BlogBooker - Blog Book

BlogBooker - Blog Book:

This is a handy tool that many teachers and students can use.  It will turn your blog into a pdf document complete with a table of contents.  This can be handy for an archive or to share with a publisher.

The steps are simple: export your blog, go to BlogBooker, select your blog service (Wordpress, Blogger or LiveJournal), select PDF, upload your blog, set some options and create your blogbook!

I did this for this blog and the whole process took 8 minutes from exporting my blog to viewing the pdf generated.  I can see students using this service at the end of the school year to have an archive of the blog they created during the year.

Evaluate Traditions While Leading Change - Leadership 360 - Education Week

Evaluate Traditions While Leading Change - Leadership 360 - Education Week

"Our most important job right now is to manage the raising of standards and educational rigor while protecting the space and attention given to the social emotional aspects of learning.  While we still face the challenges of teaching children in poverty, or with learning or language difficulties, we cannot be resisters of change.  We need to lead change. "

This is a very interesting article.  The authors make the point that education leaders need to be aware of

"traditions" but to be proactive and not afraid to create new ones.  When I was in high school, I was fortunate enough to have a Commodore 64 computer but my mom still typed my papers on a manual typewritter.  Today, I can use my smartphone and dictate to Google Docs tor create my lesson plans.... Times have changed.....

It is up to us, the educational leaders  to see how using educational technology can influence new traditions.  I have been steadily moving to a paperless classroom the last couple of years with Google Apps for Education as the main technology.  I feel I have one more year and I will not need to use any printed material.  I believe this is a move to a new tradition that is aligned with how our students operate now.

Traditions are great, it is what makes our society who we are, but we need to be careful to not lot outdated traditions define us.  Times have changed......

How do you see educational technology being used to create new traditions?

Easily create amazing graphic designs with Canva

Canva – Amazingly simple graphic design for blogs, presentations, Facebook covers, flyers and so much more.:

OK, a week ago I posted about Lucidpress, the Microsoft Publisher replacement.  Well, I reread a post by Mr. O Trussel about Canva and have to give this one a shout out also.

It is as easy to use as Lucidpress, but I feel it's main goal is for web based graphics, much like the "infographics" you see.  It has templates for many things such as Twitter headers, Google+ Photos, Photo Collages, etc.

Here is an example I did in about 5 minutes:

Teachers and Coffee

You can easily download the images to be used however and wherever you wish.

The one thing that I do not like is that it is not integrated with GDrive like Lucidpress is.  At any rate, it is a very useful app that I imagine many of my students will enjoy using this year!!

Try it out and let me know what you think!!

Stoodle: A web based collaborative whiteboard

A came across Stoodle awhile ago.  I have only tried it out with one other fellow teacher and it seems to do a very good job.  It is a web based collaborative white board. I do have to say that it is difficult to use unless you have some kind of touch pad with a pen (like Bamboo Pad from Wacom)  It has the basic shapes, colors and the ability to rotate objects.  It does offer the use of your microphone for voice chatting.  I did try out the file upload but ran into some issues.  It seems to only be able to upload pictures and it would not remember my connection to Google Drive.  I had to keep granting access every time I used it.  All in all however, it does do a nice job and has some promise.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!!

Should principals stop visiting classrooms?

"Just pretend I am not here....."

Should principals stop visiting classrooms?:

What?!?! Principals are supposed to be instructional leaders, how could they do that with out visiting classrooms?  The post by Daniel Willingham offers some insight into a study conducted by Jason Grissom, Susanna Loeb, and Ben Master on the issue of instructional leadership.
As Mr. Willingham points out, the method of the study is what makes it interesting.

 He states: "Instead of simply asking principals how important is instructional leadership to you or having them complete time diaries, researchers actually followed 100 principals around for a full school day, recording what they did. "

A conclusion that the researchers came to was:

Time spent coaching teachers--especially in math--was associated with better student outcomes. So was time spent evaluating teachers and curriculum. But informal classroom walkthroughs--the most common activity--were negatively associated with student achievement. This was especially true in high schools. 

As a hopeful future principal, this conclusion is interesting.... but not surprising to me!! I view the principal as an instructional leader who collaborates with the teachers to improve their teaching.  When this relationship and understanding is clarified between the principal and teacher, the classroom visits are viewed as a positive, supportive experience; not a negative evaluative experience.

So, should principals stop visiting classrooms? No, they need to.  They need to know what is happening in the classrooms of their school.  But the principal needs to cultivate a relationship with the teachers so they understand the visits are to support and help them become better teachers.

All you principals and administrators out there, what do you think?

Blogger and Google+

I have been using Blogger of and on for awhile.  It has all my thoughts and ramblings and insights..... As things move forward, I know I should use Google+ more.  I do like G+, but I really like the layout and ease of use of Blogger... ok, I am just very comfortable with it!!

I have found a problem however, I believe I have all the settings set in the right places on Blogger to automatically post publicly on Google+ when I post from Blogger.  For whatever reason, this is not working for me!  My posts are not going public.  I have to go back into blogger and "share" from there.  I would imagine many people are getting things twice from me and I am sure that is annoying....

So, this post is an experiment.  I am going to post it and see if it shows up.  I a also going to do a one liner post and schedule it for 2 hours from now and see it is shows up.....

If anyone knows what I might be doing wrong please let me know..... and thanks for the patience as I figure this out!!

Lucidpress - a Microsoft Publisher replacement?

I have been meaning to post about Lucidpress for some time now because it is amazing.  I am a huge fan of Google Drive and everything it offers.  I have not opened up Microsoft Office on my home computer for about 8 months now!  Everything is done with GDrive.  However, when I talk to teachers about it, many ask  does it have an app like Microsoft Publisher?  And I have to say: no.

BUT wait!!  Someone has come to the rescue!!  Lucid Software may have saved the day!!  They have created an amazing  Online Print & Digital Publishing Software app that will give Publisher a run for its money. (Quite easily I might add since Lucidpress is FREE!)

It is super easy to use, very intuitive and very powerful!! Click the link below to see an example that I did in less than five minutes ( try clicking on the pancakes in the upper right)

Lucidpress Test Flyer

So, why all the talk about GDrive and Google apps if Lucidpress is not part of Google?  Well, Google has done amazing things that allow other developers to work with GDrive.  So, you can connect Lucidpress to your GDrive!  This way all your work is in one place! (Note: to connect apps go to the Chrome Webstore or watch this video: Google Drive - Connect more apps )

Try it out and let me know what you think!!!

PS: Here is another post about Lucidpress from Mr. Bass and you might as well checkout Lucidchart also!