Deb Norton Tech

  Hello all. It's finally Friday and its Super Bowl weekend and the Olympics are happening.   I plan on watching both this weekend as well as cooking some yummy appetizers  for my family.  Monday is Valentine's Day. If you are looking for a way to print a personalized card for your students or colleagues, I recommend using Canva which has printable folded cards available for free.  Did you know that Nearpod offers free test prep activities for all grade levels and content areas? We're just a few weeks away from testing season. Nearpod is also offering FREE trainings and webinars on February 25 - 27. The event is called Camp Engage and will be virtual.  If you register you will be able to participate live or watch the recorded sessions when you have time. Register here if you are interested.  That's all I have time for today. Thank you for reading this post. Have a great weekend and stay warm! Deb  

If the past school year has taught us anything about technology in the classroom, it's that quality trumps quantity. We live in a world with no shortage of tech teaching tools and resources. The key is sorting through to find the gems. The best tech tools and websites that actually enhance virtual or in-person learning and everything in between.  The following apps and websites make the cut because they enrich learning in a meaningful way. They are not just another bell or whistle. They actually enhance learning in ways that would not be possible without technology. Google Workspaces    Google Workspace includes all of the productivity apps we know and love - Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet and many more.  With features such as speech to text, real-time collaboration, smart compose etc., Google Workspaces helps us to be efficient and innovative in all that we do. Flipgrid Flipgrid is a video discussion tool with many innovative features and tools. ...

When I heard that Nearpod added Drag and Drop activities, I couldn't wait to try it out! Here is a how-to video on using the feature in Nearpod. If you are interested in experiencing this new feature, I created a Two Truths and a Lie drag and drop activity. Click here to give it a try. 

Happy November Everyone ! I can't believe we have snow on the ground in Wisconsin already! ! Links and Loves This week I had the pleasure of visiting my colleague, Kathleen, at South Park Middle School to see a demonstration of ClassVR .  This type of program will provide rich and interesting opportunities for students in many content areas. I was very impressed with the headset and how easy it was to use. I had some fun with a new app called Patternator . Check out my post on Instagram. Trust me, it's worth a look! This week I had an opportunity to show some colleagues the Nearpod app . There are many features that impress me. The teacher can add 360° images, 3D models, a Desmos calculator, Phet interactives along with various types of interactive ways to check for student understanding, all in a lesson designed in Google Presentations.  This video is one of the best I've seen about inclusive education with a powerful analogy to ...

Happy Friday everyone. I hope you had an amazing week of teaching, lessons, inspiration and learning. If you are stuck in the days of reading text from a slideshow and having students write down everything on the slide to take notes, consider this instead, use these sites when presenting a PowerPoint or Slideshow to your class to add engagement and interactivity.  Using one of these sites, a teacher can incorporate time for students to reflect, class discussions, time to check for understanding and a place to add additional content to help students make critical connections. The time you put into preparing a lesson with one of these sites will pay off when you see students showing interest and a genuine enjoyment of taking part in the learning. 1. Blendspace 2. PearDeck 3. EdPuzzle 4. Nearpod YouTube is a place I turn to every day to learn and grow in my knowledge of all things technology, education and self care. This week’s Links and Loves is co...

How was your week? Mine was very productive and energizing! We held our first ever North High School Poster Sessions for PD. This idea is one I have envisioned for a while now, and it was a highlight to see my vision come true. Here  is a promotional video for all of the sessions that were presented by our own North educators and technology coaches.  Kudos to all! I listened to two podcasts this week. One was titled, “Be a Good Forgiver”.  I LOVED the message from this one. The act of forgiveness in leadership and life makes you a better and stronger person.   If you have just 10 minutes, I highly recommend checking this one out. The second podcast was titled, “Moving from Feedback to Feedforward”.  The message from this podcast was to change our practice of giving feedback, which is a reflection of the past to giving feedforward, which is a focus on development in the future. I learned a lot from this one and I like th...

In this digital age of 2 in 1 devices, there are unlimited amounts of applications available for student and teacher use in the classroom. With the productivity of a laptop and versatility of a tablet, 2 in 1 devices give students and teachers the opportunity to make the best use of a mobile device. Here are a few applications that work perfectly with a 2 in 1 device. OneNote Chrome App Website:  www.onenote.com Also available from the Windows Store and Google Play OneNote is an outstanding app for taking notes, capturing images and making to do lists. This app is available across all platforms including Windows, Google and Chrome which makes it a great app to download on all of your devices. What makes OneNote the perfect app for a 2 in 1 device is that it allows you to make use of the tablet for capturing images with a camera, creating drawings on the touch screen, recording audio notes with a mic and dragging items around on the canvas to organize y...