Category: Professional Development

These posts concern professional development opportunities either I have participated in or ran/organized/presented.

Google Cast for Education

From time to time, I like to recommend different tech tools which I feel can easily be incorporated in classrooms and change the instructional practices of teachers. One such tool is Google Cast for Education. I can’t describe it any…

My Opportunity as a Webinar Panelist

On June 2nd, I had the chance to present during a webinar hosted by Susan Oxnevad. I was part of an Edu-awesome group including, Kathy Schrock, Jodie Johnston, Laura Moore, and Christi Collins. Each of us presented a 360°/VR ThingLink…

Tomorrow’s Classrooms Today

Last Saturday (05.21.16), I attended and facilitated a session at Tomorrow’s Classrooms Today on the campus of Rider University. It was a great opportunity to spend the day with some wonderful, like-minded educators (gratuitous name dropping begins in 5… 4… 3……

Edcamp Garden State

About a month ago (April 30th 2016) I attended Edcamp Garden State, which was a first for me. Now if you have read my blog, you would hopefully know that this wasn’t the first Edcamp I’ve ever attended. But this was,…

Experience Reality by Virtual Means

Sometimes our students cannot travel or experience different places, that’s where teachers need to try and offer ways of sharing those locations with them. Enter ThingLink 360°/VR Images and videos which enable an immersive experience are just starting to take…

Infographics

It always great to see professional development opportunities which I co-plan (Kim, Melissa, & I) and deliver taking flight in classrooms. Below is the Lunch N’ Learn topic from April. ‘Student Creation’ or ‘Show What You Know’ was our umbrella…

Certified BrainPOP Educator

I’m proud to announce I have successfully completed the requirements to become a Certified BrainPOP Educator. When I say proud, I mean PROUD! It was an intense 4-week program. I found out through Twitter that BrainPOP was accepting applications for…

Videos

First I must apologize, it’s been a rough couple of weeks, family wise, and I haven’t posted. No, I did not disappear or fall off the face of the planet. I will try to get back into a groove again.

A question was posted in one of the Google Plus Communities of which I’m a member.

I answered with a couple of links, but it had me thinking… What are some of my favorite videos to kick off a topic, talk, presentation, address, assembly, etc.

So, in no particular order here are seven which I think can bring some laughs as well as connect to various topics.  A brief connection point will precede each.

I’ll start with one from a previous post, in this video we see a lesson on perspective. We all believe what we want to believe, no matter how ridiculous it may appear. When talking about technology integration, we need to get past our preconceived notions and focus on the reality.

This next one is always good for laughs and highlights how constant technology is changing. Great for when I need to start off demonstrating an update to a tool/program.

Have you ever needed the Help Desk or submitted a Technology Ticket? Here is how it was in 1060 ADE:

Sometimes, we aren’t on the same page or speaking the same language.

These next two are great for intro to iPads. Technology doesn’t replace everything…

Finally, my favorite for a keynote (I’ve never given one, but would like to one day). The world cannot function with just leaders; followers are just as crucial when making changes.

Stop-motion Animating

I’ve written two posts in the past on this topic (3/18/15 The Animation Chefs… & 1/28/16 A Proposed Challenge…) this past February my district had a PD Day where I was able to submit a session proposal on Green Screening…

“Badges? We DO need stinkin’ badges!”

I read a post from Alice Keeler, Google Drive Level Up Challenge, where she created an individualized, badge-awarding professional development tool using Google Sheets. I thought this was fantastic, though, I had one hesitation; I thought the concept of typing…