IHMS Tech Tips

Most classrooms have time dedicated in the hour for independent student work.  While some teachers allow their students to listen to their own music, you might consider using Noisli as a class next time. Noisli is a free website that is much like the sound machine I use with my five-month-old.  It's goal is to "improve focus and boost productivity." Noisli takes different sounds from nature (wind, rain, etc) and plays them directly from the site.  You can sign up with your Google account in order to save certain combinations of sounds that you like, or you can simply play from the homepage. If you do create an account, add the Noisli extension to Chrome.  Then, when you or your students are working silently, you can select one of your saved combinations of sounds to play while you work.  There is a timer that can be set and you can also tell the sounds to fade in and out if you need to share something with your students.  I'm listening to a combin...

My favorite way to be! But seriously, if you aren't going Incognito when using Google Chrome, you're missing out for a few reasons. Incognito mode is a private way to browse the internet.  When in Incognito mode, browsing history and the web cache is disabled.  For teachers, there are many benefits to using Incognito mode with students as well as when you are doing your own research.  To go Incognito: Click on the three dots in the upper right corner of Chrome and choose "New Incognito window" or press shift+command+N . Once you've gone Incognito, you will see this and your browser window will appear dark gray: Here are a few reasons to go Incognito: 1. Student presentations If you are using one computer for students to share presentations (to avoid AirPlay catastrophes), you can use Incognito mode.  This makes it so that students can sign into their Google account, but as soon as that Incognito window is closed, the student does not remained signed...

Explore is an under-used feature within Google Suite that is great for students to use when they are writing a paper, doing research, or working on a project in Google Docs, Slides, or Sheets.  The Explore feature: Pulls topics from your writing Uses those topics to curate suggestions of websites, images, and other files from your Google Drive Cites as a footnote any source that you use  To use the Explore feature, first open up a Google Doc or Slides that has text.  Open Explore by clicking the icon in the lower right corner of the window or by choosing Tools- Explore. Select which topic you'd like for Explore to...explore.  If you don't like what it pulls automatically based on your writing, you can type a different keyword. Explore will pull websites, images, and anything in your personal Google Drive that relates to your topic/keyword. To cite the source you've selected, choose the three dots and choose your citation format. Then...

Wakelet is a free website that can be used as a teaching resource or with your students as a presentation tool.  Signing up is easy and links to your Google account.  Students can create a collection/story and curate a variety of media based on a given topic.  Wakelet allows you to pull in videos, websites, tweets, photos, and more.  The functionality is similar to Thinglink that was previously discussed on this blog . Here is an example of a public, published collection that I have embedded here: To get started on your own, choose "create a collection/story" from the home page. Give your story a title and description.  Add tweets, photos, files, or create your own writing. When adding photos, you can either add from your own library, or choose a stock image from Unsplash.  There is a space to add credit which would be a great place for a citation. Students can create work in Google Docs, save it as a PDF, and insert it into their c...

It's May! Which means that both students and teachers are on their way to burnout.  On this last blog post of the school year, I'm giving some ideas on project-based lessons to help your students hang on until the last day.  You could choose one idea and give it to all students, or maybe you present them with all five and give them the choice. 1. Show what you know Everyone has something that they are really knowledgeable about (ex. karate, knitting, singing). Make them showcase that knowledge through a presentation/speech.  Create a rubric using a Google Add-on or have students created the rubrics themselves. 2. Own a _____________ Students again become the experts, but this time they will have to do research to establish their expertise.  Have them take ownership of a football team, planet, animal and be able to present their findings to the class or in small groups.  Students can use their choice of presentation tools like Thinglink , iMovie, Prezi, or...

Many of us probably use Pinterest in our personal life, but why not start utilizing it as an instructional tool as well?  Sorry 7th grade teachers, this social media site, like most, is only for those kiddos 13 or older.   " Pinterest is a social network that allows users to visually share, and discover new interests by posting (known as 'pinning' on Pinterest) images or videos to their own or others' boards (i.e. a collection of 'pins,' usually with a common theme) and browsing what other users have pinned." There are thousands upon thousands of educational pins pinned every day, so  USC Rossier Online  has created an amazing resource with their "Guide to Pinterest for Educators." Here a few suggestions for classroom use: Creative team brainstorming Research projects Group projects Digital student portfolios Teaching self-reliance Virtual field trips Peer feedback Collaborative stories Photo journals Differentiated learning ...

The Google Cultural Institute is a collection of online exhibitions including video, images, and text. Their goal is to preserve and promote this important primary sources.  The site "includes (and increasingly subsumes) the Google Art Project , which features high-resolution images of artworks from museums in over 40 countries; the World Wonders Project, which presents three-dimensional recreations of world heritage sites; and archival exhibitions, many in partnership with museums around the world."   You can find primary sources for countless historical events and figures and take virtual tours of well-known landmarks like Machu Picchu or the Museum of Modern Art. You can search for items in a variety of ways (see right). I could see this being used for a flipped classroom or to supplement your current lessons. Students could find historical places mentioned in stories or research famous artwork seen in textbooks. Students could create a gallery of sources to ...

Storify is a free curation tool that allows users to find information using a specific hashtag or keyword(s).  When searching, Storify will pull Facebook posts, YouTube videos, tweets, news articles, sound bites, GIFs, etc.  If it was posted with the hashtag you are using to search, you can pull it up.  Storify does require that you log into your social media accounts if you intend to search there.  For this purpose, you could use a classroom account so students are not logged into their own and getting distracted. Students can use the tool to curate content on current events, historical events, people, etc.  Let the students be creative. One blogger shares her ideas on how to use Storify in the classroom: Research Logs : Storify can be instrumental in organizing sources. If it’s online and public, it can be incorporated into a Storify story. This is especially beneficial for students who are working with a lot of online material. Plus, sources can be ...

Wikipedia has long been stigmatized as the anti-source when it comes to research, but if you're like me, it's the first place you refer to when seeking answers.  And that's okay!  I have long held the belief that Wikipedia is an acceptable starting point when it comes to research.  It should not be the only point, however. First, some background information:  The name Wikipedia is derived from the Hawaiian word "wikiwki" meaning "quick" and the English word "encyclopedia".  The site is exactly that: a free site where anyone can quickly add content on any given topic.  It's understandable why it is FORBIDDEN by so many teachers, but I hope as you read on you might reconsider that.  When Wikipedia first came out in 2001, anyone could put anything on any site, and the pages were often "vandalized" with inaccurate content.  Times have changed, however, and nowadays each page is assigned to multiple editors and those editors are c...

Thinglink is a free digital tool that allows for any graphic to become interactive.  Consider this as an alternative presentation tool for science experiments, social studies presentations, or any type of research project.  Signing up is easy and can be done with your Google account. Once you/students have established accounts, you can choose from Thinglink's sample media, or upload a picture of your own.  This serves as the backdrop for your presentation. After you have selected your background/theme photo, you will begin to add tags.  Tags are hot spots that make the presentation interactive.  These tags can be links to video, audio, more photos, or you can type text. You can then embed your Thinglink presentation into a Google slideshow, a website, or into Google Classroom.   The site allows for cooperative presentations, as well.  You can upload up to 105 students and they can work on one presentation at the same time.  Stude...

Newsela  is a website that provides nonfiction current event articles on various topics at a variety of reading levels.  Students can search the articles by keyword/category and then select their appropriate Lexile level if that is something they know.  Their MAP scores will give you a Lexile range for them. Every article is available at a variety of different reading levels with the vocabulary and sentence structure increasing in difficulty as the Lexile increases.  There is also a corresponding quiz or writing prompt with each article. Newsela syncs with Google Classroom so you can either import your Newsela into your Google Classrooms, or give your students a class code to use to join. Once you have your students signed in to Newsela, you can assign an article.  Students should select their Lexile level (they can always play around with this and work with you to decide what their best fit is).  Newsela will assign a writing prompt with ea...