Flair Pens and Lattes

Today, I was given the opportunity to be a beta tester for the Kahoot app after seeing a tweet seeking testers. It seemed perfect to talk about on my blog today. As many of you know, I have a bit of an obsession with Kahoot. I even won one of their T-shirts at iPadpalooza 2015.  Since learning about it at iPadpalooza 2014, I have been a fan of this web-based learning platform. So were my sixth grade students. Kahoot test review days were some of their favorites. Many of my students had iPhones or other phones connected to the web, so I didn't usually have to reserve devices which was wonderful. They loved it!!!! Sixth grade ELA final test review of 2014-2015. If you don't already know what Kahoot is, let me tell you. Kahoot is a game based quiz platform. The teacher creates the quiz. Pictures and videos can be added to the questions as well.  You can also choose from quizzes that are already made, but I created my own. Kids go to kahoot.it and use a game pin to access ...

Today, I spent some time creating with the free iPad app Canva so it seemed like the perfect app to talk about on the blog today! When I first learned about Canva during an iPadpalooza 2015, I was not a big fan of it. Though I created a few things with it, I got frustrated. I didn't think it was user friendly. When I re-visited the app this past Saturday at the ISTE HackEd Smackdown session, I decided to give it a second chance. First things first-- Canva is a graphic design tool. I prefer to use the iPad app, but you can also design online. When you log onto Canva, you can choose from a variety of templates--social media, instagram post, poster, blog graphic, facebook cover, photo college, Pinterest graphic, business card and so many more. When I began designing the Facebook and Twitter cover for this blog, I chose the Facebook Cover. After choosing your template you can choose your layout, background and add text. Some of the backgrounds require you to pay for them but most ...

Up until March 2013 (my senior year of college), I was against using Twitter. At all. I thought it was unnecessary. I think I tweeted out a couple of times before taking about a year hiatus from using the app/website. When I moved into a role student teaching at a technologically innovative school, I saw my mentor using Twitter to tweet out what her class was doing. I also remember her telling me that I was going to have to use Twitter during my six-week session lead teaching.  Fast forward to 2017. Over 1,190 tweets later I have seen the value of using Twitter in education for two reasons. Every teacher should have one.  Reason 1: It's a way to communicate with parents if your district lets you tweet out pictures of students at work as long as they remain anonymous. I created my own class account to do this called Miss Norman's class. I haven't had a chance to use it but I plan to at my next school! A great way to do this is to have students write the short tweet ou...

Four years ago, I had no idea what ISTE was. Or TCEA. I had barely used an iPad or Twitter. I was preparing to enter Trinity's MAT program and was fearful of technology. That fall, I was placed in a second grade classroom with eleven iPads and two SMARTboards with a phenomenal veteran mentor teacher who I still consider a friend. She inspired my educational technology journey. Fast forward to the end of the year. I'm doing my presentation the night before receiving my Masters on how I used technology during my student teaching year. I loved using technology and it became a cornerstone of my teaching, as much as integrating the arts. Before receiving my Masters, I earned my BA in Theatre and spent summers as an intern at The Magik Children's Theatre. I will always fight for arts education in schools. (I'm currently listening to Hamilton's "Satisfied" as I write this post.) Three months after I graduated, I was hired by the district I went to elementary sc...