Deb Norton Tech

  Hello Colleagues, This week's snow in Wisconsin was not something I was ready for. I'm still in the mood for fall colors, fall recipes, fall mild temperatures. .  . pretty much all things fall. Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I just want to hold onto fall until then. The past two weeks have included a perfect balance of enjoyable cooking , reading ,  webinars , professional development and projects with students .   What are you doing this weekend? On Saturday I will be hosting a webinar on Using the Chrome Browser to the Best of its Ability . I really enjoy webinars on Google and this one is going to be fabulous! I also need to plan a Thanksgiving feast for our family. If you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope it is enjoyable and the food is delicious.  Here are this week's Links and Loves. Enjoy! Deb Click here to view in full screen

  Wow! How is it November already? Time to start thinking about that Thanksgiving meal. I love getting recipes from this young lady that I follow on Instagram. She has 4.8 million followers, so I guess she knows what she is doing. November also means I'll be busy with some work on the side. I have two up coming webinars for SimpleK12 . I'm teaching another round of an online course on AI for ISTE U and I will be presenting at the SLATE conference at the beginning of December.  I'm living the dream and loving every bit of it! Here are this week's Links and Loves. I hope you have a great weekend and find time to slow down and enjoy time with family and friends. I'm planning to slow down a bit and take in a movie, some football and read a book.  Click here to view in full screen

  Image created using Cocomaterial TGIF everyone! This week was a long one. I hope you are doing well and that your week was a good one. Do you have weekend plans? I'll bet you can guess what I'm going to be doing. Watching fall baseball at UW Whitewater where my son, Ryan, is a student athlete. The weather is going to be amazing (70° and sunny) and we have so much fun with the parents and players. I'll also be spending time outside doing yard work and grilling out. I love summer weather in October! Here are this week's Links and Loves which include sites with open resources for use in instruction. Enjoy! Click here to view in full screen

How was your week? I hope you have a restful and/or fun weekend ahead. My husband and I have plans to visit our son in college. UW Whitewater (football) plays UW Oshkosh tonight and then fall baseball starts tomorrow (baseball). I love this time of year where the outside temps are cooler and yet we can still enjoy the outdoors comfortably.  This week I listened to two new podcasts and enjoyed one more than the other. Before I share the two podcasts, have you noticed that some podcasts are now requiring a subscription to listen to certain episodes? I'm not ready to pay for additional episodes for any of the podcasts that I listen to. Not yet anyway. The first podcast, which I really enjoyed, is called Best Friend Energy from The Home Edit . I've been following Joanna and Clea for a long time on social media and Netflix . It shouldn't be surprising that I enjoy following two people who are into organization and creating stunning spaces. The first episode made me laugh and s...

TGIF and happy homecoming to Oshkosh North Spartans! It's been an enjoyable week of activities and dress up days. I remember the fun I had in high school playing in the marching band (I was a percussionist) and attending the Friday homecoming football game.  Do you have weekend plans? I plan to work on some upcoming webinars that are scheduled for November and December. I also want to bake something for fall. Maybe this or this . I'll also be helping my mom winterize around her home and put out a few fall decorations. And of course watch the Green Bay Packers play in London on Sunday morning.  Here are this week's Links and Loves. I hope your weekend is enjoyable and that you find time to enjoy the fall colors if you have the changing of seasons or carve a pumpkin. Click here to view in full screen

  Hello friends and colleagues. Can you believe the month of September is over? On one hand it has flown by so quickly and then on the other hand, it feels as though a lot has gotten done in just 30 days! Ready or not, here comes October. It's time to choose a new background for the laptop and phone. I suppose it's also time to decorate our home for fall and Halloween. My husband, Tim, LOVES to decorate outside and some might say he goes a little overboard. I'll have to share pictures next week and let you be the judge. Here is this week's Links and Loves. Enjoy and happy fall! Click here to view in full screen

How was your week? The weather has been beautiful in Wisconsin! I'm finding it difficult to be indoors without a window all day. I miss being able to work near a window with sunshine or better yet, work outside on my porch or deck like I often do in the summer. Not having access to see outside affects my energy and mental health. I'm making it a priority to get outside for 15 - 20 minutes each day. Okay, moving on. . . here are this week's Links and Loves. Click here to view in full screen I hope your weekend is enjoyable. I'm planning to spend time outdoors, read or listen to a podcast, go to a Farmer's Market and watch some football. 

  Happy Friday! Just like that, we are back in the swing of things for the 2022 - 2023 school year. Life is good and things feel more normal and less stressful than they have the past few years. I've been enjoying the warm temperatures in Wisconsin and I'm looking forward to fall and the change of seasons.  It's Friday night football and NFL football season and I'm loving every minute of it. My son also is entering into fall baseball season and I'm thankful to have another year of college baseball to enjoy.   I hope your school year is starting strong and that you are finding time to enjoy the weather, sports and moments that make your days better.   🙌 It's great to be back! 🙌 Click here to view the Links and Loves larger in your browser

  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  

Happy February everyone! I love L O V E and always look forward to this month. Spring is on it's way! Here are some February tech backgrounds for you.  February is also Black History Month. Here is a useful collection of the best websites to teach and learn about African-American History from Larry Ferlazzo.  I learned a nifty little trick from a fellow tech guru and I have to share it with all of you.  Did you know that Google Maps lets you adjust zoom with just one finger?  The shortcut is simple, just double-tap the maps interface, but instead of lifting your finger after the second tap, you leave it touching the screen. Then swipe up to zoom out and swipe down to zoom in. Now I can say goodbye to awkwardly holding the phone while trying to use two fingers to reposition the map while also trying to hold the dog leash or my shopping bags. By the way, this also works on Apple Maps. Often these little shortcuts make my day! The site Take Me Back To allows you to ...

In this episode of "Life is But a Google" we will be taking a look at my top secret strategies that help me to keep up to date with educational resources, educational technology trends or t ools.

  My friend Trisha Louis shared this collection of health and fitness gifs and they are awesome! These are so useful for any teachers teaching phy. ed. or health classes. Of course I had to choose a baseball example to show you.  ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟨⬜🟨🟩⬜ ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Last week I talked about Wordle and how this word game has taken over the Internet. Well, I'll admit that I'm hooked and enjoying trying to solve the Wordle each day.  I even have a friendly comparison happening between myself and a colleague at work.   This week I discovered that there is a site which allows you to make your own Wordle. It is called " Word Rodeo ".   With word.rodeo , you can choose how many letters you want the word to be and copy a link to share your Word Rodeo with others.   Here is a link to a puzzle I created. Can you solve it? I also came across this Waklet collection of Wordle variations . I warned you that I am a bit addicted.  This is a helpful...

Is it too late to say, "Happy New Year"? It's been a while since I've had the chance to write a post. The main reason is that I've been subbing a lot in our high school with the large amount of staff that has been out. I've also been pulled in many directions with the start of a new semester.  I know that things will be back to normal soon. I just keep on keeping on.  My youth apprentice shared this site with me and it reminds me how important it is to begin a new semester with connecting with students and helping our students to recognize their strengths, weaknesses and interests. After we both took the questionnaire, we had a great conversation about how different and yet alike our personalities are.  16personalities.com Each year I look forward to reading about Jennifer Gonzalez's Yearly Tech Guide . Her post details her top choices of tech tools or sites that are worth investing time into trying.  This year's top 6 tools or sites are: Framevr.io ...

I'm winding down from a busy few weeks and feeling very grateful for a holiday break that is right around the corner. I'm looking forward to more time with family, looser schedules and lots of down time. Here are a few links and loves from this past week. I discovered a new feature in Google Chat called "Add a status" By default, Gmail sets your status as "automatic based on activity". So most people see you as active throughout the day when you are logged into your computer. If you click on arrow next to the active tab, you will see an option to add a status. This is great to personalize your status to let others know if you are in a meeting, out sick or busy teaching.  You can customize how long the status is visible for and even customize the emoticon that goes with your status. Tab Manager Plus for Chrome is a new (to me) extension that I am finding useful. This extension lets you easily see all of the tabs you have opened in one place.  You can see mul...

  “Getting information from the internet is like getting a drink from a fire hydrant.”  Alan November , keynote speaker. This episode teaches 10 Google search engine techniques to properly search Google for information to give results without bias or misconceptions. These techniques are simple and powerful.  Enjoy!

Today is December 10, 2021! We are already in the double digits of December.   This week I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the SLATE Conference . SLATE stands for (School Leaders Advancing Technology in Education).  I can't even tell you how nice it was to be back in person to learn and share with educators from all over the Midwest. I feel so inspired! Here are a few quick takeaways from SLATE.  Spinnerwheel.com lets you add more than one wheel to your screen. As a matter of fact, you can add and save up to eight wheels on a page!   You can add images, text, numbers and percentages.  The  wheels can be used independently or at the same time. There are many settings to choose from for each wheel, including colors, backgrounds and sounds. This  Christmasify extension will add falling snow to any webpage.  The DF for YouTube (Distraction Free for YouTube) extension eliminates all adds for YouTube videos including the ads at th...