one month trial membership and made a class roster which created logins for my students.   IXL costs $199 per year for a classroom account. Then I realized that the unit we were about to start in math

Meograph is a Web 2.0 tool for creating a four dimensional presentation.  I wrote about it once before here .  I've been waiting for just the right opportunity to Meograph , and this past week we did.   My students read about immigration in the United States.  The text covered immigration from the 1800s to the present.  It also describes a variety of counties that immigrated to the U.S., the reasons why they immigrated, and where the different groups settled. To show understanding of the text, I had the students create a presentation using the Web 2.0 tool called Meograph .  It is free and we signed up with just an email and password.   Meograph creates a timeline based presentation with the integration of Google Maps, images, text, dates, and narration.  It was the perfect match to show what students had learned. Here is an example of a Meograph created by one of my students: No question about it!  This student really absorbed the text and was able to show his kn

Here are a few things that I have come across lately.  I guess I'm feeling sort of random today.   #1   Finland Schools are Pretty Impressive - Check out this infographic . #2   Zoopz.com is a site with Brain Games.  #3   A Very Cute You Tube Video on Photosynthesis  from TED Ed. #4  26 Things You Never Want to See Under a Microscope #5 Educational Cartoons and Jokes on Scoop.it # 6 Twelve Successful Stars with Learning Disabilities #7 Lastly, a quote to keep us humble that I made with the site Picfont.com

Story boarding is creating graphic organizers in the form of illustrations or graphics displayed in a sequence to visualize stories. Here are two sites that are very nice for story boarding. Picture a Story -  This sites lets students choose the many features of their story including genre, background, characters, props and the script.  It also allows the student to record their story and then email the story to multiple email addresses.   Story Board That - Story Board That has a drag and drop interface that is super easy to use.  Students choose the characters, scene, and speech bubbles.  They need an account to share and save their story board.

I have become a true believer in using blended learning in our 1 to 1 computer classroom.  Blended learning is an approach that combines face to face classroom methods with computer- centered activities to form an integrated instructional approach.   Blended learning gives my students the opportunity to access digital media content any time that they need it.  It also is strengthening their computer literacy skills through the multi-media rich content.  Our students are really loving learning through different modes of blended learning. Here are some of the ways that I have been creating blended learning lessons and units for my students: #1 - Schoology Schoology is a free LMS that I have been using quite a bit lately.  What I love is the fact that it helps to organize and host the content  in one place.  Students can access videos,  quizzes, discussions, files and links easily.  I also love that my students can turn in an assignment from their Google Drive and I only

We all know that students love to learn through games, so I believe it is well worth the extra 10 - 15 minutes of your class time, once or twice a week, to allow students some gaming time on the computer to reinforce the skills that you are teaching.  Too often we don't want to give students any "free" time because we have so much to teach them, or they need extra time to get their work done.  I tend to think differently.  I think students will learn important lessons from the challenge and self-discovery of exploring a game on a site that reinforces what I have taught them.  I'm willing to cut my lesson short once a week to allow for some gaming time.  I'm even willing to shorten an assignment once a week to gain some extra time.   A few guidelines to consider:  Play the game yourself and see if the game  appropriately challenges your students.   If the game has directions, I don't teach the game to the students.  They need to read the directions

My son, Ryan, needed to do several projects for his Social Studies class, where they are studying the Revolutionary War.  One of the projects was to create a Facebook Page for a famous person from the Revolutionary War. I showed him the site Fakebook , and he was off!   Fakebook allows a person to create a fake Facebook page for anyone they choose.  The site was fairly easy to use.  Ryan watched the 1 min. and 41 sec. tutorial.  Ryan had to create the information and posts that the historical figures would have said.  This was true synthesis of the information he had learned.   Click here to see Ryan's work in progress for his Fakebook of Paul Revere.  He ended up with much more than this page shows, but I have since misplaced the link.  In the end, Ryan printed off the Fakebook page and turned it into the teacher.  He also could have gone paperless and just shared the link with his teacher. There is a gallery of Fakebooks for people to peruse through which helpe