Waffle Bytes

Google Forms has been getting a little Google love.  Some of you have been asking about them, so I thought I would make sure to cover some that you might find useful. A quick down & dirty one that teachers have been requesting for a long time has been added to the top of your form options - ability to randomize your form questions. Now you can have your questions in a random order so that when giving it to a classroom of students all at the same time you can decrease the odds of them giving collaborative answers.  Note that if you use pages to organize your questions, the questions are shuffled on each page.  And, this is an all or nothing features - you cannot choose which pages of your form (quiz) are shuffled and which aren't.  Why do I bring that up?  Two examples - if you ask for student identifiers they would each need to be the only question on a page to keep it from being shuffled with other questions if you provide a graphic which is follo...

Discovery Education in partnership with American Heroes Channel and the National Military Families Association present the My Hero Is Contest.  Join Discovery Education, American Heroes Channel, and the National Military Families Association in honoring our military members and families by recognizing their service and bravery through the My Hero Is Contest .  Get your students involved by using our free resources and classroom activities around Veterans Day. Then, have them honor a current or veteran military hero or military family member in their lives by creating and submitting 30-second tribute videos. The school with the largest number of videos submitted will receive a special school assembly honoring local veteran heroes.  To support Veterans Day and your students in creating tribute videos, we are providing a number of classroom resources including a Veterans Day classroom activity, videos, and tip sheets on stor...

Collected Links, Resources, and Opportunities for Collaborating with your Classroom through Technology curated by Ben Rimes , K-12 Instructional Technology Coordinator, Mattawan Schools ( Mattawan EdTech Twitter ) ( Mattawan Learning Blog ) ( Ben’s Pinterest ) These collaborations are focused on helping teachers meet the following Common Core College and Career Readiness Standard: Production and distribution of Writing K-12 Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.   https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RyXvGgwYDwHaaOlf0YrTEPcv80h4wsye0ZsENrfB0OU/edit#   This is a Google Document with 2-3 resource links added per week for teachers that are looking to find ways to collaborate beyond the traditional classroom.  Some are resources, some are opportunities that you can sign up to participate in. This resource is being created by Ben Rimes of Mattawan Schools ( https://plus.google...

One of the changes made with Google Forms is the added ability to easily share a shortened URL link with those you want to access the form.  This has impact on users in two obvious ways - it is a nicer way of sharing the link (instead of the LONG URL that is generated when you create a form it is efficient - you no longer have to go through the extra steps of copying and pasting the link into another site to generate a short URL But there is another advantage, as well.  Because it (of course) uses Google's URL shortener, you will also have access to some analytics on the link AND a QR Code for the site you created the link for.  This might be something of value to you! First, how to select the new shortened link - Click on the blue Send Form button (either location) Check the box for the Short URL Google will generate the new URL for you to use To get some basic analytics about the use of the URL, you can go to goo.gl (Make sure you are viewing it in th...

  The 2015 MACUL Conference Call for Speakers  Share your experiences and knowledge with MACUL attendees - apply to be selected as a 2015 MACUL Conference Presenter. Don't wait until it is too late! The Speaker Proposal Form has been updated and additional preparation time may be needed. The deadline for submissions is October 1, 2014 . Please review the following resources before beginning the online applications. Session Submission Information - This year's conference will feature several session types & a variety of strands - which is best for you? Speaker Proposal Planning Worksheet - Use this document to help plan your presentation prior to completing your online submission Conference Session Review Rubric - This rubric is used to select sessions Once you have reviewed the above documents and planned your session, use the MACUL 2015 Speaker Proposal Form . Primary presenters receive a reduced conference rate of only $50!

October 25th, 2014 : Free Day of Professional Learning Coming to you LIVE from Discovery Headquarters in Silver Spring, MD, we present the  Discovery Education Streamathon ! We're taking you back to the 70's with a telethon-style, day-long virtual professional learning event. Join thousands of educators across the world for this free "idea-sharing" marathon where we will get you diggin' some new, groovy ways to integrate Discovery Education into your instruction. Host a 70's bash at your district pad to watch live-streamed presentations by the Discovery team, cool videos and other edu-tainment. How to Participate Register to attend  the Streamathon LIVE from your own home. Browse the current list of Streamathon viewing parties below to find a location in your area. Don't see an event in your area?  Host Streamathon at your own district pad ! Share the love! Tweet about the event using the has...

This year Calhoun ISD and  Jackson County ISD, will be offering 3 distinct Technology in Learning courses designed to help educators learn ways to implement technology in their classroom right away.  Registration for the first session is open! Developing with Technology for Learning October - November 2014 Developing with Technology for Learning is a course designed to help educators explore and begin applying web tools that enable them to develop their ability to communicate with students and parents with a web presence.  This is a blended course - a majority of the work will be completed online, along with a mandatory face-to-face session that occurs after the course has started.  Important Course Dates - Course Start Date: October 15 Face-to-Face: 4:15-6:45 October 20 Course End Date: November 18 30 SCECHs Available - Optional($15 fee) Face-to-face location options: Calhoun ISD - Registration Ann J Kellogg Elementary (Bat...