40 ways to use Google Apps in your classroom

Thanks to Becky Evans for putting together this great presentation outlining 40 different ways to use Google Apps in the classroom.  They are easy to comprehend and shouldn't be too difficult to follow.

Be sure to scroll through Edgalaxy too for a ton of other Google apps ideas

Pinterest hits the mark with teachers with new education project

I was a little late to the Pinterest party and didn't know a great deal about it until early last year when I found it was the single largest source of traffic to edgalaxy, and has been ever since.

It didn't take long to work out why when I investigated further as it beautifully archives teaching ideas like nothing else on the web.

Teachers on Pinterest is a brand new hub that showcases a variety of lesson plans and teaching tools, and through a partnership with Edutopia, it's hoping to build out a full-bodied community for instructors.  

It looks really promising with masses of resources organized by year level and curriculum areas. 

So be sure to take a look at teachers on Pinterest to find your next great teaching idea, and whilst you are there take a look at our Pinterest boards too.  

 

50 free classroom posters in a week: day 4

As we wind up the penultimate day of the working week I have just added some more free classroom posters to our collection including.

  • Colors & Colours Series
  • Prime Numbers
  • Fractions

Click here to access them and over 100 other posters in our collection 

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50 free classroom posters in a week: Day Three

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Celebrate hump day with these ten great free printable classroom posters.  Today we have the following posters to add to our lineup.

  • Classroom Birthday Chart
  • Weekly Home Spelling Chart
  • What is a Scientist?
  • Parts of a Narrative Series

Be sure to check them out and our entire collection of over 100 printable classroom posters here. 

50 free classroom posters in a week: Day One

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With the start of a new school year you should do your best to create a visually appealing classroom.   And these posters will go a long way to making that happen.

Today we have 10 new posters for your classroom including  

  • Telling Time
  • Mean, Mode, Minimum, Maximum, Range
  • You can't recycle wasted time
  • Before you speak... Think
  • Fractions, Decimals and Percentages

Click here to view them and download today 

Printable iPad licence and rules for students

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Encourage your students to use your classroom iPads in a respectful and mature manner by printing out these posters and templates.

They are editable word documents and can be laminated and awarded to students as they show an understanding  of using these devices effectively.

Download the Classroom rules here 

Download the iPad Licences here 

How to schedule parent teacher conferences with Google Docs

Organizing parent teacher interviews can be a frustrating and time consuming process. By using Google Docs and this tutorial you can completely simplify this complex task and concentrate on other issues of importance. 

I have put together this video tutorial (above) and also I have prepared instructions and templates here that will make the process faster and simpler for everyone involved.

How to create a classroom website

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A classroom website can be one of the best tools you can utilize to showcase the great things happening in your classroom.

Some teachers already have a great class website or blog and today we are going to look at what you need to do to build classroom website of your own.

So what’s the difference between a classroom website and a classroom blog?

A blog is like an online diary of articles and discussion topics that readers can subscribe and respond to.  A traditional website is more so a repository of static content.  Over the last few years these two areas have blurred into each other.  Any web creation platform worth a pinch of salt will offer both of these options to you but a blog is probably going to be of far more use than a static site.

What is the purpose of a classroom Blog?

Always connected Learning:  Your classroom website should allow students to contribute from home to a topic that has been discussed in the classroom.  Alternately, you can include follow up content such as tutorial videos for students and parents who might need assistance in a specific area.

Communication:  In its simplest form a classroom website should be a bulletin board of news and events that are relevant to your class. 

A sense of pride:  Your classroom website should be a great bragging point not only your students should feel proud of as it contains great examples of their work, but it should also serve as an excellent portfolio of your teaching craft should you apply for a promotion or another job.

What should it contain?

  “For instance “Where have we seen natural disasters in the news this week?”

What it should not contain?

Of course if you are intending to share your classroom with the world you need to provide and adhere to some cyber safety guidelines about not sharing personal information and always ensure you have parental permission.

Never let your website become a platform for cyber bullying or criticism.  Moderate it at least once a week.

What is the best platform for success?

There are literally hundreds of options here if you run a Google Search but here are my top three picks from personal experience.

Weebly:  Probably the web’s easiest blogging and website creation tool for beginners through to novices.  It is free to get started but you can buy a full featured premium package for a few dollars per month.  The great thing about Weebly is that allows you to create simple password protected pages that your students can feel a little safer on.

Blogger.  This is Google’s blogging platform tool and it is totally free. It will create a great classroom blog and that is about it.  If you already have a Gmail account you are already registered.  Simple drag and drop interface and can be integrated easily into your existing school website.

Edublogs:  If you are a WordPress user this will seem like the easiest thing in the world to you.  If you are not I would not recommend starting here.  I really only included because of the massive user base Wordpress has.  If you get stuck on Blogger or Edublogs there is no 24/7 support to help you out but there are millions of users on forums who can help.