I wrote about this in 2019 but it’s as relevant as ever today. As the seasons change here in New England your favorite music in the classroom will be coming on. You know that song, “Putt, Putt, Putt, Clack, Clack Clack” created by the school heater. Once that song starts, you’ll get that warm burst of air in the classroom and if you were lucky, you would only hear that song once a day. In my case the song was…
Last year I wrote about the greatest educational tool Microsoft has ever created; Reading Progress. The tool was in its early stages, and I approached it as an overview of the program. Today’s post is going to focus on how to use it in your classroom. For those of you who don’t want to go back and read my previous post on Reading Progress, here is a quick refresher Reading Progress is a free tool built into MS Teams and is…
At the SPS Digital Learning Hour, we take great pride in highlighting the diverse experiences of teachers at various stages of their careers. This week, we had the pleasure of interviewing David Steinberg from German Gerena Community School. David, who previously worked as a consultant in the private sector, made the decision to switch to a career in education after substitute teaching in his free time. He shared with us how he leverages the extensive professional development opportunities offered by…
We are continuing our series of tool updates. If you missed our previous post, click here and here. As a Microsoft district, I am focusing on Microsoft tools and Teams is up next. Teams, as a tool, was integral during our Remote learning time but it had some growing pains. I think sometimes Microsoft rushes tools out there for Education (EDU). Teams were originally created pre-remote learning for businesses to have a place to collaborate. While we had access to…
The first thing that you might not realize is that Flipgrid is no longer called Flipgrid, it’s been shortened to Flip! This was announced during the Flipgrid’s yearly celebration. With the announcement of the name change, Flip has a fresh look and a new mascot called Smubble. At the celebration, the Flip team focused on how over the last decade, users of Flipgrid pushed the product to become better. To them, it made the most sense to refresh the product…
Every year I review the updates to several of the Microsoft tools that are commonly used. This week I am focusing on PowerPoint. Before we get into the latest updates let’s take a brief look at the history of this powerful program. History A quick search into the archives of Microsoft shows that PowerPoint was created at some point in 1987 by a company that was not Microsoft. The company that created PowerPoint is called Forethought, INC and Microsoft bought…
For this week’s podcast we are going back to the summer and learning all about what Barbara Cheney from Indian Orchard. Barbara’s experiences range from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade. We discussed teaching early in her career through COVID to now. I have always loved teaching Summer School, and Barbara is part of a cool program during summer school through the Inventor’s Hall of Fame. I even got the chance to visit her class and we made a…
Alright, I must admit to you a little organizational secret that I use. I love Wakelet! If I were to boil this tool down to a brief description, I would say it is like Pinterest, but better. A statement like that might not mean much to you and does no justice to the power of this tool, so let me elaborate. What is Wakelet? Wakelet is bookmark manager that allows you to organize your bookmarks and take notes on them as you…
This week I am bringing you an incredibly special episode. Over the summer I met Karen Toro and Courtney Ciras from Alice B. Beal Elementary School. During the summer, as teachers, we can really develop new practices in a low-pressure environment. This also means that we get to try new things. With close to 25 years teaching experience combined and Karen coming up through the Springfield School system, these two were ready to try something new! This is where Courtney…
This week’s podcast we interviewed Denise Cote, a Middle School English Teacher from Springfield’s Conservatory of the Arts. Mike and Denise talked all about the use of technology in the district for the last 17 years! During the interview you will learn how Denise first adopted technology in her classrooms and how that technology continues to enhance her teaching. Denise has also been a proponent of Professional Development and has taken on the 22 Tools Challenge head on. When the…