The Best of School Year 2015-16

There was a day when I could turn off school for a month or so during the summer. That time has passed, with the gears turning year round. I did take some time from blogging, but still harvesting strategies and tools from others in my PLN. It’s August and time to connect last school year with the upcoming.

​Before digging too far into the 2016-17 school year, I took some time to reflect and look back to the completed learning year. I decided to make a list, “Best of School Year 2015-16” of the effective digital tools that were used in my classroom. The list is not ranked, but as it came to me upon reflections. Here I go!

• PEOPLE - We are in the business of people. My professional learning network continues to grow and expand. The fun part is in the ages, as I learn so much from my colleagues and students. Share the Learning with all ages puts a smile on my face.
• GOOGLE KEEP - Our elementary teachers do a great job of helping their students create checklist for organizing and completing assignments. Keep builds on those skills in digital form, creating user friendly lists that can have reminders and deadlines. In addition, Keep lets them share lists between their school and personal accounts.
• GOOGLE CALENDAR - They make it better and better. All of the regular calendar function as well as the ability to add attachments. Deadlines can be individual or shared for group work. I even had student write letters to their future selves, creating a reminder with their letter attachment, to read down the road. So many school friend functions to help students and teachers!
• GOOGLE CLASSROOM - Anyone that knows me knows I’m a Gclassroom fan boy. I love how it gets better and better. Assignments easily sync with their calendar and comments can be shared on any assessment. My favorite uses are ongoing journal reflections, lab reports and open ended projects. It’s not the end all in digital assessment … YET.
• GOOGLE PHOTOS - I just love how easy it is to sync photos to my school account. I use a Nexus 7, but you can sync any iPad or old smartphone. Then field trips, retreats or classroom work can be captured and shared as needed later. The photos can easily be put in albums, then share that album via Google Classroom. There is so much untapped power in photos.
• GOOGLE VOICE TYPING - This tool is an option within Google Documents. Just as it sounds, anyone can simply click on Voice Typing link in the tools tab. Students who struggle with keyboarding can participate in document assignments and discussions. In addition, I often use when I’m unable to use my keyboard due to lab demonstration and I want to have a record of the directions as it happens.
• SPEAK IT - Meeting the students where they are at with their literacy. Students have the option to highlight text on their online books and SpeakIt will convert text-to-speech. Our science content is often far above our grade level lexile and this helps to bridge the gap.
• SCREENCASTIFY - This video creation tool gets better and better. It's so nice to use, empowering students and teachers to capture video with ease. Students use for retelling or sharing their learning. I used for video sub plans, flipped classroom instruction and more.
• YOUTUBE VIDEO EDITOR - Students are familiar with YouTube and using the video editor gives them the power to demonstrate their learning with video. It is easy to create a video in screencastify, then upload to YouTube for editing. It is basic, simple and fun. Having the capacity of retelling or demonstrating what we learn in video form is very powerful.
• AWESOME SCREENSHOT - This is such a great chrome extension tool. The ability to web research, capture and site for any project it one click away. In addition I’m able to add text or draw as needed on the captured image.
• URL SHORTENERS - Like goo.gl URL Shortener or TinyURL are two I regularily use. Both are a quick and easy chrome extensions. I do use the TinyURL site to shorten and rename sites such as my video sub notes or project directions.
• DAILY ALARMS - As with most schools we don’t have universal bells beyond start and end of the day. I continue to use daily alarms and it is super. I set my alarms once and the browser remembers those settings. The start of class alarm will play for 1 minute, to which students know they have those 60 seconds to complete laptop tasks and close to start class. I highly recommend.
• AutoCrat - This Google Sheets add on is still the best. I use for students to take/edit digital notes, reassessment forms, chaperone information for field trip and academic advisory updates. There were a couple times during the school year it was a bit clunky, but then I would “Reset Spreadsheet Settings” with the Add On tab. Cleaned it right up, BUT make sure to delete the sheet data field. Otherwise the merge will start from the beginning.

This represents my short go to list from last year. I know I will build on and modify my list as tech tools continue to improve. Please share your “MUST HAVE TECH TOOLS” in the comments below.