Does your district use Google Apps for Education? My district jumped on the GAFE train last year and I love it!

As the instructional technology TOSA, I spent the first part of the year making sure teachers and students had their accounts and passwords all set up and ready to go. Now that everyone knows how to log in and what the different Google Apps are and how we can use them, we're getting into some great tech integration activities.

In the hopes to make things go as smoothly as possible for teachers and students, I created screencasts that go over basic uses of Google Apps (Docs, Drive, Sheets, Slides, and Forms).  After creating the screencasts, I added them to a Smore flyer and sent it out to teachers. You can check that out below.

My district is also piloting Synergyse, which provides short, on-demand help tutorials for all the Google Apps. If teachers like this, I'm hoping we'll purchase it for all teachers. Have you used Synergyse? What did you think?

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Brandi

Last week I organized a Parent Tech Night. The goal of this night was to inform parents of our district's technology initiatives and to discuss digital citizenship.

We started the night by having parents use an iPad to scan 4 QR codes around the room. These codes led them to 4 survey questions on Google Forms about devices in their home and how their child uses these devices.

After about 15 minutes, I used the Summary of Responses feature from the Google Form to grab a visual representation of the data and inserted that into our slide presentation.

Our director of instructional support (my boss), began the presentation by showing parents how their answers compared to the data collected by Common Sense Media's various surveys.

My boss then led parents through many of the district initiatives our we are implementing regarding educational technology. Then I was up! I shared the following presentation about digital citizenship with parents.

We looked at social media, digital tatoo, 21st century learning, and technology for learning. During the social media portion of the presentation, we played Kahoots! which was a blast!

Overall, I think the night went very well. Parents were engaged and excited to learn about the things going on in terms of tech. Can't wait to share more with parents to help support their child's learning!

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Brandi

Hello Blogland! I am rededicating myself to blogging. I think I'm going to update the look of this space since I am in a new position and have a new focus.

Back in August, I moved out of the classroom and into the role of instructional technology TOSA (teacher on special assignment). I am in love with this position and what I am able to do. Right now I am the only tech TOSA in my district so I serve all 19 schools, grades TK-12. While I am not doing the personal coaching that I would like to yet, I do feel like I am having a positive impact on teachers and students in my district.

Here are a few of the things I've done this year in terms of instructional technology:

• Piloting an LMS (Haiku in the fall and Schoology in the spring)
• Hosting a monthly EdTech Community of Practice

• Attended and presented at the Fall CUE conference in Napa

• Organized a Parent Tech Night

• Compiled Digital Citizenship lessons for TK-12 from Common Sense Media

• Providing ongoing PD for teachers and parents

I am very excited to continue sharing my love of educational technology and the ways it can be thoughtfully integrated into the classroom to positively impact teaching and student learning.

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Brandi

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Brandi

Hello blogging world! I have been MIA the last few months, but will try to be better this summer. I've spent most of my social media time on Twitter and I am addicted! I love growing my PLN and participating in Twitter chats. If you're on Twitter, you can find me @teacherbrandi. If you're not on Twitter, you should join. It's a great way to get personalized PD at your fingertips!

I've met some great educators on my Twitter journey and have found some great chats to participate in and some fabulous hashtags to follow. One great hashtag I found was #beyouEDU. This was started by Dr. Will of iamdrwill.com as a challenge for educators to find the best within themselves. Each month there is a different topic for you to reflect on via your blog, YouTube, or Twitter.

This month's topic is finding your niche. As of Thursday I will have taught for 11 years and I will be unemployed. I am currently teaching on a temporary contract and it doesn't look like we'll be brought back until the beginning of the school year. This means that I am on the hunt for a new job. I am hoping my district will open up positions, but I can't sit around and wait on them.

A few months ago, I was asked to be a part of my district's EdTech CoP and as a member I was able to attend the CUE conference in Palm Springs. This conference opened up a new world for me! I came back energized and ready to better integrate technology into my teaching. Tech wasn't going to be a toy or a distraction. It became a vehicle to facilitate more collaborative and interactive learning experiences for my students.

I also came back from the conference ready to lead. I began presenting at our district's Mashup Monday events which were small sessions where we presented on our learnings from CUE. I began presenting at staff meetings. This new found confidence, led me to submit proposals to present at the Fall CUE conference and the Arcadia Innovation Summit. I am happy to say that my 2 proposals were accepted for the Arcadia Innovation Summit!

All of this brings me back to my niche. I think my niche is every growing and changing. It involves finding ways to reach students where they are and pushing them to achieve. It also involves incorporating 21st century skills into the daily workings of the classroom and educational experience. This is where ed tech comes in. I love what ed tech has to offer teachers and students and I would love to find a position where I can share, lead, and grow in this field. I have an interview this week for an ed tech TOSA position and am prayerful that I will wind up in the best position for me.

What's your niche?

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Brandi

On Sunday nights we have a Twitter chat (#tptchat) for tpt sellers.  I love these chats because it gives us a chance to collaborate in order to grow as sellers.  So many ideas are shared and everyone who joins is so great.  After our discussion this week, the fabulous Cheryl from Techie Turtle Teacher offered to host this wonderful linky to share the resources we've made this month...In Case You Missed It!

Make sure you read to the end of this post for your chance to win one of my newest resources!

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 My kiddos used this to review 3 properties of multiplication.  This interactive flip book can fit into a composition book, making it a great activity for interactive notebooks!  There is a page for the commutative, associative, and distributive properties.  There is also a page for word problems where students solve using a property.

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This resource is a tool for Reader's Workshop.  It contains printables for students to record what they are reading as well as responses to their reading.  This has been a life saver in keeping my kids organized during Reader's Workshop.  It's also a great tool to show parents during conferences.

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My kids love task cards!  I used these sets as a roam the room activity. This product contains 3 different sets of task cards that can be mixed and matched to meet your students' needs.

Set 1 focuses on order of operations and equations.

Set 2 focuses on knowledge and application of the use of parentheses.

Set 3 focuses on variables.

A recording sheet and answer keys for all 3 sets are included as well.

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Now it's time for the giveaway!  Pick the product you would like to win.  Leave a comment telling me which product you'd like and why.  Make sure you also leave your email address.  I will use a random number generator to pick one person to win the product of their choice.  Comments must be received by Tuesday March 10 at noon PST.  Winner will be chosen Tuesday night!  

An InLinkz Link-up

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Brandi

I'm excited to share with you a fabulous giveaway happening this week.  Lindsey from Miss Johnston's Journey is celebrating her 25th birthday!  There are a ton of prizes up for grabs.

I'm donating store credit to my Teachers Pay Teachers store which you can check out {HERE}.  Make sure you head over to Lindsey's blog by clicking on any of the giveaway images.  Good luck!

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Brandi

Have you been shopping yet?  I've already shopped for round 1 and will finish up with round 2 tonight!

Right now, I'm back to link up with Beth for Worship Wednesday.  This linky provides a great mid-week spiritual pick up.

My church gives a quarterly devotional book.  The new one starts in March and I picked it up on Sunday.  While I was flipping through it, the devotion for April 11th stood out to me.

The scripture text is "Owe nothing to anyone--except for your obligation to love one another." Romans 13:8

This is speaking to me right now because I am working hard to pay off my car.  I no longer want to have debt, and thanks to Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace, I have been setting up my budget every month and living on cash.  I'm hoping to have my car paid off this year so I can save up to buy a house.

The devotion ends with this: "True contentment doesn't come from getting all you want, but by discovering the blessings you have been given and learning to enjoy them."  This is something I'm working to do every day.

Have a blessed day!

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Brandi

I am so excited for the TPT sitewide sale on Wednesday!  My cart is filled and ready to go!  For my first go around I will be picking up a bunch of clip art and borders.  The creative bug has bitten me again and I really want to make high quality resources.  Here are some of the sets I plan to snag:

 

I haven't finished planning out round 2 where I will be picking up resources that I can use in my classroom, but here are a few things I will definitely be picking up:

   

You can check out my store by clicking on the banner at the top of the post.  My entire store is 20% off.  Don't forget to enter the code heroes!

What are you planning to buy?

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Brandi

I'm linking up with the Teaching Trio again for this week's Sunday Scoop.

Have to:

We start our fractions unit in a few weeks and I want to have it planned out.  I have this product from Totally Sweet Math Centers by Tabitha that I can't wait to use.

I also need to sort through my 3rd grade math board on Pinterest.  I pin ideas but then forget to go back to use them.  Please tell me I'm not the only one who does that?  

Laundry and ironing are boring but so need to be done.  For meal prep, I want to try to get more variety into my snacks.  Again, I'm turning to Pinterest to help me get some more recipes to try.

Hope to:

Our report card grades opened up this week and my goal is to do a few comments a day instead of all 21 in 1 weekend.  They aren't due until March 9 so I'm really hoping to get a head start.  

My daughter is looking forward to spending a few days in San Diego this summer.  We usually go down there for a day to visit one of the attractions.  Last summer we spent 3 days down there and this summer we'll be spending 5!  So far I've bought tickets to a Dodgers-Padres game and the Zoo.  Need to finalize hotel arrangements and Legoland.

Happy to:

My daughter had her first softball game yesterday.  I am happy to spend time each day and practice with her!

Enough about my week.  Click the button below to check out what everyone's up to for the upcoming week.

What plans do you have this week?

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Brandi