Deb Norton Tech

One of the sessions I had the pleasure of teaching at the Ripon Summer Tech Academy was a session on Google Apps and the Common Core. One of the main parts of this session was too look at actual examples of how teachers are using Google Apps (docs, forms, drawing, presentations, and spreadsheets) to meet the CCSS.   Feel free to take these examples and adapt them to your grade level and content area.  These examples promote collaboration, require higher level thinking and many use the new research tool. Group Research Form Students work collaboratively to decide on an essential research question.  They then use the research tool to find web sites that help them to collect information. And finally the students present their conclusions. Tree Chart Students edit this drawing to insert the topic, main idea and supporting details for a literary piece. Supporting Evidence Chart Students read a literary piece and then answer questions using supp...

Pixlr Express is an app you can add to your Google Drive for photo editing.  It's a very impressive app.  Watch my video tutorial below to see more about Pixlr Express.  Pixlr has now been opened to students in our district.  :)

Wow, supply lists sure have changed over the years.  I've noticed that we have been asking for fewer and fewer school supplies since receiving our 1:1 laptops.  All we ask for are a few folders, some looseleaf paper, some pencils and a few odds and ends.  Don't worry, we still glue, color, cut and create every day.  Today our goal is to fill our students' desks with digital tools that promote creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and problem solving skills. Here are the digital tools our students will need to start the school year: Google Apps for Education including:   Gmail, Google Drive (no more Dropbox for us), Google Sites, Google Presentations and Google Forms                         SMART Notebook 11  this is usually one of our students favorite places for creating projects. Kidblog  most of our students have never blogged before 5th grade.  They lov...