App #6: QR Codes (or Quick Response codes) are everywhere – in magazines, on professional cards, on billboards, websites, newsletters all because those little squares can be packed with information. You can even find them at the grocery store gracing the fruit section (giving you additional details of the grower). Teachers have used them to create…
App #5 of “10 Apps to Countdown Season”
App #5: Many of us have our students write stories and then illustrate the text. While the artists in the bunch do flips and cartwheels (and I’ve had those students), what happens to those who struggle with drawing the simplest shapes. You know what I mean… somehow my tree just doesn’t quite look like a…
App #4 of “10 Apps to Countdown Season”
App #4: “I hate Google Docs!” stated a student in an advanced writing class. The teacher being stunned by this emphatic state turned my way with a “now what!” look. After probing, it became clear that this writer liked the thesaurus dictionary in MSWord. A quick introduction to online visual dictionaries opened a whole different world…
App #3 of “10 Apps to Countdown Season”
App #3: What happens when you bring together an ipad, an app, words, thoughts, and sound? Why Book Creator of course. This app for the ipad is a thing of beauty when it comes to creating ebooks. Images can be drawn or photographed and inserted along with text. As well, audio can enhance both the background environment and…
App #2 of “10 Apps to Countdown Season”
App #2: We all collect lists of websites to use in our classes or professional learning. Many of you use online tools such as Diigo (my favourite) or Delicious to organize these for easy retrieval. Another one along this line is Symbaloo or to be precise, Edu.Symbaloo. (I’ve written about this before.) This site takes bookmarks and creates imaged tiles for…
10 Apps to Countdown the Season
In keeping with the season and heading towards the winter break, I’m doing a countdown of 10 apps that add spice to your toolkit. Regardless of the application or tool you choose to use, it always comes back to purpose. APP #1: Picslice is an online application (no downloading) that will take almost any image and slice…
Nov-Dec Newsletter is Out
Our November-December newsletter is now published. Read what’s new and exciting in our district. As well, you might not have been aware that you can take advantage of purchasing MS Office at home (for only $11). Click here for this edition. Or select the tab > News to find all issues.
Send Fast Information to Class iDevices
You’ve prepared your lesson well, details carefully thought out. While the iPad or iPod/Touches can be used as pickup-and-go device, having a workflow in mind gives a stronger experience. Imagine my “oops” after handing out 25 iPod/Touches, I forgot to set the website URL on the devices so my students could easily launch the site…
Reading the Impossible
Many of you have asked me if there is support for those who struggle with reading digital content especially when it is written above instructional reading levels. Every time a class attempts research out on the web, students are faced with information they cannot comfortably read. For the brain to have enough neuronal resources to…
September in the Wind
Fall is definitely in the air, though I’m holding out for those rays of sun peeking out from the clouds. Some of you have started using the online Raz-Kids for your Running Records assessments, which is also available to any of your students. This will give you a fabulous pre/post running record of error counts…
September Newsletter Off the Presses
September is filled with a mix of “welcome back activities” as well as planning for possibilities. Our September Newsletter is hot off the presses. Click here for your copy. You can also click on the News tab in the navigation bar for an archive of all the newsletters.
A New Year – New Opportunities
Welcome back! It’s been a fabulous summer, especially with the spectacular weather offering lots of opportunities to rest, rejuvenate and re-energize. We anticipate a very exciting year filled with new connections and new ways to look at past practices. This summer, some schools were upgraded to the new Active Directory – School Connect structure [replacing…
Discovery and Relationships
It’s June and I’m really not sure what happened to this year. The ten months prior have whizzed by and here we are again. I wanted to take this moment to share some reflections of the year. Our Fast ForWord teams saw a boost and challenge in the delivery of this Tier 3 intervention program. The move…
Connecting the Dots
It’s definitely spring. Everyone is in high gear especially with the good weather. Our final session of “Connect the Dots” happened last week with a gathering of folks at Schou. Along with some interventions, we were able to review the latest information on MyScilearn (teacher area). The Results tab now houses the individual graphs and…
Reading Connections and Interventions
Many of you have taken advantage of accessing Reading Levels. These products focus on elements that bridge to reading – decoding, spelling, sentence and paragraph comprehension. As well, practice with word play, categorization and comprehension strategies serve to enhance areas that are weak. The program follows the same protocols as Fast ForWord and interventions are…