Awesome iPad App: ChatterPix Kids

ChatterPix Kids is an awesome free app that students can use to make any anything talk - animals, rocks, friends, and more. Simply take any photo, draw a line to make a mouth, and record your voice.  Then share your Pix with friends and family as silly greetings, playful messages, creative cards, or even fancy book reports. The free ChatterPix app is designed for adults and includes options...

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It's a Small World After All: Connecting Classrooms Globally

Today's world is becoming smaller and smaller. It's so easy now to connect with a teacher or class on the other side of the globe. At the same time, students don't always have the opportunity to travel or have experiences outside of their own state or region. With some simple Web 2.0 tools and a little effort, you can connect your class with others and help develop 21st century skills that all students need. Recently I presented at the Clark County School District 21st Century Skills...

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Where in the world IS Carmen Sandiego: A Mystery Skype Presentation

Saturday I presented at the Clark County School District's 21st Century Skills Mini Conference at Sawyer MS. My session was on Mystery Skype, which has easily become one of my favorite learning activities. I have worked with several classrooms this year to connect them with other classes across the U.S. In addition to this presentation, I created a series of posts with Mystery Skype resources....

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Why have students blog?

Student blogging is one of my favorite activities to get students writing. When I had the opportunity to present at the Clark County School District's 21st Century Skills Mini Conference held at Sawyer MS I jumped at the chance to show teachers about blogging. I used the presentation to share my reasons for having students blog and helped teachers get started with the Kidblog platform. My Haiku Deck presentation for the session is embedded below. Click the link to see presenter notes....

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Pay it forward: The Book Whisperer

I recently finished reading The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller. This is a phenomenal book for anyone who wants to better understand how to help students become life long readers. The book is chock full of practical advice that can be used in any classroom. Many of her philosophies on teaching reading resonated with me. As I work in schools I see many teaching practices that I believe discourage...

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Student Centered Coaching: My Takeaways

This week I participated in a 2 day Student Centered Coaching conference by Diane Sweeney hosted by CCSD. The Digital Learning Coaches joined the instructional coaches from the district to learn about coaching practices that help impact student learning. Unfortunately, a lot of the content of the conference didn't seemed geared towards my role as a technology coach. There were a few good nuggets...

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The Rights of the Reader

I'm currently reading Donalyn Miller's The Book Whisperer. This is an awesome book that makes me want to be a reading teacher or librarian! I already love books and everything she talks about resonates with me. In chapter 4 she mentions The Rights of the Reader by Daneil Pennac. I had not seen this before, but now I think every teacher and librarian (adult!) should have this poster somewhere in...

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#MysterySkype reflections

One of the hidden benefits of #mysteryskypes is having students work collaboratively to solve a problem. Students are researching, listening, and synthesizing information to try and reach the common goal of guessing the other class. An important part of working as a group is for each member to reflect on his/her contributions to the group. In her blog post Assessment of Learning via Skype,...

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Questions to ask during a #MysterySkype

Probably the hardest part about a Mystery Skype is having the students become critical thinkers. They have to think logically and have to know whether a question is a good one or not. The conversation can be fast and furious and if students aren't paying attention or thinking logically and critically, they might repeat questions or ask ones that aren't helpful at all. If you...

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#MysterySkype jobs

In order to make your #mysteryskype successful, it's important to have everyone involved. This means that each of your students needs a job to do. If you've ever watched a #mysteryskype in action, you'll actually see a lot of work going on in the room. And that's because there's a lot that needs to be done, from researching locations, to asking questions, to recording information. What jobs you...

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Finding #MysterySkype Connections

Now that you are interested in #MysterySkype, you might be wondering: Where do you find the classes to connect with? There are three simple ways that will get you a ton of connections to work with. Skype in the Classroom Website The official Skype in the Classroom website is a great place to start making connections. To start you'll need to login with your Skype ID or Microsoft ID. Next click...

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