Innovation 4 Everyone

I keep what is called a "contact log". This is a Google form in which I keep track of who I have helped and what was their need. I'll be honest, I have missed many entries, especially if they happened informally in the hallways, but I can still get good data. As the first half of the school year ended, I decided to take a look at the results gathered so far. I was not surprised to see that the number one request had to do with Google Docs. Our school started using consistently GAFE this year. So, I can imagine it must be very frustrating for some teachers to be forced to use a tool they are not comfortable with. Of course, I remember the frequent comment from teachers saying, "I don't like Google Drive! Is there something I can do?" All it took was to give them a few recommendations and that was enough to make their day! Here they are, from simple to complex (or should I say, from very simple to less simple) that have changed t

This week at school we've been preparing for an upcoming professional development day taking place in January. This day will focus on the 9 H i gh Yield Instructional Strategies . We will have Jane E. Pollock, author of "Improving Student Learning One Principal at a Time" ,  visiting our school. She will follow-through on her visit from last year and the work done by all teams and how they've incorporated the GANAG schema and the instructional strategies to their lesson plans. As I was preparing for my team meeting, I thought, "How can Google Docs and Apps support this initiative?" This is what I brainstormed: 1. Identifying Similarities and Differences Use the Spreadsheet chart capabilities to prepare comparisons. Use the Drawing doc to create a mental map. Use a Form to collect data that can later be graphed. 2. Summarizing and Note Taking Student takes notes in a Document created by him or the teacher shares a pre-for

Well, I'm back from the Google Teacher Academy in Mountain View, still trying to digest all that happened. What an experience! Two days of intense learning, together with 61 more educators. Here's an overview of what happened these days: Day 1 - GTA - Arrived at 7:30am. Meet my team. Reception and breakfast. Welcome message and overview. Demo slam by the team leaders. First 2 break out rotations. Break and snacks. Get to know each other activity. Third rotation. Lunch. Google product demo. Last 2 rotations. Another break and snacks. Sharing of ideas. Google product demo. Digital literacy. Break. Action plans. Pinning ceremony. Dinner. End of day at 8:00pm. Day 2 - Unconference - Arrived at 8:00am. Breakfast. Free choice hands-on sessions. Lunch. Free choice hands-on sessions. Googleplex tour. Closing. End of day at 4:30pm. The days were packed with new information, revolving around 5 major strands:  Visualizing your World, Sharing your Wo

Hi! I'm going to tell you today about an app I've been trying out with teachers this week. I'm talking about Splashtop Whiteboard . This is an app for the iPad . With this app you'll be able to control your computer through the iPad, just like a remote, only that you actually see and touch what's on the computer screen. But that's not all, it includes functions that you would normally find with an interactive whiteboard. You'll be able to highlight, annotate, draw, spotlight, save the screen, and more! This is great if you don't have an interactive whiteboard and if you are doing a presentation, so you can stand away from your computer. Besides downloading the app to your iPad device, you will need to download the Splashtop streamer to your computer. Here's the cool part, the streamer is available for Macs, PC's and Linux computers. The connection will be done via Wifi. The instructions are pretty simple, and come along in