I’m so happy to be blogging with you again.  As many of you know, I have taken a new job with an amazing company with a HUGE vision for education. SYNNEX is a Fortune 500 company located right here in Greenville, SC.  I am working with SYNNEX and Intel K-12 Education. I am assisting resellers and school districts as they decide which devices they would like for 1:1 initiatives.  I have the honor to work with the amazing people from Google for Education, Intel K-12 Education and the many talented people at SYNNEX. I am part of the Google Chromebook team and work with many other products that have Intel based processors.

Even though my career looks a little different than the 1st and 2nd grade classroom where I taught for all those years, my passion and philosophy are still the same.  I want to make life better for students.  I know that students learn best when they are engaged and technology is a tool that can motivate and inspire students to reach their academic goals.

One of my goals at SYNNEX is to spread the word about professional development (Intel K-12) and its importance for a successful technology transition in the classroom. I have seen this happen: When teachers hear they are getting a computer, they are so happy. When they find out they are getting some computers for the classroom, they are even happier.  But when they find out that all of their students will have their own devices, they are overwhelmed, scared and don’t know how to plan well or what to do.  This is why professional development is so important. At SYNNEX, we stress the complete package, teacher training is a must and you can get that through SYNNEX and with Intel for Education.

Schools districts all across the nation are buying devices every day, but are their teachers ready for this change? I know the students are!  Let’s plan well and start the technology integration training before the devices arrive and continue throughout the year.

My plan as an Instructional Technology Facilitator made professional development a natural occurrence in the every day life of a teacher.  I’ll share more on that thought in my next post.

Love you guys! Thanks for the opportunity to continue teaching through my blog and website.

California chrome wins again! @CalChrome #chromebook @fmauney This could be the year @NBCSports

— Roger (@rogermauney) May 17, 2014

Explain Everything is one of the most versatile, powerful apps that I have used in the classroom setting.  Check out the website for Explain Everything at www.explaineverthing.com.

I like this simple tutorial showing the basic features of Explain Everything:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdzTSeRYkwg

You can add photos from your camera roll and edit the photos in a very creative way.  Watch this video for some amazing tips:  http://vimeo.com/76894396

Here is a first grade Explain Everything video about the Life Cycle of Butterflies

One more resource for you to refer to is this website of video tutorials at morriscooke.com

Publish Student Work

After attending several technology conferences this summer, one of the greatest “aha moments” that I would like to share with you is how powerful it is to publish students’ work on your blog.  Students learn so much by creating videos, digital stories, research projects, writing poems, stories, creating dances.  They will work much harder to do their very best and put much more effort in their project if they know it is being published to a larger audience than just their teacher or posted on a bulletin board.  When they know that students from other classes at school will watch their video, they will focus more on the content and creation. When they realize that students from other schools in the district, state, and country view their work, they get really excited. It is incredible when teachers, students, parents, grandparents, cousins from all around the world visit your blog to view students’ work and share it with others.  It is Common Core Collaboration, Research, Informational Writing at it’s best.

My goal this year is to lead teachers to create blogs and publish students’ work and screen recordings so students from other schools can collaborate and share ideas. When a student was asked “Who gets more out of you making a video to teach others how to solve the math equation, you or those who view the lesson?”  The student responded, “I get much more out of it because it makes me feel important and valued. It makes me do my best work and forces me to focus on the process.  ”

www.schooltube.com

Register for a Schooltube account tutorial

Upload videos to Schooltube tutorial

GCSD Blog publish video tutorial

GCSD Blog Using HTML or Embedding

GCSD Setting Up Your Blog Tutorials

I worked with a first grade class this week during their literacy centers.  3 students at a time used Educreations on the Teacher’s iPad to create a story using Sh, Ch, and Th words.  Students brainstormed words that began with these sounds and I used the web feature in Educreations to type in the words they wanted to write about in their stories. They inserted the picture onto the page, re-sized the photos,  and created sentences about the pictures.  I typed the sentences for them. They underlined the words with the targeted sounds. Next, they read the sentences as we recorded the lessons.  Finally, we emailed the link to their teacher so she can post it on her class blog.

Here are some examples:

Group 4

Group 3

Group 2

Group 1

Create and share amazing video tutorials with the free Educreations iPad app:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/educreations-interactive-whiteboard/id478617061?ls=1&mt=8

Here are some great examples of students sharing their knowledge with others using Ask3, School Tube, Video recordings, and Edmodo. Students remember 90% of what they teach others. Let them teach!

Research Using Edmodo and Ask3

QR Codes

Kindergarten Place Value

Reading Fluency: 2nd and 3rd Grade Classrooms

Geometry Menu

Electricians at Work