I believe that music speaks so deeply to us. Do you ever get that one lyric or tune stuck in your head ALL DAY LONG?! Depending on the tone and lyrics of the song, it can put you in a great mood or a not so great one. Why not make sure the tune that’s stuck in our students’ brains sends a powerful message? Continue reading
Whenever I attend any sort of conference where there are sessions happening simultaneously, whether an edcamp or a tradition conference, I always experience FOMO – Fear Of Missing Out! Even if I am fully engaged and learning things that blow my mind, somewhere, in the back of my mind, I’m wondering what others are learning in the sessions I am missing. Continue reading
I love creating and sending quick notes of encouragement to teachers and friends. My favorite go-to for creating these was an eCard type app (it was called Red Stamp), but it is no longer available in the app store, and it stopped working (boo). I haven’t found any other ecard app that compares and have been looking for creative ways to pass on positivity and praise. Whether you are experiencing the same sadness over this particular app, or you just want some fresh ideas for sharing feedback, read on for 5 ways to quickly and easily provide positive feedback. Continue reading
I recently gave a math student who had completed all of his work and had a bit of extra time on his hands an extension assignment using emojis. I asked him to create a math problem and gave him the example below which was inspired by the #mathmoji hashtag on twitter: Continue reading
Gamification of learning is an exciting trend in education. I’ve heard of many different schools and districts that are using ideas started in the classroom to gamify Professional Development by offering learn-on-your-own modules that teachers can complete to earn points or badges. I have been interested in this idea and have even started developing ideas for setting up a choice menu and badges for a summer professional development offering for my staff (more details to come 😉 ), but this morning, after listening to a couple of episodes of the Well PlayED Podcast on my morning run, I was inspired to gamify EVEN FURTHER! Continue reading
We are offering a new kind of PD this spring at Ault Elementary inspired by an idea shared by Tricia Reilly @PrincipalReilly at EdCamp Cy-Fair. Instead of a standard “sit and get” we are encouraging staff to get up and move as they listen to an educational podcast of their choice – taking care of their minds and bodies during this stressful time of year! Continue reading
I found a super awesome Add-on for Google Docs this week! It’s called Story Speaker. The creators of this add-on wanted to utilize google’s voice recognition capabilities to create interactive stories within Google Docs that can then be played on your Google Home with no coding necessary!
I was so blessed to get to not only attend the #TCEA Conference in Austin, TX last week but also to present about running Twitter Chats alongside the #TXed leadership team. I was so impressed by the amazing educators who shared not only theory and tools but also real-life ideas for implementation. Here are 7 treasures I gained from TCEA:
I’ve seen it all over Pinterest… a crazy concoction that teachers can whip up to create
Now you can create your own personalized scratch-off cards in just a simple peel and stick? YES! That’s what I’m talking about!!!
Valentines is just around the corner, so I’m using this idea to create these Valentine Lotto tickets for my staff:
The past few years we have enjoyed playing Super Bowl Squares with our staff. If you don’t know about this game, you can check out the full rules here and get some helpful templates. On our campus, we don’t sell the squares, instead, teachers earn them by completing tasks or being caught implementing a specific initiative. Here’s the basic overview of how we’ve adapted for our staff: Continue reading
Meredith Akers 