PPS Instructional Technology

When I first started in my role as a Technology Integration Specialist four years ago, I was introduced to the concept of the Flipped Classroom and shortly after, Blended Learning. What I heard and read about each of these ideas piqued my interest and I had to know more. Subsequently, as more teachers and administrators within our district heard about the possibilities with Blended Learning, we began exploring what this model might look like in our classrooms. This six-part series will discuss what we have found Blended Learning to be and lays the foundation for Blended Learning that we use to train our teachers.  In my last article, we explored What is Blended Learning?  In this article, we will look into what Blended Learning is Not. http://cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/62631203.jpg Photo Credit: Anonymous Now, that we have some understanding as to what Blended Learning is , we need to process through what it looks like when we believe we are implementing ...

When I first started in my role as a Technology Integration Specialist four years ago, I was introduced to the concept of the Flipped Classroom and shortly after, Blended Learning. What I heard and read about each of these ideas piqued my interest and I had to know more. Subsequently, as more teachers and administrators within our district heard about the possibilities with Blended Learning, we began exploring what this model might look like in our classrooms.  This six-part series will discuss what we have found Blended Learning to be and lays the foundation for Blended Learning that we use to train our teachers.  Perhaps you have heard the new catchphrase in education, Blended Learning. Education is no stranger to catchphrases or pendulum swings, the same concepts creep up year after year as something new. Well, I believe blended learning is something different from the new kid on the block or that reimagined technique from days past. I believe we are at th...

Skyward isn’t just for teachers and parents, it’s for students too! Use Skyward to read announcements, check for missing assignments, look up your grades, see your schedule, and much more!   You can find the PDF version of this tip here . Login Your login to Skyward is very simple - It is the same login you use to login to the school desktops and chromebooks. This is usually: firstname.lastname Your password is also the same password that you use to login to the desktops and chromebooks. Home Screen The home screen will show you a list of upcoming events, and announcements from the office or your teachers. Use the toolbar on the left to navigate to the other areas of skyward. Gradebook Screen The gradebook screen will show you all your classes, all your grades, as well as your missing assignments. If you click the ► next to the class, you will then be able to see all your assignments for that class, as well as your grades on those assignments. If you want to see a mo...

Word clouds are a wonderful thing.  They take paragraphs of text and turn them into analytical artwork.  Many of you are familiar with common word cloud creators like Wordle and Tagxedo , but unfortunately for those of us living in the chromebook world, these sites won't work.  This snag led our amazing building tech, Joshua, on a quest to find some word cloud creators that will work well on the chromebooks so our teachers and students can continue to build their beautiful work art.  Below you will find the results of his quest... Tagxedo doesn’t work in Chrome, and Wordle is finicky. What to do? Try another word cloud creator, like  www.wordclouds.com . You’ll be greeted with a generic word cloud. No sign-in necessary. Your first step is to add some text to the word cloud. Click File>Paste/Type text: This opens a window for entering your words. This takes text from anywhere, and the more times a word occurs in the text, the larger it will appea...

Are you using Google Classroom? Are you finding difficulty managing your email from assignments and posts from Classroom? Then check out below this simple, yet highly effective strategy! Disclaimer: I cannot even pretend to take credit for this one. The original post is from Alice Keeler: Teacher Tech , but I heard about it from our own  Malena Schrauben  through this incredible Professional Development tool called  Twitter . The idea here is to use a hashtag in the title of each of your assignments. Then in gmail, filter messages out of your inbox based on that hashtag. Genius! Examples... Math Class: #alg1 #extsn Exponents Power Rule Social Studies: #SS7th #discuss Civil War Causes Science: #sci8th #insectcollect Pinning a Butterfly Notice that I tried to create examples that could group email by class, grade level, assignment type, or project.  Hopefully, these examples will get you thinking. I am certain you will develop better uses on your own. Als...

The comments section of the elementary report card is probably the section that is the most read by the parents.  Therefore, it is important to proofread your comments carefully.  Sometimes it is easier to proofread the comments when you don't have all the other parts of the report card distracting you.  Here is a quick way to run a report that includes only the comments.  To see the video directions, click here . Step 1: Open your learner behaviors gradebook Step 2: Under the REPORTS menu, select 'Standards Based Report Card' Step 3: Click 'Add a new Template' Step 4: Name the template and click 'Save' Step 5: Select the quarter you wish to view Step 6: Check the boxes for 'Print comments only' and 'Print for this class only' Step 7: Click 'Save' Step 8: If you only want to print for a couple students - click 'Select Different Students' and choose the students.  If you want to print for everyone - ignor...