Flair Pens and Lattes

When I was younger, I remember having many opportunities for enrichment outside of my school classroom. I remember field trips being so much fun. When I was at ISTE a little over a month ago, I remember learning about Google Cardboard. I had heard about it before, but never fully investigated it. Sometimes it takes me a little longer to jump onboard with new tech channels and apps because there are so many I already love so much. But today on the blog, I'm talking about Google Cardboard. I'm no expert yet, so this introduction to this Google feature will be very basic. First of, Google Cardboard brings teachers and students immersive experiences. It does cost, but it's relatively affordable. Viewers can be bought here . There are many viewers to choose from that bring virtual reality to your classroom. Along with the viewer, you also need the Google Cardboard app on your phone. After you have the viewer, you can go to the Google Play store and choose from a variety of app...

When I was a student teacher, I realized that I needed my own personal iPad. Ok, maybe not "need," but it was worth the investment. My parents were generous and gave me one for Christmas that year. I was beginning my lead teaching in February and having my own iPad to use made life much easier. I could test and try out new apps, and create project samples at home. It also made professional development easier because I could take notes, test new apps and create on the spot. I definitely have a few apps that make teaching and my life easier. They're simple, and not new, but so helpful. 1. JotNot: I talked about using Kami in a prior blog post, but I still love Jot Not. For those unfamiliar, JotNot is a free document scanner app. I've used it to return signed forms via email, upload my teaching certificate to applications, email progress updates to parents, and many more. All you have to do is scan the document and you can email it or upload it directly. Due to a lack...

NOTE: This post is not about technology, but it's incredibly personal and a story that I'm finally ready to tell. At the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year, I was faced with the hardest decision of my life--leaving teaching temporarily. The whole month of August 2015 was a whirlwind and a blur. I spent the prior school year looking forward to moving down to second grade and the summer writing an EXTENSIVE classroom management plan, buying decor and supplies for my owl themed classroom (that started the day after school let out for the summer) and doing lots of professional development reading. I loved my sixth graders, and still think about them all the time, and I loved teaching writing, but I never felt that it was where I belonged. One Thursday morning in August, I was headed to a math curriculum training before going to put the finishing touches on my classroom. When I was about to turn in to the high school where the training was, I received a phone call from my prin...

I just finished some work in my Google Drive so today is perfect for Part 3 of my Going Google series. Today, I'm writing about something I've never used in my classroom personally, but want to wherever I end up next. It's time to hang out with Google. Right now, I use Google Hangouts for conducting my sorority's alumni council meetings. We live all over the south so Google Hangouts is how we conduct our meetings. I first learned about Hangouts when I attended TCEA in February 2015. I never really investigated it or experimented with it until last fall. I now love Google Hangouts and have seen how many uses there are for it in a classroom. First, you can talk to experts from anywhere in the world. It's kind of like virtual field trips, except students are learning from someone in the field. As an elementary generalist, I don't think of myself as an expert in any content area. I'm always developing my content knowledge when planning. I feel that it is imp...

As a teacher, there are apps that make my life easier and that I absolutely love using. One that I discovered recently deserves its own post because it's about to make teachers' lives so much easier. Pocket is a new FREE app that I just discovered this month when browsing the Education section of the app store. I just finished teaching myself how to use it. After you download Pocket, you create an account  and enable the pocket extension. You can sign up through your Google account. And if you don't already have a Google account, you should. I enabled Pocket on my iPad, phone and laptop. When I went to my Safari browser, I pressed the upload/save button, found Pocket and then enabled it. Now, whenever I find an article on my iPad that I want to save, I can just download it directly. My library in Pocket so far--these are all links I've saved on Facebook the past three years. I didn't include irrelevant ones. On my computer, I enabled Pocket by adding it t...

Two summers ago, I spent a lot of time crafting my teacher website for what was supposed to be my second grade classroom. I wanted my website to be fun and informative just like my sixth grade one (my principal even commented on how informative my website was and parents knew it would be updated daily and weekly). We were trained on Weebly at my school, and luckily I still have my Weebly account even after leaving the district. Fun and informative websites are critical for teachers. The first thing I do whenever I find out I have a job interview is look at the school website, the administrator websites and the teachers' websites for the team I might be a part of. I want to learn about the classrooms and teachers. Parents and students are the same way. I've seen great websites and I've seen outdated ones. If you're thinking of upgrading your teacher website, here are some of my tips. I love Weebly for websites because it's easy to use and allows teachers to personali...

Google Forms! Google Slides! Google Sheets! Oh my! In part one of the Going Google series, I wrote about the most basic feature of Google--Google Drive and Docs. (I just finished using my Drive to write our lessons for the kids of parents in a special training at my church this summer. I modified the lesson plan I have used for teaching before.) In my teaching, I've also used Google Slides and Google Forms. They have been tremendous tools in my teaching and I know that there are tons of teachers who use these frequently. They're kind of like Google Docs. First off, as a teacher, Google Forms can be a tremendous help. I've seen them embedded in teacher websites, as a way to collect parent and student information at the beginning of the year. With answer options of multiple choice, checkboxes, short and long answer there are so many ways to use Google forms at a school or in your classroom. When I submitted my presentation proposal at iPadpalooza, it was done through forms....