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…
Welcome to the start of a new school year. For the first episode of the year we spoke with Sarah DeFeo. This interview was recorded near the end of last year and we thought it would be a great way to start this year. Sarah teaches at White Street Elementary School and has been there for the last eight years. Sarah came to teaching 2nd grade as a career change. Throughout the interview we discussed how technology has been used…
Summer was way too short! I still hold out that summer is here until the end of the Big E (The biggest fair in all of New England), even though we are back in school. We’ve had an exciting summer around here at Digital Learning and Assessment (DLA) and we can’t wait for the school year to begin. We hope that all the changes that we have made over the summer help you all use technology more efficiently. Over the…
For our final week for the OneNote series, we are looking at examples of how teachers can use OneNote in the classroom and even for their personal organization. In Digital Learning, we have 5 separate Notebooks that we use to keep each other up to date on meetings, information that needs to be shared, tracking of concerns, trainings that we have done, and so much more. For us, the ability to keep all the projects we are working on in…
We are in week two of our OneNote blog run and for this week, we are focusing on the Class Notebook. So, the Class Notebook is remarkably similar to OneNote but with a few key differences. Class Notebook If you are looking into going paperless, this tool can help. You can embed the Class Notebook into your Schoology course for students to have easy access. You can organize your lesson notes and examples. Essentially you can use this to teach…
We here at the SPS Digital Learning Hour love to spotlight teachers and this week’s episode is no different. I met Desiree Robinson from Glenwood Elementary. Desiree is a true homegrown teacher here in Springfield. You can hear her love for the city of Springfield in the way she talks about her job. She is a shining example of how you can go from being a para-educator to a teacher to a Math Instructional Leader. Her experience spans Kindergarten all…