Using EDpuzzle to Create Interactive Videos

Lately, I have been sharing a great site named EDPuzzle. This site can be used by teachers to turn videos into interactive lessons. Teachers can crop videos, add to them, and embed questions in order to check for understanding.

Create and Manage Accounts

1. Teachers create a class. Here is how your students will be able to identify which class to go to. This is also how you can know where to put the videos and assignments that you create.
2. Once you create a class, this menu will appear. EDpuzzle automatically gives you a class code so your students can easily find your class and complete the assignment you have prepared.
3. Assignment Page is where you can get creative. You can either have your students simply watch a video you created, or write out specifically what you want them to do.
   

Chromebook Starter Kit Best Practices

GOT CHROMEBOOKS???

Chromebooks are fast becoming one of the more popular devices in education for a number of good reasons.  They are designed to be shared among multiple users and can easily be customized by each person.  They are also one of the least expensive laptops on the market and run only Google Chrome as their operating system.  This makes them virtually trouble free and easy to use in a variety of ways within educational environments.

Untether Yourself From Your Whiteboard!

If you routinely project work/lessons/interactive websites for students (whether on a Promethean board or just a screen), you know the frustration of having to be tethered to the board or to your keyboard. With an iPad and an app called doceri, that frustration is gone forever!

Doceri installs on both your iPad and the computer attached to the projector. Once that is done, the two devices connect, and your computer screen is then mirrored on the iPad, giving you control of your computer from anywhere in the room.

APS Launches Teacher Leadership Academy: Apply Today for the 2015-16 Pilot Cohort

+Jessica Cuthbertson is our guest blogger this week.  She is creating and facilitating teacher leadership pathways in order to recruit, support, develop, and retain effective educators.

This school year APS is piloting a Teacher Leadership Academy in order to recruit, support and retain effective educators and develop a teacher leadership pipeline across the district. Twenty P-12 emerging teacher leaders will be selected to participate in this experience, which includes job-embedded coaching support and blended professional learning opportunities. All participants will develop a learning lab classroom by the end of the school year and gain confidence and expertise hosting colleagues and reflecting on their practice through videotaping and supportive protocols. Participants will also select one of three pathways within the Academy: National Board Certification support, graduate coursework and completion of the Teacher Leadership certificate through CSU-Global, or re-licensure credit.

Questions? Contact Jessica Cuthbertson, Teacher Leadership TOSA. 

Click here to apply today! Applications are due 8/21/15.

Logistics and agency- an important model of classroom organization

When a classroom teacher first gains access to a cart of Chromebooks (or laptops, or iPads...) she also gains a number of untold logistical challenges. Even before a teacher thinks about how to support students in working and collaborating efficiently and effectively online, she has to think about how to establish routines in the classroom so that students can take out and put away the devices without a creating a learner logjam at the beginning and end of class. Strong logistical systems can help establish a culture of responsibility and translate to on-task behavior. When students play a part in strong systems, they develop agency.

The World's Largest Lesson

What kind of learning are your students engaging in during the week of September 27th?  The countdown to connect with colleagues across the world who have created lesson plans across disciplines in order to help student develop big ideas around human rights, poverty and environmental issues begins today...