Deb Norton Tech

A Few New Favorites Things that are Making My Day It's often the little things that keep me going on a positive vibe throughout my day. Today I'm going to share a few things that I've discovered lately that help to make my day inspiring and also give me just the pick me up that I sometimes need. Momentum - This is an extension that will replace your new tab page with a personal dashboard featuring a todo list, the weather, an inspirational quote and a beautiful picture from somewhere in the world.  Here are two screen captures of my Momentum from today: Elle Luna - If you're anything like me, you often have ideas swimming around in your brain. Sometimes I wish I could make those ideas a reality or simply stop whatever I'm doing and follow my heart to dedicate my time to these ideas. Elle Luna is an artist and self starter who delivered the Keynote at the Alt Summit this past winter. If you have an hour, or even if you don't, please watch...

Sit and Get - Lecture and Listen - Information Overload Today's students are in need of a change when it comes to how teacher's teach and what students actually do during class time.  If we truly are to call ourselves educational professionals, then it is time for us to do what other professionals do in their line of work. Grow in our practice, advance our skills, learn new methodologies and provide our clients (students) with the most effective and up-to-date experiences that we can.   Today, I am sharing with you one method that can make a change in your teaching and more importantly, make a difference in student learning.  Design Thinking - What is it? Design Thinking a methodology used by designers to solve  complex problems, and find desirable solutions for clients. The Design Thinking Model can be broken down into 5 steps: Explanation Imagine a classroom lesson where students become aware of a problem or issue that affects othe...

Personalized Learning - Five Simple Ways Sometimes it is the simple tools that can make a big impact on personalizing learning for teachers and students.  This Chat with Deb will show five simple ways to make the learning personalized by academically supporting each learner to their specific needs. Click here to view the presentation. If you decide to use any of the tools shared in this Chat with Deb, let me know how it goes. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you to Intel Engage for sponsoring this Chat with Deb.

Poetry Month is Right Around the Corner Are you getting ready for Poetry Month in April? If so, I have some resources to share with you for creating concrete poems. Concrete poems are words written in a shape to convey a poem. They look like this: Recently I went on a mission to search for a site to use with a fellow colleague and her students. They wanted to make concrete poetry on their Chromebooks. There aren't many sites that allow the user to actually write words into any shape.  There is the Read, Write, Think interactive for Theme Poetry.  Here is what it looks like. The words can be added inside of a shape. The interactive guides students through the writing process There is a site from WildAboutWoods.org  where a person can choose a shape or draw one of their own and add words inside of the shape. There are word banks to choose from or a person can type in their own words to add to the shape. I like that adding words is as simple as click ...