When I set out for college and my career of choice, I was determined to be a powerful accountant for a large company. After graduating with my BBA and getting a great accounting job, I soon found that I wanted to make a difference rather than make a lot of money for someone else. I knew that I loved kids and cherished my education. After losing my job, I entered a Master’s program in education and the rest is history! In the last 10 years, I have spent many hours/days learning and researching as much as I could about education. While I believe great educators have mastered an art, I do believe there is much science that can be used to benefit the art.

Why do I love education?

1. I LOVE the ability to make a difference in the lives of children!
2. I LOVE the ability to make a difference in the lives of educators!
3. I LOVE working with teachers passionate about teaching children and making them better people.
4. I LOVE sharing things I have learned with others and seeing the light bulb come on and excitement generated!
5. I LOVE engaging in conversations regarding the improvement of our education system and providing a richer learning environment for students.

I am currently at a mobile learning conference that I will blog about soon. I have been surrounded by passionate educators and people that want to make a difference in education. To move past the rhetoric of what why we need to change, perhaps we should first reflect on the reasons we work in education! I hope you will share with me and others regarding the reasons you LOVE education! I hope this will not only serve as an inspiration for your day-to-day passion, I hope it will lead to deeper discussions regarding how we can embrace the students that are entering our schools today and help prepare them for their world!

The Win a Wireless Lab sweepstakes

Who: Public and private school teachers, administrators, school technology specialists and district employees

What: Ninth-annual sweepstakes awards three grand prizes of 21st-century classrooms from CDW-G and Discovery Education. Some of the prizes include a $5,000 digital media grant from Discovery Education, 20 notebook or tablet computers, and three wireless access points.

When: January 3 through May 6.

Where: Online

How: Applicants can enter the contest once a day online at http://www.discoveryeducation.com/cdwg or from the entry page, where they can post about the contest on Twitter. The Twitter method doubles their entry each day.

Why: “Educators today are challenged to create digital learning environments that mirror how students interact with the world outside the classroom,” said Mary Rollins, vice president of education partnerships at Discovery Education. “The Win a Wireless Lab sweepstakes gives schools the chance to win the hardware, content and training that empower educators to meet today’s 21st-century students in the digital world in which they live and learn.”

The Follett Challenge

Who: Private and public school librarians who actively champion an information literacy-based school program for students

What: A contest that awards prizes to school libraries that do the best job of applying technology, content and creativity in ways that engage students and foster literacy and critical thinking.

Five prizes, including a $35,000 first place prize and a sixth $10,000 prize will be awarded. Prizes will be good toward Follett products and services.

When: February 1 through June 1. Video voting begins June 23

Where: Online

How: Complete an application and submit a 3 to 5 minute video describing the program

Why: “A library’s ability to improve student performance depends in large part on the resources made available to them,” said Chuck Follett, President and CEO of Follett Corporation.  “Through this challenge, we’re committed to drawing attention to the undeniable connection between well-run libraries and student performance to ensure that one of our most important educational resources receives the attention and funding it deserves.”

Top Educational Videos:

1. I Need My Teachers to Learn – Great points!

2. A Vision of K-12 Students Today – Not new but still great!

Top Internet Tools:

3. Dropbox – Use it to store research for my doctoral program, share files with others and between computers.

4. Google Docs – Collaborate with others on office documents and share between computers.

Top Web 2.0 Tools:

5. Livebinders – Create a digital binder of your favorite resources or search for binders for use in your classroom.

6. Animoto – Create custom videos from photos in seconds!

Top Resource Sharing Blogs and Wikis:

7. Free Technology for Teachers – Excellent resource for teachers looking for new classroom technology.

8. Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day – Great websites and a must see Best Of series.

9. Cools Tools for Schools – A wiki full of websites to use in the classroom!

Best Place to Build Your PLN (Personal Learning Network):

10. The Educator’s PLN – Great place to connect with other educators and find great resources.

This is definitely not an all-inclusive list, but it does reflect the 10 places I go to regularly to gather or create resources.  You can always visit http://kristastechtidbits.pbworks.com/ to find more sites that I have explored if you are interested.  If you are new to technology in education, I do hope that you will take a few minutes and visit the sites you aren’t familiar with:)

Happy 2011!  I hope it’s another great one!

Between my job, school and home, I find myself working on 4 to 5 computers per week.  I also have an iPhone and iPad that I use pretty regularly.  One of my largest frustrations is to get ready to work on a computer and realize that the file I need is saved on a different computer!  When I started using Dropbox, it helped me solve that problem!

Dropbox allows you to save files to a folder and access it from your account on any computer via the Internet.  You can also download it as a folder on your computer that you can save directly to and access from the other computers and/or the Internet.  One of my favorite components is the ability to share a folder with other Dropbox users.  For example, you could share a variety of file types pertaining to a lesson with other teachers in your component.

Dropbox is a great, free way to save your files and have them backed up automatically! You can also send referrals to friends and colleagues.  Then you can gain extra space in your Dropbox when they create their account.  If you have a smart phone (such as iPhone) or other device (such as an iPad), I recommend you taking a look at the apps that will interact with Dropbox!  They also enhance the options and usability of Dropbox!

Please share how you do or plan on using Dropbox for education!

With the help of Dropbox (free), Noterize ($2.99), and GoodReader ($0.99), I can download my documents anytime/anywhere and save them in Dropbox.  Then I pull them into Noterize to highlight and annotate.  Once I am done, I export back to Dropbox where I keep a copy if I need to print.  Then I move a copy into GoodReader where I can keep my research organized in folders and pull as I need to!

I don’t like to print a lot of extra documents, and I love to read on my iPad!  This is definitely my find of the week/month/year!  We’ll see how far it takes me, but I am excited about the possibilities these apps have together for PDF reading and annotating!

What is your recent find of the week/month/year???

Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/opensourceway/4383230458/

As the Internet weaves its way into most homes and schools venture into the 1-to-1 arena, there is a hot topic that keeps coming up. That topic is textbooks! Will they stay? Better yet, should they stay? I, personally, am not a big fan of traditional textbooks. They take too long to publish and print, they often contain errors, and they are always out of date! However, I do think it is important for teachers and students to have reliable text to access for their academic work. This brings me to this week’s topic – Open Educational Resources.

According to Wikipedia, Open Educational Resources are “materials that are freely available for use, remixing and distribution.” While this is a very broad definition and I always recommend reviewing the terms of use on any site, it gives you the big picture. Open Educational Resources are free resources, typically on the Internet, that are available to the end user. The benefit for you as a teacher is the ability to bring in up-to-date information from around the world with the click of a button.

There are many examples out there as this trend continues to grow, but I want to focus on a couple of my favorite for you to check out!

HippoCampus claims to be “Your Free One-Stop Educational Resource.” It is full of content, problems, quizzes, electronic textbooks and much more. It covers Algebra (English and Spanish), American Government, Biology, Calculus (English and Spanish), Environmental Science, Physics, Psychology, Religion, Statistics, and US History. Academic Earth states that it contains “Online degrees and video courses from leading universities.” Imagine showing your students an overview or segment of a topic explained by an MIT Physics professor. With a shift in pushing College Reading Standards, I think this is a definite must see!

MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Education) and OER Commons (Open Educational Resources) are both great resources for searching for ideas, lessons, and online resources to cover specific topics. I will say that these two sites can be overwhelming if you visit them without a specific topic in mind. For example, if I search for Astronomy at OER Commons, I will receive 2, 267 options to work through. However, if I search for stars, it narrows down to 101 options. You can continue to narrow the search with keywords and by choosing material types.

The four sites featured this week, will definitely help you find new content, material, and/or lessons for your classroom! I challenge you to visit at least one of the sites and look for new information for your classroom! As you explore and learn more about Open Educational Resources, I hope you will leave us a comment and share your finds!

Welcome to Weekly Website Write-Up for High School Teachers! I am excited to bring you a variety of websites to use in your classroom! I thought it would only be fitting to start this series with one of my favorite sites – Animoto!

Images:
Then and Now by langwitches
http://www.flickr.com/photos/langwitches/sets/72157605083562304/

Animoto is a great site for student projects, digital storytelling, and organization slideshows! It comes with a great selection of music from all genres and adds the outstanding transitions and effects for you. I have been extremely impressed with the amount of support and forums available to help answer your questions, and I love the high quality videos you are able to create in a short amount of time. Since it is a web-based application, Animoto works on both PC and Mac.

Best of all, Animoto for Education allows you to provide and monitor student accounts. Once your education account is approved, you have all access upgrade for free. This provides free, unlimited full-length videos, downloadable video files, and greeting cards. Your students are granted the same upgrade through the classroom referral code.

Once in Animoto, you follow a simple 1, 2, 3 step process. First you upload your photos and apply the appropriate settings, then choose your music, and then finalize your video. See this easy process below:

If you haven’t used Animoto before or don’t have an educator account, I recommend you check it out this week! If you do have an account and use Animoto, I challenge you to create a fun video and share with your colleagues this fun and extraordinary way to share photos and content with others! Enjoy!

This morning I presented on Blended Learning in the classroom.  I often get questions such as “Why would I want an online component in my face-to-face classroom?”  My standard response is “Why not?!?”

Blended learning allows you to provide students with 24/7 access to always on learning.  Students are given the ability to access class material at their convenience and stay up-to-date on their classroom learning.  It also provides students with the ability to take charge of their own learning.  There are many options for blended learning.  It is obvious to check out Moodle, Blackboard, and other learning management systems.  There are also free programs, such as Edmodo and Schoology, to check out!  These programs mimic Facebook and popular networking sites but provide real learning environments for students.  I also recommend thinking about ways to utilize wikis, blogs, and other Web 2.0 tools to enhance blended learning in the classroom!

In the last session I attended, a gentleman stated that children will not stop using technology!  So true!  We must adapt and quit trying to restrain them and prevent their growth.  We must embrace them and grow with them!  Please don’t be afraid of technology!  Try to adopt and master one thing at a time, rely on students for support, and collaborate with other teachers to enhance your skills.  It is our job to produce 21st century workers with the skills needed to survive in the workplace.  A blended environment is a great way to adapt your classroom and students to online learning!

Blended learning in your classroom? Why or why not?  Please share your thoughts!

Now, I have to admit, I have heard of Pandora.  However, in my haste to keep up with all things technology, I realized that I often forget to explore things that are right in front of me!  I was so excited to find out that Pandora was a great way to hear the music I wanted to hear and needed.  Friday I came in, set up my account, and customized my first station.  Immediately, I was hooked!  I can create a station based on an artist, genre, and much more.  I can dislike songs if I don’t want that sound in the station, and I can like songs to encourage more songs of that nature in my station.  Last night I saw on Facebook that Pandora has an iPhone app.  When I downloaded the app and logged in, my stations were immediately imported.

I now have a new radio station on my computer and phone that I can customize to my tastes for different needs!  I am so excited; however, this quickly brought me to a realization.  While there are so many neat things out there to try, be sure to look around and be aware of the programs and products that are already being successfully implemented around you!

What technologies or sites have you recently found that have helped you or you were excited about?  Were they around you for a while before you noticed them?

I haven’t posted in a while, but I am back!  Summer school in my doctoral program, plus my schedule has been hectic.  If you are reading this, I am glad you stuck around during the break:)  If your new, welcome!

One comment I hear repeatedly when presenting workshops is that teachers can’t integrate technology because they don’t have the money for the technology.  With recent budget cuts and shortfalls, this is often a very true but sad statement.  The other comment that comes up from time to time is that teachers can’t come up with any innovative or creative ideas.  Now I know this is not true, but we all do get in a block or lag in certain areas.

Today I have been working on upcoming workshop, trying to catch up on Twitter, clearing out email, etc.  In my organizational rant, I found an email from Tech for Learning.  Immediately I realized that I have to share this information and tie it all together!  Keep reading!

First let’s address the question of budget short falls and money.  If you truly want to get technology in the hands of your students, there are many grants out there to help you.  I have seen teachers receive Best Buy grants, grants from local foundations, and many other companies to help support their needs.  Grant writing takes a little time, but it is often rewarding because not many people do take the time.  Take the time today and apply for one of the grants at http://www.techlearning.com/article/31084.

Now let’s talk about innovation.  Are you having a hard time thinking of ways to use the technology in the classroom?  If so, it is convenient that www.techlearning.com also included Best Practices from Grant Winning Districts and Top 10 Innovative Projects in the same email.  Now you are armed with 14 innovative ideas, grant writing strategies, and places to look for grants!  You aren’t limited to these grants, and you definitely are not limited to these ideas.  Your only limit is your determination to get technology and innovation in the hands of students!

Good luck in grant writing!  If you have or have had any success with technology grants, please share which ones.  Please share this great list of grants with others in your district!

 NOTE:  The Tech & Learning articles may take a moment to load, but they are worth it!  Great projects and funding by educators and companies!

ADDITION: 5 Tips for Grant Writing Strategies