ISTE 2016 - Honorable Mentions or for Further Research

As always there is way too much information at tech conferences to the point of shutting down (that happened to me in Atlanta at my first ISTE conference). Focusing on trying to get a specific number of ideas/tools has really helped keep me grounded (make no mistake though... I am still overwhelmed but at least I come back with things to focus on).

I have to prioritize my notes but there are always items that are left over that deserve an honorable mention...or at least a blog note so I don't forget them.

These are:

www.brainrush.com - A FREE web tool for teachers to create games to be used in the classroom

You can create your own games or use premade ones. The site allows the teacher to associate their own voice with correct answers.

https://www.edu.buncee.com/home - I heard Buncee mentioned enough times that I made a star next to it in my notes to explore when I have time. It looks like it is a place to make and store lessons to share.

https://awesome-table.com/ - Awesome Table came up a few times as well. Apparently it is a web application that displays data from a Google Spreadsheet into various types of nice views. It looks a bit complicated (thank goodness for YouTube videos) but it had some potential in my world.

How To Festival - I ran past a poster session and stopped to listen to the presenter talk about a "How To" festival her high school puts on showcasing student talent (from harmonica playing to cracking a whip).The point is to pretty much showcase the awesomeness of the student body (which I thought was a fun idea). I am "bookmarking" it because I think it has potential as an alternative to a technology night. I was thinking rooms where students show parents "How To" do various things on the computer.

Ergotron Sit/Stand Classroom Desk (click to see the desks in action in a classroom) - I saw this on the vendor floor and actually spent two days trying to win one (I didn't). It is an adjustable desk that allows students to adjust the height very easily. It has a deep pocket for a water bottle and a pencil and tablet holder. A hook on the back can hold a backpack and there is an optional bin system that can be purchased to hold books. They are pricey - $350 when bulk ordering ($550 for just one) so it may not be financially feasible to outfit an entire school (or even classroom). Our district has several schools making over their media centers into "maker spaces" which is where I thought these cool desks might fit in.

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Picture of the Day - Activity

I attended a training class and a science coach shared an activity that he does with his students to help them differentiate between observations, inferences, and predictions. He puts a picture on the interactive white board as a warm up (he gets the pictures from a variety of sources but uses National Geographic's Picture of the Day a lot). The picture above is from the National Geographic site. He has the students make five observations. Then he makes the students make five inferences. Finally he has the students make five predictions. He does this every day and it really drives home the difference between those three key inquiry vocabulary terms. I've done this activity with both my sixth and fourth grade science classes and the students really got into it and became proficient at telling me the difference between those terms.

Weathering, Erosion, and Deposition Activity

I saw this activity at a science conference years ago and haven't had a chance to use it in a classroom until this week (mainly because I didn't teach weathering, erosion, and deposition). It is a great way to reinforce the definition of the weathering, erosion, and deposition in a highly kinesthetic manner. Basically you break the students up into groups of three. One group is "Weathering" another group is "Erosion" and the third group is "Deposition". Add tape to the back because you are going to stick them to the forehead of the children in each group. The "weathering" students get a sheet of paper that is their "rock" they will be breaking down. At the start of the activity the "weathering" students will start ripping tiny pieces of their "rock" and handing it to the "erosion" students. The "erosion" students will be running their tiny piece of "rock...

Bill Nye Songs with Lyrics

At the end of the Bill Nye videos he always has a fun song that goes with the episode. You can find many of the songs as stand alone videos on YouTube. This came in handy because today I am teaching a lesson on layers of the atmosphere and found a song from his Atmosphere video on YouTube titled "Fresh Aire." I really wanted to remix it and put the lyrics on the video (so the kids could sing along and see how the lyrics matched the lesson). The first thing I did was found a site that has all the Bill Nye lyrics posted used my YouTube downloader ( see instructions here ) and downloaded the song. I then imported the video into Movie Maker Live and used the caption feature to put the lyrics on the different frames (cutting and pasting from the lyrics site into Movie Maker Live). I saved the video and reposted to YouTube so other teachers could use the video with lyrics (the finished video is posted above). The process was pretty easy and I am thinking about doing it for more ...

Notebooking, Teaching, and Technology

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