TECH TIME with Theresa

  TEACHERS NEED COMPUTER MONITORING PROGRAMS! I feel the picture above is every middle school student I have this year.  "She can't see what I am doing!"  "I am going to play Minecraft with my unblocked link"  "I will switch my tab as she walks toward me and hide it" Look, I am not saying that I want to be in their business all day long, BUT when they start bragging about their ability to get past the district blocker, it becomes a game. They work harder to find unblocked games than to get their assignments done. They come in to school the next day and send the new link in an email to all their friends.  Hey! If this isn't happening at your school, congratulations! However, we have such distracted students  that if I could push a button and shut it off, I could get them to re-engage and stop this "game". You will give the power back to me so I can get them focused on learning! Districts have many reasons as to why they will not purchase t...

  We missed the boat! When I first started teaching, in the 1900s, we were told to incorporate technology into our lessons for our professional evaluation. This meant turn on your overhead projector, show a laser disk video on the TV cart, or use the graphics tablet (the one you could hand write on at your desk, it would show up on the projector, and you could print the screen for those who needed paper copies!) We still missed the boat! Now, to get technology points for our evaluations, students use the 1 to 1 laptops, teachers use LMS systems to send work and use smartboards and wireless projectors. There is no evaluation on how this technology is incorporated into the lessons and learning.  Technology is so much more than a teacher turning on the projector and students using the  screen for learning (or pretending to learn). If we look at the infographic below, we clearly need to have more professional development for classroom teachers on the integration of technology...

Teachers!  No fluff!  Usable Ideas!  Incorporate Meaningful Technology!  LET'S GO!   Check out this activity and resource! Google Slides Photo Words Activity: This activity is powerful and can be used for so many projects! I like this for an SEL activity where students choose a word or goal for the year, put a meaningful image IN the word, and create a poster. It can be done on GOOGLE SLIDES! These could be printed and displayed. The example below I created using the word FORWARD with a sunrise to represent moving forward in the new year and letting the light in. This activity comes from Eric Curts. If you are a GOOGLE school, make sure you follow  controlaltachieve.com . His blog, twitter, you tube channel, and e-mail group is filled with so many wonderful technology ideas from EdTECH links of the week, updates on Google changes, new extensions, and so much more!