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Thank You for 20 Years.

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After 20 years of teaching at Brookfield Central, I am saying goodbye. Although I spent the majority of that time in the physics classroom alongside my learners. That changed for my last 18 weeks. I ended up in a place similar to where I started, teaching chemistry and biology. So, rather than dealing with juniors and seniors at the end of their high school careers, I was in classrooms with freshmen and sophomores still trying to find their place. At the same time, I was learning and teaching a set curriculum I hadn't taught in over a decade. So, we were learning. But, of course, I already knew the content.  The point of this post is to take a step back, take in, and share the gratitude from the last students I had in my 20 years at Brookfield Central High School through the cards and notes they made for me on my last day with them.  I don't take many yay me moments. But after 20 years, I think I'll soak this one in.
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SLATE Day 2: A GAFE Summit in 60 Minutes

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The second day of SLATE is only half a day.  We had a great closing session with Dr. James Rickabaugh. I feel like I’ve discussed his book in a few previous posts including a wonderful Video Q & A with him. This video quality isn't great but the quality of the information is.

I attended a session by Rita Mortenson that blew me away.  Rita is the Educational Technology Coordinator for Verona Area High School. Her session was titled Google Tips and Tricks to Know Before Your Students Do.  It was filled with so much stuff I did not know that I am excited to bring to my classroom.  The presentation is below.  I’d love to run through some of my highlights.



Savefrom.net:  This extension allows users to download videos from YouTube.  It is currently blocked by my district.  I hope we can change that soon. If you are interested, you can get the extension here: http://en.savefrom.net/user.php?vid=387#download

Drive Template Gallery: Move you and your students beyond the basic templates with this app.

Lucidpress for Education: Lucidpress has free accounts for education both educators and students. Just a fantastic suite of templates for building powerful digital documents.

Slides Carnival: Have your learners go beyond the overused templates found in Google Slides. Templates should not be tired.  Sometimes I feel that way whenever I open up a student created slideshow.  I look forward to bringing this new resource to bear and require students be more intentional in their design choices.

Chrome Music Labs: I don’t want to tell you too much, because I’m going to be introducing my students to this next week now that I’ve discovered it.

For Math Teachers: Apps, extensions and add-ons.  These were curated by Eric Curts and his blog Control Alt. From elementary to AP level, there’s something for everyone.

Honestly, there is so much here that you could go through the slides and have your personal GAFE Summit.  Save it for a over the winter break where you can’t get outside and dig deep into the presentation.



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