Tech+Tip+Tuesdays

November 4, 2014

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 * Remind**

Remind is a texting app that you can use to send messages to your students and their parents. It is a wonderful tool to use in addition to your other communication endevours. Remind can be used on your laptop as well as iOS and Android devices.


 * Remind (formerly known as Remind 101) is a safe, classroom-friendly communication tool to help teachers send messages, en masse, to groups of students and parents. Using the tool, teachers can send one-way messages to students and families without disclosing personal contact information, and without students and families having to share theirs.


 * Remind works well as efficient means to reinforce communication systems you've already got in place. In addition to a class blog, teacher website, or hard copy assignment sheet, you can send a one-way text message to remind students about important due dates, upcoming tests and quizzes, schedule changes, field trips, or other pertinent information. (Common Sense: Graphite)

Read the full review on Remind at []

Thanks to Andrew Sneddon, teacher at BCS for suggesting today’s tech tip.

October 28, 2014

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 * Yammer**

Today’s tip is about resources and an online source that I use to share cool new things that I find and think a teacher or two might find applicable to their students’ learning.

The name of the site is called //Yammer//, a private social network restricted to people within our ‘company’, Living Sky School Division. You sign in with your school division email and see a Facebook like interface that allows you to post updates, photos, etc. Once you login you can follow all conversations or you can choose individuals to follow. I regularly post links about resources that cross all grade levels and subject areas so you might want to follow me.

Sign up and check out the resources – maybe there is something that will be of interest.

If you do not want to receive an email every time I post a new resource (maybe 3/day) make sure you click on your name and then on the ‘edit profile’ button that appears on the right hand side of the window. Click on the ‘notifications’ tab on the left hand menu and then choose from the drop down menu at ‘ please send me a digest of message activity’.
 * Set your notifications**

You can merely be a browser and look through the information posted via the email digest or you can visit the site and post a comment or suggest a resource or activity that you think might benefit other Living Sky Teachers.

//November 18, 2014//
 * Tech Tip Tuesday **

This week is **//Bully Awareness Week,//** an initiative to draw attention to the serious issue of bullying. Now in its 12th year, the theme for this year is “Stand Up! (to bullying)”, which emphasizes the need for all Canadians to speak out against bullying and cyberbullying.

The Saskatchewan Ministry of Education has provided **//MediaSmarts//** resources to help students, teachers, and parents deal with a wide variety of digital citizenship issues including cyberbullying and how students can project themselves online.

// Passport to the Internet // is an interactive tutorial that teaches students the critical thinking skills they need to apply to their online experiences, including online safety, authenticating online information, recognizing online marketing ploys, protecting their privacy, managing online relationships and dealing with cyberbullying. It is best used with students in grades 3 – 4.

// MyWorld // is an online tutorial that aims to teach students essential digital literacy skills through simulating their favourite online experiences – there is a //FaceBook// like interface in which students explore particular aspects of digital literacy: researching and authenticating online information, managing privacy and reputation, dealing with online relationships and using digital media in an ethical manner. Even though it suggests that the resources be used with secondary students it is best used with students in grades 4 – 7.

The //Web Awareness Workshop Series// provides several tutorials that can be self-directed or used in group (teacher or parent) presentations. I highly recommend the **//Cyberbullying//** tutorial as it provides excellent information about the definition, the impact, the prevalence, and the behaviours of cyberbullying as well as strategies to address cyberbullying at home and at school.

You will find a link to the MediaSmart resources on your school library site. The usernames and passwords required to access the site are available from your school library tech.

December 16, 2014
 * Tech Tip Tuesday **

Lines, angles, repetition, patterns… math?

Frozen Code?

Use code to join Anna and Elsa as they explore the magic and beauty of ice. Your students will create snowflakes and patterns as they ice-skate and make a winter wonderland that they can then share with their friends! []

There are few who would not acknowledge that computer technology is changing our world and every single occupation is impacted by it. Despite this, our children have very little understanding of how computers and the Internet work.

//You wouldn’t want to send them to a school that doesn’t teach biology or chemistry or physics. And it’s not because every one of your children is going to become a biologist or a chemist, it’s because they take courses that explain to them how the world works around them. And so the basic understanding how does the Internet work, what are the inner workings of an app, those are just as important as learning how electricity works or how photosynthesis works.// Code.org Hadi Partovi

So engage your students with coding and programing activities at []. You will find lessons and activities for students of all ages []

Read more about code.org’s vision and why they believe that computer science and computer programming should be a part of the core curriculum, //Deciphering the Code: Why America’s Kids Need to Learn Computer Science,// []

Tech Tip Tuesday //November 25, 2014//

Photo Fun with a green screen and the Do Ink Green Screen App
This week the iSITS teachers helped me prepare Tech Tip Tuesday.

They first chose a free background photo from the Morgue File (//You are allowed to copy, distribute, transmit the work and to adapt the work. Attribution is not required. You are prohibited from using this work in a stand alone manner//).

They used the simple, very intuitive Green Screen App from Do Ink to capture their image against a green screen using props and poses to create an imaginative photo.

Some useful links: Do Ink Green Screen Basics (video 8:57) [] - this tutorial provides the basics on how to create a Book Burp Book Report. [] Students can use their own artwork as a backdrop. What a delightful way to make learning meaningful while you check fluency, comprehension, and accuracy. You can listen to the video to complete a running record outside of classtime.

Make your own green screen []