When parents Google their children's teachers, they are hoping to find credible, professional, and respectable educators in the results. Since Google search results depend highly on the profiles in social media accounts, it is important for educators to polish their profiles and pay attention to posting settings.
How do educators ensure that the story told in the Google search results is professional? 1. Select and post a professional photo as your profile picture and use it in each of your active social media accounts. Be sure to choose a clear image with an uncluttered background in professional dress. Put your best foot forward! 2. Compose a professional bio and add it to each of your social media profiles. Share information that showcases your accomplishments and years of service. Include professional awards and clubs you support or lead. Market yourself as an expert in your field. 3. Share relevant content in these accounts on a regular basis. Share videos used in class, articles you find interesting, even inspirational quotes. Everything you share in your profiles will become searchable. Be sure it reflects the professional results you are trying to achieve. They say it takes 20 days to form a habit. I recommend setting attainable goals, schedule time in your day or week to post content to your social media accounts. With a plan and a schedule, you will soon own the story told in the Google search results. Good luck!
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Connecting with other educators through Twitter changed my professional life; it will change yours, too! Twitter has had such a positive impact on me as an educator, that I want everyone to benefit from the amazing resources, encouragement, and connections that are only available if you give it a try. The thing is, you have to try for at least 20 days so that it becomes as natural as making lists and writing plans....... Summertime is the perfect time to turn an interest in Twitter into a professional habit. Get started with my 20 Day Twitter Challenge here! Recently, I was invited to support two schools as they begin to use Google Classroom as a platform for submitting lesson plans. After spending time with teachers and admin on this topic, a few tips have bubbled to the surface.
Why Use Google Classroom to Submit Lesson Plans?
1. Setup and Organize the Classroom (Administrators):
5. Take Advantage of Collaboration Opportunities
A collection of ways to integrate technology into lessons after standardized testing. These options were provided to district teachers in a drip campaign. Each day after testing, teachers received some fun options to use with students after a focused morning of standardized tests. Enjoy the collection! 1. A Cultural Experience:
4. ApPlied Digital Skills with Google
Balanced Literacy and Tech:
Several teachers have asked for some ideas for using a technology station in Balanced Literacy. I know you are already well on your way to successful stations - but some of the ideas here may give you the opportunity to switch up your learning stations this month. Read to Self: Epic Over 25,000 books for educators and students. Leveled reading, audiobooks, and more. Connect your Google Classroom to Epic to provide assignments. View teacher guide here. Storyline Online - Download the app if you have iPads. Or bookmark for computers and Kindles. Idea options: select specific titles, create playlists on YouTube, provide opportunities to self-select. Ready to Read - for our beginning readers. Bookmark this page or bookmark links to specific titles. Tumble Books - Free access to Tumblebooks with your Live Oak Public Library Card. Use the current Galileo password "vague" first, then enter your library card number. Have an iPad? Download the app! Have a Kindle? Bookmark the site on the device. Read to Someone Record from a Chromebooks using Screen Cast o Matic Chromebook app. Save to Google Drive or YouTube. Use SeeSaw (app or online) to organize, record, respond, create! Get started with this guide. Record from the Photo App on an iPad or Kindle - upload to Google Drive to share with others. Respond to Reading Students create a short video in your FlipGrid to share their responses, reactions, opinions. Students write/journal/respond to reading and comment on others using SeeSaw. Get started with this guide. Students write their own stories using Storybird. A few Technicalities in SCCPSS District Logging into iTunes - To download free apps on your BOE iPad, connect with your media specialist or me to obtain the school iTunes username and password for staff. Logging into Chromebooks - STUDENTS use district email address and district password. STAFF use district email address as the username and three zeros plus Kronos number as the password. New year, new resolutions, new goals, new words.
My word is BALANCE. My focus in 2018 is to find balance in personal and professional life. To make room for priorities and to be ok with letting some things go. With this balance comes my commitment to bring my blog out of hibernation to share resources and strategies with educators in my district, or any district for that matter! Whatever your focus for growth is this year, of course I hope you will consider adding an EdTech goal to your focus and I will be here to support you in your goals. In these first weeks of the semester, schools in our district are finding focus in increasing the Depth of Knowledge, data driven instruction, and of course, test prep for GMAS. SCCPSS is a G-Suite for EDU district which makes it somewhat easier to manage student logins and digital assignments. With that in mind consider these 5 ways to integrate technology into your instruction, tomorrow! 1. Gain confidence, efficiency, and community in G-Suite for EDU by participating in The Academy! There is something for everyone at The Academy. Whether you want to increase your skill set, go paperless in the classroom, learn something new, or test your knowledge. By the end of the semester, you will be ready to successfully complete the Google Certified Educator Level 1 Exam. Get started by logging into Google Classroom with your district account and use this join code: igsr8qv. Skills you gain in The Academy can be applied to your work no matter what your role is in education. 2. Get students to explain and record their thinking. Using FlipGrid, students record a short video selfie. Students should explain a math problem, showcase their reading skills, tell a short story, give a short speech, read their own writing, narrate their artwork.... you get the idea. FlipGrid is an easy way to provide students with a fun way to increase depth of knowledge on a particular standard. When students show what they know with FlipGrid - there is no one right answer, and multiple ways to showcase learning. With the free version, teachers sign up, create their one free Grid, and then create a Topic for students to access. The Topic can be shared with a code, a link, or even in Google Classroom. Interested? Create an account with FlipGrid and join FlipGrid Fever! 3. Give students the opportunity to become more efficient keyboarding communicators. Typing Club is a personalized keyboarding tutor for students. Students may log in with their district Google accounts and increase their skills, save their progress, and build communication confidence. Add Typing Club to morning work, small group rotations, even homework! 4. Provide students more opportunity with DOK 3 in reading and writing. Digital ReadWorks offers teachers and students the opportunity to respond to reading in both extended and constructed responses. Teachers create their classes in Digital ReadWorks while students log in with the district Google accounts or classroom code. Teachers benefit from automatic scoring, students benefit from gaining confidence in reading materials online with support from their teacher. 5. Fill in learning gaps in Math. KhanAcademy Mappers creates learning paths for students based on their most recent MAP scores. Teachers need to create an account and a class, then provide students with the class code. Students log in with their district Google accounts and enter their MAP score on the http://khanacademy.org/mappers page. They must be logged in to save their progress. What is your word, goal, or focus for 2018? Share your favorite EdTech strategy in the comments below! The goals of this module were to:
Guide routine student posts (or prepare class posts) to social media platforms. Inform parents and school stakeholders of school projects, events, experiences from the student perspective #stuvoice. To earn credit for this module, you must:
How do we create a more positive social media environment for students?
The answer (and the current social media challenge) is easier than you may think! Quick disclaimer: This challenge is geared towards students age 13 and over - but could be adapted for a younger audience. Social Media Challenge 3 Q3 (TKES 9 & 10) 1. Follow @PrincipalRyanMcLane on Facebook. He co-authored "Your School Rocks.... So tell People" with Eric Lowe. He is currently sending a positive message to his students every day through Instagram and even shares his messages in his Facebook news feed for others to use. Read his blog post here. 2. Build messages for your students using www.Canva.com (or copy @PrincipalRyanMcLane's messages and tag them with #yourschoolrocks). 3. Send/schedule positive messages to your students every day for two weeks through your class social media account. 4. Reflect on your experience in the comments of this blog post. Was Canva a helpful resource? Did scheduling your post ahead of time save you time throughout the week? How did you select your positive messages? What impact did it have on your students? Will you continue to post positive messages every day? "If you build it, they will come." Kevin Costner was whispered those powerful words in the movie Field of Dreams, and it changed his character's life. You built a Facebook page, did your audience naturally come find it? How many followers do you have? How many Likes? Do people comment?
It takes effort and promotion to grow your audience, and it's worth the time and energy to invest in that growth. Implement some of the strategies below and continue to grow your audience so that more and more people are impacted by the good news you are sharing. 1. Invite your friends- Open your Facebook page. Under the Sharing button, is an option to invite friends from your profile account to like your page. Which of your friends is interested in your work? Invite other teacher friends to Like your page. 2. Request a Share- Ask your friends to Share your page with their friends on their Facebook timeline. You could even provide them with a short sample post to include when they share your page with their friends. 3. Add your page to your email signature- Be creative, add a Facebook logo and a tagline. "Like our classroom page on Facebook" or "Get a closer look at our classroom on Facebook" 4. Pay attention to your Insights - When is the best time to post? That depends on your audience. Post at different times and track your insights. When is your audience most engaged? Once you know more about your audience's viewing/posting/liking habits, you'll gain more traction by posting during those optimal times. 5. Post Regularly - remember last quarter when we set a goal, a posting theme, and a schedule? Is that goal still relevant? Does it need to be tweaked? 6. Respond to comments and messages - Facebook is a social platform, respond to every comment positively. This is a great opportunity to model digital citizenship in a meaningful way. 7. Ask your followers questions - Their responses are public and it gets your page more potential views. What's their favorite childhood book and why? Who is their real life superhero? Connect a question from your classroom content. Get the students involved with forming the questions. 8. Include a school hashtag- If your school posts to a hashtag, be sure to include it in your posts. 9. Ask other pages to share your page - If your school or PTA has a Facebook page, ask them to share your page with their audience. Provide them with a sample post that encourages their followers to Like your page. 10. Word of mouth - Yes. It's still a powerful form of communication, and it works! Most importantly - don't give up! Promote, post, analyze insights, repeat! Provide transparent content to your audience. Be real. Be consistent. Be a digital role model for your students and the community. Social Media in EDU Challenge (TKES 10) 1. Set a goal to increase your followers by __% by the end of the quarter. 2. Grow your audience! Use some of the strategies above or create your own. 3. Share your experience in the comments below. Include the strategies you tried, your audience growth, and your next steps. Many teachers in my district have some sort of IWB technology in their classrooms. Typically, the brands schools have purchased fall into four categories.
iPevo IWB Level up ChallengesActive Slate/Board Level up ChallengesLevel One- Setup and Device Registration Using the Pen to Remote Control the Workstation Using the Mouse with Interactive Lessons and Activities Mimio Teach IWB Level Up Challenge My co-workers, Dru Piersol and Yolanda Sanders created Mimio Challenges. If your Mimio is still in the box, start with Dru's Challenges to get unpacked, setup, and running. If you have a Mimio in your classroom and you want to learn a bit more about its features, start with Yolanda's challenges. Leave a comment! What's your favorite feature of IWB devices for instruction? |
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