Waffle Bytes

From the Michigan Department of Education - Each fall, Project Tomorrow, an internationally recognized education nonprofit organization, facilitates the  Speak Up Research Project  – and we would like to invite you to learn more about how your school and district can participate this year.   Speak Up 2015 is the best way for education leaders to learn about the views and ideas of K-12 students, parents and teachers regarding digital learning, workplace skill development, STEM education and professional development.  It is easy to participate in Speak Up – there are no fees or costs – everything is 100% free.  Last year over 521,000 K-12 students, parents and educators completed a Speak Up survey.  And 8,200 schools and 2,600 districts received free reports with their local data plus national findings for comparatives. Why use instructional funds for data collection when Speak Up is already available to every K-12 school and district?...

Since Google Moderator disappeared this summer, I've been looking for an alternative that provides a way for my training participants to both provide questions, AND mark them up so we can see biggest needs.  I think I have finally found it in sli.do Sli.do allows the presenter to do polls (think Poll.Everywhere), but it has some additional features that make it so much more versatile!  The biggest features I was looking for was the ability to back channel in questions (think Today'sMeet) and then have participants "thumbs up" the questions they also have.  Sli.do does this. And they make it very easy for people to join what they call an "event" and do polling and the Q&A in the same place.  In my limited use, it is very flexible for a presenter and a participant.

Back in May I showed how to use filters in a spreadsheet to show specific data without deleting it.  If there are several different ways you need to filter data, you can take this one step further and use Filter Views.  Filter Views are saved views of the data using any combination of filters you need.  You can have multiple filter views saved, so anytime you return to the spreadsheet you can apply the filter with a couple clicks.  To set up filter views: 1. Click on the small arrow to the right of the filter icon, and select "Create new filter view" 2. The spreadsheet will gain a dark gray border around the data, and an additional area at the top of that border that displays the filter name and range on the left, and on the right filter settings & "x" to close the filter and return to the full spreadsheet. 3. Set up the filter view to view the data you wish it to display.  In my example, I'm planning future PD for those that struggled with the...

Email is a great way to communicate...but it can consume your time if processes are not in place to control it.  It can also quickly become overwhelming, a place items get missed because of the sheer number in the Inbox. Here are three of my personal processes for managing email - how I keep my Inbox at (or near) to ZERO.  All of these techniques are easy for even a beginning Google Mail user. 1. The OHIO Principle - Only Handle It Once Before implementing this, I cannot tell you the number of emails that I would open and read five, six, ten or more times.  Each time I opened it, that was time used.  Make a commitment to only handle each email ONE time, and prioritize it with an action right then.  For me, I answer it, make a calendar event so I have scheduled time to deal with it, or archive it the first time I read it. Others use the starring system in addition to these.  Whatever your process, have a set one to get it all OUT of the inbox. 2. Sche...

Yesterday I noticed that several of the new features were enabled on our domain for Google Classroom.  Here are a few of the changes you might want to know about if you are just getting back in after summer break: 1. "New way to post to your stream"  Along with a new way to post, there are new icons in lower right corner - Reuse post, Create question, Create assignment, Create announcement 2. "Bump posts" - push any post back to the top 3. "Create Question" - create a form like question on the fly in your stream  4. "Calendar view of work" - view due dates for items from classroom in a calendar view. In addition to the view within Classroom, a secondary calendar is created in the user's calendar

The EdTech Rally team has settled on a group name - METS (Michigan Educational Technology Specialists) and has planned a fall EdTech Rally. Date : October 1 Time : 9am - 3pm Location : Eaton RESA (1790 Packard Hwy Charlotte, MI 48813) Audience : The meeting is open to any K-16 Michigan educator who supports other educators with instructional technology and wants to collaborate with others who have related roles (either full, part time or extra duty). You do not need to have an official title... Please visit the Smore Flyer for more information & to register.

Found this in MACUL's Big Deal Media enews - sounds like a great way to involve students in an argumentative writing at a higher level!  Because it is ongoing, it should be easy to add to an existing curriculum at the right time. "The Virtual Debate project began as a way to infuse technology into an authentic argumentative writing experience by giving students an audience. To get started with the Virtual Debate, students in two classes agree to engage with one another and select a topic based on their interests and passions. Past topics have included police presence in schools, competitive sports, and digital detox, to name a few. Once a topic is selected, the two sides face off in a coin toss through Google Hangouts to decide the pro and con sides. Students then conduct research and even have the opportunity to contact experts to formulate arguments. Teachers who wish to participate in the virtual debate will find minilessons, anchor charts, and other resource...