#WMSwizards 1-26-18

Want to try Tweeting Yourself - watch this short How To video!

Control-Alt-Achieve

Do you have any heroes? I do, and a lot of them I follow on Twitter. I'd like to share one of them with you. His name is Eric Curts. He's a Technology Integration Specialist for a school district in Canton, Ohio and I swear he never sleeps. The best thing about him is that he shares so much of what he does openly and for every educator's favorite price: free! Here's some quick things to look for on his website.

The best place to find Eric's Resources is on his web page at www.controlaltachieve.com

On the home page, you will find Eric's Blog. He's a prolific blogger with a ton of quick reads on really innovative and often easy teaching ideas. If you check out the sidebar on the right, you'll see his top ten most popular posts, all of which are pretty cool. If you want, you can sign up for his newsletter, follow him on twitter or add his blog to your RSS feed.

http://www.controlaltachieve.com/p/resources.html

What's even better is his Resources tab. If you scroll down just a bit, you'll see that he has posted links on all kinds of Google Tools. On each one you'll see a list of blog posts, google docs and training videos on the topic. Below that he even has pages for 5 main subject areas. Each of those pages, is then organized the same way, but categorized by Google Tool. Most of the tools he references are part of the Google Suite for Education that our district is a part of, so they are tools we already have and have permission to use. You can always come to me for help with these too, but I thought I'd share one of my favorite resources! Just go to www.controlaltachieve.com.

Good luck!

#WMSwizards 1-12-18

#WMSwizards 12/8/17

DitchSummit: A PD Opportunity

I don't know how many of you got the chance to see Matt Miller speak last year, but here's a free opportunity to hear him and see him interview some other awesome people. Last year he started up a GREAT free online conference for teachers in December. I participated last year and it was some of the best PD I saw.

It’s called the Ditch That Textbook Digital Summit. There are nine video presentations from awesome presenters on topics related to tech and solid teaching and learning. Get your free ticket at: DitchSummit.com.

HOW IT WORKS: New presentations are released every day from Dec. 15-23. You can watch as many as you want. They remain available until Dec. 31 so you can re-watch or catch up on any you’ve missed. They’re pre-recorded, so you can watch them whenever you want until Dec. 31. After that, the summit ends and the videos are unavailable to watch anymore.

FREE PD HOURS: You can get FREE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CREDITS for watching the videos. There’s a form to fill out after each presentation, and you’ll get an automatic PD certificate emailed to you. CEUs or CREDITS will be available through the Weld Re-4 technology department if you choose to participate.

FREE CHROMEBOOKS: They’re giving away two free Acer Chromebook 15’s, courtesy of Acer Education, the giveaway sponsor. Be sure to join the Chromebook Crash Course session on December 22 to enter the drawing.

Sign up for the digital summit at DitchSummit.com. I know it's a crazy time of year and time is precious, but based on what I saw last year, I don't think you'll be disappointed! If you don't have time for all 9, you pick and choose which topics work for you!

The schedule looks like this:

December 15 (Fri) -- Combining Tech and Solid Teaching Effectively (Tanya Avrith and Holly Clark, authors of The Google Infused Classroom)

December 16 (Sat) -- The Science of Happiness (Kim Strobel, happiness coach and educational consultant)

December 17 (Sun) -- Brain-Friendly Learning that Works (Dr. Pooja Agarwal, cognitive scientists and educator)

December 18 (Mon) -- How in the Google Did You Do That? (Eric Curts, Google Certified Trainer and tech blogger)

December 19 (Tue) -- How to Learn from a World of Educators (Sarah Thomas, tech coordinator and uber-connected educator)

December 20 (Wed) -- Plan Smarter, Not Harder with Edu-Protocols (Jon Corippo, interim executive director of CUE)

December 21 (Thur) -- How to Make Learning a Game (Michael Matera, teacher and author of eXPlore Like a PIRATE)

December 22 (Fri) -- Chromebook Crash Course: What You NEED (Matt Miller, Google Certified Innovator, blogger, speaker and author of Ditch That Textbook)

December 23 (Sat) -- What Schools Can Learn from Start-Up Culture (Don Wettrick, teacher and founder of StartEdUp)