Deb Norton Tech

Learning Menus are something I keep hearing about on Twitter and in the blogosphere.  In the most recent episode of the Digital Buzz Radio Show , Naomi Harm shares the basics of Learning Menus as one way to personalize learning for every student. Let's take a look: Learning menus are a way to give students choice and differentiate the activities for students. Learning menus have 3 parts: the main course , the side dish and the dessert. In a learning menu, all of the activities in the main dish are required and cover the content.  The side dishes are choices and allow for differentiation.  The the desserts are extensions of the content. Here is an example: Watch this video to learn more about learning menus: Here is another example of a learning menu: I decided to give learning menus a try for myself.  So here is Norton's Learning Menu for a Novel we are Reading called Jimmy Spoon. Chapter 22 Learning Menu My student...

We would love this classroom. My co-teacher and I have started a classroom redesign project. Our goal is to transform our classroom into an environment that promotes 21st century learning and mobile technologies.  But also to create an environment that is comfortable.  Our focus has been the students, their voices, their ideas and their needs.  Here are the steps of our redesign: Step 1-   I have been inspired by many different blogs and resources to help us acquire ideas of how to go about redesigning our classroom.  The biggest inspiration came from my good friend, Naomi Harm , who is spreading the word to school districts about classroom design through her company, Innovative Educator Consulting.   Here is a list of some of the resources that have been useful: The Digital Buzz Radio Show Redesign Your Classroom by Naomi Harm Classroom Design with Erin Klein Collaborative Learning Spaces - I LOVE this site!  So many great ideas and ch...

The year 2014 is going to be full of new adventures and experiences.   My latest adventure comes out of my connection with Intel for Education and Air.org.  My very close friend, Naomi Harm , is the person I have to thank for this incredible connection.  Naomi invited me to travel to Portland, OR this past November for an Intel Summit, and it was at this time that I was given the opportunity to become a part of the moderator team for Intel Engage ; an online community.   So from this summit was born a new idea: "Chat with Deb" Here is the scoop:  twice a month I will be creating a video chat to share out a tip, website or tool that can be used to integrate technology into the classroom.   This video will be posted for viewing on the Intel Engage website .   So, without further adieu, here is the very first "Chat with Deb"

This past Saturday I presented at the UW Oshkosh Google and Intel Mini Summit organized by Innovative Educator Consulting CEO Naomi Harm. As always, Naomi brought in an amazing team of presenters and gave attendees more than they bargained for in terms of the greatest technologies in the edtech world. One of the presenters was Ben Hommerding, a Google Certified Teacher,  from the Winneconne School District.  Ben presented on Google Glass and he was fantastic.  Ben wore his Google Glass and did live demonstrations through out his presentation.  I must say that I am quite envious of the fact that he has Google Glass and I don't.  This technology is going to change the educational world in the coming years.    Click here to view parts of Ben's presentation. I had the pleasure of teaming up with a good friend of mine, Tim Neilsen.  Tim works for Innovative Educator Consulting as is a Google Power Searcher.  I always learn a t...

Greetings! I've been gone for a week, but with good reason.  We have just wrapped up our second Ripon Summer Tech Academy facilitated by Naomi Harm of Innovative Educator Consulting .  And what a great academy it was.  Naomi's team of presenters delivered amazing presentations and were inspiring as always. The next series of posts will highlight several of the resources shared in various sessions.   All of the session resources and presentations can be found in this shared folder . Today I would like to share with you some very useful video tutorials from Naomi's session on using 1:1 Chromebooks.   Many teachers today are using Google Drive and the Google Suite of Apps to have students create assignments and turn them in. These video tutorials show how to manage this process in an organized and efficient way.  Each video is approximately 5 minutes in length, so in just about 20 minutes, you will have a good understanding of what to do. Vi...

Are you tired of the dog days of summer?  Then it's time to head over to the Ripon Summer Tech Academy happening August 6th, 7th and 8th in Ripon, WI.  Here is what you can expect. This conference is being organized by Naomi Harm and members of her consulting team as well a few of our own Ripon Educators.   There are so many great sessions to attend with varying levels of technology integration.   Click here to view the brochure for this conference and get the details on each of the sessions being offered. There is still time to register .   This is a fantastic opportunity for Ripon educators as well as educators from surrounding communities. In today's educational world, it is our professional responsibility to keep up with pedagogy and technology integration.  Come and gain some knowledge that will benefit the students in your classroom this year.  Make a difference in the education of today's 21st century learners.  I...

This week I was a presenter at Naomi Harm's Mobile Literacy Boot Camp in Sparta, WI.  Kudos to Naomi and Jeff Harm for putting together this Technology Camp.  I can only imagine what it took to make this happen.  It was truly an amazing experience for many educators. As a presenter, one of my sessions was on the topic of Flipped Teaching.  This is such a hot topic right now in education.  I was more than ready to share the pedagogy and benefits of using Flipped Instruction in a classroom. My Presentation: I made sure to include plenty of personal stories  engaging videos a video directly from our classroom a backchannel to "hear" from my audience digital tools to add to our digital toolbox examples of flipped videos time to work with the tools and practice making videos The feedback I received from the audience was so positive and energizing.  One success story I just have to share is about these three lovely teachers: After l...

This past week I had the most amazing opportunity to present a SMART Board workshop in the Mauston School District.   Naomi Harm  called me and asked if I could fill in for one of her team members who had the flu.  She didn't have to ask twice.   I felt like the luckiest person spending the day with just under 30 educators showing them  what is new in SMART Notebook 11 and showcasing  one of my interactive, multimedia elessons that I have created for our health unit.  I also created some flipped videos to teach some of the interactive techniques that I incorporate into my elessons to get the students engaged and interacting with the SMART board.   Here is a slide show explaining my multimedia, interactive, SMART notebook elesson: Do you make elessons for your SMART board?  If not, you should give it a try.  I love teaching a lesson on our SMART board because it allows me to be more of a facilitator, and the SMART board de...

Well, the Ripon Tech Academy sure was a great experience and I came away with so many new tools to implement this year in our classroom. Here are a few of the best take-aways. Naomi Harm is a phenomenal presenter.  She is a wealth of knowledge and I found her to be such a positive  inspirational  speaker.  I  truly  appreciated the fact that Naomi openly shared her digital tool box of resources with all of us to download and use in our profession.   If you don't currently follow Naomi on Twitter , you should start.  Course Director is my new choice for hosting online classes.  It is integrated with a Google account and I am quickly seeing all of the potential of this LMS.  Check out the online lesson I created for science.  I consider this a simple version of a course.  I can't wait to delve into Google Groups for discussions and give the grade book a try as well. Explain Everything might just be m...