The annual PETE & C technology conference was held this week.  This weeks post will include some of the tools and resources I picked up there.

I met a fellow educator who is using Classflow.  As you may recall, I mentioned Classflow in my last blog post.  I have learned that Classflow is now a completely web-based product.  It is FREE, and there are no apps associated with it.  Any device that can get to the internet can interact with Classflow.  I have been told that the tools that come with Classflow are great in that they allow the teacher to push out information to student devices and students can also push information to the teacher which can all be projected.  No IWB is necessary, only a projector, but the board does make it nice when a teacher wants to be at the board or wants a student to be at the board to talk about what has been shared.  

The plus of Classflow is that it will allow teachers to take their iPads and move freely about the room, pushing information out to students and controlling the information.  Joy Weikert and I have been working on this and with this new information we should soon be able to share more about how it works.

PBSlearningmedia is a site that is often forgotten, but one that is worth taking a peek.  PBS is a free resource for teachers and students.  You can get a free account.  There is the ability to search by Common Core ELA and College and Career Readiness standards.  You can also search for various types of media by grade level.  There is also a PBS Kids site that has a variety of learning games. Brief video showing you the site. I found lots of interactives on this site.

I came across this site recently and thought it was a good one to share.  Royalty free music is not always easy to find and this site has a music catalog, sheet music, and music for education.  Click here to check out this site.

I love this cheat sheet.  Whether you use Bloom's Taxonomy, Webbs DOK or the SAMR model, this cheat sheet is a good resource.  It lists iPad and Android apps as well as web tools that align to the various levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.  Bloom's Digital Taxonomy Cheat Sheet for Teachers  
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Too help those of you who are more comfortable with DOK, no problem.  Below is an alignment of Bloom's to Webbs DOK. So after looking at this alignment you can also use this same cheat sheet as a resource to apps and tools that can be integrated into your lessons to move your students to that higher order thinking.  Click here to see the comparison of Bloom's to Webbs DOK.

Lastly, for those who think of integration in terms of the SAMR model, here is an alignment of Bloom's to SAMR, created by Kathy Schrock.  So as you can see, even if you know SAMR, you can refer to the many resources available on this cheat sheet when you are planning for specific types of thinking for your students. Click here to see this alignment of Bloom's to SAMR chart.

If SAMR is new to you click here to see a quick 120 second preview of SAMR, I have also included an example of the SAMR model as it would apply to a task across the 4  levels of SAMR.  Click on this link to Technology is Learning to see an example of SAMR applied to activities across the 4 levels of SAMR.  Below I also found an example of SAMR as it would apply to an online discussion.

Check out this tutorial.  Socrative is a simple to use assessment tool. Students can use mobile devices as well as desktop computers to participate in Socrative activities.  There are apps that can be loaded onto tablets and phones.​

Click here to see more about classflow. I think this tool is very exciting.  The plus is that it works with the Promethean boards and software.  It allows students to be fully engaged and participating in a lesson.  It lets the teacher move about the room because this tool can be app based and works on any mobile device.  I would love to work with someone on this tool.  I have been following this for the last 3 years as the company worked through the beta development and the interactivity this allows for in the classroom is amazing.  If you are interested in giving this a try, let me know I will gladly come out and work with you to get it up and running in your classroom.

Currently am working with Joy Weikert to see if we can get this going.  Both Joy and I have been following this product for the last few years as it went through various bugs.  I will keep you all posted as to whether we can get it going this time.  I also have put in a request for some assistance so hopefully Classflow will get back to me.

In this weeks blog post you will see information on continuing the Hour of Code.  Even though the Hour of Code week has passed I would love to come out and work with you and your students.  I have included a screencast on how you can set up your own Hour of Code classroom.

I am also beginning an Assessment Tool series.  This week I am sharing a new tool, Spiral. Students can use any device as a responder with this tool
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In addition, Discovery Education has so much to offer and I will be sharing various resource, tools and tips for DE ongoing. This weeks information is provided through a screencast that directs you to a variety of free teacher resources.  Look for a DE Bootcamp this coming summer.

I recently came across Jeopardy Labs.  It's a jeopardy template that's not a PowerPoint.  It's free and the template is available for free.  You can go the site and choose get started or there are a number of Jeopardy Lab games already available to browse through and use. Click here to go to the site Jeopardy Labs

I was busy before the holidays setting up classes to visit to promote coding in as many classes and buildings as I can get into. As part of my visitation I took care of setting up all of the student access with the promise, to the teachers whose classes I visited, that I would create a screencast explaining the process of how easy it is to set up their own students.  Setting up your students into a class (section as hour of code calls it) allows for the students to enjoy the activities without  having to create their own accounts.  It has been so much fun to see the students fully engaged in problem solving and creating while learning the basics of programming.  Click here to access the brief screencast "How to set up your students in Hour of Code." 

Over the next few weeks you will see a variety of tools that can be utilized for assessment.  This is a new one I think you will find to be easy to use for both you and your students.
I recently came across this new assessment tool.  It works with any student device.  Here is a video that provides an over for you.  I created an account and thought it was a very easy to use site.  If you would like some help giving it a try, let me know I would be glad to come out and work with you and your students. Click  here to join the FREE site. 

Here is another great freebie of your district provided Discovery Education subscription.  Free Teacher Resources

Don't forget all students grade 4-12 have accounts in Discovery Education.  The student link is on the district website under the student tab.  https://goo.gl/e1WZtu This is a shortened URL for the student log in page.  Students would log in with their gmail as their username and then their student password.  If you have a new student who needs to be entered into DE, email the student's name, gmail and password to me and I will have the student added.

A flyer on 50 ways to integrate Discover Education has been shared with you.  DE is not just videos anymore.  If you haven't been on your DE subscription lately, take some time to check it out.